Posts Tagged ‘Boston’
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Halfway Point: BoSox Sit Atop The East … BarelyJune 30th, 2008
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Eighty-one games down, eighty-one more to go. Only the Red Sox can say they have played half their regular season schedule as of June 26—just one of the several perks of starting a season a week earlier than the rest of major league baseball.
So faux halfway points be damned. There’s no need to wait until July 15 when the Midsummer Classic bids adieu to the hallowed grounds of Yankee Stadium. The Sox have reached the epicenter of the Marathon, and the battle for American League East supremacy hangs in the balance, with a familiar rival Empire stealthily drawing nearer from the flank, while a new and unforeseen usurper continues to flex their muscle as they seek to dethrone last year’s victor.
Overdramatic much? Hell, yeah! But it’s our natural right, as both writers and baseball enthusiasts, to allegorize and sensationalize this glorified little game of stickball.
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Pedroia The Destroia Vs. The Sophomore SlumpJune 25th, 2008
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He stands about five-foot-nothing, armed with the biceps of a 12-year-old, looking more like one of the bat boys than a major leaguer. But that’s OK. Dustin Pedroia isn’t modeling in the latest billboard ad for Calvin Klein Underwear.
For what the diminutive second baseman lacks in the physique department, he makes up in his exceptional hand-eye coordination. And while short in stature, the pocket-sized Pedroia remains long on confidence, bordering on cocky—just ask his teammates.
“He’ll make an out against a guy throwing 98 (mph), and when he comes to the dugout, we’ll ask, ‘What’s he got?’” said outfielder Brandon Moss back in 2005 while playing with Pedroia at Double-A Portland. “Dustin will tell us, ‘He ain’t got &*@*!’”
Inculcated with a big ol’ case of the Short Man Syndrome after years of hearing the doubters and skeptics say that he couldn’t, Boston’s very own Napoleon has done nothing but hit since his collegiate days at Arizona State University to throughout his rising pro-career with the Sox following his second round selection in the 2004 amateur draft. Read more
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Just Like They Drew It Up: J.D. Silencing CriticsJune 19th, 2008
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The cost of crude oil by the barrel isn’t the lone commodity on the rise. Right fielder J.D. Drew—often ridiculed and much besieged by fans and local sports media during most of last season—is scaling new heights for the Red Sox.
Only, of late, Drew is making his hefty price tag seem fairer by the plate appearance.
While year one of his $70 million, five-year contract in Boston left even the most ardent of Drew defenders unfulfilled, the former first round pick—two times over—did end his debut season in a Sox uniform on a high note, finishing with a strong September that carried into the playoffs, which included a momentous grand slam in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series.
But a closer examination of his first go-around in the American League would reveal a season much in line with his career output. That is, if you disregard his near two-month adjustment period to a league switch, different pitching—both personnel- and approach-wise—a new hitting venue, and the highly chaotic and fishbowl environment that makes up the Boston sports scene.
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Wrist & Relaxation: Big Papi Out At Least A MonthJune 7th, 2008
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He let loose his typical mighty swing—the type of violent hack meant to launch a baseball into an orbital rotation around the sun, or perhaps even beyond. A tick late on the incoming heater, he instead thundered a seemingly harmless foul ball off to the third base side.
But before the soon-to-be souvenir even found its way into the crowd, David Ortiz heard it: a disconcerting pop in his left hand followed by excruciating pain upon each subsequent movement of his wrist, which sounded off with a noticeable click.
An X-ray after the Monday night game against the Orioles in Baltimore revealed no damage, but an MRI the next day back in Boston would prove to be far more revealing. The extensor carpi ulnaris tendon in Ortiz’ left wrist had slipped from its sheath, which had suffered a partial tear, causing the connective tissue to grind and snap over the bone, hence the pesky clicking sound emanating from the area.
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Sox Head West, Offense Goes SouthMay 30th, 2008
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Superman has his Kryptonite. Spider-Man has his forever-conflicting sense of responsibility. And the oh-so-close-to-being-immortal Achilles had that pesky heel thing.
But the fatal weakness for the Red Sox thus far this season has been quite simple—with no intergalactic travel required. Because just outside the friendly nooks and crannies of Fenway Park, the mighty Boston lineup tends to morph from a run-producing powerhouse into the motley crew that made up the anemic offense of the painfully awful ‘62 Mets.
OK, a bit of an exaggeration, for sure. After all, the Sox, despite a recent run-scoring outage, still maintain the second best road OPS in the American League. But with Boston dropping 10 of their last 12 away from the Fens—and averaging only 3.5 runs in the process—the team needs to take the nearest exit ramp off this road to perdition.
After the first six contests of a ten game trip—a West Coast swing through Oakland and Seattle before heading back east to square off against Baltimore this weekend—the Sox find themselves with only a single etch in the win column. Read more
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Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe … It Is For LesterMay 21st, 2008
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Imagine, for a moment, that you’re a down-on-your-luck screenwriter languishing away in the bottomless depths of the unjust Hollywood caste system. You’re miserable, depressed, and desperately trying to regain the talent and sanity you once had—if you ever truly had it at all.
But then, an epiphany hits you in the dead of the night like a surge of untapped creative energy. You can’t sleep. You have to write. Because the idea stuck in your brain that has launched into ceaseless jumping jacks won’t let you do anything else.
And then, in the midst of this artistic euphoria, let’s say you draft up this amazing baseball narrative about a top-notch pitching prospect that debuts at age 22 only to find out mere months later that he has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
With his career derailed in the immediate future, a long, hard road back to good health, let alone the big leagues, now awaits the young athlete—the perfect inspirational plot-line.
So, if you were writing this script, you’d then wonder how to end it. Sure, he’d battle back from cancer and certainly win his first start back in the majors, but how would you cap off the script, ensuring that no eyes were dry when the credits started to roll.
Would you have him winning the World Series clincher just ten months after completing radiation treatment?
Or would you have him tossing a no-hitter for the film’s final climax?
Well, against better judgment, you decide to have the protagonist accomplish both feats. But hey, you’re excited, and you can’t wait to pitch your yarn to the motion picture bigwigs … plus, you really want to quit working as a used-car salesman in Santa Monica.
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Still A Bit Doughy, Still Proving Scouts WrongMay 20th, 2008
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He leads the Red Sox in batting average and on-base percentage. And no, his name isn’t Manny Ramirez.
He ranks first on the club in extra-base hits, total bases, and slugging. And if you guessed David Ortiz, you’d be wrong.
In fact, he not only tops the Sox in runs created but also the entire American League through Sunday’s games. And fittingly, in this modified version of Guess Who, our mystery man trails just the Texas Rangers’ Milton Bradley in RC/27 (that is, runs created expressed as a rate stat per 27 outs rather than a raw number; not a droid model from Star Wars).
But does he have any facial hair?
Ah yes, finally, a pertinent factoid. While failing to outdo Manny’s Rastafarian mop and gnarled whiskers, this chap’s bristling goatee still manages to hold its own.
Of course! Our mystery man is no man at all—but rather, a god in the eyes of some baseball brethren.
Dubbed years ago as “Euclis, The Greek God of Walks” by the Oakland Athletics’ front office due to his historical minor league on-base prowess, first baseman Kevin Youkilis is no longer a deity of a single force.
These days, he’s more like “The Greek God of A Little Bit of Everything.” No, certainly not as catchy. And no, he’s not actually Greek, either.
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Julio Lugo: Another Sunk Cost At Short?May 14th, 2008
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Ever since the eleventh-hour deadline deal that shipped Nomar Garciaparra off to the Cubbies as part of a three-way trade machination and, along with it, sent a Red Sox fandom into knee-jerk hysteria—then eventual baseball ecstasy three months later—general manager Theo Epstein has aggressively engaged in a seasonal pursuit for Boston’s next long-term shortstop.
But for the past four winters—each filled and followed by one fruitless search after another—Epstein’s hunt has seemingly mirrored the life and times of Elmer Fudd. Far too elusive to nab, that wascawly shortstop has evaded the grasp of the Sox GM at every turn—only self-inflicted gunshot wounds in the form of failed signings left in all the aftermath.
So, to say the shortstop position under the Epstein-era has seen more ups, downs and (public relations) spin than a merry-go-round wouldn’t be much of an understatement. In fact, by now, some Red Sox supporters might prefer a daintily handcrafted carousel horse to the club’s incumbent shortstop, one Julio Lugo.
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Dai’secting Daisuke: Walking A Fine LineMay 8th, 2008
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A mere superficial glance over his numbers would lead very few to question Daisuke Matsuzaka’s start to the 2008 campaign. The 27-year-old Japanese import, now in his second season with the Red Sox, owns a tidy 2.43 earned run average and an unblemished record at 5-0 overall.
But while Matsuzaka’s year-to-date results have been good—if not perfect, as the Sox have won all seven of his starts—Boston’s $100 million investment is still walking a fine line between dominance and near-disaster. Literally.
After his Monday night start in Detroit—an outing in which the Dice-Man handed out eight free passes to Tiger batters—Matsuzaka’s season walk total increased to 27 in 40 and two-thirds innings pitched, an average of nearly six bases on balls per nine.
Of course, one walk-fest this early in a season can certainly skew the numbers. But a high walk total isn’t the lone red flag waiving in the case of Daisuke. Just as worrisome going forward is the combination of an absolutely unsustainable batting average on balls in play (BABIP) and a recent slide in his strikeout rate.
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Home Cooking Gets Sox Back On TrackMay 6th, 2008
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Before landing in the Motor City late Sunday night for the start of a four-game tilt against the Tigers, the Red Sox put the finishing touches on a weekend sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays with a 7-3 win, returning the disfavor from seven days ago while capping off a successful 5-1 homestand.
After pitching their way to a series win against the Toronto Blue Jays, the Boston bats finally woke up following a six game slumber (four runs over their last 54 innings) that produced a line score more representative of binary code than an actual offense.
Outscoring the Rays 26-10 over the three-game set, the Sox improved their record to 20-13 and, for the little it’s worth this early in a season, recaptured sole possession of first place in the AL East.
Now, if only the Sox could figure out how to fit Fenway Park in the cargo hold of their private charter.
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