Jonathan Papelbon as of 4/26
'Nuff said. He's got icewater in his veins. It doesn't matter what stupid crap he does to his hair, as long as he keeps closing like that. Although it'll be interesting to see what he can do as a starter someday.
The 20-strikeout game is one of the rarest happenings in baseball, and one of my favorite. In fact, it's so rare that it's only happened three times (four if you count Randy Johnson's gem that went into extra innings in 2001). Two of those games were pitched by the same man. Of course, it was approximately 20 years ago, on April 29th 1986 that Roger Clemens became the first to strike out 20 in a single game. Dan Shaughnessy, with his usual flair for the dramatic, recounts the night in a Globe article. Anyway, think maybe we'll be seeing him back in a Sox uniform this summer? Now that would be an event, indeed. Heck, last night we gave Doug Mirabelli a veritable hero's welcome back to RSN, can you imagine what would happen with the rocket? Alas, it's probably just wishful thinking.
NESN actually rebroadcast the 1986 game last week, but I never got around to setting the tivo. It can be watched on mlb.com as part of the Baseball's Best collection though. I wonder if anyone out there has a bittorrent of it. Of course now that I mentioned that, the commisioner of baseball is going to be stopping by soon with some big dudes wielding bats.
Some good hangin' and chillin' last night at the Dockside, even though we are still mourning the Sox getting their asses swept out of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. This was only, of course, after we left the dreadful "Sam's Place" tourist trap craphole. Whose idea was that anyway?
And here are some hilarious webcomics. "Lunacy Abounds!"
http://www.marriedtothesea.com
http://www.alienlovespredator.com
I highly recommend both of them for some good chuckles.
So this Sunday, July 10th, was a sports-packed day. The World Cup final and the Red Sox vs. White Sox marathon 19-inning game were going on at the same time through the afternoon. It was a great use for the picture-in-picture feature on the tube.
The Sox game was a good one. It was damn long though, and the outcome was not exactly to my liking. The Remdawg summed it up at one point by saying: "This game could go on until Thursday for all I care; this is great!" Papelbon blew the save, and the White Sox bullpen outlasted us. Good thing it wasn't a night game, or I would have been watching until 1:30am or something.
I tuned into the cup final somewhere around the 45th minute or so, and it was already deadlocked in a 1-1 tie. I had the feeling right away that this was at least going to be going into overtime. Of course I was rooting for the Italians, and just about fell off the couch after Zidane's no-class head-butt move. And then I just about fell off the couch again when the ref's got together and made the right call, giving him the red card. That right there pretty much sealed the fate of the French. Still, that's quite an ignominious way to go in the last game of your career as one of the game's "greats". Over at 2GD there's a great entry on the subject. With a hilarious gif animation.
And now onto the carboat. Foon as finally gotten around to putting up his account of the festivities, as well as some wonderful photos of the work. Some good ones of the thing in water, as well as a couple featuring your's truly.
So lately I've discovered YouTube. I know I'm probably a few months late to the party, but that whole Zidane thing drew me to YouTube. There are always a good bunch of people with too much free time on their hands. here is a compilation of all the mini videos that people made. Some are pretty darn amusing. This one is one of my favorites, but pretty much anything with Fidel Castro is bound to be a little bit funny.
As quoted in the Globe's "Red Sox Notebook" on 7/25, speaking of David Wells' imminent return to the Red Sox following his knee surgery and unfortunate impact with a baseball on same said knee:
"...he's kind of a freak of nature. The [expletive] can come out there and throw strikes. He gets out of bed, has a beer, whatever, he can throw strikes."
I couldn't have said it better myself!
That Monday Night Football game (Bears vs. Cardinals) was a head-scratcher. Don't get me wrong, it was one of the most notable games I've ever had the pleasure of watching. It was a freaky game, just not a very good game. A 20-point-late-third-quarter comeback with no offensive scoring at all (first time that's happened in the history of the NFL, by the way)? Winning a game where Rex Grossman threw four interceptions, and lost two fumbles? That missed field goal at the end? Wacky stuff. Team of destiny, or did the Cardinals just send this one into the weeds? Who knows. One could actually understand why Dennis Green was so tweaked in his postgame "interview" though. Here's the clip on youtube.
Kristy and I saw The Departed over the weekend at some point. It was a fine movie. Probably one of the better flicks I've seen in a while. Damon, Nicholson, Wahlberg, Sheen, Baldwin, etc. made up a great cast. The authentic Boston flavor made it even better (real scenery, since it was mostly filmed here, and some Dropkick Murphys rocking out as well). I highly recommend it. I didn't even mind the ending that some other people I know have took some issue with. I will not spoil it for anyone though.
Well, I'm off to Champaign-Urbana for a few days to visit niece, nephew, brother-in-law, etc. and also to visit with some former colleagues at the UIUC. Also, I can't exactly put my finger on it, but for some reason I dislike the Cardinals. I'm mostly ambivalent towards the National League in general, but maybe it's because the Cardinals fans in Champaign-Urbana (and there actually were a decent amount of them, being only two hours or so from St. Lous) when we lived there had the reputation of being the "hicks" compared to the more populous Cubs and White Sox fans. Just a thought.
With the Bears actually having the season that they did, I tried really hard to actually get into the whole football thing this season. But, try as I might, I just can't really seem to follow football. The thing of it is, though, that I used to be a pretty big football guy. Back in high school and before, I watched more football than I did baseball. Of course, most of that was probably due to the fact that I lived in western New York during the Buffalo Bills' ill-fated four consecutive trips to the super bowl. Now that I think of it, maybe that's just what soured me on football altogether. I have distinct memories of the good and the bad. I remember Scott Norwood's missed field goal to lose the Super Bowl (Wide Right!). We were listening on the radio to backup QB Frank Reich leading the bills to the greatest comeback in NFL history -- overcoming a 35-3 drubbing in the third quarter -- against the Houston Oilers (we had to listen to it on the radio, by the way, due to NFL blackout rules). By the way, congrats to Thurman Thomas for making it to the hall this year.
Since adopting Boston as my new home town, I've made an effort to like the Patriots. Really, I've tried. And I'm really sorry, but that dog just won't hunt. It seems that as the years go by, I actually like the Patriots less and less. In fact, I found myself rooting for the Colts in the AFC championship game this year. It's a tough thing to admit, I suppose, for one living in New England, but there you go, I've said it.
So, anyway, how many more weeks until the Sox take the field? Props to mrhe for getting the ball rolling on this. I have a healthy dose of skepticism about the whole Dice-K thing, but we'll see what happens.
Oh, one more thing. Here are a couple of ads from the game last night that were particularly amusing. I think it's possible that I buy emerald nuts exclusively these days, just on the strength of their advertising. But then again, they are actually some pretty tasty nuts.
Only 15 days left until the start of the season. Apparently they were either testing the scoreboard today, or there was some sort of media event, because this is what I spied when looking out my living room window:
I'll let those images speak for themselves...
My former co-worker and all-around good guy Mike (a.k.a. "nut"), has a great rant/entry on his blog about what it's been like to be a Cubs fan / Illinois sports fan lately. Good stuff. He makes some great observations as to what it was like as a Cubs fan watching the Red Sox win in '04, the White Sox win in '05, and the hated Cards win it all last year.
And here's a gem from the comments:
"You know, allegiance to a sports team is actually stronger than faith in a religion. With religion, you can always convert. Just ain’t done with your team.
That said, I think being a Cubs fan is akin to being a nihilist."
So this Wednesday (April 11th), Red Sox rookie/japanese-import phenom Daisuke Matsuzaka (Dice-K), makes his home pitching debut against the Seattle Mariners and Ichiro Suzuki at Fenway Park, approximately a few hundred yards directly out my apartment window.
Kristy and I will be watching the game and enjoying the Fenway ambiance and the hope of a new season. Please accept our cordial invitation to enjoy the game, called by Don and Jerry on NESN in all HD glory at our humble abode. The usual baseball food will be provided (Sausage of various varieties) as well as other goodies and beverages. Feel free to bring along anything (or anybody) you may want. The game starts at 7pm, so festivities should start earlier than that (6 -6:30?) if possible. Let me know what you think.
Back in Boston after a few days in the Big Apple. I'm not going to recount the whole trip, but Here's a list:
So, a whole mess of people came over to watch the Sox' losing effort against the Yankees this past Saturday, and it was a good time. For the record, I highly recommend the "Hot and Spicy" varietal of Johnsonville Brats. After the game was over and most of the folks left for some crazy party in Sullivan Square, us remaining individuals sat around watching the tube and drinking some of Anne's friend Craig's very fine home-brew (thanks Craig!).
The topic of Guitar Hero came up, and how I was thinking about picking up a copy for my PS2. Now, here's where living across the street from a Best Buy comes in handy, and is somewhat dangerous. About 5 minutes later, we had the goods and were off and running with the game.
Several hours of pure awesomeness ensued, and Amanda has some photos up of us rocking the joint. So, by now I've got everything beat on "medium" level (and I must say that my "Free Bird" is coming along quite nicely), but I want to get some more playing time in and really master the rig before moving up to the next skill level. Wish me luck.
An interesting footnote to this story is the Joel Zumaya story. Apparently Joel, a fire-throwing pitcher for the Tigers, missed a few games of the '06 ALCS due to "soreness" from playing the game too much. I suppose it's something to keep in mind, but then again I'm not a major league pitcher.
The trip to Champaign-Urbana was relatively uneventful. The job was a success, although there are still a couple of loose ends to tie up (migrating from listmaint to mailman, and coming up with some web-based password-changing app). On Saturday, I met up with ck for some Lil' Porgy's BBQ (which was excellent, BTW), and some crazy Guitar Hero II action. I capped off the trip by having a lunch outing with the 'ol CITES gang at El Toro II (one of Champaign's many many good mexican establishments), and then going to see Hot Fuzz with ck and chas. Good movie. I highly recommend it.
Finally, I downloaded (uploaded?) the pictures from the camera and made an album of our trip to New York City (including a visit to Shea Stadium), and some random pictures from a couple of Sox games at Fenway that Kristy and I went to over the past couple of weeks. The big goof in the mets shirt is my friend Dennis (who was kind enough to let us stay with him).
Firstly, I highly recommend the champagne Sunday brunch at Foxwoods Casino. We took the 1.5hour drive down there this morning purely for the brunch. Obviously, as you can probably tell from the name, champagne is included. Also present are the usual brunch fares (toast, waffles, omelet station, carved turkey, sausage, bacon, hash browns, etc.). But, from there the buffet traverses the boundary into the sublime. I enjoyed several slices of roast beef tenderloin, rack of lamb, fresh made sushi, lobster tails, and other yummy delights. At $55/person it aint cheap, but I definitely think it's worth it.
Also, since the Sox game today was rain-delayed, it still hadn't started by the time we arrived back in Boston. This meant we were able to wait for the first pitch and head down to get some leftover $5 tickets (somewhat long story, but it's a special deal that Kristy gets from her employer). We settled for what the ticket-window dude called "wheelchair space on the roof." It turns out that we ended up in two folding chairs up in the State Street Pavilion. Sweetness. And a pretty good game to boot.
Now for some more randomness, here are some songs/albums that have made their way up to the top of my iPod playlist lately:
There's a great article up at the NYT this weekend (it's a preview for an article that's going to me in the times mag this sunday) concerning the sad case of Kerry Wood.
Wood was rookie of the year in '98, had a nasty curve, and a fastball clocked at 101+. Wood holds the MLB records for fastest to reach 1000 strikeouts in both IP and appearances, as well as the record for strikeouts in a game (20, tied with a certain other pitcher who doesn't need to be mentioned). And since then? torn labrum, torn rotator cuff, torn ulnar collateral ligament, Tommy John surgery, etc, etc. He's currently on the DL for the 11th time in his 10-year career.
The article reads as a cautionary tale, and an interesting analysis of major league pitching, conditioning, and what might be wrong about baseball's current philosophy concerning coddling young pitchers. It's long, but well written and interesting, so I recommend it if you've got some time to burn today or this weekend.
"PITCHING A BASEBALL is, to put it mildly, a torturous and self-destructive act. Pitching is the fastest known motion in human biomechanics, the shoulder rotating at the rate of 7,200 degrees per second at its maximum, or the equivalent of 20 full revolutions per second. At the time of the ball’s release, the forces acting on the shoulder are basically equivalent to the pitcher’s body weight; they are akin to someone of similar size trying to yank his arm out of his shoulder socket. Right before release, the pitcher’s elbow straightens at a rate of 2,000 degrees per second, or the equivalent of 5.5 full revolutions per second."
Here I am, sitting in my living room watching this Sox game on ESPN, and the Yanks have blown a 4-0 lead. I can very clearly hear the crowd from the stadium cheer/chant "Where is Roger?" at an unbelievable volume from my couch. Now, I wasn't actually at home during the back-to-back-to-back-to-back home run derby at Fenway earlier this season, but this is definitely the loudest it's been here so far this season. Amazing.
Also, Andy Pettite clearly winced/screamed in pain after one of those last few pitches, and left the game straight into the clubhouse with the trainer. We watched out the window as Doug Mientkiewitcz left the park in the back of an ambulance yesterday headed for MGH. Now, I'm going to reserve comment about this particular game (there are still several innings left) But, as far as the season goes, could things possibly get any worse for the MFNYY?
That's Officer Billy Dunn there, doing the ceremonial fist pound with Papelbon during a Sox game. For those not aware, it's become a tradition that when Pap gets called out of the 'pen to close the game, he and Dunn share this gesture as he heads out of the gate.
The globe has a great article today about it, and Officer Dunn, the "paunchy veteran cop."
It goes like this: In the late innings with the Sox clinging to possible victory, manager Terry Francona walks to the pitcher's mound and motions with his right arm to summon his All-Star closer. Rock music fills the park . Dunn flings open the bullpen gate and Papelbon steps onto the field. Papelbon and Dunn then square their fists and knock knuckles to the delight of Red Sox fans everywhere.
For those who have never been at Fenway, or who haven't been there at any time over the past couple of seasons to witness what's become a bit of a "ceremony" of Papelbon getting called out of the pen, it's just one of those things that make Fenway special.
When we were in New York visiting my friend Dennis, and went out to Flushing Meadows to catch a Mets game for $9.50/ticket, he expressed utter disbelief that folks would regularly pay as much as they do, and go to the lengths that they do to see a game at old, small, somewhat decrepit Fenway Park. This is just one of those things, and you have to experience it to believe it, I suppose.
After spending two weeks in San Francisco, visiting the headquarters of my new employer, Linden Lab, I am fully recovered from the jet lag, and back at home.
Unfortunately, the Red Sox are now down 1-2 in the ALCS vs. the Indians. The Rockies, on the other hand, are looking like a classic "Team of Destiny (TM)." When's the last time they lost a game? How good was that one-game NL wild-card playoff?
Anyway, come on down to my place, good 'ol apt. 1504 to help cheer on the Sox tonight as they battle the Indians (feather, not dot), for the privilege of meeting the Rockies in the 2007 fall classic. Refreshments and food will be provided. The fun starts at 6:30, when I get home from work. Game time is 8pm.
If you haven't seen this already, click it right now. Go ahead. It's awesome and hilarious -- awesomely hilarious. As Erin said: "Jonathan Papelbon strikes me as someone with ADHD who was never given Ritalin... and the world is better for it!" Also, Big Papi is a bedazzler -- who would have thunk it?
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