Book report

‘Tis the season to be reading. With the sun out, many lunch breaks have been filled by sitting in the park reading various literary masterpieces.

A truly fascinating read was the delve into the front office mechanics in the book Feeding the Monster, by Seth Mnookin, where it seems as Mnookin has had great access to all of the Red Sox front office and to many of the counterparts in various situations. On many contentious points; Nomar’s trade to the Cubs, the Henry group acquiring the Red Sox, Theo’s departure and conflicts with Larry Luchino and subsequent return to the Red Sox all are depicted with quotes from both sides, and give for me an unprecedented look into the goings on in the front office. Hey, it looks like any other workplace!

Still, how to convince the Red Sox powers that be that half Swede/half Brit who only discovered baseball 6 years ago is a perfect hire for the Baseball Operations department will be a tough nut to crack. I think I will just ignore the part of the rules that say the competition is just open to US residents

After Feeding the Monster, I am continuing through my stack of baseball books I received from Santa (and various other kind souls). Authors and die-hard Red Sox fans Stewart O’Nan and Stephen King (yes, the same SK of scary books fame) are able through their running diary of the year to instantly take me back to the tumultuous year (both for the Red Sox and for me personally) of 2004 in their best-selling book Faithful. Both Stewart and Steve write almost daily notes throughout the season and also include their more suitable email conversations throughout the season.

After the glory of actually winning it all, it is sometimes easy to forget the agony we all went through, and how little faith we on occasion actually had in the team – although many times they gave us very little to believe in.

Francona’s several meltdowns, especially in failing to play hands defence during the later innings whilst ahead, and his mismanagement of the bullpen show how far Terry came in a short while to become the manager he is today. The curious moves by Theo, which of course turned out to be masterstrokes and not to forget Millar’s complete ineptitude, both in the field and at the plate before turning it around.

With 20-20 hindsight, it’s hilarious (and hair-raising), to see how close we were to trading away Youk, and to see the endless parade of no-name bullpen arms being led through the Red Sox clubhouse – Curtis Leskanic anyone? How did the pieces actually fall into play? How did the Red Sox actually think that Millar/Giambi (the less 'roided one) was the answer at 1^st?

Much of the writing is hilarious and very recognisable for any die-hard Red Sox fan, and some of the quotes are brilliant, such as this from Stewart to Steve in an email conversation where they have discussed connections between Red Sox players and possible movie remakes such as the Coen Brother’s remake Mueller’s Crossing:

Stewart O’Nan: Was at a game last year against Clemboy and the Yanks where John Williams threw out the first ball (I think he bounced it), and when Clem jogged out to the pen, the PA played Lord Vader’s March – perfect for a guy who started out as a headstrong young Jedi apprentice from a dusty forlorn planet, then felt betrayed and hurt, grew powermad and crossed over to the dark side.

On a more personal note, SO also writes:

April 13^th 2004: A dark, cold day.

You have no idea how right you are Stewart. Talk about the Evil Empire. Or perhaps another sign of the impending doom that was about to happen. Thanks again to those involved.

I highly recommend both books, available through an internet retailer that shall not be named.

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On another note, the Red Sox put up Matsuzaka, Lester and Beckett against the Astros and still only took one game?? Truly a sign of the apocalypse that we go into a three game series in Tampa with the 4^th best record in baseball, a half game behind the team with the best record….Tampa Bay Rays??? Seriously, where’s the Kool-Aid? Still, Masterson is on the hill, and he’s beaten the Rays before this season, and I suspect the Red Sox line-up will need no further motivation to spank James Shields after his altercation with Coco Crisp, who perhaps on one level fittingly begins his 5-game suspension for said altercation, whilst Jonny Gomes might be a marked man during the next few games as he decided, yet again (remember the Shelley Duncan fight during spring training?), to get involved in the fight during the Red Sox 3-game sweep of the Rays at Fenway in early June. This from Rotoworlds coverage:

Gomes must have started running from the dugout even before Coco Crisp charged the mound, because he was out there in a flash to delivered several blows in Crisp's general direction with Boston's outfielder on the ground. He single-handedly took the whole brawl up a notch and deserves a significant suspension.

Rarely do I agree with the Yankees Insider, but I think we have found common ground.

However, whilst it might cool some heads to not have Crisp for the Rays series, his replacement is not faring too well right now.

We need to take 2 out of 3 from this series, although the bullpen seems to be a mess for the umpteenth time in the last, oh say 20 years. That Red Sox are renewing their interest in the freefalling Rockies closer Brian Fuentes could be a welcome help to a bullpen ailing from an out of sorts Okajima.

At least J.D has been able to focus now that his personal issues (his young son had serious health issues during 2007) have faded. I know how you feel J.D, and whilst I never derided you, I still want to offer my Mea Culpas. You clearly have the tools, and now you’re finally using them at a time the RSN needed you more than ever. Good timing, sir.

Also, a very interesting story on CNNSI about Wake and the dying art of the knuckleball. As I wrote a long time ago, a pitch described by Tek as trying to catch a fly with chopsticks. Luckily, the Red Sox have Charlie Zink, a prospect at Pawtucket who is 8-2 with a 2.33 ERA and an impressive 1.01 WHIP. (Knuckleballers, when they’re having an off day, tend to walk more than a “normal” pitcher.)

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Also, with scarcely a thought across the pond, but a big event here in Europe, the Euro 2008 football champion ships are over, and the Spaniards have finally won a title after decades of league prowess and international futility. Whilst this tournament lost a little of its appeal to me after Sweden predictably got knocked out as they were more afraid to lose than they wanted to win, it’s good to see that my local fan favourite, El Nino was the match winner – Suddenly Merseyside is turning bilingual:

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Finally, despite a torn hamstring, I will finish my 10k run for charity this coming Sunday. Donations are very welcome at www.justgiving.com/nicholashk.

Stumbling on history...

My travels unfortunately prevented me from following up on my previous short post. There I was, spending a week in New England with The Girl, including a long weekend in Boston, soaking up Yawkey Way, Cask N' Flagon, Jillians (not to mention several superb sausages with onions and peppers for sale under the grand stand concourse...with the odd pint of Smithwicks), just happy that I was going to get two Fenway games and my first trip to McCoy Stadium. Sadly the Cape Cod league had not started in time for our trip to Chatham....next time though.

However, I digress. We get to the Landsdowne Road entrance about 90 mins before game time, just after a short downpour but with skies clearing, and lo and behold, plenty of tickets left ($50 face value for 14 rows behind home plate!) - we get our tickets and are kindly allowed back to C&F to have a $5 beer instead of a $7 beer at Fenway...

The game looked interesting for nothing else than getting a chance to see yet another team - (The Royals now join the list together with the Red Sox, Yankees, Blue Jays, Brewers, Twins, Mets, Nats, A's, Cubs, Tigers (although the last two I saw 16 years ago, and I have no idea who they played against...I call the era "B.B")), and also a chance to get a look at the highly touted and somewhat controversial Luke Hochevar. Hochevar pitched in the 2005 CWS for U of Tenn, was drafted by the Dodgers the same year, failed through his agent Scott Boras to come to an agreement with the Dodgers, fired Boras and made a $2.9m deal with the Dodgers only to resign Boras and renege on the deal. He then re-entered the 2006 draft after pitching in independent leagues and was picked no.1 overall by the Royals, one of the few teams not sick and tired of Boras.

We sit down, get some peanuts and proceed to watch a thing of beauty. However, it actually took me a while to realise Lester had a no-hitter going. After getting two easy fly outs and a 4-3 ground out in the first, Lester walked Butler in the second, and two plays later over threw his pickoff move trying to get Miguel Olivo out who had reached on a Fielder's Choice.

In the third the Red Sox opened up the offensive floodgates. Despite a double play on Varitek and Lugo, the Red Sox scored 4 runs with 2 outs to add to Drew's initial run, including a sensational triple by Ellsbury. (Remember the debate a few years ago about who would be the next CF of the Red Sox when Damon left for the retirement home....that's been solved ;).

Talking about Ellsbury, it was his amazing catch to rob Jose Guillen of a hit to end the 4th that made me look at the scoreboard and notice that the H column still said 0. It slowly started to dawn on me what was going on in front of us. Although some Red Sox fans might be under the belief that it's a relatively commonplace occurance considering Nomo's in 2001, D-Lowe's in 2002 and Buchholz's last year, only 9 no-no's by Red Sox pitchers have happened at home since the opening of Fenway in 1912 (18 in total in Red Sox history).

In the break between the 6th half innings when I went for a needed beer run, half of the concourse screamed "SHUT UP!" at the TV when a stupid Sportscenter anchor with into a segue with the words "And now over to Fenway where Jon Lester has a no-hitter going into the 6th".

Lester was completely ignored by the other Sox players, and for the last 2 innings, all of Fenway stood up for every Lester pitch. Although Lester had reached 100 pitches after 7, Francona would never dare to pull a no-no, and with the 134th pitch, a 95MPH fastball off the plate to draw the final swinging strike out, the crowd roared for a magic evening.

Sometimes you plan. Sometimes you're just lucky.