I’ll tell you right now that it’s not better than viewing it as any other person. 

I’ll also tell you that even though it’s the summer, we still maintain some of the college atmosphere here in Salem.  A lot of us Salem Staters have off campus apartments so we get to see each other even when school is not in session. 

Personally I was looking forward to watching an entire game on Tuesday night, which is hard to do between multiple jobs and summer classes.  However, I got a text last night before the game started saying that there were going to be some cool people meeting up at Salem Beer Works that night.  I figured I’d go after the game.  So I sat in my room watching the Sox dominate the Os for the first 4 innings.  Thanks to some great offense and a much better start for Smoltz, things seemed to be going our way. 

Continue reading "A College Student’s Perspective of Tuesday’s 11-10 Loss"

Ever since I was little, I remember going to Fenway Park and seeing Wakefield pitch.  About five or six years ago, I remember complaining to my friends in high school about how as much as we loved the guy, it felt like he was the pitcher we always saw on the mound.  I haven’t made it to Fenway yet this year, but when I do I personally can’t wait to see him pitch. 

I remember being in elementary schooll watching him warm up in the bullpen.  He was always my favorite to watch warm up because it was so cool to see his knuckleball move.  Sure it’s neat to see it on TV, but it’s awesome standing in the bleachers by the fence and seeing the knuckleball drop the way it does. 

Tonight Wakefield will be starting for the 383rd time in a Red Sox uniform, setting an all time Red Sox record.  He’ll be passing none other than the Rocket himself, Roger Clemens.   Although I never got to see Clemens pitch (except in a Yanks uniform), I know I’m not the only one who’s happy to see such a nice guy setting this record for the Sox.  Years from now, when Wake returns to Fenway Park after being retired for however many years, we’ll be giving him loud standing ovations.  He’s a great team player and a friendly person who is more than modest.  And I couldn’t ask for anything more than to see him pitching in the All Star Game next week.  Best of luck, Timmy, and congratulations.

Continue reading "Growing Up With Wakefield"

I’ve said this many times, but today I need to say it again: What a time to be a Sox fan!  The Sox played a great game of baseball yesterday, beating Seattle 8-4.  Although Lester had a rough fourth inning, the Sox bounced back scoring five runs in the seventh inning which gave us the lead for good. 

But that’s not all that happened yesterday.  Tim Wakefield was named an All Star for the first time in his 17th year as a major league baseball player.  Sure, we’re still happy for Bay, Pedroia, Youkilis, Beckett, and Papelbon.  But it was Wakefield we were all praying for to make the team.  And he did it.  Congrats, Wake!

Good thing the excitement doesn’t end there.  Tonight John Smoltz will be pitching at Fenway for the first time as member of the Boston Red Sox.  I’m sure he will get a hearty hand as his name gets announced at the ballgame tonight.  Maybe tonight we’ll see the Smoltz that we’re hoping to see for the rest of the season. 

Continue reading "Monday Night Baseball at Fenway: Very Exciting"

I very fortunate to be at last night’s game.  I say fortunate because there were some special moments last night.  That being said, it was one of the most frustrating Red Sox games I’ve ever been to. 

But I’m not gonna talk about that.

I’m not gonna talk about how much I anticipated eating a Fenway Frank and how disappointed I was with the new brand they use.  I’m not gonna talk about how there was a pole in my way so that third base was completely blocked and it was very difficult to see the pitcher’s mound.  And I’m certainly not going to talk about how frustrating it was to watch our offense last night. 

What I do wanna talk about is how emotional it was in the ballpark when Nomar Garciaparra came to bat for the first time at Fenway Park since 2004.  As he was lead off the second inning, fans were already getting out of their seats to cheer for him as he was walking towards the plate.  He was clearly very touched by the reception he got, which seemed as if it would never end.  I knew I didn’t want to stop clapping for him.  It was the first time I got to in years and now I realized how much I missed it.   What a great moment at Fenway Park.  I’m glad that I was there for it.  It’ll be hard to forget.  

Continue reading "Being at Last Night’s Game - Welcome Back, Nomar"

I saw the replay of last night’s game where Jacoby Ellsbury earned himself his first career ejection.  In the fifth inning, Ellsbury slid into home on a close play at the plate where he was called out.  Replays indicated that he was indeed safe.  Jacoby threw down his helmet violently in disgust.  Although home plate umpire Derryl Cousins had his back turned during all of this, he must have overheard Jacoby’s angry reactions.  In addition to that was Ellsbury’s helmet which was rolling around close to the on deck circle.  After seeing all this, Cousins decided that Ellsbury would have to leave the game. 

Earlier this week, good old Manny Ramirez also got ejected for tossing his arm guard near home plate umpire John Hirschbeck.  The only difference here was that Ramirez had been arguing with Hirschbeck earlier in the evening (although apologized for it in his next at bat).  Other than that it was a very similar scenario – Manny got called out on a terrible strike call, after which he tossed his arm guard up in the air in disgust.  Hirschbeck had his back turned to Ramirez, but heard the arm guard land at home plate, very close to where he was standing.  Hirschbeck tossed him on the spot. 

Continue reading "What Is It With All These Ejections??"

The Boston Red Sox announced on Sunday that Clay Buchholz will be returning to Boston to start Friday night’s game against the Toronot Blue Jays. 

Buchholz has been waiting a while for this call, and who can blame him?  The twenty five-year old has pitched phenomenal in Pawtucket, posting a 7-2 record with a 2.36 era.  On May 25th, he nearly threw a perfect game, but had it broken up in the 9th with a hit.  He finished the game recording a complete game shut-out.  Who wouldn’t want out of Triple-A with a season like that?    

Then again everyone playing in Triple-A wants out so that they can make it to the big leagues. 

But now it’s Buchholz’s turn, and I wish him the best of luck.  A roster move will be announced within the next day or so which means someone’s going back down to Pawtucket.  I’d suspect it would be Bates, considering Lowell is coming off the DL. 

Continue reading "Buchholz is Back"

According to Ian Browne from redsox.com, Wakefield was one of the pitchers they were saving in the case that the game went into extra innings.  “Okay,” one might say, “then why did it have to be Wake? Why did they have to save both him and Beckett for extras?”  Ian Browne comes to the rescue again saying that Wakefield was well rested.  I also think that they took into consideration his ability to pitch more than one inning without hurting himself.   Wakefield is blessed with being able to pitch without his full five days rest because of the slow knuckleball.  In addition, Maddon was told to save extra pitchers because last year both the AL and the NL nearly ran out (who could forget that 15 inning game?)  So Wakefield was on the list of pitchers to save in case of extra innings. 

Continue reading "Why Wakefield Didn’t Get To Pitch in the All Star Game"

At 1:51 PM today, I got a text saying that the Sox acquired Adam LaRoche from Pittsburgh.  I had heard the name many times, but had never followed him much.  So I looked him up online and found out that LaRoche is a first baseman and will be used to give Lowell some days off.  I was pretty excited about this.  And with our recent struggles, why not grab another bat?

Then it hit me – What about Mark Kotsay?  Don’t we already use him to give Lowell days off and to get some playing time at first?  After analyzing this trade, it was my understanding that Kotsay has been on the DL and the Sox simply wanted to make sure we had another utility first baseman.  Thinking about it a little more, this might be another Sean Casey situation.  Last year we acquired Mark Kotsay when we already had Sean Casey as our utility first baseman.  Casey found his playing time dwindling as each day passed until eventually we rarely saw him.  I personally didn’t understand it, considering Casey was putting up good numbers and was a decent first baseman. 

Continue reading "Look out Kostay – LaRoche is coming through"

I know, I know.  We’re all grieving over the way our boys have been playing.  I hope everyone’s been keeping the faith though.  Sure, it’s a cold streak.  But they’ll be back.  I know it.

In any case, here are some baseball tidbits from this week to take your mind off the Sox:

-Bartolo Colon will be pitching for the White Sox tonight.  Remember this guy? How could you not.  Who knows, if he pitches well enough we might see him pitch against the Red sox at the end of August.  I’m sure he’ll get a warm welcome from the Fenway Fans – and by warm, I mean not warm at all. 

-Mark Buehrle pitched a perfect game on Wednesday July 23rd.  That part you probably knew already.  But did you know he got a phone call from White Sox fan Barack Obama?? http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090723&conte

Continue reading "This Week in Baseball – Notes"

I was filled with all sorts of emotions when I got a text a couple of hours ago saying that the Sox had offered Buchholz, Bowden, and Westmoreland for Roy Halladay.  Now rotoworld.com is saying that’s not the case.  For those of you that don’t know, rotoworld.com gives minute by minute updates on sports rumors and updates.  I was all ready to blog about this trade when I read the latest posting saying that this trade offer never happened.  What I want to know is how a rumor like that got started without having any validity to it…then again we’re in the world of sports, so I guess this happens.  I dunno though, I’m not ruling out any trade ideas yet.

In any case, Gordon Edes of yahoo.com first reported the trade rumors around 2:30 PM today (7/28).  http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AtvS2BliJHl5BYz85vUyDk85nYcB?slug=ys-tradebuzz072809&prov=yhoo&type=lgns.  Although nothing has yet appeared on redsox.com, the story was also posted on Weei.com as well as rotoworld.com.  However, at around 5:00 PM, Dan Roche from WBZ radio on his twitter account that “Source tells me sox have not offered buchholz, bowden and westmoreland for halladay.” http://twitter.com/RochieWBZ/status/2896255726.  Well this sure is getting interesting...

Continue reading "Believe in the Sox, but not the Halladay rumors?"

I believe I speak on behalf of Red Sox Nation when I say NESN gave us a bit of a scare this afternoon. When we looked at our TVs  and saw Tom Caron saying the New York Times has reported David Ortiz being on the anonymous list of players who tested positive for Performance Enhancing Substances in 2003, no Red Sox fan was leaving the TV for the fridge – unless it for a couple of cold ones. 

This really hurt me to find out.  That being said, I’m going to keep giving Ortiz the benefit of the doubt until I hear more.  We don’t know what he tested positive for yet and until we do, it’s unfair to spill our emotions on the guy.  Ortiz has been my favorite Sox player since Nomar left Boston and I’m not the only one who loves him.  Watching an Ortiz homer is perhaps more special than watching one by any other player.  Whether it sails in the Green Monster against a lefty or it lands in the glove of Okajima in the Sox bullpen, we love to see our Papi do his thing.  Everyone knew the name “Big Papi” after that homer in Game 4 of the 2003 ALCS.  Now if this news takes a turn for the worst, then I’ll be writing something different. 

Continue reading "Say It Ain’t So, Papi…Please?"

Here are some of the rumors floating around:

-Clay Buchholz for Victor Martinez

Other considerations: Adam LaRoche

Source: mlb.com

I'm sure Adam LaRoche is going to feel like crap after being dealt twice in a week.  Honestly I don't see the point in this considering we just got rid of Kotsay. 

-Adrian Gonzalez for Clay Buchholz, Justin Masterson, and Jed Lowrie

Other considerations: Lars Anderson and Ryan Westmoreland

Source: si.com

I don't like this one at all.  Although he's struggled recently, Masterson has been a huge part of our successful bullpen this year.  Trading him will leave a hole in that pen and I don't want to see it happen. And why trade Lowrie?? Green is good, but not good enough to hold the fort on his own.  Lowrie is our future shortstop.  Don't trade him. 

Continue reading "Two hours to go..."

According to Bob Nightengale, reporter for USA today, the Red Sox are about to acquire Victor Martinez from the Cleveland Indians.  Nightengale wrote this on his twitter account, but no story has been reported as of yet. 

http://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/3055091029

Continue reading "UPDATE: Red Sox are supposedly about to get Victor Martinez"

While talks are still heating up between Boston and Cleveland in an attempt to bring the catcher to the Sox, Clay Buchholz is not part of the trade talk.  According to foxsports.com, both Clay and Daniel Bard are not included in their talks. 

Meanwhile, MLB TV is saying that Tazawa and Masterson are possible names that could be included.  

Continue reading "UPDATE 2:33 PM - Buchholz not part of the Martinez deal"

Bob Nightengale has just reported on his twitter accound that the Martinez deal is a "done deal."  In addition, both Masterson and Nick Hagadone from single A are pitchers that are included in the trade. 

Continue reading "UPDATE 3:02 PM - An announcement should be made shortly on Martinez"

According to Bob Nightengale from USA today on his twitter, account, the Victor Martinez trade is a done deal.  Justin Masterson and Nick Hagadone are the pitchers included in the trade.  However, according to MLB TV, there is a third pitcher being included in the trade from AA Portland, but they said it too fast for me to type. 

Continue reading "UPDATE 3:13 PM - Victor Martinez is a done deal - the Sox have given up 3 pitchers"

According to NESN's Trade Deadline Special, Casey Kotchman is coming to Boston in exchange for Adam LaRoche. 

You gotta be frustrated if you're LoRoche, but at least he'll have a shot at being an everyday starter this way.  

Continue reading "UPDATE 3:20 PM - Sox trade LaRoche for Casey Kotchman"

The Boston Red Sox have acquired Victor Martinez from the Cleveland Indians.  Here's who we've given up:

Justin Masterson

Nick Hagadone

Bryan Price

I'm sure gonna miss Masterson, but I guess this is the best deal.  We didn't lose Buchholz, and we didn't have to give up prospects like Bowden or Anderson.   Even still, I feel like this leaves a hole in the bullpen. 

Continue reading "UPDATE 3:26 PM : Details on the Victor Martinez trade"