Posts Tagged ‘Jonathan Papelbon’
Two fun facts about Luke Perry: He's older than I am and I've never seen him in a Yankees cap! (I have no idea what the origins of this photo are)
I’m not particularly proud of this, but last night when home plate umpire Tom Hallion bent over and didn’t upright himself until they walked him off the field, I had two thoughts. The first was, “Man, I hope he’s all right” but the second (and longer) one was “Great. Now we have to wait for another ump to suit up while Papelbon stands on the mound getting cold with two outs behind him”.
Like I said, I’m not proud. I’m not proud but I’m happy. According to MLB.com, the tests on Hallion came backn negative, so he’s okay, and Papelbon got Nick Markakis to ground out to end the game. All’s well that ends well.
At the very least, Sox won’t be getting swept by the Orioles this week. Tonight, Daisuke is on the mound to try and eke out a series win. Last night’s game was another example of how much fun this team is to watch and why I’m compelled to keep doing so.
Baseball has an interesting rivalry brewing between the Nationals and the Marlins. I didn’t see it last night but if you go here, MLB has a good compilation video put together with both broadcasts covering the melee. Keith Olbermann nails why Nyjer Morgan, the player who was hit last night and then got a purpose pitch behind him is the one getting all the grief today (and he agrees with the Marlins broadcasters who think MLB needs to do something about Morgan). I enjoy the contrast of the Marlins announcers blaming Nyjer Morgan for starting the fight and the Nationals announcers worrying about his teammates getting Morgan out from under the pigpile. What Olbermann doesn’t specifically write in his piece is that Tuesday night, because of one of those “brutal” collisions with a catcher, Morgan caused Marlins rookie catcher Brett Hayes to suffer a separated shoulder and ended his season. Can’t say it’s tough to blame the Marlins for their reactions last night. (See the video here – can’t believe the kid held on to the ball. And for folks defending Morgan, as the announcers said, had he actually slid like he should have he probably would have been safe.)
I have one question: Who decided that we need to be given play by play of the fights on the field? I don’t mind it. It actually cracks me up. It makes me laugh that these guys are giving us play by play of a game as tame as baseball and then switch gears and become announcers for the WWE.
I will not lie…I enjoy a good basebrawl once in a while. But the problem with basebrawls is that even though people laugh at them (usually most “brawls” are players milling around the field not really engaging each other too physically) someone could get seriously hurt. Having written that, Hayes was just doing his job and got wrecked. I can completely understand the Marlins doling out a little street justice.
Today is 9/02/10 (or “90210″) so pop culture nerds (which I am) will be flooding your Twitter feeds and Facebook pages with this information (which I won’t). I found it interesting that when Beverly Hills 90210 began in 1990, I was 21 years old and TWELVE of the guys on the active roster for the Red Sox weren’t even 10 years old. Maybe interesting isn’t the right word? Maybe depressing is?
I’m on a mini-vacation for the next few days. The plan is to keep posting but I suppose that depends on how much fun I have! Hope everyone stays safe this holiday weekend and avoids anyone named “Earl”.
The putting up or shutting up time has come, Josh. Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission.
Don’t you hate blown saves? I hate them myself.
But, honestly, look at Papelbon’s numbers. As someone said to me last night, “Red Sox fans seem mad that he’s not Mariano Rivera while overlooking the fact that NO ONE else is Rivera and their closer is pretty damn good”.
Given, so far, 35 save opportunities, Papelbon has 29 saves under his belt this season. Not one of Paps’ six blown saves was fun to watch but they also don’t indicate that the man can’t do his job. Daniel Bard has had seven opportunities to get a save yet only has three saves. Small sample size, sure, but he hasn’t been “lights out” (using the definition of the people ready to hang Papelbon) either yet folks are ready to crown him tomorrow’s closer today. The fact is, more often than not, when Papelbon takes the mound the game is in the bag for the Red Sox. Sure it would have been great for the Sox to have swept the Jays, but winning the series still keeps them in the hunt. (Before I forget, special thanks to Jere who pointed out to me, for the second time in the comments section, that the teams not MLB decide what time the games will be played. I, apparently, have a blind spot in my brain for remembering!!)
The Papelbon hate, in my mind, is misguided and reactionary. It saddens me when members of the Nation start acting like entitled Yankees fans.
More frustrating than the Sox loss, to me, is this tweet from Jared Carrabis, Red Sox Nation Governor of Massachusetts:
The Red Sox are in third place in the AL East and have more wins than any other first place team in the AL.
All the people whining that this team “isn’t good enough” can stick a sock in it. I know the competition is among the Sox, Yanks and Rays and they have to be better than the Yanks and Rays (or at least much better than just one of them) to get into the playoffs, but the superiority of the American League East, while fun to brag about, hamstrings teams IN the AL East every year. (This is why I’m such a fan of the Wild Card but would prefer a system where the four, six or eight best teams (have to stretch it out so MLB makes their money, I know) went into the playoffs. In what world does it make sense that the best teams don’t get to compete for a championship? Sure it would mean that, most years, the Yankees were in the mix, but the Yankees are a separate issue all their own. (And don’t get me started on the creation of the MLB schedule. Sox get the Rangers this weekend while the Yanks play the Royals and the Rays play the Orioles. The computer, she is a Red Sox hater, plain and simple!)
You’ll all have to excuse me today if I’m not ready to tar and feather Papelbon and if I don’t lament my team not being “better”. I’m enjoying the heck out of this season. Sometimes it’s more fun to wonder what’s coming next than to know every move.
Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission
Long, tiring day yesterday. I made it wide-awake through five complete innings last night which means the score was 6-2 Red Sox when I fell asleep. When I woke up again, Daniel Nava was at bat in the 7th inning and the Rockies were up 8-6. I tried, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I, once again, woke up, this time around 4am. I had shut the television off in my sleep so I grabbed my Droid and tapped on the ‘At-Bat’ app to see the score. At first glance, forgetting the Sox were on the road, I read it as 13-11 Rockies. Then I focused my brain and realized that not only were the Sox the winning team but Papelbon the winning pitcher…in 10 innings.
In my early morning fog, my first clear thought was “Papelbon blew ANOTHER save?”. (I then became happy for the win, especially since I had friends who traveled many miles to watch those games in person and the idea of their having to leave the park in the midst of Rockies fans chanting “sweep” was heart breaking.)
Here is, to my mind, an unbelievable number: three. Jonathan Papelbon only has three blown saves this season with 19 save opportunities. Good lord, it feels like 10. Just more proof that we all seem to react much more harshly to these types of situations than maybe they deserve, eh? He’s also only blown back to back saves two other times in his career (one being in his rookie year) but neither of those came in back to back games (they were consecutive appearances for Paps but not games for the team).
As I write this, I’m watching “Breakfast with the Sox” on NESN (the one-hour recap of the previous game) and they skipped over showing the entire game and started up in the 8th inning. I just watched Papelbon give up the game-tying hit. I know it ended well (Papelbon so owes both Darnell McDonald AND Dustin Pedroia something shiny and new) but I will say this: never have I been so happy to have fallen asleep and missed a game where the Sox ended up winning as I am this morning. Holy cow.
Dustin Pedroia went 5-5 with a walk which included a mind-boggling 3 home runs last night. His home runs weren’t meaningless home runs in the midst of blow outs either. His first was in the fourth inning when the score was 2-0 and it started the 4 run rally that was the fourth inning. His second came in the 8th, a two-run homer that turned the Sox’ one run lead into a three run lead. Both would be important (as would his walk given he scored a run because of it) but none more important than the last homer he hit…with two outs in the 10th and Marco Scutaro on first, Pedroia hit the second pitch he saw from Huston Street into the stands to give the Sox the 13-11 lead which, thanks to Papelbon pitching a perfect 10th inning, they didn’t relinquish. Sweep averted, on to San Francisco.
Incidentally, Pedroia waving “Hi!” to the NESN camera following him in the dugout after the homer was priceless and worth staying up for!
Back in June 2007, the Colorado Rockies came to Boston for a three-game series. It was a midweek, Tuesday through Thursday series leading into the Sox playing the Giants over the weekend. I was at two of those games, pitched by Curt Schilling and Josh Beckett, and both were miserable losses. The Sox only beat the Rockies in the game that Tim Wakefield pitched (and for the sake of context, the June 14th loss was Beckett’s first of that season) to begin the series. All I’m saying is, if 2010 ends the way 2007 did – I’ll be quite all right with this particular series loss.
Wake is on the mound at 10:15 ET tonight. I’m going to have to stock up on the Red Bull for this one (although I really can’t complain…three 8:40pm games instead of 10pm with the Rockies and only one 10pm game with the Giants…I think we can make it!).
*How Don Orsillo followed up the Pedroia homer in the 10th…Pedie would be proud!
Because, ultimately, that's all that matters, right?
How is it possible that it seemed almost more painful to watch them win last night than it was watching them lose the night before?
The game started late and ran four hours (four hours and nine minutes to be exact). Jonathan Papelbon through 28…TWENTY EIGHT pitches in the ninth inning and still got the save. On the post-game show on NESN, Dennis Eckersley made the remark that he was surprised Papelbon didn’t celebrate that swinging strike out to end the game (Eck said he would have) but, really, at that point I’m guessing Paps just wanted to go pass out…although my adrenaline was so high that I was up until around 3am.
(As an aside, as I write this I just turned on “Breakfast with the Sox’ and it’s the 6th inning and Youk just hit his home run to make it 5-1…Don’t be too sad, CC, none of the rest of the game will really be your fault.)
This photo was sent to me in 2007. Someone lifted it from Flickr and a quick search has user "StarrGazr" as the photographer. I put it up because it brings a smile to my face and I need that right now.
In a fit of frustration, I wrote this 1000 word entry about how frustrating watching Jonathan Papelbon blow the Red Sox lead and lose the game in the ninth was for me and for everyone. I pounded the keyboard until my fingers were sore and even considered writing the whole thing in red just to get the point across. But something odd happened as I finished typing. I had a fleeting thought.
What if Papelbon read my blog?
Now, I don’t believe for a minute he does, or would. That really isn’t the point. The point is, why make him feel worse, even if it’s just virtually? He just did something lousy. Really bad. Gut-wrenchingly terrible. Do I think he doesn’t know this? Do I think that by ranting it’ll make any difference? Do I believe that he left Yankee Stadium and went out and got happily drunk just because he’s in New York?
There is no sugar coating how upsetting the loss is. While I went into the game expecting them to struggle and then was greeted with the five run first inning everything else that happened in the game gave me hope that they could pull it out. So watching Papelbon hand the Yankees the win really hurt. Writing about it made me feel better. Got all the bad emotions out of my body and into the entry. But that was energy I didn’t want hanging around this blog. I’m not going to pretend that it’s all puppies and ice cream and everything is great…Sox lost, Yanks won (and the Rays won too). Things absolutely suck right about now. But to rant about one player having one bad inning and putting the blame for all of the woes of the team (lest we forget the pitcher who gave up the first six runs of the game) is ridiculous and flat-out unfair. Yes, had Papelbon done his job the Sox hit the showers with a “W” tonight. But if Daisuke Matsuzaka did his job, Papelbon probably wouldn’t have been in that situation in the first place. You can find blame anywhere you choose to look for it.
No one said being a fan of ANY team would be easy. Just because we choose to be fans doesn’t mean we should find it so easy to make others feel awful. If there is anyone who thinks Paps doesn’t feel awful about this game, I have nothing to say to you. Slamming him in the face with what he did tonight won’t accomplish anything but making you feel better about your small life.
It sucks. It happens. And it’s done.
I’ve unfollowed quite a few people on Twitter tonight. I’ve decided there is no reason to keep people in my timeline who relish in Red Sox losses or who want to get hoards of Red Sox fans on board with all of the team bashing. Life is too short to surround yourself with miserable people. I’m not going to be miserable. I’ll be nursing the wounds of this one for a while but I’ll be back again Tuesday night. I’m a fan. It’s what I do.
My favorite spot in Fenway! (One of the many photos I took yesterday.)
Yesterday was a good day. It started, for me, with an unscheduled trip into Boston to take the Fenway Park tour first thing in the morning. “Wally” had mentioned on Twitter that, for a couple of days, the morning tours were going to have limited field access (for those who don’t know, years ago the Fenway tour had field access. Once in a great while you’ll hit a tour that does it – or you can take the post-game tour that goes on the field – but, normally, field access is unavailable for the tours.). I’m not a big fan of the Fenway tour (very limited information, most of which you can find quickly online, and for entertainment’s sake they still spew the
“No No Nanette” story as if it were true – which drives me absolutely batshit) but I knew I could suck it up for an opportunity to see the field.
I had walked the Fenway field (no grass…never on the grass) one other time when I took a friend to one of Jerry Remy’s All Star Game parties. Even though there was less access this time (somewhere there is a picture of me sitting in the Sox dugout) I got to focus more on the park without worrying about having to entertain anyone with me.
The tour group was small and I was the only Sox fan in it. A Braves fan from Atlanta, a handful of Padres fans from out west and two Yankees fans from upper New York made up the group. Everyone seemed very interested in our little park and the two Yankees fans were very quiet and polite (honestly, I don’t think either one of them said a word the entire tour). I was definitely the one most into paying attention to my surroundings and least into paying attention to what the tour guide was saying. I stroked the wall in center field, I touched the signage on The Green Monster and I held the outfield dirt and got my hands dirty in it.
