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Boston Globe:
Sox-Yanks pitching matchups > Sox do it again > Wake Comments
were doctored > Robinson's legacy set in stone > Thumbs |
Boston Herald:
'Tek good in pinch > Heckuva first game > Cora corralled >
Schilling offers a far-from-Curt response > Chamberlain to miss
Sox |
ProJo:
Varitek's 9th inning homer fuels comeback > Ailing Cora could be
put on the DL > Schilling insists: I won't play for Yankees >
Wrapup |
Hartford Courant:
Farnsworth comes up big in Yankees win > ESPN settles with
Reynolds > Phillies beat Astros > Tigers rally past Twins |
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It's Red Sox vs. YankeeZZZzzzzz: Rivalry's Buzz Takes a Beating
38Pitches: 'Umm, no.' | Wilbur: Space Shot | Yankee Swap
Video: Big Papi Explains Reason for Hitting Woes
Mar 30, 2007:
No Amannycan Idol
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In Case You Missed It ...
Manny Got Booted from Idol on Wednesday,
But Sanjaya Malakar Inexplicably Survived Another Week
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There's No I in Team, But There is One in Pierce
Jackie MacMullan: Scars Linger in a Painful Season
"It's another year I don't get recognized for the things I do. I'm the classic case of a great player on a bad team, and it stinks." ...
"I want to be recognized for what I've accomplished. That may sound selfish, but I've sacrificed a lot. I want to win. That's all I want. Most great players are selfish.
"We're not on a winning team, and as long as that's true, I don't get recognized as one of the top players in the league. We're never on TV. I wasn't part of the All-Star Game [this season]. We just don't get the benefit of so many other things that winning teams get."
-- 3.30.07, Paul Pierce to Jackie MacMullan, Boston Globe
RED SOX MUSINGS by Rick Swanson
Put Pesky Back
APR. 2, 2007 -- Baseball has done some pretty stupid things, but now they have gone too far, kicking Johnny Pesky out of the dugout. I thought they were ignorant last year, when they inducted 17 former “Negro League” players, and left off 94 year old Buck O’Neil last February, and he died in October. Now the Commissioner’s office has sent a stern memo to the Red Sox, threatening them with stiff fines, if they don’t comply with this edict. How does it help the Red Sox, and hurt other teams if Pesky is in the dugout?
What if Boston had a petition, and asked every other team in the league, if they had any objections to Johnny being in the dugout? How about if MLB just institutes a 50 year rule. If you are in baseball for 50 years, you can sit in uniform in the dugout, anytime you feel like it. Don Zimmer and Red Schoendienst would also qualify under this rule.
It is time baseball uses common sense when they make a decision. Johnny Pesky is 87 years old, and still likes to put it on his baseball pants “one leg at a time.”
Why doesn’t baseball get it, when it comes to the important things in life? Anyone who did not vote for Buck O’Neil should be banned from voting again.
The person that signed this memo on Pesky should be tossed out of office. I challenge all fans of baseball to unite! Write to Bud at Bud.Selig@mlb.com Let Johnny Pesky sit in the dugout in 2007! -- Rick Swanson, Around the Horn
Mar 29, 2007:
Big Papi Has Come Up Small | Numbers Don't Lie, Lugo Stinks
There Must Be Something in Roger's Water
Sorry Yankees Fans ... This Isn't 1978
"The Yankees are old, injury-prone and, in some cases, shadows of their former selves. Ron Guidry is a 56-year-old pitching coach, not a 27-year-old phenom in the midst of one of the greatest seasons in baseball history.
But the main reason the Yanks won't catch the Red Sox is Boston is built for the long haul in 2007, a perfect blend of starting pitching, relief pitching, hitting and defense."-- 5.31.07, Kevin Hench, special to FOXSports.com
Power, Pitching Will Put Sox Back on Top
Hench Furious | Francona Deserves Manager of the Year Votes
Lowell Shout Out, Beckett Slump | Why the Red Sox Keep Winning
Going Beyond the Box Score | Johnny Damon is the New Benedict Arnold
Pena-Arroyo Deal Not Working Out for Anyone | Beckett Has Red Sox Nation Optimistic
Grady's Brain Cramps: Not Just Pedro
'If You Ain't Got the Pitchin', Honey, St. Christopher Ain't Got the Time'
Hardball Archives | More 2004 | 2001 - 2004
Zimmer Goes Down Again!
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Dice-K Re-enacts Zimmer KO
Shaughnessy: Dice-K Coming to Plate
"The most exciting moment of lunch with Daisuke Matsuzaka? That would have to have been when he became unusually animated while answering a question regarding the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry. His arms were flying around and we didn't know what he was saying when suddenly his right forearm bumped hard into the wooden table in front of him. He winced. Only a little. He seemed to be OK.
And so we asked his interpreter, "What was he talking about?"
"He was talking about when Pedro Martínez threw Don Zimmer to the ground," said translator Masa Hoshino.
Media lunch with Dice-K was an idea put forth by Red Sox publicist John Blake and it took place yesterday in a quiet corner of the dining room of the Colonial Country Club, overlooking a man-made pond, a driving range, and multiple luxury condos in the gated community." -- 3.29.07, Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe
Edes Chat Wrap | Soxcast: Japanese Influence
Grossfeld: There Are Superstitions | Gallery
Eric Wilbur: Familiar Refrain -- The AL East
TC's Blog: Nine Things to Watch in 2007
Mar 28, 2007:
Umpire State
Tom's Trip to the Show
Tom Verducci's column in the April 2 Sports Illustrated (republished with SI's permission)
Two Springs after his cameo as a Blue Jays outfielder, SI’s Tom Verducci was back in the bigs, this time as an umpire for an Red Sox-Orioles game. All he had to be was perfect. (And what manager, player or fan would even believe that?)
Embarrassment.
Injury. Blunt force trauma.
Estate planning. The mind quickly accelerates the possibility and the amplitude of catastrophe when you are standing on the infield grass, as I am, 75 feet in front of Boston Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez while he bats with a runner on first base. No infielder ever would be so foolish to put himself this close to the potential harm of a Ramirez line drive, not even armed with world-class hand-eye coordination, a fielder’s glove and a protective cup—all of which, as I am most acutely aware, I do not possess at this moment.
I am a major league umpire—for one day anyway, March 23, working a spring training matinee between the Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles in Fort Myers, Fla. Leaving the observational safety of sportswriting, I have been granted permission by Major League Baseball to experience the pressure, the difficulty and the thanklessness of risking life, limb and public humiliation in front of thousands of people conditioned to dislike you. I am assigned the same spring rotation as my full-time brethren:three innings at third base, followed by three at second and three at first.
The baseball we hold dear is a benign, leisurely sport, a “noncontact” pursuit in which we cherish its sweetly proportioned empty spaces. The interlude between pitches. The flanks in the alignment of fielders. The 90 feet between bases. The flight of a thrown or batted baseball offers elegant interruption to the spatial symmetry.
Working from the interior of the infield, however, reveals the power and speed of the game. It’s the difference between observing a funnel cloud from a safe distance on the ground and flying a research plane into the vortex of a tornado. “I tell all the young umpires that come up from the minors, ‘Expect a close play every time,’” says Tim Tschida, 46, my crew chief who is working home plate this game. “[The play’s] only routine here after it’s over. That ball three steps to the right of the shortstop? They don’t get to that ball in the minors and here they might throw the guy out. Middle infielders get to more balls up the middle that minor leaguers would never get to—and not only get to them, but turn them into double plays. I tell the young guys, ‘Don’t give up on anything.’”
My proximity to Ramirez, who is poised in that familiar asplike, coiled stance, is gripping, but the responsibilities of the job rattle around in my head, like marbles tumbling in a dryer. I’ve got to keep watch on the Orioles’ pitcher, Erik Bedard, for a possible balk, the Sasquatch of rules violations for its difficulty to observe. (I’ve already missed one by Boston starter Curt Schilling, but so, too, did the rest of the crew.) I must make all calls at second base, which is over my right shoulder (including a stolen base attempt or a force play, which is the most commonly missed call by umpires), and possibly at third base if the umpire there, Brian O’Nora, leaves his post to track a ball hit to the outfield.
I must also know the rule book and the grounds rules with absolute certainty, a weakness of mine exposed during a mild argument the previous half inning with Boston rightfielder J.D. Drew (who had no clue he was pleading his case to a sportswriter until I told him the next day). And one more thought—the mother of all marbles. Being an umpire is like being a jet pilot, a skydiver or a sword swallower: You’re expected to be perfect every time, and if you do screw up it’s obvious to everyone. Nothing less than flawless is acceptable. I must get it right.
“God knows if you don’t have the mental aptitude for this, you’d ask, ‘What are you doing?’” says Fieldin Culbreth, another crew member. “If you’re right, nobody’s coming in and patting you on the back. If there are 10 close plays and you get 10 exactly right, they’re booing you anyway. The only people who will say, ‘Good job’ are the other three guys in the [locker] room with you. The teams aren’t going to say, ‘Hell of a job.’ ESPN’s not going to say, ‘Watch this umpire!’ Here’s the difference: The players are trying to make a play to get on SportsCenter. We’re trying our damnedest to stay off it.”
I trained long (O.K., two days with Tschida and Culbreth) and hard (kicking back watching games in the Florida sun) for this gig. Ominously, the most important advice given to me by the umpires was to avoid utter disaster. My Umpire 101 syllabus looked like this:
1. Don’t blow out the knee of Baltimore shortstop Miguel Tejada by watching the flight of a pop-up near the third base line.
The fielder, who is also looking up, is likely to plow into the umpire, whose proper course of action is to first look for and avoid the fielders. “You getting hurt is one thing,” Culbreth says. “The player getting hurt? Now there’s a problem.”
2. Beware of balls that explode.
That’s umpire terminology for what happens when you try to track a ball as it passes directly over your head, causing you to lose sight of it.
More...
Mar 27, 2007:
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Not All of the Commenters on 38Pitches Kiss Curt's Behind
Looks Like There's Intelligent Life Living in Someone's Mother's Basement:
"A perfect example of life imitating art can be seen in many of the preceding posts. Shaughnessy makes fun of goofy posting by people who just luv, luv, luv their pro athletes and the response is more of the same. A great column that has been more than vindicated by the response!
There was a time, from the 60s into the 70s, when sports commentary in Boston consisted largely of slavish devotion to the athletes. That broke down and coverage became more reporting and less hero worshiping, influenced by two major factors: the Globe sports pages under Jerry Nason and Ernie Roberts attracted journalists not afraid to bite the athletes when needed and who provided well-written insight into games that they realized more of the audience had watched than had been watching in previous generations. The second factor, believe it or not, was Andelman, who was the first to roast sportswriters and their cozy relationships with teams and players and whose barrage of such criticism clearly had sports editors and TV news directors taking a second look at the way they covered sports.
Now, I fear, some fans demand a swing back to those days of yore when the function of sportswriters was to adore and heap praise. I for one am glad for the likes of Shaughnessy who refused to check the way the wind is blowing before writing." -- 3.27.07, objectivebruce, comment No. 159 on 38Pitches.com
Verducci: Gyroball Not Part of Dice-K's Arsenal
Seattle Times: Whose Underwear is Manny Wearing?
He's Baaaack: Schilling Chimes in with Q&A IX
25-Man Roster Set: Boras Bonus Baby Back to Pawtucket; Snyder Stays
Dice-K Means Marketing Boon for Boston | Boston Prepares
Mar 25, 2007:
Burned Out to a Crisp?
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Edes: Conversation with Coco Goes Far Afield
"Looking forward to showing people in Boston the real Coco?
"I don't really care what the people think about me," Crisp said. "Or you guys or anything like that. I just go out there and play and have fun. Hope the rest of the people enjoy watching me.
"But as far as me wracking my brain about what anybody thinks, I don't do that. I hope they enjoy watching us play as a team, I do something, they enjoy that part of it. But I don't care if people think I suck, or they think I'm good. I just go out there and have fun, and hopefully the ball falls in."
"Don't get me wrong," he added. "I like the fans."
You really don't care if people think you "suck"?
"No. I don't care. I go out there and play hard. If people think I'm good, then thank you. If they think I suck, then thank you anyway. I don't really care. Go out there and play hard and try to do my job and have fun with it. Hopefully, I do well at it."
-- 3.25.07, Gordon Edes, Boston Globe
... That's Not Exactly the Message We Heard When He Was Selling Us Our Red Sox Nation Cards ...
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But Getting Back to the Center Field Situation ...
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The Up-and-Comer Could Mean Coco Goes
Maybe Jacoby Is Really the Reason Why Crisp Is So Jumpy?
The Oregonian: Jacoby's Speed Intrigues Sox
"If he [Jacoby] has a good first six weeks, he might be with the big club before you know it." -- Red Sox Legend Johnny Pesky
"Although Ellsbury says he's been told he will start the season with the Portland (Maine) Sea Dogs, Boston's Double A team, don't expect the Madras High School graduate to stay there.
Johnny Pesky, the former Red Sox infielder who grew up in Northwest Portland, doesn't think Ellsbury will linger for long by Casco Bay.
"If he has a good first six weeks, he might be with the big club before you know it," said Pesky, a Red Sox icon.
When you consider Ellsbury's blend of skill, speed and athleticism -- his vertical jump measured 39 inches in camp -- you have to dig through the Boston archives to find a comparable player.
Fenway Park's beckoning left field wall and hitter-friendly dimensions have dictated that power trumps speed in Boston. The dynamic instructs, why risk an out on an attempted steal when you are one pitch from a two-run homer?
But as the game changes in the post-steroid era, even power-laden lineups can't ignore the need for speed. Last season, Boston's outfield was perhaps the weakest defensive group in baseball. Ramirez is an adventure in left field; center fielder Coco Crisp had an off year. The team has lacked a true leadoff hitter since Johnny Damon left for the Yankees." -- 3.25.07, Brian Meehan, The Oregonian
Mar 23, 2007:
A Closer From the Start?
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(8.18.06, Lowell Spinners Handout Photo) |
Guess It Depends on When You Asked ...
Papelbon on March 3: 'I Just Feel I'm Better as a Starter'
"I just feel I'm better as a starter," Papelbon said. "The reason why this team drafted me in '04 was to be a starter. I'm going to take this opportunity and run with it..."
"I know that preparation is a huge part of it now," Papelbon said. "I know what it will take to be a starter in the big leagues, and, especially, in the American League East. I want to be able to say to the team, `Hey, I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing.' " -- 3.04.07, Bob Ryan, Boston Globe
Papelbon on Feb. 28: 'I'm Chomping at the Bit'
"It was the master plan from the start for the big righthander to be a front-line hurler anyway. Still, after a year's hiatus from that preparation, Papelbon occasionally struggles to exhibit the patience required to stretch him out.
"I'm chomping at the bit," he said. "In my very first meeting with Theo [Epstein] and Tito [Francona], the first thing out of their mouths was, 'We know you're ready to go, but we don't want you throwing 100 pitches right away.' They were a little worried, but they shouldn't be. I'm fine." ...
"We've talked about it multiple times," said Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell. "Jon's very driven. He wants to get out to a 5-0 start. I'm trying to get him away from that thought process and thinking about the execution of the pitch." -- 3.01.07, Jackie MacMullan, Boston Globe
Papelbon On Feb. 3: 'My Entire Makeup is to Be a Starting Pitcher'
"While it's always been Papelbon's goal to be a starter, he doesn't believe every pitcher shares that dream.
"There are a lot of pitchers I know whose goal it is to be a closer. Or to be a middle reliever," he said. "For me, my entire makeup is to be a starting pitcher. That's what I know. Since I've been in the Red Sox organization, I've been a starter until last year."
If he had to return to the bullpen?
"No, man, I wouldn't be disappointed. I'm just going to take it one day at a time. If the situation comes up and it's good for the team, I'll do it." -- 2.04.07, Nick Cafardo, Boston Globe
Bradford: They Said It (More Quotes That Need Clarification)
"One aspect of this baffles me: Word from Fort Myers was that the Boston brass insinuated Dr. Thomas Gill hadn't been asked to perform any additional check-ups of late. This was the person who supposedly had the ultimate say on the initial decision, and was quoted in The Eagle-Tribune back before Papelbon's first spring training appearance saying;
"You can't go to the literature and look at 200 pitchers who have had transient subluxations and say half are starters and half are relievers and this half did better than that half. That's where my job comes into play. Whether it's for baseball or something else, I have to figure out what physically and biologically makes the most sense.
"The question they asked me was which makes the most sense, pitching as a starter or as a reliever. Obviously, as a starter you have five days, you have time to strengthen during the season and you have a routine. We have a great pitching program for the starters. Josh Beckett pitched 200 innings and that was because he followed the program. ... It's a routine that gives a guy time to recover."
Maybe we can get some clarification in the coming days." -- 3.23.07, Rob Bradford, Eagle-Tribune
Eric Wilbur: Bon Voyage
"As stable as Boston’s bullpen looks now, the rotation looks all the less so. Curt Schilling has looked great so far this spring, but Daisuke Matsuzaka and Josh Beckett, for all the vast possibilities that exist, have yet to prove they can perform at the elite level the AL East demands. In a lot of ways, Papelbon stabilized the unknowns in the rotation with a potential dominant force at the back end, the glue that connected the dots between dominant and adequate. Now when you compare the pitching staff to last year's, Matsuzaka is all that has really changed it. That's not to deny his added importance, just a warning that at some point one of these guys is going to go down, and the rotation could be as ill-equipped as it was last year in plugging in guys to spot start throughout the season. Or did you block Jason Johnson from your memory?" -- 3.22.07, Eric Wilbur, Boston.com
McAdam on March 8: Starter Role a Natural for Papelbon
Mar 22, 2007:
Papi's Got a Brand New Bag ...
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