Posts Tagged ‘Mike Timlin’
Classic Pedro/Nomar photo by Kuni Takahashi
So I wrote this as one of the two pieces I needed to write for the WEEI blogger contest (I was looking for the original piece I wrote that got me into the contest and can’t find it. It’s floating around here somewhere!). My final entry had photos for each item but I’m not posting them this time. I enjoy these kinds of entries and need to get back to writing more of them! (And, once again, a long entry awaits you. It seems MY personal favorite entries are usually of the long-winded kind!)
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An off night is a great time to reflect on the sports moments of the past. So, because I’m nothing if not specific, I give you five favorite moments and five least favorite moments in New England sports history and how they affected me. Moments that I was alive (and old enough) to witness (not necessarily in person). What this means is no Fisk’s home run (which I was alive for but, alas, have no memory of), no Impossible Dream team of 1967 (predates me), no Ted Williams. You get the point.
Also, I’m purposely leaving out the 2004 and 2007 post-seasons of the Red Sox. Because, truly, I could write a book about them both and we really don’t have that kind of space right now.
Let’s start with the good and countdown since that’s so darned popular these days:
Welcome back to the rotation, Wake. (Photo taken by me in 2005)
I really enjoy these mornings when watching “Breakfast with the Sox” is something I go out of my way to do. (When the Sox lose, I don’t watch the replays, hell I usually don’t even watch the post-game show!)
As an aside before I start bragging on Clay, Based on feedback I’ve been receiving the past few weeks after each live chat, I’m banging around the idea of a message board connected to the blog as a place where folks can talk baseball (or just random daytime talk before games!) and have game day discussions (with a chat room attached as well). Folks seem a little reticent to use the comments for chatting and some suggestions have come in about having a discussion board to visit. Not sure what the response would be from the masses, though, so I thought I’d throw the idea out there and see what you all think. Shoot me an email or leave a note in the comments section and let me know what you think (emails would be great since then I’d have YOUR email address and could send out invites for the board if folks are so inclined). What say you, folks?
Clay pitched well even if they didn't win! (Photo taken by me last night.)
If regular readers of my blog have learned anything about me it’s that I tend to get attached to certain players, regardless of their performances, and sometimes put my hopes for them above the outcome of individual games. Many was the night when my heart would ache watching Mike Timlin blow a lead or give up a crucial run – not just because of the loss but because of the pain I assumed Timlin was going through. I don’t think I slept the night that the Red Sox dfa’d Kyle Snyder just thinking about how devastating that must have been for him. (I know I get too emotionally involved – it’s just who I am.) The snarky jerks I’ve been in contact with here would make jokes about my “crushes” on these guys (and maybe they are crushes of a sort but not the kind some idiots think. If you invest enough time into a hobby that involves living beings and DON’T take some kind of personal interest in their well-being, then I’m not understanding what the attraction is. I know that some folks can watch the games and not care about the people playing them – I’m not like that. I don’t want to marry any of these guys…I just genuinely want them to do well, to succeed – some more than others) but caring about the people playing the game I love is part of the enjoyment of the game for me. I’m not going to apologize for that.
So leaving the game last night had an odd feel to it. I wanted that win for Clay. I mean, I wanted it for the team too but Clay really gets beaten up in the press and by the fans and last night he pitched his ass off. Last night was the first night in a very long time when I left the park thinking about how I felt like Tito did a player (in this case, Clay) wrong. So I wasn’t mad about the loss (I rarely get “mad” over the team losing a game) but I was a little mad the Clay was left hanging out there. This is one of the reasons I waited so long today before writing. I needed a little break away from the frustrations of last night.
Timlin at Fort Myers this year - Courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission
I have spring fever, I’ll admit it. My focus has pretty much been looking out the window or going for walks to take in the gorgeous weather – so I apologize for dropping the ball here.
How excited was I to read that the Red Sox signed Alan Embree to a minor league contract? I seriously yelled, gleefully, “Oh my God, Alan Embree!!!!” when I read it this morning. Alan was “dead” to me for a while (I ended up getting over the whole signing with the Yankees thing eventually but have a harder time wrapping my mind around his laughing at the Red Sox (and especially Mike Timlin) while sitting in the Yankee dugout in 2005 and watching them get swept by the White Sox. BUT it’s time for bygones to be bygones, no? (Yes. Yes it is. )
Speaking of Mike, on March 10, my man Mike Timlin (I know he’s retired but he’ll always be “My man”) turned 44 years old. I only point this out because of the amazing photo Kelly O’Connor took (and sent me!) on her first full day at Spring Training yesterday. Mike is looking good and, by all accounts, doing well. This all pleases me greatly. And I look at that picture above and shake my head when I think about how many people consider the guy “old”. Keep on keeping on, Mike!
Alan and Mike are forever intertwined in my mind not just because of ‘03 and’04 but because of how, in 2005, Mike defended his friend to the media on the day he was designated for assignment. When asked how he felt about it he turned it around on them and asked them how they would feel if one of their associates was dumped. One of Timlin’s most endearing qualities, in my opinion, is how he has the tough guy exterior but is willing to let his soft side show too. I’ve missed both of these men wearing the Sox uniform and while (no offense to Alan) I’m rather it had been Mike signing the contract, I’m happy that Alan is getting another chance with the team.
The very first blog entry I ever created was about Alan Embree. I was cranky, he was cranky. (I didn’t start blogging because of him…I had set up the blog and just not started yet. Seeing him in pinstripes and then reading what he said – see the entry for his quotes – really set me off. ) In hindsight, I can’t blame him for saying things like that toward the team that had just dropped him. You say things when you’re upset that you don’t necessarily mean. At the time I took it all to be a slap to the fans, some of which (like me) still supported him. I hope I take things less personally these days…but I’m not so sure. 
In September of 2008, I did “Five Fun Facts” on Alan Embree (which reminds me that I haven’t done that in a while…need to get back in the groove!). My favorite Fun fact that wasn’t on that list? The man was on the mound in 2004 when the Red Sox won game 7 of the ALCS. For that memory alone, any grudge I might have held has gone by the wayside.
Welcome back to the Nation, Alan! Now I have another “old guy” to root for.
Don't ask him if he's Irish, he doesn't know. But he'll wear green just in case!
Things I found out while watching NESN today:
* The Opening Day (NIGHT) game on April 4th will be broadcast both on ESPN2 and on NESN. This annoys me only in if it isn’t an exclusive game for ESPN then there was really no point making it the Sunday night game anyway and it just gets me cranky that we get cheated out of an actual opening DAY because MLB and ESPN stink like cheese.
* Heidi Watney is “under the weather” and I didn’t miss her. I understand this comes as no surprise to anyone who reads me but Heidi bashing aside what I mean is that I didn’t miss there being a sideline reporter at ALL. Didn’t miss Heidi, didn’t miss anyone who would have taken her place. It’s an unnecessary position created just to annoy me and/or people like me!
Mike Timlin celebrating with Sean Casey in 2008 (Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission)
It’s tough to keep my interest up when nothing of any real substance is going on in baseball. I could write an entry about how some Yankees fans have indicated that they now “know” how the Red Sox fans felt when Johnny left Boston for New York . (They don’t. Not even a little bit. But at least they seem to understand that just saying “he’s a hired gun, what did you expect?” doesn’t mean anything when feelings are involved.) But my heart wouldn’t be in it. I’m at the point now, with Damon, where I don’t “hate” him or want him anywhere near Boston, he just annoys the hell out of me. Let him re-sign with the Yanks (doesn’t seem to be happening) or with the Rays for all I care. Just stop making it out like the best centerfielder in the history of baseball doesn’t have a team right now.
That isn’t to say I’m not still paying attention to former Sox players. Johnny will always have a place in my heart for being on the 2003 and 2004 teams but what happens to him in or out of baseball no longer holds my interest. Not so for most of the other guys from those teams. Last week, my man Mike Timlin made an appearance on the Boston airwaves to promote a new venture. Some might know that Mike does the narration for the documentary film “Touching the Game: Alaska” (I haven’t seen the film yet. I do have it on order, though, and plan on reviewing it and its sister film “Touching the Game: The Story of the Cape Cod Baseball League” once I have them both). Mike spoke by telephone with Michael Holley and Lou Merloni last week about his work on the film and how it piqued his interest in doing “radio and/or play by play”. It’s too bad that he went out one last time last year with the Rockies to try and eke out a season because, had he been available, it would have been interesting to see how he would have done along side Don Orsillo. Thankfully this year, with Jerry Remy being back to full health both mentally and physically, we won’t have rotating partners for Donnie O. Still, it would have been fun to have Mike in the booth for a game or two.
Of interest from the interview: Mike made it “official” that he is, indeed, retired. He said he hoped last year he would have been able to do something with the Rockies but it never quite worked out. What he told Lou Merloni was that he had three things to look at in deciding whether he’d play last year. His family “suffering” through his playing another year, his body “hurting” (which he said it did much of his last year in Boston) and whether it was the right time. He told Lou that he prayed to God to tell him if it was the right time. He hit two out of three…God told him it wasn’t the right time and he was done. He added that he can “look at the door and close it”, in regard to ever playing baseball and that now he doesn’t have the desire to say “Maybe I can try one more time”. He went on to say that “it’s kind of nice being Dad and relaxing at home”.
It’s ridiculous, I know, but I feel like I have closure with Mike. Not closure in that I’m not still a fan – hey he’s on my top ten list of my all-time favorite Red Sox players (a list soon to be shared on the blog) – but it’s nice to know that HE’S good with his not playing any more. I hated the idea of his being forced out of baseball before he thought he was ready. I give Lou Merloni credit for being so upfront with his question, “Are you done playing the game?”. Can’t get more straightforward than that…except with Mike’s answer, “Yeah, I am.”
He’ll be in town soon trying to raise money for his next project, (in conjunction with the filmmakers who created the two “Touching the Game” documentaries) which is a show that highlights members of the military or other people who work for the greater good (police officers, teachers, firefighters) and how they make a difference through community service by doing “extraordinary” things. I wish him luck with that and hope he has success with it. I’d also not be against seeing him sitting in the studio with Tom Caron a few times this season. Make it happen, NESN!
A week from this Friday is Truck Day. I will most definitely be there with bells on. (You just won’t be able to see them because they will be covered by long johns, thermal socks, scarves and my Red Sox knit cap!)
