Posts Tagged ‘World Series’
 |
Ramirez, Sox End Volatile Relationship: Latest “Manny Being Manny” Antics Swelled Into Selfish Discontent, Forcing Boston To Make A MoveAugust 4th, 2008
|
And just like that, he’s gone.
After 1,083 regular season games played, 274 home runs launched into the ether, and 868 runs driven in, Manny Ramirez will no longer stand before the Monster in left field wearing home whites with red embroidery. No longer will he bat behind David Ortiz, forming one of the most prolific offensive combos in the history of the game. And no longer will he stir that fickle cauldron mixed with absolute indignation and pure jubilation.
Just like that. Like so many of the baseballs that effortlessly smacked off the barrel of his bat. Gone. Long gone, in fact.
With just minutes, if not seconds, to go before the clock struck four on Thursday afternoon, the Red Sox sent the disgruntled Ramirez to the Los Angeles Dodgers via the Pittsburgh Pirates in a three-way deal that landed All-Star outfielder Jason Bay—quite fittingly—in the Bay State.
In a move similar to the Nomar Garciaparra trade of 2004—and for largely the same reasons and under eerily equal circumstances—the player, teammates, manager, and front office all agreed: a point of no return had been reached, and Ramirez had to go; and what better place than Frank McCourt’s SoCal Red Sox Retirement Home. Read more
 |
End of the Road for Boston Woes OR Just the Beginning of Boston’s Road WoesJuly 20th, 2008
|
A few short months ago a la October, the Angels were basically running away from Fenway’s bombers with their proverbial tails between their legs. After losing two series ending in sweeps to the Red Sox on two separate post-season occasions since the turn of the millennium, the Angels seemed to have their work cut out for them again in 08 if they wanted any chance at another World Series run.
The Angels have been, in their career, weak against the formidable Boston lineup. It is because of this that so many sports writers have criticized the Angels’ management for not acquiring a more fear-inducing bat for the middle of the lineup to back Big Daddy Vladdy. In fact, despite a successful first half, power rankings on ESPN still give little credence to the team and still stress this same overly-repetitive theme: “The Angels are the clear favorites in the AL West despite an offense that ranks 23rd in the majors in OPS and runs scored. Will they make a run at Mark Teixeira or Matt Holliday, or cling to the hope that starting pitching, a great closer and a flair for one-run victories can propel them deep into October?” (Crasnik’s “Starting 9” on ESPN.com). Though that last little statement, ending in a rhetorical question, seems to be rather connotative of a negative sentiment, I beg to differ, and offer up a definite YES. Great pitching > great hitting. Almost always. Read more
 |
Does playing for the A’s lead to the Hall of Fame?May 27th, 2008
|
What is it about the Athletics franchise and the Hall of Fame? I was thinking about this the other day when Mike Piazza announced his retirement. What I wanted to know was how many players in baseball history played for the A’s franchise and were also enshrined in baseball’s Hall of Fame. What I came across was outstanding.
In the A’s 41 year history in Oakland, 11 players, coaches, or managers have passed through the green and gold before going on to the Hall of Fame. In addition to them, at least five (Mark McGwire, Tony La Russa, Rickey Henderson, Frank Thomas, and Piazza) more have made stops that are not eligible yet or are on the ballot but have yet to be selected.
Some of those players spent long portions of their career in Oakland (Reggie Jackson, Dennis Eckersley, Rollie Fingers, Catfish Hunter and Dick Willliams) while others were here for anywhere from a season to few months to a couple of games (Joe Morgan, Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda, Don Sutton, Goose Gossage and even Joe Dimaggio). These players are not all there is though. This is just the Oakland side of it. DiMaggio was a coach with the A’s after he retired and Williams was a manager for the A’s.
|
Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe … It Is For LesterMay 21st, 2008
|
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.
|
Deficit, Smeficit: Sox Proving No Lead’s Too LargeApril 24th, 2008
|
Just call them “The Comeback Kids.”
No, I’m not talking about John McCain and Hillary Clinton, though their individual runs for the presidency have also prevailed over seemingly insurmountable odds. But rather, I’m talking about the American League’s best team, record-wise and, perhaps, otherwise, through the first four weeks of the still very young season.
Or maybe “The Cardiac Kids” would suit them better. Not sure, but considering some of the key igniters behind the Red Sox recent barrage of late-inning magic, the noun ‘kids’ seems more than apropos.
Off to a start filled with more last-minute drama than an episode of Lost, the team from the Back Bay has quashed, in convincing fashion, any worries of a slow start due to the aftereffects of an opening-morning excursion through Japan and an April schedule chocked full of playoff contenders.
But despite the 15-8 record, you can hardly call the Red Sox play on the field dominant. More like opportunistic and absurdly resilient, bordering on miraculous.
Don’t get me wrong; it’s not to say they’ve been lucky—ever since going the way of Snake Plissken and escaping from Toronto after a weekend nightmare in early April, the Boston Nine-plus have been rolling through the competition … just not in a—let’s say—Arizona Diamondbacks-like manner.
Breaking Out The Calculators: Run Differential Meets Pythagoras
The D-Backs (through Wednesday) have scored 128 runs and yielded only 79 tallies to their opposition—good for a run differential of 49—whereas the Red Sox (through Wednesday) have plated an AL-leading 123 runs but allowed 112 runs to score—a run differential of just 11.
So, what? Both teams top their respective leagues with 15 wins apiece. It doesn’t matter.
Well, in the land of sabermetrics, where the VORP-petals fall and the Win Share trees tower, it does matter. Yes, the wins are in the proverbial bank, but a team’s run differential can tell us a different story.
|
The $20 Million Man-nyApril 20th, 2008
|
While one slumps, the other thrives—a perfect summation so far on the young season for the dynamic one-two punch of David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez.
It’s the type of luxury few teams can afford. It’s a combo that serves as a constant between the Red Sox two World Series championship runs over the past four years. And it’s partly why the Boston lineup, despite Ortiz’ early season bat-swinging malaise, has remained near the top in all the important offensive categories after three weeks of April baseball.
But it’s also, quite possibly, the last year we’ll see the Dominican duo stacked side-by-side in the same lineup—midsummer classics and fantasy baseball leagues excluded.
 |
Thoughts on the cities of the NL WestApril 11th, 2008
|
Unlike most of the NL West, the Dodgers franchise is an organization steeped in tradition. Dodger fans are keenly aware that their team is one of the reasons professional sports on the West Coast exists. With six World Series titles, Dodger fans can be a little arrogant when it comes to their team. Los Angeles as a city is paradise. The weather is always perfect. Even when it rains, it is perfect rain. The Dodgers are the only team to have a player whose number is retired in every stadium. No. 42 can never be worn again because of the Dodger who gave it meaning. This Dodger tradition is cherished by the fans. It is a combination of tradition, weather and laid back people that make LA everything that the following cities wish they could be. Read more
|
Boston Pops, Massive Bunting and Bill BucknerApril 10th, 2008
|
Beneath clear blue skies on a cool Tuesday afternoon, the 2007 World Champions returned home April 8 to receive their rings. Here’s my rundown of the festivities, complete with pithy comments:
1:25 EST: An already buzzing Fenway Park comes to a calm when the Boston Pops Orchestra, stationed in shallow center field, just beyond the second base bag, draws the crowd’s attention by launching into a rendition of the theme from “Jurassic Park.” Soon followed by the one-by-one unfurling of the first five Red Sox World Series flags across the revered wall in left, it proves to be a fitting score choice for championships witnessed only by dinosaurs. Seconds later, a Green Monster-sized banner identifying the 2004 team, last seen prior to the ‘05 home opener, unrolls all the way down to the warning track and conceals the Jurassic era championships. But a 2007 World Series banner, battling against updrafts before finally settling, soon replaces the massive bunting with another. The on-going applause erupts into a roar of affection and appreciation.
1:30 EST: Emerging from the shadows of the colossal pennant in left, members from the Celtics, Bruins, Patriots, and ‘04 Red Sox—all holding their respective league championship trophies—trot out towards the Boston dugout, neatly tying New England sports lore together upon hallowed grounds: Bill Russell walking side-by-side with Bobby Orr and John Havlicek rubbing shoulders with … Brian Daubach? OK, Pedro’s rehabbing again and Keith Foulke’s now un-retired; pickings were slim, I guess. No Tom Brady representing the Pats, either; however, Gisele did confirm that he’s currently in the final stages of his Euro-Metrosexual reassignment surgery. It’s been a grueling process.
1:35 EST: Along the first base bag, Red Sox principal owner John Henry, serving as the lord of the rings, stands before an oblong table where he oversees the wooden boxes containing the World Series bands. Finishing up the John Williams’ montage, the Boston Pops harmoniously ride into “The Magnificent Seven” theme as massage therapists, video coordinators, interpreters, and Johnny Pesky, at 88 years young, get first dibs on the stylish rings fitted with precious stones and mounted in white gold.
1:38 EST: Dipping back into the Williams’ catalog, J.D. Drew receives his ring to the tune of Princess Leia’s theme from “Star Wars.” How cute. And then, with an orchestral version of Dropkick Murphys’ “I’m Shipping Up To Boston” booming, Jonathan Papelbon snags his ring, sans celtic dance. By the way, I wish the Pops could play continuous background music to my life; I mean, how sweet would it be to have an inner maestro privy to all your internal thoughts and feelings, conducting a masterful score aimed at intensifying every last one of them? OK, maybe I’m alone on this.
1:45 EST: With the rings now delivered, the honorees, led by David Ortiz, parade out to the flagpole in left-center where a rolled up pennant rests below. Pesky, originally handed the duty of raising the flag to its apex, asks for Big Papi’s help, saying “Why’d they have to make it so goddamn big?” Priceless. And so, the ‘07 World Series banner, with each yank of the halyard, ascends to the top of Fenway Park.
1:55 EST: On a day when a no-frills flyovers just wouldn’t be enough, four F-16 ‘Fighting Falcon’ jets perform a nifty aerial maneuver as the wingman pulls off an impressive helical roll around the other three aircrafts. Of course, one has to question the wisdom of approving a low altitude multiple jet stunt over a major city. Hey, I’m just saying.
2:02 EST: Still sporting his mid-80’s porn ’stache, Bill Buckner returns to Fenway to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. Some will joke that it should have been Dave Stapleton instead. However, I will not. For as contrived as it may be, the moment garners a sustained standing ovation overflowing with sincerity. This is in part because a rickety-kneed Buckner has a long walk from the left field scoreboard to the dirt-filled mound, but also because the scene became so perfectly cinematic. There he stood, with the orchestral music in the background and the camera panning around Fenway—everyone standing, everyone clapping. And then a misty-eyed Buckner flicks away a tear as if it were a lone sunflower seed. It’s one of those Spielberg moments … or it could have just been the result of the frakkin’ “Indian Jones” theme music stuck in my head from the Boston Pops. Probably a bit of both.
2:05 EST: And the left-handed throwing Buckner breaks off a nasty bender for a strike to his former teammate Dwight Evans (something resident lefty “specialist” Javier Lopez fails to do on a regular basis.) Perhaps it was strangely timed; perhaps it was unnecessary. Nonetheless, Buckner’s reappearance at Fenway provides a sense of closure to the whole ‘86 saga. Remember that Buckner, in what would be his final year, came back to the Red Sox in 1990 after making the club as a non-roster invitee out of spring training. He received a standing ovation on opening day back then, just four years after his infamous error that may or may not have cost Boston the World Series. (Game Six had already been tied on a Bob Stanley wild pitch/Rich Gedman passed ball). Since then, the whole persona non grata angle has been nothing more than a media creation perpetuated by the Dan Shaughnessy’s of the sports journalism world, and Buckner agrees.
2:10 EST: To a melodic chorus of cheers and whistles from the Fenway faithful, the Red Sox take the field at home for the first time this season.
 |
Stop! Don’t Panic YetApril 10th, 2008
|
The Detroit Tigers upped their payroll from $95 million in 2007 to $138 million this season, making theirs the second highest in baseball. This splurging has so far proven ineffective.
After adding coveted veterans Miguel Cabrera, Dontrelle Willis, and Edgar Renteria to the books, owner Mike Ilitch has been blessed with just one victory in Detroit’s first eight games.
Is it time to panic? Conventional wisdom says no.
If the 2007 season showed us anything, it is that slow starts do not set the tone of a season. Just ask the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, and Colorado Rockies. They all rose from the ashes to reach the playoffs last year. The less-than-impressive Phillies began 3-10 and stormed past the free-falling Mets in September. The flailing Cubs once dropped six in a row, falling to 22-31 but pulled themselves up by season’s end to capture the NL Central. And the Rockies completed one of the most impressive runs of our generation, streaking all the way to a World Series after compiling an 18-27 record. Read more
|
Red Sox, Daisuke Tame Tigers in Home OpenerApril 10th, 2008
|
Amazing what an off day and the Fenway crowd can do. Not to mention some new jewelry.
After a lost weekend in Toronto that saw the Red Sox drop three straight to the Blue Jays in rather lethargic fashion (outscored 23-9 while committing six errors), the hometown nine from Boston, at long last, returned to the Fens for yet another opener—only this time, their own.
Yes, it took a while; 19-days and some 16,000 air miles spread across the Far East, West Coast, and the provinces of Central Canada to be exact. But with the tiring three-nation tour now behind them, the Red Sox undoubtedly enjoyed the ceremonious Back Bay homecoming.
Packed with stars and filled with pre-game festivities, the dual-purpose opener officially rang in the new baseball season for the Red Sox while also capping off the World Series run from a year ago with the raising of another championship flag and the handing out of diamond- and ruby-studded rings.
Yet it was another prized jewel on display April 8 that ended up stealing the show as Daisuke Matsuzaka delivered a shutout performance against the still winless Detroit Tigers in his 2008 Fenway debut, earning his second victory on the young season.
