List of 36: Things I’m Thankful for This Year

1. Blog Readers

2. Scoring

3. Jose Iglesias’s defense

4. The return of John Lackey

5. Koji Uehara

6. Jackie Bradley Jr’s debut

7. People sending in their pics in Section 36

8. Doubront in the pen

9. John Farrell’s interviews

10. Facebook likes

11. Xander Bogaerts’s debut

12. Beards

13. Jon Lester proving he’s an ace

14. People sending in their pics with a “I’d Rather be in Section 36” sign

15. Craig Breslow’s emergence

16. Battling through injuries

17. A Duckboat Parade

18. Johnny Gomes’s attitude

19. The catching tandem

20. Twitter Followers

21. Ben Cherington

22. People sending in pics of Section 36

23. Three Little Birds

24. David Ortiz’s speech

25. Mike Napoli staying healthy

26. Watching the Sox clinch the ALCS

27. Opening Day

28. Going to an ALDS game

29. Sun in the bleachers

30. Comments

31. World Championship gear

32. Tazawa vs Cabrera

33. People sending in pics from Section 36

34. “Boston” home uniforms

35. Souvenir sodas

36. Watching the Sox clinch the World Series

From the Pedro Binder

2003 Topps Total Total Topps           

Another card with a ton of stuff going on. Believe it or not, though, there are quite a few things that work.

Obviously, the circles need to go. I’m not sure if they’re supposed to represent anything, or are just there to annoy me. They do, I suppose, make the picture of Pedro pop, but that’s not enough for them to be there.

Otherwise, the card is nicely designed. The name of the insert set is prominent without being overbearing. I understand the need for a title to be front and center. The Topps Total logo is larger than I’d like. I’d prefer it to be half that size…especially if it’s going to stay right in the middle of the card. Pedro’s name is nice and large, and the Red Sox name is included. While I usually prefer the full picture to be used on a car, the cut-out works in this case. Maybe it’s the slight shadowing effect that does it for me. It’s also nice that Pedro’s leg is the only thing that is blocked by the card design. Plus, I’m an absolute sucker for the player photo covering the border/graphic. It’s like Pedro is falling right out of the card as he delivers the pitch. I can almost feel his motion taking his left leg over the Topps Total logo as he strides.

Overall, while I would have assumed I’d dislike this card on its merits, I don’t. Somehow this card doesn’t make me cringes as much as others.

Which isn’t exactly a glowing endorsement.

Revised List of 36: Best Players I’ve Seen Play In Person

Once again, the awards season has passed. With that, it’s time to revise the list of best players I’ve seen play live. As I’ve said, I make this list based mostly on awards. After all, my grandkids are more likely to ask me if I’ve seen a former MVP than some player who played well for a while (except for David Ortiz, I suppose). Since I’ve pretty much eliminated everyone from my top 36 who hasn’t won an Cy Young or MVP award, I’ll ignore the ROY winners. The two Cy Young winners were Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer. I haven’t seen Kershaw yet. But, I did get to see Scherzer in the ALCS. For the MVPs, I already have Miguel Cabrera on the list. A triple crown will do that for you. But, I don’t have Andrew McCutchen. Beyond that, I added a couple former award winners. I finally got to see Jake Peavy and his Cy Young award. I also realized that I hadn’t yet recorded former MVP Justin Morneau. Plus, I recently looked back at some older games. I knew I had been to a couple games a long time ago, but was reluctant to add any players from those games. Sure, if I saw the Sox in 1988 Jim Rice probably played. But, unless I was sure I didn’t want to jump the gun. Well, I found a couple old ticket stubs recently. A quick look at the box scores from those games allows me to add Hall of Famers Jim Rice and Kirby Puckett. I pretty much have to make room on the list for HOFers, but what about the other guys? I think an MVP is better than just a Cy Young, right? Looking at the list, it looks like I’ll have to eliminate some guys with just one Cy Young in order to fit the new HOFers and MVP. So, that pretty much means Peavy and Scherzer have no shot. It also, obviously, means that Josh Beckett is gone. Without a major award, I can’t carry him anymore. Same goes for Mike Piazza and Nomar and their measly ROY. So, the new list looks like this.

1. Roberto Alomar (HOF)

2. Wade Boggs (HOF)

3. Barry Bonds (MVP)

4. Ryan Braun (MVP)

5. Miguel Cabrera (MVP, triple crown)

6. Jose Canseco (MVP)

7. Roger Clemens (Cy Young)

8. Dennis Eckersley (HOF)

9. Jason Giambi (MVP)

10. Tom Glavine (Cy Young, 300 wins)

11. Juan Gonzalez (MVP)

12. Ken Griffey Jr (All-Century Team)

13. Vladimir Guerrero (MVP)

14. Roy Halladay (Cy Young)

15. Josh Hamilton (MVP)

16. Rickey Henderson (HOF)

17. Randy Johnson (Cy Young, 300 wins)

18. Chipper Jones (MVP)

19. Greg Maddux (Cy Young, 300 wins)

20. Pedro Martinez (Cy Young)

21. Andrew McCutchen (MVP)

22. Justin Morneau (MVP)

23. Dustin Pedroia (MVP)

24. Kirby Puckett (HOF)

25. Albert Pujols (MVP)

26. Jim Rice (HOF)

27. Cal Ripken (HOF)

28. Alex Rodriguez (MVP)

29. Ivan Rodriguez (MVP)

30. CC Sabathia (Cy Young)

31. Bret Saberhagen (Cy Young)

32. John Smoltz (Cy Young)

33. Ichiro Suzuki (MVP)

34. Miguel Tejada (MVP)

35. Frank Thomas (MVP)

36. Mo Vaughn (MVP)

Who’s on your list?

Red Sox 1-36: 29 is for…

Red Sox 1-36: 29 is for…

29 runs scored by Sox (vs StL 6/8/1950), most all-time

29 runs. That is a ton of runs. Not only was it a lot of runs, but the Sox won the game 29-4. So, I’m guessing it didn’t feel like a very close game for very long.

As a fan of the Sox, at which point would you feel that enough was enough.

I don’t mean “enough” as in stop running up the score, it’s bad sportsmanship. I mean “enough” as in stop scoring runs I’m already bored. I just want the game to be over so I can celebrate the victory.

I guess part if it would depend on how the runs were scored. Watching six straight bases loaded walks would have a much different feel than watching eight straight doubles. But, even then, once you got to 15-4, or 25-4, I think I’d start to pull for the other team to get some outs.

These days, I might also worry about the Red Sox starting pitcher. I remember one game I was at where the Sox scored 10 runs or so in the first couple innings. Great, right? Except that Pedro was on the mound. So, having the double-digit lead meant I was only going to see Pedro for the minimum five innings to save his arm. That probably wasn’t as much of a problem back then. But, a blowout these days means that all the good players are out of the game early. Even the position players would get a rest once the game reached the later innings. Pretty disappointing when you’re watching a game to see your favorites.

So, I’m certainly not going to complain about any Red Sox victory. I definitely want them to crush every opponent. I want easy victories in every game.

Just not, necessarily, that easy.

29 is for 29 runs scored in one game.

It’s a Big Deal

Of course, any deal involving Prince Fielder is a big deal.

Is it me, or are a lot more big contracts being traded these days than they used to be? And, traded early on in the contract as well. Gonzalez and Crawford were dealt after a year and a half. Reyes lasted a year. Fielder lasted two. I know there are probably more big contracts being handed out lately, so the number is probably bigger just because of that. But, did it ever happen before. Mike Hampton? Mike Piazza? Not sure.

What does that mean? Are teams quicker to bail on mistakes? Is the news cycle shorter? Miami got all the press it could from Reyes, so they dumped him? Or, is rebuilding more acceptable? Some Red Sox fans were actually convinced trading away Crawford and Gonzalez was a good thing. Would they have ever bought that line ten years ago?

Whatever the reason, the Rangers find themselves with a new first baseman. The best part? It’s not Mike Napoli. Texas was supposed to be the main competition for the Red Sox over the bearded one’s services. Getting them out of the way is certainly a good thing for the Sox. Plus, it’s not like the Tigers find themselves with a void at first. They’ll just shift their two-time defending MVP over there to take that spot. So, even though the deal supposedly helped two AL playoff contenders, it probably works out for the Sox because it helps them out too.

The deal also increased Texas’s payroll. As one of the teams mentioned in the same sentence as Jacoby Ellsbury, that more good news for the Sox. Are the Rangers less likely to shell out the big money for Jacoby now? You’d think so. The fewer teams there are with money to spend, the more likely Ellsbury finds himself back in Boston.

Not a bad improvement from a deal the Red Sox didn’t even make.