Bombs Away!

Posted by Adam Hart June 17, 2009 at 7:05 am

If the past ten days serve as any indication, Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz has regained the swing that made him a fan favorite in Boston. Read more

Tito holds court

Posted by Ted McEnroe April 7, 2009 at 2:27 pm

The sound of the season. Red Sox manager Terry Francona holds his usual pre-game media availability before today’s “Season Opener, Take 2″ with the Rays. He seems to be more Zen-like with each passing year – I can’t shake the image of a Yoda-like 90-year-old man leading the 2055 Boston Red Sox with karmic wisdom. For bonus points, he could levitate the entire Japanese media contingent simply by staring at them.

Want To Get Away?

Posted by Adam Hart February 15, 2009 at 8:24 pm

I wish I was at Spring Training right now. Kicking back, fielding some fungos, eating Grapefruit with A TON of sugar on it. But no, instead I am forced to watch this awesome video from Fort Myers. You, too. Read more

Tek Likes It Here

Posted by Adam Hart February 15, 2009 at 6:07 am

We hear it straight from the horse’s mouth. And yes, this was posted mere seconds before driving my parents to the airport. I work well under pressure. Read more

Beckett Banged Up

Posted by Mike Giardi August 19, 2008 at 6:30 pm

You want to know why Terry Francona sometimes looks pale, almost gray? It’s days like these my friends. Ace Josh Beckett has been pushed back from his next scheduled start from Saturday to Tuesday in Yankee Stadium, and even that’s tentative.

“It’s still seven days away, so we’ll see,” Beckett said from Baltimore.

Apparently, Beckett’s been dealing with numbness in his right ring finger and pinky on and off for the entire season.

“I have some numbness in fingers I’m not used to having,” he said. “It’s just that we’ve got to figure out what the hell it was … It’s something we’ve dealt with but I’ve never had to deal with it on that level.”

Beckett’s last outing was an epic disaster. He didn’t escape of the third inning, getting tagged for 8 hits and 8 runs. It was his worst start since 2006, when he got bombed in the Bronx. This has been very uneven campaign for Beckett, who has flirted with the form he flashed a season ago, but has not consistently delivered on that excellence. Perhaps now we know why.

The Sox have survived injuries to Daisuke, Mike Lowell (twice), Ortiz and Julio Lugo, but I find it hard to believe they could handle any prolonged absence from Beckett. That starting rotation has been stretched thin, and there don’t appear to be any options available that could make people forget baseball’s only 20-game winner from 2007.

 

Out with the boy, in with an adult

Posted by Ted McEnroe August 1, 2008 at 5:02 pm

The jury may be out on just how lopsided the Manny Ramirez for Jason Bay deal was from a pure talent standpoint (Mike Giardi and I can differ on that – we’ll miss Moss a little, Hansen not much at all in my opinion), but there’s no denying the sense of relief inside the Red Sox clubhouse.

Terry Francona looked positively giddy compared to the Tito we have seen in recent weeks – as he tried to defend a player his team had lost respect for.

And as for Bay – love the guy. First two words to the media? “Fire away.” And it turns out Bay has quietly been a member of the Red Sox Nation of the Allegheny (if there is such an organization). Back home in British Columbia growing up, his dad put him in a Red Sox onesie, and he hung posters of Carl Yastrzemski and Jim Rice in his bedroom growing up. He says he loved the atmosphere at Fenway when he was visiting as a Pirate, and praised Red Sox Nation up and down.

In short, he did more to build a relationship with the community in 9 minutes and 15 seconds than Manny Ramirez had done in the last three years.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not really a Manny-basher. He was and is a big kid out there. Sometimes, you couldn’t help but be charmed by his antics and his genuine love for the game. Other times, though, he was a spoiled child, who needed a timeout or to be grounded — not an option when you’re the $20 million man in a playoff race.

This much is for certain – stats aside, the Red Sox sent a child off to Hollywood yesterday.

They got back a man.

Here’s the man meeting the media:

Still Feels the Same

Posted by Mike Giardi August 1, 2008 at 8:07 am

So I’ve had a night to sleep on what the Sox did late yesterday afternoon. And my gut feeling now is the same as then: Theo had to do it, but boy, this deal sure reeks of desperation and looks not lopsided, but at least heavily listing in the Dodgers and Pirates favor.

At what point during all of this did you think the Sox would have to include two Major Leaguers (Hansen and Moss), and two draft picks that would have been in the top 40 (when the Sox offered Manny arbitration at the end of the season) and the 7 million dollars all to make sure Manny wasn’t in that clubhouse this afternoon?

You keep hearing addition by subtraction, and having been in that locker room this last week, there’s no question there’s validity to that comment. But now there are no more excuses, except for that inconsistent bullpen. The onus shifts directly onto the players, their manager, and – if this goes poorly – GM Theo Epstein and the ownership that green-lighted such a move. Not a comfortable spot to be in, especially in this ravenous region, but that’s why they get paid the big bucks. As I wrote sometime in the last 36 hours, this is another career-making trade for Theo, and despite the discontent with Manny over these last two months, fans and some in the media will write revisionist history should the season continue to go south.

Me, I continue to believe that the Sox may not be as talented an offensive team as they were the last time Francona wrote out the lineup card, but at least the clubhouse won’t have that festering stench caused by the sullen slugger. That could be huge, mentally, going forward. No more wondering if Manny will ask out of the lineup, or, like he did last Friday, ask to go on the DL with knees that checked out a-okay. No more having to look the other way when he jakes it down the first base line on a ground ball, like he did during Lackey’s near no-no. That almost caused both Dustin Pedroia and Terry Francona’s heads to simultaneously implode.

But the flip side is losing one of the best hitters in franchise – in baseball – history. Jason Bay can’t replace that, can he? Bay and Manny’s numbers are comparable, but until we see how the former Buc responds in this atmosphere, we still can’t answer the question: just how desperate was this deal?

Pap’s Got a Beef

Posted by Mike Giardi July 15, 2008 at 6:05 pm

So one of the New York tabloids tries to stir up a little something something with regards to Jon Papelbon’s thoughts a couple of days ago that he should close the All-Star game. When I read the quotes, I thought, “no big deal.” But considering the headline “Papelbum” and the obvious discomfort those comments may have caused Mariano Rivera, the story got a life of its own.

Today, the Sox’s closer fired back. You gotta read our friend Rob Bradford’s account. Hey, there’s a reason why I surround myself with people like Bradford. He’s damn good, and he got Paps in an extremely truthful mood. And you know what? I completely agree with Paps. The media screwed him on this one, and he should be mad. Besides, the thing that comes through in the piece that started this whole tete-a-tete is the man’s confidence in his own abilities. That is precisely why Pap has excelled in that role, to go along with his obvious physical gifts.

Don’t change kid. Keep doing what you do, and keep slamming the door on the opposition. You can close for my team any time, and I’m sure that’s what Terry Francona’s told him.

Of Santana, Manny and His Moments

Posted by Mike Giardi June 1, 2008 at 8:34 pm

Our music-crazy weather guy, Joe Joyce, just alerted me to Rolling Stone’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time.” There are so many things wrong with this piece, that I almost didn’t make it through. I didn’t want to give them the satisfaction. But, I couldn’t help myself. I won’t bore you with all the details of my disgust, but I will say Van Halen’s “Eruption” is too low, Zeppelin’s “Stairway…” is too high and no way do the White Stripes – who I like – even belong in the Top 50. Oh, and one more thing. Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” can not be 39th. The guy can pick it like a Gold Glove firstbaseman. Jump him up at least 20 spots. There! I feel better.

On to sports…which I believe is what they pay me for. You just knew that once Manny got to 500, he’d loosen up. His quote following the momentous occasion was priceless Manny. “I’m very proud of myself.” Dude, you should be. 500 (now 501) is just a sick number, steroid-era or not.

Its hard to believe just 8 years ago we were debating whether the Sox should pursue Manny or Mike Mussina. I mean, that was a tough, tough call at the time. The Sox had always been short on pitching, and with Moose and Pedro at the head of the rotation, who knows what would have happened? Would the Sox have won the title in 2003 (remember what Mussina did in relief of Clemens ALCS Game 7? Yeah, too painful. Sorry)? Would the Sox have won in ‘04 and ‘07? Who knows. Maybe that’s a job for “Whatifsports.com”

For all the criticism about Mussina, he has won 111 games in these last 7-plus seasons (a sneaky 8-4 this year with a 4.26 ERA), and racked up 52 of those “W’s” in the first three years of that mega-deal. That’s awfully impressive. But what Manny has done, statistically, is freakish. 

265 homers. 838 RBI. He won a batting title in 2002 and missed by a fraction of a point in 2003 to Billy Mueller. He’s led MLB in on base percentage in three seasons with the club. His OPS is off the charts. Yes, we have been fortunate to watch not just the best righthanded hitter of his generation (just trumping ARod, for now), but one of the greatest of all time. And quite honestly, when he smiles that big, goofy smile…it reminds me that – despite all the money and the business of sport – this is just a kid playing a game we all played at one time or another, and loved.

Oh sure, its hard for detractors to overlook his mental lapses. They drove me nuts. And truthfully, if he pulled that garbage again, I’d get irritated again. I don’t like the explanation that its just part of his personality, part of the package, of “Manny being Manny (I hate that phrase).” But the episodes have become much more infrequent, a credit to Manny, to his teammates, and to manager Terry Francona. And I think its no surprise that the Sox have become a beast. Manny may not be the straw that stirs the drink – to draw on a cliche – but he’s a primary ingredient and, in the long run, the right choice made by former GM Dan Duquette (hey, we give credit when credit is due).

No. Hits. For You.

Posted by Ted McEnroe May 19, 2008 at 10:05 pm

Well, I am sure that the guys in the sports department are running around. So, I’ll jump in. What can you say? If there’s a better story than the rookie Clay Buchholz throwing a no-hitter in his second start, it’s having a guy beat cancer in 2006, win the World Series clincher in 2007, and then a no-hitter in 2008.

There was one hit-saving catch by Jacoby Ellsbury in the fourth, but otherwise, it was cruise control for Jon Lester for most of the night. And one character moment. It could have been easy for Lester to get rattled after he walked Esteban German to start the ninth. But he didn’t. He bore down and got the job done. (Of course, compared to cancer… it was the Kansas City Royals.)

And listening to Terry Francona in the post-game press conference, sounding like a proud dad, you have to just enjoy the moment that much more.

So there you have it. First no-hitter by a Red Sox lefty in 52 years, and a record for Jason Varitek, as the first catcher in history to catch four no-hitters in his career (Nomo, Lowe, Buchholz and now Lester).

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