Toeing the Rubber

Loading stuff onto a truck in the freezing cold. Seriously, that's all it is.

This coming Friday is Truck Day.  Still a mystery to a legion of baseball fans, it’s practically a holiday in Boston.  There has been a huge detachment for me from baseball this off-season.  I tried fueling the desire with the usual activities of the off-season:  the New Stars for Young Stars annual event at Jillian’s, the Hot Stove round table at Fenway, the Hot Stove, Cool Music concert at The House of Blues and the Hot Stove party at McCoy Stadium, .  all were lots of fun but  none really gave me that feeling of baseball being right around the corner.

Which isn’t to say I’m not excited about the season approaching.  One of my friends posted this morning on his Facebook profile that there are only 11 days until pitchers and catchers report – and suddenly I started getting that feeling of excitement.  That winter would be over soon and we’d be watching our boys playing the game we all love.  And now I’m desperate for it to get here!

I’m never one who wishes time away and I often chastise others who do so, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that the sooner next Friday gets here (and by extension, p&c reporting) the happier I’ll be!  I’ve mentioned to more than one person this week that I had NO plans for next Friday other than to be standing in the cold out by Fenway Park watching them load equipment on to the trucks.  Most people who know me get this but I’ve made a few acquaintances over the last year who aren’t fully aware of my passion.  Or, as one of them said to me, “How stupid do you have to be to stand out in the cold and watch trucks drive away?”.

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We lost Greg Montalbano in 2009. Kelly O'Connor took this photo of him at the Lowell Spinner's Alumni Dinner in January 2009 (Used with permission)

Just a note of warning:  This entry is long and although I want it to be all-encompassing, I’m sure I’ve missed  few things.  But this is pretty much how I remember 2009!

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2009 was a fairly eventful year for me personally in both the good and bad categories.  Sadly more bad than good which is probably why I initially avoided writing any kind of recap for the blog.  But while I was writing my recap of the Red Sox decade (and I’ll have that up as soon as I finish it!) I realized I should probably write something about the final year of the decade as well.  So here goes.

January:  I started blogging at WEEI.com.  Looking back on my entries for this month, I’m genuinely surprised I found so much to write about (it didn’t stop new readers from complaining that I was writing “drivel” though.  Should have been a sign!).  Personal highlights in January:  The ongoing Jason Varitek saga, the signing of Rocco Baldelli, Kyle Snyder getting picked up by the Mets, the beginning of the MLB Network and Jim Rice finally gets voted into the Hall of Fame!

February:  Bombshell of bombshells for MLB.  Selena Roberts exposes Alex Rodriguez as a steroid user.  The MLB Network cuts its teeth on this one and, unlike Peter Gammons and ESPN, doesn’t disappoint with their coverage.  Unafraid of losing access to the players (again, unlike Peter Gammons or ESPN), they go full throttle on this story and introduce us to their newest addition to the network:  Bob Costas.  I wrote a lot about MLBN in 2009 and a bit about Sl*ppy.  I would have written much less about the two, most likely, had this story not broken.  Personal highlights in February:  The Caribbean World Series on MLBN (I was genuinely surprised at how much I enjoyed it!), Truck Day, pitchers and catchers reporting and Joe Torre’s book about the Yankees.

Chapter 10: The End of the Curse. When asked by Regis Philbin the other day what happened to the Yankees over the past 7 years, Joe responded “The Red Sox happened”. That will go down as possibly my favorite Red Sox/Yankee-related quote ever.

March:  I spent a lot of March writing ‘rants’ and pointing folks toward baseball-related Twitter accounts.  Must have been resting up for April!  Personal highlight in March:  The WBC.  I spent a lot of time ranting about players getting hurt and how I didn’t care who won only to be totally sucked into it by the end.

April:   The beginning of the season!  Lots of liveblogging and picking up more WEEI readers (with mixed results!).  Personal highlights in April:  Going to both Sox/Mets exhibition games at CitiField, attending Opening Day at Fenway and high-fiving JD Drew and Hideki Okajima during their introductions, being at Fenway for the walk-off win against the Yankees, Jacoby Ellsbury stealing home on Andy Pettitte, Tim Wakefield taking a no-hitter into the 8th inning (thus setting the table for his All Star selection), watching Jonathan Van Every pitch while Javier Lopez floundered in right field then eventually getting DFA’d (watched on television, not in person), the Patriots Day game where Luke Scott got all pissy and some idiot fan threw a ball onto  the field and “Toeing the Rubber” getting nominated for a New England Sports Blog Award in the category “Best Red Sox Blog”. Relatively speaking, a great month except for one thing that really hit the baseball world hard and made the month miserable:  the death of Nick Adenhart.

But I don’t cry because of any personal connection I have to Nick. I don’t cry because a future baseball star is dead. I cry because parents lost a son today. Many people lost a friend. And the world lost someone who could have potentially been great. Not just at baseball but at life. No drunken ass has the right to take that away from us. This doesn’t “put things into perspective” for me. I hate when people say that. I’m forty years old for God’s sake, I’ve seen enough death and tragedy in my life to have proper perspective, thank you. I don’t watch baseball and think that what goes on down on that field is life or death and more important than anything else in my life. I’d argue that most sports fans, even if they act like they have no perspective, have exactly that. Baseball is an outlet to forget about the realities of life for a few hours.

May: Getting to see Daniel Bard’s first Major League appearance (after having seen him pitch in Pawtucket) was very special.  Finding out that Jerry Remy was recovering from cancer was sad and a little frightening.  Personal highlights in May:  Seeing Kyle Snyder with the Bisons at Pawtucket, Javier Lopez signing Steve the Ferret’s “Lopez” jersey (also at Pawtucket), Aubrey Huff fistpumping to Joba Chamberlain, appearing on “The Baseball Show” on Comcast SportsNet, crying (literally crying) over Big Papi’s first home run of the season, getting to meet metsgrrl and “paloozaing” with a huge group of people I love during the Mets/Sox series at Fenway.

Yesterday was an amazing day spent with friends (most of whom I haven’t seen in quite a while or hadn’t met yet!). There are many amazing tales to tell (but not here!) – my favorite being when our friend Susan noted that we could start singing “O Canada” except no one knows the words past “O Canada!”. Standing up and singing loudly and proudly, a group of us proved her wrong. That our serenade didn’t get us thrown out still kind of surprises me.

June:  This month brought us the end of interleague play, the end of Jonathan Van Every’s season (thanks to knee surgery), Tim Wakefield hitting ten victories with his torn labrum, John Smoltz making us all wonder why we were so excited to have him on the team while Dusty Brown makes his major league debut.  Personal highlights for June:  Derek Lowe returning to Fenway with the Braves, Nick Green’s walkoff against those same Braves, sitting in Fenway during a mind-numbing rain delayed game that turned into a loss for the Sox (okay, that one is a lowlight, really) and the Sox capping off 7 wins in a row against the Yankees with an eighth.

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How could I NOT use a photo of Kyle for my final entry of the year? Here's wishing good things for Kyle in 2010! (Original photo taken by Donna Ellis - photo of the autographed version courtesy of Kelly O'Connor)

I’m looking forward to the New Year.  I have no real reason to be optimistic..hell, last year I was REALLY looking forward to 2009 and not one thing went the way I expected it to and some went even worse than I could have imagined.  But I’m a big believer in clean slates and all that – so here’s to a wonderful 2010 for all of us!

For the most part, mine will start off – in all places – at Fenway!  No, I won’t be going to the Winter Classic – but I’ll be there on Saturday at the Legends game.  There was a time when I was very into hockey but that time has been gone for about a decade so going to see Bruins legends is perfect for me.  What I’m kind of hoping for is to be standing in Fenway Park while it is snowing.  Anything else that happens will be gravy.  I won’t lie.  The chances of my staying for the entire game are slim.  The tickets were a gift to me from someone who thought I’d think it was ‘cool’ to go see a hockey game at Fenway.  He was right.  But he also understood that I’d be going more for the experience and less for the hockey game so it’s all good.

The end of 2009 sees us saying goodbye to Jason Bay.  While I can’t wrap my mind around $66 million – I guess I can understand going for $6 million more than the Red Sox were offering.  Although, to my money-challenged life, an extra 6 million when you already are getting sixty million really makes no sense to me unless you really just don’t care where you play as long as you get the money.  Which seems to be where JayBay is.  I have no hard feelings, he did what I expected him to do, I guess I’m just a bit disappointed.  But he had no ties here so I don’t think anyone expected him to take any kind of ‘discount’.  I will say that I think it worked out well for both sides.  Bay got to be showcased in Boston so he COULD make his big payday (think anyone would throw him $66 million straight out of Pittsburgh?  Okay,  maybe the Mets would have still!) and while he was here he played well for the Red Sox.  Goodbye, good luck and I hope if he steps foot in Fenway again he gets a nice ovation and then goes 0-4 with three errors.

I like to party but I prefer to do it at home on New Year’s Eve.  The idea of all those people out there drinking and partying and then driving turns me into a nervous old lady.  So if you’re going out tonight, please try to be safe.  I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year’s Eve and that the new year brings nothing but good things to you all!

We’re just over a month away from Truck Day, folks!  We only need to hold on a little longer!

Jason Bay with his version of giving ME the finger. Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission.

I really do apologize for not being better at updating the blog this December.  I really am going to work on that after the holiday.  And, hey, once December is over, we’re that much closer to truck day!!

All the buzz about the Red Sox making room in their budget to make Jason Bay another offer has me scratching my head.  Are they going to offer him more money and/or years after he rejected their last offer – essentially bidding against no other team but the Red Sox?  It was feeling, to me, like Bay and his agent overestimated the number of contending teams who would want a crack at him so I’m not getting why the Red Sox would jump back in.  I don’t hate the idea of Bay back on the Sox but I don’t love the idea of them throwing stupid money or years at him just to get him to stay.  I just don’t think he’s that valuable.  (Although, if the scuttlebutt is true and the Sox offered Matt Holliday five years, I’d much prefer that money and offer go to Bay instead.

I received a lovely email last night from a Royals fan who wrote that she found my blog while Googling Kyle Snyder’s name and wanted to know if I had any info on what he’s up to.  (See?  Royals fans are ever loyal.  One of my favorite fan bases!)  Sadly, I don’t.  Finding info on the Puerto Rico Baseball League has been close to impossible. (I can tell you his team is in first place and that the last time he pitched was on November 21.)  But I haven’t found one word about WHY it’s been over a month since he pitched.  Is he hurt?  Did he decide he didn’t need to play winter ball?  Was he so comfortable with how he felt physically after pitching in two games that he’s just hanging around with the team and not playing?  (I know practically nothing about this league so I really don’t have a clue here.)  I hope he’s healthy and enjoying the winter wherever he is and I hope we find out soon if/when he gets picked up by another team.  (And information from any folks out there who have some would be greatly appreciated!  We seem to be developing a group of Kyle fans – I get contacted almost weekly by someone asking about him – so it would be nice to have information to provide to folks!)

I hope those of you who celebrate have a wonderful Christmas and those of you who don’t just have a great long weekend!  Christmas Eve is the bigger day in my family (we celebrate on Christmas Day too but the bigger party is on the Eve) so today will be filled with lots of cleaning, cooking, and thanks to me being a goof and having Amazon.com send a package to my office instead of my home, a little bit of last-minute shopping before he festivities begin tonight.  It’s one of my favorite times of the year and I’m looking forward to it all!

I have one Christmas wish and it isn’t even baseball-related:  Be  nice to each other.  That’s all I ask.  (Okay, I have a baseball-related wish too:  No trading Jacoby Ellsbury or Clay Buchholz.  I don’t think I ask too much.  :) )

While I don't hate the idea of Pedroia at short, I'd much prefer he stay at 2nd and Theo get the team a damn shortstop. (Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission)

Gordon Edes is back where he belongs:  In Boston covering the Red Sox…so all is not lost!  (Seriously, I couldn’t be happier.  It’s nice to have a writer I feel like I can turn to for what is actually going on and not some tabloid talk.)

In his most recent post, Edes tells us that, in spite of their first offer being rejected, the Red Sox are still hot for Jason Bay.    Actually, it’s a line in his newest entry that they used as the headline “but a club source indicated that Bay remains the prime target“.  The rest of the piece is about Matt Holliday and Roy Halladay and Marco Scutaro and, well, basically everyone BUT Bay.  It is mostly about which free agents the Sox are targeting, though, and it’s an interesting piece.

I hope he’s right.  I hope they’re still considering making him an offer he can’t refuse.  But, again, I won’t be losing any sleep if they don’t.  I like Bay but I don’t think he’s irreplaceable.  Honestly, my bigger concern is the infield at the moment.  Alex Gonzalez might not be a future Hall of Famer but dammit he’s a quite decent shortstop…and having him is better than not having a shortstop at all.  I’m not buying into this Pedroia at short talk just yet.  Sure it was brought up, I get that, and if anyone thinks Pedie would ever turn down a challenge, well they aren’t paying attention.  But I don’t see it happening unless something fabulous turns up to take second base.  Meanwhile, Jed Lowrie quietly asks “WTH?”.

Been checking in on Kyle Snyder and his team in Puerto Rico.  The good news is that Arecibo is still in first place but the bad news is Kyle seems to still be stuck on only having pitched in two games…his last only one inning – and I still haven’t determined if he’s injured or just stuck in some kind of huge rotation.  Shout out to anyone in Puerto Rico (or anyone who follows the teams) with any information and I’d been terribly grateful.

Meanwhile, Sports Illustrated finally ended the long-time persecution of Derek Jeter by anointing him Sportsman of the Year.  I certainly hope he’ll now get the respect he deserves that has been so elusive to him throughout his career.

But who cares about Derek Jeter when there are nekkid photos of Grady Sizemore out there?  I’ve never looked at Sizemore the way “Grady’s Ladies” do but those pictures circulating right now make me think I might rethink my position on that.  Except that in the one where you see the most, he forgoes a figleaf for a teacup.   Bad choice, Mr. Sizemore, and one that your teammates will remind you of repeatedly throughout the 2010 season.

On a more serious note, it’s good to see Major League Baseball getting involved in trying to get the pictures taken down and not at all surprising that Deadspin doesn’t intend to do so (using the “They did it first” defense).  As was pointed out to me by a photographer friend, the pictures are legally Grady’s and were illegally obtained.  Doesn’t he have any legal recourse?  It would do my heart good to see more people go after the likes of Deadspin and Perez Hilton (pretty much one in the same to me) but I don’t see it happening any time soon.   It’s too bad.  Tabloid reporting (and outright theft of things like photos) seem to be the only way anyone online becomes successful these days.  It’s really kind of depressing.

I’m told there are 74 days until pitchers and catchers report.  What’s that mean, about 65 days until Truck Day?  There’s an awful lot of time to fill with speculation and rumors.  Ah, the holidays!