View from Section 29

Tim Wakefield hangs up his spikes

2012-02-17T22:54:00.002-05:00

Not surprising, but a little disappointing. Of all the Red Sox pitchers I've seen - and it's a long list - Tim Wakefield is at the top. I've seen him more than anyone. (Bob Stanley is #2 on that list.)

A knuckleballer is only supposed to win half of his games. Sometimes the knuckler dances well, sometimes it doesn't. Tim easily exceeded the expectation. He was a starter, a spot starter, a middle reliever, a bullpen guy and a closer. 19 seasons in the majors, 17 with the Red Sox, starting in 1995. He pitched over 3200 innings. Struck out twice as many as he walked.

In the 2004 playoffs against the Yankees he came on in relief in the crucial Game 5. It went 14 innings and lasted until 2AM, and Tim had to face Derek Jeter, Jason Giambi, A-Rod, Hidecki Matsui, Jorge Paada, et al. for three innings. He gave up only one hit and was the winning pitcher. He is the only knuckleballer ever to start a World Series game.

How many times did Tim Wakefield go out there and pitch well, but get no support? Losing 1-0, or leaving with a lead that was subsequently blown by the bullpen?

He wound up with 200 wins, 186 of them with the Red Sox. Only eight short of breaking the all-time Red Sox record of 194, shared by Roger Clemens and Cy Young. He struck out well over 2000 for the Red Sox, not that far from the Clemens mark of 2590, and double what Cy Young did. An amazing record for a knuckleballer.

Cy Young was too along ago to really know, and we know all too much about Roger. Tim Wakefield, however, was well known as a good guy. Always said the right thing in an interview. Did a ton of community work. Gave us many quality innings. We'll miss him.

Thanks, Tim, for 17 great seasons.

Yikes. I hit the 6-month mark.

2011-11-29T00:11:00.001-05:00

The writer's strike, just like the NBA lockout, is over. I'm finally able to update my blog, which has been silent for exactly 6 months.

So much has happened. When last I blogged, the Red Sox had just made it to first place, despite the 0-and-6 start. We all know how it turned out, so let's look forward to 2012.

Predictions for 2012:

My seats:
The day after Tito was fired I called the Red Sox season ticket office and asked if anyone had called up mad and canceled their season tickets. If so, I'd like to move up a few rows. Still in Section 29, which has a great view, but enough to get to the bigger, more comfortable red seats and still be just under the roof overhang.  When it rains during a game I don't even know it until they haul out the tarp. They told me no one had called in to cancel yet, and they probably wouldn't know until January anyway. It's in my tickler file. I'll bet that I don't get to upgrade.

Manager:
No thoughts really on whether Bobby Valentine or Gene Lamont would be the right choice. They do need a guy who can kick some butt in the locker room like Billy Beane did wth Jeremy Giambi and David Justice in Moneyball. Great scene: David Justice is in the batting cage, dripping with attitude, and Beane says to him, "You think you're a pretty big deal, huh?" Justice says, "Yeah. You're paying me 7 million dollars a year, so I guess that makes me a big deal."   Beane responds, "No, we're paying you 3-and-a-half million. The Yankees are paying us 3-and-a-half million for you to play against them. Still think you're a big deal?"

Offense:
Ellsbury and Pedroia will once again have great seasons. Youk will be less beat up and have more of a normal season, hitting just over .300 with 100 rbi's. In 2011 Carl Crawford was overwhelmed. He was used to playing in a half-empty stadium with a crappy field in St. Petersburg, where the few fans who were there would be 80 years old and would only think to ring their cowbell when the scoreboard told them to. In contrast, the nightly rock show at sold-out Fenway - especially playing the legendary left field - required a major adjustment. With a year to get used to it under his belt, he will have a substantially better season (he sure couldn't have a much worse one) and he'll be motivated to show that he's worth the money. Papi will be re-signed to a two-year deal and he'll hit around .290 with 30 homers and 95 rbi's.  Adrian Gonzalez will be about the same - maybe slightly better toward the end of the season with a less tender shoulder. Ryan Lavarnway will see some decent playing time and will be a very good hitter.  Marco Scutaro will be mediocre at short, and Jed Lowrie will get one last shot and the job. Varitek? They should make him the pitching coach and activate him if they get into a pinch.

Pitching:
Starters will be an issue. Beckett and Lester have to play nicely in the sandbox and show us that they've still got their good stuff. Buchholz will be okay. They need two more, but John Henry won't open up the checkbook after getting burned over the past few years by the Matt Clement, Dice-K, John Smoltz, Brad Penny and John Lackey signings. Wakefield will be back for insurance purposes. He's inexpensive, reliable and eats up a lot of innings. Unlike much of the pitching staff, he has a great reputation. Aceves will be the setup guy. (I still distrust anyone that the Yankees let go.) Michael Bowden will see more action and he'll be allright. Daniel Bard will be the closer and have a better season than Papelbon has in Philly.

So that's what I think? Any thoughts? I'd love to hear them.

Worst to first in four weeks

2011-05-28T09:57:00.000-04:00

This afternoon Magic 106.7 will be playing the special mashup of "Dirty Water" by the Standells - complete with the crowd cheering and singing along - for two reasons.

One, the Bruins won Game 7 last night and move on to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Two, the Red Sox beat the Tigers again last night, and on the left coast the Mariners beat the Yankees. Meaning that the Sox, who began the season with the worst record in baseball and were in last place on May 1st, are now in first place. How do you like them big apples? We'll also be playing our exclusive Fenway crowd mashup of "Sweet Caroline." A couple of years ago Tom Werner heard it on the air and called me asking for a copy. That was pretty cool.

My daughter, who lives in New York and works at MTV Networks (but is definitely not a Yankee fan) just got a promotion. Looking out the window on Bass River, I see that Memorial Day Weekend is sunny on Cape Cod and all is well..

Throwback night

2011-05-22T19:20:00.001-04:00

This weekend the Chicago Cubs made their first appearance at Fenway Park since 9/11/1918.

They made a pretty big deal out of it, which is a good thing. That hasn't always been the case. Back in 2003 the Red Sox went to Pittsburgh to face the Pirates in Interleague play. It was the first time the two teams had met since the 1903 World Series. That's 100 years without playing each other, and it hardly got a mention. Same thing when the Giants played the Sox for the first time since the 1912 World Series. All the talk was about Barry Bonds and his steroids.

This was very different. On Friday night. the Red Sox proceeded to pound the Cubs, 15-5. On Saturday night they planned Throwback Night, with both teams wearing 1918 uniforms. I have a replica 1918 Red Sox shirt that I've had for at least 15 years, so I wore it on Saturday. It still fits (although a year ago it wouldn't have), but being a gray road shirt it looks nothing like what the Sox wore. The home white uniforms were just that: white. White cap (no B on it), white shirt (no lettering at all), white pants, high red socks.

There were tons of Cubs fans there, none of whom acted like Yankee fans. They all seemed to be friendly and having a fun time. They were treated nicely by Sox fans, just as my daughter Kara and I were when we went to see the Sox play the Cubbies at Wrigley back in 2005. That's the Midwest attitude for you.

Friday night, Dennis Eckersley, one of only four Hall-of-Famers who played for both the Red Sox and Cubs, threw out the first pitch. (Note that it wasn't his performance with either team that got Eck into the Hall). On Saturday it was Babe Ruth's daughter. That can't be right. Must have been his granddaughter.

The whole throwback thing was fun for the most part. One thing they did was interesting, but weird. At the beginning of the 3rd inning they announced that the clocks were being turned back to 1918. No videos on the new HD jumbotrons, no Carl Beane announcing the batters. The scoreboards were turned off except for the big manually-operated one in the left field wall. No music except from the organ, and there wasn't much of that. The only announcements were from guys on top of the dugouts using megaphones. It was cute for a batter or two, but if you weren't scoring the game on a scorecard you'd have no idea what was going on. No idea of the count or who was at bat. Was that an infield hit or an error?

The megaphone idea, as I said, was cute, but didn't work. You could tell the guy was yelling into it, but you could barely make out anything he said. I might have caught the middle syllable of Jacoby at one point, but that was it. Did they really do that back during games back in 1918? The crowd would have been smaller, but they also must have talked to each other a lot less. Nick Cafardo wrote in today's Boston Globe that he liked the idea that you could have a "quiet" experience that would let you concentrate on the game itself, but he's a writer. I'm a fan, and I disagree. I, and everyone sitting near me in Section 29, groaned a little when the megaphone guys came back out for the 4th inning. We were hoping it would be a one-inning diversion. In the 4th, David Oritz hit his 300th home run as a member of the Red Sox and no one in the ballpark knew it. They all knew he hit one into the Monster Seats, but not that it was momentous number.

Things went back to normal for the 5th, and the crowd cheered. The music, the videos, the PA announcements and all that make the experience more entertaining.

My daughter was going to a friend's birthday party, so we had to leave after the 7th. As I got in the car, the top of the 8th was under way, and Dave O'Brien was saying that if the Sox were to hold on to the 3-1 lead they'd be in 1st place. Pretty amazing after the 0 and 6, 2 and 12 start. It was not to be. The Red Sox pitching and defense turned into the Bad News Bears and they gave up 8 runs on four hits, three walks and three errors. It was actually worse than that. The Bad New Bears would have had the standard Little League 6-run-per-inning limit. It was the worst Red Sox inning I can remember, and I've seen a lot of them. But I was in the car at that point. When all the fun stuff happened, i was in the park, sitting in Section 29.

Remarkable Monday Night

2011-05-03T12:39:00.002-04:00

Monday night, May 2nd was quite a night at Fenway. Close to midnight the night before we learned that Osama Bin Laden had been killed by Navy Seals. The Monday night game was the first public gathering in Boston since the news broke, and the display of patriotism was truly remarkable.

Prior to the National Anthem they dropped that huge American flag over the left field wall - the one they use for Opening Day and the World Series. There was a moment of silence for all those who perished in the 9/11 attacks and the years of subsequent war. Soldiers who had returned from five tours of duty were honored, and the crowd chanted, "U-S-A...U-S-A...U-S-A!!!!" They did it again after "God Bless America" (usually only sung during Sunday games) during the 7th inning stretch.

It was also a fun game. The Sox opened the season with the worst record in the majors. Now, a month later, there are 9 teams that have a worse record than the Red Sox. And they're tied for 4th place in the AL East - meaning they're not last. Tonight, if they win and Toronto loses, the Sox will have sole possession of 4th place. We're #4, we're #4!

Simultaneously, the Bruins played Game 2 of their playoff series in Philadelphia. The crowd at Fenway was kept up to speed with the score posted on the hand-operated left-field scoreboard and highlights were shown on the huge new HD video screen. Many fans were wearing the color clash of red-and-blue Sox shirts and black-and-gold B's hats. The B's won in OT just as Okajima recorded the final out in the 9th for the Red Sox win.

A fun night all around, but the most remarkable thing was the overwhelming display of patriotism. The biggest I've seen in almost a decade.

Tuesday night update: Not only did the Red Sox win again, but both Toronto and Baltimore lost. So Boston is now in sole possession of 3rd place, only four games out, and there are 10 teams with worse records.

0 and 5

2011-04-06T22:49:00.003-04:00

0 and 5 is a pretty depressing opening for the Red Sox. I've seen it before, We lived in Baltimore in the late 80's when I was the Program Director of Mix 106.5. I went to a lot of Orioles games and always rooted for them except when the Red Sox were in town.

On Opening Day in 1988 the O's, who had won the World Series only 5 years before, had a tough day at the old ballyard. The Milwaukee Brewers pounded them, 12-0. They also lost game 2 to Milwaukee, then went to Cleveland and dropped three straight, making it 0 and 5. At that point a friend of mine named Bob Rivers, who worked at a competing radio station named 98 Rock, announced that he was going to stay on the air until the Orioles won. Excellent promotion, made even better by the O's dropping that night's game, making it 0 and 6. The manager was fired. Not just any manager, either. His mame was Cal Ripken, Sr. Father of the star shortstop Cal Ripken, Jr. and his brother Billy Ripken, who played 2nd base.

People drove around with their headlights on during the day to show support for Bob Rivers. At the ballpark it was depressing. Everyone on the team slumped simultaneously. They didn't even post batting averages on the scoreboard because they were all below .100. First baseman Eddie Murray, who had just signed a big contract extension, insisted on being the DH at home to minimize his exposuere to booing.

And on it went. After that fourth loss to Cleveland they went to Kansas City and dropped three, then came home and lost three more to Cleveland. Back on the road they dropped three in Milwaukee, another three in Kansas City and three more in Minnesota. That made it 0 and 21. The all-time worst season-opening record in the history of Major League Baseball. And they weren't even playing the tough teams.

On April 29, a windy night at the old Comiskey Park in Chicago, the Orioles finally put up a W, beating the White Sox, 9-0 in front of 14,000 fans. Bob Rivers took a long nap after being on the air for some 425 straight hours. The O's dropped the next two in Chicago, then came home with a record of 1 and 23.

On May 2 it was Fantastic Fans night at Memorial Stadium. Bob Rivers was given a full Orioles unform - his name and the number 98 on the back - and threw out the first pitch from the mound (a very unathletic throw) to the cheers of over 50,000 fantasic fans. The 1 and 23 Orioles took the field and made it a night by beating Texas, 9-4.

The fans in Baltimore are really great. Despite that horrible season they stuck with the team. Five years later the Orioles moved into Camden Yards - my choice for the best new ballpark in America.

So let's not get worked up about 0 and 5. Even if the Red Sox lose tomorrow and are 0 and 6 when the Bronx Bombers come in for the Home Opener, it will mean the Sox have the Yankees the way they want them. Overconfident.

I think I picked every one

2011-03-22T20:49:00.005-04:00

It's been a few months since I blogged. Winter hibernation.

It was in December or January that the Red Sox e-mailed their season ticket holders and asked for votes on which present or former players' photos should grace the 2011 tickets.

I voted for a bunch of my favorites, and with one exception they all made it. I picked up the season ticket package today at the Post Office (they tried to deliver last Thursday but a sig is required and both my wife and I were at work), ripped open the package, and they are: Ted Williams, Pedro, Jimmy Foxx, Papi (Big, not Stan), Joe Cronin, Jim Rice, Dick "Monster" Radatz, Pesky, Bobby Doerr, Rico Petrocelli, Pudge Fisk, Terry Francona, Bill Lee and Yaz.

All the retired numbers: 1, Doerr; 4, Cronin; 6 Pesky (also worn by Petrocelli); 8,Yaz; 9 Teddy Ballgame; 14 Rice; 27 Fisk. Also a few that probably should be at some point: 3 Foxx; 17 Radatz; 34 Ortiz; 37 Lee; 45 Pedro; 47 Francona (did you know that's his number?). The only one I voted for who isn't there is #24. No, not Manny...Dwight Evans.

It's a trivia question today, but the reference above to "Big, not Stan" is to a trade made in 1979. Bill Lee called Manager Don Zimmer a gerbil, and Zimmer responded by trading Lee to the no-man's land known as the Montreal Expos. In return the Sox picked up a backup infielder named Stan Papi, who amounted to very little but it taught Bill Lee a lesson about who's the boss.

Papi (#12, pictured above) hit .188 in 1979, and a whopping .000 in 1980. So his pic didn't make it onto the 2011 tickets.

Spenser is not completely dead yet

2010-11-07T20:37:00.004-05:00

Last January, Robert B. Parker died.
I posted about it in this blog. I had read every single Spenser mystery, every Jesse Stone mystery, all the Sunny Randalls, and a few books by Parker that starred none of the aforementioned. I'd read Spenser books every summer since 1981.

But wait!
This summer a posthumous Jesse Stone book was released, which I read by the pool on the Cape. 2010 was a very nice summer and that helped.

Then I checked Amazon.
Okay, my wife did. Turns out that there was one more Spenser book to be released in October. I got it, and tried my best to read it slowly. Parker featured very short chapters, so it was easy to tell yourself, "I'll read just one more, then go to sleep" and wind up reading eight or nine more.

But this was really it, and I wanted to savor it.
Painted Ladies, the final Spenser book, featured lots of typical Spenser stuff, which is a good thing. It had too much drooling about how fabulous Susan is, but almost every Spenser book did. What surprised me a little is that only a few of the other regulars made an appearance.

State Police Homicide Commander Healy was there, as were his Boston cop friends Frank Belson and Martin Quirk. Rita Fiore, a lawyer with whom had a brief fling about 2o books ago and pops in with legal advice and flirty talk in a number of the books - including some of the Jesse Stones - has a cameo. He introduced a new Boston Police detective, Kate Quagliossi. A character with lots of potential that we'll no doubt never see.

Completely missing:
Hawk (that may be a first) , Henry Cimoli at Harbor Health Club, his bad guy posse members Vinny Morris the Shooter, Chollo, and Tedy Sapp. Boston drug lord Tony Marcus and his posse of Ty Bop and Junior. It was just Spenser doing it himself.

But wait...Spenser's not completely dead yet.
(A nod to Monty Python's "Holy Grail" for that line.) I just found out that there's still one more Spenser novel yet to be published. The title is Sixkill and the expected release date is May 3, 2011. I've already pre-ordered it.

The Giants win the Series, the Giants win the Series, the Giants win the Series...

2010-11-01T22:46:00.006-04:00

It was October 3rd, 1951 at the Polo Grounds in New York.
The Giants had trailed the Dodgers by 13-1/2 games in August and wound up in a dead tie at the end of the regular season. Bobby Tompson hit a home run, called "The shot heard round the world" (it was actually only a 279-foot line drive shot) and play-by-play guy Russ Hodges yelled, "The Giants win the pennant" 13 times in a row.

But they didn't win the Series. The Yankees did. It was their 3rd in a row and 14th overall. The Giants were back in 1954, facing the Cleveland Indians. The Indians won 111 games in 1954, but were swept in the World Series by the Giants. Neither team had won since.

Until tonight.
The Giants moved to San Francisco in 1958, the same year that the Dodgers went west. The Dodgers won it all in their second year in LA, beating the White Sox. The Giants were a different story. They lost to the Yankees again in 1962 (5th time), then lost to the A's in 1989 (the earthquake series, 3rd loss to the A's), then lost to the Angels in 2002.

Go ahead, mess with Texas
The Rangers, meanwhile, had been around since 1961, originally as the replacement Washington Senators, then moving to Arlington in 1972. Never won a pennant before this year. No team from Texas has ever won the World Series. The Texas total of non-winning seasons (combining the Colt 45's/Astros and the Rangers) is now at 87 and counting. Note that it's longer than the now-forgotten drought of the Red Sox.

So it wa a 56-year wait.
Tim Lincecum, who looks like the murderer kid last season on "Desperate Housewives," is fun to watch. I mentioned in an earlier post that I saw him play several times on Cape Cod for the Harwich Mariners. And Buster Posey, the shortstop-turned-catcher for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox in the Cape League, becomes the first rookie ever to hit cleanup in the World Series. Then there's Edgar "Rent-a-wreck" Renteria, who was horrible for the Red Sox in 2005, but got the walkoff hit for the Marlins back in 1997, and as a Cardinal hit the Series-ending tapper back to Foulke when the Sox won in '04. He hit the home run that was the difference tonight. So congrats to the Giants.

The real fun already happened.
That was in October, when the Red Sox knocked the the Yankees out of 1st place on the final day of the regular season, then the Rangers knocked them out of the playoffs. Any year when the Yankees last game is a loss is a good season.

Red Sox catcher in the World Series

2010-10-24T10:16:00.006-04:00

110 seasons.
That's the combined timeline of the Giants and Rangers wait for a World Series win. It's the second-longest in Major League history and the current record-holder. Only the 2005 combination of the White Sox and Astros (131 years) was longer. Both involved teams from Texas with their first Series appearance.

Pure pleasure.
It was pre pleasure seeing the Rangers knock off the Yankees. It's a pleasure seeing anyone knock them off. Despite the disappointing injury-laden season for the Red Sox, it was nice seeing them bump the Yankees out of first place on the final weekend.

I think I'm rooting for the Giants at this point.
Nothing against the Rangers, but the Giants fans have waited longer. They last won as the New York Giants in 1954. They play in a great city, they have a great ballpark, Barry Bonds is no longer on the team, and they have a couple of players who I enjoyed watching play in the Cape Cod League only a few years ago. Tim Lincecum pitched for the Harwich Mariners, and Buster Posey played on back-to-back championship teams for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox (see photo above). The PA guy at Red Wilson field in Yarmouth always announced him as "Bustah" Posey.

Ball game over!

2010-10-22T23:10:00.007-04:00

The Yankees lose. THE....YANKEEEEESSSS....LOOOOSE!!!

How much oomph did John Sterling put into that call?
Sterling, the annoying Yankees play-by-play guy, says the reverse of that after every game they win. Shut the bleep up.

It's Friday night, 11:13.
The Texas Rangers have knocked off New York in 6 games. I wasn't really rooting for the Texas Rangers, of course, I was rooting for the Yankees to lose. And, thankfully, they did. It's pretty cool, though, watching the Texas fans enjoying their first-ever American League pennant.

Quick history lesson.
For those too young to know. In 1961 the American League had its first expansion. The Washington Senators, who had gone 36 years without a World Series win and with ten last-place finishes ("Washington: First in war, first in peace, last in the American League") gave it up and moved to Minneapolis to become the Minnesota Twins. They were immediately replaced by a "new" Washington Senators, managed by Mickey Vernon, who was as nice a guy as you'd ever want to meet. Despite that, the new Senators fared no better than the old ones, and in 1972 they moved to Arlington, Texas and changed their name to the Rangers.

Success continued to be elusive.
Until a week ago they had never won a postseason game at home. The Yankees had knocked them off in Round One three times in the 90's. Not now. Not this night. (Okay, I stole that from "Titanic.") Good for them.

So for whom am I rooting in the Series?
It actually doesn't matter. It won't be the Yankees who win .

The Listening Tour

2010-10-20T20:37:00.003-04:00

Tonight I went to an event at Fenway Park that was by invitation-only for Red Sox season ticket holders. The Listening Tour.

Larry Lucchino, Theo Epstein, Ben Charrington and Sam Kennedy presented a video showing the physical improvements under way for 2011 at Fenway and held an extended Q&A session with season ticket holders.

The most notable improvement will be replacing the outdated diamondvision video board under the John Hancock sign in center field with a much bigger and brighter 100'x38' HD video board. As Larry Lucchino said, "You'll be able to see the sweat beads on Kevin Youkilis' face." There will also be two other new HD video boards, one replacing the Bank of America scoreboard above the wall in left center, the other above the "Dunkin' Dugout" at the top of the right field bleachers. For those who are old enough to remember it, this is where there used to be a Buck Printing sign.

Being someone who always wants to get up and ask a question or make a comment - especially in a situation like this - I raised my hand high when they started taking questions. I was #2. First I made a suggestion, then asked a question. The comment is one I've previously made in this blog. If you're interested, go to older blogs, May 2009, "A Free upgrade." In a sentence or two, it's this: When the Legend players are featured on the video board, why don't you include the audio of their highlight clips? Why not announce them? A good three-quarters of the crowd doesn't even know that they're there. Lucchino responded that it was an excellent idea. Then I asked whether the new video boards would mean they'll add stupid graphics like, "It's a hit" or "Let's make some noise" with a picture of two hands clapping (in case you forgot how to do that). Larry answered, "Absolutely not!" That answer alone was worth the trip.

Other questions ranged from, "Are you going to sign Cliff Lee?" to "What will the pitching rotation be like in 2011?" Theo's answer was (hmmm) pretty much what it was in 2010.

Oh, and they asked who might be a good group for a Fenway concert next year. Answer: Pearl Jam or U2. And a big deal is being planned for Opening Day in 2012, the 100th anniversary of Fenway.

There was a possibility that this could have turned out to be a Yankee Elimination party as well, but it didn't happen. There's still Friday night in Texas for that.

Down to the last one

2010-10-12T07:49:00.003-04:00

Over the weekend the Phillies swept the Reds; as expected, the Yankees put the Twins away; the Giants won the pennant, the Giants won the pennant (repeat 13 times).

So now it's the Phillies and Giants in the NLCS. Giant fans have waited a long time. That famous "the Giants win the pennant" call was back in 1951 and they did not wind up winning the World Series. The Yankess did. It was the third of the Yankees record five in a row. The streak was finally broken in 1954 when the Giants did win. Since then they've been waiting on both coasts for another championship.

The Phillies hardly have a tradition of winning, but this could be their third straight World Series appearance. In the last 50 years only two teams (other than the Yankees) have appeared three straight times: The Orioles (69-71) and the A's (72-74 - all wins) and (88-90).

Then there's the ALCS. The deciding game is tonight between the Rays and Rangers. I'll go with either one - whoever has the best chance to beat New York. This year Texas went 4 and 4 with them, but did win 4 of the last 6 meetings. Tampa Bay won 10 of 18. Of the last 13 The Rays took 7. It's a toss-up.

Teams in the same division see each other so much that there aren't many mysteries. I think that means I'm going with Texas.

My take on the Playoffs

2010-10-09T18:29:00.007-04:00

The first round of the Playoffs is well under way and may well wrap up this weekend. Three of the four series have one of the teams up 2 games to none in the best-of-five.

The Twins historically do poorly against the Yankees - epecially in the playoffs. This year is no exception, as Minnesota dropped the first two at home. The Rays also dropped the first two at home to Texas. The Phillies won the first two at home. The Giants and Braves are the only exception.

So here are some tidbits about the playoff teams. (I'm not going to bother with the Yankees.)

~The Rays have never won the World Series, but they got there in 2008 and lost to the Phillies. In their first ten years they finished in last place 9 times. They lost 100 games or more 3 times. The big change in 2008 that supposedly turned their fortunes around was dropping the word "Devil" from their name.

~The state of Texas has never had a World Series champion. The Astros are 0 for 1 in 48 seasons. The Rangers have never won a pennant. The franchise dates back to 1961 and prior to this year they've had only one playoff win (1996).

~The Twins won in 1987 and again in 1991. Before that the last championship for the franchise was in 1924.

~The Rangers and Twins share a uinque history: both teams used to be the Washington Senators. The famous line was, "Washington: first in war, first in peace, last in the American League." It was equally true for both versions of the Senators.

~The Reds last won in 1990. They won back-to-back championships in the 70's, beating the Red Sox in 7 games in '75 and sweeping the Yankees the following year. Prior to that they hadn't won since 1940. In the 1950's the Reds changed their name to the Redlegs because they thought Reds made them sound like Commies. Originally they were known as the Cincinnati Red Stockings, but the team folded for several years in the 1870's. What happened? In 1871 the very first professional league, the National Association of Base Ball Teams, was founded. The Red Stockings were a charter team, but the manager and half of the players decided they'd rather play in Boston, so they took off and moved the franchise in time for Opening Day. The team originally known as the Boston Red Stockings is the longest continuously-running franchise in all of pro sports. So what happened to them?

~The Braves is what happened to them. In 1876 the National Association gave way to the National League as we know it today. The Boston Red Stockings were a charter team, but Cincinnati put a new team on the field, using the old name Red Stockings. The Boston folks decided that the name duplication wasn't a good idea, and since Cincy had used it first they changed their name to the Beaneaters. Then to the Doves (that really threw some fear into the opposing teams), then to the Braves, then the Bees, then back to the Braves. The American League came along in 1901 and one of the charter teams was the Red Sox, who wound up outdrawing the Braves every single year. In 1953 the Braves finally gave up and moved to Milwaukee, where their AAA team played. That move was good for a while, but attendance dropped off and in 1966 they moved again, this time to Atlanta. In the 90's they suddenly became a good team and they've won their division almost every year for the last couple of decades. They're the only team to win the World Series playing in three different cities: Boston (1914), Milwaukee (1957) and Atlanta (1995). They also lost it playing in three cities: Boston (1948), Milwaukee (1958), and Atlanta (1991,1992,1996,1999).

~The Giants have been to the World Series three times in San Francisco: 1962, 1989 and 2002, and lost all three. In the '62 Series a guy named Jack Sanford, from my hometown of Wellesley, Massachusetts, one-hit the Yankees. The franchise last won as the New York Giants in 1954. Fifty-six years ago. They beat the Cleveland Indians, who last won in 1948. The only team to go longer than the Giants and Indians without winning is, of course, the Cubs, now at 65 years without a World Series appearance and 102 years and counting without a win.

~The Phillies. (I'm rooting for them.) The Phillies, originally known as the Worcester Rubylegs, moved to the City of Brotherly Love in 1882 and took 99 years to win their first championship. They won game 1 of the 1915 Series, then went 65 years before winning another playoff game. They finally won in 1980 and again in 2008. A couple of years ago they set a professional sports all-time record by losing their 10,000th game. Philly, a city with a lotta-lotta culture, is where they boo Santa Claus and cheer bad landings at the airport. They have terriffic fans and a great ballpark. How can you not root for them?

132 days

2010-10-06T22:06:00.003-04:00

That's when pitchers and catchers show up at Spring Training 2011. I didn't add up that number myself, I got it from a "Thank you Red Sox Nation" e-mail that came on Monday.

So what do I think about 2010? Considering that the Sox lost their starting left fielder, center fielder, catcher, 1st baseman, second baseman and two starters, had nine broken ribs (all thanks to Adrian Beltre), two broken feet and two broken thumbs and three of the five starting pitchers turning in seasons that ranged from mediocre to horrible, they did okay. No playoff berth, of course, but by winning four of six from the Yankees (could have been 6 of 6 if Papelbomb had been on his game) they knocked the Yankees out of first place on the final day.

There were certainly some bright spots. Darnell McDonald was announced in the 8th inning back in June and we thought he was a new pitcher for the Rangers. No, he was a pinch hitter for Boston and no one had heard of him. What was that? Dar-who? Then he hit a game-tying homer in his first at bat, and hit a walkoff double in his second at bat. And there was Daniel Nava, just up from Pawtucket. Joe Castiglione had interviewed Nava before the game and told him to swing at the first pitch he saw because you'll never get your first pitch in the majors again. He did, and hit a grand slam into the Red Sox bullpen. He's the only player in the history of Major League Baseball to hit a grand slam on the very first pitch he saw.

We saw Manny return twice, once as a Dodger and once as a White Sock. (Is that the way to write that?) Both times he got mostly boos, but I must say an impressive number of Dodger fans showed up and made it sound like two-thirds booing instead about the 75-80% booing we heard when he came back with Chicago.

We saw Mike Lowell day on the final Saturday. Big cheers, and well deserved. In the first at bat he doubled in two runs. In his final at bat he hit a ball off the top of the monster that missed going out by only a foot. A homer in your final at bat before retiring would be pretty ccol, but I think that Ted Williams is the only one who ever did it.

The bright side? Maybe some people won't renew and I can upgrade my season tickets to the red seats with more legroom and cupholders.

Great Baseball Names

2010-07-25T17:59:00.011-04:00

My random list of really good baseball names:

There are some historically great baseball names, like old-time pitchers Burleigh Grimes, Rollie Fingers, Three Finger Brown and Smokey Joe Wood. And bad ones like Eric Plunk and Bob Walk.

LOOKING AT TODAY'S 40-MAN ROSTERS, HERE ARE SOME GOOD PITCHER NAMES:
Doug Fister (Mariners)
Jamey Wright (Mariners) Yes, he's a righty.
Aaron Laffey (Indians) Bring him in when the game gets out of hand.
Tony Sipp (Indians) Trouble is, the Indians never get to sip the champagne.
Kevin Slowey (Twins) Throws junkballs.
Zack Greinke. It's just a good name.
Mark Buerhle (White Sox) Sounds like a big guy.
Frank Francisco (Rangers) I keep wondering if his full name is Francisco Francisco.
John Maine (Mets). Only player named after a state.
Ryan Rowland-Smith (Mariners). Only MLB player ever with a hyphenated name.
Mark Lowe (Rangers) ...and just a little outside.
Ubaldo Jiminez (Rockies). Have you seen him with his hat off?
Huston Street (Rockies). Is that where he was born?
Mike Leake (Reds). When you gotta go...
Laynce Nix (Reds), Drew Stubbs (Reds) Both sound like shaving mistakes.
Fernando Abad (Astros). A bad pitcher?
Grant Balfour (Rays). It's BAL-four, but it looks like like ball four.
David Riske (Brewers) Risky business? He was briefly with the Red Sox.
Brian Bannister (Royals). He should slide.
Evan Meek (Pirates). As long as he's in Pittsburgh he won't be inheriting the earth.
Antonio Bastardo (Phillies). Clearly born out of wedlock. Did his Mom think people wouldn't know?
Tim Lincecum (Giants). I just like it. I saw him play in the Cape Cod League.

GOOD NAMES THAT AREN'T PITCHERS
Buster Posey (Giants). Also saw him play in the Cape Cod League. The PA guy on the Cape always called him "Busta"
Grady Sizemore (Indians) Scott Sizemore (Tigers) Both big guys.
Clete Thomas (Tigers) It's right up there with Spike Owen and Trot Nixon.
Ryan Budde (Angels) Hey, buddy!
Will Rhymes (Tigers). 3 and 2, the big one due.
Taylor Teagarden (Rangers) Remember Teegarden & Van Winkle's "God, Love and Rock & Roll" in 1970? No?
Taylor Tankersley (Marlins). It sounds like Dennis Eckersley when he had a bad game.
Casey Blake (Dodgers) In the poem "Casey at the Bat" the guy who's at bat right before Casey strikes out is named Blake.
Reggie Willits (Angels) Will its the bottom of the 9th.
Chipper Jones (Braves) Should have been a golfer.
Chin Lung Hu (Dodgers). Only MLB player with a name that has two body parts. He's a shortstop, but with a name like that he should play first base.
Prince Fielder (Brewers). He looks like a DH but could never be one with a name like that.
Craig Counsell (Brewers). He should have played on the Patriots along with Ty Law and Lawyer Milloy.
Chase Utley (Phillies). Great player with a great name.
Lastings Milledge (Pirates). Sounds like a Vice Presidential candidate in 1856.
Assdrubal Cabrera (Indians). It's a boy! Let's name him Assdrubal!
Yorvit Torrealba (Padres). Why Yorvit? Because Asdrubel was already taken.
(Okay, they're both from Venezuela, but Yorvit is actually older than Assdrubal, and Asdrubal really has only one s. But it's funnier with two.)
Matt Stairs (Padres) Is he up?
Coco Crisp (A's) Obvious.
Milton Bradley (Mariners). A real gamer. Also a jerk. Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go.
Evan Longoria (Rays). How can you not think of Eva Longoria?
Ty Wigginton (Orioles). I just like the name.
Don Kelly (Tigers). He spells it the wrong way, but how can I not like it?

SHOULD BE A PITCHER:
Justin Smoak (Mariners).
Randy Winn (Cardinals)

SHOULDN'T BE A PITCHER:
Homer Bailey (Reds)

ROLLS OFF THE TONGUE NICELY:
Humberto Quintero (Astros)
Placido Polanco (Tigers).
Rod Barajas (Mets). Give the the R in his last name a really good rrrroll.

SPELLING BEE NAMES:
Jarrod Saltalamacchia (Rangers) A 14-letter name that barely fits on his shirt.
Mark Rzepczynski (Blue Jays) An 11-letter last name with only two and a half vowels.

SOUNDS LIKE A FIFA SOCCER PLAYER:
Ryan Langerhans (Mariners)
Jair Jurrjens (Braves)

PRETTY FUNNY NAME IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO SAY IT:
Kosuko Fukudome (Cubs).

Yaz At Bat

2010-07-12T17:26:00.009-04:00

It's the Monday of the All-Star break. There are only two days in the year when there is no game action in any of the professional sports and this is one of them.

Except on the Cape
I'm on vacation on the Cape, and as I do every year I've caught a couple of Cape League games. At Red Wilson Field in Yarmouth the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox host the Cotuit Kettleers. Up to bat steps the Cotuit right fielder, #18, one Michael Yastrzemski. My daughter Kara says something about the coincidence of seeing a name like that in a ball game. I responded that it wasn't any coincidence. Michael Yastrzemski goes to Vanderbilt and comes from North Andover, MA. This is probably the grandson of Yaz. A woman in front of me hears this and confirms it.

The MLB strike
When you mention "the baseball strike" people usually think of the one that canceled the 1994 World Series. But the strike before that, in 1981, cut a big hole in the middle of the season. During that strike I went to a Cape League game in Harwich. The Y-D Red Sox were playing the Harwich Mariners, and one of the players on the Red Sox was Michael Yastrzemski, who is the father of the Michael Yastrzemski I just saw playing for Cotuit and the son of Carl Yastrzemski, who was still an active player with the Boston Red Sox. Carl, who had free time because of the strike, was at the game in Harwich and saw his son Mike hit a home run.

Flash forward 29 years
So here I am watching a third generation of Yaz at bat. He's a lefty, by the way, batting .211 with no homers and 2 RBI's. I'm guessing that his pro baseball career will be more like his father's than his grandfather's, but it's interesting to watch him at bat.

Other noteable names
Playing first base for Cotuit is Caleb Bushyhead. Seriously. I tried to peer into the dugout to see what he looked like when he took off his helmet, but couldn't get a good look. Maybe if he makes it to the majors and plays for the Rockies he can take a pickoff throw from their star pitcher Ubaldo Jiminez, who's starting for the NL in the All-Star game ("Ubaldo throws over to Bushyhead, but the runner is back safe"). On the Red Sox we have Matt Hamlet, who goes to BC and comes from a little town in Virginia. Never mind about BC, think about the little town part. The shortstop is Joe Panik (OMG! Don't tell me he's up again! What are we gonna do???) Also Matt Rush, who's trying to get into a fraternity at Oral Roberts, and always swings at the first pitch. They've got a big kid named Poppe. 6'6", 220. The closer for Yarmouth-Dennis is appropriately named Michael Goodnight. He's lights-out.

There's a guy named Scott Snodgress from Stanford. I wondered if he might be related (great-great-great-nephew or something) to the player on the New York Giants who dropped a fly ball in Game 7 of the 1912 World Series, allowing the Red Sox to win the Series. But that guy was Snodgrass, not Snodgress. There's a guy named Jordan Leyland who I thought might be related to Detroit Tigers' manager Jim Leyland. I Googled it and saw a headline that said, "Tigers draft Jim Leyland's son." But it's not Jordan, it's Patrick.

So enjoy the shot of Yaz at bat in 2010. Do you think he has a similar stance?

My take on soccer

2010-06-26T20:58:00.010-04:00

This year the media, ESPN in particular, has tried harder than ever to make soccer a big deal in America. It isn't working.

Certainly the term Soccer Mom has made it into the American lexicon, and no one talks about a Lacrosse Mom or a Softball Mom or a Crew Mom. Except for Sarah Palin no one talks about being a Hockey Mom.

The US was eliminated from the World Cup today by Ghana. Remember who knocked the US out four years ago? Ghana. (Did you know that? Did you know that they hold the World Cup every four years?)

Last night I was watching Sports Center and they were talking about the Team USA game today. They had four anchors, three of them former pro athletes. Every one of them pronounced Ghana "Goo-ana." Two weren't sure what continent it is on. To put that in perspective, my daughter did a project about Ghana in 3rd grade - it might even have been 2nd grade. Every kid in the class knew how to say it and where it is. Why don't the ESPN anchors know? Because they don't need to know. It isn't important to them.

We get some e-mails at the radio station asking why we always talk about the Red Sox or Celtics when soccer is the most popular game in the world. Why? Because even though soccer is arguably the most popular game the in world, it clearly isn't the most popular game in America. And that's who we're talking to: Americans.

We have five radio stations on Morrissey Boulevard in Boston. About 225 employees. How many are avid soccer fans? Two morning guys, plus an intern and one Air Personality's husband. That's 222-4. 222-2 if you only count paid employees. I randomly asked 25 employees if they could name anyone from Team USA. Only one - the intern - came up with a name.

One more piece of evidence: I'm on Cape Cod this weekend. Around 6PM today I went to Bass River Sports World which is right nearby us. They have miniature golf, a driving range, go carts and right next to each other they have batting cages and a full-sized soccer net.

The photo above shows the batting cages with ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, trying to launch one over an imaginary Green Monster.

This photo of the soccer net, taken ten seconds later, shows absolutely no one trying to bend it like Beckham.

One of the few soccer fans at work accused me of hating soccer. I don't hate it. I just don't like it much. The goalies don't even wear the same uniform as the rest of the team. What's that all about? Players run back and forth, back and forth, and nobody scores. You have to listen to the constant buzz of the annoying Vuvuzela horns. You'd think it's the Year of the Cicada. They're worse than the cowbells at Tropicana Field. (By the way, the old folks in Tampa only ring the cowbells when the scoreboard tells them to.)

The American audience has plenty of exciting pro and college sports to follow, and they just don't have time for soccer. What would you rather watch? A 103-101 Celtics-Lakers game, a 14-inning 7-6 Red Sox-Yankees game decided by a walkoff at 1AM, or a 0-0 soccer match between Uruguay and Slovenia?

Two weeks in

2010-04-18T13:29:00.027-04:00

Okay, the Red Sox are off to a slow start. That has happened in April many, many times. It's typically followed by an excellent May.

Opening Night.
It was a great time. I went with my daughter Kara. A surprisingly warm night. The kid from the Herb Brooks "Miracle" speech You Tube video was a real kick.

(forgive the My Bob's ad)

Pedro milked the first pitch for all it was worth and then some. Live performances by Steven Tyler and Neil Diamond. As far as the annual Fenway upgrades, they actually replaced the 1934 wooden grandstand seats. The new ones have springs. Other than that, they are identical. Same flat wooden slats. Same cramped size. Unbelievable. Larry Lucchino said they did it because the wooden seats - the last ones remaining in the Majors - are part of the tradition. Larry, have you ever spent five hours sitting in one? Think maybe there's a reason that no one else has them anymore? Of course, cramped as they are, the Red Sox have no problem filling them night after night.

The opener was a nice win over the Yankees. Tuesday and Wednesday we saw the bullpen blow leads.

Off to KC.
While I was doing some pre-season work on the Cape house the Sox were in Kansas City, where they have some crazy little women. They lost on Friday night, making three straight L's and dropping the Sox to 1 and 3. Two wins over the weekend and it was back to .500.

We head to the Mini-apple.
On Monday the Twins opened their brand new ballpark, Target Field, hosting the Red Sox. Last May Kara and I flew out there for game one the final Red Sox series at the Metrodome. On Wednesday we flew out for game 2 of the first Sox series in the new ballpark. I thought about going to game 1 there, but it was sold out, and the 3PM start would have made flying in and back on the same day a challenge. Furthermore, this was the first game at their beautiful brand new outdoor ballpark after playing at the horrible Metrodome with the crappy fake field and the big blue baggie for a right field fence the for almost 30 years. I didn't want to be some jerk wearing the wrong jersey and rooting for the visitors at a game that the Twins should get to win.

Kara at Target Field

Game 2 was different. No opening day pressure. It's a very nice ballpark, right downtown. A decent number of fans were wearing Red Sox stuff, but vastly outnumbered by Twins fans, all of whom were Midwest friendly. One commented that they had been to Fenway once, and they thought the smell was really unique. The concourses are very wide and full of concessions. The friendly folks behind the counters were really slow - as in two innings to get a hot dog a beer. There was no local beer or local cuisine. Maybe there isn't any.

They didn't do any of the stupid minor league stuff you see at a lot of new ballparks, like having cheer girls shoot t-shirts into the stands. Okay, they did one bingo game between innings, but it was less intrusive than the ketchup-mustard-pickle race featured in a lot of new parks. They did shoot off fireworks when a Twin homered. When Jason Kubel came up a few fans tried make a "koo"sound like the "Youk" chant you hear everywhere, but it paled in comparison. No waves, of course. You only get that at Fenway. There were no special songs. No Minnesota version of "Dirty Water" or "Deep in the Heart of Texas" or "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" or "New York, New York." Of course, the Twins lost the game. Maybe they save the song for wins, like the Sox do with "Dirty Water."

Editor's note:
I should add that I think it's incredibly cool that my daughter likes to go on Red Sox road trips with me. We've gone to Montreal, New York (3 different ballparks), Chicago, Oakland, Phoenix, San Francisco, Minnesota (2 ballparks) and Baltimore in a couple of weeks. Does it get any better than that?

Back at Fenway.
On Friday night, Kathy and I went and sat, not in Section 29, but in Section 19, Box 42. That's in front of the walkway, right behind home plate. Fabulous view. Bigger, much more comfortable seats . Padded, with cupholders and leg room. Beer served in the stands. Rob Barry, the peanut vendor with the best arm in the majors, was on beer duty. An older gentleman dried off the seats (it had been raining all day) and we tipped him. I was surprised at how few others did. In about the 4th inning a couple of guys who clearly didn't belong there showed up to take box seats in the next section. I think they tipped the guy to let them sit there.

Box seat legroom

Jerry Remy's pen.
We were under the backstop screen, and up on the overhead part of the screen there was a pen. It appeared to be one of those blue and white Bic pens that has four colors of ink: blue, black, red and green. I recall hearing Jerry Remy say that he uses one of those Bic pens to score the game. Blue for most entries, green for a hit, red for an RBI, black for an error. I figured that was Remy's pen. Jerry must have dropped it during a game and it slid halfway down the backstop screen and got stuck there.

Remy's pen stuck in the backstop screen

The two-week mark.
So here it is, two weeks after opening night. The Red Sox are 4 and 7 and losing 4-0 to Tampa Bay as I write this. In several of the recent losses the Sox have had three starters hitting well under the Mendoza line. (In case you're not familiar with that expression, it refers to batting .200. When you go above or below that mark, you've crossed the Mendoza line. It refers to Mario Mendoza, a former Pirate and Ranger who actually had a career average of .215 but is saddled with the image of a lifetime .200 hitter). Big Papi, who looks not as big in the shoulders as he was, is batting .171. JD Drew makes him look like the Ortiz of 2003-2007, batting an embarrassing .131 with a team-leading 16 strikeouts.

Run prevention?
That was The Plan for 2010. How do you expect to prevent runs when your new shortstop is tied for the Major League lead in errors. Three in two weeks paces at 39 for the season. Two of those cost the team wins. To put that in perspective, Edgar "Ren-a-wreck" Renteria had 30 for Boston in 2005. Julio Lugo made 19 in 2008, and he only played half the season. The error count is also suspiciously low, as many plays that are scored as "hits" are really errors. What's more. it doesn't account for bad throws that Youk is able to dig out of the dirt or bad relay throws that fail to get the runner at first on a routine double-play ball. Scutaro made another bad throw just now as I'm writing this.

The Sox wound up losing 7-0, their fourth straight loss.

But hey, it's only two weeks, and they typically play well on Patriots' Day.

Wow, did that go by fast

2010-02-28T21:36:00.013-05:00

My daughter Caitlin turns 25 at 11:52PM tonight. Wow, did that go by fast.

She was actually due on Valentine's Day.
I was the Program Director of WFTQ in Worcester. 14Q. I did a short airshift as well, from 9-11AM. My opening break that day, coming out of the 9AM news, was over the beginning of "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road." Over the 7-second intro I said, "Well, here it is, February 14th, the baby's due date. And so far, nothing." I posted the vocal perfectly. Elton opens with, "When are you gonna come down...when are you going to land?" It was probably my best show open ever.

A week and a half later, on Sunday the 24th, there was still no baby. I drove my wife Kathy up and down a bumpy street in Worcester hoping to move things along. At the time I didn't know that when the doctors give you a due date they're throwing a dart and guessing.

Four days later.
Kathy was getting up to head in to work for a sales meeting at WAAF where she was an Account Executive. As she walked into the bathroom her water broke. You hear all those stories about the water breaking in the supermarket, but this was very convenient timing. So we grabbed the already-packed suitcase, jumped in the car and headed for Worcester Memorial Hospital.

We checked in around 9AM. Kathy was resting sort of comfortably and I was in a chair next to her reading "Nightmare in Pink" (as noted in my last blog entry).

On it went.
Eleven hours later, around 8PM, they sent me home to nap. I felt like I had just hit the pillow when the phone rang. It was a nurse at the hospital telling me that they're about to start pushing and I should come back right now. I got back about 8:30. The pushing went on for about an hour and a half. If you want to feel useless, try telling your wife who has been in labor for 14 hours that she should remember her breathing. Hut-hut-HOO. Shut up and tell them to give me another goddamn epidural. Just before midnight, Dr. Pokoly asked if we'd like a February baby or a March baby. Clearly February would be a few minutes earlier.

Eight minutes before midnight,
Dr. Pokoly, with his medium-strong German accent, said, "Vell, it looks like ve haf a girl here." Indeed we did. Wow. The nurse handed her to me and I carried her around the room pointing things out. This is a clock. It says 11:55. This here is a painting of Monet's Japanese bridge. This is a window. This is a magazine. Oh, here's your Mommy. I can't adequately describe the unbelievable feeling of holding your brand newborn daughter in your arms. It's a moment that's etched in my brain like no other.

One of the nurses said, "She looks a little grunty." You're calling my daughter grunty? I would have punched the nurse in the nose if my arms weren't full. We went to the recovery room and the nurse there said, "Oh, it's a girl! What are you going to name her?' I responded, "Caitlin." The nurse said, "Oh, yeah. That's the big name this year."

Quick aside about the name.
Before Kathy and I started talking about baby names I had actually never heard of the name Caitlin. Kathy got the name from a book she'd read about Dylan Thomas's wife. The deal was that if we had a girl, Kathy would name her. If we had a boy, I'd get the honor. Kathy's first name choice was actually Erin, but her sister Terry had stolen the name a few years earlier despite Kathy having hosied it. If I recall correctly, there was some mashed potato thrown at Thanksgiving dinner over the issue. So Caitlin it was.

As far as I can recall, Caitlin never had a class, played on a team, or had much of any group activity anywhere without at least one other Caitlin. Usually misspelled. Katelyn, or Kaitlin, or Katlyn or some combination of those. She was in a regional swim meet one time and there were six swimmers in her event, three of them from the Wellesley team. All were named Caitlin.

Despite that, you hardly ever see Caitlin stuff for sale in souvenir stores. The pens, key chains, mugs, sticky pads and such never have Caitlin. When she was about three I found a rack of cassettes where the guy sings a customized "Happy Birthday" with your kid's name and everything. I had to special order a Caitlin version.

On her second night home Caitlin slept through the night. Her first doctor's appointment was the next day, and the doctor asked how she was doing. We said, great, she slept through the night. He said, "Oh, no, don't let her do that. You have to wake her up." Say, what? I don't think so.

One more name aside.
We lived in Baltimore for three years when I was Program Director of Mix 106.5. We decided to get Social Security cards for the girls (Kara, daughter #2, was born in Baltimore). We needed a birth certificate with a raised seal from the city hall of their birthplace. Baltimore for Kara was easy, but the City of Worcester sent us the wrong birth certificate. Evidently there was another Caitlin Kelley born to a different Don and Kathy Kelley on the same date in Worcester. Kelley was probably misspelled.

Dream Girl.
Caitlin has been an absolute dream. As sweet and easy going as they come. None of the tension that you see with kids on situation comedies. No teenage anger or angst. I coached her in CYO basketball for four years, until the players' skills eclipsed my coaching skills. In softball, though, it was a different story. I coached her from T-ball in 1st grade all the way through high school Varsity where she played an excellent third base and was in the MIAA State Tournament for three straight years.

She went to Providence College and graduated with the highest GPA in her major. Got a job immediately after graduation at a non-profit in New York. Got an apartment in Manhattan with a friend she's known since nursery school.

When she got to New York Caitlin started playing in a co-ed dodge ball league and a guy on the team noticed that she has a much better arm than most of girls. He asked her if she'd like to fill in on his co-ed softball team the next night. They had enough boys but were short one girl. Sure, she'll play. They put Caitlin at second base, probably hoping that no one would hit the ball to her, but they did hit it to her. She actually turned two 6-4-3 double-plays (that's where the second baseman takes the throw from the shortstop, steps on second, does a pivot and makes the relay throw to first). That opened some eyes. Say, would you like to be a regular on the team? Yes, she would. That lead to her new job in the Viacom Building in Times Square doing Digital Analytics for Nickelodeon's numerous web sites.

It was also at dodge ball where she met her boyfriend, a great guy who is from New York but thankfully is not a Yankee fan. Last April he took her to the very first game at Citi Field in Queens, the new home of the Mets. That first game, an exhibition at the end of spring training, was between the Red Sox and Mets. Clearly this guy gets it.

So here we are, 25 years later.
Caitlin is now in The Demo (25-54, the age group that all marketers covet) so her opinion officially counts. Wow, that was fast. Caitlin, you are and always have been a true delight. Happy 25th.

I picked up the phone and called Quirk

2010-02-04T22:00:00.007-05:00

That was the last line of the last Spenser book. I just finished it last night. I'd been saving the last few chapters for a couple of weeks since Robert B. Parker died on January 18th.

The first Spenser book I read was in 1981. Looking for Rachel Wallace. My brother Peter recommended it to me. It was the third in the Spenser series. I liked it enough to go back and read the first two, The Godwulf Manuscript and God Save the Child. Moving forward, I read every one since then. And all the Jesse Stone ones, and the Sunny Randall ones. And a few that had none of the well-known characters, such as Wilderness, Love and Glory, and Poodle Springs, the unfinished Raymond Chandler book that Parker completed.

My daughter Caitlin was born in 1985. I had read about five Spenser books by then and was also working on the entire Travis McGee series by John D. McDonald. All the McDonald books had a color in the title: The Deep Blue Goodbye, A Tan and Sandy Silence, The Dreadful Lemon Sky, etc. The one I was reading in the hospital while I waited all day for Caitlin to be born was Nightmare in Pink. I knew it would be girl.

But back to Parker. Kathy and I decided that a kid should have a dog, so we got a full-grown Old English Sheepdog from a shelter in Holden, MA. Named him Spenser, spelled like the detective, which was spelled like the English poet.

Caitlin's first word was "Spenser." Okay, it was more like "Spa-spa," but she wasn't saying "Daddy." She was talking about the dog.

Every year since 1981 I've had a Spenser book to read on the beach. Usually at Smuggler's Beach on Cape Cod. I learned a number of things from Spenser books. In one, he's sitting in his office on Kneeland Street (this was the first of three offices he had). It's nighttime, the window is open, and he hears a car with a trick horn blowing "shave and a haircut...two bits." I had never known the name for dum-dum-da-DUM-dum...dum-DUM . Now I did. In another book he's up in the Catskills trying to rescue Susan and somebody says, "Yippie cayocayay!" It's the only time I've seen it written out. When I was a kid my father used to say, "Up and Adam" to get us boys up. At least that's what I thought he was saying. Many years later, while reading a Spenser book, I came across this line: "It was 5 o'clock and I was already up and at 'em, but the 'em I was up and at were still asleep." Up and at them. Now I get it.

The books weren't perfect. A reviewer once recommended that Parker give us "more Hawk, less Susan." I agree. He spent way too much time drooling over how wonderful Susan is. In the last ten years or so, after he and Susan got back together, she gets a PhD in Psychology at Harvard. From then on, Spenser mentions that Susan has a Harvard PhD several times in every book. Impressive, yes, but alright already. He referred to having sex as "bopping" too frequently. I found this annoying when multiple people in the same book would use the expression. He relied heavily on the same police contacts, as though the Boston Police Department consisted of only two guys that he knew, Quirk and Belson. He has Hawk doing the fake black dialect thing too much. He adopted a kid in an early book, Paul Giacomin. Paul comes up a few times in subsequent books, but it's pretty sparse. He spends too much time fawning over Pearl the Wonder Dog (they actually go through two Pearls). Pearl is fed food right from the table and gets to crawl into bed with them. A few plots were preposterous, like the one where he goes to Arizona to save a small town from outlaws by shooting them all.

But they're fun reads. Short chapters. Good beach reads, good airplane reads. Good characters. Hawk, Vinnie Morris, Tony Marcus, Junior and Ty Bop, Chollo, Henry Cimoli, State Police Homicide Commander Healy, Martin Quirk, Frank Belson. He ate at real restaurants and named them. Lockober's, The Bristol Lounge, Rocco, The Ritz Bar, Blue Ginger. He knew that a Browning was a good piece to hide in the small of your back but was also effective. He knew how to cook. He knew how to box. He ran along the Comm Ave mall. He enjoyed beer, like Amstel or Black and Tan. He liked Scotch, especially Dewar's. Also Maker's Mark. He liked Dunkin' Donuts coffee. And their cinammon donuts. He named real towns, unless something bad was happening there. He referred to my hometown of Wellesley as Pemberton. Lowell was Proctor. Portsmouth, NH was Port City. Lynnfield was Smithfield. Tufts University was Taft. BC might also have been Taft.

He's funny and self-effacing. "I decided to use my warm but convincing smile on her. I didn't work. That surprised me, because my warm but convincing smile almost always works."

He was a Red Sox fan. He has a 2004 World Series Champion cap. In one book Spenser is wearing a Utica Blue Sox cap as a disguise. Parker himself was old enough to remember the Boston Braves. On the back of several books he's wearing a Boston Braves cap while Pearl strains against the leash. (In case you don't know, the Braves are a National League team that played in Boston from 1871-1953, when they got sick of being outdrawn by the Red Sox and decided to blow town and head to Milwaukee. 13 years later they moved again, this time to Atlanta where they still play.)

So now I have no more Spenser books to read. There is one more Jesse Stone novel. He's the Police Chief of Paradise, Massachusetts, which is remarkably like Marblehead. I'll read it when it's released. But I'll miss Spenser.

Who wote this ad? The Grammys. Schilling is not a Yankee fan.

2010-01-31T19:57:00.017-05:00

Your blogger has been hibernating since November, but we're back again with some thoughts about commercials that were perhaps written in haste, the Grammy Awards, and how Martha Coakley lost the election.

Who wrote this ad?
A Walmart ad just ran on CBS. Great spot, between 60 Minutes and the Grammys. The scene is a kitchen and family room. Everyone...Dad, Mom, Sis, younger Brother, Uncle Someone...is wearing a generic football jersey. One is #12, but it's not a Brady shirt. Another is #18, but it isn't for Peyton Manning. She's serving snacks to the gang as they pile on the couch, and she says, "At our house, we love the playoffs, and I want to be ready to watch it." Watch IT? Wouldn't that be "watch them"? I also have a hard time buying the idea of everyone huddled around a flat screen getting excited about all the playoffs. Unless it's a family of bookies. At my house it would be just me watching the game, and I'd be flipping. My wife would be watching "Real Housewives of New Jersey" or MSNBC. My daughters. if they were around at the time, would have a movie on.

Maybe this TV household is all watching the home town team. That would make more sense. If so, they're watching the playoff (singular). Why then, is everyone wearing a different color team shirt?

Maybe they are a family of bookies, and they're all watching the playoffs in general. Last week they could have been gathered around the TV to root for either the Jets or the Colts. But no one is wearing the colors of either team. A stretch. What's more, as Dan Shaughnessey wrote in the Boston Globe, people around these here parts were rooting for both of those teams to lose.

So basically, the spot was written by someone who does not follow football or playoffs of any sport, and it was shot by a director, and then approved by a client who also don't follow the playoffs or know how to talk about them.

The Grammys.
My station, MAGIC 106.7, actually won a Grammy. It was 1998, and the Academy was hot to prove that it was important for radio stations to front-sell and back-sell new music. As in, "Here's the new one from Taylor Swift" when you're introducing the song, and saying, "That was the new one from Taylor Swift" immediately following it. They survey a bunch of radio stations, and decided that MAGIC 106.7 did the best job of this of any station. So we got a "Radio Active" Grammy Award.

Artists often annoy me at the Grammys. They win, get up there and thank their manager, thank a bunch of other people you never heard of, thank God, and thank their mother, which is a good thing. No one ever thanks their father, which I find depressing. But tonight, Michael Jackson's kids did. Other than Country artists, and Michael Bolton back in the day when he won awards, no one thanks the Radio for playing them.

And if we didn't, where would they be? They'd be where the Grammy-winning soundtrack to the movie, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" wound up. Nowhere. It was a very good soundtrack. Added a lot to the movie. Radio got a lot of grief for ignoring the Grammy-winning soundtrack, but anyone who has seen the movie must realize that you can't play 1930's-style Hillbilly Bluegrass versions of "Big Rock Candy Mountain" or "You Are My Sunshine" on your radio station and still have people continue to listen. Radio makes the hits, and it plays the hits. Any artist who's made a ton of money made it because they got played on the radio.

How Martha lost the election.
One more rambling subject: The Senatorial election. In 2007 we had both Martha Coakley and Scott Brown at our Exceptional Women Awards. Martha was an award winner that year. Scott was there to promote - guess who? Ayla, who had made the top 16 the previous year on American Idol and had a new single.

So what happened to turn the election? Martha seemed like a slam dunk until a couple of weeks before the election, but Scott clearly out campaigned her. The ridiculous barrage of ads on both radio and TV leading up to the campaign...several times we had four in a row for one side or the other... definitely helped Scott. Why? Naturally, all the Scott Brown ads mentioned him by name. So did all the supporters of Martha Coakley who bought anti-Brown ads. The result was that three of every four ads - regardless who who the ads supported - contained Scott Brown's name, while only the Coakley committee ads named Martha.

But the real tipping point....Martha's interview with Dan Rea on WBZ. She mentions Rudy Giuliani and says he's a Yankee fan. No kidding. Then she adds that Curt Schillng is a Yankee fan. Dan Rea calls her out on this. Curt, the Bloody Sock playoff hero, is certainly a Red Sox fan. Martha defends her comment. "No, he's not there any more. He's a Yankee fan."

Curt Schilling responds the next day on his "38 Pitches" blog and on WEEI saying that there's no way he'd be a Yankee fan. Jay Leno has Scott Brown do "10 at 10" on his show and jokes about Martha's Schilling gaffe. Scott agrees with Jay that Schilling would certainly be a Red Sox fan, then proceeds to correctly name Boston's likely starting rotation in 2010. There's a bit about this on the opening of Saturday Night Live.

This was a campaign-killer comparable to George HW Bush in 1992 not knowing that supermarkets had scanners, or Gerald Ford in 1976 stating that there was no Soviet dominance of Eastern Europe. All three made the candidate look completely out of touch. In this case, anyone - especially male - who was on the fence about who'd get their vote immediately dismissed Martha based on that comment alone. Was she kidding? Obviously she doesn't get it. What else doesn't she get? Was she under a rock in 2004? Doesn't she know anything?

Two centaurs walk into a bar and get into a fight

2009-11-09T21:43:00.010-05:00

This will tie together...promise!
So tonight I was at a Wellesley Club dinner, and the guest speaker was Mike Dowling, sportscaster for Channel 5 in Boston. The last time I saw him at a non-sports event was as MC of the Wellesley Spelling Bee. It's an annual bee where teams of three from companies, community organizations, college alumni groups, neighborhoods or schools compete. It's a fundraiser for the Wellesley Education Fund. A good cause, a fun night.

We be in the bee
A couple of years ago I got together with my two brothers, Hugh and Peter, and we formed a team for the spelling bee. We were The Kelley Brothers. Pretty clever name. Both of them went to Harvard. I didn't, but I won a Hunnewell School spelling bee in 5th grade and I'm an excellent parallel parker.

We almost won
We were indeed a formidable team, making it to the final round. It had gone from 40 teams down to the final two: some guys from a law firm in town, and the Kelley Brothers. We went through seven ridiculous words that no one would ever use, and both teams were still standing. Then Mike Dowling gave us the next word...centauromacchia. Okay, Mike - use it in a a sentence. "A centaur is a mythical half-man, half-horse. When two of them are having a fight - In Latin - it's a centauromacchia." Really. Well, we got it wrong. To be honest, it was not I who blew it. One of my very smart brothers thought that "macchia" had only one c. So we lost, but at least it was on a word that would never come up in conversation.

Until the 2009 World Series
While the media was fawning all over A Rod during the World Series you may have heard some talk about his centaurs. A Rod has two of them painted on the wall above his bed, facing each other in ready-to-attack position. The heads on both of the centaurs are likenesses of A Rod. Seriously. Word of this got out when Kate Hudson let it spill that she thought they were a bit much and he should lose them.

So do you think A Rod knows how to spell centauromacchia?
I'm guessing no. It could be that he calls himself A because can't remember how to spell Alex.

Exonerating footnote
If you look up centauromacchia in dictionary.com it isn't there.

There's no Dick

2009-11-04T22:16:00.003-05:00

It's Wednesday night.
I was wearing my Phillies warmup jacket and watching Game 6 of the 2009 World Series, but when it got to be 7-1 Yankees I gave up. I have no need to watch the Yankees jump all over themselves at the end of the game. Seen it too many times before. I think of those poor folks in Milwaukee. When I went to a game at Miller Park in 2006 people talked about how the Brew Crew had been there in 1982. But lost. Their one trip to the Fall Classic. How about the Cleveland Indians fans? "Remember when we won it in 1948?"

So I flipped to CSI
They had an autopsy scene that grossed my wife out, so I hit the off button on the clicka. Then I decided, for no particular reason, to look up Dick in Baseball Almanac.

Actually, there was a reason.
I rarely do anything for no reason. Here's this one. On many occasions I have used a joke I stole from an old Dick Van Dyke Show. Dick, who played Rob on the show, and his wife Laura, played by Mary Tyler Moore, have a son named Robby. Robby wants to know why his middle name is Rosebud. It's goofy. They flash back to the day the name decision was made. It has nothing to do with the sled in "Citizen Kane." All the relatives are there, each with his or her own idea of the perfect moniker. One says it should be Robert, after the Dad. Another wants Oscar. Aunt Somebody pitches for Sam. Uncle Somebody likes Edward - a strong name. He keeps spelling it out. E-D-W-A-R-D. Other offerings are Benjamin, Ulysses and David. They finally decide to name the kid Robby, but for a middle name they take the first letter of each suggestion and come up with Rosebud.

So where's the joke?
When the Sam suggestion is voiced, Uncle Somebody says, "That's no good. Every Tom, Dick and Harry is named Sam." (My friend Mike Kinosian, Special Fetaures editor for Inside Radio, tipped me off that Samuel Goldwyn came up with the line.) I thought it was funny, and as I mentioned above, I have used the line over the years on every possible occasion.

But who is actually named Dick these days?
In Baseball Almanac there are lots of Dicks. Dick Radatz, Dick Trazewski, Dick Drago, Dick Stuart, Dick Schofield, Dick Groat, Dick Tidwell, Dick Bartell, Dick Bertel, Dick Pole, Dick Allen, Dick Howser, Dick McAuliffe, Dick Gernert, and many more. But today? I looked at the 40-man rosters of all 30 teams. That's 1200 players. There's a guy named Don Kelly who spells his name wrong. There's one guy named Tom. Another guy is named Jhonny (was that intentional, or a typo on the birth certificate?). There are lots of Justins. There's Jason and Jayson. There's John and Jon, Jered and Jarrod, Clay and Cla, Curt and Kurt, Eric and Erik, Sean, Shawn and Chone, Trevor and Trever, Vladimir and Wladimir, Zach and Zack. There's Asdrubel, Anibal, Esmerling, Huston, Jai, Jhulys, Ubaldo, Yadier, Yashuhiko, Yonder, Yorman, Yordany, Yorvani, Yorvit, Yuniesky and Yusmeiro. But there isn't even one major league player named Dick. Or, for that matter, Harry.

Snow on October 18th

2009-10-18T18:23:00.000-04:00

It's not the Blizzard of '78

No, but we actually have snow falling on October 18th. Just enough to accumulate a little on a parked car. Maybe a shrub here or there. Enough to obliterate the lines at the Patriots game in Foxborough. That's not bothering the Pats, who are wearing their old Boston Patriots uniforms as they trounce the Tennessee Titans, 59-0. The Titans, meanwhile, are wearing Houston Oilers uniforms because they have no throwback stuff. The referees are wearing ugly throwback shirts that are orange and white striped that they apparently wore when the AFL started 50 years ago. Most likely most people didn't know they were orange back then because all the TV's were black and white.

Earliest snow in Boston

The earliest date we've had 1" of snow is November 10th. That was in 1976. We had an ice storm, of all things, on November 11, 1967. No one expected it, of course, and there were traffic jams all over the place even though it was a holiday.

Earliest snow I've seen

September 24th, 2000. It was in Denver. I was going to a Rockies-Marlins game on the way home from San Francisco. The snow came overnight and melted by game time at 1PM, but it was still snow in September. People at the game weren't talking about it, so maybe it's not unusual there. But here everyone is talking about it today.

Watch the news tonight

The TV meteorologists will be out of their minds. Weather people, in case you didn't know, hate nice days. Nice days make for a boring "weather show" as they like to call it. Give them something out of the ordinary - even a few early flakes - and they can whip out all those neat graphics. If Shelby Scott hadn't retired you just know Channel 4 would have her doing a standup with in Scituate with the wind whipping her hair and flakes flying around her. Maybe MSNBC wil have Michelle Kosinski do a standup.

Who am I rooting for?

2009-10-13T21:57:00.001-04:00

Following the "Papelbomb" on Sunday...
A buddy asked me who I'm rooting for now. "Obviously you wanted the Red Sox to win the World Series, but now who are you voting for?"

Of course I would like the Red Sox to win the World Series, but that's actually not my first choice.

My first choice is....

...NOT THE YANKEES.

Why the grudge?
From the time I was three weeks old until I was a Freshman in college there was a New York team (or former New York team) in the World Series every single year. That's 18 seasons. 1949, Yankees and Dodgers. 1950, Yankees and Phillies. 1951, Yankees and Giants. 1952, Yankees and Dodgers. 1953, Yankees and Dodgers. 1954, Giants and Indians. 1955, Yankees and Dodgers. 1956, Yankees and Dodgers. 1957, Yankees and Braves. 1958, Yankees and Braves. (There was a reason they had a book called, "The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant" and a Broadway play and movie called, "Damn Yankees.") 1959, LA Dodgers and White Sox. 1960, Yankees and Pirates. 1961, Yankees and Reds. 1962, Yankees and SF Giants. 1963, Yankees and Dodgers. 1964, Yankees and Cardinals. 1965, Dodgers and Twins. 1966, Dodgers and Orioles.

Ball game over. Thuuuh...Yyyaaankeeees....lloooose!!
1966 was the final year of the streak. That was the year that the Yankees finished in.....(drum roll, please)....last place. In those 18 seasons a New York team (present or former) won the World Series 14 times. Half of those 18 were Yankees wins. Can you imagine the thrill when 1967 happened? Not only were there no Yankees or other former New York team involved, but the Red Sox actually got there...facing St. Louis.

So,my choices for 2009 are, in order...
1. The Yankees don't make it to the World Series.
2. They get there, but get swept. Hey, it happened in 1963 and again in 1976.
3. They get there, but lose.
4. Someone else - anyone but the Yankees - wins.

The Phillies are my first choice.
Philly has a really nice ballpark, and the city has a lot of-lot of character. They boo Santa and cheer bad landings at the airport. The Phils are the defending champions. Only five teams other than the Yankees have won back-to-back championships: The Blue Jays (92 and 93), the Reds (75 and 76), the A's (72,73,74), the Red Sox (15 and 16) and, believe it or not, the Cubs (1907 and 1908). The Phillies won game 1 against the Red Sox in 1915, then proceeded to go 65 years before winning another postseason game. Also, I have a Phillies jacket that I got when working in Philly in 2004. One more thing: before moving to Philadelphia in 1882, the team played in Worcester. That's where my daughter Caitlin was born. They were the Worcester Ruby Legs.

Go Phils

Don Kelley almost wins it

2009-10-06T21:35:00.001-04:00

Where is the game?

I'm watching the Tigers-Twins playoff game on my computer. If it's on TV I can't find it. In the 11th inning Detroit puts in a pinch runner named....Don Kelley. Okay, he spells it Kelly. But I can pretend. Don Kelley winds up scoring the go-ahead run in the 10th. The Twins, however, answer in the bottom of the 10th, then Don Kelley winds up on 3rd in the 11th, bases loaded, full count. A ball four to Rayburn would force in the go-ahead run for Detroit in the person of Don Kelley. Except if Rayburn swings at ball four and misses. Which he does. So it's on to the 12th, where the Twins just won it.

Who was I rooting for?

Whoever would have the better chance of beating the Yankees, of course. The Twins faced the Yankees only 7 times this year in the regular season, going 0 for 7. That's right, uh-huh. 0 for 4 at Yankee Stadium, 0 for 2 in the don't-knock-it-down-quite-yet Metrodome.

Twins in the playoffs

Well, the Angels usually beat the Red Sox in the regular season season series, but always lose in the playoffs (12 of the last 13 games, and all four postseason series). Maybe the Twins fortune will change over the next few days. This is Minnesota's fifth time in the playoffs this decade. Their track record isn't great - they lost in the second round to Anaheim in 2002, lost in the first round to New York in 2003 and 2004, and lost in the first round to Oakland in 2006.

I have my fingers and eyes crossed.

Catch a wave and you're sittin' on top of the world

2009-09-19T22:10:00.000-04:00

This isn't the best Fenway wave I've ever seen, but I happened to be in the State Street Pavilion last week and recorded it. Then I felt like writing about waves. Why do people try to start a wave when the other team is up? It usually makes no sense, but this past Saturday night it did.

I was watching the Red Sox game in Baltimore in my mini sports bar setup downstairs. Three HD TV's with Surround Sound with the Sox game filling the room, plus a laptop with MLBTV showing the Angels-Rangers game. My wife was in the family room watching Lonesome Dove for what seemed like 8 hours.

The game was tied 3-3 at the time, and over the TV's I could hear a nice loud "Yooouuuuuuk" from the crowd of 39,000 as #20 stepped into the batter's box. Okay, he stepped halfway into the batter's box. I have a great view of home plate from Section 29 at Fenway, and in the first or second inning - before the chalk lines are obliterated - it's easy to see that Youk's back foot is well out of the box. He never gets called on it, though.

Back to the game. Youk has a chance to put the Sox ahead, and the crowd starts up a very decent wave. The best I've ever seen outside of Fenway. I should point out that in my ballgame experience, which includes seeing games at 35 Major League parks, you hardly ever see a wave anywhere but at Fenway. I saw a half-baked one last year in Seattle, but other than that nothing would qualify as even quarter-baked. This one in Baltimore was completely baked (see footnote below), and the reason was that probably 70% of the fans were Red Sox fans.

Why not? It's a great ballpark, you can fly on AirTran or Southwest for very little money if you book a couple of weeks out, and you can get great tickets directly from the Orioles web site. No need to pay the scalper rates they charge at Stub Hub.

Youk got a hit and drove in a run that put the Sox up 4-3. It eventually turned into what looked like a laugher, with Boston leading 11-3 in the 9th. Things did get a little squeaky in the bottom of the 9th, as the Manny-Ramirez combo (Manny Delcarmen and Ramon Ramirez) proceeded to give up back-to-back home runs and then load the bases on walks. Suddenly it's 11-5, and the tying run is in the hole. Remember, these Orioles were down 10-1 to the Red Sox in the 7th inning back on June 30th and wound up winning the game. Not to worry, though, a double-play ended it and the Sox Magic Number to make the playoffs dropped to 9.

Footnote: The "completely baked" line was lifted from "The Graduate." When Ben tells his father that he's going to Berkeley to marry Elaine, his father says, "That's fantastic. When did you two decide this?" Ben says that Elaine doesn't actually know yet, and his father responds that the idea sounds half-baked." Ben's comeback: "No, it's completely baked.".

They jinxed it

2009-09-02T18:13:00.000-04:00

The other night I was watching the Red Sox on NESN and simultaneously checking in on the Yankees game on mlb.com. Great picture, by the way. Andy Pettitte has gotten into the 7th inning with a perfect game. Two outs. On YES, the Yankee network, they go to a clip of David Wells being picked up and carried off the field (no easy task with Boomer) when he had a perfect game. Don't they know that's a guaranteed jinx? You don't mention it until it has actually happened. So what did happen? The very next batter hits a grounder to Jerry Hairston, Jr. at 3rd and he boots it. There goes the perfect game. The next batter hits a clean single to left, and the no-hitter bid is history. The final score was 5-1, Yankees, so it wasn't even a shutout.

Andy wasn't particularly gracious about it, as you can see from the photo.

In contrast, let's look at June 7, 2007. I was in Oakland with my daughter Kara. Curt Schilling was on the mound for the Red Sox for an afternoon game. The A's had won three straight from the Red Sox, and Curt was intent on being a stopper. In the top of the first David Ortiz homered, and that was the only scoring of the game. Kara and I were, as usual, scoring the game, and Schilling was putting up nothing but zeros. We noted it with a gesture of the pencil, but said nothing. In the 7th inning, with a perfect game going, there was a room-service grounder to Julio Lugo at short, and Lugo booted it. There went Schill's perfect game. In typical Schilling fashion, he just soldiered on. It went to the bottom of the 9th. Two outs, no-hitter still intact. Varitek puts down a sign and Curt shakes him off. On the next pitch Stewart singles to right and ruins the no-hit bid. The next guy is retired and the Red Sox win, 1-0. A complete-game one-hit shutout for Curt Schilling.

Unlike Andy Pettitte, Curt lay no blame anywhere but at his own feet. "With two outs I was sure I had it. I shook off Jason Varitek and now I'll have to deal with a 'what-if' the rest of my life. Obviously I made a mistake when I shook off 'Tek." He should have been angry about Lugo's sloppy error. If Lugo had fielded that grounder, and if everything else happened exactly as it did, Shannon Stewart would not have stepped into the batter's box in the bottom of the 9th and Schill would have a perfect game.

This was painful...

2009-08-26T21:45:00.000-04:00

But necessary, in the interest of thorough research.
I had been to Red Sox-Yankees games at Fenway Park many times, dating back (believe it or not) to when Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle were playing. Seriously. I probably still had diapers on, but I was there. I've also been to Red Sox-Yankees games at both the old and the new Yankee Stadium. I had observed how fans of either team behave at both places, but I had never been in the position of looking like a Yankee fan at Fenway.

Size doesn't matter.

On Sunday night Kara and I went to the final regular season Red Sox-Yankees game at Fenway...wearing - gulp -Yankees caps. I tried five places before I found any. I wound up buying two at the small souvenir shop across the street from the Cask & Flagon. They had a gazillion Sox hats and two Yankee hats down on the bottom shelf. I cleared my throat and told the guy I wanted two Yankees caps, said that adjustable was fine and size didn't really matter. He handed me the caps and said, "Enjoy the game." No big deal. We put them on and headed across the crowded street to Gate E. One guy with a Yankee hat gave me thumbs up, and I heard a few guys singing, "Boo Yankees" but only for a moment and not very loudly. I bought a couple of the $2 scorebooks they sell on the sidewalk. The guy said, "Enjoy the game." The ticket taker booped the bar code on our tickets and said, "Enjoy the game." Part of the format, evidently. Note: nobody said that to us at Yankee Stadium.

We walked upstairs to the 3rd base pavilion, waited in line and got some food. Then waited in line and got a couple of beers. No one called us out, no one gave us hostile looks. We walked around some more, and then headed to our seats. Nothing. Josh Beckett delivered the first pitch of the game and Derek Jeter hit it into the bullpen. Numerous Yankee fans in the stands jumped up a cheered, and Kara said to me, "We should cheer so we're actually believable." I agreed, but told her I couldn't really do that. Just wearing the hat was giving me a headache and I started seeing floaters in front of my eyes.

On it went. At the end of the 5th, we got up and walked around some more to see if anything happened. We got two more beers and returned to our seats.

That's when we got outed.

By three different people. Nikki, who sometimes sits in seat #10 (we have 11 and 12) had been told by her boyfriend Jason, a Boston cop, that he'd spotted us wearing enemy headgear. When we got back to the seats Nikki turned and said, "Jason saw you guys walking around and said to me, "I'm sure that's Don and Kara, but they're wearing Yankees hats." A guy in the row behind me tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Okay, I have to ask. I've seen you and your daughter here scoring the game at least 29 times and you always have Red Sox hats on. What with the Yankees hats?" At that point the game was official, so we took off our Yankee caps and put on the Red Sox caps that Kara had hidden in her bag. Another guy in the row behind said, "Hey, did you guys change your hats?" I came clean, and told them that I have a blog and I'm doing research to see if Yankee fans at Fenway are treated the same way, better, or worse than Red Sox fans at Yankee Stadium.

The three measures.

Based on the three measures I use...1) how you treat visitors when they are guests in your house, 2) how you act when you're a guest in someone else's house, 3) how you act in general when the subject of the rivalry comes up at a party or dinner or something like that.

Extra, extra! Yankee fans are rude.

Yankee fans are noticeably more rude to visitors than Red Sox fans. Not a surprise, really. As "Yankee fans" at Fenway we endured no abuse whatsoever. It was like, okay there's a Yankee fan, but I don't care.

It's a different experience as Red Sox fans at Yankee Stadium.

Two years age the guys behind us were so bad we almost left, but they got thrown out. Not for for the disgusting stuff they were yelling, but for sneaking beers into the alcohol-free bleachers. This year we were in field level seats by the right field foul pole. Much more expensive, and presumably drawing a better class of clientele. These are big, comfortable padded seats. You get waitress service. You can order a Ketel One with lime. But you're still surrounded by Yankee fans. On the way in the security guy tried to take my camera away. New Yankee Stadium was the 35th major league ballpark where I've seen a game, and I've never had a camera problem before. Another Red Sox fan saw me and said, "Just go to a different gate."' I did, and it worked. Inside a guy said to me, "Hey, pal...Baws-tin ain't playin' here ta-night..they're over at Citi Field." Yuck, yuck. At the seats someone said, "Hey we got some chowda-heads." One guy passing Kara in the concourse said, "Why don't you just kill yourself?" It wasn't just us, of course. Several Red Sox fans scattered throughout the stadium were subjected to various degrees of razzing.

Who really sucks?

The "Yankees suck" chants at Fenway are fewer and farther between than in years past, but they're still there - usually when the Yankees score. At Yankee Stadium they chant "Boston sucks"...but their chants aren't as well orchestrated. More importantly, we chant about their team. They chant about our city. It's never "Red Sox suck," it's "Boston sucks." Outside the parks the t-shirts follow that pattern. In Boston you can get t-shirts saying funny but rude things about Jeter or A Rod. In New York the t-shirts just say "Buck Foston."

Yankee fans are more likely to be loud and obnoxious.
Too many of them wear loud, garish Yankee gear. When a Yankee player does something at Fenway you can count on a bunch of Yankee fans jumping up and making a big deal out of it. "CC...way to throw a strike!" or "Hip hip Hor-HAY" or "The Melk-man dee-livvers." This is more than cheering, it's loud. They stand up to do it, and stay standing way too long, blocking your view. It's probably intentional. Shut up and sit down.

Red Sox fans are more likely to behave.
On the other hand, Red Sox fans at Yankee Stadium are more likely to wear a simple blue cap with a red B. Maybe a Mike Lowell shirt. They'll sit there and enjoy the game quietly. Of course, this might well be caused by fear of getting their ass kicked.

At a party.
Yankee fans love to talk about The Babe, Bucky Dent, Bill Buckner and Aaron Boone. They love to flaunt their 26 World Championships and laugh about how we waited 86 years. Do they have a decent response if you point out that 18 of those 26 happened over 50 years ago? That 22 of those 26 were over 30 years ago? That the last three Yankee wins happened in the steroid era? No, they don't.

Ah, yes...the steroid era.
During the game in New York, one week after the news about David Ortiz broke, he got the expected hoots, although nothing worse than A Rod, Damon or Gary Sheffield have gotten at Fenway. One guy kept calling him "Big Popup." Of course, Ortiz did nothing to shut the guy up, popping up three times. He also grounded out and hit into an inning-ending double-play.

Here's what got me. When Ortiz would come up they'd hold up signs that said 1918, 2004*, 2007*. Really? You want to talk asterisks? Let's look at the last ten years...1998 through 2008, including the last two times the Yankees won the World Series and the two most recent Red Sox wins. On the Red Sox side of the ledger you've got Papi and Manny on the list. What about Yankees during that period? Got your pen ready? There's Ricky Bones, Rondell White, Jason Grimsley, Chuck Knoblauch, David Justice, Jose Canseco, Glenallen Hill, Jim Leyritz, Randy Velarde, Denny Neagle, Mike Stanton, Kevin Brown, Aaron Boone, Matt Lawton, Ron Villone, Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi, Andy Pettitte, Roger Clemens and A Rod. That's 20-2, bad guys.

Conclusion.
Yankee fans are worse. Your witness.

Who is worse?

2009-08-22T19:57:00.001-04:00

Yankee fans or Red Sox fans?

The Red Sox-Yankees matchups this year have been truly bizarre. The Sox won the first eight, sweeping the Yankees twice at Fenway and once in the Bronx. Then came the August bashing in New York, where the Yankees took four straight.

Think about for a second. A game at Fenway where New York was leading 6-0 and Boston winds up winning, 16-11. Another where the Yankees are leading with two outs in the 9th and Jason Bay ties it with a homer, then Youk hits a walkoff in the 11th. In New York two aces faced each other and gave up no runs. The game got to the 15th inning tied at 0-0. A couple of weeks later the Yankees pound the Red Sox, 20-11 at Fenway, only to get a return pounding the next day by the Red Sox, 14-1.

So which team has the worst fans? Meaning most obnoxious. Almost anyone in Boston will say that Yankee fans are more obnoxious. Any Yankee fan you may know will argue that Boston fans are much worse.

So where does the truth lie? I use three measures to determine the OF (obnoxious factor) of fans of either team. 1) How do you behave when you're a visitor in the other team's ballaprk? 2) How do you treat fans of the other team when they visit your ballpark? 3) How generally obnoxious are you when there's a discussion - wherever it may be...party, bar, whatever - of your team versus the other one?

A couple of weeks ago I went to the new Yankee Stadium with my two daughters. When I got back to work and discussed it, I said it was a really nice ballpark - and it is. Too bad it's full of obnoxious Yankee fans. One co-worker, a Yankee fan, said that Boston fans were much worse, and I wouldn't know because I've never seen what it's like to be a Yankee fan at Fenway. True, sort of. I've witnessed Yankee fans at Fenway many times, but to really get it I figure I have to walk the walk at least once.

Walk a mile in my hat.

Tomorrow, August 23rd, is the final regular season meeting at Fenway of the two teams. So far The Red Sox lead the season series, 9-5. The Sox are 7 and 1 at home, the Yankees are 4 and 2 at home. I'm going to the game with my daughter Kara, and we're going to wear Yankees hats. Let's see how we're treated compared to the way we were treated wearing Red Sox hats at Yankee Stadium. That's apples-to-apples.

I'll report either tomorrow night or Monday, depending on how late the game goes.

My Top Ten Sitcom Characters of All Ttime

2009-08-17T23:13:00.000-04:00

These are supporting roles, in chronological order.

1. Ed Norton, The Honeymooners. First, address the ball. "Hello, ball!"
2. Eddie Haskell, Leave It To Beaver. "My, that's a beautiful dress you have on, Mrs. Cleaver!"
3. Barney Fife, The Andy Griffith Show. Goober Pyle is a runner-up.
4. Ted Baxter, The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The ultimate anchorman.
5. Herb Tarlek, WKRP in Cincinnati. What you always imagined the Sales Manager would look like. Big Guy and Les Nessman are runners-up.
6. Norm, Cheers. "Norm!"
7. Wayne Arnold, The Wonder Years. The perfect jerk older brother.
8. George Costanza, Seinfeld. His parents are runners-up.
9. Joey Tribbiani, Friends. "How you doooin?"
10. Jake Harper, Two and a Half Men. You have to admit, the kid is funny.

Enough of this experiment

2009-07-26T20:22:00.000-04:00

Future Hall of Famer
Almost every time someone mentions John Smoltz, they add "future Hall of Famer" to his name. The same thing used to happen with Roger Clemens. But when you hang around one year too many, your stats can drop below the unofficial line of demarcation between Hall members and those who don't make it in. Jim Rice was inducted today, making the cut in his final year of eligibility. Jim's career batting average was .298. In his final year he was a DH in 56 games and batted only .234, meaning if he had skipped 1989 he would have had a career batting average of .300. If Jim had played 15 years with a career BA of .300 instead of 16 with a career BA of .298 would he have been voted in earlier?

So let's look at John Smoltz.
Through 2008 he had a winning percentage of .588, ERA of 3.26 over 20 seasons. He had an ERA under 3.50 in 15 of those 20 seasons. After 6 starts in 2009 his ERA is 7.04, more than double that. His record is 1-4, meaning a 2009 winning percentage of .200. The team record is 1-5. He's had two good starts, although one of them was the game where the bullpen blew a 10-1 lead and they lost, 11-10. He's had four bad starts. In 30 innings he's given up 42 hits and 24 runs and been charged with 4 losses. Compare that with Eric Gagne's record in Boston: 18 innings pitched, 26 hits, 14 runs and 3 blown saves. Hits per inning, runs per inning, and winning percentage - or more accurately, losing percentage - are comparable.

There's a stage leaving town at 5.
They say that past performance is the best predictor of future performance. But is it? Eric Gagne was lights out as a closer for the Dodgers and won the Cy Young Award in 2003. Of course, that was when he was on The Juice. To get Gagne they gave up pitcher Kason Gabbard, who was 4-0 at the time, and outfielder David Murphy, who is presently batting about 50 points higher than JD Drew. I'd much rather see Murphy in right field for the Red Sox right now than Drew. He's a better player and much less expensive. Gagne blew three saves in the same weekend, and was so bad they couldn't wait to put him on the next stagecoach out of Dodge.

So what about Smoltz?
He won a Cy Young with the Braves in 2006, and they didn't have to give up any hot prospects to get him. But his numbers in Boston are as bad as Gagne's. Smoltz, who is as well-spoken as any ballplayer, says that he's happy with the way he has pitched, but not happy with the results, and he'd like to have couple of pitches back. He needs more than a couple back.

Seriously, how long does this experiment last?
We have Michael Bowden and Hunter Jones in Pawtucket, both with better numbers than Smoltz. We have Wakefield back in a week and a half or so, and we have Dice-K coming back sometime in August.

Boston is 2-1/2 games behind the Yankees, and they need to put a winning streak together just to keep pace. On August 4th the Sox open a four-game series in the Bronx. Yes, Boston is 8-0 against New York in 2009, and that home run-friendly short porch at Yankee Stadium can work nicely for both teams. But it's a scary scenario. The Red Sox could go in there down 2-1/2 games and leave down by 6-1/2. Or they could come out up by 1-1/2. If John Smoltz gets one of the starts there, I'm officially worried.

The opening of Big Papi's Grille

2009-07-23T22:40:00.000-04:00

David Otriz is now a restaurateur. (Note, by the way, that the word restaurateur has no N in it.) Big Papi's Grille is on Route 9 eastbound in Framingham, across from Shopper's World.

Tonight was the press opening, by invite only. Ming Tsai was there to check out the competition. But the free food and drink were only the icing on the cake. The real fun was mingling with the Red Sox players who were there. The team got home from their horrible road trip last night, and tonight was an off night.

Big Papi was in full bling, with a white coat that had black western-style piping, lapels and elbow patches. He worked the room, chatting with guys and hugging girls. I told him it the place looked great and it was an excellent opening and he thanked me and said he appreciated us coming.

Had a nice chat with Jacoby Ellsbury and Jason Bay about their days playing in the Cape Cod League. Jacoby mentioned that the Cape League all-star game that was scheduled for Fenway that night was probably rained out. They both told me they worked at summer camps on the Cape, and I mentioned that my daughter worked at a Yarmouth camp and two YD pitchers worked there as well. One is in the White Sox system. Jacoby guessed a name, but it was wrong. I told them about the 2003 YD-Wareham stat sheet with all those players now in the majors that I wrote about in an earlier blog, and they both knew them. Both of them - Jacoby in particular - were very good at friendly chat and looking you in the eye when they answered.

I met Nick Green, who sat with Kathy while he ate a slider, and told him he had to be the surprise of the year. He definitely enjoyed hearing that. I said, "Welcome back" to Jed Lowrie and he responded, "Thanks, it's good to be back." I told Jonathan Papelbon that I was the one who suggested to Tom Bergeron after the 2007 victory parade that they should have him on "Dancing with the Stars." Tom said they'd love to have Papelbon, and the producer contacted the Sox front office, but it didn't work out because they rehearse and shoot during the season.

I went up Mike Lowell and introduced myself, saying that my daughter is his favorite. He said, "Oh, yeah?" and I realized I'd said it backward. He's her favorite. He chuckled and said he appreciated it. On the way out we were handed a bottle of Big Papi En Fuego Hot Sauce (1st base version, meaning mild).

A fun night. They were all nice, and it was only ten minutes from home.

Department of Corrections Department

2009-07-11T17:01:00.000-04:00

It was a fun night at the old ballyard last night.
My daughter Caitlin and I drove up from the Cape and were in our seats for the first pitch. There was no scoring on either side until the bottom of the 8th, when Dustin Pedroia doubled in recent call-up Aaron Bates, who notched his first run in the majors. Click on the picture and you can see the view from Section 29 of the ball coming off of Pedroia's bat. The game lasted less than 2-1/2 hours, and Tim Wakefield wasn't pitching. It was John Lester, who no-hit these same Royals in May of last year. This time he threw 8 shutout innings.

Now the correction portion of our program.
When I wrote about the Red Sox blowing a huge lead (10-1) and losing to the Orioles, 11-10 a couple of weeks ago, I said that the last time they had blown a 10-run lead was in 1989 against the Blue Jays. My brother Hugh pointed out that the blown lead against the Orioles was 9 runs, not 10. Point taken. He also noted that he and I watched the Red Sox blow a 10-run lead just last year. That's true.

It was a hot August night.
The 12th, to be exact. Texas in town. Knuckleballer Charlie Zink was called up from Pawtucket for his 1st major league start. Boston jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the 1st. 5 of the 10 runs came on two Big Papi homers in the same inning. It was 12-2 after four, and looking like both a laugher and a quality start for Zink. It turned out to be neither. In the 5th the Rangers put up an 8 on the left-field scoreboard. Youk hit a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 5th, but Texas came back with 5 more in the 6th, making it 15-14. The 10-run lead of just 2 innings ago was now history.

Each team added a run in the 7th. Right after "Sweet CarolIne" played the Red Sox scored 4 times...3 coming on Youk's second homer of the game. Papelbon gave up a run in the 9th, but got the save as Boston won, 19-17.

They won, so it doesn't count.
I didn't include this game in the earlier post because they won it. In the 1989 Blue Jays game and 2009 Orioles game they lost. Or maybe I forgot.

Nomah returns

2009-07-06T19:08:00.000-04:00

July 6, 2009...Nomar is playing in a game at Fenway for the first time in almost five years.
The last time was July 25, 2004. It was a 9-6 victory over the Yankees. The day after the big brawl that started when Jason Varitek and A Rod got into it and ended after the benches cleared and Pedro had shoved Don Zimmer to the ground. Nomar, batting 5th behind Manny, went 1 for 5.

A major ovation.
Monday night Nomar lead off the second inning and got what must be the biggest ovation ever for a returning former player. A prolonged standing ovation that required multiple tips of the helmet. Then he stepped into the box, fiddled with his batting gloves, of course, and then did not swing at the first pitch. Probably due to the emotion of the moment.

But after that...
He came up three more times and swung at the first pitch each time. He wound up with two hits. Rocco Baldelli was in right field wearing Nomar's old #5. On Tuesday night Nomar wasn't in the lineup, and in the 7th the crowd was chanting "We want No-mar." He did come out to pinch hit in the 9th, but the guy ahead of him struck out to end the game. On Wednesday he pinch hit and again swung at the first pitch, popping up to Mark Kotsay.

A pitching matchup for the ages.
The other part of the story was the pitching. A's 22-year-old rookie Brett Anderson, making his major league debut, faced 42-year-old John Smoltz, who was making his Fenway debut as a member of the Red Sox. The A's shut out the Sox, 6-0. I suspect that by August the "...oltz" in the Sox rotation will start with "Buchh" instead of "Sm"

Blowing a 10-run lead.
Smoltz has had three starts and is 0 and 2, with an ERA of 6.60. The first and third starts were not good. The middle one was the game against the Orioles where Smoltz left after four innings with a 9-1 lead. It was 10-1 Boston in the 7th when the sky opened up, and Baltimore mounted a post-rain delay comeback to win the game, 11-10. The last time the Red Sox had blown a 10-run lead was 20 years ago...June 4, 1989 against the Blue Jays. Boston lead 5-0 after one inning, 8-0 after four, and 10-0 after 6. Toronto came up with 2 in the 7th, 4 more in the 8th and another one in the 9th when closer Lee Smith was summoned with the score 10-7. It was now a save situation. Smith, however, gave up a grand slam to catcher Ernie Whitt and suddenly the 10-run lead was history. Boston tied it in the bottom of the 9th, and it went to the 12th when Junior Felix hit a 2-run homer to put the Jays ahead for good.

How to empty the park in 12 seconds.
Two nights earlier, on Friday June 2nd, I had been at the game with my brother Hugh. Toronto was leading Boston 3-2 in the 9th when Bob Stanley loaded the bases and Junior Felix hit a ball into the triangle in center that turned into an inside-the-park grand slam. It only took Felix 12 seconds to round the bases. The place emptied quickly after that

But back to the future.
NESN showed a montage of former players being welcomed back. When Dwight Evans, after 19 years as #24 for the Red Sox, returned to Fenway as an Oriole in 1991, he got a very warm reception - worthy of a tip of the cap. Johnny Damon, who left as a traitor defecting to the Evil Empire, got a major wag of the finger in 2006 (credit Stephen Colbert for the tip/wag lines). The wag of the finger actually it was a loud round of booing followed by a louder "Johnny sucks" chant when Carl Beane announced Damon over the PA. Even today, in every at bat when the Yankees are at Fenway, Damon still gets a booing that rivals A Rod's. Pedro returned as a Met and was so overwhelmed with emotion he didn't make it to the 3rd. Derek Lowe got an impressive reception. Bill Buckner came back to throw out the first pitch on Opening Day and got a long, standing O. Trot Nixon returned as a Cleveland Indian and got a very respectable ovation. Same for Kevin Millar and Derek Lowe. Todd Walker and Mark Bellhorn returned as pinch-hitters and each got a nice applause. Every former player - as long as they didn't go to the Yankees - has been warmly welcomed back...but Nomar got the biggest and longest welcome of all. It was a great Fenway moment.

2009-06-28T20:36:00.001-04:00

This time it's Section 217

Club Level at Nationals Park in DC. I went here twice last summer. Saw the Nats lose badly to the Phillies and lose badly to the Mets.

This year it was the Red Sox. My friend Charlie Sislen invited me to see the Sox first appearance in DC since 1971. Boston had already won the series, taking the first two games. Game 3 was in Thursday night, and John Smoltz was making his Red Sox debut after 20 seasons with the Braves.

First in war....

The Nationals, firmly holding on to the worst record in the majors, have been doing their best to live up to the legend of the old Washington Senators - both the first edition (1901-1960, now the Minnesota Twins) and the second (1961-1971, now the Texas Rangers). The oft-repeated slogan, "Washington...first in war, first in peace, last in the Amercan League" was all too true. The last time Washingtion had a team without a losing record was 40 years ago...the 1969 Senators. Before that it was 1952, the original Senators. 1st baseman Mickey Vernon, as nice a guy as you'd ever want to meet, won his second AL Batting Championship that year.

Back to the Future.

Last Thursday. When I went to Nationals Park last summer there were billboards and signs galore about a new development -Half Street - directly across from the main ballpark entrance. Offices, shops, condos....it was to be like Patriot Place. Opening Spring 2009. Eleven months later, June 2009, ground had yet to be broken.

Inside it looked as great as any new ballpark. As we walked in I couldn't help noticing that about half of the fans had Red Sox hats, shirts or other apparrel. Myself included. I had on my well-worn traditional blue cap and a tasteful blue polo with the red hanging sox logo. None of the loud obnoxious stuff that Yankee fans tend to wear on the road. All three games were sellouts, with Thursday as the biggest crowd ever at Nationals Park...41,900. Average attendance there is about 21,000.

In the club level there are many cuisine choices, but we went directly to the Ben's Chili Bowl stand. Ben's is a DC tradition, and I'm a big believer in ordering local cusisine.

Smoltz debut.

Top of the 1st is a 1-2-3 inning for Nats pitcher Jordan Zimmermann. Bottom one, John Smoltz starts it off with a grounder to Ortiz at 1st. 3U. Then he hits Nick Johnson on the foot (Johnson's back foot was practically on home plate), gives up a double to Ryan Zimmerman, walks Adam Dunn (a big home run threat but also a huge strikeout threat) to load the bases. Josh Willingham singles in a run. 1-0 Nats. Former Sox backup catcher Josh Bard (two stints trying to catch Tim Wakefield - neither one successful) singles down the 1st base line. The ball eludes Ortiz' glove by about two inches. Youk would have had it without breaking a sweat, even in the 90-degree DC heat. Probably could have turned an inning-ending 3-2-3 double-play. But no, it goes into right field and the score is 2-0. Bases re-loaded. Line drive to right, caught by Drew, two outs, then a single to left scoring two more runs. End of one, it's 4-0 Nationals, and John Smoltz, with a career ERA around 3.10, sits at 54.00.

After a 1-2-3- second, Washington gets a fifth run in the 3rd with a double followed by another grounder to first that Ortiz can't handle. Smoltz has a 1-2-3- fourth and a 1-2-3 fifth, then yielded to Daniel Bard. Bard gives up a two-run single that goes right down the first base line and Ortiz again can't get to it. Two runs score. and it's 7-1. Two batters later there's a Josh Bard homer and it's 9-1. Final was 9-3 after Rocco Baldelli homered in the 9th with one on. Too little, too late.

The 54.00 dropped to 9.00.

My point is that Smoltz was nowhere near as bad as the line score makes it look (the ERA did drop from 54.00 to 9.00 by the fifth inning), and that four (possibly five) of those nine runs wouldn't have scored if Youk had been playing 1st base. We all love Big Papi, but why sit Youk? He has more home runs, more RBI, is batting about a hundred points higher than Ortiz, and is a Gold Glove 1st baseman. Papi went 0 for 4 in that game and, while not horrible, is certainly no Yoooouk as a 1st baseman.

Despite the score, it was a fun time, and Washington fans have suffered much more then we ever did pre-2004. A home-field win against Boston - especially after taking 2 of 3 from both Toronto and the Yankees - gave them a glimmer of hope...despite being 17 games out in the NL East with 50 losses already.

Father's Day 2009

2009-06-21T19:05:00.000-04:00

As I woke this morning, I found myself remembering stories about my Dad, Hubert J. Kelley.

Dad was a big Red Sox fan. Before he reached his first birthday, the Sox won the World Series. Before he hit two they won it again. And a third time before he hit four. Then came the big wait.

He went to Boston Latin, the oldest public high school in America, Class of 1931. Traditionally, Boston Latin would seat the 50th reunion class in the front row at Commencement, with the current class sitting right behind them starting with row two. At his 50th in 1981, Dad turned to the young lady sitting behind him and said, "When I was sitting where you're sitting, the guy sitting where I'm sitting was from the Class of 1881." Yikes. She had no idea what to say to that.

Dad was a Freshman at Harvard when he was 16, Class of1935. He was recruited on campus as a coxswain for the rowing team. Supposedly someone passed him in the Yard and said, "Hey, you're pretty short - wanna be a coxswain?" While at Harvard he met my mother, Barbara Riley, Radcliffe '36. They married in 1941.

When my older brother Hugh was born, my Grandmother announced that that baby must be named Hubert J. Kelley, Jr. or she wouldn't even come and look at it. (Never let the truth stand in the way?) Dad, having grown up as Hubert, wouldn't wish that name on any kid. So they named my brother Hugh, perhaps hoping that Grandma wouldn't figure it out.

When I was born, Dad wanted to name me after Bobby Doerr, the Red Sox Hall of Fame 2nd baseman. The retired #1 at Fenway is for Doerr. Robert Pershing Doerr Kelley. My mother would have none of it.

When Hugh and I were little, Dad would tell us bedtime stories about the "Wellesley Indians" with a left-handed chief, or about Walt Dropo's shoes. Dropo was Rookie of the Year in 1950 and evidently had huge feet. Or huge shoes, anyway. Dad still smoked back then (at the time smoking wasn't dangerous - according to the ads it actually helped your digestion). As he told us stories in the dark you could see just the red tip of the cigarette, then the whole room would light up for a second when he took a puff, then it was dark again.

He deliberately misunderstood song lyrics. He thought (or claimed to think) that "She's About A Mover" by the Sir Douglas Quintet was "Peanut Butter Nougat." Or that "Wild Thing" by the Troggs was "Wow Zing." Basically, this was an open plea for a "Come on, Dad!"

Back in my Junior High days, Dad decided that Stephanie Hart, who lived on Marvin Road near the bottom of the hill on Radcliffe Road, was a "snappy dish." He mentioned numerous girls in the ensuing years who he regarded as a snappy dish, or SD, and that one of us boys might want to pursue. Never happened. Our idea of an SD and Dad's did not completely jibe.

Dad always appreciated a funny card. Once he gave me a birthday card that said, "Happy Bat Mitzvah." He wrote, "It's not the right card, of course, but it was half-price."

"Never let the the truth stand in the way of a good story." Good storytelling is a hallmark of the Irish, and this is an excellent line that I've quoted many times.

"Whoever you marry, make sure it's someone you can get along with on a daily basis." In my experience that's as true as anything I ever heard.

Wherever you go to to school, it should be a place that, when you name it, no one asks, "Where is that?" Easy for him to say, of course. He went to Harvard.

When I told him that I wanted to get into radio and I was really impressed when Victor Best, the owner of Northeast Broadcasting School, came to Wellesley High on career day. He told me to go ask someone in the business what he thought of NBS. I chased down Arnie "Woo Woo" Ginsburg at remote at Dario Ford in Boston's South End, and Arnie told me, "Don't do it. Go to a regular four-year college and get a job at the campus radio station." Which is what I did. Dad was eternally grateful to Woo Woo.

Growing up, I was definitely the black sheep of the family. One day, in about 1975, I was in the kitchen at my parent's house and Dad looked at me and said, "You know, you've turned into a fairly reasonable person." That was his sense of humor, but I really appreciated it.

In 1978, the Red Sox had an A- season, getting off to an excellent start and building up a 14-game lead over the Yankees by the All-Star break. The Yankees chipped away, caught up and then went ahead by 3-1/2 games during the "Boston Massacre" weekend in September. The Sox caught the Yankees on the final day of the regular season, forcing a one-game playoff. That was the Bucky-bleeping-Dent game. The cheap homer by Dent was served up by former Yankee and Wellesley resident Mike Torrez (the last guy to wear #21 prior to Clemens) . Dad was on the Wellesley Board of Assessors, and the next day they convened an emergency meeting to raise the assessment on Torrez' house. That'll teach him.

In 1986 the Red Sox had another A- season, taking hold of 1st place in May and never relinquishing it. In the ALCS they were losing to the Angels, 3 games to 1, and losing in Game 4 in Anaheim. We were watching on the porch of my house in Syracuse and Dad left the room is disgust when the Brian Downing fly ball bounced off Dave Henderson's glove and over the fence for a home run. He missed it in the top of the next inning when Hendu made up for it with a home run to the same spot that gave the Sox the win.

He claimed that he could get from any place in Greater Boston to any other place faster than anyone...without speeding or breaking any laws. This was because he knew exactly which roads to take, which lane to be in an any point, and how to avoid as many lights as possible. At my uncle's funeral in 1985, as we headed from the church to the cemetery, Dad pointed out that a funeral procession does not have to stop for red lights. "Isn't it ironic? You spend you whole life waiting for red lights. Then, when you're dead and it doesn't matter anymore, you can go through them."

He died on June 8, 1989. 20 years ago this month.

On what would have been his 90th birthday, December 1, 2004, I stopped by the grave where he and my mother are buried. I said out loud, "Happy 90th, Dad. Here are a couple of headlines you'd like: The Red Sox won the World Series. And Kara got into Harvard!" My daughter, Kara, indeed got into Harvard, Class of 2009, and graduated just a couple of weeks ago. Dad would have been absolutely tickled silly to be there.

On this Father's Day, 2009, I deeply appreciate what a great Dad he was. I've tried to live up to that standard with my daughters, Caitlin and Kara. They have both been - and continue to be - an absolute joy. They write me the greatest cards you can imagine.

Memorable Red Sox-Yankees moments

2009-06-13T08:55:00.000-04:00

There are many, but here are a few recent ones for me. I'm only counting games that I attended.

2004 ALCS Game 3. The Sox were already down 2 games to none as Ace #1 - Curt Schilling - couldn't make 50,000 New Yorkers shut up. Ace #2 - Pedro Martinez - didn't fare any better. The series moved to Boston for Game 3, but torrential downpours forced the game to be moved back a day. On Saturday night, October 16th, I took my daughter Kara to Game 3 and it went from washout to blowout. We actually left in the 7th when it was 17-6. It wound up being 19-8. They were making jokes about it that night on SNL.

Game 4 was Sunday night, and I took my other daughter,
Caitlin. We saw Larry David on the way in. I decided to say something to him, but not a no-shit comment like, "Hey, you're Larry David." So I said to him, "Larry, are you rooting for the San Diego Padres?" He looked at me with that "Huh?"expression of this. "Why would I say that?" Because I was thinking of an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" where he was invited to a Yankees-Padres Interleague game and he winds up stiffing the guy. I couldn't remember which episode that was. The Red Sox were ahead 3-1 until the 8th, when Derek Jeter hit a bases-loaded triple to make it 4-3. New York. As we went to the bottom of the 9th Mariano Rivera took the mound for New York. Boston was down three games to none - a defecit no team had even overcome - and we're losing in the 9th inning of game 4. We were seemingly on the verge of getting swept by the Damn Yankees. Kevin Millar leads off the 9th with a walk. Dave Roberts pinch runs for Millar, who describes himself as "slow as molasses." Everyone in the ballpark and across New England knows that Roberts is going to attempt a steal. Before Rivera throws the first pitch to Bill Mueller he throws over to 1st to keep Roberts close. And again. And again. On the third throw over to 1st Roberts dives back head first, then gets us and starts heading toward the dugout. Dammit, he got picked off! The View From Section 29 really made it look he'd been picked off. There goes our last chance. But no, he was just brushing the dirt off his pants. Roberts returns to 1st. Rivera delivers a pitch to Mueller and Roberts makes the "steal of the century" (the century being four years old at that point). Safe. On the next pitch Mueller singles to center and Roberts scores the tying run. On it went until about 1:30 in the morning when Big Papi launched one into the night for the 6-4 win. We got home at 2AM and I couldn't sleep. An incredibly exciting game. Also, I couldn't stop thinking about my run-in with Larry David. What the hell episode was it where he skips the Yankees-Padres game? Was I thinking of the episode where he picks up a hooker whose car broke down? No, that was in LA and he takes her to the game. This took place in New York. I went to the Curb Your Enthusiasm site and scoured the episode guide. Nothing. At 6AM, after very little sleep, I called the morning show and told them my dilemma. They thought I was nuts, but they also didn't know the answer. Later that day it came to me. It wasn't Curb Your Enthusiasm, it was The Sopranos. Vito invites Meadow's boyfriend Finn to game and Finn is wary (with good reason) and doesn't show. No wonder Larry David didn't know what the hell I was talking about.

Game 5 was at 5PM on Monday. I went with my brother Hugh. The early start time turned out to be helpful, as this one went on for 14 innings. Tim Wakefield pitched five scoreless innings in relief. We were both scoring the game, as usual, and each time we flipped the book over to to who the Yankees had coming up it seemed like it was Jeter, A Rod, Giambi, Matsui, Sheffield and Posada.every inning. It finally ending when Ortiz doubled and Johnny Damon scored. Those were absolutely unforgettable games.

Opening Day, 2005. Yankees in town. They had to stand there and watch the whole Red Sox ring ceremony. You gotta love it.

April 22, 2007. I'm at the game with Kara. Sunday night ESPN Game of the Week. Dike-K facing a Chase Wright. The Red Sox are down 3-0 in the 3rd when Manny launches a skyrocket into the Monster seats, so we're on the board. Next up is JD Drew, who plants one in the Red Sox bullpen. Then comes Mikey Lowell, who sends a shot exactly where Manny did. And then Jason Varitek hits the first pitch into the same spot as Manny and Lowell. Back-to-back-to-back-to-back home runs. It was like watching instant replay live.

April 24, 2009. Friday night, Kathy and I have a date. Yankees in town for the first series of the year. Joba Chamberlain starts for New York, and walks Jacoby Ellsbury to open the game. Jacoby moves to second on a Joba balk. Then there's a pitch in the dirt that goes to the backstop. Jacoby, who is off on the pitch, barrels around third and scores. (This is the second time he has scored from 2nd on a passed ball.) As the game goes on, New York pulls ahead 4-2. With two outs in the bottom of the 9th Jason Bay hits a homer just over the Monster by the flag pole to tie it up. In the bottom of the 11th Youk launches a shot that everyone knew was gone the moment it left the bat. Cue up Dirty Water and Tessie.

April 25, 2009. The next night the Yankees jump out to a 6-0 lead in the 4th, but the Sox answer big time. The final is 16-11. Boston.

April 26, 2009. On Sunday night, on national TV, Andy Pettitte is on the mound for New York. Pettitte is well-known for his excellent pickoff move and almost no one steals on him. Bases are loaded. Ellsbury on 3rd. As Pettitte starts his windup, Ellsbury takes off and steals home. TV cameras didn't catch it because it was unexpected. Sox won, 4-1.

June 9, 2009. The Yankees come back to town in 1st place with a one-game lead. In game one Beckett shuts out New York, 7-0. Big Papi homered and got an amazing fan reaction for a guy who's BA is below the Mendoza line. He even got s curtain call.

June 10th, Wakefield wins his 8th game and Wang goes to 0-4. Lowell and Youk both homer. Papelbon makes it interesting in the 9th, but the Sox hold on, 6-5.

June 11th. Brad Penny vs. CC Sabbathia. David Oritz omers again in the 2nd, another curtain call. Manny Delcarmen takes over in the 7th and blows the lead by giving up a single, a double, a walk, and another double. A Rod only got to gloat for an inning. Bottom of the 8th five straight singles and a sac bunt, and we're back on top. Papelbon has a rare 1-2-3 9th, and we win 4-3. That's 8 stright against the Yankees. Hasn't happened since 1912.

Who wrote this ad?

2009-06-08T21:28:00.000-04:00

A few stupid lines from commercials.
"A few" always means three, right? A couple is two, a few is three, and several is four or more. I could give you a hundred without blinking, but here are three recent ones.

We live here, too.
No you don't. Last summer Bank of America ran a series of ads claiming that they're a local bank and they live here, just like us, and they're huge Red Sox fans.

W: What do the numbers 6, 10 and 17 mean?
M: I'm not sure.
W: That's the number of Red Sox World Series Championships, American League Pennants and playoff appearances.

No wonder the guy didn't know. Those numbers were wrong. The ad was probably written by a junior copywriter in New York who's a Yankee fan at heart. The correct numbers - as of last September - would have been 7, 12 and 19. Today it would be 7, 12 and 20. World Series Championships in 1903, 1912, 1915, 1916, 1918, 2004 and 2007. American League Pennants in 1903, 1904, 1912, 1915, 1916, 1918, 1946, 1967, 1975, 1986, 2004, 2007. Additional playoff appearances in 1988, 1990, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2005 and 2008.

Where did they get those incorrect numbers?
I actually called the ad agency in New York to point out their mistakes - simply to be helpful. After all, they're spending a lot of money on ads saying they live here and they're fans and they're quoting numbers that any true fan knows are wrong. They got the idea that the Boston Americans, who won the very first World Series in 1903 and won the the American League Pennant in 1904 were a different team than the Red Sox, which is clearly incorrect. I pointed out that the Boston team has been the same since 1901 and they sell lots of t-shirts saying that. True, the nickname wasn't adopted until December of 1907 when they got new uniforms with socks that were red instead of blue. By the way, team nickname changes were not uncommon back then. In fact, every original team except the Detroit Tigers has changed its nickname at some point. The Yankess were the HIghlanders, the Dodgers were the Robins, the Indians were the Blues, the Braves were the Beaneaters, and so on. I pointed out that the 1907 Americans and the 1908 Red Sox had the same owner, same manager, played in the same ballpark, and had eight of the same starters. Including Cy Young.

They told me they had called the Red Sox office and a spokesperson confirmed that the numbers they quoted were correct. Obvious bullshit. There's no way anyone on Yawkey Way said that. I sent them a picture of the pennants hanging off the building that start with "1903 World Champions" and "1904 American League Champions" and have the Red Sox logo. (The Red Sox should probably be awarded the 1904 World Championship by default, as the NL Champion New York Giants were annoyed that the upstart AL had won the first Series the previous year and refused to participate in the 1904 Series.) I pointed out that even the Yankee fans knew the correct number. Rememebr the "Got rings?" t-shirts that were printed after 2004? They showed 6 Red Sox rings and 26 Yankee rings. (2007 hadn't happened yet.)

Re-cutting the ad would have cost them money and they didn't really care whether they sounded like fake fans who don't really live here.

A walkoff triple?
Last summer Friendly's ran an ad about going to a Little League game on a warm night. Bobby hits a walkoff triple and they all go to Friendly's to enjoy Happy Ending sundaes. What's wrong? There's no such thing as a walkoff triple. To get a walkoff, you have to be either tied or trailing in the bottom of the last inning. If the game is tied and there's a runner on first when Bobby gets a hit and the runner comes around for the game-winning run, Bobby gets credit for a double. If that runner is on second, Bobby's hit is an RBI single, because a runner on second is considered to be in scoring position. If the team is down by a run and there are runners on second and third, a hit will win the game, but the batter only gets credit for a single. Let's say there are runners on first and second and Bobby gets a hit that scores both runners. It's a walkoff double. If you're down by two runs and the bases are loaded and Bobby has a bases-clearing hit that wins the game...it's still a walkoff double. If you're down by three and the bases are loaded it requires a grand slam. A homer, of course, is a homer...but only if it goes over the fence. In a field with no fence that game would end when the winning run crosses the plate - regardless of where the batter is at that point. Talking about a walkoff triple means the copywriter doesn't know what he or she is talking about.

One more like that.
There's a Papa Gino's ad currently running that says, "Rally your team with the Papa Ginos double-play deal." It's two pizzas for the price of one or something like that. The problem? If your team is trying to rally and there's a double-play...what happens? The rally is killed, that's what. Just ask Julio Lugo.

There's more than one.
There's a rocky ledge. It looks like the place they used in "Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid" during the "Who are those guys?" scene. On the top of the ledge you see a Grand Cherokee. And a Liberty. And a Wrangler. The super says "Jeep. There's only one." I know what they mean, of course, but it sure looks like a few Jeeps to me.

I don't want to drive all over the state.
This is a radio ad. What I call a "Hey, honey" dialogue commercial. It opens with the woman.

W: Hey honey, how about we take in some great live music tonight?
M: I'm listening.
W: Then catch a rising comedian.
M: Sounds good.
W: After that we can try our luck with the slot machines.
M: Hmm.
W: Then use our winnings to get a great steak and an Irish brew.
M: Great. But I don't want to drive all over the state.
W: Honey, we don't have to. It's all right here at Twin River.

So what's wrong here? First, Twin River is a goofy name. Shouldn't it be Twin Rivers? More importantly, Twin River Casino is the former Lincoln Park Dog Track in Lincoln, RI. The commercials run in Boston. So when the guy says he doesn't want to drive all over the state to get all this great stuff she should say, "We don't. We have to drive to another state."

Just one more.
McDonald's is running a current campaign that says, "You only get one breakfast...so stop by McDonald's and get two Egg McMuffins for the price of one." That sounds like two breakfasts.

I realize that was several, not a few, but I was on a roll.

Performance Rights v. Performance Tax?

2009-05-31T20:44:00.000-04:00

A couple of groups representing performing artists - most notably "musicFIRST" have gained enough support to get HR 848...the Performance Rights Act...to get out of Committee and onto the House floor. Representative John Conyers (D-MI) is the main sponsor. A similar bill in the Senate has support from Senator Patrick Leahy, Barbara Boxer and several others.

What's this all about? A group of artists is complaining that AM and FM radio (mostly FM, of course) play their music without compensating them. They claim that radio rakes in $19 billion a year by playing their music and they get bupkus.

The NAB - National Association of Broadcasters - and radio stations across America have responded with the Local Radio Freedom Act, designed to insure that local radio stations can continue to play music without an exorbitant Performance Rights Tax.

Who's telling the truth here?

The facts of the matter are these: Radio has, for decades, enjoyed an exemption from paying performance rights to artists because of the inherent benefit to the artist that radio airplay generates. Ask any artist if he or she would like to have a song hit #1 on the charts? 99% will say, "absolutely!" The benefit of a #1 song - or anything in the top 10 - is legendary.

How do you hit #1? The charts are based on radio airplay. The song that is played the most in a given week - or "gets the most spins" as the industry says - is #1. Simple as that. So if you don't get played on the radio, you never hit number one... or, for that matter, number anything.

Radio airplay makes stars out of artists. Even one-hit wonders. Ever hear of the Bellamy Brothers? They had a #1 song in 1976, "Let Your Love Flow" that is currently in use on a national TV spot for the Toyota Prius. That was the only hit they ever had, and it went to #1. What about Percy Sledge? He wrote and did the original version of "When a Man Loves a Woman" in 1966.

The reach of radio is astronomical. 94% of all households in America hear the radio every week. That's approximately three times as many as use Google in a week. Think about that for a second.

Is it true that radio pays nothing for the music? No. Radio pays annual public performance royalties in the millions to BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) and to ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Producers). I'm not talking millions for the whole industry, I'm talking about 3-4 million to both BMI and ASCAP for one major market station. Add another $60,000 or so for SESAC, a licensing company whose only Pop hit was CW McCall's "Convoy" in 1976.

So what's the problem? The problem is that the substantial fees that radio pays to BMI and ASCAP go to the songwriters and producers, not the artists. This is the way the labels set it up years ago.

How much of a tax are we talking? It's supposed to be .008 cents per performance. Doesn't sound like that much. But understand that a "performance" is any time anyone hears a song (or portion thereof) on the radio. Let's do the math for a moment. Take a major market music-based AC station that plays an average of 12 songs per hour. Multiply that times 24 hours, then by 7 days a week, times .008 cents. Then multiply that by the station's average weekly audience, which is 1.3 million people. The answer is staggering. And that's just for one station. And that's on top of the 6 or 7 million already paid to BMI and ASCAP.

What's more, this is in an economy where local advertising is off by over 20% and many stations have resorted to nationally syndicated programming. Other than top tier stations in major markets, it's a struggle, and many local radio stations won't be able to afford it.

What type of artists are waving the musicFIRST flag? Artists who aren't getting any airplay, that's who. Maybe they had a hit or two back in the day, but time has passed them by. Today there's a Town Hall-style meeting in Detroit where a couple of artists representing musicFIRST will debate the issue with local radio stations. The artists are Dionne Warwick and Martha Reeves of the Vandellas. Dionne's last hit was 25 years ago. Martha's was over 40 years ago. The other supporters of HR 848 are emerging acts that have yet to emerge. If radio has to pay a tax for every song played, getting airplay will be tougher, not easier. Program Directors will be loath to spend money playing a song that does not have a proven track record of audience appeal. Why take a chance? There's an old radio adage that goes, "What you don't play won't hurt you." Another one says, "Shut up and play the hits."

The artists should focus their attention on ASCAP and BMI..and get them to split the songwriter proceeds with the singers. Don't try to make an adversary out of radio.

Minneapolis

2009-05-28T08:02:00.000-04:00

Kara and I took a one-day road trip to Minneapolis on Monday. It was the opener of the Red Sox final series at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. We flew on Midwest - an excellent airline - with a stop in Milwaukee. I'd been in Wisconsin before - went to Miller Park in 2006 and saw a Brewers-Giants game. This didn't count as a visited state for Kara, though, as we never left the airport. Airport-only visits don't count. We landed at he airport in St. Paul at 10:15. Plenty of time to noodle around and check things out. Would Kara like to see the biggest mall in the world? Yes, she would. The Mall of America is, as advertised, huge. Every chain is there. We have all of them in Boston, but not in the same building. The Nickelodeon rollercoaster in the middle - it spins you right round as you drop 100 feet - is a guaranteeed lunch-blower.

On to the Metrodome. Nothing special there. No special songs. About 28,000 showed up. The scoreboard is very rudimentary. The original completely crappy turf field was replaced with a slightly less crappy - but nonetheless crappy - new turf field in 2004. It still sucks. No infield except for base cutouts. The center field fence is a short baggy held in place by wobbly sticks like you'd put along your driveway as a guide for the plow guy. About the height and consistency of a Glad lawn & leaf bag. Toward right field it's a little taller. In right field they have football seats that collapse like the stands in a high school gym. A baggie is attached to the lower portion of the folded seats. If a ball hits the baggie it's in play. If it hits above the baggie in the area of the folded up seats it's a home run. A cheap one. The roof is white canvas, making it difficult to track a fly ball. The bubble roof is held up by air pressure, so the only way to exit the Metrodome is through revolving doors. Imagine how long that takes with 28,00 people filing out through four revolving doors.

An impressive number of Red Sox fans were there. Enough that you could easily hear the "Yooooouuuk" when Youkilis did something. The Sox wore red hats with a blue B that had stars embedded, no doubt because it was Memorial Day. The umpires also wore red hats. I chatted with several people from Minneapolis who readily admitted that the Metrodome is no Fenway Park. "Only 53 games left...then we move to the new open-air Target Field." People are midwest friendly. One complaint - when Hidecki Okajima came on to pitch the 7th they played "Born In the USA." Maybe it was an oversight. But I added the Metrodome as the 33rd notch in my major league ballpark tour. I also added Minnesota as the 39th state I've visited.

She saved baseball

2009-05-27T22:37:00.000-04:00

Sonya Sotomayor, President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court, is credited with saving baseball. The strike that ended the 1994 season early, canceled the 1994 playoffs and World Series, and delayed the start of the 1995 season finally ended when Judge Sotomayor ruled against the owners in favor of the players.

From the New York Times:

The owners were trying to subvert the labor system, she said, and the strike had “placed the entire concept of collective bargaining on trial.”

After play resumed, The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that by saving the season, Judge Sotomayor joined forever the ranks of Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays, Jackie Robinson and Ted Williams. The Chicago Sun-Times said she “delivered a wicked fastball” to baseball owners and emerged as one of the most inspiring figures in the history of the sport.

So Judge Sotomayor grew up in the South Bronx and saved baseball in 1995. The year the Yankees made the playoffs for the first time in 14 years. She's gotta be a Yankee fan.

He does need a dump button

2009-05-26T20:57:00.000-04:00

A dump button is the radio and TV term for the way to bleep something out of a "live" broadcast that's actually on a slight delay of seven seconds or so. I didn't hear it live because I was at the game with my daughter Caitlin. Opening night of Interleague play, Mets at Red Sox. Johan Santana going for New York, Dike-K for Boston in his first start after coming off the DL. He had three good innings followed by a bad one where he gave up a ground-rule double, a walk, then four straight hits.

The next thing you know, it's 5-1 bad guys. On came Justin Masterson. In my very first post I said that Eckersley is a good color guy...saying things that many color guys wouldn't come up with. Check the link below, sent to me courtesy of Mark Laurence.

Eck needs a dump button

Sox move into 1st place, but Papi's not back yet.

2009-05-24T12:47:00.000-04:00

Big Papi finally homered last Wednesday night and got a rousing ovation. He said the monkey was off his back.

Is the old Ortiz indeed back? Let's see what he's done since then. On Wednesday he took a called 3rd on the next at bat, then doubled in the 9th. On Thursday he grounded to 2nd, grounded to the pitcher, singled to right and lined to second. On Friday he struck out three times (two swinging, one called) and grounded into a 4-6-3 double play. On Saturday he struck out twice, walked and grounded to second. On Sunday he struck out twice, flied to left twice and lined to 1st. That's that's 2 for 18 with a walk and 1 RBI since the homer. From Thursday on he's 1 for 16. Over the weekend he went 0 for 13 with 16 runners left on base. Not by the team...by David. And these are all home games. His average has dropped from a lofty .211 on Wednesday to .195. On Sunday the Sox had 16 hits and scored 12 times. Everyone in the lineup except Big Papi had at least one hit and one run scored.

I don't believe the roid rumors. I do suspect that Ortiz might need lasik. I also suspect that we might see Lars Anderson come up as a DH at some point this season.

Meanwhile, the shortstop problem continues. Nick Green leads the majors in errors, and he's only played in 24 games. Lugo has another 4. Both have made game-blowing errors in the last week. Combine the Green and Lugo errors and you have 12 in only a quarter of the season. That's a pace for 48, way worse than Edgar Rent-a-wreck in 2005. And that number doesn't allow for all those "singles" that were really bobbles or bad throws or balls that Lugo didn't get to. Compare that to Jed Lowrie, who played short in 49 games last year with zero errors. He's due back in July.

Mets fans at Fenway are louder than Yankee fans. At least this weekend they were. During the clapping portion of the "Let's go Red Sox" chant the Mets fans would chime in with an almost equally loud "Let's go Mets." But The Sox had the last laugh with a sold win on Sunday, and they moved into 1st place.

I'm off to Minneapolis in the morning with my daughter, Kara. It's the Red Sox final series at the Homer Dome and we're taking in the Memorial Day afternoon game.

Timing is everything

2009-05-20T22:32:00.000-04:00

Last night, Tuesday, I was at Fenway with Kara and had my HD video camera rolling for every pitch that David Ortiz faced. It wasn't worth saving, as he walked, grounded to second and struck out twice. Before I left work to head to Fenway our afternoon guy, Dan Justin, asked me if I thought that Oritz would homer tonight. I said no. We discussed the idea that Lasik might help him. He doesn't seem to be "seeing the ball real good."

Tonight I was at home flipping back and forth between American Idol and the Red Sox game. The Sox were ahead 2-0 when I flipped over to Idol. When I flipped back at the next break it was 8-0! Papi had gone yard to straightaway center...and I missed it. There were three Jason jacks in the game as well. Two by Varitek and one off the bat of Bay. The season is less than a quarter gone and Varitek is pacing for 28 homers. Bay is pacing for 52 (more than Manny has ever hit in a season).

I saw Kris Allen upset Adam Lambert in Idol. I'm not surprised, because the judges were gushing all over Adam so much, week after week, that I suspected a setup. At the last minute (actually about five minutes late) Kris is announced as the winner. Keeps things interesting until the last second.

But I missed the Papi home run. Reruns on TV are not the same. In the postgame interview he said he really appreciated the fans sticking by him. Oritz is a good guy and I'm glad he got the monkey of his back.

An upgrade idea for Tom Werner - and it's free!

2009-05-20T15:36:00.000-04:00

A Legend gripe

I enjoy it when they welcome Red Sox Legends back to Fenway. Between innings they show video highlights of great at-bats and defensive plays by Dwight Evans or Jim Rice or or Dennis Eckersley or Carlton Fisk or Wade Boggs or Jim Lonborg or Mike Andrews or Luis Tiant or someone like that. They even did Pumpsie Green one time.

It's a great idea, and here's my gripe about it. The video rolls between innings, then they have a graphic that says "Red Sox Legends..sponsored by... (I don't remember who). Then, "Tonight we welcome back Red Sox Legend Dwight Evans" and the camera zooms to the skybox next to the 406 Club on the 1st base side. There he is, the Legend du Jour, waving to the crowd. A few fans applaud.

What's wrong with that?

Here's what's wrong. You have these legitimate legends coming back to a game, you have a produced highlight video of them, you zoom in on them waving and everything...and three-quarters of the people are not paying attention. They're hailing the peanut tosser, they're saying their "excuse me's" on the way to the restroom or the beer line, they're texting a friend, posing for a picture, looking someone up in the scorebook, checking the Yankees score on the left-field wall, chatting with the cute girl in the pink hat in the row in front or telling the kids that there's absolutely no nutritional value in cotton candy. They're not paying attention that point. They don't know that the legends are being shown on the Jumbotron, or that the legend is actually in the house...and don't know where to look when it's time to give them a well-deserved cheer.

So, Tom and John and Larry...how about running audio as well as video? How about having Carl Beane announce the legend of the night...with a quick recap of what they accomplished? Of the 38,000 in attendance there must be about 20-25,000 who were not around or even born back in 1967 when Gentleman Jim Lonborg was mowing hitters down. Jim leaves his dentist office in Scituate early, fights the traffic on the Expressway to come up and be a legend in the skybox and a ton of people don't even know he's there. Announce him. Shine a spotlight on the skybox while he waves. You announce the names of Star Spangled Banner singers we've never heard of and the names of Little Star kids who introduce the first three batters on Sunday. Why not the Legends? Picture Dad sitting there pointing and telling his kids that when we has their age #24 was Dwight Evans and he made all these incredible catches in right field and he'd hit homers into a screen that used to be on top of the Green Monster.

A free upgrade.

Isn't the history the reason that Fenway is "America's Most Beloved Ballpark?" Let Dad know that Dewey is up there waving back. Carl Beane is already there and has a microphone. It would be a free upgrade and make the Fenway experience that much nicer.

The real goat in 1986 - it was in the 8th

2009-05-16T22:12:00.000-04:00

It got me thinking.

I'm only bringing this up now because I saw an episode on The Best Damn Sports Show counting down the 50 Greatest Plays in Baseball. Keith Foukle underhanding the ball to Doug Mientkiewicz was #50.

You're not going to list all 50, are you?

No, no. We get into the top ten and there is, predictably, a lot of Yankee stuff. Don Larsen's perfect game, Bucky Bleeping Dent and Aaron Boone ruining seasons for long-suffering Red Sox fans, etc. #4 is Carlton Fiske's most famous moment. Then we get to #3. Bill Buckner's error. That same clip showed up on another episode where they had the 50 Most Famous Bloopers in Sports. That show included things like a Portguese Water Dog pooping right in front of the judges at the Westminster Dog Show. Buckner made #2 on that countdown.

Where does the buck really stop?

Bill, of course, was often unjustly blamed for the Red Sox losing that 1986 World Series. Sure, he made an error, but had he fielded that Mookie Wilson grounder cleanly the game would have simply gone to the 11th inning, tied 5-5. It was an elimination game for New York, but not for Boston.

It was also not Bob Stanley's fault. The "wild pitch" to Mookie that allowed the tying run to score was actually a passed ball. Mookie did a little acting that made it look more inside than it really was. Catcher Rich Gedman missed it. Stanley's job was to throw a sinker and get a ground ball, which is exactly what he did.

The other guy who got a lot of the blame was Manager John McNamara. Many blamed Mac for not replacing the hobbling Buckner at 1st base with Dave Stapleton in the 10th inning for defensive purposes. Mac wanted his buddy Bill Buckner to be in the "finally we won" shot that didn't actually happen for another 18 years.

On that night back in 1986 I was in Syracuse, NY. I was Program Director of Y94FM and had a living room full of people who were Red Sox fans - or willing to pretend they were for the night. I had rented a big-screen TV and was taping the game on my VCR for posterity.

Fast forward to June 2006.

The Mets come to Boston for Interleague play. Pedro Martinez, returning to Fenway for the first time as an enemy pitcher, is so overcome with emotion he leaves after two very ineffective innings. Not surprisingly, there were many Mets fans in the stands, and a few were wearing Mets shirts with "Buckner...6" on the back. Obnoxious. (Billy Bucks wore #22 with the Dodgers, Cubs and in his second stint with the Red Sox in 1990, but in 1986 he was wearing the now-retired #6.)

Fast forward a little more.

September 2007. The NAB Radio Show convention was in Charlotte, NC and there was a guy from Cedar Rapids named Mike McNamara who won a Marconi Award for Best Talk Show. In his acceptance speech Mike said, "Anyone here from Boston?" Greater Media had a couple of tables right up front and those of us from Boston chimed in with a "Yeah!" Mike McNamara then looked at us and said, "You can all go to hell!" WTF?? Turns out that he's the son of John McNamara and still bitter about his father getting the blame for the 1986 Sox choke.

And again.

December 2007. Time Magazine listed the top 25 inventions of the year, with the iPhone coming in at #1. Arbitron's PPM was also on the list, as was the Panasonic DMR-EZ4TV that will digitize your old VHS tapes so you can convert them to DVD format. Kathy gave me one for Christmas, and I began digitizing like crazy. After I finished doing a zillion family videos I moved on to other old VHS tapes, and eventually ran across my unwatched tape of Game 6 in 1986.

CSI Shea.

Let's do some forensics and examine what really happened. Much has been written about the 10th inning collapse, and the shot of the ball going through Buckner's legs and Vin Scully yelling, "...Knight scores and the Mets win!" has been way overplayed. So I'm here to say that the real goat was neither McNamara nor Buckner nor Bob Stanley. It was Calvin Shiraldi. And not for giving up three straight hits in the 10th.

It was the 8th, stupid.

Nobody ever talks about the 8th. Roger Clemens had a 3-2 lead after 7 when he got a blister or something and either asked out or was taken out. Whatever. Calvin Schiraldi, a former Met who already had one save and one blown save and a loss in the ALCS, and wound up with a blown save and two losses in the World Series, came on to pitch the 8th.

Maybe Schiraldi was less effective against lefties. The inning began with four consecutive lefties. Lee Mazzilli leads off with a single to right on a 1-2 count. Lenny Dykstra bunts on the first pitch. The bunt goes right back to Schiraldi, who could easily throw to first for the out, but decides to try for the lead runner. Bad decision. His throw to 2nd gets there on time, but it's a bad throw that pulls Marty Barrett well off the base. Safe all around, Mazzilli on 2nd, Dykstra on 1st. Next up, Wally Backman. On a 3-1 pitch. he also bunts. This time, Schiraldi throws to 1st to get the out. One down, runners on 2nd and 3rd. Keith Hernandez gets an intentional walk to load the bases. Gary Carter, the first righty batter of the inning, gets the green light on 3-0 (10 of the last 11 pitches have been balls) and Schiraldi grooves one right down the middle of the plate. It's a fly ball to left field, caught by Jim Rice for the second out, but Mazzilli tags up and scores the tying run. It's 3-3. Darryl Strawberry flies to center to end the the 8th, but the damage is done.

And then...

Nothing across for Boston in th 9th. Dewey reaches on an error, but is erased on a Gedman 4-6-3 double-play. Schiraldi is equally scary in the bottom of the 9th, with with a lead-off walk followed by a bunt single. Winning run for the Mets in scoring position, nobody out. They could have bunted and had runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out, but didn't. Schiraldi gets out of it with a K and two F-7's. On to the awful 10th.

In the top of the 10th Boston came up with two runs on a Dave Henderson homer, a Wade Boggs double and a Marty Barrett RBI single. Two K's later, Buckner was hit by a pitch. In the leg. Did that slow him down just a skosh in the bottom of the 10th?

Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury...

In summation, it was Schiraldi in the 8th who blew the game. If everything happened exactly the same way, and Schiraldi had thrown to 1st on the Dystra bunt, Mazzilli still would have been at 2nd, but with one out. Backman's bunt would have gotten Mazzilli to 3rd, but with two outs instead of one. (Okay, Backman probably wouldn't have bunted in that situation, but anything short of a Backman extra-base hit would have produced the same result.) The Carter fly to left would have been the 3rd out, we would have gone to the 9th with a 3-2 Red Sox lead, and 68 years of misery would have ended that night when Dykstra flied to Jim Rice to end the 9th. That 10th inning would never have happened and we would never have seen that old lady Met fan sitting behind the plate rolling her hands and throwing toilet paper on the field.

Your witness....

It doesn't matter anymore, but just for the record, the bleating was by Calvin Schiraldi, not Buckner or Stanley or MacNamara.

Just a ballgame on Cape Cod

2009-05-11T22:47:00.000-04:00

On Mother's Day we went to our Cape Cod house, and while my wife and sisters-in-law were yapping I opened a drawer in the sideboard and noticed a roster and stat sheet that I'd gotten at a Cape Cod Baseball League game back in 2003. It was the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox hosting the Wareham Gatemen at Red Wilson field at D-Y high school.

Looking at the sheet I noticed some familiar names. On the Yarmouth-Dennis squad there was Justin Verlander, now the ace of the Detroit Tigers pitching rotation. He won 17 games in 06 and 18 in 07, and is the current major league leader in strikeouts. And Huston Street, closer for the Oakland A's (37 saves), who was traded to the Rockies for slugger Matt Holliday. And Chris Carter, who's now an outfielder/1st baseman for the Boston Red Sox. And Rob Johnson, now a catcher for the Seattle Mariners. And Nick Hundley, now a catcher for the San Diego Padres. Nick hit a walkoff homer in the 16th inning at Petco Park on Saturday night. And Curtis Thigpen, now a 1st baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Flip the page and look at the Wareham roster. Jeremy Sowers, now a pitcher for the Cleveland Indians. He was on the mound on May 9th of this year when Boston scored 12 runs in one inning against Cleveland. Also JP Howell, a late-inning reliever/closer for the defending AL Champion Tampa Bay Rays. And Andy LaRoche, 3rd baseman for the LA Dodgers who was traded to Pittsburgh last July 31st as part of the 3-team trade that sent Manny Ramirez from Boston to LA and Jason Bay from Pittsburgh to Boston.

And this was just a quiet little Cape Cod Baseball League game at a high school field in Yarmouth, MA on July 3rd, 2003. There were excellent fireworks the next night at West Dennis beach.

Well, I feel like a shit

2009-05-11T20:53:00.000-04:00

In my first post I said that Dennis Eckersley was doing a good job as color guy on NESN. I like Rem-Dawg okay, but Eck is good.

That post was only a day (maybe two) before the story came out about Remy's cancer surgery and subsequent complications, and that was just bad timing on my part. I've enjoyed Jerry Remy on NESN for years. I hope he has a speedy recovery and returns to the airwaves soon.

I do, however, stand by my kudos for Eck. He has a good voice, a dry sense of humor, and comes up with insightful and often funny comments of the type that you rarely hear on either local or network games.

When I lived in Baltimore in the 80's one of my neighbors was John Lowenstein, former Orioles outfielder and color commentator on WMAR-TV Channel 2. He had a sense of humor similar to that of Eckersley. The Orioles in those days relied heavily on the 3-run homer and rarely - if ever - bunted or stole a base. In one game against Texas the O's had a 6-run lead and Eddie Murray stole second. Lowensein said, "Well, that was a well-timed move. You want to have that nice 6-run lead before you start taking a risk by stealing."

Back to Eck. He was the most vocal person on Extra Innings when it came to telling it like it was at the time about Manny. After Manny fell down and rolled over the ball in left field, then got up and started laughing about it while Angels were circling the bases (cut to a shot of Theo in the stands with steam coming out of his ears), Eck said the way Manny treats the game is "bothersome." Of course, he wanted to say " bullshit" but we all got the point.

Did you know that Dennis Eckersley coined the term walkoff? It didn't refer to the guy who hit the home run, though. It was about him. When interviewed after Kirk Gibson hit that 9th inning game-winning pinch hit home run off him to win Game 1 of the 1988 World Series he said, "It was a walkoff situation." Meaning there was nothing for him to do but walk off the mound. Like Tim Wakefield had to in the 11th inning of Game ACLS Game 7 in 2003.

Dennis Eckersley is a great color guy

2009-05-05T22:12:00.000-04:00

Dennis Eckersley is filling in for Jerry Remy on the NESN broadcasts from the new Yankee Stadium. He's very good. Says insightful and funny things that you usually don't hear play-by-play or color guys say. I like Remy and all, but Eck is more entertaining.