Sports Writing

From Peter Gammons’ new column: the Yanks’ front office was furious during their playoff series at the complaints filed by Boston with the Commissioner’s Office for things like Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez getting radar readings from the stands.

There’s living and breathing the Sox while I was in Boston. And then there are the entirely frivolous reasons I like the Sox: Only semblance of South-East Asian lineage in an MLB team that I know of (Johnny Damon).

The folks at Baseball Prospectus think that Damon should have won the Gold Glove, based on runs above average (8). Also notes the fact that he had the most putouts of centre fielders in the AL this year. Seems to go with what I think: Damon has a weak arm, but is otherwise a good defender. Sure would be more deserved than Jeter’s Gold Glove…

In a more light-hearted vein, ESPN also has an article on the Sox free agent class of ‘04, largely focused on Lowe and Varitek. Tek wants to stay, which is encouraging:

ESPN has an article on the final hours of Ken Caminiti. Sad reading. Although the possibility of a link between steroids and heart attacks was the first thing on a lot of people’s minds, it seems quite clear that it wasn’t the steroids that killed him: it was a pattern of drug abuse.

Apologies for the lack of updates. Was busy looking at the elections and with work, plus I’m guessing bloggers are going nuts since it takes forever to access Blogger. But on baseball, two things: Gammons back on the Globe is a welcome sight, even if only for a chat. And, sadly, the Yankees seem to have realised that Mel Stottlemyre is not a good pitching coach. Dang!

One thing about the Sox pitching in the World Series is that it became an “anything you can do I can do better” rotation, which was killer. Schilling goes 6 innings with 1 unearned run and the Sox let in 2 runs? Fine, Pedro will go 7 shutout innings with 0 runs and the Sox will let in 1. Really? Then Lowe’s going to pitch 7 shutout and the Sox will shut the Cards out. Pujols, Rolen, and Edmonds were anemic throughout. Wait a minute… does this mean the end of the famed Sports Illustrated curse in favour of a new ESPN: The Magazine curse (the trio appeared on the cover of the Sep 27 issue - sadly, can’t find a pic yet)?

In honour of the 2004 World Champions, I’m holding a one-man parade in Singapore. All Sox players welcome.

The New York Daily News has a good article on the Sox being the first so-called “Moneyball” team to win it all. Good in that it actually points out that Moneyball isn’t just playing for high OBP.

“Someone said this is the biggest thing to happen in New England since the Revolution.” - John Henry (Link) Boy, New Englanders love their soccer team. :)

Apparently Schilling was shilling for Bush in Ohio today, while the ownership and Theo went to a Kerry campaign stop. I’m not an American, so I’ll stay out of the general favouring of either side, but would Schilling really have that big an impact in Ohio? (As opposed to, say, Pennsylvania, since he was a Philly, or Arizona, or New Hampshire.) I guess we’ll see soon. Just interested as an electoral politics spectator.

Bill Belichick discusses the World Series win. I like how he talks about the spirit of the team, and then ends with the classic understatement that brings it back to the technicalities (“Plus they had a lot of guys that can hit, field and pitch. That helps too.”):

Pathetic. I would blame Matsui, who has motive (revenge for the Game 5 knockdown), but his arm’s not good enough. Heh.

Who the hell are all these Sox “fans” who are sorry to see the team win? Simmons has it right that it’s ridiculous to be a fan who wallows in misery.

So, for that part of the parade where the Duck Boats entered the water, why didn’t Johnny Damon just walk on water?

Watching the parade live via MLB.com. Still can’t quite believe it. Manny’s sign in the picture (“Jeter is playing golf today. This is better”) is great.

So the Sox have picked up Bill Mueller’s option. I like the move. Shows that even in seeming post-Series euphoria Theo and co are getting back into business. And a man who chooses to spend his professional career playing for the Giants, Cubs, and the Sox, three championship-starved franchises in a row, is certainly not someone who was looking for glory. And yet he found it.

The New York Times has more pifaffle on how us Sox fans are supposedly all empty inside now that the Sox have won it all. Who are these heartbroken fans they found? And how could Leslie Epstein - father of Theo - further such a myth?

Newseum has a collection of front pages featuring the Sox. No front pages here in Singapore, besides on the International Herald Tribune, but Today gave two-page coverage, which is the most I’ve ever seen of baseball. There’s something about these Sox that’s captivating.

Playing “eat your words” is fun! Here’s an extract from the New York Daily News, back in 2003: Francona will be officially named the new Boston manager on Tuesday and all you can say to that is: Will the Red Sox ever get it? Francona is a nice guy (what was it Leo Durocher said about them?), very personable and undoubtedly a willing advocate of Sabermatics [sic], which the Red Sox brass has made a primary requisite for its manager. The players all liked him in Philadelphia. They just didn’t play for him, and anyone who was around the Phillies those four years will attest to Francona being in severely over his head. (“Boston’s making a Terry big mistake”)