The Rivalry

The Boston Red Sox just swept three games from the New York Yankees, coming from behind each night.  

Friday night, the Red Sox were down by 2 with a runner on and two outs.  Jason Bay (thanks Joe!) came up to face Mariano Rivera and promptly deposited the ball over wall.  Watch it here.  Kevin Youkilis ended the game in the 11th with another home run to Left.  

I didn't see Saturday's game as a friend came up to visit, but it was on in the background where we went to dinner.  There was a family of Yankee fans there, with one kid who couldn't have been more than 7 years old.  When we got there the Yankees were winning 4-0 and added more to go up 6-0 and the kid clapped so hard and looked around at us all with such pride (more on that later).  By the time I left the restaurant though, the Red Sox had struck again, capped off with a Jacoby Ellsbury homerun to tie the game just as we were paying the bill.  The Red Sox eventually won that game, 16-11.

Sunday Night, the Yankees once again jumped out to a lead, 1-0, but the Red Sox ended up winning 4-1.  The play of the game was Jacoby Ellsbury's straight steal of home, the first since Billy Hatcher (again, thanks Joe, I think anyway...) in 1994.  

Granted, this is April, but it wasn't all too long ago that the exact opposite always seemed to happen.  The Red Sox would jump out to early leads and blow them to the Evil Empire.  I remember the old days.  I remember being mad at the thought of all the 5 year olds at Yankee Stadium, who probably couldn't remember a time when the Yankees weren't World Champions. 

I remember being at Fenway for a Ranger-Red Sox game, and Yankee fans (don't ask me why they were there, but there were loads of them) hung the number 1 for the first Red Sox who struck out, 9 for the next, 1 for the next and 8 for the next and repeating that pattern.  As my cousin said to me "It sucks cause they're right and there's nothing we can say back."

I remember skipping a little league game to go to Fenway and  see the Yankees beat the living day lights out of Boston... it was something like 26-3 and even though the game was at Fenway, my uncle and I were 2 of 3 Red Sox fans in our section and it seemed like every section was like that.  

To tell you how bad it was, I remember a game when the Red Sox had a 3-1 lead at Yankee Stadium, recorded the 27th out of the game, and yet somehow still lost!  I'm not making that up either.   Look at September 18, 1993 in the link above.  That's unbelievable.  The Red Sox did everything necessary to win, but still somehow lost.  I know of no other comparable moment in any sport.  The next day, Anakin Skywalker said it was too bad it wasn't like football and they couldn't penalize the Evil Empire 5 yards or something.  

But now it's different.  I wouldn't say the roles have reversed completely, but it's nice to know that 7 year old in the restaurant has never seen a Yankee championship whereas the Red Sox have won 2 in his life time.   

The Pittsburgh Pirates and K/BB ratios

The Pirates lead the league in ERA! Wow!

And look at the staff they're doing it with: "Ace" Paul Maholm, Zach Duke, Ian Snell, Jeff Karstens, and Ross Ohlendorf. So, the lesson is, even with a bunch of below average pitching talent, if you just try enough times, eventually your staff will be good? Not even close.

Strike out to walk ratio is a pretty good gauge of how a team's pitching over all. The League-Leading Pirates staff? 77/52, or 1.48.

Here's the K/BB ratio for the rest of the top 10 ERA teams:
Mariners, 109/50, 2.18
Royals, 120/48, 2.5
Dodgers, 113/50, 2.26
Marlins, 112/58, 1.93
Cardinals, 97/47, 2.06
Padres, 100/54, 1.85
Cubs, 118/57, 2.07
Blue Jays, 125/53, 2.36
A's, 92/62, 1.48

So it takes until the 10th team to find another team with a comparable ratio to the Pirates. This means they're getting lucky. I'm sure they're better than last year, but still lucky so far.

What IS encouraging is that we've only given up 10 home runs in 9 games. This is tied for 6th best in the league, with the Phillies (29 HR allowed!!) and Indians (24 HR allowed) hanging out at the other end of the spectrum, with their ERAs suffering as a result.

However, at least the Phillies have a great K/BB ratio (97/40 or 2.43) so you'd have to think they are getting unlucky and their ERA will be knocked down over the next couple months.

The Indians, on the other hand, have a ratio of 93/67 (1.39). Yeesh!! The pitching will not be pretty this year for the Tribe, as that is the worst K/BB ratio and HR allowed combo in the league, unless they have an unbelievable defense.

Greetings from Ohio

Ladies and gentlemen please allow me to me to introduce myself. I am mr. midge man, die hard Cleveland sports fan. While I know I am doomed for heartache for the rest of my natural sporting life I keep in good spirts by reminding myself that no matter how bad my Indians are we are at least still better than the Pirates. Even if our record may not show it.

I leave now for my morning class but I have one quick little point to make. While the Indians did lose last night two zip verses the lowly Royals I found this game to be the surest sign of a team turnaround yet. In all honestly how often do you think this team is going to be shut out? And if we continue to see a turnaround in the likes of Cliff Lee and Pavano... Be afraid, be very afriad.

4 Shutouts

Amazingly, the Pirates lead the league in shutouts and stopped the "red-hot" Marlins last night. The season is enjoyable so far. I'm still expecting to break the record for seasons under .500 for all major North American sports. FOR SURE.

I'll be listening to the day game later this week at work, and I plan on going to one or two AAA games this weekend because the Pirates AAA team is in town here in Columbus Thursday-Sunday.

I'm watching my first game at the new Yankee Stadium right now, and let me tell you, I like what I see.  

The worst announcers in the history of baseball* spent the entire first inning talking about how nice it was and how much it costs and how they want to vacation in the Yankees Club House.

They then spent the entire second inning wonder if Cleveland was running up the score or not.  Right now, it's 14-2 Cleveland.  The Yankee Mystique is gone.  To quote McCarver, (definately the lesser of the two evils cause he doesn't also ruin the NFL) "The Indians made the home plate in New Yankee Stadium pretty old pretty quick in the second inning."

*=The funny part is, I didn't even say who they were, and you knew who I was talking about, didn't you?

Harry the K

What a sad day it is for Phillies fans.

Our beloved Harry Kalas has passed away... and watching or listening to a Phils' game will never be the same. He was our broadcaster for 38 years and will forever be known as "the voice" of the Phillies.

Growing up during the summer months I'd watch the Phillies games every day. I had created a little field and had index cards cut up to make little name cards that I'd move around the bases and put on the field for our defense. I kept track of the line-ups for each game in a little notebook.

And I lived to hear Harry's legendary: "Fly ball... deep to left field... watch that baby waaaaaaaaay outta here!! Home run Von Hayes!!" Von... or Michael Jack... or John Kruk... or Lenny Dykstra... or Ryan Howard... or Chase Utley.

For years I've been plugging into MLB.com just to watch the highlights and hear Harry's voice announce brilliant plays.

I loved listening to him and Whitey going back and forth... bantering... enjoying the game... just like two old friends should be doing. The difference was that millions of households were privy to their game-time conversations.

Sigh.

Admittedly... the voice of Harry Kalas has the ability to make me leap out of my seat and can also bring me to tears. It's the voice of memories. The voice of my childhood. And it will always be the voice of the Philadelphia Phillies.

It's a horribly sad day.

Josh Beckett vs the Lost Angelous Angels of Anaheim

All the talk on the airwaves is about Josh Beckett's "altercation" with Bobby Abreu. Here's a video. Beckett was trying to hold Chone Figgin's on. Abreu called time after Beckett was already motioning to the plate. Beckett threw a pitch anyway, and it went up by Abreu's head. He didn't hit him. It was close though. I don't know if it was intentional or if Beckett was trying to stop and it slipped out of his hand.

I'm not gonna say much else about this, but it'll be interesting to see how this plays out the next time the two teams are in town. Abreu got his revenge his next at bat, as the link above will show you. I don't know if Californ...I mean Ana...um....whatever they're called now is satisfied with it though.

Triple Play

Reds runners at first and second run on the pitch, soft hit into the shallow outfield, Jack Wilson backs up, makes the catch, throws to Sanchez at second who throws to LaRoche at first... the easiest triple-play I've ever seen. Congrats to the first Pirates who were involved in the play, Pittsburgh's first since 1993.

Click here to see the play.

I'll be listening to today's game at work today.

2009 Regular Season Predictions

We're 2 or so days into the season already, but I'm going to deliver my regular season predictions a little late anyway. But DON'T WORRY. I'm not going to let the current standings influence my predictions WHATSOEVER.

American League

I think the Twins, Angels, A's and Mariners will all go about .500.

I predict that the Tigers, Royals, Indians, Rays and Yankees will all go winless, 0-162.

I predict that the Blue Jays, Orioles, Red Sox, White Sox, and Rangers will all go undefeated, 162-0.

Amazingly, Boston will miss the postseason despite going undefeated and having beaten the undefeated Blue Jays and Orioles several times each.

Toronto, Chicago and Texas win the divisions. Baltimore wins the wild card.

National League

I predict that the Cubs, Astros, Pirates, Cardinals, Padres, Dodgers, Diamondbacks, and Rockies will all win about half their games.

I predict the Phillies, Nationals, Reds, and Brewers will all go winless.

The Braves, Marlins, Mets, and Giants will all go undefeated.

Braves, Pirates and Giants win their divisions. Marlins win the wild card.

Once again, let me stress that although these picks are late, I did not cheat by using the first 1 or 2 games as a gauge for the picks.

Opening Day

The Red Sox are now on pace to shatter the Major League record and go an unheard of 173-0.  

Nevermind.

I just figured out that Pirate games are blacked out in Columbus on MLB.TV.

WHHHAAAAAAT????!?!?!?!?!?!?!!??!!!!!!!!!#%^#%^#$%^@$^@%^@%^@$%^@$%^@%

WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY?

For the small price of $15/month, any of you can watch all the Pirate games. But I literally have no way to watch a single Pirate game this season. No Nationally televised games. No FSN Pittsburgh in this area. We are far from Pittsburgh. My only option would be to get a really expensive satellite package with FSN Pittsburgh.

2009 Coverage

I hereby pledge to post regularly on this blog, at least for a couple months, starting at the beginning of the regular season.

After much deliberation and research, Jessie and I have decided not to get cable. On the flip side, I am going to buy MLB.TV (at least for a few months). It's only $15 a month and I can watch any game at any time on my computuer. That includes every Pirates game.

Therefore, I should have some things to say. I'll try to do a daily "lunchtime" post on the issues of the day over my lunch break.

I'm gonna invite a couple people to write alongside us too, to inject some life into this place.

Today is a great day!!

Happy Pitchers and Catchers Reporting Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This Year is Different

Usually around this time of year I'm sulking. The Phillies normally end their season miserably... then the hope that I've put in the Eagles gets crushed by their disappointing finish.

This year is different.

As usual, the Eagles blew it. They lost a game they were supposed to win... which was typical of their play this season. In fact, I chose to stay home to watch the game instead of joining the 200+ Philly fans that congregate at a local bar downtown because I knew the Eagles were gonna lose. All season they won the games there were supposed to lose [like last week against the Giants] and lost or tied the games they were supposed to win. I'm pretty sure McNabb gets lazy when he thinks he's gonna win. It's horrible.

Another year... another NFC Championship game... and another loss. In the past 8 years, the Eagles have made that far 5 times... winning only ONCE before losing in the Super Bowl. 5/8. That's roughly 63% of the time. And they lost 4/5 times. Pitiful.

Anyway... the point. This year is different... because the Phillies won the World Series. No one was singing the Eagles' fight song at the end of the Phil's season this year. The stadium didn't empty early the last month of the season. I wasn't depressed. And no one was saying, "But they looked so good on paper!" or "I guess there's always next season." The Phillies... unlike the Eagles... finally lived up to their potential.

It's January 19th... and we've got a long way to go before Pitchers and Catchers Reporting Day...

Curt Schilling

I was just watching the MLB network for the first time ever. They had a program about the 2004 World Series. I don't see how anyone could watch that or any other 2004 postseason highlight reel and deny that Curt Schilling is a Hall Of Famer. Just based on what he did and which team he did it for, who he did it against and where he did it. Phenominal.

Merry Christmas, Indeed!

This year, my family and I not only celebrated Christmas together... we almost ceremoniously celebrated the World Series VICTORY by our beloved Philadelphia Phillies.

We wore our team shirts.

We discussed intricate details of the Series.

We played with the confetti picked up by my aunt and uncle from the parade down Broad Street as we watched the parade on DVD.

We watched Part II of Game 5... with Harry Kalas's radio broadcast of the pitch-by-pitch.

And... we stepped back in time to watch the last several innings of a game we went to in 1989. September 17th, to be exact. We've watched the VHS taped version of the game dozens of times since then and we still talk about that game amongst each other. We were along the 3rd base line for the first game of a double-header against the Cardinals. The Phils had a ton of hits, but couldn't put them together to score runs... so with a 5-5 tie game, we went into extra innings. The Eagles were playing the Redskins at the same time [in Washington] and the Vet aired the game on the stadium TVs. The crowd erupted as the Eagles did something miraculous and pulled off a win. Minutes [and maybe even seconds] later, John Kruk stepped up to the plate and blasted a 12th inning walk-off home run.

That small window of time is memorialized in my brain forever as one of my all-time favorite sports memories. Well... it was my very favorite... until the whole winning a World Series thing came along. The '89 game isn't irrelevant to my life... but it certainly plays second fiddle now to October 2008.

So now we're World Champs. Philly fans have been let down for eons, it seems... so to finally have something to REALLY cheer about for our city is still a little bit surreal. Getting to celebrate with my family certainly helped... but it's still hard to believe that they actually did it.

The Philadelphia Phillies actually won a World Series. A team from Philly actually won a championship!

Merry Christmas to me!!

Red Sox Uniforms

I was gonna write about free agents, so I'll do that quickly. The Yankees are trying to sign Manny. They couldn't beat him. Might as well sign him I guess to go with Sabathia and Burnett. The Red Sox, on the other hand are trying to sign Teixeira. Talk on the radio is what will happen to Mike Lowell, who would be the odd man out with Youk moving over to third. I guess you'd have to trade him (while obviously eating a HUGE portion of his contract). I'll keep you posted.

Now, I've been very busy with finals and grading, so I just went to redsox.com for the first time in I don't remember how long. I almost threw up cause I read on the Sox are introducing new uniforms next year. New away, new alternate home, new alternate away. Thankfully they're keeping the home jerseys.

Here's what I think of each, and I'm looking at them for the first time as I type. These are my first impressions.
Road Jersey
The new road jersey. This is ok. I calmed down a lot after seeing it. I thought It harkens back to the days of my youth, if you consider preschool and earlier to be youth. They look similiar to the jerseys the team wore in the 80s. The major differences are the new jerseys have a font similiar to what they used the past 15 years or so, whereas the 80s jerseys looked like they were done in time new Roman. Also, the old 80s jerseys never had names on the back. These ones do. Reviewing it more, the color scheme reminds me of the New York road jerseys. That's not a good thing. I miss the old (new? 1990s version) ones already. I don't mind the red sox they have on the sleave. Can we comprimise and just put that on the road uniforms from last year?

Alternate Road Jersey
First of all, since when do the Red Sox do alternate road jerseys? That's something crappy teams like Seattle do to get more revinue. Oh yeah...revinue. That's what this is all about. Second of all, this is atricious. It's like one of those kids you see dressed up as a ball player on Halloween wearing nothing that comes close to resembling the actual uniform. In all honesty, I don't mind the jersey that much. I kind of like it better than the red alternates they've been wearing. Those things kind of hurt your eyes to look at. If that were the only change, I'd be quite happy. But the hat. That's disgusting. When I was a young boy, around 8 or 9, I use to think other teams like the Marlins had hats that were so much cooler than the Red Sox. I can't find an old Marlin hat online, but it was teal with a black bill and had the F and the fish and it looked awesome. So anyway, I spent many an hour trying to design an awesome Red Sox hat, and came to the realization, this is as good as it gets. This hat was worn by all the great Red Sox, and all their fans. This has all the history and tradition. Look at that beautiful B. Just look at it. No other way to describe it. It's beautiful. Now look at the alternate hat. It's hideous. It looks like something a little kid would wear. I'm 100% against it.

New Alternate Home Jersey.
I don't know why I wasted time looking for an image of the old alternate, cause this "new" alternate looks the same to me at first glance.

New Logo
They're also changing the logo. I miss the old one, with the Sox insider the baseball and "BOSTON" up top and "RED SOX" down bottom. The new logo is the hanging Sox on the hat. Not much of a change, I agree, but still, what I grew up with was better.

Off Season Stuff Part 1

10 minutes ago (plus or minus), the Red Sox traded Coco Crisp. The fact he was traded probably surprises no one. The fact it took this long after the 2007 World Series probably surprises quite a few of us.

Crisp wasn't happy when Ellsbury took his job in October 2007 and didn't like the idea of the roles reversing this past season, which they pretty much did. Interestingly enough, Ellsbury lost his job to Crisp in the post season this year. I guess that was just a two week thing though and Ellsbury, unquestionably the centerfielder of the future, is also the centerfielder of right now.

The Red Sox sent Crisp to the 1985 World Champions, getting reliever Ramon Ramirez in exchange. I've never heard of him, but I like that at first glance he seems reliable with a 2.64 ERA in 71 appearences.

Also, according to redsox.com, the Sox and the Yankees are fighting over A.J. Burnett. Why? He's been in the division 3 years and pretty much did nothing substantial. He won 18 games this year, which I notice is the only the third time in his career. The Second was 2005, another free agent year for him. The 1st was 2002. I don't know if he was up for arbitration at the end of that season, but I wouldn't be surprised. Curt Schilling once said Burnett might have the best stuff of anyone in the American League. That might be true, he's just never healthy enough to prove it.

The Yankees want Lowe, Sabathia, and Burnett, the Red Sox only apparently are going after Burnett.

Aside from questioning Burnett, I'd also question why the Yanks would want D-Lowe. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate everything he did, getting a save in the clincher of the 2003 ALDS and winning the clinching games of the 2004 ALDS, 2004 ALCS, and 2004 World Series.
But 2004 was in a contract year when he pitched so crappily he was removed from the rotation for the post season. He got the ALDS win cause the game went to extras and he was the long man. He got the ALCS win cause Wakefield volunteered to pitch as a long reliever in the game 3 blow out and gave up his game 4 start, which the team gave to Lowe. Wakefield also volunteered to pitch long relief in game 5 if necessary (it was) and gave up his possible game 7 start, which Lowe got. Based on the ALCS, Francona let him start in the World Series. Did he pitch well in the post season? Yeah. I give him all the credit in the world for it, but I wouldn't want him back. I think physically, Lowe's a great pitcher. He's got talent. But as soon as anything goes wrong, be it an error by the second baseman, or the umpire making a bad call he loses it mentally and immediately gives up 3 runs. I haven't seen him much as a Dodger (if at all...) so maybe he's fixed that. Perhaps someone who watches the NL with regularity could comment.

Lastly, Dustin Pedroia won the AL MVP. Congratulations to him. Mo Vaughn was the last Red Sox in 1995, and that helped heal the wounds I had as a 10 year old after watching the Red Sox get swept by Cleveland out of the first round of the playoffs that year. No offense to Dustin, but that trick doesn't do it for me anymore.

Congratulations Phillies

The Phillies are World Champions.  Cory Matthews would be proud! 

In all seriousness, congratulations Laura.  Enjoy the title.

This is now the third year in a row one of our teams won the World Series.  You know what that means?  

Pittsburgh Pirates: 2009 World Series Champions.  

You heard it here first.

Pitching Strategy

So what do you do tonight?  Do you go with a brand new starter to pitch 3 or 4 innings?  Or do you use your bullpen like you would  in any other World Series game in the late innings.

I think Tampa Bay's gotta start with Balfour, cause otherwise they lose him for the night.  After that, I guess it depends on situation.  Philly on the other hand has more options.  For all intensive purposes, Hamels is on 2 days rest, and he's also leading off the inning.  I haven't seen him play too often, but looking at his stats it doesn't seem like he's a great hitter.  I might just go with a starter for the whole game...however long that lasts.  Moyer pitched well in game four.  You think he could give you three or four shut out innings tonight Laura?