Considering the 2009 Red Sox

In the midst of juggling my 3 jobs, I’ve decided to come up for air and talk some Boston Red Sox.  Many commentators are focusing on their offense, as if it won’t get it done.

Let’s look back at last season.  We had a less than healthy Papi, a nearly crippled Mike Lowell, an injured Josh Beckett and an absent Wakefield.  Turns out our starting shortstop had a fracture in his wrist too.  Both our hitting and pitching were in trouble.  And we were one win away from the World Series.

This was because Dustin Pedroia continued to improve, and Youk had a career year.  Jon Lester discovered how to pitch deep, and strong.  Dice-K was one lucky guy with a big WHIP and low ERA to garner a good win total.

I’m not as pessimistic about this season as some people.  Yeah, no Money-Ramirez.  That also means far less drama. Jason Bay, while not the one man wrecking crew that an interested Man-Ram can be, is a very good hitter and a better defender who will give you a good effort night after night.  Papi no longer has to worry about his wrist, and Lowell will be healthy.  I don’t expect the 2007 Lowell, since he’s 2 years older, but he should still put up respectable offensive numbers for a 3rd baseman.

What excites me about the 2009 Red Sox is the pitching staff.  We seem to be witnessing a return of Beckett 2007, which means he could be a dominating pitcher now that he’s healthy again.  He has been that guy in Spring Training (yeah, it’s only Spring Training), which he wasn’t last year. 

Although we aren’t sure what we are going to get from Penny and Smoltz, if they flounder we could have Buchholz 2007 to step in.  He seems to have regained a good arm slot, and his confidence.  He’s not the tentative pitcher who was giving up runs like a 2-for-1 special was going on.  Lester has offered us no reason to doubt he’ll continue his domination of hitters.  He’s confident and strong.  With Penny and Smoltz, the Red Sox can occasionally rest Lester, Beckett, and especially Wakefield.

The bull pen should be better (though bull pens are tempermental things).  Masterson was the key to making it steady last year.  If Delcarmen can be consistent (which he seemed to be after Masterson joined the pen), and Saito can set-up and occasionally close, we can have a healthy, aggressive Papelbon for the playoffs.

Pitching wins championships, and the Red Sox have a championship caliber pitching staff.  While their offense will not reach the heights of the 2003-4 Red Sox, it should be more than sufficient to provide the runs this staff needs to be very successful.

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Considering the Red Sox’ Moves

The Red Sox have signed a bunch of people to 1-year deals.  In the last few days they have reached agreements with pitchers Brad Penny, John Smoltz and Takashi Saito.  They have also signed OF Rocco Baldelli and OF/1B Mark Kotsay.  All but Kotsay are coming off seasons in which they have had injury or illness problems.  What is going on here?

The Red Sox are putting together a roster that has the ability to compete with the Rays and Yankees THIS year.  They are not locking themselves in to any long term contracts, so if any of these guys doesn’t recover, it is not a huge hit.  Particularly in terms of the pitching, these moves allow their prospects to develop and they won’t have to trade someone at a discount (like they did Coco Crisp) if/when the particular prospect is ready.

For instance, let’s say Bowden or Buchholz shows he is ready to take up a spot in the rotation in 2010, they won’t have to trade Smoltz or Penny.  However, if Brad Penny has a great year the Red Sox could decide to commit to him long term.  I like the flexibility this provides.  Unlike the Yankees, they have not locked themselves into anything for the next 4-8 years.  They can adjust on the fly.

These guys have all shown they have major league tools.  All we actually need from Rocco is to start against lefties and be ready to pinch hit in the late innings of tight games.  We lose nothing when it comes to defense with that late substitution.  The guy can also hit and run the bases.

If he can’t bounce back as well as hoped, we have the insurance of Mark Kotsay should Drew or Ellsbury suffer an injury.  We aren’t having to dip into the minors like last year and bring up guys who either can’t hit or can’t field.

In the case of Saito, we have a proven closer just in case something happens to Papelbon.  Redundancy, or insurance, depending on how you look at things.

They Red Sox will also have the salary flexibility, as Gammons noted, to pursue a player another team deems too expensive as the trade deadline approaches.  Imagine one of our starters in the outfield gets injured.  He notes that Detroit may decide to dump some salary.  They could pursue Magglio without entering luxury tax territory.  Financial prudence in these tough times, with a commitment to win.

Yes, they didn’t get the big bat they wanted.  But they have the bats needed to ‘protect’ Big Papi.  The problem was injuries, not talent.  If Papi and Lowell are healthy we have a line up to compete with any other AL team.  I don’t buy this fear about being unable to produce runs.  Lowrie can hit, he slumped after an injury to his hand.  The only weak link in the line up will be catcher.

Theo provided some solid depth without breaking the bank or tying up resources for years to come.  He’s sticking to the plan to develop prospects.  All we need now is a catcher.

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Pedroia Strikes it Big

The little big man for the Red Sox, Dustin Pedroia, has now seen the payoff for all the hard work and stellar play.  The Red Sox have locked him up for 6 years.  He’ll get $40.5 million over that time frame.  The Red Sox get a hard-working, inspiring sparkplug who puts up some pretty significant numbers.  He’s one guy that won’t be moving on soon.  With a revolving door at shortstop, Theo has solidified the other middle infield position.  And you have to wonder how long it will be before a “C” is sown onto his uniform to go along with the 2007 A.L. Rookie of the Year award & World Series champion ring, and his 2008 A.L. Gold Glove, Silver Slugger and MVP awards.

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Considering the ALCS

Globe staff/Jim Davis

I was nearly jumping for joy with them after an exciting final 2 innings to last night’s game.  Jon Lester continues to build a reputation as a money pitcher, throwing 7 shutout innings that was nearly wasted by a spent bullpen.

Francona made an uncharacteristic mistake, I think, by pulling Okajima.  Another walk, a passed ball and Hunter’s timely hit tied that game.  Maybe Okalima would have surrendered a home run.  I don’t know.  But I didn’t like it then.

After Shields got the heart of our line up out in the 8th, I thought it was going to be another marathon session.  That is until the Angels had a man on 3rd in the 9th.  An incredible play by the Captain to end the threat.  Yes, a bit controversial- but the ball was knocked out by the ground, not the tag.  Like Cal Ripken, it would be interesting to see what the rule book actually states.  I think they made a reasonable call- but I am biased.  [what is different here from a play at the plate is that Varitek clearly had possession & control of the ball prior to the tag- he’d run 90 feet with it.  in a play at the plate, the action happens so fast the ump can’t be sure if the catcher has control of the ball until after the play is done.  if ESPN asked for my opinion to refute their ‘expert analysts’, I suspect they might go ‘hmmm, hadn’t thought of that.’]

It seemed like the Angels got a break on that ground rule double by Bay.  Especially when Teixeira grabbed that screaming line drive down the line.  But another Red Sox rookie came through as Lowrie dumped a single into right field so Bay could get home.  Awesome ending (unless you cheer for the Angels).

Now the Rays- a solid, gutsy team.  When the Rays won the regular season series the Sox were struggling with injuries to Lowell, Drew & Beckett.  Yes, Longoria and Crawford were out too.  What I didn’t know until yesterday was that Drew led the Sox with game-winning RBI, despite missing a good chunk of the season to back injuries.  His effortless defense, combined with that, gives him an edge of Crawford (a player I really like).

So now we see who is better- the battered Sox who just dispatched the team with the best record in baseball, or the upstarts who eliminated a one dimensional team in the White Sox.  Make no mistake- the Rays can win this series.  They are good enough and deep enough.  They got rid of the clubhouse distractions and have lots of character guys who also play very well.  This is no lopsided series.  The Rays have the Red Sox’ respect.

I think the Red Sox will win due to the intangibles.  It is not just having been there before- but succeeding there before.  They’ve developed a great system of scouting teams and prepping players that pays dividends in the playoffs.  They have a few days to put together a game plan they can execute.  That gives them an edge- not a guarantee, but an edge.  It should be fun to watch.

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Manny to LA-LA Land

Frank McCourt continues his attempt to build Boston West.  He often gets Sox players past their prime.  He also had a former manager until he realized too late that Grady Little may be a great guy but not the best manager.

Today, they traded for Manny Ramirez who has worn out his welcome in Beantown.

The Red Sox paid quite the price to be done with Manny.  They pick up the rest of his salary for the year.  Reports have them also sending out Brandon Moss and Craig Hansen to the Pirates in the 3-team trade.  I liked Moss, but he didn’t seem to have a place on the Red Sox.  He’ll get the shot he deserves with the Pirates.  Hansen needed a change of location (Orel Hershiser’s analysis of his mechanical issues the other night was great by the way).  The Pirates made out like bandits because they also picked up Andy LaRoche and Bryan Morris from the Dodgers.  They got ripped off by the Yankees, so they made the Sox and Dodgers pay.

So far all the Sox receive is Jason Bay.  That can’t be all.  Really… Theo, you had to do better than that, right?  Otherwise the Dodgers and Pirates really took advantage of their need to dump Manny and his bad attitude. 

This is addition through subtraction in my view.  Bay should benefit from being surrounded by better hitters, and may slide nicely into the 5 spot.  Putting him right behind Ortiz may put too much pressure on the new guy.

Update: After Manny hit into a double play to end the Dodgers’ attempt to win, and Bay scored both Sox runs in a win we have this interesting tidbit from Gordon Edes:

Of all the Manny moments in Boston, the last ranks as one of the most confounding. Within an hour after Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein informed Manny Ramírez he had been traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers Thursday, Ramírez’s agent, Scott Boras, called the Sox back, according to a source with direct knowledge of the negotiations. If the Sox dropped the option years on his contract – which they had agreed to do if they traded him – Boras said Ramírez would not be a problem the rest of the season.

For the Sox, the source said, Ramírez’s pledge of good behavior only served as a tacit admission that his disruptive conduct of the last couple of weeks had been calculated, and they had had good cause to suspect more was in the offing if they did not trade him. The Sox told him thanks but no thanks, what was done was done, and pack plenty of sunscreen.

And I missed this little part of Manny Being Nefarious.

“We were in a bit of a difficult circumstance and we made something good of it,” said Epstein, who was in Anaheim two weeks ago when Ramírez balked at boarding the bus taking the team to the airport and a flight to Seattle.

“I heard about that,” Varitek said. “I didn’t see it.”

The acts, and words, of defiance seemed to multiply quickly thereafter.

I’m guessing that makes the Dodgers’ fans really excited.  Manny really didn’t want to go there- all a show, just like the last few weeks.  Manny reveals himself to be a petulent, greedy man.  He’s also a man who thinks of no one but himself- consistently avoiding opportunities to reach out to fans, especially the Jimmy Fund kids.  This taints the fond memories I have of him as a ball player.  Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived -IMO- was notoriously self-centered, but was a big supporter of the Jimmy Fund and baseball camps/clinics for kids.  Manny … not even close.

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Considering the Trade Deadline

This year the baseball trade deadline has prompted to some very exciting deals- if you cheer for the Yankees and the Angels.

The Yankees are repeating the pattern of the past, though with a bit less luster.  They are taking on additional payroll (with that ever end???) and sending back prospects or low money guys in return.  First they bring over Xavier Nady and his .320+ average to fill their hole in left field, as well as giving them a right handed bat that has been missing to restore balance to their line-up.  That deal also brought them a solid left-handed reliever.  The analysts basically agree this deal was a steal for the Yankees.  They have Nady signed for next year at an affordable salary, and an option for Marte.  So, this is not a rent-a-player situation.

Marte’s presence allowed them to  ship out Farnsworth, which saddens me.  The hard throwing relief pitcher was hittable often enough.  In return they pick up an aging Ivan Rodriguez.  He started the year slowly at the plate, but has brought his average up to about .290.  So, they add a strong bat behind the plate, replacing Posada who is done for the year.  From the Tigers’ perspective, this move surprises me since they seemed to have climbed back into the AL Central.  This is basically a salary dump.

They have positioned themselves nicely for the stretch run in an organization where failure is not an option.  The weak and vulnerable Yankees of April-June are once again gone as Brian Cashman made some wise moves internally (some forced by injuries to guys who weren’t performing as expected), and brought in some guys to address the remaining weaknesses.  All we can hope for is that they lack chemistry.  Only they could do this because they added millions in payroll.

The Angels also made a really good move in picking up Teixeira for Kotchman.  That is a big improvement in my book.  Though he might be a rent-a-player.  But the Angels see this as the year they could go all the way.  They have the pitching, and needed 1 or 2 more good bats.  Teixeira is the piece they needed to avoid a repeat of last year’s playoff sweep at the hands of the Red Sox.

If you haven’t noticed, the Red Sox payroll has been decreasing over the years.  They are showing greater financial restraint, but this may come back to bite them like it did in 2005.  They are trying to dump Manny and his primadona act.  His recent actions seem to be mostly about his desire to make more money.  It is hard to avoid thinking that he no longer wants the Sox to pick up that option because he wants another $100 million contract- which seems unlikely with his diminishing skills.  But Scott Boras only makes money on Manny if he does get a new contract instead of the option.  So ….. this round of Manny Being Moronic seems to be driven by money since he sure is hitting well for a guy with a bum knee.  But he seems to play better when there is drama going on, so who really knows.

The only remaining possibility out there, after the Phillies, Mets and Dodgers have all denied any interest, seems the Marlins of all teams.  It is reported the Red Sox could get either Josh Willingham or Jeremy Hermida and a prospect in return.  I doubt anything will happen though.  Maybe the Marlins think Manny will actually put some fannies in the seats there.

The Rays have been mentioned in rumors, but I couldn’t see them picking up any of these guys, contrary to what I hear on the local sports radio.  The owners don’t want to spend that much extra money, and they don’t want to give away their prospects.  You aren’t getting any of the players traded for Johnny Gomes, folks.  They have survived a stretch where they have not produced many runs, which is a positive.  The local jock talkers think they have the guns to score lots more runs.  I suspect this latest stretch was a “regression to mean” after some superlative play.  The real Rays are somewhere between those 2 offensive extremes.  Longoria has been killing my fantasy team the last few weeks (as have a few other guys- I even dumped Ellsbury which may come back to haunt me).  But the re-constituted Yankees will surpass the Rays until A-Fraud does his typical October disappearing act.

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Considering Manny Mania

The tide has certainly turned against Manny Ramirez in recent days.  During the 2007 playoffs Manny became more accessible to the press.  He seemed to be a new guy- more open.  This continued into Spring Training.  Manny was available.  He wanted to be in Boston.  He wanted them to pick up his option.  All was well in paradise.

Then … he started whining about the option.  He insinuated that the Sox had not been forthright with him.  John Henry wasn’t liking that one.  Perhaps Manny really missed Papi, and the silly things he thought we said to the wrong people.

Then he shoved a traveling secretary.  He was fined for his actions.  But soon there was the infamous at-bat against Mariano Rivera.  To be truthful, when he’s on he freezes batters.  So, I’m not buying into the “Manny wiffed on purpose Theory”.  Call me naive, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Then this week it has been the return of the phantom knee problems.  His MRI came back clean- no structural damage.  That doesn’t mean nothing is wrong.  Sometimes my knee bothers me for no aparent reason.  Today is one of those days.

In jumps the infamous Boston media led by Curt Schilling and Theo’s least favorite guy- Dan Shaughnessy.  No quotes, just lots of claims about how angry the Red Sox (owners, management, coaches and players) are and this is the final straw.  He makes much of the meeting between owners and management, and the ‘no comment’.  Or is he talking to Larry behind the scenes?

But CHB is not alone in this thinking.   The Herald’s Steve Buckley says it time for Manny to go.  Would his knee affect his hitting (Buckley claims he watched Manny raking the ball in the cage after begging out of the game)?  Perhaps.  But as Papi will let you know running is the big issue.  As in running the bases.  As in running down the ball.  As in Papi is here and Manny can’t DH tonight.  Yes, guys, remember that he had been DHing, in part because of the knee.

Yes, Manny’s numbers have been dropping.  I’m not sure I’d want to pay him $20 million next year.  But his real value at this point is protection for David Ortiz.  Take Manny out of the that line up and the resurging, and recently improved via trade, Yankees have a vastly superior line up.  I think Brandon Moss will make a great player, but I’m not sure I want him taking Manny’s place in LF.

Manny might be wearing out his welcome in Beantown.  But the members of the media there can often drive a guy batty.  It’s no surprise that Manny has suddenly shut up again.  There are two sides to this story.  The fans love it when Manny helps the Sox win.  Some of them enough to let these little episodes slide.  What really matters is how the organization wants to handle this latest episode of Manny being Manny.  Simply annoying or nefarious?  No idea.  But I’d rather watch the Sox build a big lead over the Rays and Yankees than settle for another round of “will Manny be traded” garbage.

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Considering the All-Star Game

I didn’t watch all of the MLB All-Star Game.  CavWife wanted to watch In Plain Sight, one of the summer shows we watch.  We discovered, much to our dismay, that our new DVR didn’t record the show Sunday night.  The record light was on… so we are mystified.  So we went to the USA website and watched it on-line.  Our new, higher speed internet worked much better than our previous attempts to watch episodes of Burn Notice we missed.  We upgraded to digital cable and higher speed internet to get the digital phone service.  It was $1 more than with standard cable.  We save about $50 over our combined internet/cable & Verizon bill.  So it made sense to bundle it.

While we watched the show- interrupted periodically by a child with issues- I kept my eye on the never-ending pre-game festivities.  Since this was the final year of Yankee Stadium, they pulled out all the stops.  Lots of Yankee hall of famers.  Not to be outdone by the Red Sox extravaganza back in ’99, they trotted out a feeble King George.  It was touching to see the warmth Yogi had for him.  But I didn’t notice any of today’s players around the league embracing him like they did Ted Williams.  But, I wasn’t engrossed so it could have happened.

After the show, CavWife got ready for bed so I actually watched the game.  When I went to bed, it looked like Matt “Trade Bait” Holliday might be the MVP for his solo shot.  It was 2-0 and the AL was doing … nothing.  I figured it was over and went to bed much in need of rest.

As it turns out, the Papel-flap was a non-issue.  Mariano Rivera did not get a chance to close the game.  But his pitching was important as the AL came back to put the game into extra innings.  The NL blew 2 save opportunities.  And in a beautiful twist of fate, or irony, the oft-maligned J.D. Drew -in his first All-Star game- got the last laugh, belting a 2 run homerun and stealing a base to lead the AL to victory.  The Red Sox player won the MVP award.

The controversy erupted on ESPN, again.  The great part is they’ll give the Brett Favre story a rest.  A few years ago the controversy was “how in the world can they have a tie in the All-Star game”.  Now the controversy is “how could they make those guys who pitched Sunday pitch since the game went to 15 innnings.”  Zzzzzzz.  Didn’t their managers know they were going to the All-Star game?  Did it shock them to realize they might have to actually pitch?  Hello?!

But I’m glad I didn’t try to watch this thing.  I didn’t need to be up until 2 am.  I am glad the AL gets homefield advantage again (I like that the games count!), and that one of the Sox was a key player in the game.  Great to see Pedroia and Youk in their first All-Star games.  These guys are known for hustle and grit.  They face every game and at bat as if it will be their last.  They leave it all on the field.  They will probably be in a few more of these games.

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Considering Matsuzaka and Kazmir

Dice-K and Rays’ pitcher Scott Kazmir are very much alike in 2 significant ways.

1. They both have incredible “stuff”.  Most MLB pitchers would sacrifice digits on their catching hand to have that much talent.  Most hitters want nothing to do with either of them.

2. They work against themselves with a lack of aggressiveness.  Both guys went 5 innings last night.  They don’t go deep because they have too many innings with high pitch counts.  They are trying to finese guys, avoiding contact, rather than getting guys out.  Down here in Florida, it is the big wrap on Kazmir.  He should be the team ace, but Shields and Garza are out-pitching him.  They are aggressive, not trying to get a guy to swing at a bad pitch which leads to 3-2 counts and long innings.

Successful pitchers recognize that the goals are:

1. Get guys out.  It doesn’t matter how.  You can pitch to contact if you have a great defense.  Save pitches by getting pop ups and weak grounders.

2. Don’t allow runs.  This happens if you play around and walk guys.  It will catch up with you.  It has been Dice-K achilles heel all season long.  Too many walks leading to runs.

3. Eat up innings.  You can’t do this with high pitch count innings.  Their job should be to get to the 7th or 8th inning 80-90% of the time.  5 inning outings ruin the bullpen.  I saw it coming last night.  And the bullpen fell apart.  The Rays’ bullpen almost gave the game back (with help from some uncharacteristically weak defense).

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Freaky Night in Boston

One of the stranger nights in Boston sport’s history started in Fenway Park last night.  Forgetting that they moved up the start time, I missed the most explosive part of the game.  It began Wednesday night when Coco Crisp slid hard into 2nd base.  The Rays, about to fall out of 1st place, were not excited about the play, calling it dirty.  Coco expected payback.

In the 2nd inning, it came.  Shields hit him with a pitch.  And then came the brawl.  Seems like old times.  In the late 90’s – early 2000’s these 2 teams did not like each other.  A brawl led to bad blood and Brian Daubach was vilified by Rays’ fans.  That feud didn’t die until Daubach left the Sox.  The odd part was that the Rays weren’t very good at the time.

Now they are fighting for first place, and bad blood is back!  Makes things interesting, though I’m not in favor of brawls in sports.  In this go round, Gomes is playing the role of villain.  He is the one who pounced on the pile and threw cheap shots at Crisp- which is what Daubach is accused of doing.  This fight may be the catalyst the Sox needed to pull together in the midst of injuries to key players.

With Crisp tossed, Ellsbury moved to center.  It was the 4th inning when all Boston held its breath as he came up hurting after catching Longoria’s drive.  He would leave the game with only a strained wrist, but it was scarry.  With Coco possibly getting suspended, the timing is quite unfortunate.

But it got stranger as Youk and Manny had to be pulled apart between the 4th and 5th innings.  No word about what the fight was about.  Could be Youk was not wild about playing in the outfield.  Who knows.  But the Sox prevailed 7-1 to take a 1.5 game lead in the AL East.

The Celtics-Lakers game was looking good, though mundane.  It was exciting, but in the 3rd period it got scary as Boston again held its collective breath.  Captain Paul Pierce went down holding his leg.  Scary.  Carried off the court.  Scarier.  Brough to the locker room on a wheelchair.  Level 9 anxiety attack for Celtics Nation.  The guy is finally in the Finals and this is how it ends?????  Are our chances shot????

Next thing we know, Derek Fisher falls on Perkins’ leg after a free throw attempt.  Now he’s limping off the court and heading to the locker room.

Pierce pulled his best Larry Bird impersonation.  Like Bird he would emerge from the locker room to a thunderous applause and entered the game to lead his team to victory.  He showed leadership and courage, and the Lakers couldn’t stop the Celtics despite lots of horrible shots by KG.  It was Pierce who didn’t just play but drained shots and hustled.  While Garnett owned the first half, Pierce owned the second half and the Celtics came up with an exciting win.  This is what Lakers-Celtics is all about, folks.  And somewhere David Stern is rolling on the floor with delight- the string of less-than-interesting Finals is OVER.

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The Yankees-Rays Game

Last night I got a free ticket to the Yankees-Ray game in St. Pete.  A friend had an out of town friend who treated them to the game, but their daughter had another commitment.  Enter the Cavman, who upon promising to not wear his Red Sox hat and/or shirt, received an invite to the game.

I thought we might be sitting in the bleachers or something.  When I saw my ticket and noticed the price, I realized otherwise.  We sat 6 rows behind the Rays’ dugout, friends.  These were great seats.  The downside of the seats was the Team Rays “dancers” most of who might have been 20 and wearing too-tight shorts and baseball jerseys.  This was the first time I’ve seen ‘cheer leaders’ at a professional baseball game.  But they would help lead the claps to the songs, dance with Raymond the mascot, and distribute trinkets to the crowd while shaking their booty.  Yeah …. David Stern is complaining about the pyrotechnics at basketball games.  I can complain about the blatant use of sexuality at America’s pasttime.

I was surprised by the lack of people at the game.  Afterall, 1. the Rays have been playing very well and 2. the Yankees are in town.  But there were lots of empty seats.  In my 3 trips to either the concessions or men’s room, I didn’t wait in line once.  Not once!

The game itself was very good.  Quite the pitcher’s duel.  But there were people playing with their blackberries.  The Rays were up 1-0 heading into the 9th with Troy Percival coming in.  This after Joba Chamberlain was able to get out of a jam.  Percival has had an outstanding year so far.  But last night wasn’t his night as Matsui pulled a ball into the right field seats to tie the game.  So it went into extra innnings.  In the 11th, the Rays scored off of Mariano Rivera (he of the previously 0.00 ERA).  So 2 great closers had issues last night.

Combined with the Red Sox loss, the Rays moved into first place by .5 games.  You would have thought they had won the World Series.  Lots of “Yankees s***” chants (that’s modeling some good sportmanship to the younger part of the crowd).  People took pictures of the standings with their cell phones.  It was so annoying (mind you, I love seeing the Yankees lose) that one announcer told the fans to “act like you’ve been here before.  Let’s have a little class.”  That’s because many of them acted like 5th graders- taunting Yankees’ fans (even taunting kids!).

Despite those distractions, it was a fun night.  Great seats to a great game at an even greater price.

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The Dark Side of Sports

The defamation suit filed by Roger Clemens against Brian McNamee has resulted in some unintended consequences for the Rocket.  Lots of allegations against him regarding his personal life (which his suit claimed pointed to his sterling character).  You could see this coming, but it is still sad whether the allegations are true or not.  Roger issued a Giambi-like apology while denying the allegations.  My, that was helpful.  Either he has the worst lawyer ever, or he is the worst client ever.  This rivals the Seinfeld episodes with Kramer’s fast-talking lawyer to whom he never listened.

But another story caught my eye.  It took place in Nashua, NH.  This would be the small New England city in which I grew up.  It involved fans of the Red Sox and a Yankees fan.  And what unfolded was a pathetic testimony to how some people take this thing way too seriously.

I am an avid Red Sox fan.  I’ll admit I’ve had a few lively dialogues while attending games in Tampa (actually the Rays play in St. Pete which is an additional 45 minutes away).  Mostly that was challenging outrageous claims on omniscience on the part of Rays fans.  I once asked a guy if he was God since he seemed to know so much about the motivation of a man he never met.

The Yankees are our “arch enemy”.  I saw some ugly events as a child in Fenway sitting in the right field seats in the late 70’s.  Reggie Jackson was verbally abused continuously.  Yankees’ fans were also attacked verbally and with beverages.  I do not condone any of those actions, but detest them.  Some of my best friends are Yankees’ fans.  We have a playful rivalry, not one that is life and death.  I’ve even watched them play one another, in the playoffs, with some of my Yankee fan friends.

But, in Nashua things got ugly after a fist fight between 2 women (what are we coming to?).  One stomped off to her car and the crowd noticed the Yankees’ bumper sticker.  The taunts began.  [for the record, you may not like the Yankees, but they certainly do not stink or any related term.]  She responded by driving straight for the crowd.  Admittedly she had been drinking and her decision-making process somewhat impaired.  Theirs undoubtedly was too.  For she thought they’d move; and they thought she’d stop.  But she ran into the crowd killing a man.

Sports is no reason to kill a person.  Yet this happens all over the world, not just in Nashua, NH.  We will never be able to coexist as long as we gain our identity in someone or something other than Christ.  We will protect our idols, even if we have to kill.  This, folks, is who we are- all too often.

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Considering Defense and Pitching

The vaunted Celtics’ defense showed up last night.  And they once again put a major league hurtin’ on the Hawks.  Whenever the Hawks made a good run the Celtics amped up the intensity and extended the lead.

The series is getting pretty chippy.  Most of that chippiness seems to involve Horford.  He could be the next Tree Rollins (who bit Danny Ainge, not the other way around as people erroneously recall it) or Bill Lambeir.  That he didn’t understand the Flagrant Foul rule is amazing to me.  He didn’t go for the ball, but a takedown.  Don’t get angry about it.  And there were plenty of angry Hawks near the end of that game.  This could get ugly soon.

The person who should have been angry was Paul Pierce.  Kudos to Paul for maintaining composure despite a series of bad calls and non-calls.  He couldn’t catch a break from the officials who seem determined to send the Hawks to the line 3-4 times as often as the Celtics.  I’m not buying the line the Czar (btw- could they forcibly retire him?) is selling.  “The Celtics are a jump shot team.”  Okay, during the Chris Ford era that was true.  But did you see how many times Pierce and Rondo penetrated?  Did you see how many times KG, Powe and Perkins took shots in the paint (drawing contact)?  There was no logical, sensible reason for the FT disparity.

In light of all that- what was KG doing on the floor with 3 minutes to go????  Is Rivers trying to get him hurt?  With that kind of lead the bench should have played the last 8-10 minutes.

Pitching.  I am amazed at this string of pitching performances by Buchholz, Beckett, Lester and Dice-K.  The Red Sox offense has been on vacation, and squandered Clay and Josh’s stellar performances.  Thankfully they provided just enough for Papelbon to get the wins with walk-off hits.  Suddenly the Sox pitchers are going deep and holding teams to almost nothing.  5 runs in 4 games I think.  This is the staff we expected heading into the season.  Is this just a fluke, or the real deal?  The latter I hope.

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A Weekend and a Day

It was a jam packed weekend filled with fun and frustration.  It is fun hearing that you don’t have any cavities!  It is also fun trying to teach my daughter how to cut paper with her new scissors.  She still uses both hands to open it, and wants to hold them at an odd angle.  Yes, it will take time.  But it was fun.

Frustration?  I was certainly frustrated with the same daughter was angry with me because I didn’t want her walking around with the blade unit from the Magic Bullet.  She can’t grasp that I’m trying to protect her from potentially dangerous situations.  All she knows is that I’m blocking her pursuit of fun.  It also was frustrating not being able to find a gender-neutral scooter for my kids at the W-M. 

Fun was watching my son play with his new cars.  A neighbor gave him the Cars collection.  He really enjoys playing with them- captivated really.  And he has not seen the movie.

Fun was watching him pretend to throw a baseball.  I had the Sox-Rays game on and he was mimicking the pitcher.  It was even funnier looking when I put his arm restraints back on.  He seemed captivated by baseball this weekend.

And boxing.  We were at a friend’s house.  They were showing part of the Ali-Ernie Shaver fight, and his eyes were glued to the TV.  Thankfully he wasn’t practicing with his arm restraints on this time.

Frustrating was having CavWife ask anytime I either had been or was going to be near a computer and wanting me check on the progress of the laptop.  I kept forgetting.  We were both frustrated.

Even more frustrating was watching the Sox get swept by the Rays (who have a very good team this year).  Why?  Try no off days in 3 weeks and fending off the bug.  They were worn out and wasted 2 superior pitching performances by Buchholz and Beckett.  Beckett’s 13 Ks meant an extra point for my fantasy team which remains in first place at this VERY early juncture.  I was also frustrated with watching the Hawks play an amazing game to beat the Celtics.

CavWife is not sure why the NFL draft is a big deal.  I’m not sure why anyone would spend all day watching it, much less heading to Radio City Music Hall.  I did check in periodically to see how the Patriots were doing.  Some people watch to see where players from their favorite college teams and alma maters go.  My alma mater, Boston University, no longer has a football team and so my efforts to see one of them drafter were in vain.  I can’t remember the last Terrier drafted in football or  basketball.  Hockey is a different story.  I think the Patriots addressed their most pressing needs (youth and speed at linebacker and cornerback).  But who’s to say at this point?

Our study of 1 Peter wrapped up chapter 2 Sunday night.  Our group is in transition.  The youth pastor will soon have to take over the youth study since the intern is graduating and moving on.  My long-term status in up in the air.  So we aren’t sure if the group will be able to continue come the Fall.  Someone would have to step up.

Today I took our son to one of his post-surgical appointments.  We arrived early since you can’t predict the traffic into Orlando.  We enjoyed a walk around a nearby park.  He enjoyed the fountains and the water fowls.  We saw a group of ducks that included 8-9 ducklings.  We also saw a good sized turtle swimming around in the pond.  I like sharing those moments with him.  So much better than the wet bedding (an unfortunate result of the liquid diet he’s been on since the surgery).

The surgeon was quite pleased with the repair on the lip.  He thought the palate was looking much better.  We were rinsing it when we should have been irrigating it.  The white spot I feared was a hole or exposed bone is only a scab (huge sigh of relief).  He should only wear the arm restraints for another week.  Once the stitches fall out we no longer have to irrigate.  All in all- a very good report from the surgeon.  I did discover that the reason all the skin was peeling off of his thumb was that in the restraints he couldn’t put it in his mouth.  So it dried out, really dried out.

I finally remembered to check the progress of the laptop.  Still in the repair process (sigh) so no pictures of the family or the animals we have seen.

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A Whole Bunch of Stuff

I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to post in the next week or so.  Yesterday I went to Presbytery.  Between where I am cicumstance-wise and some decisions made, I’m pretty discouraged.  I’m not excited abou the direction our Presbytery seems to be moving.  I’ll leave it at that.

On the way home I dropped the laptop off for the Geek Squad to try and fix the problem with the screen, again.  It intermitently goes blank, like there is a short.  We need to fix this before the extended warrentee goes the way of all flesh.  But this means I can’t go on-line at home.  Office time is a bit infrequent right now as family responsibilities take up some time.

Today CavWife brings the boy to the surgeon’s office for his post-op check-up.  His stitches will be removed.  We are concerned that there seems to be a “valley” on one side of his palate.  I will stay home with the girl, listening to her pound on the wall as she rocks instead of naps.  I may try to watch The Simpsons Movie again before returning it to its rightful owner.  Or I may sit outside and prepare for the Family Study as we wrap up 1 Peter 2.

I am excited about how well the Red Sox are playing right now.  This despite the missed starts by Beckett and Papi slump (which is over thankfully), Lowell’s injury and shaky starts by Lester and Buchholz.  Ellsbury and Papi are helping the cause of dominating my fantasy baseball league. 

Congrats to KG for getting some of the recognition he deserves for making the Celtics one of the best defensive teams, which transformed them into a winning team.  To watch them in the playoffs, expecting them to win, is a feeling I have not had since the late 80’s.  And I’m loving it!

The Bruins at least made a series out of it with Montreal.  I expected the Canadians to sweep them.  I was pleasantly surprised.  The downfall of Game 7 was losing their aggressiveness.  They seemed more reactive than proactive so the Canadians just walked away with the game.  Or perhaps skated away.

The girl is currently getting her first experience of Rossini here in the office.  She seems to enjoy it despite the fact it has no lyrics (on this CD).  I have to bring her home now.

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Big Papi Back?

Big Papi has been AWOL so far this season.  I wouldn’t be one of those small-minded folks who want to ‘boo’ him.  Thankfully his mega-slump has not hurt the bottom line.  The Red Sox have done well (aside for the middle relief- please bring Snyder back!).

I just want my Big Papi back.  And last night we had a Big Papi sighting.  A grand slam over the Green Monster and another RBI hit meant that he doubled his meager HR total and more than doubled his just as meager RBI total.  Jed Lowrie had as many RBI in his one professional game.  So this was significant.

An extraordinally hot player experiences a “regression to mean”.  This means he will eventually return, regress, to his average performance.  Ortiz should experience a “progression to mean”.  The fact that the HR was to left field is significant.  He’s been trying to pull everything (so say the talking heads on TV- since I haven’t been able to watch a whole lot).  If he starts to hit to all fields again, it takes away the Papi shift, and creates more gaps for him to hit.  And he can put a few more over the Monster.

My fantasy team certainly needs Papi to be back, permanently.  I need HRs & RBIs.  Is last night a tease, or has he finally shaken off the burden he’s been carrying so he can just relax and do that thing he does, and we love him for.

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Home from the Hospital

If I have to do this again … shoot me.  I told CavWife this must have been payback for the China trip.

Yesterday morning I was up at 5:30 after not sleeping all that well.  CavDaughter woke me up twice, so that didn’t help.  Since I’d watched the Red Sox beat the Yankees late Sunday, I didn’t watch the come from behind victory against the Indians.  I was a good boy.  But tired even before loading CavSon into the car to head off to the hospital at 6 am.

He really did great yesterday morning.  I thought he’d become super-whiny since I couldn’t give him anything to eat or drink.  But he was in a good mood until crashing at 10:30.  I brought one diaper with me.  Shortly after arriving I noticed some leakage so I traipsed off to the men’s room to change him, seeing a sign that they had changing tables in there.  Sadly, 1. some guy occupied the bathroom for about 10 minutes, and 2. the changing table was in another bathroom.  I also learned they decided to save money on toilet paper and had an ample supply of sand paper in its place.  At approximately 8 am the magic moment I had feared came.  I asked the lady at the desk for a new diaper.  She directed me to the bathroom with a changing table!

A few minutes later they called us back for him to change.  A series of nurses checked in on us to make sure we didn’t need anything.  Very friendly people.  They put in a Barney video for him.  His first Barney experience.  I wanted him to hate it, but he liked it.  Blues Clues was not received quite as well.  He was restless and the surgeon was behind schedule.  I had not read a page of listened to anything but Barney.  Sadly, I’d left my headphones in the car.  After wearing him out he was ready for a nap when the surgeon came by to go over final details.  He was off for surgeon, happily waving ‘bye-bye’.

I spent the next few hours reading half the PCA Book of Church Order, which nearly put me asleep.  Then I went to the car to grab my lunch, once again forgetting the headphones.  After reading some of my novel, I gave up and went into the children’s waiting room which was empty.  A recliner was a great place to nap until the surgeon woke me up with the good news that he was in recovery.

I joined him in recovery, holding him until he was ready to head to the pediatric ward.  No reading, no sermons.  Up in pediatrics, he was doing pretty well.  But between the phone calls, crying and nurses talking to me I actually heard about 10 minutes of Grahame Goldsworthy.

Before he could leave in the morning he had to be drinking and eating.  He was pretty thirsty and quickly took care of the first.  For dinner he had some applesauce and babyfood bannanas.  Paydirt!  We just had to make it through the night.

My dinner was late.  A friend was bringing me dinner, but circumstances conspired such that he arrived at 8 pm, when visiting hours ended.  But we went off the cafeteria to talk.  He brought me a Joey Bag o’ Donuts and a beer from Moe’s.  He figured I probably would need one.  Oh, a true friend.

I was back in the room by 9:30 and started to watch a movie on the DVD player I borrowed.  After about 20 minutes I faced the fact I would not finish the movie.  I was in bed by 10, so very un-Cavman-like.  It seemed that every time I was close to falling to sleep something happened: a monitor alarm went off, he woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep, a nurse came in, he was thirsty ….  It was as if they had some special detection device.

When the surgeon arrived he found everything in good order and the wheels were in motion for discharge.  He enjoyed his breakfast of applesauce and scrambled eggs.  He also had time to work the floor, flirting with all the nurses.  One of the interesting things about the hospital that I learned as the transportation specialist pushed us in the wheelchair is that they don’t allow child patients out via the parking garage, where I was parked.  So, I had to leave him with the specialist while I went to get the car and drive to the other side of the hospital instead of 150 feet in the parking garage.

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Advice for Francona and the Sox

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I think Terry Francona really ought to consider keeping Papi on the shelf.  In fact, I’d put him on the DL.

1. It would give his knee time to rest and heal more completely.

2. Both Ellsbury and Crisp will play everyday.  This will allow both to get into, and stay, in a good rhythm.

3.  Ellsbury adds so much to the team offensively.  He needs some time to learn the major league ball parks too.  I’d really hate to kill his Rookie of the Year chances with this platooning problem.

4. Coco needs to play if they want to showcase him for a trade, which seems to be the plan. 

I think this solves all of the Red Sox current everyday issues.  It doesn’t provide relief for the bullpen which has not performed well outside of Papelbon and Okajima.

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Considering Our Weekend

The editor has been acting up, so my whole post got lost.  I’ll try to reconstruct….

I didn’t see much of the family on Saturday.  We enjoyed our normal Saturday breakfast together.  MMMMM… bacon and chocolate chip pancakes.  Then I was off to a premarital counseling session.  It has been awhile since I did a formal counseling session, so I was a bit rusty.  And we ran late, so I left for Orlando later than expected.

I had hoped to grab lunch in Orlando with an old friend before we went to a funeral.  A former roommate’s father had passed away after an incredibly long illness.  This guy had moved back in with his parents to help out.  He faces a rough road after having put much of life on hold for years.  But it was like old home week as I was able to talk to a bunch of old friends from Orangewood PCA.  Most of the time we spent together before I moved to Winter Haven we were all single.  Some of us are married now, so our topics of conversation are decidedly different.

My friend Robert edits a boating magazine.  His wife gave me a copy of a recent magazine.  Every once in a while his family benefits by travelling with him on assignment.  This copy had his family snorkling for scallops while reviewing a boat.  So CavDaughter liked seeing pictures of my friends and their kids.  Unfortunately she now wants me to buy a fancy boat.

As I drove home, quite hungry, I listened to the Red Sox – Yankees game on the radio.  That is until the rain delay started.  I arrived home around 6:30 to wolf down some pizza and spend time with the kids before beginning their bedtime routine.  After putting them to sleep I was able to enjoy watching Papelbon put the finishing touches on the Yankees.  Since Beckett is on my fantasy baseball team, I really wanted him to get the win.

I woke up to discover that my fantasy team was ahead going into the final day but my 13-3 lead was now 9-7.  Not looking good as my power & RBI guys slump, particularly Big Papi.  Soon I was distracted from my misery by my kids’ delight in a sand hill crane.  They are common this time of year, but who can understand the heart of a child.  If the photo editor was working right, you’d see a picture of the crane, and notice his pretty red head.

Off to church where I am still not comfortable sitting and listening.  I’m sure the people in front of my did not enjoy my singing.  Neither CavWife or I were particularly wild about the sermon.  He really didn’t seem to stick to the text.  It was more of a topical sermon on the exaltation of Jesus (a much needed topic, to be sure).  There were some typos in the outline.  “Jesus Christ as me Savior and me Lord”.  The seminary student next to us quipped that it must be the pirate confession.  My cynical side came out as I considered application of the text had been reduced to checking a box on the outline.  Worse, conversion is no longer even walking the aisle but merely checking the box.  I know that is probably not s.o.p. for the pastor, but it just rubbed me the wrong way.

After the kids’ nap time, it was off to Family Study.  I tried to lead the singing on my guitar, but I’m not a worship leader.  It would help if I could actually sing.  You think?  I then taught on 1 Peter 2:11-12.  We focused on the 2 sides of sanctification: mortification and vivefication.  In Peter’s terminology this is abstaining from sinful desires and living such good lives … I mentioned a Thomas Chalmers’ quote via Sinclair Ferguson about the “expulsive power of a greater delight.”  When we delight in Christ most of all, the deceitful desires of the flesh have less of a hold on us.

So here I sit, the kids are asleep and I’m hoping the Sox can take the rubber game against the Yankees, and that Jacoby Ellsbury and Kevin Youkilis can help me hold on to my lead.  The way this game is going, I’ll be in bed by 12:30.  I don’t think I’ll be rested for this very long week.

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