The current management group of the Boston Red Sox has done, for the most part, an admirable job of protecting young pitchers while still developing them to the point where they have been able to help the big club, in many cases much sooner than people expected. The recent successes of Jonathan Papelbon and Jon Lester are two good examples.
The Red Sox dropped the ball with Clay Buchholz, though, in a big way. Maybe it was the lure of all that talent that shone through last September 1 when Buchholz, then only 22 years old and in his second big league start, threw a no-hitter against Baltimore, striking out nine, in a 10-0 victory.
Maybe it was the notion that the problems Buchholz started having in early May could be worked out while in the rotation. Or maybe it was simply a situation where, with injuries to Curt Schilling, Bartolo Colon and Tim Wakefield, the Red Sox felt that they simply could not afford to demote the youngster to work out his problems.
Whatever the reason, Boston's handling of a young pitcher with a tremendous upside has backfired. After his start on May 2, when Buchholz went 5.1 innings, giving up five hits and one run in a 7-3 victory over Tampa Bay, he had evened his record at 2-2, with a very respectable 3.71 ERA.
Since that time, however, everything has fallen apart in what has been a slow-motion train wreck that has been excruciating to watch and undoubtedly even more painful for the 23 year old to live through. In ten appearances since then, nine of them starts, Buchholz has pitched just 42 innings, giving up 43 earned runs on 62 hits and 27 walks, for an ERA of 9.21!
Oh yeah, and in those appearances the kid has racked up an impressive 0-7 record. His season ERA has jumped from that 3.71 mark on May 2 to where it currently stands, 6.75. He has given up runs in every single appearance and pitched a total of just 6.1 innings in his last three, giving up eleven earned runs. The wheels fell off the bus a long time ago, and now the entire bus has fallen apart around him.
You didn't have to be a pitching coach to see this coming, either. For at least the last six weeks, it has been obvious to anyone watching that Clay Buchholz has been pitching without the slightest confidence that he can get anyone out, and yet the Red Sox have been sending him out there time and again to put on a blindfold, smoke one last cigarette, and get the firing squad treatment from an assortment of different teams.
What, technically, his problems are is a mystery to me, and apparently to the Red Sox, since they weren't able to fix him. After his last disastrous appearance against Baltimore on August 20, when he went just 2.1 innings and gave up five earned runs, he was given his ticket down to Double A, where, hopefully, he can work his problems out without the pressure of a pennant race hanging over his head.
Clay Buchholz was not ready for this, and Boston management should have seen it by mid-June. He may very well get his act together in the minor leagues and come back and be a dominant pitcher for years, but if that doesn't happen, some people should be made to answer some very tough questions about why they let this kid twist in all the wind generated by guys running around the bases on him for three months before they did anything about it.
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If you love fiction and have a few mintes to spare, check out my website, www.allanleverone.com
I normally try to stay away from re-posting something that I've written here before, mostly because I figure it's good to try to force a little creativity out of my feeble brain. In this case, though, I'm posting something I wrote originally this past March.
The Jimmy Fund is the long-time charity of the Boston Red Sox, dedicated to fighting cancer in children. Today and tomorrow, Boston sports radio station WEEI and television network NESN, the New England SportsNetwork, are holding their seventh annual Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon, hoping to raise millions of dollars to fund cancer research.
Here is the post I wrote last March dedicated to the subject:
Between fans of the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, even over the winter the sniping never really ends, it just becomes a little more muted than during the regular season.
This year in particular, the offseason seemed more bombastic than usual, what with members of both organizations getting involved and ratcheting up the noise. First, A-Rod stepped on Red Sox toes with the ill-timed World Series announcement that he was opting out of his contract. He says it was his agent's idea and that he regrets the timing, but that was just the first volley anyway.
After that came Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon's remark to a reporter that the Series-clinching ball, the one he supposedly had in his possession, had been eaten by his dog. The dog's name? "Boss," of course, what else?
Move on to spring training, where Hank Steinbrenner railed against Boston's "Red Sox Nation," much to the delight of Red Sox fans everywhere. Steinbrenner promised to restore order to the universe by beating the Sox, and everyone else, and earning a Yankee World Championship.
Finally, Boston management responded by enrolling Mr. Steinbrenner in Red Sox Nation and sending him a David Ortiz autographed hat as a peace offering. Needless to say, that peace offering went unaccepted.
From a Red Sox perspective, then, the Yankees are the hated enemy, the thorn in their side, the bane of their existence. As a kid born and raised outside Boston, I can testify to the truth of that statement, and undoubtedly the same thing is true of Yankee fans everywhere, who used to say, "You have to win once in a while for it to be a rivalry," in a not-so-subtle nod to the fact that while the Red Sox were going 86 years without a championship, the Yankees were racking them up with regularity. Well, now that the Sox have won a couple, it seems the rivalry has become invigorated and reached a renewed intensity.
But here's the dirty little secret that Hank Steinbrenner surely doesn't want you to know, whether you are a Boston fan or a New York supporter: The Steinbrenner family has been incredibly generous to the charity the Red Sox organization adopted 55 years ago and has supported ever since, the Jimmy Fund.
Established in 1948, the Jimmy Fund of Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is dedicated to raising money and awareness in the fight against cancer in children. In the 60 years since it's inception, the Jimmy Fund has raised over $400 million dollars, with more than 90 cents out of every dollar raised going directly toward research dedicated to "eradicating cancer and related diseases."
For the past seven years, Boston sports radio station WEEI, and NESN, the New England Sports Network, have teamed up with the Red Sox organization to run a weekend radio/telethon in support of the Jimmy Fund. Each of the first six telethons have raised a larger amount of money than the one the previous year, culminating in last year's total of $3.74 million, with a grand total in the six-year history of the event of nearly $12 million raised.
What does all this have to do with the Steinbrenner family? Since it's inception in 2002, George Steinbrenner has supported the fundraising weekend with an annual donation of $10,000, which he upped last year to $25,000. He is not by any means the only celebrity/rich guy making a donation - Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and MLB Commissioner Bud Selig are two others who have opened their wallets generously - but the others aren't the owners and public faces of the supposed sworn enemies of the franchise.
Rivaries are great for sports. They add drama and excitement to the season and give fans and media something to talk about. But some things are more important in life, and it's nice to see that The Boss and the entire Steinbrenner family have an appreciation for that fact.
This year's 7th Annual Red Sox WEEI/NESN Jimmy Fund Radio/Telethon takes place the weekend of August 14-15, and for the seventh straight year will attempt to break the previous season's record for money raised. Undoubtedly the Steinbrenner family and thus the New York Yankees will again be a big part of the fundraising effort.
For more information on the Jimmy Fund or to make a donation, just click this link. Or this one. Or this one. Anyone who has watched a relative or close friend suffer through cancer - and who hasn't? - knows how difficult it is to sit by as a loved one is ravaged by the disease. Now imagine that someone is a young child, maybe even your son or daughter. Take a moment to check out the Jimmy Fund, and if you have a few bucks, think about pledging something - you just might save a life today.
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If you love fiction and have a few spare minutes, check out my website, www.allanleverone.com
I didn't see last night's alleged baseball game between the Boston Red Sox and the Texas Rangers, but for fans of offense, it had to be right up there with the Run and Shoot in football and the Wayne Gretzky Edmonton Oilers in the 1980's NHL.
Check out some of these numbers, stats that would make you toss your Strat-O-Matic in the trash assuming it was irreparably broken, if it ever gave you a game like this when you were playing it as a kid:
- Red Sox score ten runs in the first inning, and have to rally after falling behind in the game, to win 19-17! It would have been closer, but the Rangers pulled their goaltender late in the game and Boston was able to score an empty-netter to give them a the two-goal win.
- 36 runswere scored in a nine-inning major league game. In the entire history of the American League, there have never been more runs scored in a game that didn't go extra innings, and the last time this many were scored was almost six decades ago!
- Runs were scored in every inning, with the exception of the fourth, when batters were so winded from running around the bases that they refused to run out anything. Manny Ramirez would have loved it.
- Ten runs were scored in an inning twice in the game - In the first inning, when Boston scored ten, and in the fifth, when Texas scored eight and Boston answered with two.
- Jonathan Papelbon, Boston's closer, earned his 32nd save, undoubtedly one of the few times in history a pitcher picked up a save in a game in which his team scored nineteen runs.
- For the game, Texas batted .426 (20-47), while Boston was slightly off the pace at .425 (17-40).
- David Ortiz, Red Sox - Two home runs, and six RBI, in the first inning!
- Two players went 5-6 in the game: Marlon Byrd for the Rangers, who drove in three runs and scored four, and Dustin Pedroia for the Red Sox, who drove in two and scored five.
It was not immediately known how many pitchers sought post-game medical attention for post-traumatic stress disorder. Details as they become available.
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It has become standard practice for athletes of all incomes and all ability levels in all professional sports to endear themselves to the local fan base by exclaiming loudly and to anyone who will listen how much they are looking forward to finishing their career in that city.
Usually midway through the introductory press conference, the athlete in question vows, in between posing for the obligatory photos shaking the hands of the team's ownership and management (also known as the very same people he will be fighting tooth and nail against to get more money from come contract time) and holding up his new home jersey with his name on the back, that this is where he has wanted to play his entire career and he is looking forward to retiring from this lucky city.
The players inevitably say these words with the utmost sincerity, counting on the suckers...uh, excuse me...fans...yeah, that's it, fans...to eat it up like Rosie O'Donnell at the dessert table, which they inevitably do.
But Manny Ramirez has set a new standard for baboozling home-town fans, a mark which may never be broken. After stating in early summer that he fully expected to remain a Boston Red Sox until retirement, he orchestrated a trade out of town by performing in-game job actions that were so blatantly obvious they have inspired an investigation from the league office.
But wait, there's more! After donning mirrored sunglasses and wowing fans in L.A. by stating, within 24 hours of arriving in town, "I think that I'll play here for the remainder of my career," sources now say that what the man for whom the term "enigmatic" was originally coined meant to say was that he wants to sign a free agent contract this winter to loaf...uh, excuse me...play...yeah, that's it, play, for the New York Yankees until his retirement from the game.
Anyone can change his mind, of course, and it was a whole five days between Manny's oath of devotion to L.A. and the revelation of the latest city he's developed a crush on, but ultimately, it probably doesn't much matter, anyway. The guy will hit wherever he is, and chances are he's not going to be too sure where that is, anyway.
Besides, if the flirtation with New York doesn't work out, there are still over two dozen cities he can swear he wants to finish his career in, and that doesn't even include Green Bay, where Manny may or may not have volunteered to play quarterback. He's just hitting his stride!
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If you love fiction and have a few minutes to spare, check out my website, www.allanleverone.com
Anyone who has ever played sports at any level has probably heard this from a coach at one time or another: "It doesn't take any talent to hustle!"
I heard this repeatedly when I was playing baseball, telling me that:
A) The coaches appreciated my hard-nosed style of play, the fact that my uniform was always dirty, and the fact that I never gave up on any ball, no matter where it was hit, OR,
B) They recognized that I had no appreciable talent for the game.
Although it's kind of a backwards compliment, like telling your date she's the prettiest girl at the dance when you're the first couple to arrive, there's still a lot of truth to the statement - All it takes to bust it down the line on a ground ball is the desire to do so, and sometimes that little bit of effort makes all the difference in the world.
This is why I love the right side of the Boston Red Sox infield so much. Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia are both straight out of the Trot Nixon-Mike Greenwell mold. They will dive, run into and sometimes through walls, hustle out ground balls, and always give 100%, a rarity in the world of professional sports, where so many players seem to think it's more important to preen and showboat than to do their utmost to help their team win.
For Pedroia, a little guy who has a home run hitter's swing and yet makes consistent contact with the best in the league, that work ethic has produced a current streak of hits in 28 consecutive road games. Not that impressive, you say? No Boston player has a longer such streak since Tris Speaker in 1915!
To put that into a little historical perspective, the last time a Red Sox player had a longer road hitting streak than Pedroia, Woodrow Wilson was president of the United States and the country was still two years away from entering into World War One. We have had sixteen presidents since then, and at the time of Tris Speaker's streak, Arizona and New Mexico had only entered the union three years prior.
Babe Ruth was a 20 year old kid playing in his first full year in the big leagues, mostly as a pitcher, compiling 217.7 innings pitched and an 18-8 record. Oh yeah, he showed a little promise at the plate too, hitting .315 with four home runs for the Red Sox, who were still four years away from selling him to...well...you know the rest of the story.
Anyway, I bring up this Pedroia streak because the guy is one of those players you hate if he's on the other team but you love if he's on your team, because he's so darned pesky - he's like the bugs buzzing around Joba Chamberlain's head in the playoffs last fall - no matter how hard you try, you just can't get rid of him. __________
If you love fiction and have a few minutes to spare, check out my website, www.allanleverone.com
You know you're stuck in the dog days of summer when it seems like all the sports stories are the same ones, recycled over and over. The promise of spring is gone for a lot of Major League baseball teams as they drop out of pennant races, the real college and NFL football games are still weeks away, and even though the Olympic Games are happening this year, there doesn't seem to be much sizzle.
So here, in no particular order, are the sports stories that would be banned immediately if I were King of the World:
1) Brett Favre - As great a player as Brett Favre was, and as poorly as his annual retirement sagas were handled (especially this year's), and whether he leads the NFL in passer rating and wins a Super Bowl with the Jets this year or whether he stinks worse than two week old tuna, can't we just let the whole thing go? I bet even Obama and McCain can agree on this one. Please, sports people everywhere, for the love of God, I'm begging you, just let the Favre thing go!
2) Manny Ramirez - Now the big story is that Bud Selig has asked a representative to look into how the whole Manny trade from Boston to Los Angeles was handled. Yay. What's he planning on doing if he doesn't like how it was handled? Declare the whole thing a tie? Let it go for crying out loud! Manny will hit like gangbusters and play hard until he decides not to and that's that. What you see is what you get with him. Always has been and always will be. Let's move on.
3) Redeem Team - Not to be cynical here, but sitting on the edge of my seat, trying to see if a bunch of multi-millionaires can beat another bunch of multi-millionaires to win a gold medal in what used to be the ultimate amateur competition just doesn't really do it for me. The outstanding United States Olympic Basketball Team will either win it all or they won't. What does redeeming have to do with anything?
4) Olympic athletes testing positive for banned substances - I guess I am getting cynical in my old age, but over the next three weeks or so we will see a few stories of courage and inspiration, a few genuinely interesting and exciting matchups in sports most of us only pay attention to every four years, and more than a few medal-winning athletes testing positive for banned substances and being stripped of their medals. They will immediately have the obligatory stunned and outraged reaction, proclaim their innocence, insist - through their high-profile attornies - that they have no idea how the substance got into their system and will fight these scurrilous charges until their dying breath, and then six months to a year down the line will give their medals back and serve their suspensions. Happens every four years. I can't wait.
Okay, I'm done now. Sorry for the interruption. I'd love to stay and chat but I'm off to the Jets website to read up on the latest Favre stuff.
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If you love fiction and have a few minutes to spare, check out my website, www.allanleverone.com
How do you gain acceptance from the fans in a new situation in a strange city after being traded for one of the most feared hitters of this generation, all in the middle of a heated pennant race?
Well, how about by hitting a triple in your first at-bat with your new team, reaching base four times in that game, and scoring the only two runs in a 2-1, extra-inning win? Then you could follow that up with a three-run homer in the first inning of the next game to put your team ahead to stay, while playing stellar defense, something fans in that city aren't used to from their left fielder.
Do all that, Jason Bay, and you become an instant fan favorite, even in a notoriously high pressure city, where players on every team based in that city are routinely subjected to a level of scrutiny some guys are never able to adjust to.
Who knows what the long term holds for Bay, the 29 year old left fielder beginning his American League career with the Boston Red Sox after spending his first four seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but for now, if the signs scattered around Fenway Park are any indication, the guy has the fans eating out of his hands.
A random sampling of some of those signs:
"Manny Who?"
"Welcome to the Bay State!"
"FenBay Park"
"Un-Bay-Lievable!"
"Boston Loves BaysBall!"
"We're Bay-Watch Babes!"
and my personal favorite,
"Bay being Bay"
As of Sunday night, the Red Sox are now 3-0 in the Jason Bay era in Boston. The Bay State, indeed!
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If you love fiction and have a few minutes to spare, check out my website, www.allanleverone.com
Just when you think you've seen it all - and it's hard not to believe you have after nearly eight full years of Manny Ramirez lunacy - comes this report from the Boston Globe's Gordon Edes, citing an unnamed source "with direct knowledge of the negotiations" that took place between Manny's representatives and the Boston Red Sox.
According to Edes, who covers the Red Sox daily, "within an hour after [the] Red Sox informed Manny Ramirez he had been traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers...Ramirez' agent, Scott Boras, called the Sox back." Incredibly, the message Boras carried was that Manny was just kidding about the whole getting out of Boston thing; just kidding when he said that the Red Sox didn't deserve a player like him; just kidding when he said he was sick of them and they were sick of him.
According to Edes, Boras offered the following proposal - if Boston agreed to drop the option years on his contract, Manny would be a good boy and not cause any more trouble the rest of the season!
By that time,of course, the deal with the Dodgers was done, making the affair probably the last "Manny Moment" ever in Boston. Unless of course, by some massive cosmic joke the Red Sox were to meet the Dodgers in the World Series, which, undoubtedly, every single management type at the Fox network, the home of this year's Fall Classic, would sell their souls to see.
But for now the point is moot. The Manny Ramirez Traveling Circus has taken its show to the West Coast, and everyone involved is beginning the long process of moving on. For Manny, though, who must be wondering why this time was so different after all the other episodes of foolishness the Red Sox management endured for so long without ever seeming to hold him accountable, it's a new day in Hollywood, and a new town to woo with the promise of all his monster talent.
Here's hoping he doesn't quit on his new team like he quit on his old one.
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If you love fiction and have a few minutes to spare, check out my website, www.allanleverone.com
It's a shame that a partnership that has been as beneficial to both parties as the Boston Red Sox and Manny Ramirez has to end like this, with public bickering and contentious finger-pointing in the middle of a playoff race!
But the relationship between Ramirez and the Bosox has been a symbiotic one from the very beginning. The Red Sox have won two world championships in the last four years - after going zero for the previous eighty-six - with Manny Ramirez patrolling left field at Fenway Park, while Ramirez has become wealthier than he probably ever dreamed possible while growing up in the shadow of Yankee Stadium.
The facts are the facts, though, and the two warring factions have progressed well beyond the point of no return. So if you accept the premise that there is no scenario under which Manny would be playing left field at Fenway Park next year, the question becomes, would the Red Sox benefit more from trading Ramirez now or cutting ties with the mercurial slugger at the end of the season.
Conventional wisdom says the Red Sox cannot afford to trade Manny now, since they can't win without him. I believe exactly the opposite - it is imperative they move him now. Manny Ramirez has always marched to the beat of his own drum, and assuming the player who, even under the best of circumstances, is likely to take an at-bat or an entire game off will give his all to help a team he has come to despise would be a massive error in judgement.
Assuming he will give 100% because he will be playing for a contract, I believe, is an erroneous assumption. This is a man who has hit over 500 home runs in his illustrious career and who has been one of the most feared run-producers in the modern game. He knows - he doesn't suspect, he knows - that someone will give him big money over the winter, whether he runs out a ground ball or not; whether he plays a routine fly ball into a triple or not.
For a rapidly sinking team in the middle of a playoff chase, the promise of a left fielder potentially loafing his way through the final two months is an unacceptable risk. If Fox's Ken Rosenthal is accurate in his published report that the Red Sox, Marlins and Pirates are in talks that would send Ramirez to Florida in exchange for three players who would then be shipped to Pittsburgh in return for outfielder Jason Bay, they should bite the bullet and do it. Now.
Bay is a 29 year old who has averaged 31 home runs and 102 RBI per 162 games played, well below Ramirez's averages of 40 HR and 135 RBI per 162 games played, but still, his numbers would be enough to keep some pop in left field for the Red Sox, especially when you consider the fact that they will get nothing if they cut ties with Manny at the end of the season.
The Red Sox are a team trying to win now. The situation as it stands in Boston is ugly and, regardless of what people may think, is not going to get any better until it is resolved. Manny has brought the Sox two World Series titles and plenty of turmoil, and it is time to say goodbye, and the sooner the better for everyone.
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If you love fiction and have a few minutes to spare, check out my website, www.allanleverone.com
To the surprise of absolutely no one, Manny Ramirez is mired in the midst of his annual mid-summer meltdown. It appears he may finally have worn out his welcome even in Boston, where Red Sox management has shown incredible patience over the years with the $160 million head case.
The final straw may have come Friday night, when Manny begged out of the lineup just prior to the first game of a huge home series against the Yankees, citing mysterious knee problems to bench coach Brad Mills while manager Terry Francona was addressing the media.
The club immediatey called Manny's bluff, sending him for MRI's on both knees, which came back negative. Now, just weeks after Ramirez serenely stated that he knew the team would pick up both of the $20 million options they hold on his contract and that he fully expected to finish his career in Boston, there is no one anywhere who expects that to happen.
Half-Baked Ravings has unearthed a secret listing of some of the excuses Ramirez has used over the eight tumultuous seasons the talented slugger has spent in Boston as to why he was unable to take the field at various times. This listing is not complete, but merely a representative sample:
January 30, 2001: Just weeks after signing his massive eight-year, $160 million contract to come to Boston as a free agent, Manny calls then-manager Jimy Williams, complaining he isn't feeling well and will not be able to play in that evening's game. Williams explains it is only January, and that the season doesn't start until April.
April 9, 2001: Hours before the day's game, Manny calls Jimy Williams on the telephone and says he won't be able to make it to the park on time. He is lost, and can't remember what exit to take for Jacobs Field. Williams reminds Manny he plays in Boston now. Manny turns around.
July 14, 2003: Manny informs then-manager Grady Little that he is unable to play in the game that day. Little asks what's wrong and Manny tells him he's fine, but the dog ate his glove.
August 7, 2005: Manny begs out of the game, citing headaches. Manager Terry Francona, concerned about his star left fielder, sends him to the hospital for a precautionary MRI on his head. Results on the head scan turn up nothing. Literally.
September 2, 2006: Manny starts the game, but has to be replaced after he wanders into the left-field scoreboard during a pitching change and can't find his way out. Days later he is finally located, sitting inside the Green Monster trying in vain to make all the numbers for the manually-operated scoreboard add up to 160 million.
Whatever team becomes home to the Human Rubik's Cube that is Manny Ramirez and his Traveling Circus in 2009 will quickly discover, if they don't already know, that he defines the term, "high mantenance." With all that production comes a price. Hopefully they will keep a psychologist on retainer - for team officials, not for Manny.
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If you love fiction and have a few minutes to spare, check out my website, www.allanleverone.com.
Okay, all you people who are sick and tired of all the same teams getting into the playoffs every year; all you Red Sox and Yankees haters, who wait with bated breath for someone else to win the American League East - It's been a while, hasn't it? You have to go back eleven years to find a season in which one or the other of those two teams didn't win the division.
Welcome to the New World Order, MLB-Style. It's July 21, and the Tampa Bay Rays are leading the AL East, with the third-best record in the big leagues. I know it's going to be tough finding something else to whine about than "The rich always get richer," but guess what? The team that has finished in last place for nine of the ten seasons they've been in existence; the team that has never won more than seventy games in a season - that would be the Rays - they are for real.
The Rays are winning with pitching and defense and exciting young talent, and they're not going away. The only question mark, really, besides depth, is whether their pitching, so much of which is very young, can take the pressure of a September pennant race.
And, really, whether Tampa Bay makes the playoffs in the tough AL East isn't even the point. They could go 14-51 the rest of the way, and it would still qualify as the best season in franchise history. Of course, they're not going to do that, but even if they play .500 baseball from now until the end of the year, the Rays would finish with around 90 wins.
Worst to first? Who knows, but as a baseball fan, it's fun to see what's going on down in Tampa. And I'm a Red Sox fan.
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If you love fiction and have a few spare minutes, check out my website, www.allanleverone.com.
What could be better than baseball at 6:00 a.m.? Almost anything, actually, but for fans of the World Champion Boston Red Sox, the early start was made worthwhile by the final result, a 6-5 extra-inning thriller at the Tokyo Dome over the Oakland A's, in a seesaw game that had a little of everything, with not much going as predicted. For example:
1) Conquering hero Daisuke Matsuzaka would shut down the A's for seven innings or so, and the Boston bullpen would finish them off.
Uh, not so fast. Matsuzaka looked nervous and wild early, allowing two first-inning runs and loading the bases in the second, before settling down and looking good in the 3rd, 4th and 5th. His final stats, 5 IP, 5 BB, 6 K, 2 runs allowed, in an outing that could have been much worse. He actually left with the lead and had a chance at a win, before Kyle Snyder came in to pitch the sixth and immediately coughed up the 3-2 Boston lead, allowing a two-run homer to Jack Hannahan.
Then, in the tenth, with the Red Sox leading 6-4 and Jonathan Papelbon looking for save number one of the season, Oakland tattooed him, scoring a run and not tying the game only because of a bonehead baserunning play by Emil Brown, who got caught in a rundown between second and third after driving in the 5th Oakland run. Papelbon eventually nailed down the save, but he looked eminently hittable.
The best performance came from unheralded Bryan Corey, pitching because Mike Timlin is unavailable, and the other Japanese conquering hero, Hideki Okajima. Both men pitched a scoreless inning for the Sox, with Okajima picking up the victory.
2) J.D. Drew would improve on his lackluster performance in 2007 in right field for the Sox.
Drew actually did help the Sox, although not in the way people might have expected. He pulled himself from the starting lineup with back spasms, clearing the way for last season's Pawtucket Red Sox (AAA) MVP, Brandon Moss, to play instead. All Moss did was go 2-5, driving in the lead run in the sixth inning and then homering in the ninth off Oakland closer Huston Street to tie the game and force extra innings. It was Moss's first big-league home run.
The man who has had trouble staying healthy for his entire career is starting out the 2008 season in typical fashion, but at least for today, it all worked out for Boston.
3) Manny Ramirez would have a monster season in this, his contract year.
This expectation, at least after one game, looks like a keeper. Manny hit the ball hard, going 2-5 with a pair of doubles and 4 RBI. In keeping with his goofball persona, Manny stood at home plate admiring his second double, in the tenth, and nearly got thrown out at second base. Some things never change.
4) Jacoby Ellsbury would hit leadoff and run wild on the bases.
After a slow start at the plate this spring, manager Terry Francona elected to take some pressure off the rookie and returning World Series hero by hitting him down in the lineup. Batting eighth, Ellsbury went 1-4 and was a non-factor offensively, but made an outstanding leaping catch in deep center field that Coco Crisp would have been proud of, crashing into the wall and barely hanging on to the baseball.
5) The Tokyo fans would be a loud and raucous bunch.
At times the Tokyo Dome seemed almost eerily silent, especially considering how loud the fans are when their own Japanese League teams are playing. They seemed knowledgeable and respectful, only really getting loud when Matsuzaka or Okajima did something special.
A few thoughts and observations as I watch the Celtics march, workmanlike, toward their 56th win of the season, the best for the franchise since 1991.
- North Carolina is quite simply the best college basketball team in the country. Hopefully they have enough room in the trophy case at the Dean Smith Center for the 2008 National Championship trophy, because that's where it's headed. The Tar Heels have it all: size, speed, outside shooting, rebounding. They can push the ball up the floor or sink three-pointers, depending on what the defense gives them.
No disprespect intended to Memphis, UCLA, Kansas or any other team still alive, but but based on last weekend's action, it's hard to imagine anyone beating UNC until next winter.
- How can you not be excited for the Davidson College Widcats? After coming back from a 17-point deficit in their opening round game against Gonzaga to win going away, 82-76, they made it to the Sweet Sixteen with another big comeback victory over Georgetown, 74-70. And "Cat" is a perfect description for the dynamic and lightning-quick Stephen Curry, the Sporting News second-team All-American who has scored 70 points in Davidson's first two tournament wins, 55 of them in the second half of those games.
Prior to last weekend, Davidson College's last NCAA Tournament win was way back in 1969, and their improbable run continues Friday night against Wisconsin in a game that's looking a lot less like a three seed against a ten seed and a lot more like an upset special.
- Who slips on a fast-food wrapper? Did you see the story about Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall, who supposedly did exactly that, putting his arm through an entertainment center in an attempt to brace himself, and suffering an injury requiring stitches? Not exactly a smooth move, and a situation that makes you wonder if maybe there's not more to the story than what is being told here. Hmmm.
- Big surprise: Chad Johnson is skipping the Cincinnati Bengals offseason workout. Is there anyone in the world who expected Johnson to be there? He has made it perfectly clear for months how unhappy he is in Cincinnati and if there's one thing Johnson is not, it's subtle.
For their part, the Bengals organization is downplaying the absence, pointing out that the workouts are voluntary and that T.J. Houshmandzadeh isn't there either. The Bengals continue to insist they won't be trading Johnson. We haven't heard the end of this story, unfortunately.
-It's finally Opening Day! Whether you're a fan of the Red Sox or A's, or can't stand either team, if you love baseball, this is the day you've waited for all winter. There's plenty of other action to keep a sports fan's interest over the long winter months, but for a baseball fan this is the day you marked on your calendar months ago. It's about time!
The clock continues to tick down to Major League Baseball's Opening Day, the day fans everywhere look forward to, beginning, oh, roughly ten minutes after the final out of the World Series the previous year. Hang on, we're down to just over a day left before the start of the new season.
In 2008, of course, MLB proves just how small our little world is getting, as Opening Day will take place in Tokyo, Japan, joining 2000 and 2004 as the only time regular-season baseball games will have ever been played outside of North America.
To celebrate the occasion, the two teams the bigwigs in charge of scheduling at MLB chose to represent the sport on this foray into Asia are, quite naturally, the Boston Red Sox and the...uh...Oakland A's?
Picking the Sox to represent MLB is a no-brainer for a couple of reasons, the most obvious being that they are the reigning World Series champs, and who better to show off the sport than its' crown jewel, based on last season's results?
The other thing that makes the BoSox an obvious selection is the fact that two key components of their pitching staff made their way to the shores of this country just one year ago from Japan - Dasiuke Matsuzaka will fill the Number Two slot in the rotation after winning 15 games in the regular season and striking out over 200 batters last year, and Hideki Okajima came out of nowhere, dazzling major league hitters to the tune of a 2.22 ERA in 66 appearances and making the A.L. All-Star Team in his rookie season at age 31.
So sending the Sox to Japan to kick off the 2008 season makes perfect sense, but Oakland is another story entirely. A glance at the Athletics active roster shows exactly zero Japanese players. It appeared Kurt Suzuki might be a possibility, but he was born in Hawaii, meaning he probably is as familiar with Japan as I am.
Now, I realize the point of the trek halfway around the world is to show off Major League Baseball, not bring as many Japanese players back to their homeland as possible, but given the intense interest Japan's people have shown in following the progress of their native players in the big leagues, wouldn't it have made more sense to send either the Seattle Mariners or the New York Yankees to Tokyo as opponents for Boston, rather than Oakland?
Seattle, it would seem, is the obvious choice. One of the closest teams on our shores to Japan in terms of distance, the city also features one of Japanese baseball's biggest former stars, Ichiro Suzuki. Wouldn't it have been a treat for the fans in that country to see Dice-K face off against Ichiro in one of the two regular-season games?
Or how about the Yankees? In addition to the fact that MLB would have had an opportunity to showcase one of the sport's biggest rivalries, the Yankees also feature one of Japanese baseball's biggest former heroes, Hideki Matsui. The same argument applies to a Dice-K-Matsui matchup that applies to Dice-K-Ichiro, and that is this: It only makes sense to offer the rabid baseball fans of Japan an opportunity to see two of their own people who have made it big in the Bigs, up close and personal, rather than Dice-K facing off against, say, Oakland's Jack Cust.
Once again - big surprise - it appears the people in charge of baseball have shot themselves in the foot. There is no doubt whatsoever the two-game series between Boston and Oakland will be a success and will be followed by other MLB regular-season matchups in the Far East, but come on, Bud Selig, you're pulling down in excess of $15 million a year, couldn't you have used a little common sense in choosing this historic matchup?
The amazing ability of Major League Baseball to #### on its own shoes seems limitless. The organization that has seen its total revenues jump by a whopping 100% since 2000, reaching the staggering total of $6.075 billion for fiscal year 2007 (That's right, that's billion with a "B"), tried Wednesday to strong-arm some of its lowest-paid employees into making a company-mandated business trip without compensating them.
The season-opening two game series between the Boston Red Sox and the Oakland Athletics in Japan next Tuesday and Wednesday almost didn't get off the ground, literally, as the Red Sox players refused to board a bus to the airport for their trip to the Far East until the issue of pay for the team's coaches and staff was ironed out to their satisfaction.
Incredibly, the $40,000 stipend which was promised the players as compensation for making the trip was never promised to the coaching staff, including manager Terry Francona. Considering Tokyo is known as one of the most expensive cities in the world, especially for visitors, the notion that MLB thought it would be acceptable to send their employees on a 7,360-mile business trip without giving them any sort of travel money is ludicrous.
You want a Domino's Pizza in Tokyo with italian sausage and mushrooms? You can get it, provided you're willing to spend $30.39. Of course, according to pricechecktokyo.com, that is what the average Tokyo-ite (Tokyo-er?) can expect to spend. Prices "for American and European expatriates are usually higher." How does fifty bucks sound? Maybe you'd like to see a movie after you chow down on your pizza - plan on spending $18.21 per ticket at the door.
You get the point, right? It's going to be expensive for these people to make this trip which has been mandated by their bosses, one of whom is Bud Selig, the man making over $15 million this year; the man who has a private jet at his disposal for all that important commissioner travel which is so critical he can't fly commercial.
How much does a batting coach make, does anybody know? I researched it but couldn't find the answer anywhere. You can bet it's less than the major league minimum salary of $390,000, undoubtedly a lot less. And yet Dave Magadan, Boston's batting coach, was expected by Bud Selig and his bunch of cold-hearted cronies to foot the bill for his living expenses in a league-mandated trip to one of the most expensive cities in the world.
The reaction of the commissioner to all this? According to a quote attributed by the Associated Press to Boston Manager Terry Francona, "Mr. Selig was justifiably concerned about playing the game." He wasn't talking about the game next week in Tokyo. The thing that had the commissioner's panties in a #### was the exhibition game that the Red Sox players refused to take the field for Wednesday until the issue was resolved.
That quote by Francona is what is known as not biting the hand that feeds you. "Justifiably concerned," that's a good one. Francona might as well have come right out and admitted it - as a low-level member of MLB's management team, you never know what the upper-level geniuses are going to do next. Better not make them too angry, or else you might find yourself looking for work.
Hey everyone, I know it must seem like I've dropped off the face of the earth, but it's nothing like that.
I've been busy writing - two full-length novels so far, plus over a dozen short stories - and working hard to try to get an agent. If you are curious and have a few minutes, check out my website, www.allanleve rone.com.
If you're a literary agent or if you know one, by all means contact me! In the meantime, I'll be here when I can - love this forum - and as always, thank you for checking out my blog, especially considering how many great ones you could be reading instead....
