Year of the Sox

Blogging, discussing and dissecting the Boston Red Sox

Year of the Sox Fenway Park during batting practice.

Report From The Fort 2010, Episode 1

March 2nd, 2010 by Derek · Bars, Red Sox, Restaurants, Spring Training

If you’re planning to go down to Fort Myers to catch a few spring training games, you owe it to yourself to head down the Tamiami Trail (Route 41) about 30 minutes south from City of Palms Park to check out Lansdowne Street, what must surely be THE most authentic Red Sox bar in Florida.  There are a ton of details I didn’t even cover in the quick video I shot, suffice to say:  it’s worth the trip down from Ft. Myers.  They have gotten many many little details right about this place.  There’s also an outside patio area for dining and drinking (called Yawkey Way).  It’s brilliant, and they depend on your custom as Red Sox fans to stay in business.

Compared with many of the bars in “downtown” Fort Myers which re-brand themselves as “Red Sox” bars with a banner from kinkos they put up for the month of March, this place is truly invested in its identity.  I met the owner last year, and he’s the real deal.

If there is a God, this place should be overrun with Red Sox fans in March.

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Mikey just wants to get out there and hit

February 28th, 2010 by Mark · Mike Lowell

Mikey, as we all know, is on the block.

I caught an interview with him earlier today and it confirmed what we all know. He’s a great guy.

“Eleven years ago I was diagnosed with cancer and that was the farthest thing from my mind,” Lowell said to Tom Caron and Peter Gammons on NESN in an interview from Tuesday. “I’m willing to take things in stride and I’m not really too stressed out about it.”

Don’t cry for him. The media circus doesn’t affect him. He just wants to get out there and hit.

Watch the interview:

The Globe editorial page has gotten on the Mike-is-a-great-guy bandwagon (which I’ll gladly take a spot on as well).

They quote Lowell: “No one needs to feel sorry for me for the situation of my life right now.”

Exactly–it could be worse.

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Hope Springs Eternal

February 27th, 2010 by Derek · Red Sox, Spring Training

Now that we’ve gotten the cliched title out of the way, it’s time to start really, TRULY start thinking about the Boston Red Sox of 2010.

Captain Carl greeted us at the gate on the way down to Fort Myers, a reminder of the team I grew up watching and its legacy so very different from the one the contemporary iteration will enjoy in years to come.

Will the vaunted pitching staff live up to its billing? Will the offense suspected of being short on power surprise us? How much (and how small) will a beer at Fenway be?

All these questions and more are waiting to be answered.

I’ll be updating YOTS with a few posts and plenty of photos from spring training beginning Friday, March 5th including a few live video streams.  To be informed about when those live video streams will take place, you can follow me on Twitter at either @peplau or @Mueller11.

Play ball.

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A new year

February 1st, 2010 by Mark · Baseball

January sunset

It’s a new year.

The Pats loss no longer hurts (much), I have little faith in the Celtics (and less in NBA officials) and we have a rock star for a senator.

The days are still cold, the moon was full this past weekend, and I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. As the days grow a tiny bit longer every day, my mind is drawn to thinking about baseball.

Spring training is just over two weeks away.

So that means YOTS will be back soon. What do you think the new season will bring? We’ll try to dissect the season, the team, the games and the plays.

Stay with us in 2010.

Image source: Muffet’s Flickr photostream (Creative Commons)

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Letters, we get letters

November 15th, 2009 by Mark · Comments

We’ve been quiet here at YOTS. I’m hoping next year it will be easier to post.

One of the most entertaining aspects of hosting a blog is reading the comments. We moderate comments here–and we’ve gotten some good ones since we started this site nearly a year ago. But it’s not the legitimate comments that are the most entertaining. The spam comments are sidesplitting.

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hotyuew came up with this: Все бы было так хорошо, если бы не было так грустно, это так к слову… Эх, научил бы кто нить меня сайты делать – может тоже не хуже вашего бы получилось Отличный у вас проектик, не соскучишься, спасибо

And if you were tense about the world’s state, worry no more, according to generic aciphex, who assures us all: There’s nothing to worry about.

So, that sums it up: found poetry. See you next spring.

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What the Angels are Playing for and Why You Should Root for Them

October 13th, 2009 by Derek · Alex Rodriguez, LA Angels, MLB Playoffs, New York Yankees

Should the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim California USA Planet Earth Milky Way Galaxy The Universe and their fans require further motivation to win the World Series, here it is:

You not just playing for the opportunity to hoist the Commisioner’s Trophy.

Nor are you playing simply for the right to douse one another and every microphone-toting interloper in your clubhouse with Perrier-Jouet NV Grand Brut.

Don't let this man win a ring...

Don't let this man win a ring...

Not even the ring you’ll receive and the attendant glory that comes with wearing it, an heirloom to be cherished by you and your progeny for generations to come, is your primary motivation.  No, you’re playing for something bigger.

<===This.  This is bigger than all those things. You are playing, more than anything, to prevent this man from engaging in any of those aforementioned activities.

And I’ll be rooting you on with everything I’ve got.

Let’s go, Angels: beat New York.

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See you next year

October 11th, 2009 by Mark · Uncategorized

And just like that it’s over.

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The Dice Man Cometh…Again.

September 14th, 2009 by Derek · Daisuke Matsuzaka, Red Sox

Hes coming back...has he fixed himself enough to help?

He's coming back...has he fixed himself enough to help?

Tomorrow sees the (not particularly) anticipated return of Daisuke Matsuzaka to pitch for the Olde Towne Team.  Following his flame out in the spring and subsequent 3 month hiatus the Red Sox have seen their hold on the AL East flag slip away and for a time even the Wild Card seemed like anything but a sure thing.

With just 20 games remaining on the schedule, the Red Sox hold a tenuous 4 game lead in the Wild Card, and see their exotic aquisition return to the mound tomorrow night to face John Lackey and the Angels.  The pitching, like the hitting, has been maddeningly inconsistent for stretches this year.  Wakefield is only periodically effective or avaiable, Penny is gone and even Beckett has been shakey lately.

The good news is that Buchholz has started to deliver consistently solid performances, but (for me at least) to feel better, Matsuzaka’s going to need to step up and show us why Boston put up such big money to treat with and then sign him.  He’s been working on his game for the last three months following (what I assume was) WBC-related burnout/mechanical failure.  He hasn’t exactly mowed them down in the minors, but tomorrow night we’ll see if he’s fixed whatever was wrong.

Future scene from a Duckboat or a Sayonara to the goodwill of RSN?

Future scene from a Duckboat or a "Sayonara" to the goodwill of RSN?

Moreover, I’ll be interested to see if he continues his highwire act running the counts full, avoiding first-pitch strikes like the plague, putting men on base, etc. or whether he’ll have “Americanized” his game and bent to the pressure the team is has by all reports put on him to go after hitters.  To make matters worse, his grumbling to the Japanese press (which he later denied) didn’t win him any fans on Yawkey way or in The Nation.

He won 18 games last year with a 2.90 ERA and a 1.32 WHIP, but every inning felt like an adventure.  This year, it was downright ugly (8.23 ERA / 2.20 WHIP going into tomorrow).  It’s hard to call an 18 game winner (and 15 the year before) a bust, but another disaster this September/October, and I’m tempted to slap that label on him.  There’s no denying he is excruciating to watch and a human rain-delay.

Am I being too harsh?  I’ve been pretty patient with this guy, but the team needs him now more than ever.  He could be a real hero of the Fall if he comes through.  If we get more of the same though, in my book he belongs on the list of expensive Yawkey Way Misfires along with Julio Lugo, Matt Clement, and Edgar Renteria.

Where do you come down on Dice-K’s Red Sox career thus far and what do you expect we’ll see in September and (hopefully) October from Japan’s favorite son?

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Papi don’t preach

August 9th, 2009 by Mark · Big Papi, David Ortiz, Steroids

Papi don't preachIn a washed-out-white press room in Yankee Stadium (Yes!), David Ortiz faced the media yesterday to say, well, not very much. Not because he was holding back, but because he simply doesn’t know.

But he did deny ever (at least knowingly) taking steroids. Nonetheless:

“I definitely was a little bit careless back in those days when I was buying supplements and vitamins over the counter. Legal supplements, legal vitamins over the counter. But I never buy steroids or use steroids.’’

Are we to believe him? Why believe him and not give the same benefit of the doubt to Alex Rodriguez? Well, A-Rod is just hard to like, isn’t he? And he also flat-out denied ever taking steroids, then (once he was fingered) said he had taken steroids.

Papi has denied before and after he was caught. I like the symmetry of that. And it appears that being on the list may not mean what we all thought it meant. Michael Weiner, general counsel for the MLB Players Association (sitting next to Ortiz yesterday), criticized the list leaks.

Weiner said that there were substantial scientific questions about the 2003 survey testing and that just because a player’s name is on the list doesn’t mean that player tested positive.

Let’s face it. It’s just much easier to like Papi than A-Rod. He’s not a lout, not a distraction, not locker room poison. So, maybe he took andro without knowing it. Maybe the Dominican Republic pharmaceutical industry is a bit questionable. Then again, maybe the process MLB used in 2003 was questionable. Certainly the way in which these names are coming out is (eventually, after the legal process has run its course, the list will be released in its entirety; but who knows when that’ll be).

The events of the last week are a distraction that appears to be harming the team, which is mired in a 5 game skid. For that distraction, Papi says he is truly sorry:

“This past week has been a really major distraction and I want to apologize to fans, my teammates, our team’s owners and everybody for that situation.”

The team will get past this. The game certainly will. And fans, judged by their response to Papi at Fenway, have already gotten over it.

But my sense is it will linger with Papi for a while. This has been a lousy season for him—then this.

Papi put it well yesterday:

“I’m a guy that people look at not only as the guy that hits the ball. I try to do things the right way. Your reputation, sometimes, when situations like this are going on, people get kind of confused.”

I think the most confused person is David Ortiz.

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Schill, this is where you come in

August 7th, 2009 by Mark · Curt Schilling

Curt Schilling, saviorNot to sound alarmist, but last night’s loss may well be one of those turning points you see in the season re-cap videos. It could go either way.

Smoltz is history, the team is in turmoil, Billy Mays was a coke head, and Papi is still a day away from speaking.

Does the season hang in the balance? I think it may.

But there could be a savior.

Curt Schilling, I hope that—in between blog posts—you’ve been working out in secret up there in one of the mill buildings in Maynard near your new venture. I have no evidence of this, but, Curt, I hope you’ve looked around and seen that you could put in a few starts, energize the team and propel them into the playoffs. Then you could lead them through another magical run at the World Series.

Curt, your politics are wacky. But, man, I love you. I think you’ve got another run in ya. Give it a try.

Come back. Save the team.

Cinch your spot as a first-ballot Hal of Famer (and prove Verducci wrong).

Help reverse this two-year curse we’re mired in. Do it for us, the fans.

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