Sports Writing

Also, I walked by the Lido cinema down here and realised that they’re finally showing Fever Pitch on this side of the world. Except that they’re calling it The Perfect Catch. I suppose there’s a pun in that title too, but what the hey, how would they manage to sell the movie to Nick Hornby fans?

What can one say? These Sox at any given moment can put up a 7-spot in an inning and just as quickly give up 4 runs. Mike Remlinger certainly isn’t pitching like he wants to stay in his hometown, although at least today his 1 2/3 scoreless innings was a step in the right direction. Although until today Remlinger had never played in a game the Sox lost. So: Remlinger good, Sox lose. Remlinger bad, Sox win. Ack.

From my friend Davin comes a link to an Economic Principals article comparing Andrei Shleifer and Rafael Palmeiro. Shleifer was the head of the Harvard Institute for International Development, hired by the US Agency for International Development to counsel the new government of Boris Yeltsin; the project was abruptly ended in 1997 on charges of mismanagement. The article tries to draw the connection between the two men based on the idea of needing a certain trust in governments for institutions to function:

Ugh. Curt Schilling, where have your pitches gone?

Baseball America thinks Craig Hansen looks like the real deal: Blessed with a mid-90s fastball and a biting slider, Craig Hansen may be the first of the 2005 draft class to reach the major leagues.

A baseball themed bubble gum dispenser, taken by gregkendallball.

It really IS nice to beat up on Mark Buehrle and Jon Garland, given their performance this season. And Petagine is doing more and more to disprove his early-MLB career numbers, with his first homer since 1998… goes to show the whole “minor league numbers do translate into major league numbers” thing seems to be holding.

David Ortiz with an amazing game. I’m kind of surprised that his 6 RBI today was his personal best - somehow I always thought he had bigger games - but wow, that 3-run shot was crushed. And a good thing it was too, with Schilling throwing strikes but only getting the ball launched out of the park. Just before Ortiz came on for his last at-bat, prior to the homer, the chants of “Papi! Papi! Papi!” were great - you just knew the ballpark was waiting for that moment. I can feel it coming in the air at night, oh Lord.

No Sox game, but wow, I caught K-Rod dropping the throw back from catcher Jose Molina and Jason Kendall dashing in to score the winning run in the As-Angels game. First, a hidden ball trick yesterday, now this. That’s why baseball can be so much fun to watch.

Also, how cool is it that Mike Lowell pulled off the hidden ball trick again yesterday? It’s only been done twice this century, both times by Lowell. Lowell ended a five year MLB drought of no hidden-ball tricks when he got Brian Schneider last year, as Retrosheet’s list of every hidden ball trick ever turned in MLB shows. Luis Terrero looked utterly stunned.

Which Kenny Rogers would have been a better pitcher yesterday? Knows when to hold ’em Knows when to fold ’em Another day, another Sox-Rangers slugfest. That 5-run 4th was awesome to watch: can’t believe I had to miss the 9-run 8th inning, but it was great to catch the replay. Kapler and Damon both scored twice in that inning - awesome stuff. So the Sox widened the gap between themselves and the Yankees. Mmm, I love the Chicago White Sox, my hatred for their announcers aside.

Any doubt that the a Sox-Rangers game would be a hitfest? That first inning got rid of that anyway - Texas up 3-0 (when Texas was up 2-0 with bases loaded it looked scary), then Sox responded with 4 runs. Beautiful Ortiz shot there, and a big Petagine RBI for the tying run, but the night was all Tony G. Scoring on a wild pitch (nice slide to evade Barajas), stealing 2nd, scoring from 2nd on a single to shallow right (wow) and of course that huge 3-run homer.

The Globe had an article on Roberto Petagine, and I gotta say, John Olerud sounds quite gracious about a guy who could potentially take away his job: ‘‘That hit the other night [against Minnesota] was a huge hit with the bases loaded," Olerud said. ‘‘When you get called up – I mean, he’s putting up some unbelievable numbers in Triple A – when you get up you really tend to press a little bit. You want to make a big impact right away. I’m sure he’d like to be swinging the bat better, but I think he’s doing a great job."

Also, great that Roberto Petagine had a first major-league hit since forever in the game. And a nice 3-run double it was too. I really want this guy to succeed.

Schilling again? I guess consistency is good for rehab, but this is a bit much. Of course, Tito’s options weren’t that good. I would be very hesitant to use Mike Timlin when there are baserunners on.

Current Sox who have World Series rings earned while with teams other than the Sox: Mike Timlin (1992-3, Toronto) John Olderdude Olerud (1992-3, Toronto) David Wells (1992, Toronto; 1998, Yankees) Edgar Renteria (1997, Florida) Matt Mantei (2001, Arizona)? (Not in the postseason if I recall right) Curt Schilling (2001, Arizona)

So Radke the control freak (8 Ks, 1 BB today) got to the Sox. Oh well. The Sox always do seem to have trouble with pitchers who can paint the corners and put the ball exactly where they want. Worst shutout loss this season I think, but it just counts as 1 in the loss column. Ooh, I’m full of cliches today.

Manny being Manny, and we love him for it. Hello, 97 RBIs…

Incidentally, some random websurfing led me to Sara Lovering’s Red Sox photography. Great stuff from 2004, especially from last year’s victory parade. Of course, the Flickr Red Sox photostream is occasionally interesting to peruse…

Sometimes it seems like the best Globe articles on the Sox these days are by the non-beat writers and sports columnists, such as Samantha Power’s “Once upon a Nomar” piece, a tribute to Nomar’s ability to capture the Boston public’s imagination.