Sports Writing

So sculptor Daniel Edwards made a fake “death mask” of Ted Williams, in an artistic reference to Williams’ body being beheaded after being frozen, and Alcor had this response: In its own statement, Alcor said it was a travesty that some might seek to “exploit Ted Williams and his family for monetary gain.” (Link)

Here’s hoping all y’all enjoyed the long weekend. The Sox continued to wear white beyond Labour Day on the makeup of the rained out game against the White Sox, but what the hey, any team with Kevin Millar isn’t going to be very fashion conscious. Anyway, it looks like Curt Schilling’s splitter is somewhat back. He definitely didn’t seem to be in pain pushing off. And nice pickoff of Podsednik. Unfortunately, his command left something to be desired.

Meanwhile, just as 2004 Yankee John Olerud homered for the Sox, 2004 Red Sock Mark Bellhorn homered for the Yankees. It just seems so strange to see so much of the 2004 Sox team on the Yankees, especially integral postseason performers such as Bellhorn and Embree. I just don’t remember so much back-and-forth between the two teams in the past (yes, I know they were picked up after being DFA’d, not traded, but still…).

David Wells beat the Orioles with the 54th complete game of his career. Which all goes to show, it isn’t whether you look fit, it’s pitching mechanics. Otherwise Mark Prior and Kerry Wood wouldn’t be injury basket cases

Kevin Millar with a multihomer game. Doug Mirabelli with a steal. What is the world coming to? Fortunately, the Tampa bullpen remains shite, so it’s not all chaos. And Terry Francona keeps lighting ’em up with the quotes, this one on Mirabelli’s stolen base:

My prayers out to anyone caught in Hurricane Katrina. Sadly, from the experience over on this side of the world with the tsunami, the full horror sometimes doesn’t reveal itself until the aftermath when the waters die down. Fingers crossed.

What troubled times are these, when we have to worry about playing against Tampa Bay (game recap)? But the Rays have been hot, hot, hot, and so it was down to mashers v. mashers. Fortunately Big Papi rules over them all. These are ugly wins we’re taking, but I’ll take ugly wins any day.

This is plain bizarre: Two years ago, the Red Sox rallied themselves in the regular season with the phrase, “Cowboy Up” which appeared on T-shirts worn by every player in the final months of the year.

Ugh. A 6-run lead, and the Sox lose. Gaffes all over the place, Arroyo seems to have lost it, and to top it off the Yankees are 1.5 games back. I’m hoping the September callups bring in some good pitchers, because no lead on either side is safe with this offense and this bullpen.

Interesting for wannabe wonks such as myself: ESPN did this online poll on which currently underperforming pitcher would step it up down the stretch, and they actually broke the results down by states: predictably, El Duque and C.C. Sabathia won for their ‘home’ states of Illinois and Ohio respectively, but the rest of the map shows pretty much a Diamondbacks ‘01 duel: Schilling vs Johnson. I wonder which presidential election electoral college map this particular set most resembles? Probably Kennedy v. Nixon, I’m guessing.

Well, it’s not a big surprise that Schilling was fairly mediocre in his return, allowing 6 runs in 5 innings. Wasn’t that pretty much on a par with his performances in relief?

So I watched this up till the last inning, and in typical Sox fashion, the last inning wasn’t clean, what with the tying run coming to the plate in what had previously been a 5-0 shutout. Not a good outing for Timlin in his reappearance as the closer, I thought (I know, not a save situation, but still…) Watching the footage on MLB.tv was more reassuring though - the two runs scored because of a botched pop-up catch (by Timlin himself) and a bloop hit. So it’s not like KC was smokin’. Fingers crossed.

Kevin Millar is at peace with not being the starting 1B: “Do what you’ve got to do. I’m not going to throw chairs or desks; you’ve got the wrong guy. Believe me, I’ve tried to battle through this. I’m not going to quit and I want to play every day, but right now until I produce, do you put John Olerud in there? Damn right.”

When I was in Cologne back in May there was all this preparations for the Catholic church’s World Youth Day thing going on - now the BBC had coverage of the Youth Day Mass and the 2nd pic shows a lonely Sox fan:

So: these are the 2005 Sox: huge, huge innings with some seriously crooked numbers (the 5-run 8th), and an inability to go through the 9th inning unscathed. Curt Schilling and his 5.18ERA since he joined the bullpen going back in the rotation isn’t exactly filling me with warm fuzzy feelings now. And I know what they say about relievers’ ERA since relievers like Timlin can let inherited runners score without hurting that stat, but Schilling as far as I recall has started most innings.

Yes, yes, late to the party, the news that Bellhorn was DFA’d came a few days ago. But while I understand that Graf, Bellhorn’s replacement, was doing more than okay, I will forever remember Bellhorn’s contributions to the 2004 postseason, those dings that sounded the death knell for the Yankees. And I will be saddened that he had to leave in a chorus of boos after that awesome 2004 season (17 HRs, 82 RBIs, 93 runs scored).

Also, about the Rolling Stones playing Fenway - I should say I saw the Stones on the 40 Licks tour here in Singapore back in 2003. The top seats were going for the equivalent of US$300, but a friend comped me in. Great stuff. Besides the obvious part about the Stones’ great songs, they put on one hell of a show. Giant inflatable women, a huge animation of a woman riding the tongue logo, cameras attached to the end of the guitar for a view of what Keef was playing, and the inimitable Mick. Best songs that night: “Honky Tonk Woman” and “Gimme Shelter”.

Meanwhile, over at Baseball Digest Daily, Jim Evans wrote about the Sox hitting the 666-run total and talks about Theo’s deal with the Devil. Oh, Theo– don’t you know? Only Charlie Daniels has ever made a deal with the Devil and won! And I don’t think you can play the fiddle like old Charlie can.

Anyone feel like the Sox have played a lot of extra-inning games ever since starting the season with that long string of regular 9-inning games? Maybe that’s just because the 2005 versions of Alan Embree and Keith Foulke haven’t been around to crap out in the 9th.

The steroids thing keeps reaching new witchhunt levels: The New York offices received at least a dozen calls from reporters Thursday concerning rumored positive tests for Houston Astro pitcher Roger Clemens and Boston Red Sox outfielder Johnny Damon. The officials spent much of the day denying those rumors.