The Tragedy of '04

This is the title of an article that was written in the August 28th edition of the Globe. The link was provided today on Boston Dirt Dogs. It can be accessed here:

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2005/08/28/the_tragedy_of_04/

for anyone who wants to read it, but my advice would be not to waste your time because it’s total garbage.

The author, Scott Stossel, whom I have never heard of, suggests that it may have been a bad thing that the Sox finally won it all last year. This is nothing new, he cites all the same hogwash that went around right after they won it about how we somehow lost our identities as losers, which in turn means we have lost a piece of something we can never get back, etc, and that maybe we were better off if they hadn’t won.

What I don’t understand is, how is it that 10 months after it happened, this guy took something that was a bunch of crap in the first place, recycled it, and then actually managed to get it published in The Boston Globe?

He claims he is a long-standing Sox fan but I have to question that allegiance. As I’ve already stated, he’s not the first person to suggest this, and as far as I’m concerned anyone who thinks or suggests something like this should have their Sox Nation membership immediately suspended pending further investigation.

Or as he suggests, maybe we should just burn them at the stake, or string them out on the Common like 17th century heretic, Mary Dyer. I understand it is suggested purely to spark debate, but as far as I’m concerned it’s just a ludicrous notion that has already been beaten to death and now needs to be buried and forgotten forever.

Any Sox fan worth his salt wanted the Sox to win the World Series. It’s all we’ve ever wanted. We wanted it in 2004, we wanted it in '03, '99, '98, '95, '90, '88, '86, '78, '75, '67, and '46. Oh yeah, and every other year too. We were ecstatic when they finally managed to do it last year, and we want them to do it again this year (I also don’t buy into the notion of not caring if they ever win it again now that they’ve finally done it).

The reason we root for this team is because we want them to win the World Series. It’s heartbreaking when they come close and don’t do it, the summers are long and miserable when they stink, but we dealt with it because we hoped that someday they were finally going to reward us and win it all.

That someday finally came for us last year. All of the near misses that preceded it only made it that much sweeter when it finally happened. They did not give us the feeling of “What do we do now?” or have us wondering if what we lost may have been greater than what we won.

You can’t lose something you never had in the first place. If someone is going to insist on trying to find something that was lost in this victory, then go to Yankee Stadium for the weekend of September 9th-11th. When you get there, you will find that a certain chant always heard reverberating through the air when we visit, will be missing, never to be heard again.

Tessie Moment

We’ve all seen the commercials during the games on NESN, the piano solo from Tessie, leading into the chorus, while the screen is showing a dramatic highlight from one of the games this year (they did this last year as well).

Moments from this year have included Renteria’s bunt single to get on base followed by Big Papi’s blast into the black covered seats off B.J. Ryan to beat the Orioles, Millar and Varitek’s consecutive day game winning shots against the A’s, and most recently, Manny being Manny as the clock strikes 4pm, the trading deadline has passed, and Manny comes up in the eighth inning and grounds one back up the middle to drive in the go ahead, and eventual game winning run against the Twins.

Last night was another “Tessie Moment”. I haven’t heard the term used yet, so I’m going to coin it here. Nixon comes up in the bottom of the ninth and with 2 outs and the bases loaded he lines one into right off TB closer Danys Baez, scoring Papi from third and sending the Faithful home happy.

These are exciting moments in Red Sox Nation. I get goose bumps every time I see one of those commercials and I never get tired of seeing them, unlike all of the other commercials that are played over and over during Sox broadcasts.

Here’s hoping there are plenty more to come and they help carry us deep into October.

Speaking of moments, I saw what I thought was a very cool one at Fenway on Monday night. Carlton Fiske was at the game and when it was announced the crowd went crazy, prompting him to stand up and waive to everyone. That was cool enough by itself, but what I thought was even cooler, was when they cut to the Tampa Bay dugout and there was Lou Pinella standing there with a big smile on his face, looking up at Pudge and clapping along with the Faithful. It's just not something you see very often and I thought it was awesome.

At It Again

Are the Yankees actually desperate enough to not only take a page out of the Red Sox book, but also take it and run with it? Apparently they are? I’m talking about the signing of Mark Bellhorn, which should be officially announced later today, on the heals of the Alan Embree signing.

Back in 2002, the Sox were going to get the best of the Yankees by signing one of their castoffs, Ramiro Mendoza. Mendoza was having arm problems and the Yankees knew it, so they let him go. He then went on to become one of the few busts put into a Red Sox uniform by Theo. He was signed for 2 years at 6 million and spent half that time on the DL while not pitching very effectively for the other half. He did manage to give us a few decent innings down the stretch in “04”, but overall he was not a good investment.

I remember at the time of the signing thinking how great it would be to have Mendoza helping us defeat the archenemy. I thought it was a pretty good move at the time. Now we know that the Yankees knew what they were doing and again they had the last laugh.

Now, although not quite the same as it didn’t cost them nearly as much, it seems the shoe may be on the other foot. Back at the end of July, the Yankees were so desperate for bullpen help that they signed Sox castoff Alan Embree, despite the fact that he was ineffective for us this year and had an ERA around seven. I laughed about it at the time.

Did they really think they were going to get him over there and turn him back into an effective pitcher? He had been showing signs of this even last year. He’s made 14 appearances since then, pitching 9 2/3 innings, giving up 10 hits, 2 walks, and 7 runs (6 earned). Admittedly he’s pitched much better lately, but he’s still not a guy I would trust with the ball in a key situation.

Now they are going to give it another try with the signing of Bellhorn. Their rookie second baseman Robinson Cano has been slumping badly after coming up and filling in admirably for free agent bust Tony Womack. Womack is still somehow managing to get playing time in the outfield for them while posting an OBP of .271, although I suspect that will end with the acquisition of Matt Lawton.

So now they are going to turn to a guy who batted .216 in the majors this year with 109 K’s in 283 at-bats. He showed absolutely no signs of putting it back together during his minor league rehab assignment batting .176 with 24 K’s in 68 at-bats. It’s not clear what kind of playing time he’ll get over there, whether he will actually take over for Cano, or just be a backup infielder, but I think it’s safe to say that it’s not likely that either of these guys will have any kind of impact on their pennant chances, at least not a positive impact.

I will say this though, although I’m not at all concerned with these 2 being there, I do admit I’m a little annoyed by it. I don’t blame them, they were cut lose by a Major League ball club and were given the chance to continue playing in the majors. You can’t blame a guy for wanting to continue playing in the majors and taking the opportunity that’s presented to them. I don’t blame the Yankees either, they had voids to fill and decided to fill them by taking chances on players with decent big league track records. And I don’t blame the Sox, both of these guys were clearly not working out for us this season and we really had no other choice but to do what we did.

It’s just that, both of these guys were integral parts of our World Series Championship. Although understandable that we let them go, it still stinks that it had to happen, and it’s even worse that they had to go to the Yankees. I didn’t like losing any of our players from last year (well, watching Pedro walk out of here didn’t bother me much), but I knew it was a necessary evil and it was easier to take knowing that they were just going to other baseball teams. Watching a couple of World Champions walk out of here and cross over enemy lines is a much more bitter pill to swallow.

Where Is Our Pitching?

It has not been a good week for our pitching staff. It seems like everyone we put in there, whether starting or relieving is giving up runs, the exceptions being Mike Remlinger (ironically) and David Wells. Because of it, we lost 2 out of 3 to the absolute worst team in Major League baseball and have split the first 2 games against an average team. In the process we have managed to lose 3 games to the Yankees and are now only a game and half ahead of them. Things do not look good right now.

I don’t think it’s as big of a deal as it seems. It looks to me like it’s mostly been a case of a little bit of bad timing and bad luck. It all begins with the starters. In every game this week we needed relievers to go at least 3 innings. That’s going to cause some problems for any bullpen. All we really need is our starters to go a little longer in games to give the pen a rest so they will be more effective. And that’s we’re the bad timing and bad luck comes in.

It started with David Wells on Tuesday. Still suffering from the tail end of a viral infection that had been plaguing him for a couple of weeks, he got the win and pitched effectively enough (0 runs, 5 hits, 2 walks), but was only able to manage 5 innings.

On Wednesday Clement pitched effectively for 7 innings, but because the offense struggled a little bit, it went into the eleventh forcing the bullpen and even Arroyo to work overtime.

On Thursday we had Schilling, who we knew was on a pitch count and was not going to be able to give us a lot of innings. We were hoping that because it was the Royals, he would be able to get some outs while working himself back into starting shape. Unfortunately it didn’t quite happen for us.

Friday we sent Wakefield out there who is normally good for 6 or 7 quality innings but he was still hurting from the line drive he took off the shin during his last start. To make matters worse, he was nailed on the same leg by another batted ball early in the game. Despite this, he still managed to go six, but he was clearly hurting and therefore not as effective as he might have been. This is yet another reason why you have to love Wakefield. He knew his team needed him; he was hurting, he went out there anyway, got hurt some more, and still stuck it out for 6 innings. He’s completely selfless and willing to sacrifice himself for the team as always.

This brings us to yesterday where Arroyo’s fastball was lacking its normal velocity, possibly the result of having to throw on Wednesday because the pen was already taxed. Because of this, he was ineffective and only able to go 5 1/3 innings and we were forced to use the pen yet again.

So, here’s the good new. We start the cycle over again today with Wells. He should be completely over this virus by now and ready to give us some good innings. Clement goes next and he seems fine, our problem with his last start was the extra innings. Schilling is still getting stretched out, but if we can get the pen some rest over the next couple of days, they should be okay to pick him up on Wednesday. Hopefully Wakefield will feel good enough to give us the innings we need on Thursday and Arroyo should be well rested to get back into the groove on Friday.

Also on Thursday rosters expand and we’ll have some reinforcements on the way, including a healthy Keith Foulke. And if Wakefield is not able to go on Thursday, we'll have plenty of pitchers to choose from. From there it’s just a matter of putting it all back together and hoping that happens before the Yankees have a chance to overtake us.

Being the ever optimist that I am when it comes to this team, I think we’ll be fine and it will all work out.

Thank You Mr. Bellhorn

Mark Bellhorn will officially clear waivers this afternoon. According to the Globe, his agent says that he will not accept an assignment to Pawtucket, which will force the Sox to let him go. He will then hope to catch on with another team.

Even if he did accept the assignment, he wouldn’t be called up until September 1st at the earliest, which would mean that he would not qualify for the post-season roster and would make nothing more than a cameo appearance at best for the rest of the regular season.

For all intents and purposes, Mark Bellhorn has played his last game in a Red Sox uniform, and The Nation is saying goodbye to yet another World Champion.

From everything that I’ve seen and read about him, he was a quiet guy who was well liked by his teammates and manager, and just went about his business of going out there every day and trying to do his job the best that he could. Unfortunately, his best this year wasn’t good enough for this team, and for that matter, for any Major League team.

It’s difficult to tell what happened to him. He was never a great player to begin with, and really only had 2 good seasons in his 8 year Major League career. In 2002 he hit .258 with 27 home runs while playing all 4 infield positions in 146 games for the Cubs in his first full Major League season, after playing sporadically for the A’s as a utility guy for his first 5 years where he also lost a lot of time to injuries.

The Cubs gave up on him halfway through the “03” season after he batted just .209 and sent him to Colorado where he really didn’t do much better. I seem to remember him losing time to injuries that year as well.

Theo traded for him in December of “03” to continue playing the utility role that he had been stuck in his entire career, as well as to provide insurance for Pokey Reese at second. Although he always had high strikeout totals, he fit the mold Theo likes with a high (.350) career on base percentage, plus he was cheap, which they needed after all the money they were shelling out. I would say we got our moneys worth from him in 2004.

With the injury to Nomar and the move of Reese back to his natural position of shortstop, Bellhorn was finally given a chance to play everyday at one position, second base. He turned in a solid regular season, batting in the 2-hole for most of it while putting up career numbers in BA (.264), RBI (82), runs (93), hits (138), doubles (37), and walks (88). He was also one point short of his career best OBP at .373 and hit 17 home runs. Unfortunately, he also struck out a maddening 177 times. He drove us insane watching him take pitch after pitch, and all of those swings and misses, but overall he did his job as the number 2 hitter and got on base a lot. Driving in 82 runs from the 2-hole is an impressive feat as well, of course a lot of that has to do with the good on base guys we had at the bottom of the lineup, but you still have to get the job done when they’re on, and he did.

He played solid defense at second base, even filling in for Mueller at 3rd for a few weeks when he was forced on the DL to get the knee fixed. He went down himself for a few weeks in August/September with a thumb injury.

Despite the solid regular season he will always be best remembered for his contributions in the playoffs. After starting off very slowly in the ALCS and really hearing it from the fans, he ended up hitting 2 game-winning home runs, one in game 6 of the ALCS and one in game 1 of the World Series. I originally wrote more about them here

http://bostonnine.blogspot.com/2005_02_01_bostonnine_archive.html

so I won’t go into details again, but I think it’s safe to say that without his ALCS contribution there is a very good chance we never make it to the World Series, and things could have turned out very differently once we got there, without his home run in game one.

It’s tough to see it end like this. He just never got going this year, and the writing was on the wall for him long before the injury finally forced him out of the lineup. With the way Graffanino is playing and the ability that Cora has, it makes sense to do what we did.

We will now go on to try to repeat without him, all the while knowing that without him, we would never be in the position to repeat in the first place.

So, goodbye to a true World Champion, and thank you for helping to give us something that no other Red Sox second baseman has been able to give us since Dave Shean in 1918.

Bullpen Woes, AL Foes

Obviously, we’ve got some serious bullpen problems, but I don’t think we’re as bad off as a lot of other people seem to think. The good news is, most of the runs that were given up by the bullpen in the last week were by one man, Mike Remlinger, who really has no business being on this team and isn’t likely to be for much longer. The bad news is, almost all of the rest of them were given up by Schilling. Of course the reason Remlinger is there is because we needed another arm and we still do. As bad as it is, we may have some help on the way. Foulke will be back soon, Craig Hansen may be coming up and could be good enough to help out. Hopefully these additions will work out and allow us to get Schilling back into the rotation, where hopefully he will be able to get it going in the right direction.

Papelbon is looking like he has a very bright future in the big leagues as a starting pitcher. Granted he hasn’t faced very good offenses yet in the Twins and Tigers but he was still impressive. I think he’ll be a good option in the rotation for the time being and then he can help out in the pen once Schilling and/or Miller comes back.

Something will work out here, preferably all of that, but even if it’s not all of it, it should be enough. Who can beat us? This Angels series should answer some questions, but I really don’t think they’re any better than us right now and we could beat them in a 5 or 7 game series. They’ve got some injuries to a couple of key players, they’re bullpen is not getting it done right now either (although it did last night when the game was already out of hand), and with the exception of Colon, none of their starters stand out. Their offense is nowhere near as good as ours and when it comes down to it we could just outslug them.

I would say the biggest threat to us in the playoffs will be the White Sox. They’re doing everything well and have been all year. Still though, we’re currently 4 and 2 against them including splitting the 4 game series in Chicago. And we did all of this with the same problems we’ve been having recently. Their starters might be better than ours right now, but we’ve already worn out Beuhrle twice now, and we worked over Garland pretty good in his last start against us. Plus these guys don’t have any playoff experience. The only starters that do are El Duque and Contreras. Although El Duque has been very good, we wore him down in the ALCS last year, and we’ve always has Contreras’ number. Their bullpen is also having some problems and this thing could come down to our offense working over their pitching.

Who else is there? The A’s could get in as the Wild Card if they don’t steal the division away from the Angels. They have been playing good baseball lately but most of their pitching is inexperienced and again they will probably be worn down by our offense.

The Yankees could get in but they’re in worse shape then we are. The Indians and Twins both have outside shots of getting in there, but it’s not likely. If the Indians manage it, again I don’t think they’re pitching is good enough to handle our offense. The only team that might be able to do it is the Twins. But they have absolutely no offense and we should be able to hold them down enough to edge them out, particularly at Fenway where the series would start.

Anything can happen in this game and the more pitchers we get back healthy and effective the better off we’re going to be, but even if it doesn’t all work out, I still think our chances are as good as anyone else’s to get to the World Series.

More good news is that the Yankees were not able gain any ground during our stay in Detroit as they managed to lose 2 out of 3 against Tampa Bay. They are now 4 and 9 against the Devil Rays, that 5 game difference is also the difference between them being in first place instead of second. It’s very similar to how the Orioles had our number last year and ended up being the difference for us.

Too Popular?

As I’m out and about I’ve been noticing a lot more Red Sox paraphernalia than I’ve ever noticed before. It seems like every other person you see is wearing a hat or a t-shirt, or both. Bumper stickers are all over vehicles and practically everything else.

A lot of it is world championship stuff, which is understandable, we were never able to display it before, it’s not likely they were making world championship bumper stickers, hats, and t-shirts back when we last won it. But there is also just a lot of regular stuff as well.

There was a lot during the winter after we won it, but it seems to be growing everyday as we are in first, and have been for a while now, and looking like we have our best chance to repeat since… well, since 1919. I’m not really sure how good our chances were of repeating back then but looking at the numbers (5th place in the AL with a 66-71 record, 21.5 games behind the first place Chicago Black, uh, I mean White Sox) it didn’t look very good for the Royal Rooters.

Obviously it has not been our BEST chance to repeat since then, it’s been our ONLY chance. My point is that for the last few years this team has been very good including winning a championship. They have a bright future with an ownership team that cares about winning and is willing to spend the money to do it, a management team that knows how to spend that money to get the most from it, a scouting team that is bringing a lot of very good talent to the farm system, and a core group of players who want to win more than anything else, and are good at doing it. With all of this as well as all of the new changes to it, Fenway Park is the place to be during the summer, and hopefully, the fall.

So this is all great, right? Well, yes and no. Being a longtime Sox fan, like every other longtime Sox fan, I’m very happy and very excited about the direction this team has been going and is continuing to go.

There are new fans joining the ranks of “The Nation” everyday, many are being born into it like Kyla, but many more are people who have been around for a long time but are only just now becoming members. Although it’s great for the Red Sox organization, I have to admit I’m a little bothered by it.

Where were all of these people for the last 30 or more years? Where were they in “78” and “86”? Where were they in the terrible years between? Where were they in the late “80’s” and the “90’s”? Hell, where were they in 2003? And that’s just my lifetime.

Suddenly there are all of these people walking and driving around the places and streets of Boston (and other parts of the country I’m sure) proudly displaying their Sox hats, shirts, and bumper stickers and talking about the team like they’ve been following them for years. They show up at Red Sox games to be seen, carrying their signs to get the attention of Remy and Orsillo, so they can get on TV, or even worse, sitting behind home plate, constantly waiving at the camera.

These people probably have no idea that before he gained cult status as a broadcaster, Remy was a fan favorite manning the position currently manned by new fan favorite Tony Graffanino. They probably couldn’t tell you who the numbers above right field represent (except for Yaz and Teddy Ballgame). Yawkey Way is just the name of a street to them. They know nothing about “Morgan Magic” and don’t know why it’s Bucky Bleepin’ Dent. They’ve never heard of Heathcliff Slocumb or Larry Anderson, or Phil Plantier, Reggie Jefferson, Scott Cooper, Tim Naehring, Todd Benzinger, or Wilton Veras.

They don’t know what it’s like to have your heart ripped out of your chest in October, or September, or sometimes as early as August. They’ve never suffered through a dismal summer like 1987 or 1997. They’ve never looked forward to the next season and been excited about a winter transaction and the prospects of the spring.

And worst of all, they don’t know what it’s like to experience the excitement of being a long-suffering, long-time fan of a sports franchise that finally wins the whole damn thing.

The growing popularity of this team is great for baseball, it’s great for the Red Sox franchise, and as a Sox fan, I admit that I’m enjoying the fact that we’ve probably eclipsed the Yankees as the most popular baseball team at the moment. But at the same time I can’t help thinking that a little piece of something has been taken away from me, and it’s just not quite as special as it used to be.

Good Show

Wow, we’ve scored a lot of runs so far this week. Not surprising though, when you go against a team that has no pitching and never has. Still, it’s been a lot of fun to watch. Although watching the bullpen implode and all of those errors being made (including the weekend in Minnesota) is not fun. Hopefully it ends soon. We may be able to overcome it against teams with crappy pitching like the Rangers, but as seen over the weekend, it doesn’t work against teams with good pitching. And it usually doesn’t get you very far into the playoffs, despite what the 2004 team managed to accomplish.

That has got to be one of the worst umpiring jobs I’ve seen in a series. Even though we seemed to get the brunt of it, there were bad calls on both sides, none worse than the one made on Gabe’s homerun last night. How is it that everyone else in the ballpark can see that it was a homerun except for the 4 guys who are supposed to see it? Fortunately it didn’t make a difference.

You gotta love Trot Nixon though. This guy’s on the DL and he comes storming out of the clubhouse to scream at the umpires in defense of the guy who’s replacing him in right field.

What is going on with the Yankees? They have lost almost all of their projected starting rotation to injuries and have been forced to use minor leaguers and pitchers pulled off the free agent scrap heap, but still manage to win enough games to stay in both the division and wild card battles, mainly because they’ve been able to out slug their opponents. Then they actually get very good pitching performances from a minor leaguer and a free agent pickup, but still lose 2 games in the division standings because they don’t hit, and one of those losses was against a pitcher they gave up on, Jose Contreras. This is further proof that the magic is gone. I’m really all broken up over it.

I’m compelled to say a few more words about Manny. This guy drives me insane. As I’ve said many times before, he’s one of the top right-handed hitters in the game. What he does with a baseball bat in his hands is just unbelievable. The “Manny being Manny” thing has taken on a life of it’s own, and there’s really nothing anyone can do except go along for the ride. I really wish he would just put all the crap aside and begin playing baseball the right way. I get the feeling we probably won’t see anymore of the major things like refusing to play in a game, refusing to pinch hit, or leaving the team a day earlier than everyone else, but it would also be nice to see some of the minor things go away as well, like not running out a ground ball, or standing at home plate and watching one of his blasts, and even worse, glancing at the pitcher before he starts his trot. It probably won’t happen though, and I’m just going to have to live with it.

We have a big test coming up this weekend. There’s a pretty good chance that we will be matched up against the White Sox at some point in the playoffs and they will have home field advantage. We split a 4 game series with them at U.S. Cellular (gotta love this corporate age) in late July during a time when we weren’t really playing that well. So we know we can win over there. Now we get 3 at home against them and a chance to really send a message. Not only that, but if we sweep we can get to within 5 games of them and have an outside shot at passing them for best record and clinching home field advantage (they have to slow down at some point right?). Of course, the Angels and A’s are right there with us and will also have something to say about that (we have 7 games left against the Angels and 4 against the A’s).

As I peruse the standings and see that the Mets are mired around .500 (currently 3 games over) which puts them in last place in the NL East and 3 games behind in the Wild Card race, with 4 teams in front of them, I wonder how much Pedro is enjoying his decision to leave the World Champions so he could get the respect he deserved from Omar Minaya.

I’m not one to say I told you so Pedro, okay I am, and I did.

Jose We Hardly Knew Ya

So much for the Jose Cruz Jr experiment, he barely made it a week. It seems strange to trade for the guy (even if it was only 2 non-prospects) only to let him go a week later. That’s okay with me though, as I said when the trade was made, I didn’t really think it was necessary as I felt that the combination of Kapler and Olerud, with Millar switching between right and first, would be just as effective if not better. Of course, Olerud got hurt after that which brings me to my next subject, Roberto Petagine.

I don’t really get all the hype over Petagine. This guy does not have much of a major league career. All of his hitting was done in the minors and in Japan. Admittedly, he wasn’t given much of a chance to prove himself in the majors the first time around, but he didn’t do much in the short time he had.

Hitting in the minor leagues and in Japan is not the same as hitting major league pitching. I think it’s fine that he’s up right now while we wait for Olerud to recover, but I really don’t think he should be logging much playing time. Yes he’s left-handed, but so what, Kapler can hold his own against right-handed pitching. Also, my understanding is that he’s not known for his glove at 1b (he Bucknered that ground ball last night and looked like Durham Bulls first baseman Jose, after his girlfriend put the curse on his glove), and by putting him at first it not only slightly downgrades the defense there, but it severely downgrades the defense in right field as we go from Kapler to Millar.

Olerud should be back by the end of the week and I think that if Francona is going to insist on not letting Kapler get the at-bats while Nixon is out, than Olerud is the better option over Petagine.

Yesterday my 2004 World Series DVD collection arrived in the mail. I got it from Ebay for $88.50 including shipping, which is a far cry from the $130.00 they want for it at most outlets. I haven’t had a chance to take a look at any of it yet, but I can say I’m already a little disappointed. Everything I’m about to mention, I already knew about before I bought it, so I can’t really say I’m too disappointed as I knew exactly what I was getting.

The biggest disappointment is that it’s not in high-def format. I didn’t have a high-def TV at the time the games were played so I don’t know what I was missing, but I do have one now, and I don’t understand why they couldn’t have put it out in a high-def format, it would have been nice.

Next is the bonus DVD. My understanding is that, although there is some additional footage, it’s mostly the same DVD that was put out by Major League Baseball. I think that just about anyone who would shell out the doe to buy this collection already owns the MLB DVD, so the bonus isn’t really much of a bonus. Why not include a completely different DVD with all new and different material?

The pluses: the box score for each game on the back of each DVD cover is a great idea. Also the trivia on the front is cool. The DVD’s are set up so that each half inning is a chapter and the inside cover of each DVD has as summary of that half inning so you can quickly and easily get to whatever it is you want to see.

Overall I’m very happy to have each game from the ALCS and World series complete and with no commercials. You might remember I TiVo’d it all when NESN replayed them but the quality wasn’t that good, I needed 2 DVD’s for each game, and it had the commercials, which would have been a lot of work to edit out. This is much better.

I Like Tony

Tony Graffanino has won me over. It was during his at-bat in the 5th inning that I decided it, and also decided to write this piece, but it had nothing to do with the bomb he hit into the monster seats to give the Sox a 3 run lead. As he was fouling off pitch after pitch during the at-bat I began thinking about what he’s been doing for this team since he came over.

At the plate he’s been getting his share of hits, getting on base, and making it tough on opposing pitchers at the bottom of the order. In the field he’s been very steady with the glove including making quite a few good plays and even a couple of great plays, such as the catch of the foul pop up that Petagine couldn’t find tonight. Ironically, I was thinking right before the blast that about the only thing he’s lacking is some pop. What impressed me even more than the dinger, was the scoring from 2b on Damon’s infield hit in the 7th. That’s the kind of hustle I like to see from a ballplayer.

This guys been around for 10 years and although he’s been very solid when he plays, he’s really been just a utility player, playing a lot of 2b, but also logging time at 3b, SS, 1b, and even a couple of games in left field, but only averaging about 200 at-bats per season.

I thought it was a good move by Theo to pick him up to fill in for Bellhorn when he went down, and I knew that he would be a decent option until Bellhorn was ready, but I also thought Bellhorn deserved to get his job back when he was ready (or at least get a shot at proving that his troubles were behind him). I’m a firm believer that no matter how well a guy is filling in for an injured player, no player should lose his job because of an injury (try to tell that to Wally Pip or Drew Bledsoe). I still believe that, but I think this is a slightly different case. After all, Bellhorn didn’t really lose his job because of an injury, he lost his job because he was terrible all year, the injury just sealed his fate. And he hasn’t done anything down in Pawtucket over the last week to show that he deserves a shot to get it back.

I like Tony doing what he’s doing over at second. I think he’s the best option we have in the organization right now, and I suspect it will remain that way for the rest of the season.

I also want to note how much coincidence there always seems to be in what I write with what everyone else is talking about. As I already mentioned, I decided I was going to write this during Graffanino’s at-bat in the 5th, but before he actually hit the home run. At that point he was having a decent game, a couple of singles, a run, an RBI, and a couple of good plays in the field. A pretty good game, but not so much that it needed to be written about.

Then he goes on to hit the 3-run homer and score from 2nd on the infield hit, and now not only is he the talk of the post game show, but I’m sure it’ll be written about and talked about in the papers and radio tomorrow. I’m already hearing them mention everything I just wrote on the post game show, with the exception of the Wally Pip reference.

I really try to leave out the obvious and write about things I don't think anyone else will be writing or thinking about, and at the time I began thinking about writing this I believe that was the case, but sometimes fate interferes.

Oh well, that’s okay, Tony deserves to get his due.

Huh?

I don’t want to be too critical because we won the game, but I really don’t understand what Francona was thinking on this one. Why would he decide to rest 2 of his regulars, Damon and Mueller, on a day when his starting catcher already has a scheduled day off, and on top of that his starting right fielder is on the DL?

Admittedly, this wasn’t as bad as the fiasco a month ago when he rested Damon, Renteria, Manny, and Tek all on the same day and we only had Adam Stern to play CF. At least this time we had Kapler back to fill in for Damon and we still had most of our other big bats in there. And Graffanino is a respectable option to fill in for Johnny at the top of the order with his .380 OBP.

The lineup wasn’t actually all that bad, but I still think it was a little crazy to have 3 regulars out of the lineup (and 4 subs in the lineup, because we don’t really have a regular in right field with Nixon out) on the last game of a 3 game series where we’ve only scored a total of 3 runs in the first 2 games and are trying to avoid being swept.

What makes it even worse and what’s even more baffling to me is why he started Alex Cora at 3b and Tony Graffanino at 2b. Graffanino has logged about 150 games at 3b in his 10-year big league career, while Cora had exactly 3 innings, which came a few weeks ago.

It was almost as if he was asking for a sweep. Somehow it managed to work out. Joe Mays was terrible in the first inning and the offense was good enough to take advantage of it early and then again late. This allowed us to overcome the 2 errors that Cora (predictably) made at 3b and of course we were also helped out by Shannon Stewart’s bonehead play in the first inning.

The last time I complained about the lineup, we lost the game and I said that I would have written about it even if we had won and just added that he was lucky to get away with one. Well, this time that’s exactly what happened.

He's No Dave Roberts

I think I’ve mentioned this somewhere on this site before, having the speed and base running experience of Dave Roberts to come off the bench down the stretch and into the post season last year was a luxury that few teams, if any, have experienced. Not only is Roberts an experienced and great base stealer, he’s also a guy that is capable of being (and was until he came here) an everyday player.

This of course, is the reason why he has so much experience and is so good at base stealing. You just don’t have the opportunity very often to make a trade for a starting outfielder who is also a great base stealer, and then have the luxury of being able to use him off the bench exclusively for speed late in the game. As we all know, without him, we don’t win games 4 and 5 of the ALCS. Coincidentally, there’s a great piece about him and the “stolen base” in today’s Globe.

What’s my point? A lot of people seemed to think when we picked up Adam Stern in the rule 5 draft and then finally got him back healthy and onto the big league roster, that he would be a great replacement for Dave Roberts. A lot of people are wrong.

Adam Stern may be a very fast runner with a good track record of stealing bases in the minors, but he’s also a rookie, and no matter how fast he is, how much experience and how many stolen bases he has down there, none of that makes up for the fact that he is still trying to learn how to play and run the bases against experienced big league pitchers and catchers.

This has been glaringly evident in the last few weeks. I can think of at least 3 instances where he has been sent in to run for a player and was picked off before getting to second base, and although they all go down as “caught stealing”, they were all the result of bad reads and none of them were close.

Last night was the most recent one where he misread a dropped ball by catcher Joe Mauer and broke for second only to be picked off easily as the ball did not get very far away from Mauer, who was able to pick it up and gun him down. There was 1 and possibly even 2 other instances in the last couple of weeks where he did not get the timing down on the pitcher, broke for second too early, and was picked off between first and second. And then there was the blunder at third when he broke for home on a ground ball and got himself caught in a rundown, costing us a man in scoring position.

The report on Stern is that he has good speed and is a good base stealer, but not much power. He’s good defensively and projects to be a 4th outfielder who can play all 3 positions. To me this translates to a player who will probably never get enough at bats to become a great base stealer in the major leagues, speed alone does not make up for lack of experience.

So, he may end up sticking on the roster all year (it’s the only way we can hold onto him), and he may even continue to get into games late as a pinch runner and help the team, but I would not expect to see this guy pulling off any spectacular base running feats anytime now or in the future. In fact, it’s not likely we’ll ever see what happened last year ever again.

Manny Being Manny

Manny Stays

Manny is still here and that’s a good thing. There was no way we were going to be a better team, or even as good of a team, if we traded him during the season. Theo knew it, and did the right thing. That doesn’t mean I like him now, it just means that I’m smart enough to know that this is the best chance we have of repeating.

I don’t actually dislike him either, I’m just really tired of the way he disrespects the game and his team. His contract goes for another 3 years after this season; he also becomes a 10-5 man at that point, so who knows what will happen. If he really wants to stay like he said he did yesterday than there’s nothing we can do about it.

Let’s face it, this guy is probably the best right-handed hitter in the game and probably will be for the duration of the contract. It’s not only his production that makes him valuable; it’s also what he does for the rest of the lineup. He gets Papi better pitches to hit which makes him better, which in turn has a chain reaction effect throughout the entire batting order. This lineup in nowhere near as fearsome without him.

So, as long as he’s here, I will continue to route for him, because we need him to continue being the hitter he is in order to win. I will also continue to live with the “Manny Moments”, because they come with the package and I have no choice. But no matter what kind of personal hitting accomplishments he achieves in his career, he’ll never make my list of favorite players.

I have to wonder though, did he do it all just so he could get that moment at Fenway yesterday?

No Moves

I think this team will be fine. It would be one thing if we didn’t make any moves while other teams did, but no one really did much of anything to improve their team, so we’re all still right where we were yesterday.

We’re the best team in the AL East, and we should be improving without making any trades. Foulke is rehabbing and could be back pitching (although not necessarily closing) by mid-August. Schilling is coming along and should be back in the rotation as soon as Foulke is ready to take over the closing role again (and I think we’ll get the Foulke back we had last year). The rest of the starting staff looks pretty solid, and we might be fine in the pen with the additions of the young guys in Papelbon and Delcarmen, and eventually Foulke.

Papelbon looked pretty good in his first Major League game yesterday and really looked like he might be ready to help this team now. Of course, he was facing a lineup that consisted of only 2 established ML hitters, 3 up and coming young hitters, and 4 marginal big league players, so we’ll see what happens. I don’t see him bumping anyone from the rotation, especially since Schilling is going to do that eventually, but he could definitely be a factor in the pen for us.

Also, it’s not like we did nothing. Bradford should be big for us down the stretch as he’s pitching his way back into shape. It looks like I may have been wrong about second base. Graffanino looks solid over there. His consistency might be enough of an upgrade over Bellhorn to make a difference and Cora should help out a little too. That’s assuming of course, that they go that way once Bellhorn’s ready to come back, but that’s the way I see it going.

Embree to NY

I have to laugh when I read all these people saying that the Sox did not want to see Embree end up with the Yankees. What makes these people think that Embree is, all of a sudden going to become effective over there? Or do they think the Sox are afraid that Embree is going to bring some secrets with him? These teams have played each other so much over the last couple of years that I don’t think Embree could tell them much that they don’t already know.

And as far as his effectiveness goes, it’s not going to change. He still has a 90 mph batting practice fastball, and I would love to see Joe Torre bring him in to face Big Papi during a key situation in a game in October.

Jose Cruz Jr.

The one move Theo did make over the weekend was picking up Jose Cruz Jr. from the Diamondbacks. We didn’t give much up for him, a couple of single A guys who weren’t projected for much, so why not? I don’t see him making much of a difference though.

At one time he was both a good hitter and defender, with power and speed at the plate, and range and a good arm in the field. He’s been having back problems this year and hasn’t been very consistent because of it.

He’s a switch hitter, which means he’s probably going to get most of the PT in right field to start off, but I’m not convinced he’d be a better option then what we already have. Kapler is as good, if not better than him defensively and just may be a better hitter right now. Even if he’s not, Olerud is heating up right now and putting him at first while moving Millar’s hot bat to right might also be better, although we do lose some defense in right field.

More than likely it’ll be some combination of all of the above, depending on who’s hot at the time.

Gammons Is In

I couldn’t let this weekend pass without mentioning Peter Gammons induction to the Hall. As far as I’m concerned this was the most noteworthy name that went in this weekend.

Nothing against Ryne Sandberg, he was a good player who I liked, but I think his numbers make him a marginal Hall-of-Famer at best. Marginal or not though, they were good enough to get him in, so congratulations to him.

My thoughts on Wade Boggs and why I don’t care that he got in can be read here: http://bostonnine.blogspot.com/2005/01/boggs-is-in.html

Gammons is the man, the baseball guru, the de-facto commissioner, a pioneer in the art of baseball (and sports) writing, as well as one of the first to make the transition from writing to reporting on TV.

I’m not going to get into all of the details. Those can be read in just about every newspaper in the country today I imagine, particularly the Boston Globe. As you read these articles you can see just how well revered and respected he is by his colleagues and peers. But not just them, also by anyone who has anything to do with this game, players, coaches, GM’s, owners, etc.

He loves and respects the game, probably more than anyone else, and it shows by how hard he works, how much time he puts in, and how much fun he has doing it. In fact, it probably killed him yesterday, having to be at the induction ceremony on what is traditionally one of the busiest and most interesting days in baseball.

Congratulations to him on receiving a well deserved honor.