I often wonder if there is much in the line of friction in the brotherhood of sporting journalistic scribes. Sometimes they can say some silly things, and yet it is pretty rare that you ever see any of their 'brothers' call them out. Sometimes, however, if you look hard enough, it's right there in front of you. Take Gordon Edes and Dan Shaughnessy.
As MLB Spring Training meandered along, Shaughnessy, the Globe's senior Sox scribe, was writing that Boston had become a boring team. This I imagine stemmed largely from his frustration that he had to actually do some work to uncover good stories instead of having them fed to him off a platter.
The Red Sox were left with deadwood, judging by the dispatches from spring training lamenting the absence of fresh story lines.
I wonder who he was talking about there, eh? Not exactly fiery material, but a pretty clear jab at the kind of writing that many of the more knee-jerk, reactionary sports writers on the Boston sporting scene succumb to from time to time.
''What has two thumbs up and isn't boring any more? This guy! (and this team)''
So, first things first, cutting to the chase, regarding this furore over Spike Lee's documentary on Kobe Bryant, you all know this was done before, right?
''Zidane - a 21st century portrait'', created by Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parenno, has been hailed as a classic, a fascinating infusion of style, class and substance as the two directors followed one of the greatest soccer players ever through an entire match in 2008.
Sounds shockingly similar to Spike Lee's controversial-before-release 'Kobe doin' work', doesn't it? In his movie;
''Lee had flown to Los Angeles, and had 30 cameras in place for the April 13, 2008, Lakers game against the San Antonio Spurs.'' Lee's movie has only just opened however advance reports are that the making of this love story for Kobe Bryant was riddled with issues from the start, none bigger than the stars insistence on having creative control;
''But suddenly Bryant said he wouldn't cooperate unless he was granted creative control, sources said. Lee tried several times to call Bryant, who wouldn't accept his calls. So Lee, at the suggestion of ESPN broadcaster Stephen A. Smith, drove to Bryant's house in a gated community, where Bryant refused to see him, sources said.'' NY Post
''essentially a rebroadcast of an April 13, 2008, NBA game between the Los Angeles Lakers'' Scott Feinberg
Seems like this is one Spike Lee joint to avoid at all costs, unless perhaps you are a Lakers fan, even then you will want to show up late and leave a half hour before it ends, am I right?
Moral of the story, if you want to catch an interesting, unique perspective on a gifted athlete, check out'Zidane', if you want to be bored to death by a narcissistic, sycophantic 'movie' about a guy who beat a rape charge and then commented ''Although I truly believe this encounter between us was consensual, I recognize now that she did not and does not view this incident the same way I did'', go see 'Kobe doin' work'.
The Dublin City Hurricanes continued their strong start to the 2009 season with another all-round team effort in beating the Blacksox 9-3 in Shanganah Park, Shankill. The win pushes the Canes to 2-0 ahead of next Saturday's meeting with the Spartans.
The win didn't come easy, against a Blacksox side trying their best not to slip to 0-2 to start the 2009 campaign. Indeed the game was tied going into the fifth inning. The Canes had struck first, and took a 2-1 lead into the third. The Blacksox hit back and had a 3-2 lead of their own before the Canes evened things up in the fourth. Then in the fifth the wheels came off a little for the Blacksox defence and the veteran Canes club took advantage, piling on the runs.
The Canes situational hitting was excellent, with Alex Bettancourt in particular, crushing the ball all day long. Defensively the Canes turned in another professional performance. Most of all, Captain Steve Divito pushed all the right buttons, making a couple of key substitutions at just the right time in order to take advantage of some defensive miscues on the part of the opposition.
After taking the 9-3 lead and with the pressure off the Canes cruised through the last two innings to nail the big 'W' down.
If you would like to get involved with Baseball Ireland at any level, Adult or Youth, or would like to support the game in Ireland, pleaserefer to this link
You are not going to believe this, but, apparently, charging $2,500 a seat at a baseball game is not a good idea. The Yankees tried it, and they have ended up with a thoroughly embarrassing situation on their hands. The new Yankee Stadium opened up for business recently, as the Tribe walked in, scored a billion runs, said thank you and left. Advance reports on the new digs are good, in terms of design anyway. Comfortable, good views and you can buy a vat of popcorn for $12 that has close to 3,000 calories in it. How can that not be good?
The problem, however, is the fancy $2500 seats the Yankees set aside for ‘premium’ customers (people better than you and me I guess) who were going to pay through the nose to be up close and personal to the game. The snag? The seats are empty. The rest of the stadium is packed, while the ring of premium seats is almost 95% empty. How embarrassing. Where do you even start with this?
''But a closer look at the makeup of the stands was intriguing. All of the lower-priced sections seemed to be packed, but there were dozens of empty seats in the premium levels. Seemingly all of the seats in sections 11 and 29 — eight rows apiece, at the left- and right-field ends of the Legends Suite area — were unoccupied.''
Consider the common Yankee fan. Illiterate, poor, probably out of work…
I kid. I kid. Seriously though, imagine the common Yankee fan, saved up a few dollars and brought his kid to the game. Tickets, parking, $12 popcorn, souvenir program and your average fan is in the hole for a couple of hundred bucks. Maybe he stands up and stretches in the middle of the second, thinking about a bill he hasn’t paid yet this month, or even the security of his job, and he can’t help but notice the empty $2,500 seats in all their glory.
What message are the Yankees sending to their loyal fans? If you want to be up close to the game you have to fork out enough to cover a couple of mortgages for a month? We stick our most loyal fans up in the nose bleeds!
So what's the deal if you want to actually purchase tickets to the 'premium' seating areas? Well, there's no prices on the seats in the regular seating chart.
What kind of a message does this send? Are the Yankees hiding their arrogantly priced seats? Or is this all part of 'the experience' of premium seating?
is this another form of 'If you have to ask, you can't afford?'
The next step is to visit this arrogant, even disgusting little link/site, where the luxury element of the premium seating areas is rammed down the visitors throats. The tag on the front page reads 'For those with discerning taste', when it should read, 'For those who can afford $3000 to go to a baseball game’. Clicking on the ‘Legends’ seating area, you are given a break down of the various luxuries on offer.
1,800 CUSHIONED SUITE-STYLE SEATS WITH TEAK ARMS
ACCESS TO THE EXCLUSIVE BI-LEVEL LEGENDS SUITE CLUB AND TWO LEGENDS SUITE DUGOUT LOUNGES, ONE EACH ALONG THE FIRST AND THIRD BASELINES
PRIVATE RESTROOMS IN THE LEGENDS SUITE CLUB AND THE LEGENDS SUITE DUGOUT LOUNGES
ALL-INCLUSIVE FOOD AND BEVERAGES,* INCLUDING:
* IN-SEAT WAIT SERVICE
* FINE DINING AT THE LEGENDS SUITE CLUB, FEATURING À LA CARTE AND PERFORMANCE-COOKING STATIONS
* "GRAB N' GO" FOOD AND BEVERAGE OFFERINGS AT THE LEGENDS SUITE DUGOUT LOUNGES
PERSONAL CONCIERGE SERVICE AVAILABLE
Not bad for $2500 I guess.
If you are suitably convinced, and ready to buy some tickets, you just have to click one more link. This, interestingly, brings you to a form where you can express your interest in buying Yankee premium tickets. Do the Yankees do a quick credit check to ensure you are good for the cash?
Here's the thing. In the first few games at Yankee Stadium, those premium type seats are largely empty.
Can fans not figure out how to buy tickets? Are they scared off by the relatively elongated process to procure ‘the best seats in the house’? Or is it something more sinister?
Consider the ‘fan’ sitting in the $2,500 seats. Very few individuals can afford those types of tickets, except corporate types, perhaps bringing guest/clients out to a ball game, ‘wowing’ them with premium seating and $12 popcorn. Those types are now in a serious corner. What if they worked for, by way of example, a company that has been given government money to survive? Maybe that explains why the seats are largely, and embarrassingly empty.
So what's going to happen? How is this situation going to play out?
The Yankees brass is entirely oblivious to any issue at all.
‘’ Levine said many of the premium seats were sold, but ticket-holders did not attend the game or might have spent much of their time in a private club area.’’
Of course, the fans all exited the ‘Legends’ area at the same time to go hang out in the private ‘fuck you, regular fans!’ club. Naturally. How stupid of us not to figure that one out on our own. This raises another question, is this how the Yankee brass want their stadium? Empty during the game as the ‘Pink cap’ brigade schmooze and rub shoulders in the private club areas?
Whatever way this does go, is there a greater image to describe the current financial plight in the United States than those bloated-price, empty elitist seats in the Premium sections of Yankee Stadium?
They have the best record in all of baseball at 11-3. Their rotation is the envy of all other NL general managers. They have brilliant young stars and they even have superstition on their side. Their last two World Series wins? 2003 and 1997. 1997, 2003 and 2009. Perfect symmetry.
The bookmakers have yet to wake up to the potential of the Marlin, you can still back them to win the World Series at stand out odds of 22/1 with some stores. The thing is, why bother risk the Marlins coming undone against a veteran, deep AL lineup like the Angels, Red Sox or Yankees? Imagine you placed five hard earned dollars on them at 22/1, only for them to fall at the final hurdle. Wouldn't it make way more sense to back them to win the National League? You can do that at odds of up to 10/1, although most bookmakers have them tabbed around the 8/1 mark. Still a tasty price.
Who in the NL is fit to stop them? The woefully inept Mets? The rebuilt and still awful Braves? The Phillies? Give me a break, the Phillies had their fun and are busy imploding as we speak. The Dodgers? Sorry, bad joke, I know.
You can break it down even further of course, and back the powerful, talented and pitching-deep Marlins (no other NL team has 6-7 starting pitchers as good as Florida) to win the NL East at odds of 2, 3 and even 4 to one in some places. That might be the strongest, easiest bet of the three.
Either way, take a nibble at any of those options, and you are at the very least going to get a very decent run for your money.
This coming weekend there are games all over Ireland in the 2009 Irish baseball league. There will be games taking place in Dublin, Cork and Belfast, an exciting development for baseball here in Ireland.
On Saturday at Shanganah Park in Shankill, the Blacksox and Hurricanes meet again, with an 'A' league game at 11am followed by a 'B' league game at 2pm. The Hurricanes started their season with a 3-0 win over the Blacksox last weekend at Corcaigh Park.
Also on Saturday, in Cork, the Cork Druids play two 'B' level games against the Greystones Mariners. On Sunday in Belfast the Belfast Northstars open their 2009 with an 'A' level double header against the Dublin Spartans.
So, an exciting weekend for baseball in Ireland, with games literally all over the Emerald Isle.
The clothing company 'Majestic' actually shipped a few jerseys to the Nationals that had "Natinals" emblazoned on the front. Seriously.
The company response; "We take 100 percent responsibility for this event and we regret any embarrassment for the Nationals organization, players and fans,"
Should they themselves not be even a little tiny bit embarrassed?
On a somewhat related note, journalists get lambasted for even the tiniest slip in terms of political correctness with increasing frequency, often on ESPN, but it is apparently okay for an enormous condom advertisement to festoon the top of this story?
Love the tag-line, 'anytime, anywhere'!
For a country so increasingly in love with right wing sensibilities and moral outrage, you have to appreciate the high dosage of sexual-aid type advertisements on day time television in the States. If it isn't condoms it's Viagra or whatever erectile dysfunction medicine is the bees knees at the moment.
Seriously though, how on earth does a company send such poor quality jerseys to a Major League team? how does that happen in this day and age?
It's the flow of the game through the seasons that is what is compelling to follow, right? Isn't that what it comes down to at the end of the day?
There is a real flow, an ebb and flow with a tangible pattern to sports, sports teams, and seasons upon seasons of leagues and standings.
If you follow sports with any sort of attentive interest or passion, the pattern is easy to discern and simple to follow.
Take for example this years Red Sox team. Some people get all wound up and flustered by minor issues, a players low batting average, a two game losing streak, a pitcher having a tired arm. Really, what's the point in exploding emotionally over such minuscule issues, tiny in the framework of the overall season, smaller yet when viewed out over the course of a number of seasons together. If you really, really love the Red Sox (or any other team, the Sox are just an example here) shouldn't you be taking in the greater picture and therefore, in the case of this example, revelling in the relative solid stature?
Even if your team is going through a down period, you have to understand that this is all part of the bigger picture, and chances are, unless you are a fan of the Baltimore Orioles, your team will eventually come full circle and run into, step into a winning season or two, the same way even a .228 batter occasionally steps into a middle-in fastball and knocks one out of the park.
So why fret the little stuff? I’ll go one further, why not enjoy the lost games? Maybe enjoy is the wrong word, but you still have to experience the losses. Every one of those helps you enjoy the wins when they start to come along in batches.
Except of course, Orioles fans. 57 games against the Yankees, Sox and Rays. Ouch.
On a beautiful sunny day in the regal settings of the O'Malley baseball fields in Corcaigh Park the Dublin City Hurricanes got their 2009 Irish baseball campaign off to a fine start with a convincing, veteran and professional 3-0 win over the Blacksox.
The Hurricanes scored two in the first and tagged on another later on. Eric 'Vegas' Valkys lead the bottom of the first off with a walk and came all the way around to score what would eventually be the games winning run.
The patient Hurricanes batters made the most of a few walks in the first, and made the Blacksox pitching work all day long. Meanwhile, the Hurricanes defence was in superb form. Tom Kelley, Eric Valkys, Steve Divito and Kevin Richards all made fine plays, as the 'Canes veteran players made tricky defensive plays look easy all morning long.
The game was played in a crisp two hours, and at a very high level by both sides for this early in the season. The two sides meet again next week in Shanganah Park in Shankill in a quirk of scheduling.
Solid, fundamentally sound season opener for the 2009 Hurricanes.
And so here we go again. Another year, another Irish Baseball League season. Since 1997 the weekend warriors of the Irish baseball league have been doing battle in Corcaigh Park, Greystones, Shankill and Belfast.
2009 will be no different.
The 'A' level Irish League teams
The Dublin Hurricanes
The Dublin Spartans
The Belfast Northstars
The Dublin Blacksox
The Greystones Mariners
The Irish league kicks off in style this weekend with big games in Greystones and Dublin. In Greystones the Mariners are taking the Spartans on in A and B level games, while in Corcaigh Park, Dublin, the Hurricanes take on the Blacksox in A and B level games. The A level game between the Hurricanes and the Blacksox starts at 11 am in Corcaigh Park. Directions listed below.
If you would like to get involved with Baseball Ireland at any level, Adult or Youth, or would like to support the game in Ireland, pleaserefer to this link
Hey, on the brightside, looks like the Red Sox will be playing 92% of their games under the three hour mark (last night's debacle a notable exception). Seeing as it would appear the lineup couldn't punch it's way out of a wet paper bag, it appears the pitching is going to have to carry the Sox, meaning a never ending conveyor belt of 4-5, 5-4 and 4-3 scorelines for the summer of 2009. Personally, as a pitching aficionado, this suits me down to the ground but hey that's selfish and nobody likes that, many fans will miss the 10-8, 9-7 and 12-6 batterings administered in the last couple of seasons by various Red Sox juggernauts. Thing is, those games take time, plenty of. For '09 it appears we will be seeing more two and a half hour games and less four hour epics. Surely that has to be a good thing, right?
Red Sox '09 version - needs more Beckett
Imagine back in say 1998 or maybe 1999 if you said that Nomar Garciaparra would be playing as a backup with the A's by 2009 and would be merely a footnote on the Boston Globe's sports page. Well, people would have thought you were higher than The Wire's lovable addict, Bubbles.
Nomah!
It's a pretty cool feat for such a small nation as Ireland to have two teams in the Rugby Heineken Cup semi finals. Sadly Munster and Leinster have to play each other, although you could look at that as a glass-half-full situation as there will definitely be an Irish club side in the 2009 Heineken Cup Final.
Irish rugby - scoring tries in European competition near you
America becoming increasingly insular alert number 4589:B7. How about the flat-line commentary at the end of the Masters on Sunday night? As Angel Cabrera two putted the last hole of the playoff, the commentary team almost fell asleep on air. The 'winning call' sounded like Owen Wilson's depressed, low key answering machine message in 'The Wedding Crashers', complete with lonely sighing. One online sporting site greeted the Argentinians win with; ''Oh, and some fat guy from another country won the whole shebang in a three-way playoff''. You stay classy, Deadspinners. Far more main stream online sporting medium, ESPN, settles for this unbelievably arrogant, disgusting article suggesting Cabrera should feel grateful the powerful Americans allowed him win the tournament by not playing to their superior level.
I like 'Out of sight'. Don't care what anyone says. I like it. It's a smooth movie, and goes down easy like a Jack Daniels on a warm summer's night. From the assured direction of Stephen Soderbergh, to the smooth acting of George Clooney, to the chilled grooves of Irish musician David Holmes, the movie is a slick, fun experience.
Although nobody, and I mean nobody, that I know would ever admit to liking it, I know I am not totally and utterly alone in my appreciation of it. Why do I say that with such confidence? Easy! Rottentomatoes.com gives it a very respectable 92% on it's respected tomato meter!
It wasn't a summer blockbuster (like the ridiculous New York Yankees) and it was never anointed the second coming of Jeebus (like the Tampa Bay Devil Rays), just a solid, fundamentally sound, enjoyable flick. 'Out of sight', meet the 2009 Boston Red Stockings. You guys play nice.
The guys who swing the bat
Karen Sisco; ''You mean, did he try to jump me? No, but he was kind of talkative.'' For Dustin Pedroia. Goodness gracious is this young man confident or what? More power to the lad, he is a hard worker and has broken the size barrier to make it in the Major Leagues. Pedroia is one of the clubhouse comedians, to use a beautiful old Irish saying, he certainly has the 'gift of the gab', Pedroia could talk until the cows come home, and then come back for more. As a Red Sox fan, you pretty much know what you are going to get from Pedroia in 2009. A stack of runs scored and doubles, hard nosed, gritty defence and a small army of striking quotes.
Click here for a superb, must read article on Pedroia from Boston Magazine.
Daniel Burdon; ''There's a couple of points I keep wondering about have to do with the two guys that grabbed you. Buddy is it? And this fella Jack Foley. I swear the man must've robbed two hundred banks in his time.'' For Jacoby Ellsbury; The sky is quite literally the limit for Ellsbury in 2009. Coco Crisp is gone, and thus there is no need for any sort of platoon out in center. Jacoby is fit, healthy and ready to go. He is playing for a manager you famously gave Dustin Pedroia the chance to literally hit his way out of a horrific months long slump and onto the cover of every baseball publication in America. No doubt Jacoby, if he starts slow, will be afforded the same patient approach. So how many bases can this lad swipe? 40? 50? 60? More? The sky is the limit.
Jacoby Ellsbury
Karen Sisco; ''Why, are you famous?'' For Jed Lowrie. Do you think people even recognise Lowrie in the street yet? My vote, not yet.
Jack Foley: ''I wonder...say we met under different circumstances and got to talking, say you were in a bar and I came up to you...I wonder what would happen.'' For Rocco Baldelli. Rhode Island's finest has looked good in limited time at the plate this spring, and every scout in the land is aware of his natural skills. Obviously there are questions about his health though, so we might end up wondering, what if Boston and Rocco had met under different circumstances..
Buddy Bragg: ''You want to take her to my place, get cleaned up, come out of the bathroom with your aftershave on, and she goes "Oh! I had you all wrong." For JD Drew. What's it going to take for the average citizen of Red Sox Nation to begin to really appreciate JD Drew? Yet another crucial post season blast for the ages, perhaps? Or maybe he just needs to wear a little aftershave, like Jack Foley. You heard it first here, JD drew has a monster 2009. You had him all wrong.
Maurice "Snoopy" Miller: [realizing his gun is empty, as Foley points one at him] ''You don't have an extra clip I can use, do you?'' For Mike Lowell: That's the big question for Mike Lowell. Does he have an extra clip at this stage of his career? Signs in spring training are that he will be a serviceable player for the Sox in '09. Lowell will benefit from batting down the order and just being asked to knock in 80-90 runs and knock 20-25 bombs, if he can manage that and submit his usual stellar defense at third, then 2009 will be a great season for both Mike and the Sox. If Lowell goes down, if his veteran body can't stand the rigors of another 162 game MLB season, then Youkilis will be moved the third and Red Sox Nation will get a look at hot prospect Lars Anderson. That's not a horrific insurance plan in any shape or form.
One of Mike Lowell's finer moments
Karen Sisco; ''You know, this isn't gonna end well, these things never do.'' For Julio Lugo; Poor old Julio Lugo. There is no way you can paint him as one of baseball's bad citizens, on the contrary, word on the street is Lugo worked really hard this recent off season to try and win his job back with Boston. Sadly for him, this is not going to end well. The short stop position appears to be Jed Lowrie's to lose whether that is fair or not. Indications must have been poor for Lugo, as the Sox made tentative approaches to Florida about Hanley Ramirez. That's never a good sign for the incumbent.
[Snoopy's prison bodyguard, Himey, threatens Jack]Jack Foley: Uh oh.Maurice "Snoopy" Miller: You're fucked up now, man. That's Himey. Protege of mine. Ranked number thirty-two in the federal prison system.Jack Foley: Thirty-two?Maurice "Snoopy" Miller: That's right. Jack Foley: Outta what? Twenty? For Jason Varitek. So what way do we take Jason Varitek's spring. He came on strong at the end, but for the general course of Spring training he was batting a buck forty or whatever. Glass half full or glass half empty? I suppose we are about to find out. Here's hoping Varitek's hard work over the winter rolls itself into a decent offensive season.
[Ray is wearing an "FBI" t-shirt]Marshall Sisco: Hey Ray, do you ever wear one that says "undercover"?Ray Nicolet: [pause] No. For Kevin Youkilis. Much like Ray in out of sight, Youk plays the game with his heart on his sleeve. His 100% effort style and brash demeanour may not be everyone's cup of tea, but hey, at least you know what you are going to get. Give me Youk's game over some clown sticking his bat on his shoulder against Mariano Rivera in a huge late season ninth inning show down. Yeah, I am still bitter.
Hey Ray, do you ever wear one that says "undercover"?
Jack Foley; ''You've probably heard of me.'' For David Ortiz. Big Papi is now the lone figurehead in the Sox lineup, the player opposition pitchers have nightmares about, the constant threat of the three run home run. With Manny gone to the left coast, will the Sox batters around Papi provide enough protection? Will opposing hurlers just pitch around him?
Jack Foley: You were in Leavenworth?Hejira: For a time.Jack Foley: What's that mean?Hejira: Means, when the time came, I left.Jack Foley: You broke out?Hejira: I prefer to think of it as an exodus from an undesirable place. For Jason Bay. And for 'undesirable place' read, 'Pittsburgh'.
The guys who throw the ball
Jack Foley; ''Yeah, right. Anyway, that scene where Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway get shot? I remember thinking at the time it wouldn't be a bad way to go, if you have to.'' For Takashi Saito; Maybe Saito can help the Sox in '09, maybe age and injury will catch up with him. Any which way you look at it though, Saito has a chance to pitch in the best division in baseball against some of the best players in the game. He also has a chance to play a bit of ball with a couple of his fellow country men, something that has to be enjoyable for him at this stage of his career. Initial reports from Spring training indicate Saito might be an extremely deadly secret weapon for the Sox in the late innings.
Coming to a Fenway Park near you
Jack Foley; ''Time I was convicted in California? FBI told me I'd robbed more banks than anyone in the computer.'' For Jon Papelbon. Is it just me or can you absolutely see Papelbon, aged 89, sitting on a porch talking to a brash young reporter from the Globe, maybe via a futuristic hologram communication system, saying 'time came when them reporters told me..' (takes a swig from a bottle of Jack Daniels) '..they told me I had more saves than anybody on their computers' (grunts).
Marchall Sisco and Karen Sisco talking about Karen's scum-bag new FBI boyfriend (brilliantly played by Michael Keaton (what in blazes happened to his career?!) Marshall; ''He's still married though, huh?''KAREN ''Technically. They're separated.''MARSHALL ''Oh, he's moved out?''KAREN ''He's about to.''MARSHALL ''Then they're not separated, are they?''Karen Sisco ''Can we change the subject?'' For John Smoltz. Wait, John Smoltz is pitching for Boston? Really? Does Atlanta know about this?
Maurice "Snoopy" Miller: ''Come on, Glenn, if I say this my car you know this my car, you just get yourself another one. If I say we in on this Ripley shit, we in on it, with or without your punk ass. If I say you gonna walk up in this house and do this motherf**ker, so I can see if you got any balls or not, guess what else you gonna do. Tighten up your panties, boy.'' For Josh Beckett. Much like Maurice Miller, this is Josh Beckett's world, we just live in it.
Josh Beckett auditions for '''Out of sight II''
Maurice "Snoopy" Miller: ''I've, uh, vertically integrated myself. You know, diversified and shit, and now I'm into the occasional grand larceny, home invasion... (stuff) like that.'' For Jon Lester: The kid has added an impressive changeup to his arsenal of various fastballs, cut fastballs, curveballs and 'stuff'. The change helps him in certain situations and looked sharp throughout the spring. Diversification, pitching style.
Jack Foley; ''Yeah, well, if it turns out I get shot like a dog, it'll be in the street, not off a goddamn fence.'' For Brad Penny; Penny has had nothing but bad press the last couple of seasons, ear marked as a guy who is not going to manage to get past his injury problems. Now Penny has a chance to prove those nay-sayers wrong, from the relative comfort of the 5th spot in the Red Sox rotation. Protected by the big arms in Boston's stable, Penny can just work on picking up wins and quality starts generally without worrying about going up against the oppositions best pitchers. Penny will get a chance to go down swinging (well, throwing), in the street, not off a goddam fence.
Glenn Michaels: ''What are you going to do with a hatchet?'' For Manny Delcarmen; Seriously, what is Manny Delcarmen going to do with that hatchet in 2009? Delcarmen can still be passed off as 'young' however he now has a bit extra experience under his belt. The home town boy has serious stuff, a blazing fast ball and decent offspeed pitches, and just needs to 'win' the mental aspect of the game to become another serious weapon in Tito Francona's bullpen arsenal.
Her finest moment, right? Surely?
Jack Foley; ''But, man, it's a long run to civilization. A hundred miles to Miami? I'm too old to start acting crazy, try a stunt like that. You make it out, send me a postcard.'' For the oldest Major League player in Boston Tim Wakefield; The seasons keep on coming and Timmy Wakefield keeps on pitching. The final remaining link to those, well, colourful mid nineties Red Sox teams, Wakefield is both an important clubhouse figure and also a potentially valuable innings eater.
Jack Foley: ''Is this your first time being robbed?''[Loretta nods] Jack Foley: ''You're doing great.'' For Daisuke Matsuzaka: Perhaps because of that crazy big 'posting fee' the Red Sox had to pay, perhaps because of his WBC pedigree, Matsuzaka tends to be expected to produce veteran MLB pitcher results on the mound. This might be the year he does that, after another terrific WBC. Hopefully Matsuzaka won't be plagued by 40 pitch innings as last year, where the viewer would wonder, is this his first time on the mound? You heard it here first, 21-6 with a sub 4 era.
Glenn Michaels: ''Oh, man, if I wasn't stoned there is no way you would have talked me into this!'' For Justin Masterson. This young lad could start for a host of Major League Clubs, heck, he would be a second or third guy in the rotation for plenty, and would be Kansas's ace, no doubt. Somehow, however, he appears totally happy to pitch in the seventh or eighth inning for Boston. Is Theo keeping him sedated, or stoned, or something along those lines? Or is he genuinely just happy to be a successful part of a potentially explosively good 2009 Sox bullpen? You want a piece of Masterson, Saito, Okajima and Papelbon? Didn't think so. Lights (potentially) out.
Playing us out, David Holmes with the mellow 'No more time outs' from the excellent 'Out of sight' soundtrack.
Managed to get a good few 'April fools' in this morning.
Poor Garret, Ireland's greatest Red Sox fan bar none (and therefore in the running for greatest Red Sox fan worldwide) fell for;
'Hey did you hear the Sox traded Papelbon' He responded 'No way, for who?' ..and then sent a '..wait a second...' text when he realised the date today.
Tried a similar one on Mets fan Chris, who didn't fall for 'hey did you hear the Sox traded Papelbon to the Mets for Wright?' - he wrote back something sardonic about Livan Harnandez for Big Papi.
Actually a running theme became Mets fans being too sharp for me, tried the same Papelbon/Wright text on Jason, another one of Mookie Wilson's blue and white barmy army and got back a four page text with other suggestions for joke trades, and a happy April fools day note to end.
I wasn't able to trick my brother either, he is an Arsenal fan so I went for the home run and sent a text saying; 'Hey, how are you? Did you see Arsenal sacked Arsené (Wenger, their manager)''
He wrote back; 'Yeah, sure did, and did you see Sunderland signed Lionel Messi'?
Touché!
I did catch another poor Sox fan a beaut though, suggesting the Sox had just traded Daniel Bard to the Yankees for a 'player to be named later'. He sent back a page long tirade, about how the Yankees always manage to get something for nothing, and ten seconds later wrote another one to me saying;
''You bastard''.
The Irish morning papers were absolutely smothered in them (April fools), fake stories on the front and even back pages, perhaps a little over kill. Wait a second, do they even do 'Aprils fools' in the States?
''What has two thumbs up and isn't boring any more? This guy! (and this team)''
