Because I can’t sleep…

Mike Timlin...much more forgiving than I am. (Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor and used with permission)

I’m going to rant or ramble or both.  Indulge me.

First a mini-rant:

Cute article about a kid who has been wearing Red Sox gear every day since 2009.  Cute little story.  I have no problem with this story.  Makes me want to hug the kid because I’m sure there were times since 2009, oh like this entire past week, where SOMEONE gave him grief about it. Stand strong, young one.

What annoyed the hell out of me was this random line in the piece because it clearly indicates that either the person who wrote it up doesn’t know a damn thing about the Red Sox or they just enjoy riling people up (waves my hand high).

…his goal is to keep the streak alive until the Sox win another World Series.

He’s heard the stories about an 86-year drought and still, he’s willing to wait.

This kid, this adorable kid, is 11 years old. In his lifetime, the Boston Red Sox have won the World Series TWICE. He has seen TWO victory parades for his baseball team.  In only 11 years.  TWO.

Why the hell would it occur to this kid that he might have to wait another 86 years?  It wouldn’t.  It would never factor in to the equation.  STOP WRITING STUPID THINGS JUST BECAUSE YOU WANT FANS TO BE MISERABLE.

Because, for the most part, it isn’t working.  I know a good lot of the sports writers hate that so many aren’t taking the bait…but we aren’t.  Not here, anyway.

From the comments here, to messages on Facebook and Twitter, I am extremely pleased with the way Red Sox fans have been handling this mess of a beginning of a season…especially today.  I know no one is happy and I know there are plenty of people out there eager to call WEEI and whine about how the season is over but it’s nice to see the onslaught of support the team seems to be getting right now.  I hope it trickles into tomorrow’s game.

This next two are less ranting and more rambling;

As we watched the end of the game at Remy’s last night, Kelly O’Connor remarked that she hoped no one booed on Friday which reminded me of when the bullpen was booed on Opening Day (well, an Opening Day that ended up not happening) in 2003.  Back then, the NESN studios were all in Boston at Fenway (instead of Watertown where they now are) and after each home game a member of the team would appear on the post-game show as a guest.  One night that season, Mike Timlin was the guest and when asked about the bullpen being booed on Opening Day he responded that he too would have booed them.  My only response to that then and now is NO. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.

While I make it obvious all season long  how I am against booing your own team it goes triple for booing your own team on Opening Freaking Day.

Do NOT repeat history people going to Fenway tomorrow.  You will look like giant turds in front of the world.  Plus, if you are near me when you boo you will most likely end up wearing my beer (at the very least) and no one wants that.

Upsetting to see that Nick Swisher slid into second today and ended up breaking Tsuyoshi Nishioka’s left fibula.  Sending positive vibes to Tsuyoshi.  Hopefully he’s a quick healer.  Now Swisher was just trying to take out the second baseman to break up a double play and everyone on both sides are saying the play wasn’t “dirty” but it sure looked a bit more aggressive than it needed to be.  The Wall Street Journal reported that Swisher was “a bit shaken” and that Nishioka didn’t blame Swisher for the injury.  So all is good, right? Still, Swisher taking to Twitter after today’s game with this left a bad taste in my mouth:

Great series win for the Bombers today. Bullpen does it again. Off to Boston baby!

It is far from my place to tell anyone what to write on their personal Twitter account but the above seems a bit tasteless to me in light of what happened at the game. Swisher was involved in a person breaking their leg. How about a “Hate to see that happen; hope he’s okay” tweet just for the sake of propriety? Again, who the heck am I to tell Nick Swisher what to write on Twitter? Still, it reads like a lousy move to me.

Please Baseball Gods…I’m not asking for Swisher to break a leg or even get hit. But I could stand a couple of errors on his part and maybe a golden sombrero or two this weekend.

Heck, I’d ask for that from the Baseball Gods even if I didn’t think Swisher made a jerk move today. Sox need all the help they can get.

It was mentioned more than once to me this week that maybe a skirmish between the AL East rivals might help kick the Red Sox into taking the proper path…I’m a lover not a fighter but I have to admit, anything that might get their adrenaline going and help get us some wins…well, I’m all for it.

To end on a positive note, Friday marks the REAL Opening Day for the Boston Red Sox and I have faith that the Sox begin righting their ship with some home cooking…and I’ll be sporting my Kevin Youkilis jersey in celebration!

The Last Stand

My Youk collection from last year. Voting ends at 4pm ET today!

All I will say about the sweep is when you have the injuries this team does these things will happen.  It was ridiculous how many tweets/posts/status updates I read from people who seemed genuinely mad about it.  If you can’t understand the fact that this team is struggling because many of their starters aren’t starting, well then I think you’re a lost cause.  Watch the games and hope for the best and take comfort in the knowledge that there is an entire second half to go (and stop blaming the replacements for not being as good as the starters – there is a reason players start and others are in Triple A…being forced into situations you aren’t ready for is no way to be greeted into the organization so folks need to back off a bit).  Okay, I guess I had more to say than  I thought.

The Red Sox and Kevin Youkilis’ parents have asked Red Sox fans to vote not only for Youk but for Joey Votto as well.  Works for me.  I’m writing this around 8:30am which gives folks 7.5 hours to get their votes in for Kevin.  A vote for Youk is a vote for all that is right in the world.  Okay, that’s an exaggeration.  But a vote for Kevin is a vote for someone who deserves to be in the All Star Game who has gone out of his way to not self-promote himself.  How can you look away?  Nick Swisher has done more campaigning for this thing then Scott Brown and he needs to be taken down a peg.  (I will, once again, admit to being spiteful.  I’m not ashamed.)

If Kevin Youkilis gets voted in, we get shots of him, his lovely wife and adorable son in Los Angeles.  If Nick Swisher gets voted in we probably get more videos of him in Tommy Bahama shirts.  I’m willing to bet he bleaches his tips for the occasion.  We can’t let that happen people.  We’re live chatting the All Star Game…do we really want to have to look at Swisher all night?

I know folks are down because of the last four games.  No one enjoys a losing streak.  But voting for Youk is our chance to get some joy out of this week!  We can head into the weekend in Toronto proud of our efforts and hoping the team rides Youk’s victory to three of their own!

So take that early break today, sit yourself down and VOTE for Kevin Youkilis.  You’ll sleep much better if you do.

If I pretend it isn't happening…it isn't happening (right?)

"We Not Me" works for the Red Sox too!

I wrote this yesterday:

BUT the idea that Nick Swisher and his .375 OBP, his .509 slugging percentage and his .883 OPS is winning this thing over Youk and his .299 average, .416 OBP, .586 slugging and 1.002 OPS is ridiculous. Swisher is currently batting .296, has two more hits than Youk and 15 more strikeouts than him. Aside from the hits and Ks, Youk’s numbers are higher in every other category. He is, as they say, freaking better than Swisher and Swisher has the added taint of being a Yankee on him so, again, this is a no-brainer peeps.

Last night, after the Sox game was over but before the Yankees had finished pummeling the A’s, I received an email from my favorite Yankees fan telling me that the numbers meant nothing and Swisher was the better player (she also admitted to Youk having the Sox “taint” on him…fair enough given what I wrote about old Nick). This is the same person who thinks that Swisher’s “beauty” should get him on the team. (She also was very pleased at the prospect of Youk being injured, noting it would make it easier for Swisher to get the votes.  Something else I can understand.  I wouldn’t want them hobbled for life but it wouldn’t vex me any if any one of the Yankees came up lame tonight.)

I’m not a stat geek and math was never my best subject in school.  It took me a long time to “get” some of the newer statistics, I admit this.  Given my favorite players don’t/haven’t always put up the best numbers, I understand not basing your preferences on the numbers, I do.  But to tell me the numbers don’t mean anything is just ignorant.  If we are comparing two players and we want the better player to be on our team, we look at their numbers.  Youk’s numbers are better.  There is no arguing that.  I get why Yankees fans won’t vote for him (spite, as I’ve mentioned, is quite the motivator) but don’t tell me Youk isn’t a better player than Swisher…he is.

So get your butts out there and vote for Youk!  🙂

I’m not going to dwell on “right ankle pain” or “cramping” today.  Youk says he’s fine.  Tito says Youk’s fine.  Youk is fine, dammit.

Sox are currently 3.5 games out of first place with four games to go before the All Star Break.  Winning the next four would be nice but I’ll settle for the one game at a time approach and hope Tim Wakefield can lead the Sox to one victory before they leave Florida.  It won’t be easy but it is definitely possible.  I’m at the point where I’m not letting these losses eat me up.  Felix Doubront, Kevin Cash, Eric Patterson, Bill Hall, Darnell McDonald and Daniel Nava are all starters on the team right now and the team is only 3.5 games out of first place.  We should all be enjoying the baseball they’re playing right now and appreciating their attempts to keep the team in the running until (hopefully) the injured all get back to playing ball.  What else is there to do?

Special thanks to everyone who stopped by the live chat last night.  It was lots of fun in spite of the loss and the panic that set in when Youk went down.  We’ll be back here next Tuesday to live chat the All Star Game starting at 8pm!

Get your vote on

Click the photo to vote for Youk!

Kevin Youkilis is not impressed with the fans and their voting ways (and I don’t blame him):

Youkilis also discounted the possibility that, given the trend of electing Red Sox players, he might have a better chance than other players to top the field.

“This year, we didn’t have too good a fan turnout in the vote,” he said, noting that no Red Sox player was among the eight AL starters chosen.

Now it’s obvious to me, through comments I’ve read and conversations I’ve had, that many Red Sox fans made a conscious decision to not vote Sox players into the All Star Game (“let them rest!” was repeated often). I also think that Red Sox fever might have died down a bit due to the slow start and seemingly endless injuries to the team. (The bandwagon lost a lot of folks in April. Can’t say that makes me all that sad.) For whatever reasons, no Red Sox players were voted in by the fans for the All Star Game this year so I understand why Youk would think he doesn’t have much of a chance to win the final fan vote.

But, see, he is totally discounting the spiteful nature of many of us. There are two mitigating factors that will cause Sox fans to rock the vote for Youk: 1) He should have already been there. If not voted by the fans, voted by his peers. It’s a little stunning he wasn’t and many Red Sox fans will take this as yet another fast ball to Youk’s noggin. Many Sox fans feel Youk is greatly under-appreciated in MLB and this just fuels that fire. (Of course these same fans could have voted him in initially. This is Youk’s point and he’s right and all I have to say is, we were hoping MLB just forgot about the Red Sox so they could all spend 3 days in bubblewrap.) 2) Nick Swisher. Generally speaking, Nick doesn’t bother me. He’s the Yankee version of Kevin Millar. Totally ‘gets’ that he’s privileged to have the job he does and plays every game like he’s still in little league. If he was wearing any other uniform I’d just look at him, shake my head and laugh. But he isn’t wearing any other uniform, he’s wearing pinstripes so he must be destroyed.

It’s quite simple, really.

Nick Swisher made a video (When?  Yesterday before the game?  I mean how freaking quickly did he get his ass in front of a video camera and make the campaign vid?) dressed in beach clothes, holding a surfboard and begging folks to vote for him.  Kevin Youkilis will NOT be (as he put it) “self-promoting”.  I respect that.  The idea of Youk in a video bragging about his Tommy Bahama shirt and begging the fans to vote for him makes me a little stabby.  But we don’t need Youk to ask for our votes.  We have our burning hatred for injustice (if you fall under number 1 above) and/or the Yankees (wave your hand if you fall under number 2).

So whether you think a wrong needs to be righted or you just want the Red Sox to defeat the Yankees in this meaningless contest (I don’t judge.  In fact I’m a little from number one and a little from number two)  get your fingers walking over to MLB and vote for Kevin Youkilis.

Voting ends at 4pm ET on Thursday, July 8th, so I won’t be bothering you all too much longer with these messages (but I will be harping on it until the voting is over!).

I chased away the shadows of your name

Let's hope Papi gave Torii some pointers on coming back in the ALCS! (Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission.)

Before last night, I can’t remember the last time I got that genuinely worked up over a baseball game that didn’t involve the Red Sox.  Mike Scioscia replacing John Lackey with Darren Oliver (to face Slappy, Teixeira and Matsui!) could have gone down in baseball history as the worst managerial decision in an LCS since 2003.   Thankfully, aside from Lackey possibly having already set all of Oliver’s (and/or Scioscia’s) things on fire, no long-term harm was done.

There seem to be a few Yankees fans reading my blog.   One or two occasionally email me and actually have nice things to say (well, usually not NICE but at least they just want to discuss baseball not how fat, stupid, ugly or mean I am!) – last night I received an email from one, “Mike in Paramus” (I asked Mike if he minded my mentioning him today)…Mike wanted to know if I was taking “great joy” in Nick Swisher’s struggles in the ALCS since I had “dissed” him earlier this season by saying I didn’t think he was an all-star.

I like Nick Swisher.   He’s one of those players I truly believe plays because he loves it and tries to get as much fun out of it as he can. I hate that he’s with the Yankees but they offered him a job and why wouldn’t he take it, right?    I DID say earlier this season that I didn’t think he was an all-star…but he was definitely an important part of what got the Yankees to the post-season this year.   In spite of that, I’m not reveling in his struggles.    Hell YES I’m enjoying the Angels taking it to the Yankees and I hope to see more of the same Saturday night – but it actually annoys me a bit that so many in New York are choosing to stick Swisher’s head on a stick and parade it about so that the fans have their pound of flesh.   (Incidentally, “Mike” thinks Swisher should be benched.   Me?    As long as it helps the Yanks lose, I’m good with keeping him in!)

So while the Phillies rest up, the Yankees and Angels have to head back to New York for at least one more game.   In thinking about the World Series, it occurred to me that since 2000 all three teams in the hunt have won a World Series so there isn’t that much drama (for me, anyway) surrounding them.    I have no emotional attachment to the Phillies, I admittedly can’t stand the Yankees…so that leaves the Angels.   If I have to pick a team that I’d genuinely enjoy watching win it all this year – and these three are my only choices, I’m going with the Angels.   After the ALDS, I didn’t think I’d be able to root for them.   But watching them during this LCS, well, I like most of the guys on the team and their fans seem to be the least of the three evils…and I honestly can’t deny that Nick Adenhart is on my mind.   I’m not a fan of the “they have to win because something bad happened to them” way of thinking, but it certainly has attached itself to me – at least it did last night.  Watching last night I kept thinking about the team running over to his likeness on the wall in the park after they made it into the playoffs and the idea that the Yankees could have made it to the World Series in front of him upset me greatly.   Sure it’s still a tough road for the Angels – winning two in a row in the Bronx won’t be easy – but I think they can do it.   More importantly, I’m hoping they can do it.   Everyone needs to root for something positive, right?   It isn’t as much fun to root AGAINST a team as it is to root for them.

So Saturday night I won’t be rooting for the Yankees to lose (as I’ve been doing each of these games) I’ll be rooting for the Angels to win!  Two more games, fellas, two more games!

All the world is Babylon

Just for comparison, I put my ticket from the Sox/Mets game in April at CitiField up against my ticket for the Yanks/Rays game at Yankee Stadium (with appropriate information on the tickets blocked out)

In trying to find a positive focus I remembered that I’ll be traveling to New York next week.  It’s a quickie trip.  Down on Wednesday, to Yankee Stadium that night and then back some time on Thursday.   It wasn’t planned – hell, given what the prices are for any seats I’d want to sit in (and that even though I’ve sat in single seats in Baltimore I really couldn’t imagine doing it in New York) I honestly thought I’d never get to see the new stadium (at least not for a game).  So I’m looking forward to checking it out.

But going to Yankee Stadium for a game where the Red Sox aren’t playing brings up a conundrum:  What do I wear?

It has occurred to me that I could just wear, well, CLOTHES, and not worry about having baseball gear on me – but where’s the fun in that?  I don’t have an awful lot of casual clothes, anyway, (not that my clothes are all that dressy either but most are in that in-between stage where I either look over-dressed, too hot or just totally out of place if I wear it to a game) so it just always seems an easier decision to throw a jersey on over a pair of black slacks and my sneakers and not worry about it.    But my jerseys are all Red Sox, Paw Sox, Sea Dogs or American League (I have both an Ortiz and a Lowe ASG jersey)…and all would, likely, antagonize at Yankee Stadium.  As much as I love a good go around with opposing fans, I never get Yankees fans who walk into Fenway Park in their Yankees gear during a game the Yankees aren’t playing.  To me, that’s like wearing a giant sign that reads “I’m a total assbag looking for a confrontation, please punch me in the face”.   So there is no way I’m going into the Bronx in Sox gear when the Sox aren’t there (for the record, I’ve been to the old Yankee Stadium twice for Red Sox games and both times wore the Sox gear proudly).

Somewhere I have a black and purple Colorado Rockies jersey with Darryl Kile’s name and number on it – but I put it away long ago.  I also used to wear a black White Sox jersey years ago – just because it was really sharp, I got it cheap and I loved the way it looked – with no number or name on the back – but that was donated to the Veterans a while ago along with tons of other clothes.

So because my brain likes to focus on the frivolous when things get too serious in my life, I started thinking about what I could wear to Yankee Stadium that was baseball-related but wouldn’t get me punched in the teeth.   The only other jersey I have that isn’t Red Sox-related is a white and red Cincinnati Reds jersey with Bronson Arroyo’s name and number on it.  (I knew I should have bought that Kyle Snyder Bisons jersey!)  While, technically, not a Red Sox jersey, I imagine the name “Arroyo” emblazoned on anything having to do with baseball might make a few Yankees fans a bit chippy.  Not really my intent.   What to do?  What to do?

Enter insomnia coupled with late night browsing on eBay!!!!

As long as the USPS cooperates (as it is already en route) – on Wednesday, at Yankee Stadium, I’ll be wearing this:

I don't feel "dirty" wearing a Swisher jersey. I liked him before he was a Yankee and I'll like him after he's gone from New York. This way I'm not in NY gear but look like a friendly!

I usually try to grab a t-shirt from the different parks I visit but never thought about any other gear. And since there is no way on this Earth that I would ever wear Yankees gear (and the idea of wearing Rays gear makes me feel a bit unclean as well) – I’m good with this. Admittedly, I crack myself up.

When I look down I just miss all the good stuff

One of the more entertaining pictures I took on Saturday. Mr. Bay seemed none too pleased with the friendly ass tap from Mr. Swisher. More photos from Saturday are at the Toeing the Rubber Facebook page (linked on the left sidebar).

It both amuses and impresses me that Jason Bay, who has only been here a little over a year, is one of the more reasonable person around in regard to what is going on with the Red Sox:

“I think what goes unnoticed around here is we’re in first place for the other playoff spot,” Bay said. “We won the wild card last year and made Game 7 of the ALCS.”

While the media (and resident Yankees fan Lou) has given the World Championship to the Yankees, one of the newbies, a guy from a team that hasn’t sniffed the playoffs in quite some time, realizes that those awards aren’t given out until October.

Did it stink, watching Beckett struggle last night?  Hell, yeah.  Watching my ace give up five home runs isn’t quite what I’d call fun.  But am I worried (as some posted around the Internet last night) that he’s “done”?  Jesus, people, do we have to follow the media’s lead and only have two speeds?  I can’t go from extreme optimist to extreme pessimist as quickly as some folks.  I understand it was two bad outings in a row for Beckett but, frankly, shit happens.  I choose to stay in the middle and enjoy the freaking season while we have it.  The Sox still lead the wild card and while it’s unlikely the Yanks will tank so badly they’ll lose the division lead, anything is still possible.  I hold out hope until the math says otherwise.  That’s just how I roll.

I think it’s fair to say, though, that any Red Sox fan who willfully chooses to listen to Joe Morgan, Jon Miller and Steve Phillips call a Red Sox game (especially a Red Sox/Yankees game) is a glutton for punishment and gets what they deserve.  (I count myself in this group.  Last time the Sox were on ESPN I muted the game and listened to Joe Castiglione and Dave O’Brien.  Don’t know why I didn’t do this last night but I deeply regret it.)

The Sox and their fans have no time to wallow.  Tonight starts a four-game series against the White Sox with Buchholz (3.99) and Contreras 5.13) on the mound.  The rest of the series gives us Lester (3.58), Wakefield (4.31) and Tazawa (3.57) against Garcia (10.38), Floyd (3.98) and Danks (3.85).  This past weekend proved that pitching match-ups don’t always tell the story of what will happen…but I sure do like the chances of the Red Sox this week.

I used to do a little but a little wouldn't do

How is it that I’ve been online all these years and I’ve never seen this website before? Major League Baseball Players online? I feel like a fool for having never seen it. And the way I found it was researching something not related to baseball, which is usually how these things pop up. As I type this, I’m listening to an interview with Mike Timlin from April 2008. They have interviews that go all the way back to 2004. I’m going to be up all night listening. What I’m also finding interesting is that you can download the basic agreement, the joint-drug agreement and the list of approved supplements for players. Given the information this site has, I’m guessing most of you reading this are thinking “Yes, we’ve visited that site. Where’ve you been, Cyn?”. I have no idea and I’m embarrassed that I didn’t realize it existed. (I blame mlb.com. Their websites are horror shows to navigate. Yeah, that’s it!)