Category: Baseball

Hall of Fame

David Ortiz is a first ballot Hall of Famer. He was the greatest post season performer I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching. He was the best clutch hitter, period.

I’m still conflicted though. I’m one of those miserable assholes who wants steroid users kept out of the hall. Ortiz never tested positive, but a year before the testing officially went into effect they tested the testing process. A few years later the names of the players who tested positive during the test leaked and his name was on it.

Is that enough? I’ve been asking myself that question for five years and now that the moment of truth has arrived I think I’m okay with it. If that makes me a hypocrite then I guess I’m a hypocrite.

It’s not me being a Red Sox homer though. I’m 100% against Roger Clemens getting in and no one rooted for him more than I did when he played for the Red Sox. I was also one of those miserable old pricks who was seriously hoping he’d come back for one year to end his career with us.

Speaking of Roger, he, Bonds, and Sosa, steroids users all, failed to get in on their 10th try which means they are off the ballot. There are still a couple of ways for them to get in, but for now at least they are out. I’m fine with that.

The important thing though is that David Ortiz is a Hall of Famer. Congratulations, Big Papi.

Back to Work

Well… I knew I couldn’t fight it. I punched into work a little before 9:00am and stuck the final nail in this year’s holiday season’s coffin. It’s over, folks.

The kids are still here. I figured they would have left by now so I am pretty happy. They did both sleep really late though so that might be the reason. I don’t care. I love it when they are here. Even when I am working and can’t go hang out with them.

Today has been really quiet overall. Not much to write about. The Bruins played twice over the weekend, finally coming back from the long Covid-19 shut down. I watched a few minutes of Saturday’s game against Buffalo and the little that I saw looked pretty awful. They straightened it out and won in overtime. I didn’t see yesterday’s game against Detroit but they spanked them pretty thoroughly. Here’s hoping that’s a sign of good things to come.

Major League Baseball is still locked out. I keep seeing stories tweeted out from all sorts of sources talking about the things such and such a team needs to do to improve and yadda yadda blah. I haven’t been reading the articles but I am really hoping they all boil down to something along the lines of “don’t be locked out.” Everything else is sort of superfluous* until that happens.

What else, what else… did I mention that all of my workout time that my Apple Watch tracked last week was on the exercise bike? I’m pretty sure that was a first for me. Does it mean anything? No. No, it does not.

I haven’t given much thought to the RPM Challenge this year. The only thing that’s come to me for something different to do is to use two guitars. I always double track my rhythm guitar parts. What if, instead of just tracking everything twice, I use a different guitar for each take? My Les Paul Standard would be playing in one ear, and my SG would be playing in the other. What about that for goofy nerdness? Maybe even use a different amplifier with each guitar. I’m thinking about it.

Okay, 2:00pm approaches. Time to wrap up this lunch break post.

*I had to pay $0.10 to use that word.

Lock Out

Did you hear that Major League Baseball locked out the players union? The first work stoppage since 1995 I think. Is this another case of billionaires bitching that millionaires are taking too much money?

At least the Bruins have a 2-0 lead over Nashville in the third. That’s something at least.

Sportsball Bummers

I didn’t see the Bruins game yesterday. I know they played Vancouver and somehow did not win by 20, which is sort of telling as to how the season is going so far. Vancouver is having a really, really bad time this year and we didn’t slaughter them. We’re not that good either, I fear. I didn’t want to admit it, but there it is.

Anyway, I didn’t see the game, so I didn’t see the play in question, but Brad Marchand was suspended for three games today. Now I don’t want to see the play because… crud. Just what we need.

So hockey is frustrating these days. What about baseball? Baseball can’t be frustrating. It’s the offseason, right? Well, here’s how out of touch I am. I learned today that we’re a couple of days away from a lock out. Oh, lovely.

Both of the sports I am following are bumming me out, big time. Crud. Again. Crud.

The Boston Penguins? The Pittsburgh Red Sox?

I’m a little conflicted about this one even though it makes zero difference to the universe from my perspective, and also because it’s not actually close to happening. But…

The Fenway Sports Group, the company that owns the Boston Red Sox, is in talks to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins.
(https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/32646194/fenway-sports-group-advanced-talks-purchase-pittsburgh-penguins-source-says)*

Does this matter? No, no it doesn’t. I have no problem rooting for this company’s baseball team while rooting against their hockey team. None at all. The only things I would ask are that they change the name of the Penguins arena back to The Igloo because, let’s face it, that name pretty much rules. Second, once the seven year grace period mentioned in the article is over, MOVE THEIR ASSES TO BOSTON. If not Boston then maybe Hartford. I hate the Penguins with a passion. I don’t hate them as much as I hate the Canadiens or the Rangers, but I hate them. Still, if New York can have two teams, the Rangers and the Islanders (three if you count the Devils next door in New Jersey. I hate the Islanders too, and I also hate the Devils. I hear Jesus hates the Devils** too) then why the hell can’t Boston support two teams? Granted, New York is about 10031503135 times bigger than Boston, but anything those creeps can do, we can do better. Blah! Suck it, New York! Burn!

If you can’t move the Penguins to Boston, then move them to Hartford. For a couple of reasons. One, brass bonanza. Two, it would be fun to watch the Civic Center roof collapse on the Penguins. Three, as much as I hate them, I do sort of missing having The Whale right next door.

According to the article, there is a deal on the table but the Fenway Sports Group needs to approve it, and then the NHL also needs to approve it. I would guess that those two steps mean that any potential sale is still a long way off, and again it won’t effect us at all. Still… maybe it would be weird to actively root against the folks who own the Red Sox. That’s not going to stop me from happily doing it though. Go Bruins. Bite me, Penguins.

*Wordpress.com’s post editor keeps saying that I am successfully adding a link to that line of text, but every time I click publish and then click the link it opens to a blank page.

**Back in the days when my brother and sister and I were buying 10 game partial season ticket packages for the Boston Bruins we went to a game against the New Jersey Devils. There was a guy sitting up in the balcony near us who was chanting, at the top of this voice, “Jesus hates the Devils” and that guy, whoever and where ever he may be, gets an A+ in life.

Jerry Remy

Jerry Remy passed away last night. Former Red Sox second baseman, decades long Red Sox color commentator, president of Red Sox Nation. Two of those are real things, the other is a marketing gimmick that actually happened. Which is which? You decide.

How many Sox games did he broadcast? Many. Many, many. He was the starting second baseman when I first started following the Red Sox. That was 1978 or so. I clearly remember him going to the disabled list in ’79. It was late in the season when my father took me to Fenway for the first time. The game had everything. Ek started (and won). Lynn made a diving catch in Center. Evans and Yaz both homered, Evans’ cleared the screen in left, and Yaz’ was the 400th of his career. It was a pretty freakin’ awesome game. The only thing I was disappointed about was Remy was injured and didn’t play.

He lost a long fight with cancer. How many times did he go on leave from NESN to fight cancer, then come back, then go on leave again? Many times. Rest in peace, Jerry Remy. Dude is bunting for base hits off the angels now.

World Series

The Braves have a 5-0 lead over the Astros in the third inning of game one. I’m not watching, I just checked the MLB app.

When I was younger I used to want to see a Red Sox vs Braves World Series match up. Current Boston vs used-to-be Boston, get it? This year is as close as we’ve come.

I want the Astros to lose, but I want the Braves to lose too. That probably means I won’t be watching.

Oh well.

Heading into the Eighth

Heading into the top of the eighth, we are still down 2-0. What a frustrating game!

They ran themselves out of a promising inning in the seventh. Two on and one out and the inning ended on a strike out/caught stealing double play. It was awful.

Two innings to go. Come on Red Sox bats, wake up!

No More No No

The Red Sox broke up the no hitter with a two out triple in the top of the sixth. One pitch later the inning ended. We are still down 1-0 but both teams are into the bullpens now. That feels like an advantage for the Astros but we will have to see.

The Bruins beat the Sabers tonight and UMass Lowell tied Michigan State. I could really go for the Red Sox giving me an undefeated night. Defense needs to hold them at one run, and the offense needs to wake the frick up!

Go Red Sox. Please.

Pretty please.

ADDENDUM: As I was clicking publish the Astros lead off the bottom of the sixth with a triple. Ugh.