Eating our own

I wrote this as a comment to someone’s remark about being “embarrassed’ to root for the Red Sox because of the way the front office is (supposedly) acting and figured I’d write it here as well because all of this shame and embarrassed talk has been bandied about an awful lot lately.

I don’t get everyone talking about being embarrassed to root for the Red Sox. You either root for them or you don’t. If folks are so bothered by the team there’s always the option to not support them. But, for me, the idea of not supporting the team because you think the owners are asses makes no sense since I’ve been supporting the team longer than the current ownership has been in place, and the team has had other owners (and GMs) who were assholes too.

And I mean it. Since when do we root for the team based on who owns it?  Prior to this ownership, were things so great between the front office and the players?  Did we have baseball crushes on the General Mangers before Theo?  What happened in 2004 (and then in 2007) brought this magical atmosphere to Fenway Park and made people forget the realities of being baseball fans…especially being baseball fans in Boston.  Sometimes you aren’t going to love everyone associated with your team.  You decide to be a fan and you can decide to not be a fan.  That’s on you, no one else.

For me, the team personalities are more important than those of the folks running the team.  Today we heard from two players, Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz.  Pedroia spent his time defending Terry Francona and talking about how all the controversy and the terrible way the season ended will add fuel to his fire and the team will come back stronger than ever.  Here’s a quote from Papi, courtesy of ESPN Boston:

“There’s too much drama, man,” Ortiz told Dominguez in reference to the Red Sox. “There’s too much drama. I have been thinking about a lot of things. I don’t know if I want to be part of this drama for next year.”

Papi also went on to not rule out playing for the Yankees.

Really?  Your team just pulled off the worst regular season collapse in baseball history, caused your manager to leave, is in the midst of losing its General Manager and has just been outed as a bunch of entitled prima donnas who purposely blew off their manager at crunch time and you decide to react to all of this by fanning the flames this way?

This bothers me more than what the front office is purportedly doing.  We’ve come to expect the front office to leak stories about whichever team member is leaving the fold.  It’s lousy (and regardless of all the media pinning this solely on Larry Lucchino, I’m not convinced there aren’t some players who contributed to this mess) but it really shouldn’t come as a surprise.  The fallout is what I find more interesting and, in some cases, distressing.

Pedroia was asked by Glenn Ordway why he was the only player to come out in support of Tito.  I had the same question.  Pedroia’s response was a muddled reaction of both saying he couldn’t speak for other players and saying that many of the other players don’t like to speak to the media the way he does.  I give Pedroia credit for not only protecting his manager but his teammates as well.  We’ve come to a point where someone needs to stop the bleeding so the team can heal and there should be more than just one player out there trying to do so.

One of the player’s being criticized, Jon Lester, has kept alarmingly quiet.  Much was made of the relationship between he and Tito, at least from Francona’s side.  Terry often mentioned he felt a father/son-like relationship with Lester yet here we find Lester was part of a clique that seemed to help run Tito out (whether it was intentional is up for debate) and now that he’s left the team and is having his name dragged through the mud, Lester is silent.  It’s disappointing and, in my opinion, telling of what kind of person he is.  Sadly, I think we’re finding out what kind of people many on this team are and, for me, they aren’t people I like very much.

Dustin Pedroia spoke with WEEI from Cabo today…yet no one else could find the time to speak up for their manager (or, for that matter, their team)?  And the one other player who DOES decide to speak out just whines about all the drama and throws out a thinly veiled threat to sign with the Yankees?  I feel like, come April, if there are a handful of players on this team that I’m still actively caring about, it’ll be amazing…yet I’ll still be here.

I’m a Red Sox fan.  For better or worse this is my chosen lot in life.  I can remember times when we didn’t like the owners, didn’t like the GM and didn’t like many of the players yet we still rooted for the team.  And that was before the team had two recent World Championships in their back pocket.

So come Truck Day, I will be at Fenway to show my support for the hometown team.  Ultimately, I will refuse to let this crap deny me the opportunity to enjoy the sport and team I love.

I so look forward to the time when we can all be joined in our hatred of the Boston sports media instead of focusing our anger on the team.  Someday.  Someday.

Friday Funk

Things I don’t care about but that seem to be what everyone is talking about right now:

*David Ortiz interrupting Tito’s press conference because he was mad about a scoring change:  I’ve seen very little about this as I’ve been offline for about 24 hours, but, really, I couldn’t care less.  As long as he doesn’t make it a habit, I can forgive an instant of him being rude.  He’s human, it happens.  I’m only annoyed because unless something amazing happens in tonight’s game, it’s going to be all Tim McCarver will talk about tomorrow.

*MLB investigating Alex Rodriguez for taking part in  high stakes poker games: Here’s a surprise…I don’t like Alex Rodriguez.  Because of this, there is no way I can garner righteous indignation for MLB going after ARod for whatever he might or might not have done.  Have at him.  Like I said, I couldn’t care less.  Now, do I think they should reprimand the players who get arrested for DUIs or the players with murder charges against them or those accused of domestic violence?  Of course.  As a matter of fact, I would prefer they lob some kind of punishments against those players as opposed to keeping tabs on Slappy’s desperate attempts to go Hollywood.  But, really, I will experience schadenfreude any time ARod’s name is connected to something negative.  It makes my black heart happy.

*Heidi Watney possibly leaving NESN: This might come as a genuine surprise to some of you, but I really don’t care if she stays or goes.  I think she has improved a lot since she joined the NESN team and most of the time actually sounds like she understands the terms coming out of her mouth (one of my biggest issues with her when she started was that any time she used baseball terminology she fumbled over it like it was totally foreign to her.  Not what I want from the person assigned to telling me what is going on with the team) and I have been guilty this season of occasionally being entertained by her visits to the food stands during road trips (although I could live a long time without ever having to see her choke down food…you don’t ask someone without legs to dance and I don’t think you should ask Heidi to eat fried food on camera). But if she were to find a job on ESPN or the MLB Network I wouldn’t celebrate nor mourn her loss.  I don’t think NESN will take a huge hit with her being gone but I would worry they’d try to replace her with some talking head who knows nothing about baseball but looks good.  Maybe the devil I know is better than the one I don’t?

Here’s something I do kind of care about.  Yesterday both Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald and Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe tweeted their displeasure of a sign they noticed in the Red Sox clubhouse that reads: “What You See Here, What You Hear Here, Stays Here”.  The sign doesn’t bother me.  It’s been posted in baseball clubhouses and at AA meetings for decades.  What bothers me is that, once again, the writers need to seek things out to write negatively about.  Amusingly enough, Peter Abraham brings it up in his blog entry from just after 11pm last night, and phrases it like this:

During the game, the Red Sox posted a large red sign in the clubhouse that says, ‘WHAT YOU SEE HERE, WHAT YOU HEAR HERE, STAYS HERE!” Apparently the Red Sox clubhouse is the secret headquarters of planning against terrorist networks in the Middle East.

In all seriousness, these are adult men. They really need signs with hackneyed slogans? The Red Sox should be more sophisticated than that.

When Abraham covered the Yankees, the people who commented on his blog would complain that he came across as if he didn’t like the team and they all blamed his being from New England on his dislike of the Yankees. Now that he covers the Red Sox, his hometown team so to speak, he treats the team with the same disdain he did the Yanks.  I think I’ve written this before, but I’m writing it again.  I’m fine with the writers who cover the team not being “fans” of said team.  But I think it’s completely unprofessional when the writers covering the team show so much outward hostility toward the team, and this is something Abraham does often.  It must be horrible having a job many would sell a kidney for covering one of the most popular teams in baseball history and getting yourself on television every night with millions of people listening to and reading your every opinion.  Tough to bring up any sympathies here.  God forbid writers actually adhere to any kind of code these days.

All Star Hangover

Some things will never change, especially in baseball.  The best example of this is how people will complain about the All Star Game.  To be fair to Bud Selig, there will never be anything that could make all baseball fans happy.  There is NOTHING he could do to “fix” the All Star Game that would make us all shut up and just enjoy the game.  So for all of us who complain (myself included), we need to remember that it doesn’t benefit Bud Selig to constantly annoy us and the players as well.  I think he’s doing the best he can (when it comes to the ASG) with the resources he has.  (I also think it might be time for him to bring some fresh blood around him so maybe some new and better ideas can be presented to him.)

So let me list the things that I enjoyed about last night’s All Star Game:

*  D’Angelo Ortiz showing off his version of various batting stances.  This was adorable.  D’Angelo is still at the age where he hasn’t started to get annoying and he holds himself in such a way that you just know he is destined for great things.  And right now, he’s still a million kinds of cute.  The segment didn’t go on too long and they didn’t beat us to death with “See how cute David Ortiz’ son is”…it was a fun, family-friendly moment and the ASG could use more of them.

*  Heath Bell talking with the fans (one being a Red Sox fan) in the stands and then giving them gifts (I’m surprised that “Yoda Backpack” wasn’t a trending topic on Twitter last night).  Between that and his slide into the pitcher’s mound, Bell showed us how a player can be quirky and fun without being overbearing and annoying (See Wilson, Brian).

*  Being a total homer, seeing Jacoby Ellsbury, Kevin Youkilis, David Ortiz and, especially, Adrian Gonzalez play was fun even if Youk and Adrian were the only ones to get hits.  Watching Adrian Gonzalez hitting a home run the night after he lit up the home run derby was fun (off of Cliff Lee, thank you very much).  Heck, I even enjoyed the Red Sox players being introduced pre-game.  I’ll admit it, I get a charge out of seeing our guys there even if I pretend I don’t.

*  I liked the “Stand Up to Cancer” moment and honoring the victims of the Arizona shootings before the game even if I do think that maybe the All Star Game could be a place where we don’t focus on the sad realities of life.  Even so, both were beautifully done and made me hate the ASG a little bit less.

That was pretty much it.  I never really care about who wins, regardless of it counting for home field advantage, but there wasn’t much excitement in last night’s game.  I could complain about Brian Wilson’s truly tired act, or Tim McCarver acting like he had never heard the words “Greek God of Walks” before last night (or, really, anything involving Joe Buck and Tim McCarver).  I could scoff at how when Joe Buck was taking about the shootings in Arizona the camera went right to Josh Hamilton as if now he is the MLB poster boy for tragedies and I could complain for the millionth time about how ridiculous it is to continue to sing “God Bless America” at a baseball game “to honor America” when we sing the National Anthem before the game starts to do that very thing.  But everyone will be complaining this morning (save for National League fans, I suspect) and why send out all those negative vibes, right?

We’re stuck with two more days of no Red Sox baseball but if you’re so inclined the Triple A All Star Game is being shown on the MLB Network tonight at 9 ET (pitcher Matt Fox is the lone representative from the PawSox this year).

Night at the Fights

Who could be mad at this face? (Photo taken by me on Opening Day this year)

I’d like to thank Kevin Gregg for taking my mind off of sadder situations and helping to blow up my Toeing the Rubber email accounts.  It would be fun to pick the messages I received apart but it is even more fun to just go straight to the source.

Let Mr. Gregg have the floor:

“They are going to whine and complain about it because they think they are better than everybody else. But no, we have just as much right to pitch inside as they do. Everybody’s frustrated. It’s part of the game.”

“You get tired of getting your butt kicked every night when you come in here. I’m going to stick up for what’s ours and try to get the plate back. I think you showed them that we are not backing down. We are not scared of them and their $180-million payroll. We don’t care. We are here to play the game. We have just as much right to play the game here.”

“It is 3-0, they are up seven, and I think there are some ethics to this game and guidelines that you have to stay within. Run. You hit a lazy fly ball, you have to run the bases. And apparently, he didn’t like me telling him that stuff and he came out there. If he thinks there’s something wrong with me saying that, then he has other things he has to check out in this game.”

But wait!  Nick Markakis wants in on this too!

“I like the guy, I like Ortiz, I respect the way he plays the game but I think it was a little bush league, bottom of the eighth, two outs, up by six, swinging 3-0. I don’t think we were hitting anybody intentionally there. But if it’s got to come down to that, it’s got to come down to it.

We’re in it as a team. He knows how to play the game. I think he’s going to look back on it and realize that he screwed up there but what happened, happened and it’s over.”

Kevin Gregg and the Baltimore Orioles…good for what ails you.

I’m feeling a little frisky this morning, so let me try to tackle this.

Whine and complain, everyone is frustrated: Three fastballs right at Papi.  YOUR team is frustrated because you are getting your butts kicked and headed for your fifth consecutive loss, having only won one out of your last ten games before this one.  It was so obvious what you were doing, that the umpires warned both benches without Papi having been hit.  You were not pitching inside, you were trying to hit David Ortiz because your team is lousy and you got called on it.

Tired of getting butt kicked, not scared of the payroll, not backing down: This entire quote reads like the younger sibling whining that the older sibling gets to do more and IT ISN”T FAIR!  Wah, wah, wah, Mr. Gregg.

You have to run the bases: I watched this game as it was happening and because I didn’t expect to be able to watch the game, I dvr’d it as well.  NESN showed the replay of everything that happened in Papi’s at-bat over and over and over…and it is obvious to anyone with eyes that Papi DID start to run to first base.  Gregg was so aggressive in that moment that the umpire came out from behind the plate and ejected him WHILE Papi was running to first base.  And, yes, Mr. Gregg.  he had a problem with it because you didn’t know what the hell you were talking about and after being thrown at three times, he decided to let you know what a horse’s ass you are.  The one who might want to check their game is you, boyo.

And let’s get to Nick.  I’m one of the few who is actually okay with players following some unwritten rules but there is one that I will never, ever understand and that is the “once you have a big lead you need to stop trying to win” rule.  Who gets to decide what the appropriate lead is before you have to stop trying, the losing team?  (For a current example of why this is a ridiculous “rule”, Wednesday night the Cincinnati Reds were up 8-0 in the fifth inning against the St. Louis Cardinals after having scored five runs in the first.  They ended up winning the game 9-8 in THIRTEEN innings because the Cards had a five-run seventh inning and then scored the tying run in the bottom of the ninth.  Had the Reds deferred to unwritten rules about big leads, would they have ended up losing the game?  I think it is genuinely laugh-out-loud funny that Nick Markakis thinks Papi will look back on this and think that not running to first base (when he actually DID run to first base) was a screw-up on Papi’s part.  The “screw-up” was Papi going after Gregg after Gregg got mouthy and was booted from the game.  And then, I only think it was a screw-up because it’s going to get him a suspension.  I have no problem in theory with David Ortiz telling Kevin Gregg that he isn’t going to take  his piddly shit. (And for the record, Nick Markakis, bush league is trying to  hit a player solely for the reason that his team is beating you.  Here endeth the lesson.)

I get that with 2004 and 2007 in their pockets it’s fun for other teams to target the Red Sox, but these teams should pick their battles. They didn’t show anyone that they won’t take anyone’s crap on Friday…they are the ones who STARTED it, so it doesn’t work that way.  Gregg (and, really, Markakis too) comes across as a whiny jerk who can’t deal with being on a bad team and getting beaten by a good team.  Josh Beckett might have had the best comment on the night:

“We’re a good hitting team. You can’t just be hitting our guys because we’re scoring a lot of runs. That’s how the game is played. Maybe they saw something different. Maybe they saw something they didn’t like or whatever. But if it’s just because we scored eight runs in the first inning and they start throwing at our guys, it’s going to be a long year.”

(Expletives edited out for gentle eyes!)

Josh nails it.  If you want to get pissy because your team is getting beat the best revenge is to actually beat some teams.  Orioles will get their chance tonight with John Lackey on the mound.  There are so many scenarios that could come to be…if Lackey pitches well tonight (hey, it could happen!) do the Orioles get more frustrated by losing to a struggling pitcher?  Does Lackey just decide that between the All Star break and his struggles that he could use some time off and get aggressive against the O’s from the beginning in retaliation for Gregg’s post-game comments?  Do both teams just decide to forget it and focus on just winning the game?

One other note about Papi swinging on a 3-0 count.  Let’s review here what happened:  Three fastballs coming at him.  So obvious that Gregg is trying to hit Oritz that the benches get warned even though he hasn’t been hit.  What would anyone do with that next pitch?  Wait to see where it’s headed or just swing and get it over with?  If you have a brain, you swing to try and ensure you don’t get hit.  I genuinely don’t want to see anyone hurt (nor any other Red Sox players suspended) but all the Orioles did with their jawing after the game was most likely ensure there will be many bad feelings on the field for tonight’s game.

Never has it been more enticing to tune into a Baltimore Orioles game.  Well done, Kevin Gregg.

The Time to Vote is NOW

Papi knows you voted for him! (Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor and used with permission)

Given the Red Sox just went 2-4 against National League teams that supposedly aren’t very good, the timing for this post is terrible.  But no matter.  After watching the Red Sox salvage a win in Pittsburgh, I flipped to the end of the Rockies/Yankees game.  Michael Kay was talking about Yankees relief pitcher David Robertson and how he should be elected to the All Star team but since there were going to be so many Yankees on the team he most likely wouldn’t be chosen.

Now, it’s true that there are many players on the Yankees who are leading in the All Star voting.  It was just the smugness of Michael Kay’s words that made me want to reach into the television and shake him a few times.  (Much like the other night when discussing Huston Street and Kay, in trying to compliment him, I guess, said “He’s not a clean closer like Mariano Rivera”.  (Now, I know damn well what a great pitcher Mo is.  My issue is, there is really NO ONE you can compare Rivera to and there was no reason to throw that dig in there…especially on a night when the Yankees LOST, Mr. Kay.)  So I decided yesterday that I was going to stop avoiding mentioning the All Star Game and ask you all to get on your butts (you’ll be sitting at a computer, yes?) and go vote for the Red Sox for the All Star Game.

But wait.  This is about spite (I’m not proud) so let me check that.  Alex Avila of the Detroit Tigers is behind Russell Martin right now in the voting for catcher.  I know Martin started off hot but after his first month with the Yankees he hasn’t really done much.  Certainly not enough to be the starting catcher in the All Star Game.  Voting ends this week at 11:59 on Thursday night, so there really isn’t much time to vote for your “favorite” any more if you actually want them to win (unless your favorite is Alex Avila, in which case you need to pick that up a notch).  So my spite vote for catcher goes to Alex Avila.  You’re welcome, Detroit.

At first base, Adrian Gonzalez is leading Mark Teixeira by about 600,000 votes.  Good work, Nation.  But the lead needs to widen.  It also gives us a little credibility that Adrian isn’t purely a spite vote, right?  I mean who, aside from Yankees fans, wouldn’t want Adrian Gonzalez on their team?

At second base, Robinson Cano is kicking Dustin Pedroia‘s butt by well over a million votes.  While I personally think this one is a bit of a wash, the idea of having baby Jeter out there annoys me to no end.  Unlike the catcher and first baseman positions, this one is a larger hurdle to jump, vote-wise, so you need to get out your multiple email addresses and start voting for Dustin.  I know Cano is a good second baseman and if I actually cared about winning or losing in the All Star Game I’d feel less annoyed by his presence, but I don’t and I am so Pedroia gets not only the “I think he deserves it” vote but the spite vote as well.

Third base has a pretty tight race going.  Sure Alex Rodriguez has 2,876,537 (at last count on June 21st) but behind him is Adrian Beltre with 2,307,380 and Kevin Youkilis with 2,025,438 votes.  When I started writing this, I had it in my head that Beltre was doing much better than Youk this season but after doing a little research I’m not so convinced of that any more.  I could go either way here, Beltre or Youkilis, and Beltre does have a better chance (give the current tallies) of catching up to Slappy, but I can’t go against Youk.  I just can’t.  So I’m not only spiteful but I’m a hypocrite.  Youk gets my vote.

Shortstop:  Derek Jeter is leading Asdrubal Cabrera by only 400,000 votes so there’s hope!  The fact alone that he’s leading is a complete joke.  Let’s forget how the Cleveland Indians have been struggling – who honestly believes Derek Jeter belongs in this year’s All Star Game over Cabrera?  If you aren’t a Yankee fan just voting across the board and you have voted for Derek Jeter this year, please tell me why?  I mean it, I really want to know why you think Jeter should start this year’s All Star Game?  A vote for Asdrubal Cabrera is a vote for baseball, people.  No spite or hypocrisy needed.

David Ortiz has almost two million more votes than Michael Young in the quest for starting DH.  I’d love to see that margin widen (no offense to Michael Young who seems like a perfectly nice guy).  Pile on the votes for Papi!  (Much to the chagrin of Joe Girardi, I’m sure, Jorge Posada has over a million votes and holds third place over Victor Martinez and Johnny Damon.)

Even on the DL, Carl Crawford is fifth on the list of outfielders.  Jacoby Ellsbury is fourth.  The top three are Jose Bautista (completely deserving), Curtis Granderson and Josh Hamilton.  I have a difficult time begrudging any one of those guys a spot on the team.  Jacoby is around 1.2 million votes below Granderson and would have to bump off Hamilton to get a starting spot.  Believe it or not, I’m okay with the way voting is going for this one.  Still, get your butt out there and vote for Jacoby.  He’s as deserving as Granderson or Hamilton.  (Carl, I love ya but I’m happy if you’re staying home this time around and resting up for the rest of the season.)

Sadly, Michael Kay, arrogant and annoying as he is, was right.  If the voting keeps up the way it is now, five out of the nine starting positions that fans are voting on will be filled by the New York Yankees and two by Boston Red Sox players.  Only Bautista and Hamilton in the outfield will save the American League from an all Boston/New York starting lineup.  We have work to do, people, and only four days to do it.

Now is the time to get to the voting, folks!

So Good

I felt like a four year-old on Christmas morning yesterday…way too much stimulation.  I spent the entire day watching the news, well into the 7pm hour.  Then I added to the list the Red Sox game and the Bruins game and my head was spinning happily for quite a few hours.

Yesterday’s Sox game played like we want every Red Sox game to play.  Clay Buchholz with his first “quality start”of the season, giving us fits when they showed him every half inning staring at his hand (“Is it a blister?  Does he have a cramp?”  What’s wrong with him???”) but still pitching well.  Dustin Pedroia with an epic at bat against one of the best pitchers in the American League.  David Ortiz with a home run and Jacoby Ellsbury with a stolen base. A pile of of runs in the seventh inning followed by the relievers giving us a reason to pay attention to a blow out game. Carl Crawford showing us that May might be his month with his second consecutive multiple-hit game.  This was a damn fun game.

I’ll be at Fenway tonight with friends enjoying the team and the company. Getting to see them in the midst of a really exciting stretch is icing.

The series isn’t over

I didn't take all that many pictures last night because I was too busy enjoying the view...but here's one I got of Papi

“We lost as a team. Every time we lose, we lose as a team.” ~ Adrian Gonzalez

Yes, indeed, Adrian.

We were fortunate enough to be sitting in an area last night that when the herd starting thinning the fans who decided to stay could move up and sit in the good seats with us.  This meant that for the last couple of innings we were surrounded by good fans who were cheering on the team and yelling encouragements.  Well, all except for two jackasses who used the opportunity to move up and insult any of the players in the on-deck circle.  (We ended up behind the Red Sox on-deck circle for the game last night, which was not in the original plan, and reportedly we were shown on ESPN.)

The two jackasses were shut up quickly enough by a polite but large man who asked them if the seats they were in were actually theirs and who then suggested he could call security and find out.  Like I said, we had a good crowd around us and after a game like last night’s, that makes a big difference.

If you watched the Red Sox win their first series against the Yankees you know that they have some power and talent that just isn’t consistently showing itself.  The Red Sox could still very well win this series against the Rays, which is all they need to do.  Keep winning the series and everything falls back into place.  So if you were one of the asses who spent money to go to a baseball game and then used that time to boo your own team, then you got the game you deserved and I hope it’s the only game you are able to go to in person all season long.

It was definitely painful to watch the numbers keep moving up for the Rays, but games like that happen.  At one point it went from painful to humorous.  How do you stay at a blow out for almost the entire game and then decide the 11th run of the night was the final straw for you?  The number of people who did just that (jumping up and waving their hands in disgust as they made their way to the exits) and it made for good entertainment.

I’m not a fan of claiming staying at a ball game is a badge of honor and there are many legitimate reasons why someone might have to leave a game early, but I don’t think right now is the time to be giving up on your team.  I don’t care how famous they are, I don’t care how fabulous their personal lives are and I don’t care how much money they make…the team is struggling and needs support not abandonment.  Support the team or jump on a train and become a fan of a New York, DC or Baltimore team.  Maybe that will be more fun for you?

As an aside, last night Joe Maddon tweeted that Sam Fuld not staying on base and collecting his cycle showed integrity.  Why?  Near the end of a blowout game where it has become clear extra runs will be just that, what does it show integrity.  I feel like that’s something you would say if the team lost, not when they’ve just pounded their opponent.  Besides, I have a difficult time believing Sam was fully cognizant of the fact that if he pulled up he’d have the cycle.  Even if he was, having the view I did made it seem obvious that he was just doing what was natural, running because he could.  No need to make it more than it was, Joe.  (Also, to give you an idea of the crowd around us by that time, many in our section were yelling for him to stop because they wanted the New Hampshire native to get the cycle.  Like I said, the good crowd around us helped make the game less painful.)

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Random stat that helped make the evening fun:  Alfredo Aceves, in relieving Tim Wakefield (who relieved Daisuke Matsuzaka) went 2.2 innings, struck out 2 and gave up no hits nor any walks.  I’ve now seen him pitch twice this season and both times came away happy that he’s with the team.

Blog suggestion for the day:  In an effort to keep the fun in the game, Soxy Lady has, once again, taken on the task of compiling at-bat and entrance music for the Red Sox.  Check it out (and help her fill in the gaps if you can!)

Happy Birthday, Big Papi!

Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.smugmug.com and used with permission.

One more year!

David Ortiz with this year's World Series MVP. One got his option picked up and the other didn't. Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.smugmug.com and used with permission.

Welcome back, Big Papi!

Here’s hoping you have a better April in 2011 than you did in 2010 – and if you don’t that you pick yourself up the rest of the season like you did in ’10.

I, for one, am happy the Red Sox did this…and did it this soon.  One less thing to worry about in the off-season.

I need to purge

(This is long and cranky.  I don’t want to be cranky today so I’m working on another entry as you read this!)

This is the first season where I told myself I would read less and less of the local sports writers and I actually stuck to that promise.  I credit Twitter and Facebook, really.  It gives me easy access to writers I want to read and not kick in the privates while also letting me find out things I don’t know about in the baseball world without having to read them from people I hate.

But this week has been a little different.  I haven’t had much online contact and took the easy way out this morning:  I read a Dan Shaughnessy  piece.  Rather, I began to read a Dan Shaughnessy piece.  I got to the quoted text below and decided I couldn’t make it all the way through.  But I share it with you so you remember, as I do now, why my dislike (hatred?  Hatred is a strong word but I’m compelled to type it) for the CHB is so damn strong.