In The Media Guide

In my collection, I currently have every Red Sox Media Guide dating back to 1998. I love flipping through them to see what tidbits they contain. I figured that if I liked it, you might enjoy taking a look along with me. So, I had a random number generator select a page from the 2011 edition to talk about today.  The random number generator selected pg 229.

Page 229 concluded the entry for Dennys Reyes, and starts the entry for non-roster invitee Jason Rice. I generally find the first and last pages to be the most interesting. The first page has all the vital information, while the last page usually has all the “personal” information. Unfortunately, the Reyes entry is too cut off to be all that exciting. Although, the fact that he has never been ejected is interesting. Not quite as interesting, though, as the fact that the Sox found that important enough to include “ejections” as a standard entry in everyone’s chart. I also like how it’s in a “single-game highs” chart, as if you could be ejected more than once in a single game.

What about Rice? We can see that he’s a 25-year old right handed pitcher. He hasn’t played in the major leagues. One of my favorite sections of any entry is the “acquired” information. It’s almost as exciting as the “transactions” portion. In this case, we see that Jason was a Rule 5 selection from the White Sox. That was back in 2008. So, he had been hanging around the minor leagues for a while. His career highlights actually look pretty good. Which, I suppose, is why they’re highlights. But, 11.42 Ks per nine innings is pretty good.

I wonder how you get to be the Sea Dogs Citizen of the Year.

With numbers like that, I have to wonder why he wasn’t able to move higher up the ladder. As a middle innings guy, he would seem to be a nice fit. But, he only made it to Pawtucket with the Sox. But there were certainly some good tidbits on his first page.

Just like every page.