Sports Writing

Bank of America now want to rename the Fleet Center, apparently. One thing about the Fleet Center, soulless as it could be, was that the name of the bank seemed to fit (fleet = athletic). At least it wasn’t as monstrous a name as SBC Park. (Although, again, sometimes it’s just the way the companies’ names sound: Pac Bell Park had a nice ring to it.)

More non-Sox baseball stuff: Alan Schwarz has an article on ESPN on pitch counts, something Sox fans have become obsessed with partly because of Pedro. I’m of the personal opinion that CGs are cool - and perhaps even cooler now that they’re so rare - but not necessarily worth the extra pitches both in terms of increased chances of letting in runs and in leading up to injury. But I’m with the Baseball Prospectus people (okay, Rany Jazayerli) in saying it’s pitch count, not days of rest, so I could see a 4-man rotation on strict pitch counts. Yeah, CGs are great, but with modern offense and the DH (surprisingly not mentioned in the article’s reasons for increased number of pitches per game) it’s hard to throw a 110-pitch CG these days. Am following the Rockies’ 4-man rotation experiment with interest. Heck, can’t be worse than their previous starting pitching.

Congrats to Manny for getting his US citizenship! Now come back and hit cleanup - the lineup misses you! Interesting that Ortiz isn’t a citizen. If/when the baseball World Cup is held, how will they determine country of eligibility? Does Manny play for the Dominican Republic, the US, or does he get to choose?

Incidentally, DiNardo’s 2 1/3 innings today could explain why it was Malaska on yesterday - saving DiNardo for long relief today given that Kim probably can’t make many pitches. Not sure if that’s right. On the good side, I noted Francona’s willingness not to put his whole trust in his own observations in this ESPN article:

Ick. Kim’s not quite all there today, is he? And the bullpen’s having a bit of an off-day. Good ol’ Lou Merloni though, nice that he’s trying to help his old team by grounding out in the 7th and even getting himself caught stealing in the 6th (although McCarty flubbed that one). What’s with a lineup with Millar in cleanup?

How do you solve a problem like Malaska? How do you make our Derek throw a strike? Can’t we use the pitcher from Alaska? No double-play grounder! The bases get cleared!

On other non-Sox baseball matters: why is it Bill James, Rob Neyer, and Rany Jazayerli, three of the most prominent sabermetricians, are all Kansas City fans? Back in college when I was studying urban economics we looked at agglomeration - how the act of gathering into cities can cause locales to sprout very specific industries (the button district in Manhattan), and perhaps this is an example of one…

Bleah. I hate posting on loss days.

Curt has his own take on throwing the CG on Sons of Sam Horn (his ID is gehrig38)… good to hear that Francona’s plan was to let him pitch but take him out as soon as someone got on. And I agree with the fan who said that better to let the pitcher get the CGs in a blowout (boosts the pitcher’s ego without straining him too much) rather than making him insist on staying in in close situations.

A multihomer game? Sitting on that fastball up and in, hitting it out of the park… who is this big-hitting man and what has he done with Pokey Reese? And can I just say I love inside-the-park homers? There’s something I find quite thrilling about the sprint to beat the throw home. Those weird bounces of Fenway’s right field are really doing the Sox good. Schilling got the CG with a great performance. 120 pitches isn’t too bad for him, but the paranoid Sox fan (is that tautological?) in me worries about his insistence on keeping the ball…

The Soxaholix ask, what’s up with Pedro and his homers this year, which made me think of an old Rany Jazayerli article in Baseball Prospectus on pitchers who’d given up more homers than walks… The article specifically mentions Schilling, but also notes how Robin Roberts, the all-time HR server, relied on his control to get himself into the HOF. So, as advanced here as in other places, maybe Pedro really is on his way to becoming a control pitcher, refusing to walk people but paying occasionally by surrendering (hopefully solo) shots. Having said that, the fastballs were in the 90s yesterday…

From the Hartford Courant, an unfortunate choice of words from Tek on Pedro’s performance: “After that,” catcher Jason Varitek said, “he was money.”

More on Spider-Man 2: Bases Loaded: I think the biggest turn-offs in the idea were the way MLB tried to present this as a way of attracting kids to the game (pathetic - if it’s all about the money, then say so - or do the execs really think this will attract people to baseball?), and the paltry sums every team got. Hell, even New York, biggest market around, would have gotten $100k. A-Rod probably makes that amount each time he sneezes. If the amount was closer to $10 million per team and small market teams got the same as big markets, then maybe fans could go, well, I don’t like these ads but they help KC keep Beltran. Right now it looks like MLB is trying to scrounge for every inch of advertising space without any thought for dignity. Bud Selig seems to keep finding ways to erode MLB’s brand value, to use corporate-speak. Now, if you put Selig’s photo on the bases and let people stomp on him on the way to first… Just imagine, major leaguers would never forget to tag, and players would have an incentive to perform the safer feet-first slide rather than risk looking like they’re kissing up to Bud.

Mmm. I’m personally very glad the idea of putting the Spider-Man promotion on the bases was shot down. I know I’d criticised Nader for protesting ads on uniforms, but that was more for his making a mountain out of a molehill - I feel a national politician seems diminished when he weighs in on such issues. Still, while I feel MLB can do what it wants politically, I can’t deny that aesthetically the idea of ads on bases was really off-putting to me, and I’m glad fans responded by raising such a stink that MLB pulled the idea.

Now that’s a good way to start the morning. When I flipped the game on (NESN this time, yay), Ortiz hit into a run-scoring double-play, but that was quickly followed up by Manny’s homer. And somehow when Pokey came on I felt my Spidey-sense go all tingly (ha). Whatever Papa Jack was doing with Reese seems to be working - who knew he had the power for extra-base hits? So C.C. was chased clean out of the game. Looking at his line, you’d think Sabathia was a Jamie Moyer-style control pitcher, what with no walks and no Ks.

More reasons to like Arroyo: Bronson Arroyo, who effectively began his stint this season as a regular member of the bullpen by picking up the win, paid his first visit before the game to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. An amateur musician, Arroyo was so impressed he may return today

Finally, a win in May. Two three-run dingers from Ortiz and Mueller - Earl Weaver would be proud. So Mueller atones, and the offence that Damon hath started in the 9th last night continues. Ortiz is the man. Meanwhile, Reese is not Todd Walker, but I like his 6-game hitting streak, and his BA is about 50 points above the #1 and #2 hitters for that danged New York team. Watched the game on Fox Sports Net, since MLB.tv didn’t carry NESN this time, and they showed Jerry Remy operating the camera - looked like he was having fun.

Incidentally, what would Mike Stenhouse - he of the .095 BA / .424 OBP in 1986 (12 walks in 21 games, which is, I know, a small sample size, but Stenhouse also walked a bit in his other stints in the majors) - make of Mark Bellhorn? Bill James has said that Stenhouse didn’t get enough of a shot to prove himself, and perhaps these days an on-base machine gets more chances than in the 80s.

Ralph Nader’s protesting ads on uniforms? Okay, being also a “soccer” (what most of the world calls football) fan, I shall say that I like the retro look of “soccer” jerseys, before they introduced ads on the uniforms, but I can’t say I’m incensed about the ads. (Lots of people walk around Singapore wearing Manchester United jerseys, thus providing Vodafone with free advertising here. But Vodafone doesn’t operate at all here.) I guess people either don’t mind the ads, or they won’t like it and won’t buy any replica uniforms and then the ads will become but a wistful memory.

Man. It’s like the Sox world turned upside down once the bullpen let in a run. I can understand losing to the Indians when Westbrook’s pitching - I guess his 7 perfect innings in relief impressed me - but to Davis? Sigh. No room for errors when you have a ground-ball pitcher.