Sports Writing

I’m in the midst of moving house - so updates have been sketchy of late, I know. It’s not like I can take steroids to get all those boxes from one home to the other faster - can I?

If a trade deadline falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

By now, how much more does anyone want to read about Manny wanting out? The sad thing is that the snide remarks of some of the press reports sort of justifies the request. Oh well, that’s the weird relationship of the Boston media and its superstars… they hated Ted Williams too…

No Sox games today, but I noted that Aaron Small got the win for the Yankees in his 2nd start this season. Maybe I’m just a puerile 12-year-old at heart, but Small Wang, Brown Johnson is either the rotation or a porno version of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Now if only the Yankees would acquire R.A. Dickey.

In discussing the day Trot got injured, Chad Finn makes a good point about trying to read ’turning points’ into the season: Many words were spent in recent days regarding the one-year anniversary of one of the supposed turning points of last season - the Nomar Garciaparra trade, after which the Sox went 42-18 and . . . hell, you have the DVD. You know the rest. But it’s scarcely mentioned that the Sox struggled mightily in the immediate aftermath of the deal, losing six of eight games, and only started their championship run when Orlando Cabrera settled in and had all his handshakes memorized. Turning points? Sometimes there is something to them. Oftentimes, though, they are only as good as the next day’s starting pitcher (Link)

Funny quote from Torii Hunter on throwing out Derek Jeter at the plate in the third inning after Gary Sheffield’s single: “He hit the ball so hard I had plenty of time to make the throw,” Hunter said. “When he hits a ball, Jeter needs to run a little faster.” (Link)

Schilling inserted himself left, right, and centre in this series, with one loss in extra innings, one win in extra innings, and a semi-rocky save. It’s funny that after today’s 4-1 game the Sox’s 3 winningest pitchers are now Cy Young, Roger Clemens, and Tim Wakefield. I love Wakefield, but it’s a rare list that puts his name together with two of the best pitchers ever.

My apologies for not updating this blog… over the weekend, I was preoccupied with lots of things, including attending the Saturday wedding of Davin, a fellow alumnus and a true Sox fan. First words when I greeted him at the wedding: “did they win today?”. To which I had to, sadly, report the 8-4 loss to Garland where Wakefield suddenly lost it all in one inning. But I suppose at least he didn’t miss anything.

Ugh, a Sox loss and a Yankee win. Got to be one of the best games Jose Contreras ever pitched against the Sox - I did love to see him get beat up by the Sox when he was a Yankee.

Watching this disaster of a ballgame (thus far - you would’ve thought facing a righty would be good for the Sox), I’ve been contemplating the truly awful White Sox broadcasters. I’ll ignore that silly “He gone” strikeout call - I understand people sometimes feel they have to have a gimmick phrase - but if this is what Chicagoland gets to watch, I’m beginning to see why the White Sox have always been the poorer sister in terms of Chicagoland support.

When was the last time the two Sox teams met and both were in first place? Well, this was probably one of the best games of the season. Curt Schilling gave up the tying run, but Manny got a second chance from Crede’s dropped ball and punished the White Sox. And then Curt’s splitter was back on form in the 9th for the vultured win.

Chad Finn had a picture of this old baseball card of Alan Embree on his blog: From the looks of it, Embree grew up in the 50s, and probably enjoyed many malts at the soda fountain and cut a rug at the hop.

It’s a good thing Clement wasn’t named to the Supreme Court, it’s his turn in the rotation. Okay, so Edith and Matt are two very different people, but one thing her name popping up did lead to was a random Slate Explainer column on how to pronounce her last name, which reminded me of how after the Sox signed Clement I couldn’t remember for a while whether he was a CLE-ment or a Cle-MENT.

The Sox mauled Mark Hendrickson so badly in the first inning - 5 ER and not a single out recorded - that I actually felt bad for the tall guy. Then the camera panned to Sweet Lou Piniella, and I didn’t feel so bad about the Sox dismantling the Rays.

Tim Kurkjian writes about how Johnny Damon’s recently-ended 29-game hitting streak is perhaps not getting the respect it deserves: To appreciate 29 in a row, understand that Lou Gehrig never hit safely in 20 straight games, Ted Williams’ longest streak was 23 and Babe Ruth’s ended at 26. The longest streaks of two of the best hitters of the last 50 years, Tony Gwynn and Wade Boggs, were 25 and 28 games, respectively.

So - really nice play by Alex Cora with the diving stop on what looked like a base hit, and then the throw to John Olderdude (one of my favourite new nicknames) to get the out. Still, my memory of Cora is that he’s always looked lost at the plate, which I suppose is why Tony Graffanino is on his way to town. The funny part of reading the news of all the trades after the game was realising I hadn’t even blinked about Adam Hyzdu being in the game - totally consider Hyzdu part of the Sox organisation, even if he was with the San Diego ‘farm team’. It’s interesting how Theo loves to trade with the Padres, all that institutional history and connections from his stint there I presume.

Scott Kazmir always seems to dominate the Sox. Totally wild, but that slider of his seems to fool a lot of the Sox lineup. Bleah. And Damon lost his hitting streak, more’s the pity.

Somehow, the idea of the Gawker folks playing softball against the Onion crew is amusing to me. Perhaps because I would like to see the Onion actually report on the game.

Yes, I watched supposedly washed-up Al Leiter methodically plow through the Sox lineup, while the ESPN announcers gushed over his “revitalisation”. No, I didn’t really feel like writing about it. Hey, it’s just one game. But one ugly game to watch.

The Sox had him. Clawing back so they were only down 6-4, they had Randy Johnson on the ropes. And a nice hit comes in, and everyone was clearly running on Bernie Williams’ noodle arm, and then… Sveum puts on the stop sign? Ridiculous.