Posts Tagged ‘Live Blog’
One of the reasons I'll always be fond of Javier Lopez! (Photo taken by me last year at McCoy)
Today is a good day to sit inside and watch a baseball game! At least it is where I live. Ice cold rain pouring down and wind whipping all around – I’m ready to settle in and watch Clay Buchholz pitch against the Pirates at 1:05pm (on NESN!!! Also on MLB.tv and Gamday Audio for those not in the NESN viewing area).
According to the Pirates, Javier Lopez will be pitching at some point in today’s game. Javi too quickly became a whipping boy with many Sox fans but he’ll always have a special place in my heart so I just hope he pitches well today AND the Sox still end up with the win (I can have it both ways!).
Tomorrow’s game against the Twins is also on NESN (and, like today’s game, on tape-delay over at MLBN) and then the next game NESN gets is the Mets/Sox game at City of Palms Park on St. Patrick’s Day. I’m seriously considering live-blogging (or chatting if folks show up!) the St Patrick’s Day game (1:05 ET) – I need to get back into live blogging mode anyway and I’m going to be around. I have no idea if anyone ELSE will be around for the live blog but if you are, come on by! I’ll have a few friends at that game so maybe we can even get some in-game, first hand accounts of the action!
I have four days to get my fingers ready for the speed typing of the live blog/chat! I’d better get to warming up!
Artsy version of a favorite picture of mine that I took in 2006
If I learned anything from last night’s game and live blog chat it’s that the fans who I tend to surround myself with (whether my friends or fans of this blog) are made of better stuff than the bandwagoners and the sports writers. (Thanks to all of you who stopped by and made last night much more bearable than it would have been had we not done the live chat!)
There is no way – absolutely no way – to spin anything positive about a 20-11 loss. Sure the team came back and scored 11 runs (actually, that is a positive…the Yankees hammered away last night but the Sox didn’t give up, not even in the ninth inning) but the loss was still tough. But the comments last night and emails I’ve received since seem to reflect similar attitudes. No one is happy with Brad Penny. Most feel sorry for Michael Bowden getting thrown into that situation and just about everyone thinks that a team giving up all those hits and runs is more fluky than anything else. The Yankees are a good team, no doubt, but so are the Red Sox. Of course, Nick Cafardo writes that last night shows that the Yankees are a championship -caliber team. Now, they very well might be but I don’t think a 20-11 blowout is an indication of that. Games like this, in my mind, are an aberration. The Yankees exploited the suckitude of Brad Penny but the Red Sox also got 11 runs on 12 hits. There was some bad pitching going on with the Yankees as well, the Red Sox just took longer to capitalize on it. So you’ll pardon me if I don’t look at a game like last night’s and automatically crown the Yankees the World Champions of 2009.
Today’s game is on Fox so it doesn’t start until 4:10pm EST. Since I’ll be at Fenway I will, thankfully, be spared the ramblings of the ballwashing McCarver and Buck but I’ll still be in the middle of drunken Sox and Yankees fans so it’s a bit of a wash. I don’t usually go to a game thinking “PLEASE let them win” it’s always usually “I HOPE they win” but today I’m going to ask the baseball gods to please let them win. I’m not sure I can deal with Yankee fan jerkiness or the fights started by drunken and annoyed Red Sox fans if they don’t.
Junichi Tazawa doesn’t automatically instill a sense of calm when pitted against A.J. Burnett and the Yankees but I’m still going into this game hopeful. Why not? I’m a baseball fan. I’m a Red Sox fan. Today I get to sit in the park and enjoy a baseball game. There’s no reason to feel down about that.
Hey, look at that! A handsome man who also plays well. (And, apparently, can dance too!) Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission.
I wrote almost an entire entry about how sick and tired I am of trolls coming here just to get personal digs in that have nothing to do with baseball or anything I write about and then I thought “Why? Why bother validating anything those schmucks write?”. So, instead, I’ll write about how damn happy I am that JD Drew went 4 for 4 with 3 RBI and two home runs on Thursday night. Does that show the “Nancy Drew” asses that he has “heart” or “passion” or whatever the hell it is they’re looking for him to have? Probably not. But I enjoy JD giving a giant middle finger to all the jerks who want to point to him as the reason this team struggles.
Sweeping the Blue Jays wasn’t totally unexpected (although many had written off the Buchholz/Halladay game, I’m sure) but it was exactly what they needed to do. Just keep winning games and everything else will fall into place.
So Friday begins the Yanks series. I’m not overjoyed with the pitching match-ups but, then again, I’m a big believer in “anything can happen” so I’m not worrying about any of the games this weekend. (Also a tip of the hat and thanks to Jon Lester for going 8 innings, thus saving the bullpen for the Yankees.) Brad Penny might be the first on the mound but the main focus for me during the first game is the return of Jerry Remy. I know a lot of people are fans of Dennis Eckersley (and in the context of baseball, I am as well) but he got to the point where if I heard him say “cheese” or “salad” one more time I was going to poke out my eardrums with an ice pick. So I’m pleased to be getting the Rem Dawg back. And it’ll be sweet to be live blogging not only the game but Jerry’s return. It’s just a good thing you all won’t be able to see how dusty it gets at my place when the game starts. Welcome back, Jerry!
Based on some comments I received this week, I think there are a few things I need to make clear about posting comments just so there are no surprises for first-time commenters. Now is as good a time as any to cover them.
Okay I really did have every intention of live blogging tonight – unfortunately (but really FORTUNATELY) I got a paying gig that I’m still in the middle of and won’t be through with until well after 7pm. Since paying gigs are few and far between for me these days I really have no choice but to keep at it and postpone the live blog.
Thursday is an afternoon game so the next live blog probably won’t be until next Wednesday. I’m sorry to disappoint folks but we’ll have plenty of games throughout the rest of the season as I’m looking at possible live blogging two games a week come September.
