I've never been a Pedro Martinez fan (though he is sure an impressive pitcher), but these comments so clearly separate him from a whiner like Mussina that my hat's off to him:

``He asked me if I had enough ... in my tank to get him out, and I said `Yes.' I would never say no,'' Martinez said. ``There's no reason to blame Grady. Grady doesn't play the game, I do. If you want to judge me or criticize me or curse me or whatever, I will swallow that, because I am responsible.''

When Grady Little left Pedro in, I shook my head in disbelief. Even sitting in my dark room in Helsinki, watching the jerky images on my computer screen, I could tell Martinez had had enough. I thought exactly what Pedro said above, he'd never say take me out, please when the game was on the line. What a bad decision on Little's part. But Pedro says the right thing. I've read before that poor run support doesn't bother him, since it's up to him to keep the other team from scoring. He may be nasty. He may treat senior citizens poorly, but at least the buck stops with him. (In his own mind anyway.)

P.S. I am glad I'm not a Red Sox fan. My disappointment at their lose (when it was so close) (or more accurately the Yankees's win) is pretty intense without actually caring about the teams fortune. It must be killing the Boston faithful.

P.P.S. It is amazingly easy to transmit your own biases down to your children. Matilda has picked up every negative vibe I've ever had about the Yankees and displays an astonishing anti-Yankees bias. No wonder racism is such a persistant problem. There are biases Matilda has picked up from me that never realized I imparted, like my anti new VW bug stance. Upon seeing one Matilda began to says how the new bug had lost all the magic and simple style of the original. My words coming back to me.