Sports Writing

Okay, I may be a rabid Sox fan, but a 2.05am Monday morning start would really screw me over for work, plus the last time I stayed up it didn’t work out so well Sox-wise. So all I have to go on are the game highlights on MLB.tv and reports. But if sleeping through the games means 11-4 spankings of the Yankees, then rest away I will. Curt: always as good as his word. Kevin Brown: not so great. I’m looking at the scars on my once-shattered hand as I type this and thinking, it’s going to take forever for Brown to recover. Loaiza’s not looking much better. Meanwhile, I’m really loving the Sox piling it on… just because Roberts was in for Manny didn’t seem to make him feel like he had to be an automatic out. Great stuff. And goodbye, Ellis Burks.

As I was asking a friend, how does any work get done in Boston in September or October? Great offensive explosion, love to see the dagger stuck in. 7 runs! Amazing. I love the bottom of this order: Mirabelli, the OC, and Mueller: leaves no rest for the wicked. We’ve been seeing a lot of the “good hitter gets on base, good runner/defensive man pinch-runs” in late innings (Reese for Bellhorn and Kapler for Nixon today) and I think that’s a testament to the depth of the roster Theo Epstein assembled. And Foulke got back to form, killing them softly with his change.

If I stand all alone, will the shadow hide the color of my heart (blue for the tears, black for the night’s fears) And the stars in the sky don’t mean nothin’ to you, they’re a mirror.

Salon.com has an excerpt from One Day at Fenway, Steve Kettmann’s book covering the Aug 30, 2003 Sox-Yankees game at Fenway from different perspectives. (Yes, it’s the one for which Rob Neyer wrote a review under a fake name.) It’s excerpted from the epilogue, and at least judging by the excerpt it’s certainly not horrible writing, despite Neyer’s views. I like this quote:

Clay Davenport updates the methodology of the Baseball Prospectus playoff odds Monte Carlo simulation: The Pythagorean record turns out to almost always be a better predictor than the actual record, but its advantage steadily declines with every game played, until actual record becomes a better predictor after 140 games.

Ah, the depleted bullpen got to the Sox today, as Tito was forced to use Adams, Mendoza, Myers, and BK. Sure, Adams did a serviceable job, but you just know that that’s not the cream of the bullpen and pushing them four in a row is really throwing the dice. Still, the Sox almost clinched a 3rd improbable victory, until Newhan intervened to catch Ortiz’s long fly. Did I mention how much I can’t stand Newhan? Ever since that inside-the-parker he hit.

Hmm. Predictions of an elite pitching matchup in the previous game failed to materialise, but heck, I’m keeping this going since the Sox are winning. Daniel Cabrera vs Lowe, a sort of blah matchup - I admit I don’t know much about Cabrera, but looking at his game log he seems very average. Hardly goes above 6 innings, and occasionally implodes. I really hope it doesn’t come down to the bullpens today anymore: I want Lowe to dominate as he did for a lot of the 2nd half until the Yankee game, and I want O-Cab to run the D-Cab out of town.

The homer was Cabrera’s first at Fenway Park. And he found himself trying to keep his pants on amid the victory scrum at home plate as someone - he thinks it was Manny Ramirez - tried to pull a prank during the celebration. (Link)

Whew. It’s 11.30am, and I’m spent. That whole 12th inning was a heartstopper: 1st and 2nd, no outs, and then the HUGE double play. Then Orlando Cabrera makes himself a Boston folk hero - comes back from being with his wife in surgery, launches a walkoff shot. One thing I like about our ‘defensive’ team compared to what Francona had at the start of the season: Cabrera-Reese-Mientkiewicz is not just pure Gold Glove, but can occasionally, like today, hit some. Remember the hapless flailing of Reese-Gutierrez-McCarty? You need defense, but not at the expense of giving up 3 outs in the lineup. So Foulke blew the save, he’ll bounce back like he did from July. I was just freakin’ scared that Kim would come in and get eaten by the wolves if he flubbed it up. Francona, Francona - pinch-running Roberts, pinch-hitting Mirabelli, putting in Mientkiewicz for Millar. It may not all have worked, but he left the Sox in a position to win a tie game, which is more than one can say about some Sox managers past.

Sir Sidney Ponson may have a 5+ ERA over the season, but he’s been hot the last 3 games, particularly that 2-hit complete game against the Yankees (the one where Rivera imploded). Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Bronson Arroyo has been not too shabby himself, posting a 2.29 ERA over the last 3 games. Good matchups, and Arroyo will probably want to get revenge for his sole pitiful outing against the Orioles where he let in 5 runs in relief… It won’t be as tight as yesterday, but it’ll be good, and the Sox will win in the end.

Tim Wakefield has been struggling of late, but he’s still one of the game’s good guys, and is currently the team’s nominee for the Roberto Clemente award: Before every Tuesday game at Fenway Park, the “Wakefield Warriors” – patients at the Franciscan Hospital for Children – are the knuckelballer’s guests. He takes them on the field during batting practice, maybe autographs a souvenir, or introduces them to some teammates, and then they stay for the game. (Link)

Wow. When I was writing my preview, I had the premonition that this game would be won and lost by the bullpens. I just didn’t realise it would be bottom-of-the-9th, 2-out heroics. Next time I get gut feelings like that, I’m printing them. Now, who thinks Bellhorn Ks too much? He’s one shy of the strikeout record (Butch Hobson had 162 in 1977), but that just means he works the counts and gets the OBP… heck, you can’t be a truly awful hacker to get a strikeout record, because the manager would’ve yanked you from the lineup long beforehand.

Over at Bronx Banter, there’s an interview with Pat Jordan, the baseball writer. Yeah, it’s a Yankee site interviewing a Yankee fan, but Alex Belth is a good baseball writer, and there’s a great quote on Roger Clemens:

Right now, just seeing the Orioles on the schedule has me weary. Excluding Rafael Palmeiro, who at least hits the Yankees hard, they’re all on the hit list (I’m opting for the candlestick in the conservatory). I really want the Expos to move to RFK to annoy Peter Angelos.

Isn’t this a really weird pic of Johan Santana to use in an article about him? Makes his left arm look as big as the rest of his body. No wonder he’s the Cy frontrunner.

You know, there are two kinds of sports-team hate: I hate the Yankees, but they’re a good team that plays us hard. Then there’s the Orioles, who play us tough and then all but play dead for the Yankees. Without them, we’d have the AL East lead. Oh well. They’re not going to be in the playoffs. And Wakefield’s chances of seeing a playoff start seem to be slip-sliding away.

Sigh. Shell-shocked. But this year has been weird: every time either the Sox or the Yankees suffer what should be a crushing loss, such as when each team swept the other or when the Yankees lost to Cleveland or Kansas City, the teams bounce back. Got to put the past out of your mind, got to move on. Learning to cope with baseball is like taking lithium: it mellows your highs, it tempers your lows.

If you needed proof of Barry Bonds’ towering greatness in this game. Jayson Stark supplies a stat: Even if he had zero hits this year (i.e., subtract his hit total from times on base), Bonds still would have a higher on-base percentage (.378) – just counting his walks – than Juan Pierre (.373), Vladimir Guerrero (.377), David Ortiz (.373), Milton Bradley (.363) or Rafael Furcal (.352). Among about 600 others. (Link)

Yup, it’s true, the Yankees do [inhale]. Or maybe Derek Lowe just blew today. Pity we had to use our bullpen so much today, though. Jon Lieber and El Duque are the two best Yankee pitchers now (who would have thought it at the start of the season?) so I’m glad we got a split from the two games. 1-1 now; Pedro for the rubber game. That’s good.

Tech stuff: I’m moving my hosting server, so now the URL of this site is http://www.singaporesoxfan.com instead of http://www.dsng.net/singaporesoxfan.php. Links to the old URL should work. And a bone of baseball trivia: Boston has won all four starts by Arroyo against New York this year, but didn’t have a decision in any of them. So if Wakefield is a Yankee-killer, was does that make Bronson? A Yankee-bulwark, buttressing the Sox till they can feast on the Yankee bullpen?