Posts Tagged ‘Cliff Lee’
Now appearing in the bullpen! Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission
When the Rangers scored that second run last night, my first thought was how disappointing it was that John Lackey genuinely pitched well enough to win but probably wouldn’t. Kevin Youkilis must have been thinking the same thing because he meant business when he tied that score in the ninth. One of the most amusing visuals of the night was of Youk hitting that sacrifice fly in the 11th, flipping his bat and just hanging around waiting for Scutaro to score. He had that “Yeah, we totally had this one all along” look on his face. After those last two games, it sure was a helluva lot of fun to watch.
Gustavo Molina was DFA’d today to make room for Michael Bowden who will be pitching out of the bullpen. Now there is something that could be fun (but I’m sorry it came at the expense of Gustavo). I totally missed that Dusty Brown had been called up so it was a pleasant surprise to see him on the bench (and then in the game) last night.
The end of this month will bring me to my fifth anniversary with blogging. I started back on July 30, 2005 at MLBLogs with my first post being about Alan Embree going to the Yankees. I feel like the 5th anniversary is a good time to shake things up (at the very least with my blog entries being more “me” and less blah as I feel they’ve been lately) so I’ll be working on a few different things. I’m hoping to get back to doing some random blogging as I did so often in the beginning (which now has been replaced by Tweeting…I won’t give up the Twitter but I feel like I need to pay more attention to the blog to make it as entertaining for me – and everyone else – as it used to be!). So fair warning. 
Crabcakes on the mound this afternoon. There could be worse things in baseball than a series split.
Chosen because I need to be reminded of the players who play for love of the game and aren't money or publicity whores. Plus the sticker is timely!
Well the Yankees PR machine did us in but we gave it a good shot. Sorry we came up short, Youk. Hopefully the rest will do you good and you come back after the all star break and break the Yankees (and the rest of the American League) into tiny pieces. As has been written, we all know you deserved to be an All Star. Hope you know it too.
Between the news about Youk and the ridiculousness surrounding LeBron James, I decided to go offline early last night and purge my brain of sports thoughts…so waking up this morning to the news that the Mariners will, most likely, trade Cliff Lee to the Yankees wasn’t quit how I was hoping things would go.
Of all the months in a baseball season, I hate July the most. Between the All Star Game (which I used to enjoy but Bud Selig making it “count” just to save his own ass has turned me off of it) and the trade deadline I spend most of the month on edge. (Fair warning for the crankiness and snark that might permeate this blog for the next couple of weeks. I’ll try my best to contain it.) Youk getting out-voted by Nick Swisher and the possibility of the Yankees acquiring Lee has made me temporarily lose all hope in humanity. All the stars are aligning for the Yanks right now and that isn’t a baseball world I enjoy participating in.
Tomorrow I’m taking my 9 year-old niece to the Futures at Fenway double header. We’ll get to watch players playing because they enjoy the game and not because they’re looking for money or attention. For a few hours tomorrow, I’ll forget that the Yankees are back to owning the universe and just focus on what the future of the Red Sox looks like. Maybe it’ll help clear my head and make me not want to stab MLB to death? Maybe I’ll come home to the news that Cliff Lee got traded to a team that could actually use his help and not one that just wants to add to their collection? At least I’ll get an afternoon to pretend that baseball is about how much talent you have and not about how much money or pull you have. I’m looking forward to the day even more than I already was.
I’m on the fence about the All Star live chat right now. If the Lee trade to the Yankees does go through, it’s definitely off. The idea of listening to Buck and McCarver slurp all over the Yanks for four hours makes me extremely stabby (it’ll be bad enough listening to it without the trade happening). So stay tuned!
Can't wait for CHB's next article about how unnamed young Sox players found Mike Lowell shooting craps in the clubhouse when they needed him to pinch hit. (Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission)
I wanted to blog about this last night and just didn’t have the energy. Today I do and I am quite sure that more people will disagree with me than agree with me and I’m quite fine with that. I didn’t start this blog to be popular.
(This is, be warned, a long one.)
Let’s talk about Cliff Lee.
But first, some back story.
On May 10th, Larry LaRue of the News Tribune wrote a story in which he asserted that Ken Griffey, Jr’s time with the Seattle Mariners was drawing to a close. His reasoning? Not just Juniors diminishing skills. No, LaRue had it on good authority (two “younger players, fond of Griffey” and both, supposedly without “an ax to grind”) that Junior was unavailable to pinch him on a particular night because he was “sound” asleep in the clubhouse. Mariners’ manager Don Wakamatsu vehemently denied this and Junior’s teammate Mike Sweeney has challenged the two teammates to fess up so he can fight them (Um, Mike? Not really the best way to get someone to tell the truth, hon!) and the entire team is pretty much supporting Junior. There was a team meeting where it is rumored that Griffey was so upset by this that he cried. And still, the two anonymous ball players haven’t spoken up.
Best of luck to Alan Embree who drew the short straw with Daisuke's return and will be designated for assignment today. Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission.
So here’s my theory: The Red Sox don’t want to take the attention away from the Celtics and the Bruins in their quests for world championships so they figure if they don’t play well, folks will pay more attention to their brothers who are in the playoffs right now.
That’s all I have. There’s no other excuse I can come up with short of “they all got Mono from Jed Lowrie” that could explain how they let all those opportunities against Baltimore’s pitching go to waste last night.
In-season, is there anything worse for a baseball fan than the entire, day-long wait to the next game after a particularly bothersome loss? I don’t think there is. Fortunately today in New England should be a beautiful day weather-wise so folks here can go out and enjoy some fresh air and sunshine without thinking about the Sox for a few hours. At least that’s my plan.
If you aren’t into fresh air and sunshine, the Bruins start the second round of the playoffs this afternoon at 12:30pm and the Kentucky Derby is being run at 6:30pm. Fox has the Mets/Phillies game on at 3pm if you want to torture yourself with McCarver and Buck (and watch the Mets possibly stretch their winning streak to 9 games). And then you could always NOT watch the Red Sox tonight and instead watch the Celtics begin their second round of the playoffs at 8pm.
Losing with a walk-off is painful no matter what the situation of the team. So as soon as Miggy hit that ball, I turned off the tv. Then I remembered that Cliff Lee was off the DL and starting for the Mariners and I wanted to watch him so I put the Mariners game on. I think I turned it on in the fourth. The game went 12 innings with Lee pitching seven of them, giving up only three hits, walking no one and striking out eight. While they didn’t lose in a walk-off, they still lost at home after a 12-inning game (pitching on both sides was great last night – they only lost 2-0 with Brandon League giving up the two runs in the 12th – one on a wild pitch, the other on a sacrifice). Knowing that Mariners fans left that game with that pit in their stomach didn’t make me feel any better about the Red Sox finishing April under .500 but it did make me forget about it for a couple of hours.
So tonight I’ll be watching the Red Sox and switching over to check out how the Celtics are doing. I can’t help it, even with two teams in the playoffs, and as much as they frustrate me, the Sox are the team that has my heart. So win or lose (but they’re going to win!) I’m in front of the tv with NESN tonight. Besides, Daisuke Matsuzaka is pitching his first game of the season tonight which could mean many things, not the least would be that we might get to see Tim Wakefield coming out of the bullpen for the first time this year.
The mad winning streak begins May 1st!
Cliff Lee = Man of Steel ( Photo by Jared Wickerham /Getty Images and used without permission.)
30 years ago this month I watched my first full World Series. Well, that probably isn’t true. I suppose I sat with my parents in 1975 and watched the World Series but I don’t have any memory of it. In 1979, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Baltimore Orioles made the World Series and for some reason I begged my parents to let me watch it. I’m guessing it had something to do with seeing Willie Stargell in the NLCS. Whatever my reasons, I was in sixth grade, ten years old, and I begged my parents until they finally gave in. I watched most of those 7 games alone. My father worked early mornings and my mother had two daughters to get up for school. I felt like such an adult. The deal was that I could watch the games but I had to get up for school. There were definitely mornings when I had to drag myself out of bed but it was worth it to me. Most of my classmates chose to root for the Orioles (because of the American League connection) but I was rooting for the Pirates. I wrote their slogans “Tanner’s Terrors” and “We are Family” all over my book and argued with the boys in my class over who was better, the “old man” Willie Stargell or the “kid” Eddie Murray. During that series, the Pirates winning became the most important focus of my small world. It also was the true introduction for my love of ALL baseball, not just Red Sox baseball.
I live in the market that gets NESN. I have no reason to “buy” extra baseball, yet I do. I purchase the Extra Innings package through Comcast every year and I usually end up buying the Game Day audio package from MLB.com as well. I try to watch every Sox game but I usually miss a few during the season – I make up for it with all of the extra baseball I watch – some of it being Yankees baseball.
So you’ll forgive me, I hope, when I laugh at those who have suggested that my not wanting to watch this year’s World Series is an indicator that I’m not “a real baseball fan”. I’m as “real” a baseball fan as you’re going to find. I also happen to be an unabashed Yankees hater. Sometimes these two feelings clash.
I love the Red Sox; I love baseball; I hate the Yankees – usually in that order. But when the Yankees are in the World Series it’s painful to watch. Truth be told, most of the pain comes from the hype and the announcers and the fact that the sports world always seems to forget other teams exist when the Yankees are around. So I convinced myself that I wasn’t watching the World Series. And then today I kept reading about the game and I kept seeing “Cliff Lee v CC Sabathia” and I kept thinking about how much I like Cliff Lee and how much I don’t like the Yankees and how sweet it would be to watch him take the Yankees down.
SO I watched the game. Admittedly, I watched the beginning with the sound muted but once it was obvious Lee had the game well in hand, I braved the Fox broadcasters. Amazing how the tone changes when the Yankees aren’t playing well. It wasn’t nearly as painful to listen to McCarver and Buck as I had expected it to be. Cliff Lee pitched a complete game. Gave up 6 hits and no earned runs (one UNearned), no walks and struck out ten. Holy hell. It was so much more than I ever expected but pretty much exactly what I had hoped. All the coverage leading up to game 2 will be about Cliff Lee from game one and Pedro Martinez in game 2. All Phillies. It’ll make forcing myself to watch game 2 a lot easier.
Pedro Martinez in Yankee Stadium again. As absolutely thrilled as I am to see it, I’ll admit to being slightly concerned about how he might perform – but Lee took a ton of pressure off of him so it might be just that much easier for Pedro once he takes the mound. (Everyone keeps mentioning the “Who’s Your Daddy” chant being carted out – I don’t get it. Didn’t Pedro smash that to pieces in the 2004 ALCS? Wouldn’t chanting “Who’s Your Daddy” to Pedro now be like chanting “1918″?
So, so happy for Cliff Lee. First World Series game and he goes the distance. He also made many, many fans happy tonight. Thanks for making the game watchable, Cliff!
Lee on Saturday, gearing up for last night's masterpiece! (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
It isn’t often that I don’t post because of good things but that’s what happened this weekend. It was a good weekend, fun to relax and just enjoy it – and we even got some snow to ogle for a few hours!
It’s given me a much better outlook baseball-wise.
After game 2 of the ALCS, I decided that I was “done” with it. I was giving up on the ALCS because watching the Angels losing in such creative and gut-wrenching ways was taking its toll on me. So I was going to stick with the NLCS and just hope for the best with the American League.
Oddly enough, it was the fantastic NLCS game (relatively speaking – not so fantastic if you’re rooting against the Phillies or are a Dodgers fan) last night that has encouraged me to give the ALCS another chance. Serendipitously, today’s ALCS game starts while I’m away from a television, so I won’t have to pay much attention. But if the Angels can scratch one out, I’m in for game 4. Don’t let me down, Jered Weaver.
The first post I made (after the obligatory “HEY! Not only did I change the look of the blog but I changed the name!” entry) when the blog morphed from “Red Sox Chick” to “Toeing the Rubber” was about Cliff Lee. In spite of how I feel about MLB beating us to death with the “inspirational” story of Josh Hamilton, I think it’s obvious that I root for the underdog whenever I can.
A quick digression: When I was at WEEI.com a very nice and quite talented fella named Jesse did all the cosmetic (and other non content-related) work on the blog. He designed the header that I used for the time I was there. I loved it. I loved the color, I loved what it looked like. I loved everything about it. Except the players he used. Originally it was supposed to be Lowell, Pedroia and Ortiz and I asked him to switch at least one out for a pitcher, preferably a reliever, and I got Okajima up there. Now, it wasn’t Jesse’s fault I didn’t like the players in the banner. Hell, I like the players, but if I were to use photos of players to represent my blog it wouldn’t be the superstars I’d have up there. I can’t remember if it was something Jesse and I discussed or just something I assumed, but I figured for a mainstream website it made more sense to have better known players in the header. It turned out fine, like I said, I love the banner, but it never fully felt right for me given the my strongest allegiances seem to go to the guys who don’t have McFarlane figures of their likenesses out there, players who don’t have t-shirts with their faces on them and who don’t have legions of fans.
Cliff Lee had his struggles and people thought he was done. No Cinderella story for him since his only problem seemed to be that he wasn’t any good. No drug addiction, no depression, nothing fancy MLB could capitalize on. He just started playing poorly and then he turned it around. In 2008 he came back after a disastrous 2007 and won the Cy Young award. This year he’s pitching in the post-season and dominating every time he appears. (How great and somewhat ironic is this headline from July 28th of this year? Cliff, yet again, brought me happiness. Giving the Phillies a 2-1 edge over the Dodgers. Who knows how the NLCS will turn out? Right now it’s just an awful lot more fun to watch than the ALCS. Much less painful too.
I had no plans to still be invested in the outcome of the ALCS. I was happy to just let it happen. But Cliff Lee has inspired me to not give up…not yet.
