Sports Writing

More to say on the SF Chronicle story on the Giambis: Agent Arn Tellem, who accompanied Giambi and his younger brother, Jeremy, to the grand jury, did not return calls seeking comment. Other efforts to reach the Giambis were unsuccessful.

Jeremy Giambi, that is. At least according to the SF Chronicle. Jason did too, apparently, but hey, us Sox fans have suspected that for a while. Jeremy Giambi, a former A’s outfielder who spent 2004 with the minor league Las Vegas 51s, also told the BALCO grand jury that he had injected banned drugs received from Anderson, according to a transcript of his testimony.

Trade rumours a-blazin’ about first the Yankees trading for Randy Johnson for a huge grabbag of players including Vazquez, and then pulling out. Dang. At one point, according to a baseball man familiar with the discussions, Arizona asked for Vazquez, Tom Gordon, pitcher Brad Halsey, several prospects and the cash to pay the salaries of both Vazquez and Gordon. The Yankees said: No thanks. (Jayson Stark article)

Not really Sox-related info, more a random link: Jeff Bagwell’s ex-wife had awful plastic surgery. I think it’s funny that a website dedicated to bad plastic surgery (the main page has a long not-safe-for-work discussion of just how bad Tara Reid’s boob job was) is rife with Google ads promoting plastic surgery.

The Sox give out the playoff shares. I thought the reports during the World Series said Nomar had been voted a full share, but apparently he only gets a 3/4 share. Youkilis, Hyzdu, all them rookies must see it as a nice bonus.

The Sox make 2 of ESPN Page 2’s “top 10 moves of 2004”, including #1 - a Sox grab bag of everything, which makes sense in a season where everything Theo, Tito, and the Sox brass did turned to gold. But it’s a nice spot to rehash yet another good Francona quote, on not replacing Bellhorn with Pokey in the ALCS:

Wow, the Nats already have a blog about them. And it’s pretty well-written too.

You can get on Friendster with Mark Bellhorn. Or a fake version of Mark Bellhorn, at least.

The Hall of Fame ballot is out, with the following names (an “x” means first time eligible): x-Jim Abbott, Bert Blyleven, x-Wade Boggs, x-Tom Candiotti, Dave Concepcion, x-Chili Davis, Andre Dawson, Steve Garvey, Rich Gossage, Tommy John, x-Mark Langston, Don Mattingly, x-Jack McDowell, x-Willie McGee, x-Jeff Montgomery, Jack Morris, Dale Murphy, x-Otis Nixon, Dave Parker, x-Tony Phillips, Jim Rice, Ryne Sandberg, Lee Smith, x-Terry Steinbach, x-Darryl Strawberry, Bruce Sutter, Alan Trammell.

Can you groom a baseball player by hothousing? The New York Times has an interesting article on how IMG Academies has extended its programmes from its famed tennis work to baseball and other team sports. The weird part is how far-reaching the programmes are:

Some thoughts on auction theory as it pertains to the bidding for Pedro (hey, I was an ec major, I might as well put it to some use). This was my post (in slightly modified form) on SoSH in response to another poster’s idea of requiring that all teams making contract offers to free agents to do so in writing to the player and the agent, in effect making all the various contracts being offered explicit rather than rumours:

When I saw the title of this NY Times article - Mets Top Red Sox in Offer to Martínez (registration required) - I was worried that the Mets had really gone to 4 years/$50 million. But the Mets’ offer is 3/$38, with a vesting option, which isn’t that far from the Sox’s 2/$25.5 with an easily-attained 3rd year. I think this is the point in the negotiations where Theo et al guarantee the 3rd year. At least, the Pedro fan in me hopes so.

“Collectively, the Sox were Sportsmen in the truest sense - professional, collegial, colorful athletes who were easy to root for.” (Link)

So it looks like Doug Mirabelli will be re-signing for the Sox for $1.5 million. Great deal for the best backup catcher in the business (not hard, admittedly, as Slate has pointed out - backup catchers are the slackers of MLB). I wonder whether Mirabelli was hurt by the perception that he’s a knuckleball catcher, since Wakefield’s the only competent knuckleballer in the majors. I can imagine other clubs going “yeah, I know it’s probably likely that Mirabelli’s passed balls are due to catching the knuckler, but I’m not sure I can afford to take the risk”.

Just discovered Sex and Sox, a blog by a woman who’s fascinated by both topics. (Okay, guys jealous of her boyfriend, form a line.) Makes me think of that old cliche about men thinking about baseball to, um, delay themselves. But given her passion for the Sox that probably wouldn’t work. Here’s her thoughts on Kapler leaving: “Too bad you never got to spank me for them.”

Dan Shaughnessy’s new book - The Legend of the Curse of the Bambino - is out soon. There’ll be a million books on the Sox after this magical year. Please don’t get this curse-perpetuating one.

Pruning my blogroll, and realised that one of the (formerly) linked blogs, Grumpy Sox Fan, only has one entry. Guess he had nothing left to be grumpy about.

Tales of Johnny Damon on a plane - with pics, even. From Boston Common.

Turns out the Piston fan who started the whole Ron Artest thing has a huge rap sheet, and may have been violating parole by being there.

I don’t know why, but the news that Nintendo has upped its stake in the Seattle Mariners amuses me greatly. I guess I just like the idea of Bret Boone striding to the plate accompanied by that famous duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh! theme to Super Mario Brothers. Or Ichiro’s stealing a base accompanied by the “boing” jumping sound.