Posts Tagged ‘CHB’
I dig the Jay Bay but I'll be happy when we don't have to keep hearing about him any more (Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission)
Red Sox baseball on television today!
Unless, of course, you actually live in the Boston area.
If what they’ve done historically still holds true, the MLB Network will be airing today’s 1:05pm Sox/Mets game as long as you aren’t in the Boston area market (not sure about NY – do they get blacked out too?). I always hope against hope that someone, somewhere will forget to flip a switch and we’ll get the game – but I sincerely doubt that’s what will happen. The game is also being aired on MLB.tv (but, seemingly, not on the radio) so there are options out there for folks who want to see there first glimpse of Jason Bay v the Red Sox.
It’ll come as no surprise that CHB chimed in today on the Nomar “signing” and wasn’t impressed. Much to my surprise, Sean McAdam wrote a similar (if not even more scathing) piece yesterday about how the Red Sox “jumped the shark” by signing Nomar so he could retire. It’s nice to see that while Nomar and the Red Sox can acknowledge that people are human and baseball sometimes has to be treated like a business, these guys can still hold a grudge.
If by doing something that holds a lot of meaning for the individual player and the fans is “jumping the shark” I hope the Sox continue to circle that shark tank and jump it multiple times. They made a lot of people happy yesterday and it didn’t cost them a dime (Rob Bradford tweeted yesterday that since Nomar immediately retired the Sox aren’t on the hook for his $30 as outlined in his contract). They didn’t make it any kind of big show (hell they didn’t even present him with a jersey and cap – and I was really hoping for that!), they just made the announcement, let Nomar talk a bit and ended it. Warm feelings all around and bygones being bygones. Whats the big freaking deal with that? It’s good PR (how great did the FO look yesterday?), it made Nomar feel good, most of the fans absolutely loved it and it helped close a relatively ugly period of Sox history (I say relatively because his leaving the team led to the greatest moments in Sox history – that part was damn beautiful). Stop pissing in our cheerios, fellas. It was a nice gesture and you’ll find more fans who loved it than who didn’t.
Although that was always CHB’s problem – no matter how much he wanted the fans to hate whichever player of the week he was pissed at, they just wouldn’t. Hell, I’ll bet you can find more Red Sox fans who like(d) Carl Everett more than they liked Dan Shaughnessy.
I’ll say it forever – Nomar loved US (the fans) and hated THEM (most of the sports media) and I’m perfectly all right with that.
So it’s off to Port St Lucie for the Sox today (a Kyle sighting perhaps?). Every one of these “meaningless” games brings us another day closer to April 4th!
Photo of Clay Buchholz courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission
Yesterday’s split squad games were split score-wise too. A win (against Minnesota, putting the Sox ahead again in the Mayor’s Cup race) and a loss. I missed both games but definitely plan to check out Clay Buchholz today at 1:05pm. I’m still not sure if MLBN will be showing the game in the Boston area but if you’re out of the area you should be getting the Sox/Orioles game on the MLB Network. MLB.tv is also showing the game or you can listen on WEEI or Gameday Audio.
So, really, if you’re looking for Red Sox baseball in any format today you can find it somewhere.
CHB is doing his best to bait me into ranting about his columns this pre-season. From a story about players changing their uniform numbers that makes fun of Clay Buchholz for being number 61 (he’s changed his number this year to 11) to a piece about protecting the testicles of the players (you think I’m kidding?) to today’s story about how things aren’t the same in Ft Myers and the Red Sox fans are turning into Braves fans, he has consistently made me want to set the Globe on fire…but I refrain. Baseball is coming back, folks. CHB doing his best to annoy the fans is just more proof of that.
It’s 54 degrees in Boston right now. The sun is shining and there’s a wonderful breeze blowing through my open windows. Feels like spring – why not enjoy a ball game?
It makes me sad that I get sad whenever Tek's in a game lately. Having written that - I despise the vitriol being spewed toward him. Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission.
Not going to lie…was absolutely sick after Lester got hit last night. It was tough to invest fully in the rest of the game so I’m not going to worry about one crappy loss (and it was crappy – always hate to see them lose like that to the Yanks). I figure I should just be grateful that Lester isn’t hurt as badly as it looked and leave it at that.
Of course, the Boston Globe is already in full “let’s panic the fans” mode. Here’s what Amalie Benjamin tweeted just after it was released that Lester had a contusion not a break:
So … how worried are you all about the Lester injury? #redsox
Then she tweeted moments later:
Meant to point this out earlier: Right leg is the plant leg for a lefty pitcher. Does that change your panic level? #redsox
So I responded with:
Why is @amaliebenjamin hell bent on panicking the fans? Howsabout we just wait and see how Lester’s feeling tomorrow before we freak out?
Amalie responded with:
Not at all. Just wanted to see what the feeling was. We don’t know much at the moment, but it didn’t look very good.
See, I call bullshit. And others (including Bruce Allen from Boston Sports Media Watch) did too. This wasn’t trying to figure out how the fans felt, this was trying to stir up panic in Boston – yet again. In looking for a story on how Lester is doing, I ended up reading CHB’s column today. Most of it is fine, straight-forward even (seems that Jon was walking around the clubhouse after the game – this is a good piece of information to have) but Shaughnessy couldn’t leave it at that. In this article he has to outline how the Sox lost the ‘46 WS due in part to Ted Williams having been hit on the elbow before it started; the ‘67 Series because the Sox didn’t have Tony Conigliaro; the ‘75 Series because Jim Rice was injured and out and (wait for it), the ‘86 Series because Tom Seaver got injured at the end of the season in Toronto.
So to make sure his theory of doom holds up (every time the Sox are in the WS they lose when a key player is hurt before the Series starts) he pulls Tom Seaver out of his butt. How pathetic is it that he has to do that just so he can finish this off? This isn’t a “here is some interesting and relevant information” piece. This is “PANIC! PANIC!!! THE SOX ARE GOING TO LOSE THE WORLD SERIES BECAUSE JON LESTER GOT HIT IT’S IN THEIR HISTORY AND YOU CAN’T DENY IT!!!!”
How many of you out there blame the 1986 World Series loss on the lack of Tom Seaver? Anyone? Anyone?
The Sox aren’t even in the playoffs yet. I mean, seriously, can’t he wait until the Red Sox make it into the playoffs before he starts setting the fans on fire?
No doubt that Lester going down last night made everyone think “There go our playoff chances”. That’s not what I’m complaining about. Once you hear that the injury isn’t serious, why force the issue (Amalie, CHB) and try to make it worse than it is just for the sake of panicking the fans? For readers? For traffic? It certainly isn’t in the name of journalistic integrity.
4:10pm on Fox and they’re back at it…Matsuzaka v Sabathia. Doesn’t look great on paper for the Sox but, hey, neither did last night for the Yanks. Anything can happen and I’m not ready to curl up in the fetal position and rock myself to sleep just yet.
 Papelbon doing his closer thing. Photo taken by Kelly O’Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission. |
Quotes that will come back to bite you in the butt because people will misinterpret them:
“Of course I want to close (the All-Star game). Every closer there is going to want to close. There’s no difference (among them),” said Papelbon. “But Joe is going to make the decision there.”
Remember this from last year?
“If I was managing the team, I would close,” Papelbon said. “I’m not managing the team, so it don’t matter.”
Papelbon has now said, two years in a row, that he’d like to close the All Star game. Last year he got a boatload of grief (including the asshats in New York heckling him at the parade along with his pregnant wife to the point where he was concerned for her) because he had the “nerve” to say he wanted to close. So what will happen this year? I’m sure most of the New York sports media will take that first quote from above and rip him to shreds again. Regardless of the fact that all the guy is saying is that he wants to do HIS JOB in the All Star game it’s going to be spun that he’s dissing Mariano Rivera. Because, as we all know, the world revolves around the Yankees and everything that is written or said is either to support or to destroy the Bronx Bombers.
Maybe I’m wrong? Maybe this quote will just get buried with all the other sports news of the day. Then again, if Yankees fans travel to St Louis, Paps might want to think about NOT bringing his wife and daughter along for the parade.
Speaking of children, Dustin and Kelli Pedroia had a close call regarding the birth of their first child this week (Kelli is due is 7 weeks) and of all the stories written about them, Dan Shaughnessy, of all people, has a great take on the differences in how players now are able to deal with family matters and what they had to do “back in the day”. Yes, I just linked to a CHB story (and I enjoyed the story as well!)…that’s one of the signs of the apocalypse, right? Best wishes to Kelli for a save delivery when the newest Pedroia finally makes his or her way into the world.
Beckett got his 10th win last night and kept the Sox in first place. Tonight, Wake goes for his 11th win against Trevor Cahill at 7:10 and I’ll be live blogging it. Join me, won’t you?
 Photo day for the Mets was today! Getty Images didn’t disappoint – at least they posted ONE of Kyle and it’s good one! Photo taken by Doug Benc. |
Getting updates today on intrasquad games made me happy and I needed to be made happy. After dodging the illness bullet for as long as I could, today I succumbed just a bit so I needed SOMETHING to get me going.
Kyle Snyder got some real pitching in today. Two innings. His first inning was 1-2-3 (caught Ramon Martinez looking, Ryan Church grounded out and Nick Evans struck out swinging). His second inning he gave up a single to Brian Schneider. So that made me happy as well. (Oddly enough, for all my complaining about not getting Kyle info, when I finally DO get some, it’s incomplete. I have no idea how the three outs in his second inning were made and, yes, this is information I find interesting.) Tuesday night the MLBN focuses on the Mets on their 30 days/30 teams show. So I’m eagerly awaiting that!
