Sports Writing

Stupid Vernon Wells. Stupid Corey Koskie. Edit: Stupid Shea Hillenbrand. Edit #2: David Ortiz needs a square in Boston named after him.

If you’re interested in the upcoming changes to Fenway, SABR’s new Business of Baseball site has details of the proposed renovations, including some lovely architectural renderings. It makes for an interesting comparison with the proposed changes to Wrigley Field - they’re the two oldest parks in baseball, and thus very integrated with their neighbourhoods, for better (urban life) or worse (space constraints).

Just installed Nice Titles on this blog, and while doing so trimmed the blogroll… if I inadvertently removed your blog or site, please inform me! Thanks.

Pictures of the Sox World Champion rings are in this SoSH thread. Wow.

So, apparently the closers in MLB have been instructed to make games more exciting. LaTroy Hawkins blows the save against the Brewers, and then Foulke gives up 2 before recording the 3rd out. Whew. Fortunately, a win is a win, and almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

Old news by now, but here’s a Boston Herald interview with Pedro - it’s a lot milder than the headline makes it out to be. Nothing really shocking: he misses Boston, although he finds it more peaceful without the scrutiny; no love lost with management, but he understands giving the money to Varitek; still loyal to his former teammates. Of course, the New York Post promptly took one quote out of context and turned it into a “Pedro doesn’t want the ring!” scandal. Yawn.

Chris Snow in the Globe had a good article a couple of days back on how changing leagues can affect pitchers. Brought up a good point from Bill James that while pitchers tend to do well upon changing leagues, you can’t attribute that purely to the well-known fact that the senior circuit is easier to pitch in thanks to the pitcher having to bat, but also to the fact that pitchers tend to switch leagues after poor seasons:

Is it weird that Jason Giambi’s current hitting line reads: .143/.455/.143? Batting 1 for 7, with 1 walk… and 3 HBP. Stop crowding the plate!

For sale, one closer, already OWNED.

Took this off Boston Sports Media Watch - thanks to TLL. Of course, A-Rod has a knack for inserting himself into controversy, as Ken Rosenthal notes:

3 harmless fly-outs, Keith Foulke style. Sox win the series, 1-2. :) Time for the play of the game:

Damn it. How the hell am I supposed to sleep when the game’s this good. Rivera looks like he was battling something - his control was nowhere. Injured, or were the Sox just in his head? Walks, wild pitches, dribblers… nice way to respond to them taking the lead in a no-hit inning.

The Sox are 2-1 up, Wakefield seems to be getting the knuckler nicely over (Tony Womack looked really fooled at the at bat), and Bernie Williams can’t play centre. And it’s 2.15am on a worknight, and I must sleep… how annoying.

Word has it that Terry Francona has been taken to the hospital with chest pains. I wish him all the best. Here’s an article from the Arizona Daily Star on Francona’s former medical woes:

All right, time to report to the Tobin Bridge. Will someone buy me a plane ticket? More seriously, while the end result was disappointing, at least it’s nice to know the Sox have Rivera’s number.

Was reading a Q&A with Will Carroll on SoSH, this time on performance-enhancing drugs. One constant theme throughout the interview is that while steroids are the current focus, a lot of drug use in the majors may be in the area of wakefulness and focus, including ADHD drugs like Ritalin and uppers/greenies. Plus there’s the “legit upper” of caffeine, of course - drinking 7 cups of joe a game, that sort of thing. It’s interesting how outrage against PEDs has always focused on things that enhance strength rather than things that keep you alert - beyond the grandstanding of politicians, it’s interesting to ask why people feel like one is cheating, but the other not so much.

Watched the Mets-Reds game. How familiar it all seems: Pedro scuffles in the 1st inning, then settles into a groove, then has his chance for a win blown by the bullpen. When he was on, it was scary: fastballs setting up pinpoint breaking pitches. 100 double-digit strikeout games in what, 10 years? Ten 10-K games a year. That’s ludicrous.

So the first PED suspension is in, and it goes to noted slugger Alex Sanchez, he of the 2 home-run, .386 slugging season. Boy, if those were steroids he was taking, I’d hate to imagine how hard he’d hit the ball without them.

So the Sox lost on Opening Day again… I’m not too worried, since they’ve lost every opening day from 2001 (in 2000, Pedro got the win in an amazing start to his amazing season), and thus far the 21st century has been fairly kind to them (and not as kind to the Yankees). Poor appearances by Blaine Neal, John Halama, and Matt Mantei, not to mention David “Fat Bastard” Wells. Oh well. What cheered me up was the arrival of Tom Gordon in the 9th. If Joe Torre wants to burn through his best relievers in what was then an 8-run game, this bodes well for the latter part of the season.

Slate has a piece on cheerleaders in baseball. They still seem sacrilegious to me, but the less-hidebound-to-tradition expansion teams of California, Florida, and Canada seem A-OK with it (the pic up there is one of the Blue Jays’ 2002 J-Cru dancers, now renamed the “J Force”) - the Padres, Marlins, and Blue Jays all have some sort of dancing support, apparently.