From the Pedro Binder

2003 Flair

I’ll bet you can already guess the main problem I have with this card. What’s the brand name? Flair. How do I know this? Because it’s easily the most prominent thing on the card. It’s right there front and center. Ten, in case you missed it, they put it not once, but twice on the side of the card in a graphic. The team name? Player name? Those are on the bottom. Position? Tucked in the upper corner. But, we know it’s Flair.

Once you get beyond that annoyance, it’s not a terrible card. If you erased all the brand names, I think I’d like it a lot. Having Pedro come out of a cloud isn’t my favorite use of a picture but, as I’ve said, I understand the need for variety. Not every set can be Stadium Club. I also like how they snuck in the blown up version of the pic in the graphics on the sides. How subtle were they? I didn’t even realize it until I was writing this. But, there’s Pedro’s head on the top, his arms show up on the side graphics, and his legs at the bottom. Nicely done. It even has all the information I need on a card. Player name, team, position. Great. The card even adds Pedro’s number, for a nice bonus.

Now, if only that stuff were as important as the name of the company.

Just Like They Drew it Up

It started early. The complaining. The whining.

My gosh, it’s the Astros!

Crikey, you can’t lose to the Astros!

For the love of Pedro, you shouldn’t need to come back against the Astros!

Are you kidding? You were lucky to beat the Astros!

Some of those are valid. Some, not so much. Yes, it was the Astros. Yes, the Red Sox should beat the Astros. But, it’s possible that they might need to come back against the Astros. And, they may or may not have been lucky to beat the Astros.

Just because the Astros are a terrible team doesn’t mean they don’t have some good qualities. It just means they also have some poor qualities. So, it’s perfectly understandable that they might have a young starter capable of shutting down a good offensive team. Think Felix Hernandez and the Mariners. But, it’s also perfectly understandable that their bullpen is weak, and tends to give up runs. That’s why they lose games. So, I’m not sure where the assumption came from that the Sox should never trail the Astros. They may be the worst team in the league, but they’re not a high school team. They’re perfectly capable of jumping out to a lead. And, the more talented Sox are capable of erasing that lead in a hurry. That’s the way it goes.

But, were the Sox lucky to win? Ehh…not sure.

A three run home run at any specific point can always be considered “lucky.” They don’t happen all the time. Scoring runs in any given inning is also a bit fluky. If I bet you $36 that the Red Sox will hit a 3-run homer in the top of the fourth inning tonight, you’d probably take that bet. The odds are certainly in your favor. So, to hit a three-run home run in the ninth inning is a bit of an odds buster.

But, to score three runs off the Astros bullpen? Suddenly not so lucky. Aren’t we looking at almost expected at that point? So, if the Sox had hit the home run in the eighth instead of the ninth, is that less lucky? If the Sox hit the homer in the first, is that less lucky?

It’s not good fortune that allowed the Sox to come back. It wasn’t awfulness that caused them to fall behind. It’s just the way the innings fell. The better team ended up scoring more runs than the bad team did last night. They were just spread out a little annoyingly. But, over time, you had to expect it to happen that way.

Which is also why losing a game to the Astros wasn’t (and wouldn’t have been) a sign of a terrible performance. The Sox scored more runs than the Astros did during the series. They were just spread out poorly. It allowed the Astros to squeak away with a win in the first game. But, overall, the Sox showed that they were the first place team.

And the Astros were not. 

When to Wave

I was at Fenway last Saturday, while the wave made its way around the park. As usual, the fan police took to twitter to voice their disgust at the activity. Most of the opinions could be summed up with the tweet “Wave making its way around Fenway during crucial at-bat in seventh. Damn pink hats.”

There are a few parts of this opinion that I need to question.

The most obvious flaw is the mention of the “pink hats.” Of course, the wave tradition predated the “pink hat” era by many years. The easiest way to tell is the fact that the wave still skips the Monster Seats. Passes them right over like they’re not even there. Obviously, these are longtime Fenway patrons who have been doing the wave since before the seats were added when you would skip the portion of the park that was just screen. But, I assume, everyone knows that they’ve been doing the wave for years. Just like the singing of Sweet Caroline, people seem to want to blame the “pink hats” for anything at the park. I’m not really sure why.

It’s the “important at-bat” portion that gets me. In this case, the wave actually started during the pitching change before the at-bat, and petered out as the at-bat got underway. But, even if that wasn’t the case…does the importance of the at-bat matter?

What are fans supposed to do during a big at-bat? Should they sit on their hands? Should they make some noise? I was pretty sure they were supposed to get into the game and cheer on their team. Isn’t the wave the crowd getting loud? Don’t “real” Sox fans always complain about other cities not knowing when to cheer unless the scoreboard telling them to? Shouldn’t they love the fact that fans have taken it upon themselves to cheer for the team?

Is it the organization of it? Are you just supposed to clap your hands? Can you clap your hands in the air? Can you yell? What if you yell “Let’s go Red Sox” while you clap? Is that OK? What if the whole section yells it and claps in unison? Is that OK? What if you’re cheering “Where is Roger?” or “Just Say No!” or “Manny’s Hitless!” instead of “Let’s go Red Sox!”? Is that OK? Those were pretty organized cheers that I remember doing during important games. Seemed to be OK. So, where is the line?

Now, I’ll give you that the people who actually start the wave are fools. Nothing looks worse that the loud guy who stands at the front of the section yelling, “Let’s do the wave!” Or the girls bouncing up and down hoping to get your attention. But, it’s worth noting, that these people are just fans. (I assume) It’s not Wally getting out there with a “wave now!” flag running along the stands. Again, just like Sweet Caroline, this isn’t some team manufactured tradition. It’s something that the fans take it upon themselves to do. Like hanging K’s or yelling chants. It’s the fans taking it upon themselves to get loud in support of the team on the field.

Where’s the problem?

I Scored!

June 19, 1999

I like to think of myself as a pretty dedicated Red Sox fan. Obviously, I blog about them enough that I should know my way around the team. So, I’m concerned by this scorecard. Look at the pitcher’s box. I have four pitchers listed. Off the top of my head, I can only recall the first name of one of them.

Such as it was with the 1999 Red Sox. I say it over and over, but it just shows how important Pedro was that a team like this could make it to the ALCS.

For the record, the pitchers that day were Jin Ho Cho, Kirk Bullinger, Mark Guthrie, and Tim Wakefield. Incredibly, they combined for the win after Cho gave up four runs. Wake earned a save after the rest of the pen kept the Rangers at bay.

Obviously, the offense had a good day. They were able to score seven runs when they needed to. My favorite part is the three-run second inning. The Sox got out to an early lead thanks to a key error. But, Cho gave up three runs the next inning. That can just suck the life out of you. But, then the Sox came back and scored three of their own in the bottom of the inning. Absolutely deflating.

The hero of the game? Have to give it to Nomar. He had two key RBI on the day. One was during that third inning. The other was a home run leading off the seventh after the Rangers had just scored to cut it to a one-run lead. Just like the runs in the third, it’s great to be able to answer right back.

The day’s goat? Troy O’Leary was the only hitless batter on the day. He struck out three times following Nomar. That not what you need from your #5 hitter.

As a side note, I love that I still hadn’t quite figured out how to spell Varitek’s name. I can give myself a bit of a break since we’re still talking about Varitek way back when he was #47, and not #33. But, overall, not a great game for me diehard-wise.

But, this group didn’t care if I knew who they were. The scored enough runs to pull the game out, and never let it be in question for long.

And the scorecard shows how it happened.

Up all Night

So, when did you turn off the game last night?

I admit. I stopped paying attention to the game after the grand slam. I had it on, but it was definitely in the background. I checked back in the bottom of the ninth, just to see. Two guys on base, and none out. So, I thought to myself, maybe they can make it respectable. Let’s see.

Glad I did.

Now, I wasn’t watching the game. I was following along with MLB Gameday. Don’t know if you do that much. If you have, you know that it takes a while for them to give the results of a hit. A little message shows up saying “in play, out(s)” or “in play, run(s)” or something like that. So, it can be especially stressful waiting for it to tell you what happened. Last night, there were a lot of “in play, run(s)” during that last inning. Runs? How many runs? Was it a single? Double? Game winning home run? Tell me!!

But, of course, it all turned out fantastically. I’d like to say that it shows something about the character of the team. But, I don’t really know what it has to do with it. I guess that they didn’t give up. But, that would imply that other teams do give up. Did the Mariners give up? Did David Ortiz give up? Did Nava get his hit because he was having fun? I’m not sure I can say that. I can say that they strung together a string of at-bats that were exactly what they needed. In a way, it was nice that there weren’t any huge hits. It wasn’t a grand slam to end it like in another big comeback against the Mariners. (eerily similar comeback, actually) It makes it easier to think the next time, that all you need is a hit. Nobody has to try and do too much. It is possible to just go out and do what you can, and the results will take care of themselves.

The most important part about the result is that it meant a full game swing in the standings. When the bottom of the ninth started, you were looking for the Sox to be tied for first with the Rays. After it ended, the Sox had a one game lead. As much as people said that the Sox might end up looking back at the play at the plate the other night, they’ll definitely do it to last night’s game as well. Maybe the two cancel each other out a bit.

While you’d prefer not to have to win a game in walk-off fashion, you’ll take it. As long as the wins keep piling up, it’s all that matters.

One hit at a time.