Sports Writing

Random bit of trivia that I found interesting: the Washington Nationals employ more players born outside the United States (16) than any other team in the major leagues (from Jayson Stark’s column).

Manny with the Granny! Good to see the hitting machine get his two homers… now he’s at 18 career grand slams - Lou Gehrig has the record with 23. Of course, the grand slam record is kind of a weird one: it needs a confluence of factors, mostly chances - clearly, if you hit 3rd, you’re never going to get a chance for one in your first at-bat in every game, and so you need to depend on #8 and #9 guys being good at getting on-base. Having Mark Bellhorn, the latter-day Eddie Joost, at #9 - perhaps MLB’s best #9 hitter - really helps Manny’s cause.

Here’s a new sign in the right field seats at Fenway. I like the “attempt to” in the sign - targets all the bozos reaching over the right-field wall, not just those who end up fighting with players. Still, I think it would be cooler if fans were ejected via an ejection seat, flung in the air over the monster. I suppose that’s more far-fetched than bringing back the bullpen car, but still…

Okay, those of you who had David Wells throwing 7 shutout innings, raise your hands? Any takers? I thought not. One good sign was that Wells wasn’t walking anyone, which is his signature style. Unlike Nomo, which is sad - I always have fond memories of the Nomo No-No for the Sox and his complete game against Baltimore. Oh well. It was like a Sox reunion, what with Fossum coming on in relief of Nomo.

Trot Nixon’s in for a very rough series next game at Yankee Stadium. Oh, and I might as well drag up an old Sheffield diary from Jim Caple… not as good as the famous “Dougie goes deep” one.

Two very distinct pitching styles at the start and at the end today. I have to say, Randy Johnson has looked less than stellar on his return to the AL - whereas last year he pitched great but had his W-L record screwed over by a crappy team, this year thus far he’s been saved the blushes by a good-hitting lineup. Of course, he has faced what I’d consider 2 of the 3 best lineups in the leagues, the Sox and the Orioles, but still, an ERA of over 5 was probably not what Steinbrenner was looking for.

The New York Times, in talking about the Yankees hiring a sports psychologist, somehow manages to add to the “Gary Sheffield is a prick” perception: … Sheffield said he once tried using a mental coach and discovered that it did not help him.

I was quite moved by this personal essay of Bill Pulsipher’s over at ESPN… with the resurgence of Jason Isringhausen as a closer in the 2000s and Paul Wilson’s adequate performances, I always did wonder what happen to the other kid in Generation K. Turns out Pulsipher battled depression for years, even giving up on baseball, before making it back to the bigs (where, sadly, a hamstring strain may have affected his chances). The story is well worth reading - and if it sounds like you, or someone you know, please, get help.

The multitudes of fans cheering for Lowe in the Sox opener (that whole “controversy” about wearing the Sox jersey was ridiculous) reminded me of how the LA Times reported that Lowe had a warm reception in Florida in spring from grateful Sox fans. (Ugh, the link I have to the article seems to have expired.)

In Erik Siegrist’s article in Baseball Prospectus on divisional park factors (link is subscriber-only), he notes how the parks in various divisions in the aggregate have certain characteristics. Given that half of road games tend to come against divisional rivals, it makes it clear that pitchers in the NL East have a great advantage… what surprised me (and Siegrist himself) was that the AL West parks as a group boost power, despite the presence of Safeco and Edison Field. Great for the Mariner hitters in my fantasy teams I guess…

Caught some of this game as I was prepping for work. Giving up two homers to Giambi and Williams - ugh. Schould Schilling schtill have been out there in the 6th to begin with? Just as I was thinking 100+ pitches sounded like a lot for a guy coming off an injury and making his first regular season start in a while, Giambi bashed the ball.

Looking through the MLB Auctions site, there’s a lot of interesting knick-knacks and tchotchkes. Now if only I had $5000 to spend on a pitching rubber signed by Pedro and Schilling and others… or a base signed by the team.

Just watched the ring ceremony. Great stuff. Nice to see everyone back in Sox gear - Dave Roberts, Derek Lowe, even Curtis Leskanic (retiring as a world champ - that’s sweet).

I love the knuckleball. It just looks so soft when it comes to the plate, floating there, inviting people to hit it, before darting out of the way. And I have a theory that says it especially frustrates great sluggers, who get all excited about hitting the deceptive pitch: it’s like some kind of baseball jujitsu, using the strength of the mashers against themselves.

Carl Pavano and Derek Lowe went down today, struck by line drives. Pavano’s injury was particularly scary - I can’t see anything like that without thinking of Bryce Florie. While I don’t like the Yankees, I hope he’s okay. These things can leave one very tentative. Guess Mariano had the right idea with those face masks.

So two great vets Pedro and Smoltz went at it today, with Pedro going the distance I guess that’s one way to get away from having to deal with the Mets bullpen. And Smoltz’s 15Ks in 8 innings was pretty spectacular too - sounds like he could’ve gone for the old Satchel Paige trick of sitting the fielders down and just striking out the side.

So Theodore Roosevelt Lilly stymied the Sox again, it seems, only allowing 1 run to them. At least Renteria looked decent. Why was Timlin on instead of Foulke at the bottom of the 9th? I know it’s conventional wisdom to use the set-up guys in a tie game, but still, seemed like a high-leverage situation. Oh well, I suppose Timlin was lucky to get the win back in Game 3, and karma came back to bite.

I’ve just finished my Neuro-Vision treatment, which is this non-surgical procedure where you basically train your brain to improve its recognition of shapes. So now I’m down to 20/20 vision, whereas previously I was at roughly 20/60. Which is cool, but I was thinking about this in the context of Bret Boone getting Lasik - would be interesting to see whether it helped him any, although Matthew Namee’s study last year seemed to indicate that eye surgery improves BA and power, but not on-base percentage, and the effects aren’t big. Weird. That would mean better vision helps you hit harder and better, but has no effect on strike zone recognition.

Over at Goat Riders of the Apocalypse, a Cubs blog (pretty obviously), Evan Brunell guest-blogs on why Theo Epstein is the best GM in baseball.

Boy, those back-to-back-to-back homers really came so quickly it was hard to know what was happening. But I’m not really panicking about David Wells yet - he was starting to look sharp when Mills inexplicably pulled him. Blaine seems more suited for a career in hairstyling than major league pitching at this point in time.