Sports Writing

Ack - maybe I really shouldn’t have jinxed things by posting! But groan - what a terrible series. Strangely, my feeling is, a la Leopold Bloom, equanimity. Equipoise. And some worry about Manny’s back. The offense’s lack of production is offensive. Or should that be unoffensive?

Pat Murphy tells hilarious stories about Dustin Pedroia, particularly his cocksure nature: I kid with him and ask him if he’s seen a pitcher that’s any good since he was up there, and he’s just like ‘nah’ I said c’mon there’s got to be at least a closer or two whose [expletive] is nasty right?’ He’ll just say ‘nah.’ His buddy Travis Buck hit that home run off Jonathan Papelbon up at Fenway Park earlier this season and he’s just the opposite of Pedro.’ He told me that he couldn’t believe he hit it and he said he’s up there and his knees are shaking and he can’t even believe he’s in the game against Mariano Rivera or Papelbon. You ask Pedro how their [expletive] is and he’ll just say that those guys suck and that they’re terrible. He’ll say they all throw terrible.

The Sox spanked the Southside Sox over the weekend, and I was half afraid to blog about it, fears of jinxing and all. So now that that’s over, and I can luxuriate in the 16-0 Tiger thrashing of the toothless Yankees… it’s a great day.

(Okay, I’m following an American sport but I’ll still spell titbit the British way.) I have to say, it was pretty cool that the Brewers were roughing the Dbacks up so badly that the DBacks used a pitcher as a pinch-hitter (the mighty Micah Owings for Doug Davis) and a pinch-hitter as a pitcher (Cirillo in the 9th). This game of baseball thrills me randomly sometimes.

And Wakefield continues to roll against Tampa (19-2 lifetime) while for the first time I can ever recall the Sox actually hit Scott Kazmir. Bloody brilliant game, with the Yankees gutpunch loss (despite Bootcheck’s best efforts) the icing on the cake. As Andrew Ridgely might say, welcome to Club Tropicana…

Stumbled upon Rich Lederer’s blog post on the very deserved induction of Bill James into the Baseball Reliquary’s Shrine of the Eternals, and there were these comments by James on the Sox:

Eric Gagne. Eric “merde!” Gagne. I have to say, I’ve been to Montreal. It’s a wonderful city. I love poutine. The Arcade Fire are a great band and a great live show. But what the hell, Monsieur Gagne? The Sox come roaring back 5-4, and then you go and let in 3 gut-punch runs.

Now that’s what I call coming back - Jon Lester pitches great, fellow cancer survivor Mike Lowell ties the game, Gagne comes back from the wilderness, and then Coco gets a Crisp single. Against Al Reyes, who is forever on the hate list for what he did to Nomar. Game of the month, and possibly of the year.

Sean Forman at Baseball Reference gets his props. As he should - the site is amazing. (Oh, and he’s a Sox fan.)

It’s weird just hearing how loud the cheers are for the Sox at Camden Yards. But anyway - yesterday’s game was utterly disappointing, with Gagne melting down. Ick. And there I was thinking the trade was a steal for the Sox. Hopefully it’s just a one-off thing. Today’s was better, but still, all those people on base…

Am writing this from Sydney, where football is Aussie rules and the England-India test seems to always be on the telly… but what a great victory - over the Indians, and over cancer - to watch. If he can live up to even half of the hype around him a couple of years back, he’ll be great to have on the team.

The Willie Mays bit in the car was great. The Ichiro inside-the-parker even better. Just when you thought you’d seen it all. Meanwhile I want a freak storm to blow in and take Eric Byrnes out to the middle of the Pacific, where he and his dog are joined by a talking tiger named Pete Rose who promptly eats Byrnes and carries on a long fabulistic conversation with the dog.

Jumpin’ sturgeons. Somehow this reminded me of those scenes in Asterix comics where fish fights broke out…

Managed to catch Lugo’s 2-run single. Will wonders never cease? But I suppose everything has a precursor - I was already encouraged yesterday when Lugo had the walks and the successful sac bunt… now a 2-hit game.

Scoring from 2nd on a wild pitch? Wow.

Fortunately, one can find solace in schadenfreude at the current Yankee decrepititude. Proctor’s on fire! Or just his equipment…

Two close games thus far, both frustrating to watch - where in the world have the Sox bats gone? I mean, when a winning run comes from the fact that Ortiz (very smartly) held up long enough to avoid the tag, that’s not good… the Sox are eking runs out. And yes, Gagne’s Bugs Bunny changeup still looks good, but still, the 5-4 loss was a desolate loss. Normally I’m so full of hope in 9th innings in Fenway, but doubts seem to have clawed their way into my usual optimism…

Question: if “J. D. Drew” stands for “David Jonathan Drew”, does that mean he gets BRIs instead of RBIs? Better to ponder these questions rather than the endless frustrations of the Seattle games.

Damn, Julian Tavarez’s excellent June couldn’t quite continue - and Mike Timlin looks like he needs to be put out to pasture. Maybe to reach his coveted 1000 appearances the Sox could just put him in to deliver IBBs when the game situation called for them.

When I first started following the Sox religiously I absolutely loved the Rod Beck - El Guapo middle relief part of the bullpen, and I still think fondly of it. Beck - such a character (the whole “living in his RV by the ballpark” thing just added to his eccentricity), and died way too young. Only 38? He already seemed 38 in ‘01. RIP, Shooter.