Broad horizons

As I read Bobby Valentine's thoughts on the projected World Baseball Classic, I found myself thinking: "Maybe he has a point - Major League Baseball seems to be getting a little pushy". Until I got to the last sentence:

Valentine said he instead favors a true World Series, which would pit the best team from the North American major leagues against the best team from Asia.

Uh, hello?? Call me anal-retentive, Bobby, but how can you have a "true World Series" which doesn't take in the world? I know that baseball will never be the #1 sport in Europe or in Australasia, but this tournament should at least be a way of broadening the sport's appeal outside countries where it is already a national pastime.

Maybe, in reality, the final of a world tournament would end up pitting the best team from America (in the broadest sense of the term) against the best team from Asia, but it would be a little unfair to not give other nations a chance. Unless, of course, your view of the world is so limited that it's almost non-existent. Nobody says to countries attempting to qualify for soccer's World Cup: "Sorry, guys - you've only being playing football for 10 years and you're crap. Please go home". They get a shot at trying to compete against the big boys, and I'm sure the Dutch and the Italians and the Australians would love to see how they could perform against teams from the two major baseball continents.

Vive le baseball!

Called shot

Big Papi called it yesterday, and today Manny did his 'thang' - his 19th career grand slam. I didn't see the game, but a glance at box score tells me that was proabably no bad thing. I'm guessing this is how it went: Sox took a nice big lead by whacking the ball all over the place, Embree came in and did his 'thang' too (apparently aided and abetted by Timlin, who got the now trademarked BS, W after his name) and Foulke closed it out before it got any hairier. Another day at the office in Red Sox Nation...

Still, the Sox are 9-1 over their last 10 games, 6-0 for the road trip and now have a nice little 7-game winning streak going, to coincide nicely with a 5-game losing streak by the Orioles. All we need now is for the Big Unit to go all flaccid and allow the Mets to sweep the series at Yankee Stadium and it will be a perfect day.

The Matty 'n' Manny Show

I knew it was going to be a good day when I woke up and saw the sun streaming through the windows here in the rain capital of the known universe, and I was right.

Clement was lights-out - again - and Manny looks like he's back in his groove. He's still not back to his career levels, but those who see him play every day are not worried. Big Papi had this to say:

"Dude, I told you, 'Don't worry about Manny. Manny's a professional hitter. When you take those 400 homers he has and the .300 or something average he has lifetime, it's not coming out of nowhere. Dude, the guy's gonna hit. I don't worry about Manny. I don't care what people say. 'Oh, Manny's hitting .250, .240.' So, is [the season] over? It's not over yet."

And just in case Boston's 6th straight win wasn't enough good news, the Orioles lost, the Nationals won and the Mets beat the Yankees for the second straight game. Aaaaah - the little things in life, eh?

Back in the saddle again

Dear Red Sox,

This is good - we like it a lot.

I'm off to England for the weekend, but I expect you to keep this up and still be in first place come Monday morning.

Regards,
Iain

Music to my ears

I wanted to watch the Tigers and the Twins last night, but was late getting home, and by the time I'd eaten, the game was pretty much over. A quick check of the schedule showed that the Dodgers were playing in San Diego, so I clicked over to that, if only because I thought I might get a rare glimpse of #31 (OK, so he wears #10 now, but in my head he'll always be wearing 31).

As the game loaded I figured that I would be watching the home feed (although I've come to realise that there is neither rhyme nor reason to MLB.com's choice of feed - the Red Sox games in Cleveland this week were on FSN Ohio twice and NESN once). I was wrong, and for about the only time in my life I found myself happy to be watching Fox, since it meant I got to listen to Vin Scully call the game.

I've posted previously about Vin Scully, but watching yesterday's game and letting his prose wash over me made me realise where his genius lies. I can't listen to Vin without thinking of how I fell in love with the game of baseball, nor without thinking about For Love Of The Game. Just as Bob Uecker's irreverence was tailor-made for Major League, so Vin Scully was the ideal fit to call Kevin Costner's perfect game - that slow, measured delivery, interweaving the details of the game with the details of life. What is interesting is that someone who isn't a fan of baseball would probably say that they wrote a great script for Scully and found the perfect voice to convey the magnitude of what Costner is going through. However, it was only when watching last night's game that it occurred to me that it isn't something that is exclusive to the movie - all of Vin's commentary sound like a movie script.

Since starting to watch games on MLB.TV I've come to appreciate good announcers (and run as fast as I can from the bad ones). As a Red Sox fan, my allegiance clearly lies with Remy and Orsillo - I know that they're the home-town guys and all, but that doesn't give them a free pass, as I can think of several cities in which the announcers, even if I were rooting for the home team, would seriously get on my nerves. They call the game well, they're funny and insightful without being intrusive (Sam has some good recent examples), and they tend to steer away from the blatantly stupid questions and observations I hear elsewhere [FSN Ohio broadcasters to Kevin Millwood during an in-game interview the other night: "Kevin, do you change your strategy when you face hitters two or three times in a game?" No guys, I'm sure that if David Ortiz launches an inside breaking-ball into the right-field bleachers, he's gonna throw him the same pitch next time up, maybe see if he can hit it clean out of Jacobs Field...].

I digress. Where were we? Oh, yeah, Vin Scully. Well, Vin is an artist. There's a reason that he's been calling games for about 120 years now, and that reason is: he's damned good at it. I'd been watching for about five minutes last night when he quoted Benjamin Disraeli - not in an "Oh, look at me, quoting Disraeli" kind of way, just a simple "Hey, this seems relevant to the situation" kind of way. Vin is the icing on the cake, but he's smart enough to know that it's the cake that we came for.

Since I was rooting for neither team in particular, I was happy to just take in the game in the company of a couple of cold beers. If you're interested, I can tell you that the Dodgers pulled off an unlikely comeback, but you've probably gathered by now that I wasn't really watching - I was enjoying the sound of summer.

One run at a time

The Red Sox don't have a single day game this week, so my baseball fix today came courtesy of my 'other' team, the Nationals, who continue to defy the odds, the critics and possibly even gravity by winning game after game. Today's game was yet another one-run affair, with the Nats coming out on top 5-4. Jose Guillen had yet another 'look what you're missing out on' series against one of his former clubs, going 8-for-13 against the Pirates, with 4 home runs, over the 3 games.

Nats' games may be many things, but one thing they're not is dull - you can never switch the game off because you don't know how it's going to end, and with the Nats so often having little or no margin for error, you're always on the edge of your seat. Hector Carrasco got the much-deserved win, after coming in in the 7th with the bases loaded and one out and getting out of the jam and then pitching a 1-2-3 8th inning, and the game ended on a spectacular catch by Ryan Church, who took on the wall in left-center and won, giving The Chief his 23rd save.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go lie down for a little while and calm my frayed nerves.

Hole In My Life*

They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but I surely can't be the only person out there who reads this and thinks: "Oh, are you still here?" My baseball world is so much better when I don't have to hear about this guy day-in, day-out. I wish him no ill - he already seems to have his share of ill - but neither am I in any kind of hurry to see him back on a baseball field.

*Bonus Baseball Desert points to those who can name the band / album from which the song title is taken**
**Unaided by Google, naturellement ;-)

Baggy Trousers

C.C. Sabathia on the mound, Manny Ramirez at the plate - we're talking about a serious concentration of bagginess here. Watching the highlights, you could almost feel the weight of the uniforms dragging you down like some huge baseball black hole out in the middle of the field.

I'm not a big fan of baggy uniforms, even when worn by members of the Red Sox, but I'll say this in Manny's defence - at least he's got his cap on straight...

Better late than never

I've been meaning to give 12eight a mention for a while now, but hadn't got round to it. However, since I am partial to a little blogging out of left field I felt that today's post really couldn't go unlinked-to. So, for the love of Urban Shocker, go check out The Arquimedez Pozo Award right now!

Oh, and whilst you're off peering into possibly unexplored corners of the blogosphere, may I recommend that you stop by The United States of Baseball. It's always nice to come across someone else who is both a fan of Frank Robinson and is also unclear on

advanced astrophysics, brain surgery, and The Balk Rule.

Woe-mack

Ouch...

On a roll

In case you haven't noticed (and judging by the site stats you haven't...) the Red Sox recorded one or two emphatic wins this week.

Beating up the Cincinnati Reds may not be as sexy as beating the Angels or the White Sox or even the Yankees, but they're not playing for psychological advantages right now - a win is a win is a win. The pitching looked good and the bats were chock-full of hits, and I'm hoping that the Sox can carry that through to the 3-game series against Pittsburgh. It would be good to stay on a roll against the 30-34 Pirates, because after this weekend the Sox will face a tough 3-week stretch against the Indians, Phillies, Indians (again), Blue Jays, Rangers and Orioles - not a losing record in sight.

Stigmata

If you're a regular reader of this blog you'll probably remember The Enemy Within. If so, you'll be relieved to hear that she's no longer wearing the Yankees cap - [by the way, if you're wondering what the hell I'm doing with a Yankees cap in the first place, I have to plead the 'gift-I-can't-get-rid-of-for-sentimental-reasons' defence...] - she's traded it in for a Red Sox model.

However, it would appear that she's gone one spooky step beyond just wearing the cap. She came home from school today and said that she'd banged her arm and had a bit of a bruise, which she wanted to show me. Check it out:

A Red Sox logo bruise!

Outside of getting a tattoo (and she's a little young for that), it doesn"t get much cooler than that...

How Manny Got His Groove Back

Call of the Green Monster explains ;-)

Spot-on

Yup - "gem " is indeed the word to describe last night's Sox game. This is the David Wells the Red Sox hoped they would get - he surrendered just one hit over seven innings and gave what Jerry Remy called "a pitching clinic". Of course the Rem Dawg was quick to point out that no sooner had he said that than Wells gave up back-to-back walks (having walked only four batters all year), but if a pair of walks is the only thing we have to worry about from our starting pitchers every time they take the mound, then I think we'll be happy chappies.

Fighting talk

Frank Robinson is sometimes criticised for his management style, but one of the things he has proved he can do very effectively is play mind games, both with the umpires and with the opposing team - witness the Nats' recent series against Atlanta, when he managed to get a crucial home-run call overturned by the umpires.

Last night, he asked umpires to inspect the glove of Angels reliever Brendan Donnelly before he had even thrown a pitch. At first glance it looked like Robinson was once again just trying to upset the pitcher on the mound, but when the umpires took Donnelly's glove and inspected it, lo and behold - pine tar! Donnelly was then ejected, and the ensuing exchange of words between Robinson and Scioscia almost ended up causing a brawl between the two as the benches emptied onto the field.

I suppose Scioscia was upset at Robinson's request, and under normal circumstances I would probably have been a little pissed of at Robinson too for interrupting the game for no valid reason, but not in this case. The more I see Scioscia, the more he annoys me - he always seems to be whining about something - so this brought a big smile to my face, as it's a little hard to take the moral high ground when your guy has been caught red-handed. He tried to get his own back later in the game by complaining about Nats' reliever Gary Majewski's glove, but in the end it just made him look all the more like a petulant little kid who wants to get a cheap shot in.

In a key footnote to the game, it was interesting to see ex-Angel Jose Guillen having to be forcibly pushed back to the Nats' dugout after the benches cleared. Guillen had issues with Scioscia at the end of last season which led to him being released by the Angels. Last night was a situation which could easily have got out of hand, as Guillen was clearly upset by Scioscia's argument with Robinson. It is a measure of the turnaround in Guillen's attitude that he was able to harness that frustration and use it for his team, rather than against it: he came out in the top of the eighth inning and let his bat do the talking, belting a vicious two-run homer to start the game-winning rally and give us the picture of the day:

(AP)

The silence of Mike Scioscia - 'tis a beautiful thing...

Show me the money

ESPN has published an an excerpt from Jerry Crasnick's 'License to Deal', a book about baseball agent Matt Sosnick, and what I've read makes me want to go out and buy the book.

In an era of high-profile agents whose bottom line is simply the number of zeroes after the $ sign on the contract, how can you not want to read about an agent who inspires such loyalty in his clients that they're willing to have the company logo tattooed on their arms? Definitely one to add to my 'Wish List'.

Wrigley (revisited)

It goes without saying that the whole "Wrigley is beautiful" thing is a little bit dependent on your team winning the game, which didn't happen yesterday. The Sox got beaten up so badly that it started to look like they'd turned up in the middle of batting practice - even Greg Maddux cashed in on the BP feeling, hitting his first home run since 1999.

I don't like losing, but the blow is slightly softened by the fact that I quite like the Cubs - it's not like losing a blowout to the Yankees. All the same, I 'd just like to give a little pep talk to the Sox, notably the pitchers:

Guys - it's bad enough that you have to go up there and hit in these interleague games (and I use the word 'hit' in the loosest possible way, i.e. standing at the plate with the bat in your hands), but please don't make things worse by giving up home runs to the opposing pitchers. Zambrano's on the mound today, and he's hitting .233 this year - I don't want to see him circling the bases with his 4th career home run, OK? Thanks, and have a good series...

Miracle workers

You know that you're having a good season when the hometown press describes your starter as "lumpy", says that your backup-to-the-backup second baseman's "nimblest days have long since passed by" and you're still top of the National League East, having won your seventh straight game.

Livan Hernandez once again came through big for the Nationals, pitching 8 innings and running his record for the season to 9-2. I have to confess that, despite the "everything's OK" reports about Livan, I worry about him imploding one of these days. As I've said before, he is a workhorse, but if he keeps running up pitch counts of 120+, he's going to end up in trouble. Still, looking on the bright side, he is doing wonders not only for his ballclub, but also for my fantasy team. In fact, the Hernandez family is making me look like a smart manager (for once) - I have them both in my rotation, and so far they have a combined record of 16-3, with a 3.84 ERA.

I'm expecting the call from Billy Beane any day now...

Just what the doctor ordered

The Red Sox avoided the sweep and finally started to look like a real baseball team with a gem of a game from David Wells.

I was looking forward to watching Wells' effort during my lunch-break, but I was let down by MLB.com's Condensed Game feature. I don't know whether it's MLB.com or the respective TV networks that do the condensing, but it vary immensely from game to game. The Nationals' victory over the A's had almost every out and significant hit, but all I seemed to get from the Boston game was a series of two-out plays - not the best way to savour Wells' performance.

The Sox now head to Wrigley for a series against the Cubs, which - for no other reason than aesthetics - I'm looking forward to. Baseball at Wrigley Field always looks great, just like it does at Fenway, and the Cubs' insistence on playing a high percentage of their games in the daytime not only makes it look even better, but also allows me to see the games live, rather than condensed down to almost nothing at all.

Ruffling their feathers

I've finally worked out what the problem is with the Red Sox. In a word: birds. More specifically: Blue Jays, Orioles and Cardinals.

The Sox are 25-25 against non-avian teams, and 6-12 against the abovementioned three. The good news is that they face feathered foes only three times between now and the end of August (July 1-3, Toronto), so if they can beat up all other types of wildlife (Devil Rays, Tigers, Cubs) between now and then we should see some improvement in the standings.

Sox, present and past

I'm still ignoring the Red Sox, whose game last night is best consigned to the "Forget It And Get Over It" file.

On a night when the Sox' most solid starter lost his way the baseball gods demonstrated their fine sense of irony by having Pedro throw a two-hitter against the Astros. Pedro threw 80 of his 110 pitches for strikes and ran his record for the Mets to 7-1. Pedro may or may not have negotiated himself out of Boston, but one thing is for sure: he's still one of the best pitchers in baseball, and he's given the Mets a much-needed shot in the arm.

Beat me in St. Louis

The Baseball Desert's more astute readers may have come to the conclusion that I'm ignoring last night's defeat in the hope that it will go away. And they would be right.

Still, as the Soxaholix point out, at least it wasn't a shutout.

The Amazin's

Thomas Boswell has the latest on the Washington Nationals, who are still hanging tough in the NL East.

Usually, this type of article questions how teams who have beaten up lesser opposition will now fare against the big boys, but in this case it's the opposite. The Nats have proved that they can play good baseball against the best teams in the National League, but now they need to keep momentum going by beating up a couple of mediocre AL teams.

They've got the right attitude:

"It's only June. Don't get cocky," said [catcher Brian] Schneider. "We're proud. But we have so much more to accomplish",

but they need to continue putting it into practice.

Commercial break

Switch-hitting All-Star catcher: $11m

Highest-paid manager in the major leagues: $6m

The Best Player In Baseball™: $26m

Face-of-the-franchise 1st baseman: $2.75m

(Reuters)

Seeing all four of them wondering how it could all go so wrong: priceless...

Sweet dreams aren't made of this

A combination of tiredness after last night's 4:30am finish and a spot of overindulgence meant that I missed the last couple of innings of tonight's game. Normally this would annoy me no end, but under the circumstances it was probably just as well.

In the absence of any constructive criticism on the game, I'd just like to address a couple of words to Dallas McPherson:

Dear rookie,

I'm willing to give you a free pass on the "named after a town" thing, because it's not your fault. However, I do feel compelled to speak out on behalf of tidy-freaks everywhere on the subject of your uniform jersey: FASTEN THE DAMN BUTTONS, WILL YA? To paraphrase the great Crash Davis:

"Your uniform buttons are undone. You'll never make it in the bigs with your uniform buttons undone. Think classy, you'll be classy. If you hit .350 in the show, you can undo all the buttons you want and the press'll think you're colorful*. Until you hit .350 in the show, however, it means you are a slob."

Thanks for listening.
Iain

*If you don't believe me, just check out Buck and McCarver's comments from last night on Manny's back pocket.

Variations on a theme

The Sox have clearly decided to entertain Red Sox Nation with a variety of different wins: after the walk-off win on Thursday night, they came through with a come-from-behind effort to beat the (Los Angeles) Angels (of Anaheim)™. The Sox couldn't get anything going against Kelvim Escobar, but they sweated it out until the LAAOA relievers came in and then put six runs on the board in two innings.

Mike Myers did a great job to hold the Angels in check in the eighth, and Foulke closed it out in the ninth, though not before doing his "let's make it interesting" thing and loading the bases.

All in all it was a good win and, for once, it didn't make me regret making the 1am start.

Word of the day
Yesterday's word of the day was quite a success. So much so, in fact, that I decided to bring it back for an encore. In case you missed it, the word was: Schadenfreude. Say it. Embrace it. Enjoy it.

Word of the day

Schadenfreude.

You know things are bad when the video highlight of the game is "Jeter singles in a run".

It ain't over...

Although those 17-1 games are admittedly much easier on the nerves, there's just something so exhilarating about a walk-off win, especially when the hitter is down to his last strike, as Big Papi was tonight.

(AP)

I could make some really bad jokes about Orioles closer B.J. Upton* blowing the job, but I won't. Not this time, anyway.

*Update: Ryan, not Upton. Which just goes to prove that too many BJs can cause short-term memory loss. You have been warned ;-)

Keep smiling

It was one of those days yesterday at Fenway - things quickly went pear-shaped when Tim Wakefield's knuckleball refused to knuckle (or whatever it is that it's supposed to do).

On a day like that, you've got to get your kicks elsewhere in the ballpark, and yesterday the light relief was to be found in the outfield, on the walls:

(AP)

and on the out-of-town scoreboard.