Boy, this must annoy the Boston Globe and Bob Ryan

What?  Sox fans aren’t "Crawling on the ledge" or panicking?  Can’t be!  The Globe reporters have all these stories at the ready about how Red Sox Nation is suicidal and all hope is lost!  What will they write about now?

Interestingly enough, Mike Girardi, sports reporter for NECN (which happens to share, among other things, webspace with the Boston Globe) blogged about how sick he is of the Globe trying to stir up the panic.  (Thanks to Dover for the heads up on Girardi’s piece!)

Baltimore is in town for the weekend.  Let’s show them the kind of time you did Chicago, boys! 

Peaceful, easy feeling

Getting swept sucked.  But it’s done and over and I certainly have no plans to harp on it.

Instead, I got to hang out for a night without any baseball and thoroughly enjoy myself.

Things that made me happy today (not in any order except the first one!):

A drawing from my six  year-old niece, with the caption "I Love You"! 

Bob Saget!  (Seriously funny!) 

Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson.

This blog post! 

Jon Stewart 

This book!  (Buy it, really!  I picked it up on a lark, yesterday, started reading it today and couldn’t put it down!) 

And the knowledge that tomorrow is a new day, the Sox are still 5 games up in the division and I get to see some sistahs this weekend – along with live baseball! 

If the timing works out, I could see Mike Timlin make his 1000th major league appearance!  Here’s hoping! 

Youk wasn’t happy, but at least HE isn’t a thugSo let’s shake the dust off from this series and focus on the future, folks!

And remember, if you’re going to Fenway this weekend, don’t forget to bring new, white socks! 

(Okay, one snarky note.  Congratulations to Joba Chamberlain for joining the ranks of the thugs.  Throwing at someone’s head – twice – way to show some weasley Yankeeness, Joba! There’s true Yankee Pride for you!  Kudos, once again, to Kevin Youkilis for taking the high road.) 

Fair Warning

For today, the first person to post a comment bitching about this team gets deleted, as will subsequent comments from anyone else.

I don’t want to  hear about how much you hate JD Drew or if you think Tito is a terrible manager.

I especially don’t want to hear from you if you’re a Yankees fan coming to rub in the sweep.

The Sox are still ahead in the division and, for now, that’s all that matters to me.

I’m as pissed as anyone about the sweep, but this place isn’t turning into SoSH or WEEI’s whiner line just because the team had a bad series. 

999

 

Fabulous pic of Mike taken by Kelly O’Connor 

 

That’s how many major league appearances Mike Timlin has now made.

(No, I’m not discussing the game.  It’s way too annoying to rehash.  It’s a game they should have won and didn’t.  I’ve never said this about the team, but in the last two games, it’s as if they don’t even care whether or not they win.  I’m actually glad I won’t be able to watch the game tomorrow.  Maybe if I’m not watching, they’ll actually show up for the game.  But I digress.)

Mike faced four batters in 1.1 innings of relief on Wednesday night.  He got them out with 16 pitches.  Not bad for the ‘old man’, eh?  Yes, I will beat this to death in front of all the naysayers.

With any luck, Schilling brings his "A" game tomorrow and they don’t need to bring Mike in.  I’m going to the games on Friday and Sunday and I want to be at the park for his 1000th appearance.     I’m hoping it’s on Friday.  As a fan, I’ve stood by Mike though his good times and bad, and it’s a benchmark I really want to be present for when he hits it.  So let’s keep our fingers crossed.

I’m still not ‘worried’ about the Yankees.  But I am terribly annoyed at the way the Sox have played these last two games.  Oh well.  That’s why, as they say, they play 162 games, right?

Back to Mike.  He’s mentioned in a few interviews that he wants to pitch in 2008, even though he knows it might not be in Boston.  I would love to see him back in Boston, but I’m a total pessimist when it comes to thinking Theo is going to re-sign the guys I want him to.  So here’s hoping, if in fact this is his last season in a Sox uniform (and I’m hoping against hope that it isn’t!), that he goes out with a bang – and the Sox help out by cutting the crap they’re pulling in New York and getting themselves into the World Series!  

Interesting reading

More Mike – It’s HIS week at RSC!I always go around the Sox blogs and message boards first thing before posting (for many reasons, the main two being I want to see how other fans feel and I want to try and not write about something someone else has already written about).  This morning has been an interesting one.  I’d say the general feeling in Red Sox Nation is about 70% "Well, we lost to Pettitte, today is a new day" with there being about 30% of that "They lost the first game to the Yankees, here they come!".

I’m pretty sure you know where I stand.   Aside from Demon being the one to hit the game-winner, there are only a few things to complain about last night’s game.  JD’s struggles being one, but, more importantly, the possibility of being without Manny and/or Bobby Kielty due to back issues for both.  The former bothers me much less than the latter. We need our guys healthy.  Manny could be a huge loss, and Kielty could hurt too.  So we’re sending good vibes there way today!

Some folks have emailed me asking why Timlin is my player of the week since he isn’t struggling.  Well, this week he’ll most likely get his 1000th appearance, as I’ve mentioned, and I think he earned the spot on the blog to have positive vibes sent his way.   To answer another question, I chose the Blue Jays photo because I really liked it when I saw it in the Globe yesterday (and it looks much better full-size!).

Beckett v Clemens tonight.  While I knew that Pettitte would be tough to beat, I don’t quite feel that same way about his BFF Roger.  I’m hoping for a little more excitement tonight than last night.  But, more importantly, I’m hoping for a win.  (And for good news about Manny and Bobby!) 

Mike and Mike

 

Photo lifted from Beth! 

For quite a while now, the Red Sox Hen has been going on about how the Red Sox need to re-sign Mike Lowell.  I’ve always thought the same, but with August almost over, I guess more people are starting to join in as well. 

Nick Cafardo mentioned on NESN Sunday that the thinks Mike has ‘earned a three-year contract’ and on the same program, Gordon Edes told a story about fans breaking into a spontaneous "Lo-well! Lo-well!" chant at a Jimmy Fund even he had Saturday night.  (According to Edes, the chant started because Edes told the fans in attendance that they could ask John Henry, who was also there, anything they wanted about possibly getting ARod in the off-season.  Read that again.  The fans’ response to possibly getting ARod in the off-season, was to chant Mike Lowell’s name. )  Says a lot about how the fans feel about Lowell.

Incidentally, Mr. Lowell was name co-AL Player of the Week, sharing the title with one David Ortiz.

Here’s hoping Theo and the rest of the front office get the message and sign Senor Double to the contract he deserves!

 

Photo courtesy of Kelly O’Connor! 

And about my man Mike Timlin.  Gordon Edes wrote a piece today about his quest for 1000 major league appearances, so hopefully everyone who didn’t know about it now does.  It’s a good piece, with Mike relaying the story of his FIRST major league appearance (incidentally, against the Red Sox).  It also has some really nice quotes from some of his teammates and I urge you all to read it.  (Dig me, plugging a Globe article!)

So at some point, most likely this week, Mike will have made 1000 major league appearances.  Not only that, but at 41 he’s still effective out of the bullpen.  I can’t tell you how many fans had written (either directly to me or on their own blogs and message boards)  that Mike should have shut it down, that he was ‘toast’ and that he was hurting the team.  (Not to mention all the nastiness thrown my way for continuing to support him!)  Now, once again, he’s a truly important part of that bullpen.  One we don’t want to lose.  I’ll be at Fenway on Friday, so I’m selfishly hoping that he only gets one appearance in while in New York.  Preferably today or tomorrow, and that he gets to make number 1000 at home…on Friday!

Congratulations Mike and Mike (And Big Papi too!)!  And thanks for all you’ve contributed to this exciting season! 

Oh yes, and the Tigers absolutely smashed the Yankees into the ground last night, 16-0, so my greediness was rewarded with an 8-game lead going into this series.  It’s safe to say, I’m a very  happy chickie right now.

Kick some more butt tonight, fellas, and get Daisuke some run support!   

Sweeeep, baby!

 

I should know this, but I don’t.  Do they still give out a "Tenth Player Award" to the Red Sox?  Mike Timlin won it in 2005, but I don’t remember if they awarded it in 2006.

My reason for wondering this aloud?  If they DO give a "Tenth Player Award" out and it doesn’t go to Julian Tavarez, I’m mounting a protest.

Tavarez has done everything the team has asked of him this year.  He’s ‘held’ the five spot in the rotation, knowing someone (Jon Lester) was coming up, eventually, to fill it.  He’s worked out of the bullpen whenever the team needed him and he’s made spot starts with very little notice.  He’s not only been wonderfully tempered about it, but he’s been effective as well.  

While his numbers might not reflect that of a ‘great’ pitcher.  He has a 4.84 era and his w/l record is 7-9 – but his numbers don’t tell the entire story.  He’s been pretty much a rock the team can go to when they need and he’s stepped in up in the middle of a tense playoff run.  The dude is the MAN for us right now.

Shout out to Bobby Kielty (Nick Cafardo, it’s KELty not KEELty – learn it, live it) for taking it to Chicago today.  (And count me in on wanting Kielty to platoon with JD Drew!!!!!)

Nick Cafardo just called Kielty KEELTY and then corrected himself and called him KELty.  Maybe NESN folk DO read this blog.  🙂 

Sox are 7.5 up, folks, and the Yanks can lose tomorrow night to make it 8 up going  into the series in the Bronx, rendering that series, basically, meaningless.

I’ll definitely take 7.5 – but I’m greedy for 8!  

Dear Kathryn Tappen

Generally speaking, I like you.  It pleases me when you anchor Sports Desk instead of Hazel Mae.  So I’ll be nice.

It isn’t KEELty, it’s KELty.  Bobby Kielty pronounces his name KELTY.  You know how I know this?  Your own Tina Cervasio interviewed him last weekend and asked him outright:  "How do you pronounce your last name?" .  You know what he said?  Well, obviously, you don’t know what he said because you spent the entire half hour of Sports Desk (which I’ve been watching on the loop NESN shows it since 6am) pronouncing it KEELty.

Dude scores a run and goes 3-5 with 4 RBI, the least you could do is pronounce his name correctly.   Maybe you should watch the network you work for a little more, Kathryn.  At the very least, the NESN broadcasters might want to get together and discuss such things.  Thanks in advance, RSC.

Enough crankiness.  Kielty wasn’t alone yesterday.  Interestingly, though, out of the 11 different players the Red Sox ended up sending to the plate yesterday, only six of them had hits.  But every one of THOSE players (Pedroia, Crisp, Ortiz, Lowell and Youkilis, along with Kielty) all had multiple hits in the game, leading the team to a 14-2 win over the White Sox.   35 runs in 3 games.  This is the way to keep the division lead!

Most impressive to me was Mr. Tim Wakefield.  I mean DAMN.  7 innings, 3 hits, no runs, 3 walks and 6 strike outs.  How sweet is that?  Wake joins Joshua Patrick in leading the league with 16 wins. Let’s hear it for the ‘old guy’!  🙂

Totally random stat Kathryn Tappen shares with us:  He and Cy Young are the only pitchers in Red Sox history over 40 to have 16 wins in a season.  Congratulations Tim!

Today is one of those days when I hate that the game starts at 2pm.  I want baseball now.  I want the Red Sox to keep rolling. 

Many will attest that I’ve been saying for a while all I really want is for these three upcoming games in the Bronx to not really mean anything.   Don’t get me wrong, I want the Sox to beat the Yankees in all three games, but I want the hyperbole that always surrounds these games gone.  If the Red Sox can win today and the Tigers pull out a win, even if the Yanks win tomorrow (Yanks play Detroit tomorrow, Sox have an off day), going into the Bronx with a 7 game lead (hell, even a 6 game lead) to play three makes me very happy. (Realizing that with a Yankees loss today, a Red Sox win today and a Yankees loss tomorrow, the lead going into the Bronx could be 8.  I also realize it could be 5, but I’m a ‘half-full’ type gal!)

Even if the Yankees win two, which I don’t see happening but who knows, against the Sox, they only gain a game, and they’d knock no wind out of the Sox.   Heck, the way the Red Sox have handled the other Sox this weekend, they’ve already set themselves up to not have to look at the Yankees series as anything but ‘just another series’ they want to win.  Winning today will just be the cherry on our sundae!

It’s a nice feeling, eh?    

More like these games please

This is the stuffed parrot that the bullpen guys keep in the bullpen, er, on the "Black Pearl"!  Special thanks to Dori for taking the picture and sharing it with me (and all of us!!)!

Yesterday was HUGE. 

I don’t care who you are or what team you root for.  You know that the Red Sox pulling off the sweep of the double-header while the Yankees lost in extra innings means a lot for this team.

On Thursday night my father was lamenting the postponing of the first Sox/Sox game and worrying that others on Friday would be postponed as well.  He was commenting how the ‘luck’ was, once again, falling to the Yankees and away from the Red Sox.  Then the strangest thing happened on Friday.  The sun came out in Chicago and the rain started to fall in Detroit.  Things look a lot different now, eh?

My favorite part of winning the double-header was that it wasn’t JUST the pitching being great or ONLY the bats waking up, it was both.  In BOTH games, the pitchers did their job and the hitters did their job.  Hell, the defense was even pretty great.  I was quite excited to see the entire team come together and contribute, playing like they knew they had to play!

It’s a sunny and HOT day in Boston.  I’m  hoping it is as equally sunny (but a little less hot) in Chicago and that Wake gets HIS sixteenth win today! 

Incidentally, yesterday’s appearance marked my man Mike Timlin’s 998th Major League appearance.  Not too long ago many online who consider themselves baseball ‘experts’ (you all know who you are) wrote this guy off as being selfish for wanting to attain the 1000 game goal at the ‘expense’ of the team.  He’s now, again, a very important part of the ‘best bullpen in the league’.  Way to go, Mike! 

For Joshua Patrick! 

The rain came pouring down yesterday

I like the rain.  I do.  I’ve been known to not use an umbrella because I like how the rain feels coming down.

But when the rain messes up the baseball schedule it irritates the hell out of me.

So no game last night, two games today (if they can even get two in with what the weather in Chicago is doing!) .   I haven’t read anything about how this will affect the rotation for the rest of the series and, more importantly, for the Yankees series next week.

And speaking of the rotation, Jon Lester couldn’t be too happy about being sent to Portland yesterday.  It makes perfect sense, though.  These games are big and we only have Okajima as a lefty coming out of the ‘pen.  Bringing Javier Lopez up will give Tito someone else to go to.  And by sending Jon to Portland, he gets to take his normal spot in the rotation, something he wouldn’t be able to do in Pawtucket.   Tito said that Lester is coming back to the team next Sunday, so I think if he has to cool his heels for a week to help the team, well, good for everyone involved.

 I had a long night and an early morning.  I’ll miss the game this afternoon because I’ll be at work (thank goodness for gameday and updates from friends!) and, at this rate, I’ll be asleep halfway through the second game!

Here’s hoping they get them both in!