Tuesday, October 28, 2008
The NBA is Here!
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Beckham to Milan?
As a fan of both AC Milan and American soccer, I don't think this is a good idea.
Most Americans only know the MLS because of Becks. If people hear that he is going over to Milan, they will think that the MLS couldn't keep him around. They might also find it weird that a player can be loaned out. Cleveland fans got mad when Lebron wore a Yankees hat when the Indians played the Yanks. How will they react if a player goes to play for a different team?
As for Milan, I think having Beckham would only be a gimick. The Rossoneri currently have a good mix of young players and big name veterans. They would be adding a new language and a new superstar to the locker room. This is a team that didn't even qualify for Champions League last year. They need to put together a team that can compete in Europe and Italy.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Tek
Jason Varitek is what I want a Red Sox player to be. He is a gritty plater who is solid defensively, and every once in a while picks up a big hit when it matters (see Game 6 2008 ALCS).
Tek endeared himself to me during the parade after the 2004 triumph. He looked me in the eye and pointed at me in the same way all the idiots pointed during the postseason run. This is when Varitek went from veteran catcher to team leader. The connection we made brought me into the championship, and brought Tek into the fans’ hearts.
Over the last 11 years Varitek has become a symbol of the Red Sox. When he came to the Red Sox with Derek Lowe, a mini youth movement took place in Boston. Nomar, Lowe, Tek, and Trot would be with the Red Sox as they made the ALCS in 1999 and 2003. Varitek caught the first Red Sox no hitter in 36 years with Hideo Nomo in 2001, and would be behind the plate for 3 more, setting a MLB record.
Varitek earned the “C” on his chest. He is the type of player who cuffs his pants high, puts some eye black on, rocks a bead, and does his job day in and day out. He’s meant everything to the Red Sox, and the Red Sox have meant everything to him. If you think Jason doesn’t want to come back to Boston, watch this video.
Hopefully agent Scott Boras doesn’t keep the Red Sox from finding a way to let Tek close out his career in Boston.
It Breaks Your Heart
You can read the whole essay here.It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops. Today, October 2, a Sunday of rain and broken branches and leaf-clogged drains and slick streets, it stopped, and summer was gone.
Somehow, the summer seemed to slip by faster this time. Maybe it wasn't this summer, but all the summers that, in this my fortieth summer, slipped by so fast. There comes a time when every summer will have something of autumn about it. Whatever the reason, it seemed to me that I was investing more and more in baseball, making the game do more of the work that keeps time fat and slow and lazy. I was counting on the game's deep patterns, three strikes, three outs, three times three innings, and its deepest impulse, to go out and back, to leave and to return home, to set the order of the day and to organize the daylight. I wrote a few things this last summer, this summer that did not last, nothing grand but some things, and yet that work was just camouflage. The real activity was done with the radio--not the all-seeing, all-falsifying television--and was the playing of the game in the only place it will last, the enclosed green field of the mind. There, in that warm, bright place, what the old poet called Mutability does not so quickly come.
Of course, there are those who learn after the first few times. They grow out of sports. And there are others who were born with the wisdom to know that nothing lasts. These are the truly tough among us, the ones who can live without illusion, or without even the hope of illusion. I am not that grown-up or up-to-date. I am a simpler creature, tied to more primitive patterns and cycles. I need to think something lasts forever, and it might as well be that state of being that is a game; it might as well be that, in a green field, in the sun.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
This One Just Didn't Feel Right
It feels weird to be the loser again. The Sox hadn't lost a playoff series since the Division Series to the White Sox in '05, and frankly that '05 team could have murdered half of Dorchester in a fit of roid rage and no one would have cared after the team won in '04.
Looking forward for Boston, I like how they shape up. A good young core of pitchers, more outfielders than they need, and a great infield. The main question is Jason Varitek. He's 36 and is a free agent. I want him to retire with the Sox. I think it would be best to start using him at first base, but if Mike Lowell is good to go theres no open slots in the infield.
Tip of the cap to the Tampa Bay Rays, I'm sure we'll see you play the Sox again.
Murray Wins Madrid Masters
We Will Have a Seventh Game
Jeers go to TBS. Not getting on air for the first pitch is excusable if there was a power outage at the last minute. Being involved in live broadcasts of games, I understand what can go wrong. But man there was still some goofy stuff. Ron Darling refered to pitcher James Shields' cousin Aaron Rowand as a "hard nosed player." You may remember Rowand had a pretty soft nose a few years ago. I know he is a good player, but the first thing I think of when he is mentioned is his catch and crash.
Later in the game TBS showed a graphic with the title "Stolen Bases in the Postseason vs. Catchers" I waited the rest of the night to see how the stolen base attempts against the other eight players go.
Later still Chip Caray broke one of the rules of play-by-play, follow the ball. He said a foul ball went "back our way, into the seats." After the next pitch they had a replay of the ball getting stuck in a catwalk. Back your way, yes. In the seats, no. I'm glad there is only one more game with TBS, even if it does mean we have Buck and McCarver.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
TBS, really?
Steve Harvey just had a heart attack. Not in real life, I checked Wikipedia and he is alive and well. TBS is showing an episode of the Steve Harvey Show because they've had a power outage at headquarters in Atlanta, and they can't get the feed of the Game 6 between Boston and Tampa. When I lose power at home we gas up the generator, wheel it to the back of the house, and plug it in. Not that hard. Luckily I have XM radio, so I can listen to the Boston radio guys describe Bossman Junior Upton hit his 7th postseason home run into the catwalk to give the Rays a 1-0 lead. At this rate we might get to see every episode of the Steve Harvey Show.
I've been thinking about starting to blog (again) for a while, and this seems like a great reason. I'm sure I'll have some reaction to this game later.
(Update) At 8:29 TBS breaks into the Game.