Well that's a nice thing to say

Ryan Westmoreland's family released a statement today.

Don't get me started today

I can only imagine if the Red Sox had lost last night.

First of all, I’m all set with Neil Diamond. They guy should’ve been there to sing Game 1 of the 2004 World Series or even Game 1 of the 2007 World Series. But the 2010 Opening Night Game? No thanks. They did him a big fat favor when they let him play a concert at Fenway Park. And now they’re doing him another one. How many of his regular shows you think he has to play to sell 35,000 tickets? Who’s looking for him?

And on top of that, he wears that stupid $#*!@% coat with the Brooklyn thing on it. Hey Neil, you’re not in New York City, the Dodgers aren’t playing and just about anybody that remembers seeing the Dodgers play in Brooklyn is collecting Social Security.

The opening “night” game rubs me a little the wrong way, but not as much as it does some others around here. It became a bit more confusing, though, when I saw the game was on espn2. You strip some city—they move it every year—of an excuse to knock off work for a day, presumably because you want to give MLB a jump to start the season and maybe bring in some extra revenue. Then you put it on the second tier station?!

If I were the NCAA Women’s Tournament, I’d be a bit miffed. You get the lead network, but they’re pulling a good deal of potential audience right out from under you. Not that their making the best decisions over there, either. Sunday night? With the second game so late?

Speaking of NCAA basketball and late games, I think the Red Sox game last night might have put a nail in the coffin of any plans of me seeing the nets cut down tonight. I have only very mild interest in the game, anyway. I hate Duke and they figure to win. The only interesting aspect is the possibility of Butler winning. If Duke’s up big or is holding a steady lead in the second half, it’s going to be early lights out for me.

A woman I work with is married to a Duke graduate, who by all other indications is a good guy. Due to the Red Sox game last night and her inability to stay up, she said she doesn’t figure to see the end of the game tonight, either. She roots for Duke with her husband, so we agreed we wouldn’t discuss the game tomorrow, since one of us will be sore with the result and neither of us is likely to have seen the entire game.

Since I always try to be a Life is Good type, I’ll end by expressing my pleasure that the Sox pulled out the win last night and the weather is and figures to be very good the next few days.

Yes

I agree with most of this article. We've already rightly seen the same piece about Ortiz, right?

Thanks to Universal Hub for the tip-off to the article.

Extremely upsetting

If it pans out--and it looks pretty credible--this is very upsetting. With the caveat that I'll take it all back if somehow his innocence is revealed, here are my feelings...

I was at Game 5 of the 2004 ALCS, where Ortiz drove in the winning run in the 14th inning with a soft flair to send the series back to New York.

I've also been a fairly harsh critic of Ortiz' seeming failure to keep himself in shape and promptly address injuries to limit his lost playing time.

Now I see one more very good reason to call for his release in the offseason and will consider his legacy to be one of lies and shame.

All the good feelings he generated and good will he enjoyed were based on lies. He cheated. He lied. He marketed himself and allowed himself to be marketed as the "good guy," the big lovable hero. All the time he knew it all to be lies?

He profited from his dishonesty while others fought honestly, but unsuccessfully, to make their own way.

He is a liar and a cheater. I will not forgive him for the shame this brings to the franchise and the World Series wins in 2004 and 2007.

Like I said, if this turns out to be a horrible mistake or devious slander, I'll take it all back. Otherwise, my above opinion stands.

Beyond Splooge

This is the kind of stuff that gets me excited.

Theo is super badass. I hope he's in charge for the next 30 years.

Red Sox not interested in making NESN a decent channel

I'm giving up hope that NESN will ever be a decent channel. Though I have hoped they would take advantage of the TV "genius" Tom Werner and create some compelling programming, they have officially announced their lack of interest in doing that. The unofficial word had come in long ago.

There will be tremendous Red Sox content available...on Comcast's On Demand section. No doubt for a nominal fee.

Red Sox "Sales and Marketing" guy is quoted as saying: "...we think it s a benefit to all of our fans...Having Red Sox On Demand is going to be a great addition to all the other ways to enjoy Red Sox baseball."

Uh, Sammy boy, "all" of your fans don't have Comcast. They are much more likely to have NESN. When I was looking for a "great addition," I wanted the programming, but I didn't want to have to get an additional service with an additional fee.

The first priority with this deal is money for the team. Otherwise they'd put it all on NESN. But then they'd have to bump a few infomercials. And we can't have that, can we?

What a sad joke!

Yankee fans jinx obsessed

It goes without saying that selling a bag of grass that almost fits in the palm of your hand for $20 because it's in a bag that says "Yankees" is a huge ripoff. Just because they use Kentucky Bluegrass at the new Yankee stadium, where everything from ticket prices to home run totals are ridiculously high doesn't make it valuable.

But, these being Yankee fans, they're apparently for sale. And one creative Yankee fan brought some of the "Yankee" grass to Fenway and spread it out while attending a Phish concert there.

It was obviously an attempt to one-up the Sox fan who worked on the new Yankee stadium and buried an Ortiz jersey in concrete.

The Yankee franchise and its fans have gone over the moon since blowing the 3-0 ALCS lead in 2004 to the eventual World Series Champion Red Sox. They lost that Curse of the Bambino crutch. After the Red Sox won again in 2007 and the Yankees continued to underachieve, the word was that the Yankees were cursed, the source being the thought-to-be-savior, A-Rod.

So they broke up concrete slabs to remove a jersey. And now they're overseeding Fenway. (The guy didn't realize that the Fenway turf is also bluegrass, albeit not from the most expensive burlap pouches in history.)

I admit the idea of fun and creative, but harmless, pranks between fans could be interesting. I thought of the MIT pranks. But there's nothing to support any notion that they would remain fun or harmless for very long, given the two fan bases involved.

Anyway, whaddya bet that at some point A-Rod's gonna drop the third out of an inning, allowing a game winning Red Sox rally because he slipped in some extra thick grass in the area where the magic seed was dropped?

It's weird

I can't get into the Sox-Yankees series this week. Maybe it's too early in the season. Maybe it's the fact that the Yankees didn't make the playoff and the Red Sox lost in the playoffs to the Devil Rays, who were expected to permanently trade last plash finishes in the American League East with the Orioles.

But I think as much as anything else, it's that the Yankees have as mercenary and new a lineup as I can recall. CC Sabbathia, AJ Burnett, Mark Teixiera (if you want to remember how to spell it, think "Old MacDonald had a farm, ei, ei, o."). Even the manager, Girardi, while a one time Yankee player and coach, seems like the kind of guy they hired because he was the hot young manager. The "right" guy.

Gone is Torre. Pettite isn't the same. Rivera doesn't seem important since the Yankees alway seem to either win or lose by a score something like 9-5. Even the Stadium is gone, replaced by something that looks more like a resort community than a ballpark.

Is the Yankee franchise more of a fantasy league creation than ever? Could be. But I'm not all that fired up about this week's series right now. Let's see what happens once it gets underway. Or later in the season.

Just remember you read it here first

I have had a series of serious ideas for improving things the Red Sox do, mostly concerning NESN. Show ideas and such. I don't have the time, money or connections to make them happen. None of them has shown up on their own, as a result of anyone else thought process, so maybe they're still original. More likely, the Red Sox are not interested in producing new programming for NESN that will either entrain existing fans or solidify new ones (hard to imagine). With little evidence, I'm convinced they're just happy to collect the money form the infomercials. I can't believe the lack of programming is the result of not having good ideas. If it is, someone over there contact me through the comments section here. I've got a few ideas for you.

Anyway, I had another idea for the Sox, which I'm giving away for free.

I'd like to see the Red Sox create a baseball-reference.com type site for themselves. Really comprehensive resource for Red Sox stats, information, etc. But they could use their partnership with the Boston Globe and NESN to expand on what baseball-reference does.

They could copy Baseball Reference and include a page with full box scores and scoring summaries (from the point they started existing) for each game in franchise history. But along with the individual game, the Red Sox could include Boston Globe coverage of that game and NESN highlights of that game. Three top headlines from the Globe on that date in history. Other interesting historical stuff. Cross promote all you want.

It seems it would be easy to build. Isn't it just a matter of some scripting and code to pull together the data from the separate entities the team already taps into in one way or another (Globe, NESN, STATS/Elias/MLB?, etc). And they could tie it into Red Sox Nation membership, if they wanted to bleed the populace a bit more.

My boy Clay

Adam Kilgore from El Globe:

"SARASOTA, Fla. - Clay Buchholz has been perhaps the most impressive Red Sox pitcher this spring, a fact he reinforced yesterday...

"Buchholz lowered his ERA to 0.46, more than nine runs fewer than his spring ERA last year. He has struck out the same amount of batters (15) that's he allowed on base in 19 2/3 innings. He has been a revelation.
But because of the Sox' loaded pitching staff, Buchholz knows it's possible he will begin the year in Triple A Pawtucket. He accepts that. Yesterday might have marked the final start Buchholz makes with the Red Sox this spring. No matter where he starts, Buchholz knows the past month has righted his career."

Forwarding this article generated this response from "Sam Spade":
"It's going to be a short stay in Pawtucket for him. Penny is going to be a bust."

To which I replied:
They’ll ride Penny until Smoltz is ready (Jun-ish). When they each blow through two failed attempts at consistency or health, Clay will be brought in. He may get a start or two for the big club along the way in the interim.

They’ll need another pitcher, too, though. Clay will be the backup for Penny and Smoltz, but it’s also likely that one or more of the others will have a spell of bad health. They may look to Masterson to fill that role. But I’d expect Bowden and Tazawa to get some spot starts. At least I hope so. The thought of bringing back Paul Byrd after he clears one of those league calendar marks does NOTHING for me. At all.

Fenway Park

Buckley wrote a column yesterday.

Jay didn't like it.

I didn't like parts of it either and told Jay, who posted my thoughts.

Haven't you been thinking this, too?

Longer than I've been blogging, I've been worrying about David Ortiz. His "wait and see" approach to the bad knee and wrist didn't go so well. I've never heard of him going to any fitness performance institutes in desert locations in the offseason(Manny did, though).

So it's high time he start getting called out in public for effectively hitting cruise control on his career.

Baseball news at winter meetings

The Texas Rangers traded one of their catchers. Gerald Laid was sent to the Detroit Tigers.

The Rangers are one of the teams that the Red Sox are looking to for catching, via trade. They have two young catchers who are possibilities.

The Tigers are one of the teams thought to have an interest in Varitek.

Does this make it more likely Varitek stays with the Red Sox? If it does, only slightly so.

Hot stove happiness

Happy to see Pedroia sign an extension with the Sox. And at VERY reasonable dollars.

Something else that made me happy was Tony Maz's post on the Yankees and how the bloom might be off their rose, so to speak. It may not be 100% true and accurate, but even if it's exagerated, the premise being conceivable makes me happy.

Sox to sign another Japanese pitcher?

So say some of the reports.

This one is differnet in that the pitcher, Junichi Tazawa, is only 22 years old and likely to start in the minors.

It's not just encouraging to see the Red Sox obtain another player that can help the team who is essentially a free agent. It's reported they didn't put in the highest bid for Tazawa. So it's nice to find out that they may be doing it in large part due to their success in obtaining Dice-K and their ability to develop pitchers and other players.

Game 7

Lester on the mound for Game 7. Dramatic win followed by a solid one. Tampa is learning about the ups and downs of the playoffs. That doesn't mean they won't win. But they're not going to be quite as cocky if they win Game 7 as they would've been if they won Game 5. Not nearly.

The Bet

If Obama goes over 290 electoral college votes, I get cupcakes from Crumbs Bake Shop, including the new Bababooey cupcake. (not yet listed on the menu)

If Obama fails to top 290, I have to supply a big bag of Portuguese sweet bread from Homlyke Bakery in New Bedford/Fairhaven.

The payoff will most likely be over the Thanksgiving weekend. Lemme tell ya, if you're ever in their area, these are some damn good cupcakes. Follow the link above to see the cupcake menu. And Homlyke makes some damn good sweet bread.

Health update

Illness strikes some people at the most opportune time. Update on the super Sox fan who is sick, but not because of the Sox play in the ALCS...

yup, missed the whole game. Slept from about 7 pm until 7 am.

Eff this. I'm back at work today and if I have to s#!+ and hurl in a can in my office so be it.

Co-workers are really going to love seeing this one come down the hall, huh?

Not for the squeamish...or during lunch

What's worse than staying up late to watch a Red Sox game or seeing an early game that's over before it's dark? Hold on to your hats for this one, which came in via email from a very, very dedicated fan. And remember, his condition wasn't caused by the Red Sox...

True confessions:

I didn't see one pitch of the game last night. I was on death's doorstep sick with about an 8-hour evacuation process.

I know you don't need to know this but I'm proud to say that I hit the sickness superfecta last night:

1. many trips to the can to vomit
2. Many trips to the can with diarrhea
3. A couple trips to the can with vomit first then switcheroo to diarrhea.
4. One glorious trip to the can with diarrhea WHILE vomiting in a bucket.

I lost 10 pounds overnight, easily.

Easy trade off

I'd much rather stay up late to see a Red Sox win than feel like turning it off before it even gets dark.

There are several struggling people I blame for the sitaution the Red Sox find themselves in. I blame them because they are not just in a slump. And no, this doesn't mean Tampa doesn't deserve credit for their play. We can be intelligent enough to cite more than one reason for something, can't we?

Jason Varitek. It's no secret that he's been going through a divorce and it's a poorly held secret that infidelity might have played a part. Long-term, repeated infidelity, is the rumor. So he hasn't hit all season. But now he's giving up passed balls in critical situations. And he took a third strike with two on and less than two out yesterday. Inexcusable. He knew the ump was giving wide strikes. He needed to put the ball in play. He's supposed to be smart. He's playing dumb.

David ORRtiz. There are five or six guys who are more deserving of his spot in the batting order. Just like his knee problem a few years ago that required surgery he didn't get until after the season, he didn't get that wrist properly fixed. It's costing us big time right now. For much of the season--before the injury, even--he's been a shadow of his former self. It's a wonder Pedroia gets anything to hit.

Ellsbury. Enough with the popups. Hit the ball on the ground. (In fairness, Francona should've pulled him and put Coco in by now, a nift reversal of last year's strategy that worked so well.)

Beckett. The string of nagging injuries leaves me no choice but to conclude that Mr. Beckett got fat and happy with himself after last season's success and came back ill-prepared for the season. Let's hope he goes to fat camp--or at least one of those super workout training centers--this offseason.