Posts Tagged ‘Nick Green’
It was fun in the moment but I could live without seeing Nick Green (or any other position player!) pitch again. Photo taken by me last year.
Well that wasn’t much fun.
You know, we can say or write a thousand times that it doesn’t matter if they win or lose because the games don’t count but it’s never fun to watch them lose (unless Nick Green eventually takes the mound).
No Sox fan wants to watch Jon Lester (not as crabby in his post-game interview as I expected) give up four runs on three hits in the first inning. Wake pitching two innings and only giving up one hit was sweet, though. So we got some good, got some bad, and the Mayor’s Cup series is tied at one a piece. Today John Lackey takes the mound against the Twins at 1:05pm at City of Palms Park but it’s a split squad day so the Sox will also be playing the Rays at the same time in Port Charlotte (in a game Rays reporters were Tweeting as being sold out). The Rays game you can listen to with the Rays feed on Gameday Audio and the Twins game, also on Gameday Audio, you get your choice of feeds. So at 1:05pm you’ll be silly with baseball if you want!
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.
Joe Mauer at Fenway in 2008 (Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission)
Over the weekend I uttered a phrase that many have spoken when they feel a player is overrated, especially if that player is being considered for the MVP award. “He isn’t even the MVP on his own team!”
Doesn’t take a psychic to guess that I was referring to Derek Jeter. I was thoroughly convinced that somehow the writers getting the AL Cy Young and Manager of the Year awards right meant that the MVP was absolutely going to Jeter. The idea of Mark Teixeira getting it had, honestly, never crossed my mind. So I was doubly surprised when not only did the writers get it right by giving the award to Joe Mauer, but that they got it even more right by voting for Mark Teixeira over Jeter.
According to Kelly Thesier at mlb.com:
Mauer finished with 327 points, well ahead of Teixeira, who had 225, and Jeter, who had 193. Detroit first baseman Miguel Cabrera, who received the only other first-place vote, was fourth with 171 points.
Special shout-out to Keizo Konishi, the writer from the Seattle chapter of the BBWAA who had the temerity to give Miguel Cabrera his one first-place vote. Every group needs their renegade, Keizo, and this year the BBWAA can look to you to keep the well-held belief that some members of the BBWAA barely follow the sport they cover. Well done.
Mind you, I’m not saying that Mauer HAD to get the vote unanimously, but voting for Cabrera over any of the top three vote-getters is absolutely baffling to me. Cabrera had a really good season, but not first-place MVP voting good (given his competition – yes, even I have to admit that Teixeira and Jeter were pretty damned impressive). Going 0-11 at the end of the season in the White Sox series when the division was on the line…well I’m not sure that’s MVP-worthy right there. You judge a player on his entire season but to be MVP of the league…well isn’t part of that coming up big when your team needs you?
Wake at "Hot Stove, Cool Music" in 2005 (Taken by me)
Generally speaking, it shouldn’t be difficult to find something to write about on a baseball-themed blog during the playoffs, right? I mean, sure, I’m a Red Sox fan and the majority of my blog writing is dedicated to them but it’s the PLAYOFFS, I should get some joy out of them since I’m also just a straight-out baseball fan. I should be writing about game 2 of the NLCS and game 1 of the ALCS.
But, see, both games annoyed the crap out of me so what would I write about? I’d love to write about Pedro’s dominance (and, make no mistake, he DID dominate, just ask Manny Ramirez) but since it was capped by a Phillies meltdown it’s a bit bittersweet. (Shout out to Phillies fans who have had to deal with Charlie Manuel all this time. I’m sure he’s a wonderful manager – hell he got the team the World Series last year – but could he be MORE trigger happy when it comes to pulling pitchers? Chan Ho Park was a victim of bad defense and weird hops not his own pitching. He should have left him in. Speaking of Chan Ho, how is it that I never noticed how pretty his face is? Even with all that hair. The man is quite a handsome fella. )
There is some news out of Red Sox country…according to various sources, Tim Wakefield’s back surgery is set for next Wednesday at Mass General. Nick Green will also be evaluated next week with surgery being a possible option and the word on Jed Lowrie is that his wrist is doing well and he should be ready to play when Spring Training arrives. If Wake’s surgery goes well, the Red Sox plan on bringing him back for another season. So not only for his health but for the team I’m sending out positive vibes for Wake’s surgery next week. I want him back in the red socks. Ditto for Jed Lowrie. (Nick Green? Well, I wish him good health but will be okay if his road doesn’t lead to Ft Myers next year.)
Only one MLB game tonight and it comes from the Bronx. Let’s hope Saunders fares better than Lackey did!
Paws is about to begin his fall/winter vacation. Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission.
So I decided to enjoy the day instead of locking myself up in a hotel room and I missed the majority of the game. Game stories tell me Wake struggled early and then settled down and that Gavin Floyd was perfect through five (The Baseball Project thanks you, Nick Green!). Not really much you can do with this game but keep it in the rear-view mirror.
Crabcakes is on the mound Sunday afternoon and then Josh Beckett pitches on Labor Day afternoon, so the team still has a good chance at leaving Chicago with a split for this series. I’ll be good with that. Let’s hope Crabby and Beckett cooperate.
Tonight was the final home game for the PawSox. I had planned to go but like so many of my McCoy plans this year, that ended up not happening. I went north, not south, this weekend. KellyO made it down for the last game and the PawSox didn’t disappoint, beating the Syracuse Chiefs 8-2. The PawSox have three more games in Syracuse and their season is over Tuesday night. It’s a sad reminder that fall is coming quickly and with it no more baseball. I enjoy Triple A and MLB on different levels and given how much exposure the MLB teams have, even in the off-season, I miss the Triple-A team just a little bit more when they aren’t playing. With any luck, the BoSox are going to give us baseball throughout October but for now I’ll wallow in a little sadness over the Triple-A season ending this week.
My math could be off but I believe Sunday afternoon at Lehigh Valley will be Kyle Snyder’s last start of his season (I think it should be Sunday but it could be for the last game on Monday). He has done an awful lot for the Bisons, regardless of the struggles of the team as a whole, and I hope that it translates into a call-up after their season ends. He’s earned it.
A reminder that both Sunday’s and Monday’s games are at 2:05pm EST. The chances are good that I might, once again, miss the majority of Sunday’s game but I’ll definitely be in a place to watch all of Monday’s. Small steps, right?
One of the better photos I took last night. Way to take one for the team, Nick!
So much to cover on this Friday morning:
First I have to give a special thanks to KellyO for sharing her good fortune of offered tickets and bringing me along to sit in field box seats behind the Red Sox dugout last night. The seats were amazing, we had a pretty good crowd around us and we had the perfect view of Nick Green’s triumphant pitching debut! As we left the game and walked down Yawkey Way we both realized that we were leaving a Red Sox loss with smiles on our faces and laughing. Looking around, the folks who stuck it out for the entire game seemed to have the same attitude. No one ever wants to watch their team lose a game but given that the Red Sox soundly won this series 3 games to 1, it felt fine to revel in the visual of Nick Green on the mound. Guy did all right too – after two innings pitched, his ERA is zero and he only walked 3. Not a bad night on the mound for a relief pitcher, huh? (MLB.com tells us that Green is the first position player since 1944 to pitch 2 or more innings for the Red Sox and not allow a hit. Billy Wagner should watch his back!)
Meanwhile in Pawtucket, my man Kyle Snyder pitched himself quite the game only to end up with a no-decision (the PawSox took the series, winning both games). In spite of seeing the glory of Nick Green’s pitching, I’m still a bit disappointed I didn’t get to see Kyle. Heck, maybe he’ll get a September call up and I’ll make a day trip to CitiField before the season is over? In any event, Kyle’s doing well with Buffalo regardless of the season they’re having and for that I’m very happy.
