Paperboy Returns to the Closer Role

After a spring of questions about who was going to be the closer for the season Mr Paperboy has returned to the role he did so well with last season. I'm sure he would have liked to have been in that starting rotation but I am pretty happy he is going to be back in that role. He was pretty damn lights out last year and hopefully he will continue doing the same this year. I'd be into that. I feel like we got a pretty kicking starting roation anyway. I keep having flashbacks to last year though. Going into the season I thought we had a rotaiton that was un-stopable. Then people got hurt and such and it all went to hell. With Schilling, Dice-K, Beckett, and Wakefield I think we'll be allright. Looks like Julian Tavarez might take the other rotation spot. Not so sure how I feel about that but I'll get over it. Anything will be better then Rudy Seanez from last year. Oyyy.
I've been trying to pay closer attention to the spring games but it's kind of hard. They play during the day, people appear in the line-up that you've never heard of and all kinds of things like that. The regualr season is knocking on the door though and soon it will be here. Yeah for that.
There was great story about Papi a week or so ago. Last season he met a kid who was going off to Iraq. What a stupid war that is, when will GW ever figure that out. Geez. I digress. So Papi spent a day with this guy and had a good old time. THe guy died at the begining of this month and when Papi found out about it he was devestated. He sent the family a bunch of stuff including an autographed baseball to put in the coffin. Papi is an all around solid guy. He rocks. I think it's a littl odd that he has a little punt dog but I'll get over it.
In other exciting news the Ramrods will be returning for another fun filled season of kickball next week. Stay tuned for updates as we try and win a few games but more importantlly have a lot of fun.
Later.

Manny in the House

Ladies and Gentleman.....Mannnnyyyy Rammmmmirrreeeezzz
A scruffy looking Manny reported to camp today. 2 days early. Cool.
His agent got grilled by some reporters with a bunch of dumb ass questions. Maybe if people didn't pester him with so much annoying shit he wouldn't be bothered by the Boston Media. There is some big flap about Manny agreeing to do a car show instead of going to camp. He didn't go to the car show so who cares. Let's move on. Enough of the badgering.
He stepped right into some BP against Dice-K. In a 75 pitch session with some good hitters the only hit off Dice-K was a little single up the middle by Big Papi. I think this guy is going to be the shit.
It's exciting to see scruffy Manny swinging the bat.
First Spring game is day after tomorrow. That's cool.
GO SOX.

Time for new excitement

Well the new season is fast approcahing and I am finding myself very excited about the upcoming season. There was a lot of madness in the off season. The biggest being the talking to (for 50 million) and the signing of Dice-K Matusakawaka, or however you spell his name. The crazy pitching phenom from Japan seems sure to really help us out this year. To say that he has brought insane amounts of press to spring training would be an understatement. He ptiched a BP session last Friday and apparenttly was pretty damn impressive. I am looking forward to him unleashing this Gyro Ball thing on some dumb yankees.
We signed some other good talent. The one I am liking the most is Julio Lugo. I like good short-stops. I am hoping this JD Drew character will live up to the hype. I think we paid him more then we were willing to pay Damon which is a little sad but ohh well. We move on. We got another Japanesse dude working out of the bullpen which should be nice. It seems like we have done some good work shoring up the bullpen.
In sad news Trot Nixon was not re-signed by the club. Bummer.
Manny is starting the season off by providing some drama. Nice. Well at least he'll report to camp on the absolute last minute possible. Nice.
Papi has a new little puppy that seems to be every where. I'm not sure why such a big man has such a little dog. Seems odd. Maybe he has been chatting with Paris Hilton a few too many times.
First spring game is on Wednesday. Nice.
I better sign up for Extra Innings soon.
I have a nice feeling about this season.
GO SOX.

Holy Awful August Batman

9-21 for the month of August. Ouch.
As the Sox hit the bottom of the barrel I lost my heart to do much of the blogging thing. It was all just to painful.
Everything that could go wrong for the Sox in the month of August did. Our very limited pitching staff got even thinner. Many of the names from the past got hurt. Varitek, Nixon, Manny, Papi, and many others got hit with various injuries. Some of them were much worse then just baseball. Ortiz had to go to the hospital to be test for heart problems. It appears that he will be back in the line up for the Sox tomorrow night which will be great to see. Jon Lester is out for the rest of the season with lymphoma (I'm sure I spelled that wrong). Those two things kind of put the whole playoff chase into perspective. It was just one thing after another. Now Paperboy is out for a bit and Schilling is going to miss a start.
Needless to say the Sox that played in August was a hodge podge team that cam from the minors and what not all over the place. They tried to hold there own but it just wasn't happening. We couldn't get any breaks. We couldn't get much hitting. We couldn't get much pitching. Really, not much good happened in August. We did manage to keep up our great defense though which is good, especially seeing as SS and 2B were always changing with the injury's.
Tonight Tek, Trot, Manny, and Gonzo are all back in the lineup. It's the first time we have seen this "regular" lineup in a long time. The bad part is that J Tavarez is pitching. Oyyy. We sent Wells to San Diego last week so now Beckett is the only remaining starter who isn't hurt. We seem to find pitchers in all kinds of random places to fill out the rotatation.
Another positive is that Dirty Sanchez was released. Thank God for that.
Manny got a double in his first at bat back. Too bad Mr. Lowell couldn't do anything with the bases loaded.
At the moment we are 9 behind the Yankees for the division and 6.5 back for the wild card. I think even if we went un-defeated for the rest of the season we would have a hard time making the playoffs. What a bummer. I think it has been a long time since the Sox were pretty much out of it at the start of September. I'm sure they'll come out and play well anyway. Maybe they could sweep the Yankees in the Bronx. That would be nice. It's just a big bummer to pretty much have no chance at the playoffs.
At least College Football has started to keep me distracted.
On a side note NAKID kickball is a lot of fun. I am working on my flip-cup skills.
Please pause for a moment of silence for Steve Irwin, the croc hunter. He was a man who had no fear. I remember watching one of his episodes where he was walking along a creek and in mid sentence he jumped in the water and came up with a crocodile. What a cool guy.
Our defense still kicks butt.

Trying to hold out hope

I'm trying very hard to hold out hope for this years Sox but it just ain't going so well.
We got swept by the Mariners. Everybody who wasn't already hurt is now hurt.
More on my Sox sadness later.
FYI-Kickball is fun.

Hat's off to the stupid Yankees

I have been having all kinds of trouble with Blogger. Sorry about that.
Hat's off to the Yankees for kicking the shit out of us. They have made all the right moves and we haven't.
Stick a fork in the Sox. With 36 games left we are 6.5 behind the spankees for the division and 4.5 back in the wild card.
We have no pitching and sporadic offense.
Without Tek we are 6-15.
There's always next year.

Ouch

We got swept by the Royals after losing 2 out of 3 to the D-Rays.
It's hard not to be a little worried about what is going to happen with this season that held such promise.

FFS

My boss really likes that saying. It stands for For Fucks Sake. That's kind of what I am thinking about the sox these day.
We did manage to win that last game I was talking about in a walk off fashion. The poor bird was eaten by a hawk. I guess it was really sick.
We lost to the Indians the next day as Beckett was giving out homeruns like they were crack on the corner in Roxbury. Bummer
Then it was off to Tampa Bay and there cool new tank in the outfield with big rays in it. Do you think they empty it during the off season? I would hope so. We won the first game but after that it was all down hill. Saturday night we tried to come back in the ninth but ended up losing 8-5. Sunday our crappy bullpen gave up a lead and we lost in extra innings when Tavarez gave up a homerun.
I have said this before and I will say it again. Why is Tavarez and Seanez pitching for this team? Why I ask?
At Tampa Bay this season we lost 7 out of 10. You can't do that and expect to win.
Now we're on our first trip to KC of the season. Guess what? We lost the first game? That's right. Thankfully the White Sox beat the Yanks so we didn't lose any ground. Would have been an awfully nice chance to gain some ground though.
We are 12-13 since the All Star break. We ain't going to win a world series with that kind of action going on.
Hopefully we can get our act in gear before the Yankees pull far away.

The Bird

I forgot to mention the poor black bird that was wondering arounf the infield last night. It was very funny. The NESN guys were having a really good time with it. It was obvioulsy very confused but seemed very intent on running the bases in the right order. Nothing like a nice little comic relief of a bird. Still up 4-3.

Uh-Oh Spaghetti-O

Trouble at Fenway! Trouble at Fenway!
Problem #1-The Sox did not make any moves at the trade deadline. Nothing what so ever. There was so many things that could have been done, but nothing happened. I really hope that doesn't come back to haunt us.
Problem #2-Wells returned to pitch on Monday night. He looked like an old man who had no business on the mound. He might get some more chances since his next start would be against the D-Rays and the Royals. Really he should just hang it up.
Problem #3-Trot Nixon on the DL
Problem #4-Tek having knee surgery, out 4-6 weeks.

That is 4 big problems.
Thanks for super papi we were able to pull out the win on the game on Monday. Wells pitched pretty awful and gave up 6 runs before he got booted. Snyder came in and did a nice job keeping things in check. The man of steel, Big Papi, came up in the bottom of the 9th with 2 men on. What do you think he did? He hit a game winning 3 run shot. Damn he is the man. Sadly I missed the end of the game because I was out playing soccer. Ohh well.
Last night was just ugly. The offense was MIA and didn't give the guy they called up from triple A (johnson) much help. I was wicked wiped out and managed to sleep through most of the game. Oops.
Tonight Lester is on the mound. He had a rough first inning but the Sox have pulled back into it and it is now 4-3 in the top of the 7th. Hopefully we can hold on.
While we lost last night the Spankees won and pulled into a tie for first place. We have been in possession of first place by ourselves since mid june. It is not fun to see the Yankees back up there. They seem to be peaking and we seem to be going down.
There is still a lot of season left, even better there are lot's of games with the Yanks. I hope we can hang in there. The latest injuries and the lack of picking anyone up at the trade deadline make me a little scared though.

Trade Deadline Approaches

As expected the Yankees made a nice deal heading into the trade deadline. They managed to pick up Abreau and a pitcher from the Phillies for 4 minor league players? How do they do that? How did they get two quality players from the majors in exchange for 4 guys who have never played in the majors? How does that work? Ohh well. The deadline is at 4pm today so hopefully between know and then the Sox will make some kind of move. Another good starting pitcher wouldn't be bad and neither would some bullpen help. Ship Tavarez and Seanez away for the love of god.
In game action the team took two out of three from the A's in Oakland. I wish I could tell you more about these games but they were on past my bed time (yes I'm an old man). We did put up 13 runs in the Tuesday game. That's always nice.
Over the weekend the boys were back in Fenway. Friday night was a tough loss 8-3. Things were close until the 6th inning and then it got out of hand. The highlight of the game was definitely Papi scoring from 1st base on a Manny double. His slide into home plate was more like a complete collapse. It was funny stuff. He's a funny dude. Saturday was a great win. Sadly it was not on TV here in the DC area. They elected for the 4:05 nats and dodgers game on the west coast. Ick. We we're down 6-3 going into the 8th. With the help of Manny and Papi we tied it up and sent it to extra innings. Papi came up in the 11th with 2 on. The Angels had the Papi shift on with most of the team in right field. Papi sent a little shot into left field and the game was over. Well done.
Last night was not pretty. It was the first game I actually had a chance to sit down and watch in quite a while. If only it had been a better game to watch. Schilling was not himself and things got ugly. He gave up three HR's in the 3rd and was just plain getting shelled. We managed to have a little rally to bring the score to 6-4 but then the tag team of Van Buren and Tavarez gave them 4 more runs to make it 10-4. I gave up at that point. Bummer.
On a total side note I would like to say what a crime I think the price of gas is these days. How can they charge us the highest gas prices ever and make a 10 billion dollar profit in three months? How does that work? Exxon makes $1300 something dollars a second. That is profit! How can they justify gas at $3+ a gallon when they are making that kind of money. Ohh wait, I know. Since GW is sucking all their dicks it is A-ok. Fucking cock sucker.
That is all. Hopefully we'll make a nice pick up today. The next three days are suppoused to be like living on the surface of the sun. what fun.

Life is a roller coaster, and I'm gonna ride it all night long

I have to learn not to get some upset by a loss here and a loss there. There is a lot of baseball left in this here season and I have to understand that one loss, while sad, will not be the end of us.
After a crappy series with the A's we were blessed with a visit by the Royals. For a while it looked like we were going to have a hard time with them. When it looked like we were about to lose the first game of the series good old Tek walked up and hit a grand slam that sealed the deal on that game. Way to go Tek. The next two games ended up being real thrillers that we one 1-0 and 1-0. Thank god our pitchers showed up that day since our offense seemed to miss the bus. Beckett was one of those who did a fine job. He and paperboy combined for a one hitter on Tuesday.
After our nice sweep of the Royals we had a one game make up series with the Rangers. Schilling got the W in a nice victory.
After that it was off to the west coast. If any of you were reading this blog last year, which I kinda doubt, you will remember that I really don't like it when the Sox go out west. It makes it really fricking hard to watch the games when they don't start until 10 local time. I'm an old man who works pretty hard and I just can't stay up that late. The west coast is a bummer. There is also the fact that when they go out there they tend to play a couple of series out there. Bummer.
Anyway. At the moment we are hanging out in Seattle. I really would like to live there. I think that and Boston are highest on the list of places I would like to live one day. Our three game set with the M's featured our dream pitching line up: Synder, some guy from Pawtucket, and Lester. Oyy. Lester really doesn't deserve my grief though, he has been playing well.
Synder got the win night one, night two did not go so hot, and night three was really interesting. I missed all of game 1 and 2 but did get to see parts of game three. The game was tied in the bottom of the 8th when the M's managed to take the lead on a in the park HR, yes, an inside the park HR. Bummer. Coco miss played the ball, Manny had a tough time handling it, and next thing you know the M's were up 8-7. Tek came up in the top of the ninth and cranked a very big HR to tie the game. Sadly Timlin could not hold on and the M's got a homer in the bottom of the ninth for the win. Thankfully the Yankees have been having a hard time in Toronto so we're still holding a 2.5 game lead on them. The Jay's are lurking not to far behind.
Next up is another series on the silly west coast. More games late at night, this time with the A's.

Don't Look Now...

But after we drop the game with A's today we will be tied with the Yankees for first. Damn that was fast.
Our poor performance against the A's over the last 4 days hasn't helped our cuase. The first game was lost in extra innings. Loretta made a big error in the 7th which let the A's tie the game. Mr Tavarez gave up 2 runs in the 11th and we couldn't make up the difference. Not the best way to start things off after the break.
Friday night it got much worse. We lost 15-3. The score pretty much says it all. Plain and simple-UGLY. Beckett gave up 7 runs before he got booted and the bullpen did the rest of the work.
IN the funny sport that baseball is we came back on Saturday night and won 7-0. How can a team score 15 one night and turn around the next and score none? That's wacky.
Today we are losing 8-1 in the bottom of the ninth. It will take a really big inning by Papi to save this one.
We've got to do something about the 4 and 5 pitching slots. Lester looked OK on Friday but he throws a lot of pitches and can't seem to make it late in the game. Our big pick up from the Royals, Synder, is looking like he is going to get the loss today. No good.
Meanwhile the Yankees swept the White Sox and pretty much beat the crap out of them all weekend.
Thank god the Royals are coming to town tomorrow.

At the Break and a damn fine DMB show

Well the Sox have hit the All Star break with a nice record of 53-33 and 3 games up on the Yanks. We have definitely had our moments in the first half of the season but we played pretty damn well for the last 2 months. I like the 20 games over .500 part but I sure wish that number between us and the Yankees was higher. Ohh well. I think we have to keep doing what we are doing for the rest of the season. We need to shore up the starting lineup and get more consistency there. We need a solid #4 and #5 pitcher. Hopefully Clement will come back and play well but I've lost hope in Wells for the year. The bullpen could use some help in the middle. For god's sake, send Seanez down the single A, he sucks. We have to keep up the great D and keep scoring those runs. I think we'll win the AL East as long as we don't choke.
We managed to avoid the sweep against the D-Rays by scoring a pile of runs in the top of the ninth including a Papi grand slam. Then we went to Chicago and won two out of three. It looked like we were going to get the sweep in game 3 but it turned into a 19 inning loss with a few blown chances. Guess who got the loss? You guesssseeed it...Seanez. Oyyy.
Papi couldn't make it out of the second round in the HR derby. Tonight is the All Star game. I hope we win but other then that I am not that interested.
On a unrelated front last week was my journey to fenway to see Dave Matthews. It was an awful shame I couldn't see a baseball game but the concert was AMAZING! I've seen quite a few shows over the last 12 years but this was one of the best. It made it even better that I was standing in center field watching it all. Here's a few photo's:


Looking towards home from CF


DMB on the scoreboard


Damn do I not take good pictures. Me near the Monster.


Dave


Dave and the Boys rock out


Did I mention that jamming out in CF of Fenway and enjoying some damn good music was pretty amazing?


Me right near third base. Mr Lowell has made a few damn good plays right where I was standing. Nice.

Up and Down..Up and Down

Well the Sox finished off their tour through the NL is a very nice fashion. We swept the Mets at Fenway including Pedro getting rocked. He is a wacky dude that Pedro. For some reason I don't feel nearly the resentment towards him that I do towards Damon. He actually got rocked in the game and went out in something like the third inning. That's not so cool. It would have been nice to see him pitch a good game but still lose.
We finished off inter-leauge action by takine 2 out of 3 from the Marlins. For some reason I couldn't get any of these games on Extra Innings not to mention it was a crazy birthday weekend so I'm not really sure what happened. I'm an old man at 30 now.
So we are now back into AL action and have managed to drop 3 in a row to the D-Rays to get it going. Baseball is such a wacky sport in that way. We were unbeatable for two weeks and now we can't be the D-Rays. Look at how the yankees lost by 18 one night then won by 12 or something the next. It's just wacky that way.
Hopefully we can pull the game out tonight so we don't get swept. Then it's off to Chicago for a tough weekend series before the break.
I'm headed to Fenway this weekend to see DMB. Should be fun.

More Winning and More Winning

PAPI-PLAIN AND SIMPLE-THE MAN

I hate to sound like a broken record but that winning thing sure is fun!
After looking pretty awful about two weeks back the Sox have now won 10 games in a row.
First it was a three game sweep of the Braves. It looks like for the first time in centuries the Braves are not gonna make the playoffs this year. They are way behind the Mets in the NL East. All the games were kindaa close. Varitek helped win the first one and Papi and Youk helped win the second one. The third game was a pitching duel until it was handed over to the bullpen and then things got ugly. The offense just kept coming back and got the win.
Next on the chopping block was a three game sweep of the Nationals. None of these games were ever in doubt. The great thing about all the wins is that we are winning with a bunch of different pitchers. The first game of the Nats series was won by some guy we got from the Royals. John Lester has come in and now won three games. He's got some fire in him too.
Next up was the Phillies. The first game was a blowout that we won 10-2. Beckett looked the best he has all season including the fact that he retired the first 16 without a hitch. Manny had some home runs and we won yet again. Saturday and what ended up being Monday were both great extra innings games. Big Pappi proved on both occasions why he is the best clutch hitter there is right now. Saturday he won the game with a walk off HR and Monday he won the game with a walk off RBI. He is just the man.
Last night was the first game with the Mets and we took that one as well. Tonight Pedro returns to pitch at Fenway against Beckett. It's sure to be a pitchers duel to say the least. I'm sure we'll get some offense going to. The offense is clicking at every end of the lineup right now. It's just grand.
My only minor sadness about the whole thing is that even after winning 10 in a row we are only 3.5 games ahead of the Yankees. They have also been playing NL teams which neither of us seem to be having any problems with. The NL just doesn't seem very good this year at all.
The AL All Star team has 2 players who aren't from the Sox or the Yankees in the starting lineup. That's wacky.

Thanks to the coast guard

For fixing the sinking Sox ship. We have now one 5 in a row.
Nose surgery is no fun.

STRUGGLING

THE SOX ARE LOOKING LIKE A SINKING SHIP THESE DAYS


Well things are not going well in the Red Sox camp, not well at all. Our once potent pitching rotation has turned into a one man show. Schilling is still doing well and pretty reliable. Beckett has taken a dive that began with a complete implosion at Yankess Stadium. Wells seems destined to be on the DL all year long. Clement can't get a win and is now getting an MRI. Wakefield is spotty and still gets no run support. Our fifth starter changes from Random Rookie #1 to Random Rookie #2 on a daily basis. Things are not good. The bullpen is also like a mash unit. Timlin is out, Foulke is out, and that leaves us with shitty bulpen guy #1 and dirty sanchez.
Ohh yeah, the offense seems to have gone MIA as well.
OOYYY FRICKING VEY.
The Yanks took 2 out 0f 3 in the bronx. One of which was a complete shellacking.
We split a 4 game series with the Rangers. Really Texas should have won 3 out of 4 but Papi had some more late inning heroics to save the day. There was lots of rain. Texas in Boston seems to equal rain this year.
Now we have lost the first two too the twins and seem well on our way to losing a third. Tuesday night we lost the game in the 12th when Tavarez gave up a grand slam in the 12th. In general our bullpen pretty much blows right now.
Last night another stellar bullpen guy Manny Delcarmen gave up yet another grand slam and the offense was once again MIA. In the last game and 4/9 we have scored 2 runs. For what was once the most potent offense going that ain't good.
Today we traded David Riske (if I was a pitcher I would change that name) for minor leauge pitcher Javier Lopez. MINOR LEAGUE? How bout we get someone from the majors.
I am becoming convinced that the Jays are going to win the AL east as the Yankees are all over the place as well.
Watching the Sox is a lot more fun when there winning.

Trouble on the mound

The boys had a nice weekend 4 game sweep of the D-Rays. Once again I didn't get to watch any of the games except for a crappy wireless connection wathing the gamecast. It was the D-Rays though. Schilling got his 200th win out of the deal which was nice. There was alot of leaving people on base during the whole thing though. We seem to have a little problem with that. Coco even made it back to play on Sunday. Willy Mo is on the DL for a while and it looks like Wells will return to that as well. He game back Friday after being on the DL for quite a while only to get beaned in the knee. He pitched a very solid game up to getting pegged. Bummer.
What seemed like a plethora of starting pitchers has now turned into a real problem. Wells is probably going to miss a few more starts. That leaves us searching for that 5th starter again. Lenny D is also hanging out on the DL. At the moment there is not starting pitcher for tomorrow nights game. Clement also took a ball in the ankle last week. He pitched again last night and got roughed up again. That makes two outing in a row that he has looked less then great. In fact he looked pretty crappy and looked like he has no confidence. It also looks like he might be heading to the DL as well. Oyy Vey. Even though Clement left us big time in the hole we were able to come back and almost get the win. Final score was 7-6.
Tonight was another hit for the pitching morale. Beckett got roughed up giving up a pile (5?) of homeruns. He didn't make it out of the 5th. We could still come back and win but at the moment we are down 7-2 with the game in the hands of the bullpen.
Ohh and Timlin is also on the DL, putting more weight on the shoulders of Dirty Sanchez.
So that leaves Schilling pitching pretty well and Wake pitching some good games and some bad games.
We got to plug the pitching problems. There was also a good story in the BG about how a large portion of our wins are against the D-Rays and the O's but not a lot of wins against big time teams.
Uh-Oh.
Come on boys.

Grrr Squared

Well I didn't get my wish. We ended up losing the game last night. And we lost the game because of missed opportunities...again. All time Mr Clutch was up in the eighth with the bases loaded and he struck out, struck out looking. I think that they had a chance to tie things up in the seventh as well but weren't able to seal the deal. If these two loses against the Yankee JV game come back to haunt us that would be bad. With the sweep we would have been up in the season series 6-1, instead it's 4-3. Schilling and Beckett are both doing well on a pretty consistent basis on the pitching front. Clement, Wake, and DiNardo/Wells aren't doing so hot. Wells returns to action tomorrow night.
It's got to be frustrating for the players to know they really should have won those games and didn't. It's a long season though so I'm sure they don't dwell on things for too long.
Looks like Cucko for Coco Puffs wil be back next week. Hopefully he'll get red hot in the process.
I am still working late so it's been far to long since I have watched a good baseball game. Maybe next week, oh wait, I'll be working late then too.
My stupid TIVO didn't record Lost last night. Very sad.
Up 2-0 on the Rays. 2 runs on 7 hits. Beckett looks good through 3.