Sports Writing

Finally, a run… then the tying run… and Smoltz out in the 5th inning.

Watched parts of Pedro’s start in this cybercafe, now catching the Sox game. Stupid me forgot to update my fantasy team, and now Clement is on the bench for my team - although being 2-0 down is really frustrating. Just checked in the commercials… As usual, the Mets bullpen just cost Pedro a win.

Man, when I saw the score on CNN Europe’s little scrolling bar, I immediately thought, “Sox 4, Braves 3 - sounds like Foulke gave up a few near the end”… fortunately he only almost took the loss, and almost only counts in horseshoes and handgrenades…

Cesar Crespo did win something last season… Baseball Prospectus’ DiSar Award, going to the player who goes longest into the season without drawing a walk. 79 ABs, and he never drew a walk. I guess that’s something to ponder when thinking about Renteria’s poor season thus far, or even Vazquez’s play.

I’m not so worried that David Wells is fat. He’s always been fat and an effective pitcher, and while many like to think we need players who look like Men’s Health cover models, I’m not so convinced about that for pitchers. I am worried that he’s 42, and 42 seems to be an age where even hitherto-effective players fall off a cliff - Willie Mays comes to mind.

… congrats to Manny on homer #400. May he hit many more for the Sox. … what is with Trot’s leg injury? Worries me. Can we experiment with Trot at DH and Ortiz at 1st occasionally?

Ron Santo, Bert Blyleven, Dick Allen, Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Ted Simmons. Just a thought.

Damn. Sounds like I missed a hell of a game. Wade Miller’s comeback is just about as expected - last week I predicted to a buddy 5IP, 2ER, which was what we saw. Sounds like he’s still got stuff, but it’s not totally sharp.

Ja, ich bin jetzt in ein neue Stadt… just touched down in Bonn, where I’ll be attending an environmental conference for the next few days. Since my hotel room doesn’t have the Internet, posting might be a bit intermittent for the next week or so (am typing this from a cybercafe). My apologies.

Well… um… Bellhorn hit his first homer today. Always look on the bright side of life… *whistles* And Trot Nixon had some really spectacular looking catches. Always look on the bright side of life… *whistles*

I’ve just been informed that, sadly, worldbaseballclassic.com has already been taken - if you look up Register.com’s database, it notes that MLB registered it on Mar 8, 2005. (Link) So the name of the tournament was in place a while ago. Some enterprising guy has registered mlbworldbaseballclassic.com already though, under the name “Yellowdog Design”, as the Whois info shows.

No real time to blog about it as much as I would like, given that I’m in the midst of changing jobs and prepping for a conference, but the fact that the Baseball World Cup is finally seeing shape (albeit as the “World Baseball Classic”) is awesome to me. Interesting bits from that article:

I should note just how good Johnny Damon’s play has been lately, despite all the mumblings and grumblings about his media-hogging. Personally, I don’t think Damon’s off-field activities are any worse than in previous years, only that the Sox championship made them more prominent. So if he could hit then, he can hit now. And boy, can he hit.

Another day, another ritual abuse of Octavio Dotel. Of course, this time round it could be just payback for the As’ abuse of Keith “What The” Foulke at the top of the inning - very few wins are as undeserved as the “win” you get for giving up 4 runs in an inning.

What a great, great shot for redemption for Kevin Millar. All those fielding gaffes - although as Remy pointed out in the broadcast, the runs probably would’ve scored anyway - erased with one swing of the bat. Clearly he’s getting on one of his hot streaks.

Apparently “Tiger” Wang’s appearance on the Yankee rotation has gotten a lot of publicity in Taiwan (see this Taiwanese Sox blogger’s entry, if you read Chinese). It’s pronounced “Wong”, which hasn’t stopped a million bad Wang jokes… so someday soon we’ll probably see this news story:

Slate has an article that tries to reverse the public perception of Selig: “Bud Selig - A Baseball Hero”. And Selig has taken a step toward enhanced competition by overseeing the creation of an effective, if imperfect, system for transferring money from rich teams to poor ones. This year, for example, the Yankees were forced to pay more than $60 million dollars to other teams as part of a revenue-sharing agreement and an additional $25 million tax to the sport based on their huge payroll. The system has flaws—some small-market teams have an incentive to stay bad so they can continue to rake in George Steinbrenner’s dollars—but it’s a big step toward greater parity among teams. In addition, Selig has written rules limiting the amount of debt, compared with cash flow, that a team can carry. This is a huge hindrance to the Yankees, the sport’s behemoth, who carry a heap of fat, long-term contracts. It’s probably the reason the team has scrub infielder Tony Womack in their outfield instead of the studly Carlos Beltran, and it helps to explain why it looks like another team might win the Yanks’ division next fall, for the first time in eight years.

Well, after he lost a homer to the wind yesterday and his homer today, it seems Millar has rediscovered his power. Whew. I had to miss the bottom of the 7th inning, thanks to the phenomenon known as “going to work”, so I missed the 7-run inning. Feels like I’ve seen very few blowouts this year, actually.

Another point about the second game: it was funny to see Mueller, Miller, and Millar at 3B, P, and 1B. How many variations of that name do the Sox want to accumulate? Does Freddie Muller have any descendants who, like him, could be a Sox 2B? Does Phil Meeler have any baseball-playing relatives? Can we sign Chad Moeller?

When they do the double dutch that’s them dancing… So the Sox split the doubleheader with Seattle, no thanks to the bad luck for Cla Meredith on his big league debut… Meredith having given up the wind-aided grand slam. Can’t they be like track and field records and not count hits if the wind’s above a certain speed? Heh. Still, I like Cla’s callup, and his attitude towards being inserted in a big spot is great: