What to Make of the Rookie of the Year?

On the whole, I have a problem with limiting my adoration. Either it’s the best, or not. I want to know which movie was the best. I don’t care which was the best animated movie, or best movie from an original screenplay, or best movie filmed entirely in Guatamala. Is it the best, or not? I hate it when weathermen talk about breaking records for a particular date. Why do I care if this is the hottest a November 13^th on record? It’s 60 degrees. It’s hotter than 60 degrees a lot. Is it the hottest day ever, or not? I don’t want to know that a player has the most hits by a switch hitter, or by a right-handed hitter, or by a Yankees player. Does he have the most hits, or not? So, I want to know if a player has had the best season. I don’t care if it’s by a player who has been in the league 20 years, ten years, or one year. Was it the best, or not?

So, why do we have the Rookie of the Year? In theory, it’s a forecast. Of all the people who are starting this year, he’s the best. So, watch out for him. He could be special. And, in theory, that makes sense. If you’re looking for a great player, he probably had a good first year. Except when he didn’t. There are several wonderful players who did not win the Rookie of the year, for one reason or another. For one thing, anything can happen if you’re just looking at one season. Guys can come out on fire. When compared to a limited field, they look pretty good. Or superior players could be victims of timing. If you’re a super player, but don’t come up until June, your numbers may be less than someone who started in April. It’s just a fluky thing.

So, winning the ROY award is a fine thing. It’s better than not winning it. It just has to be left at that. Of a particular category of players, you performed the best. Why don’t we have awards for every year? An award for the best player currently playing in his 7^th season. It would be as much of an honor. Or, what about an award for the player having the best 22^nd season. Would players try to hang on one more year to try to win that award?

Jamie Moyer could have a whole room of trophies.

The Power of Music

I was listening to some music today, and Mambo No. 5 by Lou Bega came on. It made me smile. Whenever I hear that song, it makes me smile. Why would this particular song do that to me? I’m glad you asked.

Let me tell you a story. As with most stories that people “remember like it was yesterday,” I’m sure I’ll get most of the details wrong. But, the general idea will be correct. It was the 1999 ALCS game 5. Fenway Park. The Red Sox are trailing late in an elimination game. Looking at the line score from game five, I’m going to say eighth inning. The Sox were behind, but mounting a rally. The Yankees needed to make a pitching change. While the pitcher was coming to the mound, a player came out of the Red Sox dugout, and made his way to the Sox bullpen. Everyone in the bleachers went crazy when we realized it was Pedro Martinez! The savior was coming! And he was taking off his warm-up jacket! This was it. The Sox would finish off the rally. Once they had the lead, Pedro was going to finish off the win. Then, the Sox would have Ramon Martinez go in game six and Pedro again in game seven. The Sox were going to the World Series! As Pedro was in the ‘pen, “Mambo No. 5” came over the sound system. Pedro started dancing around the bullpen mound, as only Pedro could. Of course, the Sox didn’t rally. They lost, and the Yankees celebrated the AL championship on the field that night. But, Pedro’s dancing is my lasting image of the game. It was as about as intense of a situation you could be in. He was being asked to save the season for the Sox, and he’s literally dancing on the mound as he warms up. That’s Pedro in a nutshell. And that’s why Mambo No. 5 always brings a smile to my face.

Anyone else have a song that invokes a specific Red Sox memory?

Card of the Week

2010 Topps National Chicle Jed Lowrie #165

The 2010 Topps National Chicle set is the very definition of a love it or hate it set. The desire for card companies to recycle classic designs had been going on for quite some time. Probably since Topps’s first foray into the Heritage line. People loved the look of new players in old designs. In many cases, that meant paintings. The Allen and Ginter did this beautifully, with it’s sophisticated images. Chicle seemed to be the other direction. They realized that they were painting things, so why not have some fun with it?

In this case, the Jed Lowrie card is pretty tame. It’s a simple shot of Jed taking his cuts. The background is simple, and doesn’t detract from the image. But, you can tell that it’s not a case of an artist trying to copy a picture. The uniform isn’t quite right. I’m guessing you’d see more letters if this were a photo. It’s much more of an impression that an image. But, it works. The focus in on the right place. Lowrie. It’s not cluttered, or weird enough to be a distraction.

It’s a nice card.

He Scored!

October 27, 2011

Not long ago, Tom of The Angels in Order posted a scorecard he kept while watching game six of the 2011 World Series. I thought it would be another opportunity to look at how other people keep score. Naturally, Tom keeps score a bit differently than I do. But, that’s the great the great part of scoring a game. You make your system work for you. There’s only one thing I need from the scorecard. Can I figure out what happened during the game? Do I know what all the markings mean? Let’s find out.

Right away in the first inning, I see something that I like. On Schumaker’s single, there’s a line showing where the ball went. That’s an easy thing to do, and would be nice to have later on. On that same box, you see that hits are denoted by horizontal lines in the box in the upper left corner. This is another common way of showing it, different than the 1B, 2B, and 3B notations. I’m more visual, so I like seeing the 2B on my cards. I wonder where the idea of the horizontal lines started? I also notice that home runs are circled. That’s a nice way of drawing your eye to an important event. I also like how Tom took the space to add some commentary to the card. I’m guessing that since this game was scored from TV, the notation on Pujols’s strikeout leading off the sixth denotes where K-Zone says the pitch was. Apparently the Rangers caught a break. I can also see that Holliday being picked off base during the same inning was a huge play by Napoli. I also see that Tom reacted to the end of the eighth with relief. I love the way it keeps the scorecard more alive.

The rest of the card follows just as you’d expect. You can see the Cardinals battle back whenever they needed to. Tom has clearly noted just how close the Rangers were to winning the game, and the series. (I wonder if he made the “1 strike away” notations in real time, or after the game when they became more significant) But, as we all know, the Cardinals prevailed in dramatic walk-off fashion.

And the scorecard shows you how it happened.

Thanks Tom!

(And don’t forget; if you’ve scored a game send in a scan so we can all enjoy it.)

2011 Scavenger Hunt

Once again, we’ve reached the end of another baseball season. I don’t know about you, but I’d just as soon put it behind me and get on with the next one. But, it’s more than three months before we can even talk about Spring Training. The Sox do have a bit to do this off-season, what with finding a new manager and all. They even have a few holes to fill. But, those tend to drag on for a while with many more rumors than facts. How else can we all stay busy and keep our minds off September? Once again, I have the answer. I present the Fourth Annual Section 36 Scavenger Hunt. Here’s how it will work. Below, you’ll find a list of 36 items. When you find an item, take a picture of it and send it along to me in an e-mail. Whoever sends me pictures of the most items wins. Pretty simple, eh? We’ll make the end of the hunt be 12:36 PM eastern time on February 5, 2011. This both gives enough time to find the stuff, and fills the time right up to pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training. Sound like fun? What do you win if you find the most items? Worldwide fame and admiration! I will post the winner’s name (and picture if one is provided) on this very site and hail them as the 2011 Scavenger Hunt Champion! I’m sure that Ruben from Alberta, Canada has found his worldwide fame to be quite an honor this past year. I’m also offering 400 different Red Sox baseball cards to the winner (Yes, there will be all-stars and Hall-of-Famers included). Not too bad, right? Ready to get started? Here is this year’s list of items to get pictures of:

1. Ted Williams Hall of Fame plaque

2. David Ortiz replica jersey

3. Red Sox toy car

4. Poster featuring Red Sox player

5. Gate “A” sign at Fenway Park

6. Knuckler, by Tim Wakefield

7. Red Sox lamp

8. Red Sox thermometer

9. Red Sox cup

10. “Teammates” Statue Outside Gate B at Fenway

11. Red Sox player

12. Red Sox water bottle

13. Used official Section 36 scorecard

14. Red Sox wine bottle

15. Tris Speaker Hall of Fame plaque postcard

16. Red Sox Jenga game

17. Jacoby Ellsbury t-shirt

18. “Sporting News” magazine with Red Sox player on cover

19. Fenway dirt

20. Red Sox bikini

21. Fenway Park Scoreboard

22. Official program from 2007 World Series

23. Jarrod Saltalamacchia baseball card

24. Food with Red Sox player on label/box

25. Autograph of member of 2009 Red Sox

26. Ticket stub from Section 36

27. Red Sox rug

28. Red Sox Media Guide

29. Ticket to ALCS game played by the Red Sox

30. Red Sox magnet schedule

31. Red Sox pet item

32. Drawing of Red Sox player

33. 2004 World Series baseball

34. Red Sox pencil

35. Female Red Sox fan

36. Male Red Sox fan

A quick clarification. Unless it says otherwise, “Red Sox Player” refers to anyone who ever played for the Sox in a regular season game. That counts even if the player isn’t depicted as a Red Sox player in the picture. So, Jim would be able to use anything from his Phillies Room depicting players like Curt Chilling and Pedro Martinez, even if they’re in their Phillies garb.

Now, since I want this to be a scavenger hunt, and not a google search, I’ll need a way to make sure you actually find these items yourself. So, in order to qualify any picture will need to have any one of these three things in it.

1. You. This might be the easiest way. If you’re in the picture, I can be pretty sure you actually found the item. This has one advantage in that it doesn’t have to be a new picture. If you went to Fenway last summer and took a picture in front of the scoreboard, that would work. Or,
2. The Section 36 logo. Just have it showing somewhere in the picture. Or,
3. The address of this blog, “www.section-36.blogspot.com” , written somewhere in the picture. Either write it out on a piece of paper, on a sidewalk with chalk, on someone’s leg, whatever. (Just don’t vandalize anything).

That make sense? So, send in your pictures to me, section36 at gmail dot com (I bet you know which parts to replace with symbols) It would be nice if you told me which items you thought were in each picture. If there’s a tie between people who have the same number of found items, the first tiebreaker will be the person who did it with the fewest number of pictures. If you get a picture of a Female Red Sox fan, wearing a David Ortiz jersey, while holding a Red Sox pencil, it would be 3 items in one picture. That’s a great start, although I’m sure you can do better. One year, Jere had over 20 items in a single photo! (In case you were wondering, the other tiebreaker will just be my judgment as to which pictures I like the best.)

As I’m sure you can imagine, if you send me a picture, you’re stating that you have the rights to send me the picture. You’re also telling me that I can use the picture on my blog in just about any way I see fit.

I think that covers everything! It’s now up to you to start sending me your pictures. I’ll keep reminding you as the months go by.

Good Luck!