(Newton Center, September 19, 2004) Why was Nomar playing below his potential? Eatin' to much Hamm. The Sox hammered Mo Rivera for a ninth inning victory yesterday, and choked it up today. That's all I can say now, asides from the fact that Dogfishhead 60 Minutes rules. "Oy" or "Yo", dependin' on which way yer lookin'...
(Newton Center, September 11, 2004) On this ominous day, three years after 911 and my mama, the Lads are holding true. 2 back in the loss column. All about pitching. The Yanks have entered the fall lacking thereof. Just sayin'. Hopin' they can write a check...
The Sox are sho' nuff knocking at the door. Sloggin' at the door. Well, the Yanks ain't out of it. Still an All-Star team after all. But things are looking questionable, which is rare for the Bombers.
YANKS 89-53 SOX 85-55
(Newton Center, September 8, 2004) What a difference a month makes. And a coupla Rockies Mojo IPAs ain't hurt none, courtesy of Anam Cara in Brookline, a stones' throw from Fenway Park, and the best beer bar in the East. The Townies have won 19 of 21, and Pedro's going tonight against Tim Hudson and the A's. This is a club on fire. Firing on all cylinders, aggressive, hitting, pitching, fielding (?!!)
A far cry from a month back, as the Sox take a 2-0 lead in the first on Ortiz's 123rd & 124th RBI. 3-0. Amazing how an apathetic .500 team over three months starts playing like champions. Not only are they playing brilliantly - the Yanks have hit a plateau, and the Sox have closed the gap to 2 games. (It was 10 a coupla weeks ago.) It's 1819 all over again I say! The whole world has gone batty. Bush is beating Kerry on his military record. Paris Hilton is the USA's #1 star. And yours truly is downing a Concord IPA, a fine, hoppy, full-bodied ale. Well, least something's nawmul around here...
Wha' hoppened?? Well, for one thing, the Sox started catching the ball. Hard to believe losing Nomar would improve the defense, but it has improved. Cabrera is real solid, maybe the equivalent of Nomar (defensively) before the injury, and perhaps steadier on the routine plays. And Doug Mientkiewicz is a vacuum at first. What I didn't forsee is the offense this lineup is producing - sho' don't look like the Bombers on paper. Then again, these 'Moneyball' guys are not necessarily front & center. (The Oakland A's are not that far behind the big money teams in runs scored.) And the Sox have scored more than anyone in baseball. What we knew was a strength, the starters, have asserted themselves. Curt Schilling (18-6, 3.38) & Pedro Martinez (15-5, 3.54) have dominated, and Arroyo, Lowe, & Wakefield have been steadier. The pen has been solid, but not lights-out. 7-0 now Sox. They've now beat the good teams, in grand fashion, in September.
If nothing else comes of this season, at least the Yanks were brought to sweat. Usually, the best team wins. But as Billy Bean said, "The playoffs are a crapshoot." Don't want to get ahead of ourselves here, though...
(Newton Center, August 13, 2004) This is shonuffa cornfusin' team. Sho' lotta talent. Won 3 inna row. Pedro's just pitched a complete game shutout. Don't sound like too much comin' from baseball's best pitcher. But that's his first in 4 years. 13-4, 3.72 ERA, 10 k's last night. A great year for maybe Pettitte and anyone else, but sub-par for Pedro. The good news is that he's on a roll - kinda looks like a guy that's Tom Seaver-like, gaining momentum into the stretch. This club has NOT captured my imagination - even with several American Ales in my belly from Rockbottom Brewery in Braintree.
Guess the theme is speed & defense now. Guess what? Nomar was both. We got a coupla journeyman ballplayers, solid glovemen, so they tell us. Well, not to say that these guys aren't ballplayers. Perhaps these dudes are Paul O'Neill-types, gamers. I'm reachin', fer sure. But who the heck knows. When you least expect it, a flag is planted upon your door. An' Dogfish Head Brewery has gots to take a little responsibility for this conundrum. A riddle mixed with a mojo. The 60 Minute IPA hasn't helped. At least me.
(Newton Center, August 1, 2004) He was perhaps the finest ballplayer Boston ever had. The most beloved player Boston ever had. Yaz was booed. Ted Williams was booed. Clemens, Rice, Lynn, all star players are booed here. El Tiante & Lou Merloni just got Loooooed. Once someone booed Pedro, but he took note and committed that face to memory... And like Pedro, maybe he felt that to do it on the field was enough. To give 100% between the lines was enough.
But as Dan Shaughnessy said, he had to go. Perhaps because of Shaughnessy and his ilk, he had to go. Nomar wasn't a PR guy. He seemed to disdain that stuff, and the task of the 'fellowship of the miserable' was to break him. They didn't. To his last day, on the field he went full-throttle. But as the late-great Gritty McDuff might have said, as he was downing a fine Pub Style Pale Ale, brewed with passion in Portland Maine, that's suds under the bridge. And another round before another paragraph...
We all knew next year he'd be playing somewhere else. And we all knew this Red Sox team, even with Nomar back at short, was not quite the juggernaut it seemed on paper. Seemed flat for months on end. They had some good pitching, they were scoring runs at will. Scratch that - the 2-out basehit wasn't happening. (Just so happens that's my Gritty McDuff enhanced Skeleton Key to winning baseball: pitching & 2-out basehits. Amen.) Defense and fundamentals were killing this club. Horribly. So in return for a cleanup hitter, the Townies received a coupla Gold Glovers. At least for a coupla months. Shortstop Orlando Cabrera and 1st baseman Doug Mientkiewicz don the red. Mientkiewicz is a Moneyball-style player - OB% & pitch count. Cabrera's not, but he can pick-em and hit a bit. He's got some shoes to fill, we've been watching Nomar and Pokey Reese this year, and the offense will take a step down, but this team is in need of balance.
Not to get into this now, but the bullpen is starting to take on that pyro aura of yesteryear. Last year I should say. They torched another masterful Martinez performance, pulling him in the 8th for meatballs from Timlin and Embree. Can you say Grady?
The last hours of the trade deadline were pretty exciting. While we all awaited the purchase of Randy Johnson by the Yanks, they ended up dealing underachiever Contreras to the White Sox for the underachieving Louiza. The underachieving Louiza was runner-up for the Cy Young last year I think. And the Yanks of course picked up a chunk of Contreras' contract.
We'll see how it pans out, but the Mets, unloaded their farm system for a coupla pretty good pitchers. Zambrano (looked to me like a diamond in the rough when he faced the Sox) and Benson (haven't seen him but he seemed to be the most sought-after arm this year, excepting the Big Unit) join their rotation, and these guys could sneak into the playoffs this year.
(Newton Center, July 26, 2004) Yep, it's time. A coupla Smuttynose IPAs in my belly, Sox on the tube facing the O's, and things are lookin' up. Didn't hurt that the boys are back on the road after a glorious 2 of 3 from the Dynasty. These were not pretty games - especially in the Sox corner. Cowboy up was last years' rallying cry, this year has got to be winning ugly. Maybe that was taken some years back (by a Detroit Tiger team with Kirk Gibson?), but this years Townies make them downright goodlookin'!
Certainly the worst fundamental team I've seen since, well, maybe last years' 100+ loss Tigers. Many a championship team (As the Sox stake a 6-0 3rd inning lead for Pedro) has overcome some shoddy D - even this Yankee dynasty had some serious defensive weaknesses. But these guys look like beer-league brawlers (as he takes another swag of the hoppiest damn beer in all of Maine...) And they've played a lot of boring AL Moneyball, never bunting, no hit & run, just station to station, waiting for the tater.
And the Yanks seem more and more to reflect the image of the great Joe Torre. Very classy, with sound, inspired baseball. Well, until Saturday. When A-Rod took exception to a plunking (that by all reckoning was not intentional), he and Veritek got into it, the benches emptied, and everyone joined hands singing Kumbaya. Yep, despite Willie Randolph's assertions, these teams love one another. Anyhoo, 5 ejections later the Sox rallied back, capped by a Mueller walkoff dinger off Mo Rivera into the bullpen in right. 11-10 Sox. A game they probably didn't deserve to win. (But perhaps payback for the Yankee's clobbering Schilling the night before . . .)
In the rubber game on Sunday, the Sox did all they could in the 1st inning to give the Bombers the game. But despite some 'defensive indifference' (or maybe Johnny Damon's pop-gun arm) the Red Sox had their hitting-shoes on. And these guys CAN hit! The bullpen is erratic (as is the Yanks') but the strength of this team is the starting 9. (Same could be said for the Yanks). D-Lowe settled down and pitched well, and despite a Godzilla Matsui slam that made it a game, held on for a 9-6 victory. I'm impressed by Matsui - he's a clutch hitter, and a sound ballplayer. Something the Townies could use... And, as usual, the two shortstops, Nomar & Jeter, were in the midst of the action, Nomar (I'll miss this guy) starting some key rallies, and Jeter showing the grit that has become his trademark. And Damon, Millar, & Mueller are hitting a ton. Sox are now leading 10-0 in the 6th...
These games, this rivalry is fierce. No game is over till it's over. But surprisingly these teams, whose combined payroll almost equals the rest of the teams combined, have some glaring weaknesses, mainly bullpen and starting pitching. Thank goodness one of them can add the best pitcher in baseball to their rotation for the stretch run...
And if you haven't heard, the Eck and Paul Molitor were enshrined yesterday. DAP!
(Newton Center, May 1, 2004) If April showers bring Mayflowers, what do Mayflowers bring? "Well, Pilgrim," Johnny Wayne once said, "ain't bringin' Elvis back. But I reckon the Sox be in first." They are, but as many Yankee's have observed, April ain't October. Several years ago in January the late-great Dan Duquette (former Sox GM) attempted to educate the media. "We spent more days in first place than the Yankees," said he. Well, the Yankees had a new flag for their stadium. And the Duke had to go.
Yep, we all know that the standings on May 1 won't stand on October 1. But my insufferable colleague Mikey Stew hath spotted the Sox an 8-game lead going into August and challenged them to hold it. Now I'm not saying the Yanks won't win it all - the present roster & pitching staff (barring SERIOUS injury) is nonpareil. But this Sox team, is, well, different. GREAT starting pitching, enhanced by a second ace, Curt Schilling, and a rejuvinated bullpen, enhanced by closer Keith Foulke.
Last years' bullpen threw gas on the fire. The relentless offense was the reason the Sox snuck into the playoffs. Record-setting offense. Fence-bustin' offense. But me thinks they were the playoff team with the worst pitching. (And I'll own up to being on Grady's side in game #7. Let Pedro dig deep. The bullpen sucked all year long. All of 'em. Maybe Grady had TMI: too much information.) Not living in the past, not me... This years bullpen looks superb. Top to bottom. Four former closers, two are hard throwers, and unsaid after the press ran with it last year, this may be the ultimate 'bullpen by committee'. Foulke's closed. Embree's closed. Williamson's closed. And Mike Timlin's closed. This year. So Francona seems to be going with the hot-hand rather than formula. That's on my page fer sure. When a reliever dominates an inning, why yank him? Let him start the next inning 'til he lets someone get on. Just sayin'...
Got to say I'm glad the Yanks didn't take the bait on Manny Ramirez, whatever you say about him, he's a gifted hitter. Born to hit. And in the middle of everything. Pokey Reese looks pretty awesome with the leather. Folks are saying the best defensive player in the game. Rey Ordonez's got my vote.
And so, three straight shutouts later, I rest my case. For the record, this meandering was inspired by the NERAX fest, the New England Real Ale Exhibition. Real ale is essentially cask-conditioned beer, common in English pubs and US brewpubs. Natural beer. The best, so says I. No foolin'. (Fessin' up, I'm drinkin' McNeill's Firehouse Amber and Stoudt's ESB as you read...) The McNeill's ESB and Rogues ESB were my favorites on cask this time.
A* * TERIKS are for A* *HOLES...
(Newton Center, March 3, 2004) This just in: (This just sucks) The first wave of MLB's steroid scandal has hit the Yanks hard. Two of their recent big purchases have been implicated. There's some question as to whether Giambi and Sheffield can play juice-free. Can you say Punch & Judy?? Baseball's new hardline drug policy could cost each of them $25k (the equivalent of a pint of Magic Hat Blind Faith Ale for us bluecollars) if they choose to continue juicin' it... Gotta think it's helped Shef avoiding injuries (or playing through them.) He played in 140 games only twice in his career, and now 4 of the last 5 years has exceeded that. Always a gifted hitter, but this taints the record. Same with Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, and lord knows who else. It's more than 5-7 %, that's fer sure. You know how the sports media would prefer to talk about anything but the actual games? Well, here's the 2004 issue. Shameful. Real bad news for baseball. There'll be asteriks all over the place.
The solution? Thought you'd never ask. Legalize it! If these dudes think a plaque in Cooperstown (or a job) is worth shrinkin' their sacks, let it be their choice. The Union ain't gonna address it 'cause HR = $$. Let it be said that this is not the first time athletes have cheated. For the Babe it was Johnny Walker and Rheingold. For Mickey Mantle and Pete Rose it was 'greenies'. And Olympic athletes have been failing drug tests with alarming regularity. Personally, I'd prefer sport to be clean, but baseball had better make a decision one way or the other. Too late for asteriks. --JB
Last year the Sox entered the playoffs with possibly the worst pitching of any team involved. Not that a little luck wouldn't have helped. Or a BIG HIT FER CHRISSAKES!!! Such being as it might, the Townie's hath solidified their pitching in a large way. They done got the two top available pitchers. Pitching is 90% of the battle: then yer halfway there..., so sayeth the Sayer, the naySayer, the Slayer & the Mayor.
Pedro's a year behind (in innings) but has now put up the numbers that surpass the great Koufax. Koufax had 137 complete games and 40 shutouts, which dwarf Martinez's 41 & 15, but it's a new age. And Martinez faces an extra hitter each outing.
Pedro's K/BB per IP are even more phenomenal than Koofoos, who found his control later on. And K's. I hope we can (in Boston) enjoy this guy. Be continually impressed. For he is continually impressive and his likes may never be seen in a long, long time.
WELL.. WELL... WELL!.
(Newton Center, January 7, 2004) Locked & loaded. Armed & dangerous. Pedro & Schilling. And Keith Foulke.
G W-L IP H K BB ERA
KOUFAX 397 165-87 2324 1754 2396 817 2.76
MARTINEZ 355 166-67 2079 1553 2426 554 2.58
P E D R O
the Bambino: Babe Ruth
The Kid: Ted Williams
the Hit Dog: Mo Vaughn
the Eck: Dennis Eckersley
