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Parity or moneybags?

2011-08-11T08:28:00.000+01:00

Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue made the word “parity” into a mantra, while fans of European football are normally realistic enough to admit that before a single ball has been kicked in anger only a handful of teams will in earnest compete for the title.

In the NFL, with the enforced balance of free agency, revenue sharing, salary cap (re-introduced with the newly minted CBA after the uncapped 2010) and the draft system, gone are (mostly) the days of the dynasties of the past. The way the Steelers, 49ers and Cowboys dynasties in the 70s, 80s and 90s respectively were constructed would not be possible in today’s regulatory system.

Since the introduction of the free agency in pro football in 1992, the Super Bowl has seen 13 different champions, with only Dallas, Denver, Green Bay, New England and Pittsburgh winning more than once during the 19 Super Bowls of that era.

13 teams have gone from last in their division in one year to first in the next and since the re-alignment to 8 divisions in 2002 and in 1999 St.Louis Rams went from 4-12 to 13-3 and Super Bowl Champs behind a former shelf-stocker from Iowa.

Green Bay, the only top league team in the world owned completely by its fans, is the pundits’ favourites for a repeat Super Bowl ring but without revenue sharing, the little city in Wisconsin (pop. 104,057 though roughly 300k in the metropolitan area) would not be able to compete with the large market teams.

The MLB has less of a complete parity mainly due to the salary luxury tax instead of a fixed cap and very limited revenue sharing, but even the World Series has seen ten different winners since the 1994 strike year with only the Yankees, Marlins(!) and the Red Sox winning more than once in the last 16 years. Small-market teams like Oakland and Tampa have showed that with shrewd scouting, drafting and trading you can still compete, although only for a shorter period until your star players hit the money years.

The current MLB season has been a slight shift back towards big money power with the top three teams in baseball (Philadelphia, Boston and NY Yankees) occupying the top three spots in the salary table ($173m, $162m and $203m respectively) as well.

Still, teams like Milwaukee ($85m), Atlanta ($87m) and Arizona ($53m) are in the running for post season spots while money whales like Cubs ($125m) and NY Mets ($118m) are showing that money doesn’t solve everything.

The window for small market teams exist, but as Tampa have found out after a few years at comparatively stratospheric levels, that window is small and closes pretty fast.

Time, the great equaliser

2011-05-23T20:30:00.003+01:00

The baseball season is 162 games and has been since 1961 in the AL and 1962 in the NL. It stretches from early April to late September and usually sees canyon deep slumps and stratospheric streaks, sometimes from the same player or team. Yet despite that, every year we see the same doomsday prophets or championship crowners less than a quarter into the season.

The Red Sox spent more money in the off season than any previous year with a combined $296m invested in Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez and were considered by all pundits and fans to be serious contenders not only for the AL East but also for a third ring in eight years. On the other side of the spectrum the Cleveland Indians set a historical precedent when they in consecutive years traded away the reigning American League CY Young winner, CC Sabathia to the Brewers in 2008 and Cliff Lee to the Phillies in 2009. In 2010, the purge continued when they traded star catcher and slugger Victor Martinez to the Red Sox and the Tribe finished fourth in the AL Central with a 69-93 record.

Going into 2011 with a roster filled with occasional greatness (Travis Hafner, Grady Sizemore), surprising imports (Shin-Soo Choo), promising talent (Carlos Santana, Asdrúbal Cabrera) and trade bait (Justin Masterson, Andy Marté) not many believed this was the year of the Indians, as the 200-1 odds for a WS win indicated. Yet Cleveland opened the season with an 18-8 April , leading to optimism on the reservation as Cabrera showed his sensational defense, Grady Sizemore led a surprisingly potent line up to a league third-best 34 homers in their first month and Masterson showed the potential that had him highly rated as a Red Sox prospect.

The Red Sox on the other hand started 2-10 and limped into May in last place in the AL East with a 11-15 record, “led” by Crawford’s .155 average – so far below the Mendoza line you’d need a ladder to see it. Naturally the experts were wondering if either side would sustain their fortunes, or lack thereof, although some corners saw several nay-sayers already closing the book on the Sox. As we know, the Red Sox has gone 14-6 in May, including winning 8 of their last 9 and sweeping division rivals Yankees in the Bronx and are now only ½ game out of first place. The Indians young squad has continued riding their wave of success and with a 11-7 May (up to the 23rd of May) now have an AL best 29-15 record.

Elsewhere in the MLB, Pittsburgh is still close to .500 with signs of their young squad finally threatening to end decades of futility, Tony La Russa has somehow managed to steer the Cards to the top of the NL Central despite Pujols longest HR drought ever and losing his ace pitcher Wainwright only days before the season and San Fransisco is riding high on the Beard and the 2010 WS win, leading the NL West by 3 ½ games.

Will all these standings remain?

Will the same teams win again and again?

Of course not.

History has shown us that even though market size and subsequent purchase power does influence some aspects, the ten different champions since the 1994 strike season is a spread fans of equality dream about.

One of the greatest appeals of baseball is that the number of games guarantees only one thing; (almost) anything can happen.

Perfection

2011-01-10T14:40:00.006Z

On to Outside the Lines on ESPN, where Amy K. Nelson follows up on Jim Joyce, who umpired first base in a Tigers game in June.

"I think about it still, almost every day," Joyce says. "I don't want to be known as Jim Joyce, the guy that blew the perfect game. But I think that's inevitable."

Why?

"Because I'm Jim Joyce," he says, "the umpire who blew the perfect game."

I do hope that he get's to a point where it's not an every day presence in his mind. It might takes some time though...

Arms race

2010-12-17T11:17:00.001Z

Batting wins games, pitching wins championships

It's an old chestnut, but it's never been more true than now. And right now the road to the 2011 championship must go through Philadelphia.

With the scary R2C2 rotation (Roy & Roy and Cliff & Cole, geddit? No, I did not come up with it), the Phillies have arguably the best rotation in baseball. Some pundits are already calling it the best in history...I'd rather wait and see.

The Yankees have now missed out on Lee twice, first in the 2010 trade period where he ended up leaving the Mariners for the Rangers and now when choosing Phillies over the Yankees.

Whilst it's refreshing to see that on the surface a player chose factors other than money, it's not quite true. Lee's contract per year with the Phillies is actually approx $1-2m more than the Yankees apparently offered, although 2 years shorter.

However, it is interesting to see the other factors influencing Lee. Did the clash between fans and Mrs.Lee during the ALCS have an impact?

Did Lee's relationship with Carlos Ruiz, the Phillies catcher influence the decision? Tim Kurkjian certainly thinks so.

Seth Livingstone of USA Today goes through some of the reasons Lee ended up in Philly and not Texas or New York.

The Red Sox rotation is one of the few, if healthy and playing to potential, that could compete with the Phillies. Lester remained at the ace level in 2010 and Clay Buchholz approached it. John Lackey has yet to warrant his $82m contract and Josh Beckett had a horrible year after signing a contract extension.

Daisuke showed on occasion brilliant form, such as his flirt with a no hitter in Philadelphia in May, and sometimes horrible form, as when giving up 6 earned runs in less than 5 innings in Baltimore....also in May.

If Lackey can show his Angels form and Beckett can have an average career year (15 wins w a sub 4 ERA) then the Sox rotation would be close to the Phillies.

However, and this is for a later post, in the field and at the plate the Red Sox have taken a massive step up.

Finally, on a different note, for every Cliff Lee there are many, many Robert Pearsons.

The Gap

2010-09-20T07:54:00.003+01:00

Divorce is never an easy "out", regardless of the alternatives. Whether it's in our personal life or a divorce of less intimate proportions, a departure will always create a gap.

Steven Page of Barenaked Ladies fame decided 18 months ago, together with the rest of the band members I presume, that it was time to depart from a 20 year relationship. Steven's life had taken many turns over the previous years; he had left his family, moved to upstate NY, found a new partner, lost a substantial amount of weight and finally gotten caught by the local law enforcers with banned substances.

One would suspect that the turmoil that was Steven's life led him to the conclusion that a clean break would be the best solution.

Sadly that's only in the movies. No option is an easy one when it comes to a big life decision.

I recently had the pleasure of seeing BNL perform at the Hammersmith Apollo. This was the 4th or 5th time I'd seen the band live, but the first time without co-founder Page.

Whilst the show was very enjoyable, funny and nostalgic (If I had $1m automatically takes me back to freshman year at University), you could both see and feel that the band was trying to find out how to fill the void left by Page.

Initially you can't, but with time it gets easier and easier.

Football, Umpires and other whines

2010-09-08T23:04:00.000+01:00

The NFL is back, the MLB is in the middle of the pennant race (although my Red Sox have a 1.7 % shot at making the playoffs after tonight's win against the Rays) and the Premiership is in week 3.

This is truly the time of year when the sports fan needs more than 24 hours in the day. At least if he or she wants a decent nights sleep and a semblance of a social life.

Shockingly one NFL pundit has my beloved 49ers as the Super Bowl XLV (is that a shirt size?) winner in Arlington. I'm not sure I'll go that far, but the NFC West should be theirs for the taking.

As usual, the Niners fortunes rests on the shoulders of the QB. Alas, a team spoiled with not one, but two HOF QBs in the last 20 years now has to rely upon the last chance saloon member Alex Smith.

Yes, Smith played in an offence at Utah that highlighted his skills and diminished his flaws, but I am one of the few supporters around, or at least that's what it seems. When he replaced Shaun Hill in week 7 last season it brought a new dimension to the Niner offense. Obviously Hill's strenghts did not include a rocket arm, but his intangibles allowed opposing defenses to put 8 in the box and dare Frank Gore to run against them. With Smith, Vernon Davis and Crabtree they have to balance out the defense and protect against the deeper pass.

With a much improved o-line, stability with the offensive co-ordinator (Smith went through 4 in his first three seasons in the Bay Area) and one of the better supporting casts around plus a defense led by Patrick Willis the Niners might cause a few upsets this year.

The Seahawks are aging and under new leadership in Pete Carrol, the Cardinals lost not only Kurt Warner but also Anquan Boldin (welcome to triple coverage Fitzgerald!) and the Rams are....well, the Rams. Bradford will help them, but not this year.

Super Bowl champions might be a stretch and the road to Arlington clearly will go through Green Bay or New Orleans. An injury to Brees or Rodgers and the picture changes markedly....

-----------

For years I've been complaining about the standard of refereeing in the Premiership (and in this years WOrld Cup!), but sadly the MLB is doing its best to catch up. CB Bucknor in last years ALDS, Joe West's need to be centre stage, a myriad of minor league call ups who struggle and finally one of the worst umpires of all time, Bob Davidson. Although I'll freely admit that my 7+ years of following baseball pales in significance with many fans, at least I can say that I have rarely seen a more arrogant, obstinate and incompetent umpire than Davidson.

Jim Joyce robbed the Tigers Galarraga of a perfect game earlier in the season when he blew an obvious call at first base. What did Joyce, who is considered one of the best, if not the best umpire in the league do? He almost broke down when he realised his mistake.

Davidson ruled a ball fair ball foul that lost a game for the Marlins, and in the process of backing his call changed the rules of physics. Video replay show that the ball bounced fair approx 3 feet in front of the third base bag and again bounced fair another 3-4 feet past the bag. What did he do? He went the other way from Joyce and said after the game:

I was right on top of it and it was wide of the bag, that's all. I had it foul," Davidson said. "In my opinion, where it goes over the bag, you can't tell. After a bounce, it came an inch or two on the fair side, but ... it was very close. But I'm right there. I know what I saw.

So the ball is fair, then in mid air shifts 3 inches into foul, passes the bag foul and then curves back to land fair? Both Barry Zito and Albert Einstein would have been impressed with those physics...

You can see for yourself here:

"Balking Bob" (for the frequent balks that only he sees) is down right horrible and if the MLB had any guts they would kick him out now.

After being ejected by Davidson in a 1993 game, Philadelphia catcher Darren Daulton said of the ump: "He's one of those impact umpires. In my opinion the game was on ESPN and he couldn't wait to suit up and make an impact. He's one of those guys where you go into his house, there's lots of pictures of himself and none of his family."

I think that pretty much sums it up. When I took my umpire certification the instructor told us: "The best umpires are the ones nobody remembers". I suspect Davidson and Joe West never heard that.

As a counter point, Ed Hochuli, voted as the best referee in the NFL, famously blew a call in a 2008 game between the Chargers and Broncos when he ruled a fumble by Jay Cutler an incomplete pass, which ended up costing the Chargers the game.

Hochuli responded to the situation, writing,

Affecting the outcome of a game is a devastating feeling. Officials strive for perfection – I failed miserably.

Apparently he also replied personally to each of the myriad of complaints he received from aggreived fans.

If a player or a coach screws up, he'll possibly find himself in the minors or fired. If a MLB umpire screws up, he'll just ump the next game as if nothing happened. There needs to be some accountability among the men in black too...

Of course now we'll just wait for the next blown call in the Premiership and start the whining again....

Witnessing history...pt 2

2010-08-11T23:23:00.000+01:00

Yet again Lady Luck gave me her blessings and I managed to stumble upon history in sports terms for the second time. No, not another no-no, but this time the major league debut of a certain 100 mph+ phenom.

On yet another visit to the girl, now in D.C, we experienced a very cool VIP treatment at Camden Yards as the Lester led BoSox crushed the increasingly hapless Orioles.

Camden Yards was the 7th MLB stadium I visited (after Fenway, Old Yankee Stadium, Old Tiger Stadium, Wrigley Field, Citifield and Oakland Coliseum) and I must admit after Fenway probably my second favourite (Wrigley was prior to me knowing anything about baseball, so I probably didn't appreciate it the way I would if I was to return...).

With a pretty decent fanbase and a glorious stadium it is a shame to see the product Peter Angelos puts out each year. Some people think Showalter might turn them around, but I think there has to be a change of ownership before that will happen.

We also had one spare evening in DC, and on a whim I'd bought some cheap (compared to Fenway) tickets for me and the Girl to see the Nats. I'd looked at the rotation and the schedule and was hoping for a miracle.....

...and we got it!

A jam packed stadium and Stephen Strasburgh striking out 14 Pirates was as good as it gets in the nation's capital in terms of baseball!

Amusingly, the electronic scoreboard's K counter only goes to 12.....not that the Nat's had been close to using that prior to Strasburgh!

Time

2010-08-11T22:15:00.000+01:00

Again time has been my enemy. A summer filled with World Cup, injuries, baseball and other events have yet again prevented me from posting with any semblance of regularity.

As usual I hope to do better....

World Cup

Well, what can you say? Opening game was magnificent with the Vuvuzelas creating a massive sound wave....and quickly turning incredibly annoying.

The Jabulani ball was hardly the best product Adidas has produced. I can't remember more than a handful of decent free kicks on target but a massive amount of wild kicks reminding me of the Fulham song....(to the music of That's Amore) "If the ball hits your eye and you sit in row Y, that's Zamora..."

Talking about Zamora, it was indeed a shame his injury prevented him from playing for England - I doubt he would have done worse than any of the so called England "strikers".

Hand on heart, only two or three England players could leave the tournament with their heads held high; Ashley Cole (as much as it hurts me to admit that), James Milner (excluding his first 35 mins) and possibly Steven Gerrard...although even Stevie had some sub-par performances.

For all the talk of the South American revolution, Brazil were dire, Argentina realised they needed defenders as well and only Uruguay performed well above expectation - although I personally think that Suarez foul should not result in a penalty kick but an automatic goal. Ghana played with technique, passion and flair and deserved to go through, despite the fearsome pairing that was Forlan and Suarez.

Obviously France and Italy need to completely re-build, as do England. Germany seem to always manage to do their rebuilds inbetween tournaments. Clearly there is a difference of priorities between the Premier League and the English national side with none of the current top three goalkeepers being starters in the Premiership.

Thankfully football won over hooliganism in the final, although this time on the pitch. The Dutch for all their technical players should not whine about Howard Webb's performance, instead they should be happy that they weren't the first ever finalist to have 3 players sent off. Both De Jong and Van Bommel should have had early showers on the day.

Baseball

There have been many parallels between my personal baseball ventures and the Red Sox 2010.

I've missed all but parts of 5 games due to three different injuries (although I was able to manage my team to the pennant and the top seed going into the playoffs!), at the same time the Red Sox have had a throw back year. As in throw back to 2006 with a myriad of injuries.

This year Ellsbury (twice), Beckett, Wakefield, Dice-K, Cameron (twice), Varitek, Martinez, Pedroia, Youk (season ending), Lowell, Hermida (DFA after DL), Delcarmen, Okajima have all spent some or considerable time on the DL. (Did I miss anyone?)

It's actually easier to count the starting position players not to go on the DL; Beltre, Scutaro and (shock!) Drew.

We've had such world renowned players as Kalish, Nava, Hall & McDonald roaming the outfield and Hall, Cash, Molina (not one of the famous trio of brothers) and a finally healthy Lowrie in the infield and behind the plate.

That the Sox are still only 3 1/2 game out of the wild card is astonishing. With Ellsbury, Pedroia and Varitek back over the next few days (or week) and the rotation starting to pick up, the Sox have a decent shot at making the playoffs.

Oh, and my post in May about Dice-K? This season he's 8-3 with a 4.09 ERA and since July he's 3-0 with a 3.53 ERA. More importantly, he's becoming more economical with his pitches, having gone into or completed the 8th inning 4 starts this year.

As witnessed in his most recent start, he does have a tendency to start nibbling if he gets hit well as he was by Snider, causing him to become more passive. Hopefully he can continue to be the aggressive pitcher he can be, forcing batters to swing instead of walking them. Still, he's got an almost 1.78 K to BB ratio this year and a career second best 7.8 hits per 9 innings in 2010. His WHIP has dropped from 1.87 to 1.33.

One more game against the Jays, then off to a tough Texas trip.

There's still hope....

Bikkuri pt. 2

2010-05-12T07:31:00.000+01:00

I admit, I've always had a soft spot for Daisuke Matsuzaka.

I loved the acquisition in 2007, and while he could be frustrating to watch as he tried to nibble the corners when he lost confidence in attacking the batters, I liked his stutter-step delivery.

Naturally I was as frustrated as all other Red Sox fans when he blew the 2009 season due to overuse in the WBC and his subsequent lying about his injury. However, having a decent idea about the Japanese mentality of pride and performing through pain, I never thought of him as selfish, quite the opposite.

Many a times have I gotten very riled up by so-called Red Sox "fans" posting one mindless comment about him after another;

"$100m? Waste of money"

"Trade him, he's useless"

or my personal favourite;

"Release him, we can do better"

Ok, let's take a look at Dice-K in a Red Sox uniform:

Myth no. 1 - "He's paid $100m". Actually, no. Red Sox paid Seibu Lions $51.11m for the posting rights to negotiate with Matsuzaka and the son of Satan...eh, Scott Boras. As much as Boras wanted to keep the posting cost and the contract separate, Epstein and co played hard ball and ended up with a contract paying Dice-K $52m over 6 years, an average of 8.6m per year. Compare that to Jeff Suppan, who was signed 3 months prior to Dice-K, and would also be considered a no.3 pitcher, who is on $10.5m per year (and has performed much, much worse.
Myth 2 - "He's useless, trade him." - In the two year span of 2007-2008, Matsuzaka went 33-15 with a 3.72 ERA, second best in wins in the AL after Roy Halladay (and one more win than Josh Beckett over those two years). Clearly Dice-K is not a no.1 starter, he simply does not pitch enough innings for that, averaging 186 innings over those two years, but to make a fair comparison 2009 has to be removed from the equation - obviously partly because of Dice-K's own actions, but many pitchers have lost seasons and effectiveness due to injury. After his DL stint in 2009, he went 3-1 with a 2.22 ERA in four starts in September and October.
Myth 3 - "Release him". See, this is the one that irks me the most. Why would the Red Sox release an at least serviceable pitcher? For those "fans" who make such statements, releasing a player does not mean the team stops paying him. If Dice-K was released, any other team with the best waiver position could pick him up and only pay him the league minimum. The Sox would still have to pay more than $8m per year until 2012. Despite John Henry's obvious wealth, even the Sox wouldn't do something as stupid. And remember, his salary would still count against the luxury tax, even if he was released. (See Kei Igawa being stuck in AAA for the Yankees).

Dice-K started well for 5 innings in his season opener against the O's until he unravelled in the 6th inning. Another poor one inning, this time the first inning, against the Halos in his second start put a black stain on his record, but he buckled down and managed to pitch 5.1 innings for the win.

Yesterday he showed signs that his mechanics and perhaps more importantly his mental approach is getting close to top form as he allowed 1 run, 3 hits and no walks in one of his best starts ever against the Blue Jays.

Whilst he still has to prove through consistent performances that he's back in good form, I predict he'll win 15 games for the Sox with a 4 ERA. A hell of a lot better than you'd get for pretty much any pitcher on the market for that money.

Last chance saloon

2010-05-11T08:11:00.001+01:00

David Ortiz's struggles were well documented in 2009, both on this blog, and in mainstream press.

The normally restrained Boston press has now of course started with their campaign again after Big Papi's poor start to this season.

Whilst he clearly needs to perform consistently over a longer period, like the Indians in Major League, he's threatening to climb out of the cellar.

After an abysmal April (.143 avg/.238 OPB/ .286 SLG), he's actually shown signs of heating up.

He can now turn on mid 90s fastballs, as shown by the ground rule double off Burnett's 95mph pitch against the Yankees on Sunday, and that two of his four home runs have been to left-center. In the past, when he kept his weight back and his hands inside he was able to drive towards the Green Monster, something that he was completely unable to do in April.

Whilst it's a small sample, his May so far reads much happier;

25 AB, 7 hits, 1 double, 3 HR for a .280/.321/.680

This is about .100 pts higher slugging than Youk, showing signs of the power the team has been lacking.

If he can continue this for another 2-3 weeks he might not be released or taken off the 25 man roster in June...and it seems I'm not the only one to think so.

Finally, Dallas Braden, the A's pitcher with the 17-23 lifetime record, a high 80s fastball and 4.5 ERA is known for something else than calling A-Rod a douche.

On Sunday he pitched the 19th perfect game in baseball history. 27 batters, 27 outs. No walks, no hits, no reached on error. Not one baserunner all game.

This is as rare a feat as you'll see in baseball. Compare to the 672 triple plays and 289 times a player has hit for the cycle, you realise how incredibly difficult this is to do, as you have to rely on 8 other players to play a perfect game too.

Congrats to Dallas, now take the high road and shut up about A-Rod.

Decade

2010-05-10T22:43:00.000+01:00

It's been a very long time since my last post....for my limited number of readers, I apologise.

Although we're technically not in the new decade (for the more detail oriented minority), we can still take a look at the decade.

Sports and life wise this was a mixed decade for myself and my favourite teams.

The Boston Red Sox entered the Noughts 82 years removed from their last championship and came out the other side with two championships in four years. After decades and decades of futility, the club finally had owner, a front office and players to consistently contend year after year. Sure, they'd been close before, in '86 and '78, but winning years were often mixed with years of missing the playoffs. The foundation was built before the current owners, with Pedro and Manny coming under the managerial reign of Dan "Twilight years" Duquette, but the home grown talent and missing pieces came with Epstein, Henry and co.

Even though the Rays have taken a monumental leap up and now look like they have at least another year or two of strong performances in them before they might struggle to keep key players, they draft and develop young talent very well.

Liverpool entered the decade ten years removed from a title and despite winning the Champions League in one of the best ever football games in 2005 and several domestic cup wins, they still search for that first ever Premiership title.

Sadly, compared to the Red Sox, the LFC front office situation is very unstable. Two American owners sinking in debt, an uncertain future both for the manager, Rafa Benitez, and the two star players, Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard makes for an uncomfortable summer and a very poor outlook on the next season.

San Francisco 49ers entered the decade having seen their 16 year division title streak come to an end the previous year and a very uncertain ownership situation as Eddie DeBartolo had been suspended by the NFL for ties to gambling companies in Louisiana.

Now owned by DeBartolo's sister Denise, and run by her husband Dr.John York, the Niners started the decade ok. With the retirement of Hall of Fame QB Steve Young, the Niners under coach Steve Mariucci had a successful 2002 campaign with Jeff Garcia as the starting QB, only losing to eventual SB winners Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Championship game.

However, that would be the final post season game of the decade for the Niners and the final game in charge for Steve Mariucci, who for reasons only known to "Dr" York was deemed no longer suitable.

3 coaches and numerous co-ordinators later the Niners finally seem on the verge of playing competitive football again, now under the helm of no-nonsense coach Mike Singletary, HOF linebacker with the 1980's Chicago Bears.

And I have tickets to see them at Wembley on October 31st!

As for me, my decade was probably as tumultuous as the teams I follow. Post-grad degree, house purchase and multiple life changing events put me at a similar position of the Niners - after years of turmoil I look forward towards the light at the end of the tunnel.

Turn the page

2010-04-04T07:45:00.000+01:00

Now that we're well into year '10 instead of '09, we can look forward to yet another opportunity of a fresh start.

As I wrote about a year ago, we can all look forward to new personal, professional and sports fan opportunities. But, and there's always a but in there, whilst some things change, some others stay the same. Cash rich clubs in whatever sport will always have an advantage over lesser blessed competitors. Also, stability usually brings more success even when there is cash available (see: Raiders, Oakland and Dame, Notre).

The shrewdest operators find a gap and exploit it. After years of big signings, the Yankees think that tweaks are enough (and they might very well be right) to go for 28 championships. The Yankees drained their farm system in the eternal chase for the next WS title, but ended up with a high priced ageing team on the decline (think Roger Dorn) and no prospects.

Brian Cashman then decided enough was enough, kept his talent while spending wisely on the high price agents available, such as Mark Teixeira (surely $10m would not have hurt Mr. Henry in the long run...), creating a second coming of the Yankees of the 90s with Joba, Cano and Hughes creating a young foundation of home grown talent to build upon.

The Red Sox have gone the same route with Pedroia, Youk, Lester, Bard and Ellsbury (with Anderson and Kelly soon to take the leap from the Minors), but some of their recent free agent acquisitions have left a little bit to be desired. Whilst Lackey was a solid purchase, the jury's still out on Beltre and Cameron.

This was, according to a sloppy quote from Epstein, a "bridge year", but now that the RSN have tasted sweet victory, the patience among fans is short.

However, as for my beloved LFC, this might not be the year when the Sox lift the WS trophy. Time will tell

Balance

2009-12-16T07:54:00.002Z

Always captivating Gregg Easterbrook, aka TMQ on ESPN.com writes in his article about the manic coach firings in College Football:

a university exists to educate; winning football games is a secondary concern

Probably a sentiment that make BCS officials choke on their breakfast, but an important point nevertheless.

College football is now completely removed from the "amateur" status - in 2007 Forbes calculated the Notre Dame football programme's financial worth at $91m. ND receives $9m annually from NBC alone, far more than any other programme, and of course amplified by ND's independent status, allowing them to keep their income for themselves and not revenue share with other conference teams.

Clearly that financial issue, combined with ND being 21 years removed from it's latest national championship caused Charlie Weis, the former Patriots co-ordinator, to walk the plank after 4 years. Weis' first season (9-3) was a moderate success, but after a 10-2 second season his bck to back 6-6 seasons were not enough to save him.

However, Notre Dame's academic standards have also been considered markedly higher than other school, prompting Easterbrook to point out:

Notre Dame was among the few prominent holdouts, insisting its football players be students too. This generated a recruiting disadvantage -- and a recruiting disadvantage caused by high standards, not Weis suddenly forgetting how to coach, is the reason for the recent records of Notre Dame football. Notre Dame alums and boosters should have been proud that high standards keep the school from going 12-0!

With more than 10000 players in the NCAA div 1 and only 256 players drafted by the NFL each year, the odds are better than winning the lottery....but not by much.

As entertaining and as passionate college football is, shouldn't the universities be able to strike a better balance between academics and sports?

If not, isn't it time to start paying the "student-athletes"?

Hot Stove...

2009-12-04T21:31:00.005Z

...lukewarm Niners (picture of Alex Smith from sfgate.com) and a pretty ice cold Liverpool.

That's probably an accurate snapshot of the current sports situation for Mr.N personally.

The Red Sox shored up their troublesome SS position by signing Mr. Utility - Marco Scutaro, formerly of the Blue Jays. Since Nomah led the Sox from the SS position as one of the three best shortstops in the league from 1997 to 2003, the Red Sox has essentially treated the position as a revolving door. Since mid-2004, 7 players have manned the position for the Bostonians. (Well, 6, but Alex Gonzalez did it in 2006 and again in 2009.)

Now they have one of the best fielding shortstops in the league when healthy (he suffered from a nasty case of Plantar Faciitis last season), he's played more than 115 games in 5 of the last 6 seasons since becoming a full time player with Oakland in 2004. Even with his foot injury last year he only played on less game than 2008, his first year with the Jays (144 vs 145 games.)

What's more interesting is, as Peter Gammons mentions in his column, Scutaro's performance at the plate has gone up more or less every year. From an OBP of .297 in 2004 to a respectable .379 last season. Something that must have made the Red Sox FO salivate with glee is also his ability to wear down pitchers, as he lead all MLB shortstops in pitches per at bat in 2009.

2 years and $11 million gives the Red Sox solidity to a position that could almost become a strength for the team if Jed Lowrie can get healthy and assume a super utility role.

Obviously the Red Sox have some outstanding issues, such as a big bat (Bay or M. Holliday...or Adrian Gonzalez?), Ortiz's rapidly declining skills, Lowell's health concerns and possibly another starting pitcher or two. Whether the last issue is solved by a monster trade for Doc Halladay or a more buy low option of a Ben Sheets type pitcher remains to be seen.

We haven't even gotten to the winter meeting yet! So far no sign of the Yankees trying to continue their plan of buying every player in the world - although clearly Cashman's strategy worked last year. On occasion I can't stop thinking what the outcome would have been with Teixeira at 1B and Youk at 3B for the Sox if Henry and the gang had upped their bid by 5%....

Pigskin times

As for the NFL, we're in week 13 and we have 2, count 'em two, teams still undefeated; the Saints and the Colts. Theoretically we could have two 18-0 teams in Miami in January. Wonder what the 1972 guys will think then.

The Niners might actually have a shot at the post season for the first time since the Mooch era, with a pretty manageable schedule up to Christmas. Only Philly and possibly the Cardinals look like nail biting games, especially with an (almost) dominating defense and a resurgent Alex Smith at the helm of the offense.

Of course they'd have to navigate the Vikings, Saints and Dallas (plus two wildcards) in the playoffs if they get there, but in all honesty I'd be ecstatic by just a return to January football this year.

There's always next year...

Seems to be the mantra in Liverpool. Now out of the Champions League, with a shaky ownership and already 15 points behind the league leaders, 2009 seems to be a season that before Christmas has gone from "This is the year" to "well, maybe next year".

What's clear is that Liverpool's squad is paperthin compared to Chelsea's and ManU's. Without Gerrard and Torres Liverpool was as potent as a paper tiger, and now languish outside the top 4.

I still think they'll finish in a CS spot, but this season is not one for the ages.

Finally

The best pop culture v sports comparison of the day goes to Bill Simmons (again), as he compares the Cavalier's Shaq with a bald Aretha Franklin. I recommend reading his entire column, especially the dire look at the city of Cleveland's fortunes.

What now?

2009-10-17T13:28:00.003+01:00

With only half an eye on the CS, I struggle to justify staying up to 5am to watch the Angels, Yankees, Dodgers or Phillies.

I've frantically been searching for an article breaking down which of the teams in the CS a Red Sox fan should support, but essentially the conclusion is the Phillies or the Angels.

While we're on the topic of the Phillies; the Red Sox sign John Smoltz and get a pale replica of the once great pitcher. The Phillies sign Pedro and get 7 innings of 1 hit pitching. Against an almost equally flawless Vincente Padilla. Yes, the Vincente Padilla who was tossed from both the Phillies and earlier this year the Rangers.

The discussion of the level of play between the NL and the AL has been going on for years, nay decades, but take a look at Smoltz and Padilla:

Smoltz:

BOS (AL): 40.0 IP, 59 Hits, 8 HR, 9 BB, 8.32 ERA, 1.70 WHIP, .343 BA against

STL (NL): 38.0 IP, 36 Hits, 3 HR, 9 BB, 4.26 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, .248 BA against

Padilla:

TEX (AL): 108.0 IP, 4.91 K/9 ip, 4.92 ERA, .286 BA

LAD (NL): 39.1 IP, 8.69 K/9 ip, 3.20 ERA, .252 BA

This is not just a question of an improvement due to change of scenery. The NL is bordering on being Quadruple-A.

As for Pedey, last night was a superb display from a pitcher who has realised age has caught up with him and has had to change game plans. The frustration among the Dodger hitters was palatable, as Martinez "pounded" the strike zone with pitches varying from 65 to 91 mph. Even his curve varied by as much as 8 mph.

So, with the CS analysis out of the way, what's next? Seeing if the 49ers can get some use out of Crabtree after his less than brilliant plan of holding out? Watching Liverpool, with more losses through the first half of October than the entire 2008 season, to see if they can finally win the Premiership (I'm not holding my breath...)

Or simply a slight pause from sports?

Nah, didn't buy that myself.

Although my life will probably be a little bit more balanced as I actually finished the Royal Parks Half Marathon last weekend. (In 2h16mins, not as fast as I wanted, but as it was my first 13.1 race, I'll take it).

Here's to an interesting off-season.

Halos Redux....again. Or not.

2009-10-12T22:29:00.000+01:00

Here we go, here we go, here we go....again....

Like an old vinyl record with a scratch in it, returning the track to the same starting point again and again.

That was the start of my pre-ALDS post, which got lost due to time constraint. Alas, as we now know, history did not repeat itself.

After treating the Halos as their personal bitch (in the post season only of course. during the regular season the Angels owned the Red Sox) for about a decade, going 9-1 in the last 3 post season series, Grumpy finally got one over Tito. The Angels swept a thoroughly un-impressive Red Sox team that played like a team that finally got caught by the findy-outy-police.

The heart of the order; Martinez, Youk and Ortiz (although Bay and Ortiz swapped 5th & 6th spot in game 3) had a total offensive production of.......4 for 35, or a .114 average in the series.

The Red Sox bullpen, previously considered one of the better 'pens in the league imploded. Papelbon, who hadn't allowed a run in 26 post season innings, allowed 3 runs to score on 4 hits in game 3 - all with 2 outs.

Simply put, and to stop this from being a complete recap of all stats, the Red Sox did not show up. The batters didn't...well, bat. The pitchers gave the Angels plenty of straight down the middle pitches - and walks - lethal against a speedy team. All in all, the Angels were much better.

Sooo.....

What does this mean for the Red Sox?

Well, to start with, I suspect (with sadness, albeit with inevitable acceptance) that we've seen the last of our Captain. At least as a starter (well, that's a given). There is no way the Red Sox will pick up their $5m option on Varitek, although he of course has a $3m option himself.

The question for the Sox is what would benefit the team more in the long run; Varitek as back up and teacher to Martinez for a year or bringing up another catcher to develop.

Other obvious question marks are Bay (probably the best free agent hitter available this off season), Lowell (will he be productive and healthy for one more year?) Ortiz (which one will show up in March, the Ortiz of April-May 2009 or the June-Sept Big Papi) and the never-ending search for a short stop.

This period (and the end of July) is why they pay Theo the big bucks. Over to you Mr. Epstein.

Priorities

2009-10-05T23:46:00.007+01:00

So, you are a valued employee, perhaps one of the key members of staff.

You're coming up to the biggest deadline you've had for many years, literally a make or break project for your company, and your bosses rely heavily on you to deliver your very best with this project.

How do you prepare? Study the parameters of the project, run through different scenarios and prepare to the very best of your ability, and then get a good nights sleep so that you can truly shine and deliver the next day?

Not if you're Miguel Cabrera.

His team, the Detroit Tigers, for so long in complete control of the AL Central but now hobbling towards the finishing line ferociously chased by the resurgent Minnesota Twins, went into the last 3 game series of the regular season against the White Sox 2 games ahead in the standings on Friday.

After a dismal 0-4 performance in game 1, where he left 4 runners on base, did Miguel, in all his wisdom, decide that the best preparation for the incredibly crucial game 2 (as the Twins had won their first game it was now a 1 game lead in the AL Central) was to take extra BP and some film studying of next game's opposing pitcher, the rejuvenated Freddy Garcia who had re-discovered his lethal forkball?

Ehh, no.

He thought the best way to prepare was to go to a nearby hotel, where some friends were staying. Friends who happen to play for the WHITE SOX, the series opponent and the team standing between the Tigers and a playoff spot.

He staggered in to his Detroit house at 5am the next morning, talking so loudly on his mobile phone that he woke up his young daughter and wife Rosangel. Rosangel was understandibly less than impressed, and heated tempers on both sides ended up with Miguel being picked up by Detroit's finest.

You see, not only did he fraternise with the opposing team, he also decided that his preparation would be best suited by getting ABSOLUTELY HAMMERED. After making his way home, having a row with his wife, dealing with the police and transported to the station, he was then finally tested for blood alcohol level. A guess is that this happened probably at least an hour after he finished drinking, assuming that he left after he finished his last drink.

So, around 6am, 13 hours before probably one of the most important games in his career and certainly the most important one since becoming a Tiger, Cabrera has a blood alcohol level of .26.

To put that into perspective a little, the legal limit to drive in Michigan is .08, the same as in the UK. In Sweden the legal limit is 0.03, whereas the limit for Drunk Driving (the more serious offence) is .1.

Michigan police has a policy to send anyone to the hospital if they test at 0.35 or higher. Considering that rule of thumb is that you sober up by 0.01 per 40 mins after you stopped drinking, Cabrera probably was very close to this level during his night of "celebrations".

As the cherry on the pie, Cabrera, who wasn't arrested but merely removed from his house at his and his wife's request, finished the evening (or in this case morning) by being picked up by the Tigers General Manager Dave Dombroski. That must have been a pleasant ride.

Despite all his pre-game preparation, amazingly Cabrera did not raise his game against the White Sox, finishing game 2 with another 0-fer game, this time leaving 6 runners on base. He also managed to kill the best chance the Tigers had, when 3 runs behind in the 7th and 2 runners on when he meekly hit into a double play.

Cabrera, who is a catholic also practices a religion called Santería, and he became a high priest, or a Babalao in 2006. Babalao roughly translates to "wise man".

Time to hand back that robe, Miguel, wise man you are not.

Now, if I showed up to my office on one of the most important days of the year still drunk and blowing a presentation for a big deal, I'm certain that would possibly endanger my future employment with my company. Then again, Miguel is guaranteed $150m over the next 5 years, so I guess the incentive might be a little bit less for him. Although you have to wonder what his team mates, front office and fans think about him.

Finally, as if Miguel's behaviour couldn't be more exemplary, another story has emerged today. Apparently Cabrera, in a previous incident at the same hotel as Friday's "prep-fest", taunted a 15 year old boy about his weight issues and then challenged the boy and the people around the table to "take it outside".

Now, here in the UK there's a chant used on the football terraces whenever the opposition has a somewhat less than athletic looking player:

Who ate all the pies?

Cabrera has eaten more than his share of pies over the years, in fact so much that the Tigers moved him from third base to first as his range had diminished to the point where he was a big liability defensively.

In 2007 the discussion in the majors was if Cabrera could join A-Rod in the $200m contract club, but one AL Executive said:

His weight is a major issue

Clearly Miguel has worked at losing a little of his voluminous body, but only in a world of 400 lb people would he be called slim.

In tonight's one game pennant play-off at the Metrodome, I'd say that my heart lies with the Twins, but I also know that the Tigers would probably put up a better challenge for the Yankees.

Miguel, you have one shot tonight. Time to put up or shut up. Or to quote Marshall:

Look, if you had one shot or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted in one moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?

The ball's in your court.

15 mins that shook the world

2009-09-23T08:54:00.000+01:00

The most important half time talk ever....

2005 redux

2009-09-23T08:52:00.000+01:00

After watching Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS, it was time to revisit the other top sporting moment of my life...

Necessary Inconvenience

2009-09-20T00:44:00.006+01:00

Most of us commute to work in some form or another. I alternate taking the Tube (the subway for North Americans) and cycling. For years I endured a relatively long train journey on overground train into London, with its inevitable issues and complete lack of punctuality.

As seasoned commuters will testify, delays will and do happen, but the worst thing is being kept in the dark. Nothing makes you feel more insignificant than waiting forever without no information whatsoever why you are waiting, or some generic "sorry for the delay" - when you "know" they're not really sorry.

For many years, from the early Yawkey days through the Clemens "led" 80s, the Red Sox had a more than tension filled relationship both within the team and externally with fans and the local media. As much as we love Yawkey way, the man the street is named after was a bigot and a drunkard who surrounded himself with similar people. Fans had to endure the smallest and second oldest stadium in the country, with horrible facilities. For many years fans were treated with a sense of "you should be honoured that we let you come to Fenway".

Clearly this has changed significantly since the Henry group took ownership, and the restorations they have done to Fenway in some aspects are nothing short of remarkable considering the limitations a 97 year old stadium would create on any attempts of modernisation.

The Henry group also immediately changed the relationship with the local fan base and media. Led by former VP of Public Affairs Dr. Charles Steinberg, who became Theo Epstein's mentor when TE began in baseball as an intern with the Baltimore Orioles (and who bizarrely also was the Orioles team dentist), led the Red Sox on a blitzkrieg of public relations and with a few notable exceptions in the press, generally turned a very tension filled relationship with the surrounding elements in Boston into a much more amiable situation.

Steinberg and the Henry group broke the ice with several former players alienated by the Yawkey trust and improved relations with fans both outside and inside the now continuously improving Fenway Park.

With John Henry even being on Twitter, one could possibly even go so far to say that no other franchise in sports is so accessible to the fans as the Sox.

So why did my recent trip to Boston leave a little to be desired?

As the Girl and I travelled up through Connecticut on the Amtrak, the forecast was somewhat unclear. Rain was peltering the train windows, but the weathermen and women told us that it should clear up by the evening in the New England area.

Once in Boston, we eagerly made our way first to Cask & Flagon for some reminiscing, and then wandered to the Yawkey Way Store (for some "necessary" merchandise), the premium beer vendor (for a Smithwick's) and the Grille (for a sausage with peppers and onion) before taking our seats in the rightfield bleachers. There was a mist

in the air, but with every possible offering to the weather gods, the game did in fact start on time.....and lasted for a total of 0 innings...

Jon Lester fired a fastball...at the backstop in anger after having the game delayed 3 batters into the top of the first.

The big screen above the outfield bleachers posted a non-specific statement about "inclement weather" and we were "entertained" by a soundless tv image of first the Rangers game (until they were rained out) and then a Seattle game (I think).

At this point I was still so happy about being at Fenway I wasn't too worried. Hey, it was Friday evening, I was with the Girl, I had a Sam Adams in my hand and we were wandering around the concourse (and later another trip to the Yawkey Way Store) waiting for the rain to subside.

But it didn't....

So we then waited for the inevitable official announcement of the cancellation of the game, thinking that they would add a day game to the Saturday's scheduled evening game, thus allowing us to re-use our tickets.

But they didn't....

Still the same non-descript message on the big screen, now displaying to only a handful of brave souls still in their seats (all but two under the grand stand roof).

After a 1h45min delay, the announcement came just before 10pm that the game was off. And re-scheduled for noon on Sunday. Precisely 2 hours after my flight back to the UK was scheduled to take off. Grumbling about "why-didn't-they-call-it-earlier-so-they-could-play-tomorrow" we wandered off to C&F again for some food and some more beer.

Still, it was Friday evening in the Fens, I was with the Girl, I had a Sam Adams in my hand, so I'd certainly had worse days.

We still had another chance to go the Saturday game, and my inside tip allowed me to get face value grandstand tickets behind the Red Sox dugout at face value, but we had to take a $100 loss on re-selling the now Sunday game tickets - oh, well.

Saturday was miserable and grey, and we spent most of it strolling around Back Bay eating and drinking, looking forward to Joshua take the mound and stem his recent generosity with the longball. After beginning the evening at C&F again, we took our seats in section 20 and as the earlier torrential downpour had diminished to a fine mist, we felt confident that the game would start on time.

But it didn't....

Despite any rain whatsoever, with the tarp still on the field 15 mins before supposed game start, we all knew what was coming.

"We apologise, but the start of the game has been delayed due to inclement weather in the area. We thank you for your patience."

So, we sat around, fiddling our thumbs in the clear evening sky for 90 mins, when the grounds team suddenly came out to prepare the field.....just as the rain actually started again.

So the tarp went back on for 10mins. And then back off again.

And then we were kindly informed that the game would start 40 mins later, at 9.15pm, 2 hours and 5 mins behind schedule.

Finally....

And then we had glorious baseball at last. Beckett pounded the Rays batters with fastballs and confounded them with kneebuckling curves, allowing 1 hit in the first 4 innings. Once the Red Sox bats chased Rays' starter out of the game while batting around the order and scoring 8 runs in the third, this game was over either way. Youk hit a monster homer over left centre in the 4th before the game was put on delay yet again after 5 innings and 2 hours of baseball just before 11pm, and was ultimately called a complete 5 inning game just under an hour later.

So why am I a bit miffed? Sure, I'd be lying if I didn't admit that paying $250 for 2 hours of baseball over two nights (and probably another $100 or so spent at the stadium) was annoying.

But ultimately rain happens. As Nuke Laloosh once said:

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains.

What could have made the evening more endurable would have been a more detailed stream of information from the Management instead of the generic non-info we got - especially when we sat for more than 90mins looking at a rain free sky before the game started. Add those 90 mins to the playing time and we easily would have had a complete 9 inning game. Although I don't want to be a cynic, a part of me struggles with the notion that for every minute the fans stay at the stadium before leaving once the game is called or cancelled, the Sox and concession owners make another small fortune on $7.85 beers and $6.50 sausages.

As we all know in our private lives; communication is key. The Red Sox should have known better in their communication, and on this occasion they failed. I don't think they are returning to the days of treating the fans as a necessary inconvenience, but they need to up their game if they want to continue with their streak of sold out games.

And buy a better weatherforecasting system than Meteorlogix.

The way it was meant to be...

2009-09-18T20:50:00.000+01:00

$10 box seats.

$4 beers.

$20 caps.

Constant promotions and competitions involving the audience and especially engaging the kids.

And several former (and hopeful to be future) major leaguers.

That's the way baseball really should be played and enjoyed. Players hustling every ball as they know this might be the last chance they have to get to the majors. Fans being able to take their family to the game on a regular basis without a need for a lottery win.

An evening at Long Island Ducks Citibank field is...well, I can't find a more eloquent word than "fun". Estimated by Hall of Fame catcher and Red Sox heartbreaker Gary Carter, who is trying to make it to the show as a manager now by taking on the LI Ducks in the independent Atlantic League, as equivalent to AA minor league ball, the Ducks are looking for their 2nd championship since the creation of the team 10 years ago.

Whilst some teams such as the Newark Bears focus on former Major Leaguers such as former Red Sox Keith Foulke and Carl "CHB" Everett, the Ducks roster consists mainly of former players from minor league affiliates, including several LI locals.

Peanuts, base hits, beer and a mascot called Quacker Jack. It's simply brilliant entertainment for your buck.

City of Fatherly Love

2009-09-17T08:14:00.001+01:00

I so want to believe that I would have the composure to do what this guy did at last night's Phillies game... (apologies for the commercial before the clip - courtesy of ESPN)

Truly a display of good parenting :)

Perspective

2009-08-26T08:32:00.008+01:00

I could be writing about the horrible sweep by the Yankees or that the Red Sox for a moment even lost the lead in the wild card standings.

I could write about the torn feelings of admiring Smoltz pitching a gem in a Cardinals outfit while I reminisce about his 8+ ERA for the Red Sox.

I could follow up on my short and impulsive posts about the recent beaning frenzy, especially after the Porcello-Youkilis fracas.

Or I could write about the complete disbelief that follows watching Usain Bolt run any sprint distance. (Please God, make him be clean. I would stop watching athletics forever if it turns out he's juiced too.).

Ultimately though, money aside, those are all....well, games. Whilst in many cases it feels like life or death, it's not.

For Greg Montalbano(above, picture by Boston Globe) baseball went from being the more or less sole focus of his life and the dream to one day pitch in the Majors for his beloved Red Sox to something much less important. As a freshman at Northeastern University, where Montalbano had enrolled after pitching for St John's High in Shrewsbury, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1996, but battled through his illness, and in his last two years at NU was voted on to the All-American team. With the Red Sox A affiliate in Sarasota, he proved the Red Sox right for picking him in the 5th round of the '99 draft by tearing through the minor league levels.

Unfortunately, tumors were constantly tearing through his body too. He in the end lost count on how many times he'd had surgery to remove benign and malign tumors, at least 16 or 17 times in ten years.

After shoulder problems prevented him from taking the step up to Triple A in 2002, a combination of arm problems and yet another bout of tumor removal made him lose almost 2 years of baseball, although he did team up with another well known left handed cancer survivor

in the Red Sox Gulf Coast team in 2004; Jon Lester.

When he finally got a reprieve and became healthy in 2005, the Red Sox released him after spring training. As horrible as that is to write (and read), we all know, as did Greg, that baseball is a business, and after 5 years the Red Sox had to go down another route.

Greg took another path too. Now back to full strength, he dominated, nay crushed, the opposition in the Can Am Independent League, at one point going 35 1/2 innings without giving up a run in July 2006, posting an 0.86 ERA that had the major league scouts calling once again.

Sadly, this is not a Hollywood movie where a Tom Berenger on his last knees gets a final chance in the show and makes the most of it. On his way to the stadium for his scheduled start, Greg got the call he feared the most; the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute telling him his cancer had returned....again.

"I am a tumor machine," he says. "I make tumors. I have no idea why."

An great article by Stan Grossfield in the Boston Globe in October 2008 highlighted Greg's personal fight for me, and I've been following him on the net since.

Greg left baseball to focus on the next step of his life, using his engineering degree from NU and working incessantly for the Jimmy Fund, raising awareness and money for cancer research and treatment.

Even a sterile medium as the internet was able to portray Greg to me, and no doubt to other readers, as a truly great person. The kind that we see too rarely in life, but when we do they leave a permanent mark.

Often death "sanitises" the picture of a person, making him seem better, nicer and friendlier than he or she might actually have been in real life. However, in Greg's case, without ever having the privilige of meeting him, I don't doubt for a second that he truly was as good a person as the testimonials portray him to be.

The cancer took its final toll on Greg on August 23rd 2009, 13 years after his first diagnosis, but I suspect Greg still managed to leave this world a winner.

Greg lived every single moment and accomplished more in his 32 years than most do in their entire life.

His sister Kristen described Greg as a person who never allowed his incredibly persistent illness to get the better of him emotionally.

Hopefully our donations to the Jimmy Fund can some day allow another person beat cancer and take the field at Fenway.

Greg Montalbano was laid to rest the day after what would have been his 32nd birthday, accompanied by more than 1400 people at his wake and a standing room only 400 at the ceremony. I'll leave the final words of this post to his sister Kristen.

"Happy birthday, Greg. Your life was far too short, but you pitched a perfect game."

Karma

2009-08-12T01:10:00.002+01:00

Have to wonder what Rick Porcello is thinking now, sitting in the visitors' clubhouse at Fenway, watching Jason Bay tattoo a ball over the green monster, tying the game.

Toot, toot. Karma bus stop for Porcello.

Beantown

2009-08-12T01:00:00.002+01:00

I know Porcello's young, but that was just f**king stupid. I just wish Youkilis would actually have given him a nice right hook.

Welcome to the big leagues dumbass.

Fountain of youth?

2009-07-10T00:49:00.000+01:00

Naturally after my post about David Ortiz's seemingly unstoppable slide into retirement he made me, and all other doubters, eat our words.

After batting like a broken old man/drunken circus clown/[insert your own adjective here], he promptly turned his game back on. After his slow .230(avg)/.290(obp)/.623(ops) start in April he virtually fell off the cliff with a .143/.278/.590 May.

I started writing my original post in early June, but by the time I actually posted it BP had already hit the (no doubt incredibly hard to find) ON switch.

His .320/.409/1.062 June is almost on par with one of his career best years in 2007 when he batted an astoningishly .332/.445/1.066. (In 2006 he hit his career high 54 HR, but had lower overall numbers).

After hitting his first home run on May 20th, he hit 7 in June and so far in July has hit 2, including a 3 run blast against Oakland last night.

Getting out of a prolonged slump can be incredibly frustrating, especially when you're at a level of a Major Leaguer. As just an observer (albeit an above average such), Ortiz hasn't changed his stance, his kick or his swing plane. He doesn't look like he's lost weight or gotten fitter, yet his hands move oh so much faster than 6 weeks ago.

Being completely unable to catch up to a 91 mph fastball in May has turned into putting a 94 MPH heater into the stands in June.

It's not the first time I say it on these pages, and most likely not the last.

Mea culpa, David. Welcome back

Age...

2009-06-21T21:26:00.000+01:00

When we're young, we can't wait to get older. Every birthday is celebrated with passion and gusto. Every birthday means we're another year closer to driving/graduating/leaving home/drinking/[fill in your desire].....

At some point we reach equilibrium, when we're pretty much the age we'd like to stay at - we're young and active enough to be able to do everything we want to do, yet mature and wise enough to realise the folly in some of the potential endeavours. For me, I suspect that age was around 33-34 years of age. I was fit, I was well educated and I made a comfortable salary.

If we believe the birth records, David Ortiz is 33 years of age. Yet for all of spring, he looked like a man who suddenly either forgot everything he ever knew about swinging a bat, or like the flick of a switch suddenly had his body, in a Duran like moment, just say: "No mas."

Ortiz could not buy a basehit for weeks. He looked like a very old man playing a young mans game.Bill Simmons looked at all of the obvious issues regarding Big Papi's extensive slump, but ultimately focused on age. And reminded us about a very important lesson:

Everything ends badly, otherwise it wouldn't end.

David Ortiz, at least until his recent 10-15 game potential recovery (I'm not counting my chickens just yet), seemed truly like a man who age had caught up with. At 33, playing 162 games per year is draining. If you're actually 36, it's probably even more so.

I tore my hamstring last year, at the age of 36, ironically when turning out of the batters box whilst trying to beat out a ground ball whilst playing for my Sunday amateur team.

A year later with tons of therapy and about 200 miles of running to strengthen the leg, I still feel it....a lot. Granted, I don't have access to the daily physio facilities a professional athlete has, but age has certainly caught up a little with me.

I carry a few extra pounds still, but stamina wise I'm probably the fittest I've been for 15+ years. I run and cycle more than 50 miles per week, I eat relatively healthy and I'm running a half marathon later this year and hopefully a marathon next year.

Still.

I feel my age much more than just a few years ago.

Is there a specific cut off point? Or is it, probably much more likely, a combination of factors? If so, what are they? If a professional athlete, making $13m per year, with access to every trainer, nutritionist, coach and fitness professional in the world yet still can't stop the aging process, what hope do we mortals have.

Still.

I don't care. I will run my half marathon, I will run my marathon next year, and if the powers that be allow me to, I will regain that six pack sometime this year.

So what if it still hurts when I turn out of the batters box to beat the throw, or when I try to steal 2nd.

2 weeks already?

2009-04-17T08:35:00.000+01:00

Stephen King and Stewart O'Nan chronicled in their book "Faithful" , the Red Sox simply do not play well on the West Coast. Ever.

Well....

A quick look at Baseball-reference.com show that's not entirely the case. Since '99, going into this season, the Sox have a road record against the A's and the Halos of 40...and 40. As in .500.

Ironically King and O'Nan wrote that the Sox never win on the West Coast in 2005. Which was in fact the first year since 99 that the Red Sox didn't have an overall winning record in California.

From 2000 through 2004, had a 24-15 record in CA, but since then only a 12-21 record. Why is this?

Still, the opening 3-6 record in 2009 shouldn't be the cause of too much concern. Clearly, with the exception of Youk and Wake, the rest of the team is playing very much below expectations, and most of them should improve (and some, including Lowell, have shown that they are).

However, what is more a cause for concern is Big Papi. I watched 2 of the West Coast games, and every time he comes up to bat, my first thought is:

There's no way that wrist is 100 %

He looks uncomfortable in the batter's box, his swing looks noticably slower and pitchers clearly have his number right now. Bay and Drew have the potential to make up some of the power numbers, and Youk is on a mission to steal the MVP title from his team mate, but if BP remains a shadow of his former self, then with the loss of Mannyland, this team will struggle with power.

I've been wrong with predictions before, so but I'll be watching with a sligly baited breath....

However, with the punching bag otherwise known as the Orioles coming to town, I suspect the Red Sox will be substantially closer to .500 by the end of the series.

Aural memories....

2009-04-03T08:26:00.005+01:00

I'm a music nut.

There's no other way to describe it.

After getting my first radio and cassette player (remember those?!?) at an early age, my life has been surrounded by music. More or less every significant event or time period in my life can be connected to certain songs, albums or artists.

Junior High? My metal phase, mainly Iron Maiden (The Power Slave and Somewhere in Time albums) and Van Halen. Albums on heavy rotation were 1984, 5150 and the aforementioned IM records.

High School? My guitar was my life in junior high and early high school and I listened more to guitarists than bands, so Eddie Van Halen, Clapton and Steve Lukather featured frequently. I moved after my first year in high school and making new friends expanded my musical genres, and I was introduce to The Cure and Depeche Mode, and later the first ventures into dance music - which also coincided with the beginning of regular concert going. Albums included Staring at the Sea, Violator, Fahrenheit and Lettin' Off Steam.

In college? More of The Cure, and got introduced to Red Hot Chili Peppers, Barenaked Ladies, D:A:D and Manic Street Preachers. This was also the period when I started DJing, both at clubs and on the radio, so my music taste became even more eclectic; discovering more house music, R'n'B, hiphop and soul. A Tribe Called Quest, De-La-Soul, Guru, KLF, NWA/Ice Cube and Snoop/Dr.Dre did many turns on the turntables. Most of my income was spent on records, and I had now amassed a substantial collection. Influential albums; Gold Against The Soul, Gordon, Blood Sugar Sex Magic and The White Room.

Emigrating? Moving from Sweden to the UK ironically made me embrace Swedish music to a greater extent as well as some new British discoveries. Eric Gadd and Blacknuss represented Sweden, whilst Fat Boy Slim and to an extent Oasis represented Britain. I also reacquainted myself with Aerosmith and Beastie Boys, and a certain Marshall Mathers came on the scene. Albums included Allstars, 2001, What's the Story?, You've Come A Long Way Baby, Nine Lives and Floating.

Often I'd go through more bands than clothes. Whenever I'd discover a new band, I HAD to get all the records the artist had ever released, and I'd listen exclusively for a few weeks or months until I found the next one. Some artists stuck, others were laid by the wayside.

Somewhat bizarrely, on a trip to India I spotted a video on an Indian music channel by John Mayer, and his music has played a big part in my recent life. His Continuum album came out days after discovering the events that lead to my divorce, but luckily I can now listen to the album without my first thoughts going back to that time period.

In the last eight to ten years my taste has returned a little bit to the more guitar oriented genres, and artists frequently played on my iPod(s) include Linkin Park, Lostprophets and probably my all time favourite - the Foo Fighters.

I've over the years been to more concerts in my life than I can remember, but I sadly never got to see Van Halen with their original line-up. Despite that I did manage to many of the bands I listened to more frequently, including this (at least in Europe) somewhat unknown band that my Canadian dorm-mate introduced me to in 1992 - Barenaked Ladies. All good things must come to an end, but it's still sad to find out that one of the lead singers, Steven Page, went down a path in his life that ultimately ended with him leaving the band. At least I managed to see the original line-up several times, including a very memorable New Years Eve in Phoenix, AZ.

Ah well, time to go to work, so it's Paramore and Prodigy on the iPod...

And over to Todd...

2009-03-26T07:43:00.001Z

I recently joined a sportsbloggers group on LinkedIn and found this gem today. This is the kind of writing I aspire to produce.....still working on it. As many things in the post ring true for me in several levels, I wanted to share this...

Todd Civin writes:

It was the night of my first race. The Derry five miler. The most I'd ever run at work is 45 phone poles, or about three miles. "What's an extra two?" I thought. That was until I passed the three-mile mark.

Read his full post here.

Thank you Curt

2009-03-23T16:36:00.004Z

For 2004 alone we should be grateful, but there are so many more things worth mentioning...some other time.

Thank you again #38.

Nice week

2009-03-22T23:23:00.001Z

After a solid purge (and getting a ladder to the storage space in the loft), most of my belongings are now more or less arranged in a somewhat orderly fashion in my room.

Which is good.

Liverpool also beat Real Madrid 4-1, ManUtd 4-0 and Aston Villa 5-0.

Which is also good. (Which is an understatement!)

London also displayed itself to the fullest last week with glorious sun most of the week and mid teens temperature. My relatively short relocation has opened up new venues and my recent run through Richmond Park passing a herd of deer completely oblivious to people taking pictures and running past them. (Although the picture below was not taken by me...sadly)

Truly an oasis in the midst of metropolitan hustle. I was (relatively easily) convinced to sign up for a half marathon later in the year, so my training has now started in earnest. Which should no doubt help me in many other ways, including getting from 1st to 2nd base a fair bit faster.

Sometimes life is good, despite its challenges.

Materialistic madness

2009-03-09T00:16:00.002Z

What you sow you shall reap. What goes in must come out. Etc. Etc.

So how come I'm so bloody surprised about the amount of stuff I have? How can I be shocked that my belongings (sans furniture) required almost 30 moving boxes? Which I now have to try to fit into a 100 sq ft room....

Not. Going. To. Happen.

I'm sitting here, trying to see the actual floor in between the masses of just....well....stuff.

So the next weeks will be spent weeding and sorting and filtering. Not used in the last year? Gone.

Things to do:

Hang up pictures. (Might seem like a strange priority, but you'd be surprised how much space pictures take on the floor. )
Sort and put away clothes. (Note: Try to avoid having a non-functioning washing machine for 2 weeks before moving house. Result is all your clothes in big blue IKEA bags.)
Pack up one more box of books and put into storage. (Surprising stat no. 47: Books take up space. And when you've had 10+ years in a large house, with plenty of bookshelves, restricting your large collection to 1 bookcabinet is not an easy task. )
Sort out parking permit.
Try to fit everything into the kitchen cabinets. (Clearly some weeding out needed here too.)
Go for a run. (This will actually be item no.1. October might seem far away, but so is 13 miles through London on foot. In 2 hours hopefully. Running programme starts in earnest today.)

Thank god I've got nothing to do then. At least I've got just about 3 weeks until the season starts in glorious HD.

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy

2009-03-05T08:43:00.000Z

Or should the title of this post be "What Goes Around Comes Around"? Or perhaps "The wheels on the Karma Bus goes round and round".

Imagine the sorrow and sadness I felt after reading that even the Dallas Cowboys - the mecca that is the gathering of the maladjusted and the miscontent - have cut overall nice guy Terrell Owens.

So what's that T.O? 17 teams that have thrown your sorry ass out on the street? I cannot even imagine how you can ever have survived playing with such clearly inferior quarterbacks such as Steve Young, Jeff Garcia, Donovan McNabb and Tony Romo. Poor you...

Don't let the door slam you on the way out.

Fan...wait for it...aticism

2009-02-27T18:19:00.001Z

So, most of my posts have been about one love - sports.

As we twiddle our thumbs waiting for the first pitch thrown in anger, I thought I'd orate a smidgen about another passion, both personally and professionally - television.

See, I get paid to watch TV...to simplify things a little bit. Yes, I know "we" (as in society) should not watch too much TV, and when given the choice of a nice day outside and or vegetating on the couch, I'm often the first one out the door. I play sports, I love to hike and enjoy fresh air walking around.

Still, I will not deny that I watch a fair bit of television, both professionally and personally. However, I'm quite selective about what I watch. I refuse to watch anything "reality" based - in my opinion it peaked with The Real World: San Francisco. Since then, a bunch of has-beens or never-will-be's trying to be the most outrageous person on tv just to get famous enough to be invited to turn on the Christmas lights in Oldham. Super.

Give me a properly scripted, well cast drama or comedy show any day. Over the years I've watched glimpses of more shows than I can remember, and followed a (not) suprisingly vast amount of shows.

Sooner or later though most show "jump the shark". Rarely does a series maintain the writing and energy produced in earlier seasons. Every now and then comes along the exception that drags you in. Now even the shows that fail to jump the shark have their ups and downs, but in today's TV market the leash is much, much shorter and many shows are cancelled long before they fulfil their promise.

Other shows seem to spend a weekly waiting game to see if they get renewed for another half season. Gone are the days of Cheers and Mash, both series that performed below average at launch before going on to run very succesfully for more than a decade.

Currently worth spending 45 mins on:

Life - Damian Lewis of 'Band of Brothers' fame stars as a falsely imprisoned LAPD officer who is exonerated and returns to LAPD with a goldbadge, untold million$ and an urge to find out who framed him. All while in a Zen like frame of mind.
How I Met Your Mother - A story told in flashbacks of how a group of 20-somethings live in NYC. It would be too much of a cop out to call it Friends for the next generation - plus this show is funnier.
Entourage - Sex and the City for men. The city is LA. The sex is with a star actor, his hanger-ons and friends with countless number of starlets and wannabes. An HBO production, so not a PC dialogue in sight.

Now I'm off to see OC Ska...and then pack for my move this weekend. Joy and pain all rolled into one.

.....and we're back

2009-02-17T08:27:00.001Z

After the annual January baseball holidays, we're now back to our previously scheduled entertainment.

For the Sox, truck day happened while I was on vacation in DC, and all teams have now reported to spring training. The Sox are enjoying a very quiet camp, whilst further up the gulf coast the Yankees turmoil continues day by day.

Despite spending more money than Iceland's national debt, the Yankees are far from a sure thing. Without a doubt, the rotation has improved - how could it not when they added the #1 and #2 pitchers available on the market? However, as good as Burnett's stuff is, he only seems to be able to get through a full season when he's in a contract year.....which he won't be for another 4 years....

And whilst the Yankees offense will be formidable, their defense still leaves a lot to be desired. Sure, Teixeira will be a huge upgrade at 1st from previous seasons, but the other side of the infield is not getting younger or better. In fact, Baseball Prospectus article at ESPN highlights the defensive liability that Derek Jeter has become. (You have to be an ESPN Insider to read the full article.)

While there are arguments over the accuracy and effectiveness of different contemporary defensive metrics, they are nearly unanimous on The Captain's limitations. Clay Davenport's new play-by-play metric that debuts in this year's edition of the Baseball Prospectus annual says Jeter's work with leather cost the Yankees 18 runs in 2007, and another 12 in 2008. John Dewan's plus/minus system from the Bill James Handbook rates Jeter the worst shortstop in total plus/minus of the last three years. On a scouting level, as strong-armed as he is, his range afield has become an obvious issue, just as it did for Cal Ripken in his mid-30s.

Will the Yankees front office have the brass balls, and the ability, to convince Jeter that CF is a great position for him? I for one hope that they don't, because that would indeed make the Yankees better....

The first ST games start this week, and then we have the WBC to look forward to in March.

Bring it on.

In all it's green, green glory

2009-02-16T23:26:00.000Z

Our highest quality HD feed streams at 3Mbps and is a 720p resolution.

How sweet will that be???

Hot Stove pt. MMIX: A Prince among men

2009-01-12T08:36:00.001Z

With "Mr.Yankee" now off the books it seems as the Red Sox are midway through Plan B.

After acquiring Brad Penny, the Sox have as I mentioned now struck deals with Rocco Baldelli, John Smoltz and as of yesterday former Dodger closer Takashi Saito and a one year deal with Mark Kotsay, giving the roster plenty of quality depth in the rotation, bull pen, situational relief and on defense.

Kotsay gives the Red Sox insurance in the OF if Baldelli, as suspected, will not be playing on an everyday basis should one of the starting outfielders go down with injury, and his versatility will also give the Sox adequate backup at 1B.

Smoltz should be back by May/June, and gives the Red Sox the option to keep Masterson in the bullpen and possibly trade one of their prospects for a catcher and/or a bigger bat.

The latest rumour involves yet another Scott Boras client (he must be the Yankees of the agent world), Milwuakee Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder. Although substantially weaker in defense at 1B, he does rake a big bat, and would allow the Red Sox to move Youk to third and trade Lowell.

I admire and respect Mike Lowell, and part of me would be annoyed after yet another player accepting a deal with a "home town discount" and then being traded (see: Arroyo, Bronson), but sadly it is indeed a business nowadays, and it is risky to rely upon the performance of a 35 year old 3B coming of hip surgery.

Still, my hat's off to Lowell for the way he played through pain during the ALDS in 2008. If the Red Sox somehow can keep him, it would warm the cockles of my heart.

Smoke clearing

2009-01-07T23:11:00.000Z

As we all know what happened with Mr. Angels/Rangers/Braves, it's time to take another look at the line-up:

As it stands now, after last nights pleasing news, Red Sox would open in April with this:

1. CF Jacoby Ellsbury
2. 2B Dustin Pedroia
3. DH David Ortiz
4. LF Jason Bay
5. 1B Kevin Youkilis
6. 3B Mike Lowell
7. RF JD Drew
8. SS Jed Lowrie
9. C Josh Bard

RH Josh Beckett
LH Jon Lester
RH Daisuke Matsusaka
RH Brad Penny
RH Tim Wakefield
(RH John Smoltz)

CL Jonathan Papelbon
SU Hideki Okajima
SU Ramon Ramirez
MR Manny Delcarmen
MR Javier Lopez
MR Justin Masterson
LR David Aardsma

Bench:
OF Rocco Baldelli
IF Julio Lugo
1B Jeff Bailey

With the signing of Baldelli, the Red Sox have found their 4th outfielder and potentially a power bat if the doctors can indeed improve his rediagnosed medical condition to allow him to get 350-400 AB per season.

John Smoltz also gives the front office a lot more flexibility with their prospects, and Buchholz seems to be trade bait for a new bat (potentially a C). Apart from he-who-shall-not-be-mentioned-but-we're-all-laughing-our-asses-of-at-his-non-existant-market, there are no top tier big bats on the free market, which means that if the Red Sox will add one, then they will have to trade.

Some rumours (or perhaps wishful thinking) have mentioned Joe Mauer, but I suspect that he is untouchable, even if we throw Buchholz and other top line prospect. I get the impression that the front office rates Michael Bowden higher, thus making Clay tradeable. However, with Epstein and co thinking long term, they know that most likely there is a power bat available from the minors towards the end of 09 or early 2010 in the shape of Lars Anderson, 1B extraordinaire, who has been tearing up A and AA, and will probably start 2009 in Portland before moving up to Pawtucket in the late spring/early summer.

Obviously a blockbuster deal with the Rangers for Josh Hamilton and Jarrod Saltalamacchia/Teagarden/Ramirez for Ellsbury, Buchholz and perhaps Daniel Bard might be difficult, as neither of the Rangers players have any large contracts the Red Sox could take on. Still, it would make the Red Sox lineup a feared one, with better back end rotation, defense and bullpen than the Yankees:

1. 2B Dustin Pedroia
2. RF JD Drew
3. DH David Ortiz
4. CF Josh Hamilton
5. 1B Kevin Youkilis
6. 3B Mike Lowell
7. LF Jason Bay
8. C Jarrod Saltalamacchia
9. SS Jed Lowrie

Looks good to me :)

New Year, New Hope

2009-01-07T23:08:00.004Z

A new year always brings a sense of a clean slate and a brighter and more focused, albeit sometimes short-lived, outlook on life and its possibilities. Many of us enter each new year with new personal goals and/or milestones ahead of us:

This is the year I will take charge of my fitness/finances/career/personal life (fill in your own noun), etc.

It’s no coincidence that January is the month with by far the most new membership applications to UK fitness clubs, as people look to the New Year as a year with limitless possibilities. Once past the Winter Solstice, every day is just that fraction little bit brighter and longer, and we take charge of our lives to avoid yet another Van Wilder year (although without the glorious parties), stuck in Punxatawney in an eternal winter.

We exercise more, we tighten our purse strings, we search for that next wonderful career opportunity, and if we don’t have someone, that special person to have in our lives. Whilst January is often a cold and dark month, it also allows us to look at the year as a fresh new canvas to paint the next chapter in our lives…of course hopefully a better one than Isaac did…

A new year also brings new hope to many sports fans.

This is the year that my team will finally win the championship.

Glorious are the days of the ignorance and hope. As Thomas Grey wrote many years ago:

Where ignorance is bliss, / ‘Tis folly to be wise.

Most fans (possibly excluding Royals fans) can spend the early winter months (and longer if you’re an NFL fan) dreaming that this is the year. The MLB and the NFL , with its salary cap (NFL) and revenue sharing (both), means that even small market teams are able to go on extended chases for the title if everything falls into place.

Since the introduction of the Free Agency in the NFL in 1992, the Super Bowl has seen 11 different champions, with only Dallas, Denver and New England winning more than once during the 16 Super Bowls of that era. The MLB is a little bit more skewed due to the salary luxury tax and not a fixed cap, but even the World Series has seen 9 different winners since the 1994 strike year, with only the Yankees, Marlins and the Red Sox winning more than once during that period.

Still, despite the Yankees fielding an infield earning more ($80.5m) per year than half of teams paid their entire roster in 2008 (1B: Teixera, $22m/year, 2B: Cano, $9m, SS: Jeter, $22m, 3B: Rodriguez, $27.5m), baseball is one of the sports where money isn’t the sole determining factor. Witness Tampa Bay’s total payroll of $43m in 2008 not preventing them from winning the AL East, beating the Yankees $201m and the Red Sox $138m rosters.

So, despite the unusually cold start to 2009 here in the UK, and the Yankees single-handedly trying to solve the credit crunch by purchasing every single player, winter will eventually lead to spring, and with that we all have hope for a better year than the last one, regardless of the challenges we face. We face the new year looking forward to a long overdue reform in world leadership, and a better future. 2009 can be the year we achieve that next great career jump, it can be the year we greet our svelte mirror-image in the morning, and 2009 can be the year.

To steal the catch phrase of 2008:

This is the year.

off topic....

2008-11-30T23:24:00.001Z

During the "hot stove" months, there is only so much one can write about baseball.

Sure, I can write about my beloved 49ers, who after half a decade of futility which pushed them off the screens here in the UK I now can see in almost HD glory each weekend through NFL.com's HD Gamepass.

Sadly, a sharper TV image does not equate to a sharper pass defense or a more accurate journeyman QB. Thankfully Gamepass did not include a HD shot of Mike Singletary's pantsless display.

However, despite a win yesterday, 2008 is truly yet another transport journey to a top 10 draft pick. Alas, I do not think this will change until the Niners get an owner who actually knows enough about football to own a team, but conversely realises he knows too little to meddle in everyday runnings of the actual team. (Hi Al Davis and John York). Although it now seems abandoned to an extent, you can still visit www.dumpyork.com for some more musings on this topic.

So, with no baseball, no football and nothing really to write about the premiership right now apart from another weekend of poor referreeing (ok, so the 'Pool will be top after tonights game!), what can I write about?

The frustrations of international migration? The fact that it seems near impossible for a highly educated career driven person to move to another continent?

Alas, as I don't want to ruin any chances in the future, I'll keep my frustrations inside whilst I wait for a more sports oriented topic to come around.

US State Dept, please find my application among the other millions...

Dream Team

2008-11-28T08:53:00.001Z

1. CF Jacoby Ellsbury
2. 2B Dustin Pedroia
3. DH David Ortiz
4. 1B Mark Teixera
5. 3B Kevin Youkilis
6. RF JD Drew
7. LF Jason Bay
8. SS Jed Lowrie
9. C Jason Varitek

RH Josh Beckett
LH Jon Lester
RH Daisuke Matsusaka
RH Jake Peavy
RH Tim Wakefield

CL Jonathan Papelbon
SU Hideki Okajima
SU Ramon Ramirez
MR Manny Delcarmen
MR Javier Lopez
LR/Spot Starter Justin Masterson
LR David Aardsma

Bench:
OF Rocco Baldelli
C Jarrod Saltalamaccia
IF Julio Lugo
1B Jeff Bailey

On can dream, can't we?

If you can't stand the heat....

2008-11-28T08:32:00.001Z

For those who follow international rugby, the New Zealand national team, the All Blacks, are well known for their pre game ritual.

They perform a Haka, a maori war dance, before the kick-off of every game. Whilst I find it very entertaining, nobody in their right mind can refute the fact that part of the ritual is to intimidate the opposition.

So why is it now that the All Blacks throw their toys out of the pram when an opposing team very classily refuse to be intimidated by their gamesmanship?

My blood pressure was pretty high but then I regained my composure. I was a bit upset about it.

This quote comes from the All Black's centre Ma'a Nonu, who got his panties in a bunch when the Welsh team decided to form a line and stare down the war dancing Kiwis.

But it was really hard. The haka is a war dance. If you're going to stand there like that then in the past people would have charged, but it's a rugby match and you can't do that.

Ehh...really??

So one team is allowed 2 mins of choreographed intimidation, but the other team forming a single line and staring back is outrageous?

Honestly Nonu, wake up and smell what you're shovelling. I enjoy the Haka as much as anyone, but if you do gamesmanship, then you better be prepared for getting some your way.

These mean Welsh are not playing fair when they're not being intimidated by our war dance...

To quote an OC girl....

Oh, puh-leeze

The little engine that could

2008-11-27T23:44:00.000Z

For the second time in three years we have the previous years ROY become the MVP the following season.

After gargantuan Ryan Howard did it in the NL for the Phillies, the somewhat more vertically challenged Dustin Pedroia did it for the Red Sox.

And yes, the vote should have probably been closer, and yes, Joe Mauer was also a very valid choice, but I will not argue with the voters....for once.

Dustin Pedroia plays with a chip much larger than his shoulder. His size has always been an argument thrown in by perhaps less knowledgable pundits, and yet everytime he's confounded his critics by outperforming expectations.

Yes, he only hit 9 HRs in 2008, but he also led the league in doubles and his clutch hitting was on occasion superb.

Whilst Youk and Mourneau had v good years, I suspect part of the issue is that we simply don't expect that much offensively neither from a catcher or a second baseman.

This year we had two standout 2B, Chase Utley and D-Ped, which shows that the game is continually evolving.

Now we just wait for the recession busting contract coming to a tv screen near you.

9 figures? Honestly?

MLB Idol

2008-11-18T08:05:00.004Z

After a short break, we return to the regular programme schedule....

With the actual awards based on merit; Silver Slugger and Cy Young, out of the way we now head on to the popularity contest that is the MVP.

To clarify for the uninformed, the MVP should be by definition be given to a player, who in comparison with his team mates has stood out across the MLB as the Most Valuable Player, i.e the team would not have been anywhere near where they ended up without said player. Also, it is not supposed to include post season feats, regardless what a bitter Albert Pujols said in 2006 when he lead the Cards to the playoffs but still lost out to Phillies' Ryan Howard who was spending October on the couch.

I see it this way: Someone who doesn't take his team to the playoffs doesn't deserve to win the MVP - Pujols, November 2006

"You have to consider everything. You have to put all the numbers together" - Pujols, November 2008

Way to turn the coat Albert. Now, don't get me wrong. Based on the context that only regular season feats playing part in the decision, both choices were correct. Pujols is a maginificent player, and his .357 with 37 home runs and 116 RBIs was head and shoulders above anyone else on the Cardinals and he carried, on a dodgy elbow, the team for most of the season.

However, it still raises issues about how the selection process is made. Just consider these figures for a second:

AB H HR BA OPS SB
546 173 50 .317 1.091 5

AB H HR BA OPS SB
550 165 39 .300 .963 11

Here's a hint - the second line, clearly inferior to the first one was awarded the AL MVP in 1995. The first line belongs to the Indians' former slugger Albert Belle, generally considered among sportswriters (as in the people voting for the MVP) as one of the surliest jack-asses in baseball. The second line belongs to Mo Vaughn, an mountain of a man (towards the end of his career a completely immobile mountain of a man) and a very genial man in dealing with the press.

Buster Olney of ESPN once wrote about Albert Belle:

It was a taken in baseball circles that Albert Belle was nuts... The Indians billed him $10,000 a year for the damage he caused in clubhouses on the road and at home, and tolerated his behavior only because he was an awesome slugger... He slurped coffee constantly and seemed to be on a perpetual caffeinated frenzy. Few escaped his anger: on some days he would destroy the postgame buffet...launching plates into the shower... after one poor at-bat against Boston, he retreated to the visitor's clubhouse and took a bat to teammate Kenny Lofton's boombox. Belle preferred to have the clubhouse cold, below 60 degrees, and when one chilly teammate turned up the heat, Belle walked over, turned down the thermostat, and smashed it with his bat. His nickname, thereafter, was "Mr. Freeze."

When Belle retired, the NY Daily News' Bill Madden wrote:

Sorry, there'll be no words of sympathy here for Albert Belle. He was a surly jerk before he got hurt and now he's a hurt surly jerk....He was no credit to the game. Belle's boorish behavior should be remembered by every member of the Baseball Writers' Association when it comes time to consider him for the Hall of Fame.

Hold on for a second...shouldn't the MVP be given to the best player, not the most friendly good player? NY Times writer Robert Lipsyte agreed:

Madden is basically saying, 'He was not nice to me, so let's screw him.' Sportswriters anoint heroes in basically the same way you have crushes in junior high school... you've got someone like Albert Belle, who is somehow basically ungrateful for this enormous opportunity to play this game. If he's going to appear to us as a surly asshole, then we'll cover him that way. And then, of course, he's not gonna talk to us anymore—it's self-fulfilling.

This is one of the two fundamental flaws in the voting process. It simply becomes a popularity contest. In 1947 the Red Sox splendid splinter Ted Williams, who was no friend of the 4th Republic, lost to the friendly Hollywood Yankee Joe DiMaggio, despite Williams winning the Triple Crown.

Williams numbers; .343, 32 home runs and 125 RBIs were far superior to DiMaggio's .315 with 20 home runs and 97 RBI, but one writer left Williams off the ballot completely after a clash with Williams, thus allowing DiMaggio to win the MVP by one point.

The second issue normally affects the top teams. A team cannot win 90+ games by having just one great player. Therefore teams like the Red Sox and the Yankees sometimes lose out on MVPs because other players "splinter" the vote.

This year it seems the 4 front runners for the AL MVP come from two teams; Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis from the Red Sox and Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer from the Twins. An outsider with a considerable shot is Francisco "K-Rod" Rodriguez, who of course set a new single season record with 62 saves (but in the process lowered his strike outs to a career low 77 since becoming the closer in 2002 and had a not too impressive 2.24 ERA).

The announcement is made later today. Now we wait.

In space nobody can hear you screaming

2008-10-21T13:06:00.005+01:00

Did you hear that?

For the second time in less than a week, Fox executives let out angst ridden screams. First the whole Manny vs. the Red Sox story was eliminated with the Dodgers, and now the Phillies will face a team that couldn't even sell out much less their own arena than stadiums across the country.

Phillies v. Rays.

Chew on that for a second.

Taste as good as a Red Sox vs. Dodgers WS?

Not for Fox management....

Even last year's Red Sox vs. Rockies series, with RSN fans across the country watching every play, still produced the second to last rated series in terms of television ratings ever.

Think the Rays and Phillies will beat that? Analysts say not. And I don't doubt them. Sure, the Rays from zero-to-hero story makes for great headlines, and most fans now know of Longoria, Upton and perhaps even Shields. Baldelli's story also makes for a heartwarming tale, as does Maddon's unorthodox views on baseball management.

Big ratings it does not.

For a World Series to rate, it requires a sub plot that non-partisan casual followers of baseball can be bothered to turn on the television set for. Manny trying to shove it to the Red Sox, or the Sox trying to shove it to Manny, etc.

This is why the CS normally rates higher than the World Series. Non-Yankees and Red Sox fans would still watch an ALCS between the two teams. Dodgers vs. Giants (not that such a matchup is likely in the near future) or a Cubs-Cardinals series would increase the ratings.

And honestly folks, ratings is what it's all about.

Ratings allow YES to generate enough income for the Steinbrenner family to consider buying every player in the MLB.

Ratings allow Fox and TBS to pay MLB enough money that allows the Mariners to give a 4 year $48m contract to Carlos Silva. And the SF Giants to sign Barry Zito to a $126m contract for that matter.

Ray-Phillies? As much as baseball purists might enjoy the quality of baseball, a ratings driver it ain't.

Now what?

2008-10-20T13:02:00.002+01:00

The Rays were throughout the season, and eventually in the postseason, the better team.

One can look at injuries to Lowell, Beckett and Big Papi as reasons for the Red Sox slump, but ultimately the Rays were simply better.

As much as I am glad to be free of "Manny-being-an-asshole", it was clear that we did not have a hitter that made the pitcher, the opposing manager and their fans quake in their seats - the way BJ Upton made most of us feel during the ALCS.

So, whilst most of the current Red Sox no doubt will be back there are some question marks.

"Guaranteed" to come back are of course Youk and Pedroia. The OF will most likely consist of Bay, Ellsbury/Crisp and Drew, and Lowell should have a few more years in him. If not Lars Anderson is hitting the skin of the ball in the minors and could come up to play 1B with Youk moving over to third.

The rotation looks pretty set if Beckett comes back to health, with Lester, Dice-K, Beckett. Wakefield and Byrd are bigger question marks, but Buchholz and especially Bowden in the minors.

The bullpen could do with some help as Timlin most likely is hanging up his hat (at least he should). Okajima found his form a little bit towards the end of the season, but Ardsmaa could assist and Daniel Bard might find his way up towards the end of 2009.

However, the big issues facing Epstein and co are of course shortstop and catcher.

Shortstop could be solved internally with dumping Lugo and putting Lowrie permanently at short, but catchers are in short supply within the organisation. Kevin Cash is not a long term answer, and as there are not many options on the open market a trade, possibly for Laird or Saltalamacchia from Texas being mentioned.

Now I'm taking a few days (or weeks) off from baseball - if nothing else I'll be able to sleep!

MMMoney, money, money, money

2008-10-18T12:56:00.004+01:00

Imagine you being a highly paid surgeon for a top hospital. Now imagine you choose to, just through pride, to help out your vet friend and end up injuring your hand, rendering you useless for your actual employer.

Think the hospital executives would be more than a little miffed? And probably rightly so.

However, in the world of international sports, although my analogy perhaps isn't the most watertight of comparisons, this happens with a scary frequency.

Now, I'm one of the biggest fans of international football there is, especially the World Cup, which normally takes my already certifiable sports madness to new heights.

Still, I am feeling more and more for the teams that actually pay huge transfer fees and sometimes even higher salaries for top athletes, only to have them go away to play a bunch of former Soviet minions only to come back on a stretcher.

The most recent round of World Cup qualifiers saw Liverpool's Fernando Torres carried of with a thigh injury after 16 mins in Spain's game against Belgium, Manchester City's Bulgarian midfielder Martin Petrov tearing his ACL in his country's WC qualifier against Georgia and City's recent last minute acquisition Robinho strain his thigh in Brazil's qualifier against Colombia.

Now, players will always want to play for their country (with a few notable exceptions), but sooner or later a huge lawsuit will be filed against a national football federation from a team losing its top star for the season, or god forbid career. Only after more than a year of negotiations did the English FA agree to reimburse Newcastle for Michael Owen's season ending injury during the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

I suspect that international qualifiers are now one of the most dreaded times of the year for club managers, as their own futures can in cases completely rely on their stars making it back from their international duties unscathed.

Oh Captain, my Captain

2008-10-18T11:25:00.004+01:00

O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:

But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

There's a general consensus in the baseball world, especially among executives - catchers are not able to sustain their performance very long into their 30s. Anyone who's ever caught behind the plate at any level of baseball surely realises it's pretty hard work. Now image doing that 5 days per week for 3-4 hours a pop for at least 6 months per year!

Pudge Rodriguez (aided by Scott Boras) signed a 4 year $40m deal with the then hapless Tigers at the age of 33. Pudge is, and rightly so, considered as one of the best "two-tool" catchers of all time. Apart from a sensational defensive catcher (48% of all basestealers gunned down in his career, by far the best ever), he was also a very potent batter. Not very surprisingly Rodriguez average and slugging percentage peak of .332/.588 came at the age of 28 in 1999 (Excluding his injury shortened .347/.667 2000 season when he only played 91 games). Clearly, there are more than just stats in play when it comes to the catcher position, such as leadership and the ability to handle and guide the pitching staff, something Pudge did well for most of his time with the Tigers (although there were a few grumblings in Detroit) . However, in his 5 years there, he never bettered his first season of .334/.510 with 19 HRs (admittedly, a superb year for anyone, much more so for a catcher), and anyone who saw his sorry shadow of a former self in his .219/.323 in 33 games with the Yankees must be joining me in thinking - "Pudge, you've got countless of millions in the bank, pack it up now..."

After the 2004 season, at the age of 32 the Red Sox went against their own policy and offered Jason Varitek (and Scott Boras) a similar $40m, 4 year contract (albeit without the flood of injury protection the Tigers managed to put in theirs). Uptil then, the Red Sox would not go past 3 years for any player older than 30. (See Martinez, Pedro and Schilling, Curt.) V-Tek, considered without equals in regards to handling a pitching staff, was never a batter of Rodriguez standards, but coming off a .297/.482 season with a career best average (He was a .271 life time batter after the 2004 season), the Red Sox decided he was a risk worth taking.

As my math skills are not at Bill James' level, I am unable to look at how much Varitek's handling of the Red Sox pitchers have aided the teams success, but I think it's safe to say that he has been a huge factor in that respect, especially considering he's been behind the plate for 4 no-no's in his career. However, as many Sox fans, I have with pain watched his steady decline in the batters box. From .281 in 2005 to .220 in 2008, Varitek is now just marginally more dangerous at the plate than an NL pitcher. A sad indicator is the increasingly frequent number of times Francona has lifted Varitek for a pinch hitter late in games, most recently in game 5 of the ALCS when pinch hitter Sean Davis sadly struck out.

If the Rays, and they're still clearly odds on favourites, knock out the Red Sox in either game 6 or 7, game 5 might have been the last time for Varitek in a Red Sox uniform at Fenway. Question is if Varitek, a Boras client, would be willing to take a more limited role in a short deal with the Red Sox for 2009, or if he would seek a longer contract elsewhere.

I am personally torn.

As with Pedro leaving in 2004, Varitek's best days are long gone, and sometimes it's better to remember someone at their best rather than to see their decline in front of your very eyes. 2008 has not been a good year for Varitek, neither professionally (disregarding Lester's no-no in May and still the faint hope of a WS place) nor personally, but I still wonder if he will walk away happy with a career including 2 rings, a Little League WS and a College WS, or if he will be yet another professional athlete staying in the game just that little bit too long.

My heart does not want him to be finished, but my head suspects it is so. I hope he proves me wrong, not that he really needs to prove anything to anyone anymore.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;

(Apologies to Walt Whitman)

O M G....

2008-10-17T14:05:00.004+01:00

Wow. Just wow.

Do they do this intentionally? Have they come to the conclusion that the only way they can win the CS is to tank it initially so that their backs are against the wall? Is that how they get motivated?

Well, good for them. Although my left arm is still tingling a bit - is that good or bad?

Honestly, how the hell do you come back from down 7-0 in the 7th of an elimination game with your offense at that point having gone 0-fer-a billion?

Big Papi, 1 for 15 in the series swatting a fastball down and in like it was an annoying little bug and launching it 325 feet into the corner past the Pesky pole. Just like he used to do on a weekly basis in previous years, but have been so painfully unable to do since...well, I was going to say his wrist injury, but actually more or less all of 2008. Apart from a surge in May prior to his wrist injury, he's clearly been less than his lethal self for most of the year.

Let's hope that this is the start of a Big Papi revival. Despite monster performances during the regular season from Pedroia and Youk and from Bay in the post season, the Red Sox does not, I repeat, NOT stand a chance against the Rays unless they have a more potent home run threat from the heart of the order.

I am still waiting for Francona to announce that he's changing the rotation and letting Lester pitch on Saturday in game 6. Don't you think that would put some thoughts in the Rays' heads?

I know they roughed him up last time at Fenway, but he's simply too good to have his intimates handed to him on a plate twice in a row. Also, a long, solid, outing from Lester would allow the Sox to throw Beckett (on a short leach), Dice-K, Masterson et al at the Rays in game 7.

I thought they were dead donkey's last night prior to the 7th. Now I'm not so sure.

True, there is no question of which team is the better one. The Rays hit better, pitch better, field better and run better, but we're almost through the looking glass now. Now it comes down to cojones and experience. Let's see if last night brings a return to the Rays of game 1. The Rays that looked tighter than Ari Gold's golfing trousers.

If so the Red Sox have a fighting chance. Although damn you Phillies for clinching it in 5 so that Saturday's game starts at 2am here... I have to leave for the airport at 7am on Sunday morning, so that will be difficult to fit in...

Schwetty Balls

2008-10-11T04:46:00.002+01:00

Wow.

This is heavy stuff. I'm still a little bit surprised at the Rays' batters impatience at the plate.

Top 9th, Bos 2 Tam 0...

Deja Vu all over again.

2008-10-09T11:32:00.005+01:00

I suspect the rotation will be:

Game 1) Dice-K
Game 2) Beckett
Game 3) Lester

Sometimes you're good, sometimes you're just lucky... :) As the Globe wrote, because the 1-2-3 starters would get two starts each in a 7 game series, the only important factor is not the order of the starters but more the rest period, which made it completely sensible to start the rotation in the order it pitched in the ALDS.

Tonight it's Dice-K v James Shields. The Rays and the Red Sox are going out of their way to play down the past skirmishes between the teams, and I think they're right. I doubt any Red Sox players would be so stupid to risk being thrown out of a CS game, but we'll see if the Rays are as cool headed, considering their lack of post season experience.

As ESPN pointed out, Varitek and Ortiz have on their own more post season at-bats than the entire Rays roster, but the Rays looked very composed against the White Sox. Peter Gammons asked for a 7 game classic and I think he will get one in this series. Shields has been solid, Sonnenstein has been outstanding but Garza and Kazmir has been below average recently. Kazmir had a good year, but has been lit up by the Red Sox, going 0-2 with a 9.00 ERA in the regular season. Similar with the Red Sox, Dice-K has been solid, Lester outstanding and Beckett has been hurting. It will come down to the rotation depth and form, but I'm predicting (with my heart), the Red Sox in 7.

8.37pm ET. I will be in front of the TV - where will you be?

A horseman

2008-10-08T17:40:00.004+01:00

This day is one I did not think would happen - I actually agree with Tim McCarver....

"It's extraordinary -- the dichotomy between what he was in Boston and what he is in Los Angeles," McCarver said, according to the Philadelphia Inqurier. "I mean, talk about wearing out your welcome in a town, and it was a long welcome with the Red Sox. But some of the things he did were simply despicable, despicable -- like not playing, refusing to play. Forgetting what knee to limp on. And now it's washed, it's gone."

However, as I commented on before, this is more a making of Boras than Manny, but still it's good to see that more people are seeing the light of what happened...

Another Ludicrously Draining Series

2008-10-08T07:44:00.005+01:00

After the Sunday night blip, the Red Sox clinched the series after more than a few plays going their way during the ALDS.

Now, after going 1-13 against the Red Sox in the post season since 1994, including 11 straight losses, I can understand the Angels being less than happy. I agree with the Halos' ace John Lackey when he says:

[On Sunday] they scored on a pop fly they called a hit, which is a joke

And it must be difficult to contain the emotions, and in fact it's not healthy to, after another difficult exit, but the Halos have many other points that I'll just give them the benefit of the doubt considering their new vacation plans.

[On Monday], they score on a broken-bat ground ball and a fly ball anywhere else in America [except in Fenway Park]. And [Pedroia's] fist-pumping on second like he did something great.

Ehh...yes. Pedroia kind of did. He used his surroundings to the fullest. Whilst the Green Monster turns what would have been fly ball outs into doubles, it also turns what would be line drive homeruns into doubles. Pedroia is a good example. On would on the surface expect that his diminutive stature is helped by the Green Monster, giving him a home run advantage at home. However, looking at his stats, it's the opposite. He's hit 7 of his 17 HRs at Fenway this season. True, of his 54 doubles, 35 came at home, clearly an advantage, but you have to wonder how many of those would have been a homerun in any other park.

Finally Lackey brings out the old chestnut to disparage the winning opponent:

We are way better than they are. We lost to a team not as good as us.

Ehh....no. If you win, you are better. If you lose, you are not. It's a pretty simple equation. Of course the Angels point to their league leading 100-62 regular season record. Looks good on paper, doesn't it?

A closer look points out that the Angels went 36-21 within the AL West, against such powerhouses as the Rangers (79-83 final record), Athletics (75-86) and of course the punching bags the Mariners (61-101) who the Halos went 14-5 against (The Red Sox when 6-3 against the Mariners). The Mariners won all season series agains their AL West opponents.

In comparison, the AL East had 4 out of 5 teams with winning records, with the Red Sox only winning one season series (Baltimore, 12-6), whilst tying the season 9-9 with the Blue Jays and Yankees and losing 8-10 against the Rays.

So sure, following the motto "You can only beat the team put in front of you" the Angels were clearly better in the regular season, including a spanking 8-1 record against the Red Sox.....

...but the Red Sox have gone from October hopeless to October hopefuls. The Red Sox, always sure to lose in the most agonising way in the post season, or even stumble on the last steps leading there, are now the mental giants of the pressure cooker that is October baseball (or November if we let the MLB decide).

No matter what obstacles arise, the Red Sox believe that plastic wrap will adorn the locker stalls come October. They expect closer Jonathan Papelbon to dance a jig eventually, designated hitter David Ortiz to man the clubhouse stereo with flair, and the home clubhouse carpet to require about four industrial strength cleanings over a four-week span.

The new mindset is analysed by ESPN's Jerry Crasnick, and it does indeed seem as the Red Sox is a different animal after its recent post season success. However, you only need to ask the Patriots if you think that a feeling of entitlement gets you anywhere...

(And as a matter of full disclosure - going into this series I thought Papelbon would be playing golf in Florida by now...)

Finally, a quick look at the upcoming ALCS;

Thankfully, the MLB seems to have listened to my complains about the starting times of many games ;)

Game 1: Friday, Oct. 10, 8:37 p.m. (at Tampa Bay)
Game 2: Saturday, Oct. 11, 8:07 p.m. (at Tampa Bay)
Game 3: Monday, Oct. 13, 4:37 p.m. (at Boston)
Game 4: Tuesday, Oct. 14, 8:07 p.m. (at Boston)
Game 5*: Thursday, Oct. 16, 8:07 p.m. (at Boston)
Game 6*: Saturday, Oct. 18, 4:37 p.m. if NLCS is still being played; 8:07 p.m. if not (at Tampa Bay)
Game 7*: Sunday, Oct. 19, 8:07 p.m. (at Tampa Bay)

It seems as we might be able to get 2 reasonable start times and two weekend evening starts, which obviously helps the sleep deprived of us, in and outside the US.

As for roster, the biggest debate is which rotation to go with. The Red Sox are announcing their starting pitcher for Friday's game 1 sometime today, and Francona have a few conundrums to deal with.

Does he start Lester on 4 days rest on the road, or does he save him for game 3 at Fenway where Lester has been almost unbeatable this season? A Game 3 start would mean Lester would start a possible game 7, alternatively Game 1 of the World Series if the Red Sox make it that far.

If not Lester, who to start? Beckett could go on his normal 5 days rest, but Sunday proved that this is not the same Beckett as last year - or perhaps this Sunday's game was a blip? His start against the Rangers at the end of September was magnificent. Still, I think there are some remaining physical issues going on.

Or Francona could go with the long term record and start Wake? The main question is which Wake would show up - the one who went9-1 at Tropicana Field up to September 2007 or the one who went 0-2 in three starts there this year.

Finally, there's Dice-K, who somehow laboured himself to a somewhat deceiving 18-3 record this year, but finally showed that he can pitch with runners on, something he struggled with in 2007.

I suspect the rotation will be:

Game 1) Dice-K
Game 2) Beckett
Game 3) Lester

after that it's a crap shoot!

Now to wait another two days....

Geography

2008-10-06T08:30:00.000+01:00

As I have no real affiliation to any particular region in the US, but instead picked my NFL team based on the first game I ever saw and my MLB team on a multitude of factors, including feelings for that particular city and events from moments there, I sometimes end up in strange emotional places.

Also, subsequent directly and indirectly related events and other people's affection for certain teams have elevated a general feeling of indifference to a true sense of dislike of the coach and certain supporters.

With this in mind, I still found it a bit odd that I found myself on Sunday night rooting fiercely first for my beloved San Francisco 49ers against the increasingly loathsome Patriots, and a few moments later passionately for my Red Sox against the Los Angeles/Anaheim Angels of California/Anaheim/Pasadena/Los Angeles. Now, I am the first one to admit that Tom Brady reminds me in many many ways of my first football idol; Joe Montana. Brady's poise in the pocket, with small adjustments to get away from pass rushers before launching another beautiful pass and his cool head in the face of extreme pressure is very reminiscent of the Bay Area favourite. Still, whilst Belichick has proven that he is a superb coach, he's also proven that he has can bend and break rules without compunction, both in his professional life and his personal life, thus at least for me not a deserving target of my respect. Also, my feelings towards the Patriots are compounded by the presence of Randy Moss and some fans.

Simply put - I don't like the Patriots.

Of course this causes raised eyebrows considering my immense devition to the Red Sox, as "normal" people follow the teams from the same city. If you're a Boston devotee, then it should be the Celtics, the Red Sox, the Patriots and if you're a glutton for punishment - the Bruins.

However, when I decided to follow the MLB, I could not bring myself to follow a team with Barry Bonds, and the A's are almost as close to Candlestick as the Mariners, so that was not really an option.

So here I am, cursing the Patriots one second and rooting for the Red Sox the next. I suspect something only a non-US person can relate to.

And those years when I was knee deep into Fantasy Football it got even worse...I once found myself wanting the Cowboys to score because I had Cowboy WR on my FFL team.

That's probably a step too far.

Wow...

2008-10-04T02:56:00.002+01:00

Jason Bay is doing his best to make us forget about the Manny era...

4 runs against the Halos, all with 2 out, in the top of the first. And pushing Santana's pitchcount close to 30 after 1.

As I write this, Dice-K sat down the first two Halos...this could be a hole the LA gang might not crawl out of.

And yes, this one I am watching live...wearing my 38 jersey :)

Another 100 years?

2008-10-03T08:31:00.000+01:00

The Cubs really have run out of excuses this time.

Despite a very good performance from Carlos Zambrano (if you exclude the pitch to Martin in the third and Manny's homer), this time there was no Goat Curse, not Bartman to blame it on. In a game where all four infielders committed errors, including a howler by second baseman Mark DeRosa that essentially blew the game for the Cubbies, they are now in a hole that I doubt they'll be able to get out of. With the Dodgers flying, and with one loss in the next 3 games knocking the North Siders out, I suspect that Going Back to Cali will be more enjoyable for the LA natives than the Cubs.

Interestingly, this is a series that the "experts" all got wrong. Of ESPN's ten strong jury, only Jim Caple went with the Dodgers.

Admittedly, this is a little bit late, but here are my predictions:

ALDS: Red Sox over Angels (3-1) and Rays over White Sox (3-1)
NLDS: Dodgers over Cubs (3-1) and Phillies over Brewers (3-0)

CS: Red Sox over Rays (4-2) and Dodgers over Phillies (4-3)

WS: Red Sox over Dodgers (4-1)

As for the Red Sox, I think that unless Dice-K is actually willing to challenge batters on the inside half of the plate and keep his off-speed pitches down (he leaves a lot of them way to up in the zone), the Angels have enough power to take advantage of him. Luckily we should have Beckett on Sunday and Lester either in game 4 on Monday or certainly if needed in game 5 on Wednesday.

The Puppet Master

2008-10-03T07:17:00.001+01:00

Following on to Bill Simmons brief post about Scott Boras' puppet master role that I commented on in an earlier post, Bill has now followed up with a very intruiging post on ESPN's Outside The Lines.

He is to some extents flabbergasted about the sudden change in attitude towards Manny and his antics, considering that his "Manny Being Manny" act hardly was news. Even in his Cleveland days did he act like he didn't really care about anything.

Wasn't it hypocritical for any Boston fan to turn on Manny after we willingly signed up for the Manny Experience in December 2000 ... for better or worse, like marriage? We knew we were getting a happy-go-lucky, mercurial slugger with Hall of Fame numbers whom everyone described as "odd but lovable."

He also looks at the role played by the sometimes incredibly virtiolic Boston press (That means among others, you CHB), and the control of the media the Henry ownership has established since taking over the club:

Although it's usually impossible to jettison a popular star without a backlash from fans, the Red Sox wield unprecedented sway over nearly every relevant media outlet that covers them. One of the team's minority partners, the New York Times Company, happens to own Boston's signature newspaper (The Globe). The team owns a cable channel (NESN) that shows every Sox game, pregame show and postgame show. The Sox signed cushy deals with Boston's signature sports radio station (WEEI) and sister station (WRKO), and since those rights always can be shopped to a competitor down the road, you'll see CC Sabathia hit an inside-the-park home run before a Red Sox owner gets ripped to shreds on WEEI. They even have good relationships with every relevant national writer, including Peter Gammons, the face of baseball for ESPN, a beloved figure in New England and a longtime friend of general manager Theo Epstein.

This is not a mean feat considering the animosity between the Yawkey trust and the Boston press prior to Henry's purchase of the Red Sox, as Seth Mnookin chronicled in his book Feeding the Monster that I wrote about earlier this year.

Simmons highlights one of the biggest issues in Manny's departure from Boston, something very rarely mentioned in the press. As the original 8 year contract with two option years held by Boston at $20m per year was negotiated by Ramirez' previous agent, Boras would not get a cent of commision if the Red Sox picked up the options, as was generally expected of them.

As Manny Ramirez's memorable Red Sox career began to crumble for good, two people were to blame (Manny and Boras), and yet we only heard about one of them. Had the identity of the second villain been revealed, maybe Boston fans wouldn't have been so eager to downgrade from a first-ballot Hall of Famer to Jason Bay.

I myself, like many others, was getting more and more tired of Manny's antics this year, especially his treatment of Red Sox traveling secretary Jack McCormick. However, Simmons points out that apart from the McCormick event and the fracas with Youkilis in the dugout, what was Manny doing differently than before?

But what was Manny doing exactly? How was Manny's latest "funk" much different than Carlos Delgado seemingly mailing it in until Willie Randolph was fired, then miraculously regaining the ability to smile and hit home runs for Jerry Manuel?

He also points out the obvious - if Manny had not been traded, would Boras have allowed Manny to tank the last 2 months of essentially a contract year?

Once the trade was complete, the hatchets were brought out in full by the Boston press, with only Jerry Remy being the single voice of restraint.

Only NESN's Remy handled the situation diplomatically, defending Manny's tenure in Boston while expressing the appropriate amount of outrage at his recent behavior. Remy said he believed the Manny soap opera had affected the clubhouse and needed to be resolved. You know, because these guys were tired of being distracted from more important things, like playing poker, texting their friends or having 15-minute conversations centered around topics like "Does my bat feel heavy?" or "If it burns when I pee, that's bad, right?"²³ But like me, Remy had developed genuine affection for Manny and seemed perplexed by those final few weeks. He kept coming back to the one question that nobody else seemed to be asking.
"Why?"

And that, folks, is the million dollar question. Do we actually think that Manny masterminded a plot to get him out of Boston, or did the greediest and most ruthless agent of all time have more than a finger in the pie?

I know who I think is responsible, but of course the Devil claims complete innocence.

Imagine a Red Sox - Dodgers World Series. How sad would it be to hear the Fenway crowd boo a player that contributed so immensely to the Red Sox two championships?

I for one hope that the Dodgers get knocked out, but with a 2-0 lead going back to LA, that looks difficult, and I'm not sure if the Phillies have enough to stop the Dodgers in a possible NLCS.

Simmons final point is the most difficult to deal with. What if he ends up with the Yankees and we get to face him 19 times per year. Here's to Frank McCourt doing the only sensible thing and giving Manny a 4 year deal - hopefully not for more than $20 per year. If Manny thought playing in Boston came with a media pressure he didn't like, imagine what it would be like in NYC. Or perhaps he can just ask A-Rod.

Image from ESPN.com

Speed kills

2008-10-02T08:24:00.001+01:00

It is well known that excessive speed kills. It kills in people in traffic, and last night it killed the Halos too.

Jacoby "Roadrunner" Ellsbury got on base 5 times, stole 2 bases and clearly rattled Lackey everytime he got on. Not to forget his incredible speed to catch up to Teixera's bloop hit into shallow CF. Think JD would have caught up to that one if the Sox had agreed to that 4 year deal?

I think not.

Also, in this case a lack of speed from a previous speed demon killed a Halos rally when Youk's heads up play got Vlad out trying to go 1st to 3rd - Halos normal mantra.

So now the Red Sox are 10-0 against in the post season against Scioscia's men, and 1-0 in 2008 with Dice-K and Beckett to follow. If only TBS would even remotely consider the timeslot of these games...

Still, in the interest of full disclosure - I did not watch the game live. I caught the replay this morning, going out of my way not to find out the score.

At least game two is on Friday...

Actober time again

2008-10-01T07:17:00.000+01:00

NFL is going country to country, playing games in Japan, Mexico, Canada and the UK, pulling out all the stops to make pigskin a truly international sport. Or at least have a truly international following. Sundays during the NFL season are quite easily enjoyed by fans in Europe with games starting at 6pm, 9pm, and if you have the energy, midnight.

In the mean time, the MLB is scheduling the post season games for the Halos-Sawx series to when?.....that's right, a lovely 3am GMT first pitch on a Wednesday. Even the people on the US East Coast must be going WTF??? Even if it's the best pitcher matchup in post season history and the game is only 3 hours long (they increase the inbetween inning breaks during the post season) it will finish at 1am local time in Boston.

Way to go MLB...

In other news, despite going 0-3 in his final game of the season, Joe Mauer managed to finish on a .328 average to sneak the batting title from Dustin Pedroia who finished with a .326. Still, I'm sure D-Ped is happier to be in the post season with the Sox sans batting title than Joe is, sitting in Minnesota watching the games on TV (if he can stay awake that is).

Also, with Beckett pushed to game 3 of the ALDS, The Kid Lester will take the mound for game 1. Unfortunately the Halos have very few lefty batters, but I still am confident in Lester and his 2.95 post all-star game ERA to give the west coasters a few things to think about when they take the batters box. And not to forget the shellacking the Red Sox gave Lackey in the last post-season game a year ago.

Sadly, the Red Sox are not the team they were a year ago. With lingering injury worries for Lowell and Drew, and a substantially more shaky bullpen, this will not be an easy series.

I just hope I'm able to see any of it...

MVP race

2008-09-26T13:59:00.003+01:00

Remarkably, the second post of the day, albeit a short one.

Jerry Crasnick goes through the numbers and cases for the main 5 AL MVP candidates, and of course two of them are from the Red Sox; Youkilis and Pedroia.

Bitter grapes you say? I don't care, I still find it ironic that the Red Sox best shot at an AL MVP for several years is after Manny's departure...

However, I still find it wrong that MVP votes are affected by whether the team or not makes the playoffs - it shouldn't, and without Cliff Lee the Indians would have struggled to beat AAA teams.

Class act..and not

2008-09-26T07:08:00.002+01:00

So, the Rays faltered, yet again, ever-so close to their ultimate dream and the first ever AL East title. With three games left, the Red Sox need to sweep the Yankees while the Tigers do the same to the Rays. Stranger things have happened (see Nationals vs Mets, Sept 2007), but I doubt it. Especially as Tito is setting up the team for the playoffs, holding Lester to an 85 pitch count last night.

I told him that was the first time I've ever rooted against him. The only way you're going to see something like that, it would've had to have been a group effort.

When Lester had gone through 5 innings without allowing a single hit, the Red Sox found themselves in the strange situation of wanting a hit for the Indians to break it up, so that Lester could have a short and nice 86 pitch outing instead of another essentially meaningless 130+ pitch bid for his second no-hitter of the season. (The first one was magic - trust me, I was there!). His forced departure after 6 innings also allowed Sox fans the comfort of actually watching three innings of 1-2-3 pitching by Masterson, Okajima and Pap. I think Masterson will turn out to be the ace in the hole for an intermittently shaky 2008 bullpen in the playoffs.

And although I didn't make it to the final in my fantasy team, I had the pleasure to ride Lester and Dice-K's arms all season...

On another note, and the reason for today's post title, away from the Yankees, their unceremoniously ejected former leader Joe Torre is enjoying another trip to the playoffs - and despite his statements to the contrary, I suspect it deep down inside Torre might be even moreso as his former team is looking forward to golf rounds in early October for the first time since 1993.

Although there are members of the Yankees that I do not care for, I've always respected some of them; Torre and Jeter comes to mind. In Stephen A. Smith's column on ESPN, Torre takes the high road, which is understandable considering his close ties to several of the Yankees players and current manager.

Still, whilst I rate Torre very highly - his post game press outings were always a smidgen more open and honest than you normally hear, although one of Torre's strengths was handling the rabid NYC media very well - as a Red Sox fan enduring Ramirez complete abandon of his duties and responsibilities until he got what he wanted (unbelievable that you can throw your toys out of the pram to such a degree when you're loved by the fans and paid $20m per year) it's a bit annoying that the ultimate reason the Dodgers made the playoffs was because of the arrival of a certain Manuel Aristide Ramirez.

Whilst I loved watching one of the best hitters of all time torment Red Sox opposing pitchers, his "Manny being Manny" act was tiresome, but somewhat manageable.

However, as Bill Simmons points out in his current ESPN The Mag column, we shouldn't perhaps focus the blame for Manny's transition from annoying yet affable to downright tanking and manipulative on Manny himself. Let's be honest, if he didn't have the best eye of the strike zone and pitches since the nineteenhundreds, his most common frase would most likely be "Do you want to supersize that?". Sharpest tool in the box he is not.

We must never forget that Scott Boras is the greediest, most manipulative agent in sports history.

How true that is. And to think I was considering a career in the sports agency business once upon a time....I only hope that GM's realise both sides to the Manny coin and do not fall for the sudden "resurgence" and give him the $25m per year, 4 year contract he wants. As soon as Manny gets it, he'll be back to "Manny being Manny".

Finally, it's worrying to see that more and more young Red Sox players are tempted by the dark side of the force...

Image from Soxnation.net.

Pesky Shirt

2008-09-25T08:15:00.005+01:00

Despite the Sox win last night, the Rays improbable comeback from an 0-6 hole against the O's means that the Rays magic number for the Division title is now 1.

With 4 games to play.

I think it's safe to say that Tito will now turn his attention to the upcoming Halos of Southern California series starting either Wednesday or Thursday next week. The start date is up to the Halos - as the holders of the best record in the AL, they get to choose if they want to play a 7 or 8 day ALDS. The questions surrounding the playoff roster are many and could heavily affect the Sox chances. With two semi-healthy position players in Lowell and Drew, can Tito risk a recurrance of their injuries? John Tomase goes through many of these issues in today's Boston Herald.

Although I'm normally somewhat hesitant of retiring numbers in sport - for me it's the ultimate honour and possibly even carries more weight than the HOF - for Johnny Pesky I am willing to make an exception. In my limited lifespan as a Red Sox fan, I have never encountered a player that was so loyal to the team and followed them with a fervour so, so long after his playing days were over. It warms my heart to see that no.6 will be retired on Friday.

Finally, Steve Buckley goes through D-Ped's sensational season for the Sox. Honestly, I think he should be a very, very serious candidate for AL MVP. I'll go through the contenders later to see how he measures up stat by stat.

Insomnia time again...

2008-09-24T13:24:00.006+01:00

After a lot of near misses in the last week or so, the Red Sox finally clinched a play off spot last night after taking 22 game winner and possible AL Cy Young winner Cliff Lee of the Indians to the cleaners in an eventful 5th inning.

However, despite the Yankees missing the playoffs for the first time since 1993 (Buster Olney at ESPN has an interesting look at the pillaging the Yankees did to its own farm system over the last money-laden, drug-binging years), the Red Sox still look unlikely to clinch the AL East like it did in 2007. Those Icarus like Rays have a 3 game lead over the Sox in the division, and despite ending the regular season on the road, one final game against the O's followed by 4 games at Tiger Stadium makes it unlikely they'll lose the grip on the division.

The Red Sox finish with two more games at home to the Indians before a three game series at Fenway against a demoralised Yankees. Despite the Yanks being out of it, there are several factors coming into play.

Will Tito go all out for the title in an attempt to avoid an away ALDS series against the Angels in Anahem and try to get a home series against the ChiSox/Twins, or will he instead rest players and adjust the rotation for the playoffs. I suspect everything hangs on tonight's games.

(Check out ESPN's Hunt for October for all the possibilities)

As usual, the NL is a mess, with teams falling over each other in an attempt to fall out of the playoffs....

As DC said, there's only one Soxtober..

Love/hate relationship

2008-09-16T08:05:00.017+01:00

Being a relative newcomer to baseball (7 years) and as a Red Sox fan (almost 6 years), plus not being a Boston native, I have yet to develop the “standard” love/hate relationship to the Red Sox that many long time fans seem to have. At least those who became fans prior to 2004.

When I started following the Sox in 2002/2003, the general atmosphere was one of extreme loyalty, but also combined with the somewhat fatalistic view honed by decades of nearly-rans.

Sure, the Sox are great in June-July, but come September they’ll slump.

As I was not following baseball during most of the horrible 86 years between 1918 and 2004, (apart from witnessing my own obvious horror show hosted by Aaron Boone at 5am one October morning in 2003) I have had to understand history by reading many a book on baseball and the Red Sox. It is painfully obvious that being a Red Sox fan prior to 2004 was like being a sucker for punishment. Every opening day was filled with new belief, but also a little bit of trepidation of the inevitable letdown that will come at some point. You would love the Sox, but they would also break your heart every year.

Personally, the City of Boston nowadays holds a similar emotion in my psyche. Boston is without a doubt one of my favourite cities in the world. One snowy February night 5 ½ years ago I proposed to my then girlfriend there, and for years that amplified my attraction and love for Boston. Finding out years later that some horrible things affecting me personally had happened in the very same city shattered my love for Boston. I struggled very much just watching my beloved Sox on television, knowing what Boston now represented for me, looking in the crowd on the TV feed for people I loathed, and loathing even more that people I hated with a passion were also supposedly Red Sox fans.

How could I reconcile these conflicting feelings in my head? How could I love the Sox while having such a love/hate relationship with the concept of Boston itself. Only then did I realise a little what the long time Sox fans had been going through. Falling in love with the Sox, only to have your heart shattered. I truly felt like a “proper” Red Sox fan….

Today the atmosphere is very different. I returned to Boston, found love again, not only for the city, but also for people there. Like my love returned and healed my heart, Bostonians now encounter different emotions for the Sox than before.

8 games behind the AL East top? Doesn’t matter, we can catch them!

As strange as it might seem, there are young Red Sox fans who think that the team always wins in the end. There are new “fans” that came to the Nation after the 2004 glorious (yet for me personally with hindsight very difficult) win, certain people without any baseball interest paying fortunes for World Series tickets so that they can say “I was there”. Whilst I’m of course happy that people flock to the gorgeous temple that is Fenway, like with any other successful team there will be bandwagon jumpers (see: Manchester United). Although I do not feel that the pink B caps are an abomination like Kristen does in her great Basegirl blog, (in fact I got my girlfriend a pink cap – sorry…), I feel more annoyance towards the bandwagon fans who think the Sox will do no wrong.

Similar to my personal life where I am now a little bit guarded, I follow the Red Sox with a smidgen of concern, knowing how fragile a team ultimately is. A season ending injury (god forbid) to Lester or Beckett would have serious effects on any post season chances.

However, I still find myself opening up and allowing old battle scars to fade, knowing that life will go on even if the Sox lose, but life will be just that little bit better if they do win.

Upside down world...

2008-07-05T20:39:00.004+01:00

What has happened?

Was that one of the four horsemen I saw?

Since when do the Red Sox utter a sigh of relief that they're leaving the Trop and heading to the Stadium?

Sure, the Rays are for real, no doubt. They have, after 12 or so consecutive top 3 draft picks managed to field a very talented and young team (and let's not forget the Kazmir for Zambrano trade - yet another brilliant move by the Mets). Longoria leads a superb defense and they are certainly for real. However, the difference maker this year is that several players are having career years, including the old sock Hinske, who's playing out of his skin.

We'll see if the Rays are still in it when injuries hit in August/early September, as they inevitably will.

Still, not complaining that we're 6 games ahead of 4th (!) place Yankees.

Book report

2008-06-30T08:18:00.002+01:00

‘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^th2004: 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...

2008-06-01T23:31:00.007+01:00

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.

Mecca

2008-05-19T20:30:00.003+01:00

If I could, I probably would never leave the area around Yawkey way...

Even with our game rained out on Friday night, we had a few great hours at the Cask and Flagon, followed by a tour of the Yawkey Way store, and got to go back for the extra scheduled game against the Brewers on Saturday night....3 rows behind the home plate!

Tonight, the Royals are in town, and with Ortiz hitting form, hopefully we'll see him climb closer to the .300 mark.

I love this game.

Like pigs, time flies

2008-05-15T11:40:00.002+01:00

The Rays are in first place, London endured a week of 80s temprature in May and I'm finally, 2 years delayed, off to Cape Cod. The world is truly off it's axis :)

Despite best intentions, I seem unable to maintain the weekly posting, although I realise I'm mainly orating to a very select few. Still, the spring has been exciting;

Liverpool put up a good fight, but Chelsea ultimately was the better team in the Champions League Semi Final. Whether they can beat ManU on Wednesday remains to be seen. I for one think ManU will come out on top.
The Red Sox looks like they have an abundance of young talent, although Schill's injury is something I'm increasingly worried about.
Richmond has three teams which all could be contenders for playoff spots this year.

Bring on the sun...

Tide is turning

2008-04-19T11:30:00.004+01:00

And with an almost impeccable timing we welcome back the pitchers' nightmare that is Big Papi. After my post, and RSN wide worrying about long term injury problems for our DH, Big Papi returned from New York and quickly proved the "doubters" (I use this phrase very lightly, in the long run nobody doubts BP) wrong.

With karma-like help to bring him closer to the Mendoza line of course he was aided by the Rangers SP Luis Mendoza. After a very solid start from Mendoza, allowing no baserunners in the first 2 innings, including two K's and getting BP out on a weak grounder in a 1-3 play, Mendoza took the mound and promptly got two outs, Varitek on a foul out and Casey on a line out to shortstop.

Then it all unraveled. First rookie 3B/SS Jed Lowrie doubled to left, then he walked Ellsbury and Pedroia on 9 pitches. After a visit from the pitching coach, (and you know the Rangers bench, slump or no slump were worried at this point) Ortiz lumbers up to plate, takes his normal effortless (for him, not for us mortals) swing straight through a 93mph fastball right over the plate and puts it opposite field over the Green Monster. Grand slam, thank you...ehh...Mendoza.

Whaddaya mean "grown up"?

2008-04-18T19:20:00.004+01:00

Last night also saw me venture to the famous Astoria club in London, for what might have been one of the last gigs there before it being torn down.

Tom Delonge's acrimonious split from his other Blink-182 band members saw him venture into a new style of music with his new band Angels & Airwaves. Whilst his music might have changed, it was good to see that the infamous juvenile banter from his Blink-182 days have not changed a bit. Self proclaimed maturity was somewhat counter acted by admittedly quite amusing talks about various body parts.

Despite horrible soundmixing in the beginning, the concert was enjoyable, with the highlights for me being Tom, alone with a guitar, playing the old 182 song "Reckless Abandon", and one of their encore songs - the opening song of their first album, Valkyrie Missile.

Good fun was had.

Now to look forward to gigs with Clapton, Mayer, the Foos and Linkin Park/Jay-Z. And that's just barely into June!

A tale of two...fortunes?

2008-04-18T18:50:00.007+01:00

The two pillars of the Red Sox lineup are enjoying success on a vastly different scale.

Manny, Oh Manny, Ramirez, in a contract year with the Red Sox having a $20m option for 09 and 10 is batting like a man on a...well, contract year. After 17 games, he's batting .343 with 5 homers and 18 RBI, including going .444 and hitting 4 homers in the last 7 games.

In the mean time, the surgically repaired David Ortiz now has the infamous negative triple crown position. He's last in the league (among players who've had the required number of at-bats) in average (.111), slugging (.179) and OPS (.401). Yes, last time he travelled to Japan he also had a slow start, but I'm wondering if everything is healthy with Big Papi.

Joshua Patrick however showed last night why he is possibly one of the two best pitchers in the league (albeit with a slightly inflated 5.12 ERA). Going 8 innings on a very controlled 105 pitches, he allowed 3 runs on 6 hits and only one walk against probably the second or third best (on paper) lineup in the league. His three runs came in the 5th inning when he allowed back to back hits to Jeter and Abreu, when the Red Sox where up 7-0. He followed the 5th by not allowing another Yankee baserunner in 3 innings, so clearly he has learned to control his previsiously somewhat troubesome composure. With Beckett in form after the spring training back problems, and Dice-K pitching lights out, the Red Sox 1-2 punch is one of the most fearsome lineups in the majors.

Today the Sox host the Rangers at Fenway with Dice-K taking the mound.

To steal a phrase from the NBA - I Love This Game.Which is more than I can say about my interest in the upcoming NBA playoffs. I don't know why, but it just doesn't appeal to me anymore...

Also, as if Fenway, The Girl and the Cape wasn't enough to have me chomping at the bits for my upcoming Boston trip, the official announcement of the impending summer was made on Kristen's excellent blog:

And finally, the third awesome thing that happened yesterday is that bars in Boston now have Sam's Summer on tap. Which means summer is officially coming. It can't get here fast enough.

Oh yes, can't wait.

Once more into the fray

2008-04-16T22:19:00.008+01:00

Finally, tickets booked for flight to Boston for the first visit to Fenway of 2008 (or, as it shall be named, the back-to-back year). After the barren years of '05 and '06, I finished '07 with a fantastic 2 game visit for the final regular games at Fenway.

Travelling around the NE area for 9 days should allow me to take in at least two games at Fenway during the intraleague series against the Brewers and the following one against the Royals. Sadly, as intraleague game is held at the AL stadium, the DH rule will still be in effect. Although of course if it wasn't, one of Youk, Big Papi or Lowell would sit, and as I love all three, I guess I'll manage :)

On the agenda is also a goal I've had for a long time, a trip to a minor league game. Ever since I saw Bull Durham, the grind and authenticity of minor league baseball has been very close to my heart.

The Pawtucket Red Sox host the Twins AAA affiliate Rochester Red Wings. Hopefully I'll get a real life glimpse of some of the future Red Sox major leaguers. Recently called up SS of the future Jed Lowrie should be down in Pawtucket by then, so it will be a treat to see him tear up minor league pitching.

Now, what to do for the next month? Oh yes, I think there's a Red Sox @ Yankees game on tonight. Here's to Lester finding his locations better than last time. And I don't only say that because he's on my fantasy team!

With a spring in the step

2008-04-06T18:43:00.009+01:00

So, after a very, from a Red Sox perspective, uneventful Hot Stove league, the regular season is upon us. With the only real issues during Spring Training being the battle for CF between Coco and Elsbury and the sad, but but as it seems inevitable end of Gehrig38's career, not only in a Red Sox shirt, but as a player too, we're finally at a stage where games start to matter.

However, as "spring" is here, the snow hits London...go figure. Yes, I also realise this post is already a week into the season, but seeing as the Fenway home opener is tomorrow, after the Red Sox travelled about 10 time zones and four venues before returning home after a 20+ day roadtrip, it is fitting to look at the state of the nation, n'est-ce pas?

If we start with Schill, it is a sad end to a HOF career. With no.38 only having a one-year deal with the Sox, and at 42 years of age, it is not in the clubs interest to look at anything past 2008. Schilling's personal physician, the same doctor who performed shoulder surgery on Schill in the 80s, Dr. Craig Morgan, does not mince his words.

If Schilling has the surgery, there’s a “75- to 80-percent chance,” said Morgan. “And the percentage of him being able to pitch effectively with conservative treatment is probably between zero and five percent.”

Obviously, this is two different opinions coming from two very different sides. Red Sox is out $8m for a Schilling who they say would not be able to pitch in 2008 if he had surgery. Dr.Morgan has nothing invested in Schilling pitching this year, although one would assume it is his goal that Schilling pitches again.

The Red Sox said:

“Curt Schilling was examined by Red Sox doctors in January after he reported feeling right shoulder discomfort. Curt has started a program of rest, rehabilitation and shoulder strengthening in an attempt to return to pitching.”

Morgan replied with:

“In all honesty and respect for the Red Sox, they are relying on medical advice from people within their organization, and in doing so they truly believe that that’s the best thing for them and Curt,” said Morgan. “I’m not faulting them on that, and I want to make that clear. I just have to disagree with that — strongly.”

“I know his shoulder better than anybody who breathes on this planet,” said Morgan. “I’ve known it for thirteen years. The other two operations that I did are carbon copies of the controversy that is going on with this one. I was told by the organization he was with for those two other operations that my approach was way out on the fringe, wouldn’t work and had no shot at success. How did I do?”

One has to give Morgan a point here. Whilst I think Schilling sadly will not pitch again, I truly hope that Morgan for once is wrong. Let's hope the Red Sox are not blinded by the contract, but actually look past the next few months here.

On another note, what magic wand does the Blue Jays hold over the Red Sox. No team has beaten the Red Sox more times over the last three years than the Blue Jays, and it continued this weekend. Despite a relatively solid effort by Beckett (3 of his 5 earned runs came on Frank Thomas grand slam hit off Manny Delcarmen's poorly located fastball, but the base runners were inherited, thus they go against Beckett), the Blue Jays swept the BoSox on the horror that is the artificial turf in Rogers Stadium. How Scott Rolen, with his rickety body volutarily went there I don't know. I'm sure Torii Hunter is in heaven on the green grass of Angel's field, regardless of how they're doing or how crowded the outfield is.

Finally, despite having potentially the best lineup since the Yankees Murderers Row, the Tigers are experiencing that pitching and defence are still key to the game. The loss of Zumaya and Rodney is creating a big problem for Leyland, and as all MLB personnel guys (including the Red Sox in 2003) knows, one of the most diffcult holes to fill early in the season is relief pitching. (Remember the Byun Yung-Kim nightmare?)

All we need now is an actual spring here too...playing bball in cold weather is something we have to live with, but in snow - even I draw the line there...

Another madness?

2008-03-13T18:04:00.005Z

With interest piqued by a lot of friends suddenly deciding to enter various mad greek runs, I too seem to have caught the bug. Boosted by technology, and a pretty competetive nature, I'm now running distances I haven't done for more than a decade.

It's not marathon level, but 10k races or even half marathons might not be out of the question.

I love gadgets though, and below is the results from the distance add-on I've bought for my iPod - can't beat technology....well, unless you're Sarah Connor....

On that note, off to break a "recent history" personal best in regards to time and distance - 7km in less than 42 mins.

Update: 7.01km in 38m39s. Not marathon distance nor the speed I want just yet, but beat both of my targets :)

Grape Hardball League?

2008-03-13T00:29:00.004Z

One of the more amusing side stories to spring training has been the Devil Rays...eh, sorry, the "Rays" v the Yankees mud-slinging about how to play in spring training.

It all began when the Rays' Elliot Johnson bowled over Yankee catcher Francisco Cervelli last Saturday on a play at the plate where Cervelli broke his wrist. New Yankee manager Joe Girardi, himself a former major league catcher, thought that Johnson's play had been a bit over the top for spring training, but former Yankee coach and now Ray "consultant" Don Zimmer refuted Girardi's views and said the game is supposed to be played hard but fair.

Forward to the return game, played on Tuesday night, and what happens? First a buzzing of Rays 3B prospect Evan Longoria (no more Visteria Lane jokes, please!), followed by Yankees hurler Heath Phillips immediate ejection. Next inning, just a "normal" hard play into second. Shelley Duncan, who was out by about a cup of coffee and a bathroom break, even tried to pretend it was normal. One Gomes charge from CF later, and both teams have lost 2 more players and a coach each. Spring comedy at its best.

Still, the Rays and the Yanks can pummel each other as much as they want. I'll bring the popcorn, the lounge chair and the soda. Have at it boys!

(Now I think there are some Yankees who are beginning to understand Pedro's olé move - Zimmer is an old fart:)

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains.

Ode to spring...but not to "Mr. Red Sox"

2008-03-04T22:57:00.010Z

Sitting here in what only last week was a promising spring, but today saw frost on the ground, I develop yet another layer of envy towards the guys getting paid to play ball in Florida and Arizona this time of year.

Sure, it is not a walk in the park for those on the cusp of the major league squad, or even less so for the journeyman trying for the umpteenth time to break the trend, and really make this year the spring when everything goes his way. When the hard run to first results in a basehit instead of a ground out. When those two extra hits per week mean a +.300 avg and a call-up, instead of that .250 average, and yet another April on endless bus journeys in the minors, making in a year what some of the major leaguers make in an at bat.

Pondering things like that, nothing pisses me off more than reading about someone who used to be one of my favourite players in baseball - Nomar Garciaparra. The guy with a chip on his shoulder the size of Texas. Ok, I am somewhat weary about Jeff Pearlman, as some comments on his story point out, but I also remember the extremely unfriendly Nomar of 2003 and 2004, the man who thought he was entitled to everything - someone who thought the fans were a nuisance, that they should be awed by him. I don't agree with the theory that fans can heckle players to whatever degree they feel like (see Beckham, David - effogies post World Cup 1998), but ultimately it is impossible to get away from one point. Without fans, Mr. Garciaparra would most likely not have made it through college (he was on an Athl. Scolarship). He has about $50m reasons to be grateful for his life, but now at the tailend of his career he almost hisses at the very fans that put him in a situation of being financially independent for his, his kids and his grandkids lives.

Everyone is entitled to a bad day or two at the office, and I hope that this was one of yours Nomars. Please prove me wrong and show how grateful you are for being able to have had a career that most people would die for.

Still, spring is soon here, I can watch Grapefruit League games on my plasma, and look forward to go out and throw in freezing cold on the weekend. I love this game.

Need some amusement...

2008-02-25T23:09:00.001Z

As there is no sport on right now, apart from Premier League football, one needs to find amusement elsewhere.

One of my favourite sports writers, Bill Simmons, used to be one of the head writers on the Jimmy Kimmel show. This is from that show:

Oh dear....

2008-02-23T18:45:00.002Z

Here we go again....

Full MLB.tv package, now with 1.2Mb premium option.

Sleep will be hard to come by this year too....

Better to say too much....

2008-02-14T23:16:00.001Z

Best song, and lyrics, right now....and I've got tickets to see him in June :)

Roger, Roger

2008-01-30T15:18:00.007Z

10-4

Over and out.

Roger.

Like a thief caught red-handed, like an unfaithful spouse with proof of their infidelity shoved in their face, Roger Clemens is still denying that he ever took steroids.

buh-bye Roger. No way you're getting into the Hall in 2012.

-------

Follow up June 2008: The irony of course is that Clemens was an unfaithful spouse too.

Roger Clemens. Great fastball. Substandard human being.

Limbo

2008-01-28T23:31:00.000Z

Ah, January.

Baseball is about as quiet as it can get, but possibly the calm before the storm. European football is mired in the post christmas cup/league fixture congestion. NFL is hyping the Super Bowl until the end of time ("Would you believe that Eli's season would still be going on when Peyton was playing golf, etc..."). Despite how much I'd rather it wouldn't happen, the Pats will win on Sunday and become the first 19-0 team in history. :(

As for the Boston team I actually like, the Santana trade is still going through the many permutations possible, but it seems as the Twins might have overestimated the market.

With the Yankees and Red Sox unwilling to hand over the future of the respective teams in Phil Hughes for the Yanks and Lester and Ellsbury of the Red Sox (in the Red Sox case one, but not both as the Twins wanted), the Twins seem to have painted themselves in a corner.

The Mets, with a lot less talent in the minors than the AL teams, clearly realises that they are the only ones interested in the Santana dance, while the Red Sox and the Yankees seem happy as long as the other team fail to land the mercurial lefty. There's an interesting thread on Santana on the Yanksfan vs. Sox Fan site

Also, for the Red Sox, there are some debate as to the possible efficiency of Santana at Fenway. Lefthanded flyball pitchers have rarely had success at Fenway, Santana included, although he's only played in two games there:

IP 15.2
ERA: 6.82
BA: .328
SLG: .469
OPS: .856

(And to put that in perspective, his stats against Boston overall:)

IP: 55.2
ERA: 3.40
BA: .250
SLG: .373
OPS: .673

Now, does that mean I would rather not have Santana at Fenway? Of course I would, but Lester and Ellsbury would be too much for my stomach. Lester has the enormous feel-good story of the return from cancer, and Ellsbury was simply a machine in 2007 call-ups. A rookie batting .458 in the second spot in the World Series? Ice in veins, people!

I personally think that another year of Beckett (20), Dice-K (18), Schill (15), Wakefield (15) and Lester (12) is as solid a rotation as you’ll find in the Majors. (My early spring prediction of wins in brackets – I’m sure it will be revised). Of course age and injuries are a clear issue for Wakefield and Schilling, but we also have no-hitting sensation Buchholz waiting in the wings for a spot in the rotation, and Snyder will also be able to fill holes.

As for the fielding side, the only (and fundamentally obvious) change from last years starting line-up will be the Red Sox CF for the next 5-10 years in own product Ellsbury. The other seven, Varitek, Youkilis, Pedroia, Lugo, Lowell, Ramirez and Drew will be the same, and hopefully Lugo and Drew can build on a nice 2007 finish as opposed to the torrid time they had offensively for the major part of the season. Of course we might get a look in from top prospect SS Jed Lowrie, possible heir apparent to Lugo, but with a lot more oomph at the plate.(.298 BA/ .393 OBP / .503 SLG in 497 AB in AA and AAA in 2007).

Karma Bus? Sadly, no....

As for other sports news, there is no getting away from the Patriots quest for perfection. Sadly, it couldn’t have happened to a worse guy than Belichick. Whilst he’s clearly a superb coach, he’s clearly a below average human being. Whilst I agree with many of Gene’s conclusions, the one I cannot get past is how the Patriots is a .500 team at best without Brady. As much as I loathe the Pats (thanks to Belichick and another Boston based low-life), I love to watch Brady spread the ball around. He’s like my first football hero, Joe Montana, but with more zip on the arm. For once I think I’ll skip the Super Bowl, as I really have no interest in neither the Giants nor the Pats. Now, if Brett had made it I would have been on the edge of my seat all evening, but alas…

Rednecks for Reds?

Finally, although there apparently is now a truce in effect between Benitez and the American owners of Liverpool, the Reds are clearly performing below both expectations and capabilities. Yes, there is a clear need to keep players fresh for the run-in during April, but if you’re already out of contention then, what does it matter??

Play Reina, Finnan, Hyypia (Agger when healthy), Carra, Arbeloa/Riise, Benayoun, Gerrard, Mascherano, Kewell, Torres and Kuyt/Crouch and ride that puppy as long as it will hold.

Subs are just that – subs. Bring them on from the bench, but for god’s sake – we’re 12 points behind after 22 games!!!

At least I can enjoy our own Spring Training this week….got a new glove to break in!

Finally, best right now is John Mayer's new single "Say", from "The Bucket List" official soundtrack. Looking forward to hearing it live in June in Hyde Park!

Until next time,

Silence

2008-01-20T21:21:00.000Z

No Santana, no winning season for the 49ers, LFC seems to be sold for the second time in 2 years....

This is no fun time for a sports fan. Especially a sports fan who despite the enormous love for the Red Sox hate the Patriots with a passion, mainly for reasons that are better left unstated.

Ah well, at least the spring is hopefully on the way, and I can start using the lovely new driver I bought in the US :)

Incommunicado

2007-10-29T01:54:00.000Z

After my recent burst, I guess the month long sleep deprivation and the emotions of the World Series put a brief moratorium on my posting, with not a single post during the entire WS!?!

Like the feeling I had after the Beckett win in game 5 of the ALCS, I think I had a strange sense of calm. Sure, there were question remaining whether Dice-K could regain his form, whether Schilling would last past 60 pitches, whether a long season would snuff the magic from Pap's lazerlike pitches. Somehow I wasn't worried. (And yes, I do realise it's a hell of a lot easier to write this now, the night after raising the trophy)

(Photo from Reuters)

BTW, I wonder who makes a killing on those swim (champagne) goggles...

I "knew" Beckett would be very, very difficult to beat, so in a 7 game series that means at least 2 wins, if not three, and despite previous showings in the autumn, I still had faith in Dice-K - and did he come through? YES!

Now comes the long winter of discontent. I have a feeling that the Hot Stove will not be so hot for the Red Sox. They seem to have most pieces in place for a continual assault on the championship for years to come....

Now to watch the horrible mess that is the 49ers...

Sports Guy jr.

2007-10-22T02:00:00.000+01:00

As an homage to one of my favourite sports writers, Bill Simmons, I will too keep a running log of the game tonight. Of course the twist being I'm in the UK, so it will highlight the madness of watching baseball across the pond.

01.55: V-Tek hits a double off the Green Monster to lead off the 2nd...damn the double play in to end the 1st...

02.06: Dice-K is getting ahead of every pitcher, compared to his previous start, where he went deep in almost every at bat. Good sign. Could this be the pre All-Star Matzusaka returning?

Note; honestly, how old is Kenny Lofton?? He can't be far off Julio Franco. I just wish I'll be even remotely as active when I hit his age...

02.15: I think the ump hosed Dice-K on that breaking pitch to Sizemore. Inning should be over now....And it is! Waist high fastball to strike out Sizemore. Boston 2 Indians 0, bottom 3rd.

02.21 Indians bullpen warming up, as Westbrook allows the third leadoff batter to get on base, Youk being 2 for 2, opening the inning with a double. And yet again the Fox commentators come with the They're not booing, they're saying "Yoouk" . Honestly, who doesn't know that by now??

02.28 Lowell hits a sac fly to right to score Youk, Boston 3 Indians 0. You have to wonder how long Westbrook stays in the game. TV picture shows Beckett sitting with the normal relievers in the bullpen clearly feeling like the odd man out..

[Somewhere around 2.45 I was flagging badly, and "watched" the rest of the game in bed without my laptop. How the hell does Simmons do it? Oh yes, he's 5 hours behind in time....]

Further notes from the game;

Looking back, I was surprised how long Westbrook stayed in, but alas it wasn't enough anyway. Although it would take until the non-DH games of the World Series for Tito to take my advice with the batting order, Ellsbury clearly gave the top of the order an additional spark (not like it really needed it with D-Po and Youk), and boy does the kid have wheels.

Dustin Pedroia, who to use a term from american football, has a non-stop "engine" clearly is playing at a level he shouldn't, based on his experience. He's scary. All "our" kids, including Youk (who of course looks older than I do) are scary. Truly the next generation. A generation that could be perennial contenders.

A week late, but at least I finished the post...Pap takes over from a flawless Okie, gets the last 5 outs and suddenly the Red Sox are in the World Series.

It's strange, somehow I wasn't worried. Don't know why.

"I want Vaughn..."

2007-10-21T22:59:00.000+01:00

Is it just me, or is Schill turning into (despite the obvious reverse uniform issue) Eddie Harris?

Gone are the days of mid 90s fastballs, although I did see a few at 91 last night, so I guess he was up for it. Is he too resorting Crisco, Bardol and Vargisil, or is he, like Eddie, just "throwing any kind of junk he can think of at them?"

Of course that makes Pap Rick Vaughn, but with better control....

Bloody sock redux? (...and lineup musings)

2007-10-20T17:19:00.000+01:00

With Drew (shock horror) and Coco struggling, will we see Jacoby Ellsbury starting for the first time in the post season in the outfield for the Red Sox tonight? I for one would love to see if he can continue his regular season performance. Not only being an above average defender, he also batted .353 in 33 regular season games since his call up with 11 extrabase hits including 3 home runs in 41 hits. Clearly the boy also has wheels, as indicated by his 9 stolen bases without getting caught once.

The question would be, who would he replace? Drew or Coco? JD, for all of his maligned regular season is batting .259 in the postseason after going on a tear and batting .371 in his last ten regular season games, while poor Coco, who finished the season batting .219 in his last 10 regular season games (.268 reg season avg) and has gone downhill, batting 5-for-31 (.161) in the post season. Thus, as even Tito has acknowledged, Coco's struggling, so Jacoby might get his first start. (Also, he's never played RF in the Majors, although I must admit I haven't looked up if he's done so in the minors - still RF at Fenway takes some adjusting to, so perhaps not the best game to do so in)

Question is where would he bat?

The most common line-up recently has been:

Pedroia
Youk
Big Papi
Manny
Lowell
Drew
Varitek
Crisp
Lugo

A straight swap would see him bat 8th, but perhaps Tito has some balls to change it around, and Ellsbury's .394 OBP would indicate he could be a great table setter, with power at the top of the order.

I would like to see

1. Pedroia
2. Ellsbury
3. Big Papi
4. Manny
5. Lowell
6. Youk
7. Drew
8. Tek
9. Lugo

If Jacoby can bat like he has in regular season (and he actually has a 10 point higher average against lefties, as Carmona's on the mound tonight), with Pedroia finding his groove again in game 5, that's a very strong 1-6 lineup, with potential from 7 as well.

Gehrig38

So, it's game 6 of the ALCS again, bloody sock redux, and the intimidation factor of Schilling and Fenway returns. Can you imagine what would go through the heads of the Tribe if the Red Sox actually pull out a win tonight? Will they be the lame ducks in game 7 that the Yankees were in 2004? So many intriguing threads, so many, many stories to follow. Dane is perhaps right, there is only one Actober.

...although, despite being a Dane Cook fan I must admit the SNL parody is pretty fun too...

All fun and games, now to stick with the vow of not staying up until 6am to watch it...