Sox Blog

Like raaayeeeaaaiiinnn!!!

Mike Miliard — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:31:00 GMT

As if this ceaseless crummy weather hasn't driven us all to our wits end simply by its nature: blocking out the sun and blanketing the region in a clammy, mildewy wet for who knows how many weeks now.

Now the rain's got to start messing with our baseball team?

I really still cannot believe what I saw happen last night. I was at Redbones around 8, tucking into some ribs, watching Smoltz cruise and our guys pile on runs. It was pleasant. Then, next thing I knew, there was a tarp on the field, dented by torrential sheets of rain.

Seventy-nine minutes later, I was across the street at the Sligo Pub, draining Bud after Bud and watching in utter incredulity as that tranpired in the seventh and eighth, slowly but inexorably.

A single to right
Another single to right
A double to right
A homer to left
A single to center
Two ground outs
Another single to center
Another single to center
A line-out
Six runs in.

Next inning, even more of the same...

A single
A double
Another single
Another single
A sac fly
Another single
A strikeout
Another double
A walk
A flyout
Five more runs in.

“What's stunning,” wrote someone in the SoSH game thread, “is that the Orioles didn't even need to hit in the bottom of the 9th. I mean, wow.”

What’s also stunning is that it was the @#$% ORIOLES.

More bons mots from that thread:

* We're up by 8. Let Smoltz just underhand it for 3 more outs. We'll probably still be up by at least 3 runs after that. Its the fucking Orioles.

* This is the baseball gods punishing the Sox for running off the field with 2 outs.

* I guess that shows you how seriously they take the Orioles

* Masterson's BABIP: .667 (fair balls .714)...

* How can I be strong in times like these?

* The title for this game thread [‘So far, so good!’] is pretty fucking funny right now.

* If I wasn't watching this with my own two eyes, I would not believe it.

* This will be in chapter 3 of the 2009 World Series Video.

* The Os are going to go on a tear and win it all this year?

The good news? These guys are paid to have short memories.

And Josh Beckett takes the mound in about 45 minutes.

So let's not do that again.

Baseball Infographics

Mike Miliard — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:19:00 GMT

These are terrific. Craig Robinson, you are to be commended!

Some more:

* I'm actually surprised at how many of these are still "pure."

* North by northeast.

* Hey, could be worse.

* A lot. Perhaps one too many.

* A long distance.

* A longer distance.

* From the dove's point of view.

* Fantastic.

Hey, Eck!

Mike Miliard — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:11:00 GMT

When you were throwing your own hitless gem in 1977, was there a guy up in the booth crowing "no-no" every few minutes throughout the middle innings? Didn't you learn anything from our old friend Hazel Mae?

I'm not as worked up about it as some.

But sometimes a little superstition has its merits. It's what makes this game of ours unique.

At least both Beckett and Granderson are on my fantasy team.

A confession

Mike Miliard — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:55:00 GMT

I teared up a little when he hit that home run last night.

And I'm not embarrassed to admit it.

Welcome back, friend. At long last.

Boston Astros opening night at Jim Rice Field

Mike Miliard — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:06:00 GMT

The Boston Astros kick off their 30th anniversary season tonight in Roxbury, feted by Boston sports legends such as Tommy Heinsohn, Joe Morgan, and, not least, former Astros hurler Manny Delcarmen.

The evening will include a practice demonstration, silent and live auctions, cocktails and dinner, all in honor of Astros founder Robert Lewis, Jr.

Since 1979, more than 2,000 kids have played for South End Baseball team, which competes at the local, regional, and national levels and has done battle in years past with squads such as the Canadian National Team, the Dominican Republic All-Stars, and Team Puerto Rico.

In addition to Delcarmen, several other Astro alums have gone pro, including Juan Carlos Portes, who plays in the Minnesota Twins organization, and Dorian Rojas who’s played in the CanAm and Northern Leagues.

As important as the Astros’ W-L record, however, is the team’s community service initiatives and support for its players. More than 75 percent of its players have gone to college — each with a laptop donated by the team.

Jim Rice Field is at 1927 Washington Street in Boston. Tickets for “Opening Night At The Park” are $100. For more information, call (617) 346-6061.

And you thought Fenway was expensive...

Mike Miliard — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:37:00 GMT

A beer at the new Yankee Stadium.

It's cheaper — a lot cheaper — to fly to Seattle to watch the Yankees play the Mariners at Safeco field (including airfare, car rental, hotel and food) than it is to watch them in the best seats at the new Toilet.

From Friday's New York Post:

Option 1: Two tickets to Tuesday night, June 30, Mariners at Yanks, cost for just the tickets, $5,000.

Option 2: Two round-trip airline tickets to Seattle, Friday, Aug. 14, return Sunday the 16th, rental car for three days, two-night double occupancy stay in four-star hotel, two top tickets to both the Saturday and Sunday Yanks-Mariners games, two best-restaurant-in-town dinners for two. Total cost, $2,800. Plus-frequent flyer miles.

(Hat tip to Kottke.)

Dom DiMaggio, 1917-2009

Mike Miliard — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:14:00 GMT

“Joe was the best hitter, Dom the best fielder, Vince the best singer.”
— Gay Talese, “The Silent Season of a Hero.”

His big brother may have had the more famous hitting streak, but Dominic had one of his own — 34 games, in 1949 — and it remains on Boston’s record books. It must have been a drag to live in his shadow (even the obits today have Joe's name in their headlines) but Dom was a superb player in his own right.

He led the AL in assists three times, in putouts and DPs twice, in runs twice, and steals once.

“If they hadn’t taken DiMaggio out of the game,” Enous Slaughter said of his mad dash, “I wouldn’t have tried it.”

He was a math whiz, and looked the part in his round specs. He played 1338 games in center field for the Red Sox over 11 seasons — interrupted by three years in the Navy — and then retired to a life as a hugely successful businessman.

And, by unanimous acclaim, he was a kind and gentle soul.

In depressing times like these, it’s nice to be reminded of — but sad to be losing — the last of the greatest baseball generation. They really don’t make ‘em like they used to.

If you haven’t already, definitely read the late David Halberstam’s poignant The Teammates: A Portrait of Friendship, which follows DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky as they take a 1300-mile road trip to the Florida Keys to visit their lifelong friend Ted Williams, who’s ailing and fading fast. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

There’s a scene in the book that gets me every time.

They visited with Ted for two days, two visits a day, each one not too long, because he needed his naps. On the last visit, Dominic suddenly said, “Teddy, I'm going to sing you a song.”

It was an Italian love song, the story of two men who were best friends, one of whom was in love with a girl. But he was afraid to tell her, so he did it through his friend, who then stole her away. “I Love Her, But I Don't Know How to Tell Her,” Dominic called it.

Then Dominic began to sing and the house was filled with the sound of his beautiful baritone voice. Ted loved it. He started clapping, and so Dominic sang it again, and Ted clapped again.

“Dommy, Dommy, you did really well,” Ted said when he finished.

Condolences to the DiMaggio family. And, of course, to Johnny and Bobby.

RIP, Little Professor.

Shaq weighs in

Mike Miliard — Thu, 07 May 2009 21:35:00 GMT

Of all the many words spilled so far (and yet to be spilled) about Mannygate, perhaps these are the most eloquent.

Manny suspended 50 games for performance-enhancing drugs

Mike Miliard — Thu, 07 May 2009 17:21:00 GMT

“Model citizen” no more, apparently.

And A-Rod must be giddy as a schoolgirl for the shift in attention.

Gotta say, I’m pretty shocked by this. I suppose I shouldn’t be. But for whatever reason, Manny’s always been one of those guys I just presumed had never juiced. He just seemed too natural of a talent, too hard a worker, just didn’t seem like the type. I dunno. Maybe I was naïve. Maybe I had simply convinced myself.

But as we’ve learned over the past few years, there’s really no such thing as a type. All kinds of guys, at every level of the game, are getting sullied by this, and he, apparently, is the latest.

But this is huge. Another first-ballot Hall of Famer. But this time — rather than being outed by some sports scribe’s shoeleather reporting — he flunked the test outright.

How could he be so dumb?

More to the point: what precisely is the banned substance, and when will we find out? Will Carroll says it’s not steroids.

Is there any possible way on earth, at all, whatsoever, by any stretch of the imagination, that Scott Boras could maybe, perhaps, just maybe, be telling the truth? That the drug was legitimately prescribed “by a doctor for a medical condition”?

And if he’s really got an excuse — something, say, along these lines — why isn’t he appealing?

If he is guilty, how long has this been going on?

Could this be the trigger point for more bad news in re: Sox players current and/or former? Or more of those 104 names? At this point I’ve just got to steel myself for the fact that other shoes could soon be dropping.

Damn.

I used the be the hardest of hardcore Manny defenders. (Just ask Phoenix cleaning guy Pat D, who, well, wasn’t.) But it’s true: all that bullshit on his way out of town last summer — and all the needling aftermath — have soured me on him. This, if it is indeed what it looks like, is just another kick in the teeth for a Boston fan base that worshipped the guy for seven and a half seasons.

Still, with all due respect to my former colleague Dan Kennedy, I don’t love this. It sucks.

Xavier Paul, this is your moment!

But I gotta wonder now if the Dodgers are still gonna “run away with this thing.”

UPDATE: Manny's statement.

Bill James gets animated

Mike Miliard — Wed, 06 May 2009 21:09:00 GMT

This is getting pretty funny. I, like most, was a bit skeptical when I first heard the Steven Soderbergh is planning to turn Michael Lewis’s Moneyball into a movie.

Unlike many, however, I’m actually sorta looking forward to it. Soderbergh is great, and I’m curious to see what he does with the thing.

But the more I hear about it, the more weirdly intrigued I am.

Brad Pitt as Billy Beane? A bit of a stretch, sure, but I can see it — and I suppose one needs a few watts of star power if there’s gonna any hope of making concepts like OPB, Range Factor, and Jeremy Brown’s body type sing on the screen.

Demetri Martin as Paul DePodesta??? Gotta say, that that one (so to speak) is completely out of left field. But Demetri’s a smart guy. And I suppose he knows about things like Games, Timing, and Power.

But today comes the best news yet.

Who plays Bill James?

“My current plan is to animate him,” Soderbergh tells MTV News.

“We have this sort of oracle character that appears throughout and declaims various issues and he’s essentially supposed to be Bill James. He’s your host in a way…. The background will be real but the person who is supposed to be him will be animated.”

“It needs a gimmick,” Soderberg explains. “It needs something to make it not Masterpiece Theatre. His writer voice is so big, I thought to literalize it is going to actually harm it. I need to make his voice funny and when he comes on you’re happy to see it.”

OK. Officially count me in for this.

In the mean time, if Soderbergh hasn’t found a model for his Bill James cartoon, he could do a lot worse than the drawing (above) by Phoenix illustrator Paul Hoppe, which accompanies my interview with James last year.

And oh yeah: if you haven’t signed up for billjamesonline yet, you should do so. Three bucks a month. Can’t be beat.

About those first-place Toronto Blue Jays

Ryan Stewart — Tue, 05 May 2009 15:56:00 GMT

Take a look at their April schedule. Notice something missing?

Good for them and everything, and I agree that none of those teams looks likely to be genuinely terrible, but the only AL East team they've played so far has been Baltimore. I say this not to criticize, of course; teams just play their schedules. But let's just keep this in mind before leaping to any crazy conclusions.

New from Rounder books...

Mike Miliard — Mon, 04 May 2009 19:03:00 GMT

It makes me pretty wistful to see David Ortiz on the cover of this one.

A new nickname for A-Rod

Mike Miliard — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:44:00 GMT

“...that referenced an increased pectoral size comparable to a woman's chest.”

It takes a lot

Mike Miliard — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 03:32:00 GMT

To make this Javy Lopez look good by comparison.

Very glad we spent four-and-a-half-hours working inexorably toward that conclusion.

Just another day at the office

Mike Miliard — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:19:00 GMT

"I prefer things quiet."

Occasional loud noises are OK, however. Like, say, the sharp thwack of a 99-mph fastball screaming out of the park in the ninth inning of a scoreless game.

Oh, and Wake? Huge props. Looking damn good. Please keep it up.

Papelbon sure made things interesting, though, eh? (As did NESN ... thanks for cutting out in the middle of Francisco's fly ball. For several long seconds I wasn't sure whether to exhale contentedly or scream.) Hey, since Paps seems, perhaps rather ominously, to have changed his mechanics, maybe he can try the knuckleball? It would be nice to have him around for a while.