Category: Baseball

Happy Red Sox Opening Day

It’s here! It’s only a few months late and the chances of them successfully completing this shortened season are slim and none, but it’s finally here.

Opening day for my beloved Boston Red Sox!

Sure, Mookie is a Dodger now (he had a hit in his game last night) and we have less than no pitching (our original opening night starter has COVID-19) and we are going to suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu….

…uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuk….

But it’s really, truly opening day.

Enjoy it while it lasts, Red Sox Nation! I sure will!

328/365 - Happy Red Sox opening day.

Baseball…Really

The Yankees and Nationals started a game tonight. It’s currently delayed. I don’t know if it’s rain or coronavirus.

The Dodgers and the Giants started about half an hour ago.

Major League Baseball is back. Who knows for how long? I don’t care, it’s back.

1.2% on Day #1

Yesterday I posted a little blurb about Major League Baseball coming back. All players were tested for COVID-19 on the report day. We got the results of those tests yesterday. 31 players and 7 staff members are already positive. That’s 1.2% of the reporting players and it’s only day one.

What will the percentage of infections be after a week? After two weeks?

Like I said yesterday, I am really glad to have baseball back. Unfortunately, I know it’s not going to be back for long.

Source

Happy Second First Day of Spring Summer Training

Baseball is back, sort of. Players who agreed to make themselves available for a 60 game season reported to their team’s facilities on July 1st. They were all tested for the coronavirus. They then got yesterday off for some reason which I assume had to do with getting all the testing results. Now today is the first day of the second attempt at Spring Training only it happens during the Summer so it’s not exactly Spring Training anymore, is it.

I’m wearing a Red Sox t-shirt to celebrate.

I think it’s probably a safe bet that 2-3 weeks from now the whole righteous endeavor will come crashing to a halt as about 70% of the players on every team are out sick with COVID-19. I applaud baseball for making something happen and taking their shot, but let’s be real. Once the players start dropping like flies this is all going to come to an inglorious, yet fitting end.

I hope you prove me wrong, MLB, but I don’t think you will.

Best Outfield Ever

Fred Lynn just liked one of my tweets. Eight year old me just pissed his pants with glee.

Lynn posted a picture of himself along with Jim Rice and Dwight Evans back in their Red Sox days. The caption was something about them being one of the greatest outfields in baseball history.

My reply was something along the lines of, had Rice and Evans stayed in the clubhouse it still would have been the best outfield ever. Mr Fred Lynn threw me a like for that. Color me honored.

To this day, Fred Lynn is the best centerfielder I have ever had the pleasure of watching. Jackie Bradley is close defensively, but Lynn also hit a ton. Bradley can’t match him at the plate. Lynn was the best. He still is.

I’ll give you Ken Griffey, JR. I’ll take Fred Lynn.

I Didn’t Think of That

Given that last season the Boston Red Sox were a painful disappointment, and that this past off season has seen them lose their President, their manager (in one of the biggest cheating scandals in league history) and their best player (to the friggin’ Dodgers in what is effectively an embarrassingly awful preemptive salary dump), you can probably forgive me for not being fully up to date on the day to day goings on in Red Sox Nation.

It turns out that today is the day that pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training, with the first practice scheduled for tomorrow.  We don’t have a manager, and we don’t have a Mookie, but it’s still nice to know that the official kick off to the 2020 season is here.

As I was reading a headline that mentioned the big news (as opposed to yesterday’s big news about the finalizing of the trade with the friggin’ Dodgers) I was struck by a revelation.  Light dawned on Marblehead, as the saying goes…..

I am going to be in Florida during Spring Training.

Oh.  My.  God.  After 40+ years of die hard Red Sox fandom, I will, for the first time ever, be in Florida during Spring Training.  Now we’re staying at a Disney resort so we won’t be renting a car, but maybe it’s worth researching a way to see if we could day trip down to Jet Blue park and catch a game.

Then reality set in.  I live in Massachusetts.  Massachusetts is a little tiny state.  You can pretty much drive from one end to the other in a couple of hours or so.  Florida isn’t a huge state, but it’s bigger than MA.  How much bigger though?  I went to Google Maps and looked up driving directions from Disney World to Jet Blue Park.  It’s about three hours.  It’s almost, but not quite, the same distance as driving from Fenway Park to Yankees Stadium.

The dream died then and there, but not before a question drifted through my tiny brain:

How much would an Uber from Orlando to Fort Meyers cost me?

Nope.  Nope.  Nope.  Spring Training Baseball Dreams Shattered.  I’ll just have to settle for hanging out with The Mouse.

Well That’s Just Great

This week has seen the end of American democracy, and now tonight we’re learning that the Red Sox have agreed to trade Mookie Betts to the Dodgers.

Well isn’t that special?  Maybe the universe can just come over here and kick me in the balls while it’s at it?

It’s My Fault, Sorry

I turned on the Red Sox game and the Sox were leading the Orioles 1-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning.  Chris Sale had pitched four innings retiring 12 of 12 Oriole hitters, striking out eight.

Now that I was watching though… in the top of the fifth he walked a batter, gave up a hit, and gave up a run.  Why?  Because I am a jinx, plain and simple.

Sorry about that, Chris Sale.  Next time you’re half way through a perfect game I’ll put on the radio instead.