Team Sets: 1991 Topps Team Set

Players Included: Larry Anderson, Marty Barrett, Mike Boddicker, Wade Boggs, Tom Bolton, Tom Brunansky, Ellis Burks, Roger Clemens, John Dopson, Dwight Evans, Wes Gardner, Jeff Gray, Mike Greenwell, Greg Harris, Joe Hesketh, Daryl Irvine, Dana Kiecker, Dennis Lamp, Mike Marshall, John Marzano, Rob Murphy, Tim Naehring, Tony Pena, Phil Plantier, Carlos Quintana, Jeff Reardon, Jody Reed, Luis Rivera, Kevin Romine, Joe Morgan (mgr)

Best Picture: Tony Pena. A perfect picture for a defensive marvel such as Pena. It looks to be a spring training picture, due to the blue uniform top. Nevertheless, Pena has apparently blocked a ball in the dirt, and is ready to gun down a runner if he tries to advance. It just screams pure baseball.

Hall of Famers: Wade Boggs

Future Hall of Famers: Roger Clemens

Reason the buy the set: As the lone-Hall-of Famer, Wade Boggs is the key card to the set. Even Post-Mitchell Report, Clemens is a huge draw, but he’s dropped a bit. Back in the day, the Phil Plantier rookie card would have driven the set. The set also includes Larry Anderson, the man the Sox acquired for Jeff Bagwell.

Overall Reaction: This is a nice clean set. I enjoy the design, simplistic as it may be. While, the set is lacking in true stars, there are several players who would be memorable to Sox fans. That is especially true since most of the players that were swept out of the 1990 ALCS appear in this set. While it doesn’t highlight the prime era for the Red Sox, they’re a nice grouping of cards. The combination of horizontal and vertical images is a nice change of pace, and allows for some unique photography.

Not exactly what I had in mind.

You shouldn’t have to rally late to avoid being swept at home when you’re playing a .500 team. The Sox better pick things up a bit for the rest of the homestand.

One brighter spot over the weekend was the starting pitching. Wakefield had a tough outing on Friday, but didn’t embarrass himself. It’s something that just happens every once in a while. Penny had another fine start on Saturday. At what point does he not get traded because the Sox actually want him in the rotation? Lester got bit a bit by the unearned runs yesterday. While I know they’re called unearned for a reason, the pitcher could do a little more to prevent them. I know Pedro always used to say that if a guy made an error it was still his fault, since he let the batter hit the ball in the first place. But, overall, if the Sox could get those three outings over and over, it wouldn’t be too bad.

The line-up needed some help. They can’t be shut down by Mariner pitching like that. I know Lowell’s hole is bigger than it might seem at first. It’s even worse when Papi takes a rest at the same time. It reminded me of the sort of thing Jimy Williams used to do. Whenever Pedro pitched, he’d rest every starter figuring they didn’t need many runs with Martinez on the mound. The problem is, he always forgot that they needed at least one run. Hopefully Francona wasn’t looking past the Mariners in the same way.

With the best bullpen in the history of mankind, how did the Sox lose two straight games late to the Mariners? What is with baseball?

Does it say anything about closers that David Aardsma, of all people, is practically an elite one this year? Just how volatile are closers anyway?

Speaking of elite players, hearty congratulations should go out to the Red Sox all-stars. Jason Bay, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Josh Beckett, Tim Wakefield, and Jonathan Papelbon will be representing the Sox as they try to gain home field advantage in October. While I’m not sure how many of them would have made it if MLB used the selection method I proposed (check out the Bud Selig category on the right), it’s great to have a large group to watch during the game. It’s especially nice to see Tim Wakefield make a team. While I can’t say he has been snubbed in years past, he certainly deserves some national recognition for all he’s done. Over the years he has sacrificed many a personal stat for the good of the team. If Papelbon were that selfless, he wouldn’t make many all-star teams either. I wonder if Joe Mauer and Victor Martinez will draw straws to see who has to catch Wake. I bet there are a couple NL baserunners absolutely drooling at the thought. Maybe the AL should find a way to give Kottaras an honorary spot. I guess in theory, if “this time it counts” Wake shouldn’t pitch. In an important game, I can’t imagine throwing a knuckler out there to a catcher who’s never caught one…even in practice. Maybe he’ll be saved as an extra innings fallback plan. If the game’s tied after nine, Wake can pitch the next nine if needed.

First things first, though. The Sox still have two series to play before the mini-break. Hopefully they can remember that they’re not playing very good teams, and coast into the all-star break on a good long winning streak. Throwing Smoltz and Beckett is a pretty good start. Of course, I said that last week too.

Hopefully, everybody’s ready to give Nomar a much-deserved standing ovation tonight. For all he did for this team, he at least deserves that.

No-mah’s bet-ter!

List of 36: Players and coaches from 36 years ago (1973)

1. Ray Culp
2. Mario Guerrero
3. Reggie Smith
4. Orlando Cepeda
5. Don Lenhardt
6. Eddie Kasko
7. Sonny Siebert
8. Rico Petrocelli
9. Bob Veale
10. Bob Bolin
11. Bob Montgomery
12. Buddy Hunter
13. Carlton Fisk
14. Ben Oglivie
15. Bill Lee
16. Marty Pattin
17. Rick Miller
18. Don Newhauser
19. Luis Tiant
20. Doug Camilli
21. Dwight Evans
22. Eddie Popowski
23. Lynn McGlothern
24. Carl Yastrzemski
25. Dick Pole
26. Tommy Harper
27. Danny Cater
28. John Kennedy
29. Ken Tatum
30. Mike Garman
31. Roger Moret
32. Cecil Cooper
33. Craig Skok
34. Doug Griffin
35. John Curtis
36. Luis Aparicio

What goes around…

It was great to see that the Sox still had the needed fire yesterday. After blowing htat huge lead on Tuesday, and trailing big on Thursday, it would have been easy to give up. It would have been easy to just lament over blowing the series, and limping out with a 1-2-3 ninth inning. The Sox didn’t do that though. Like a good team should, they kept plugging along and ended up stealing the series back. That’s a pretty good sign.

I know that most stats involving relievers are laughable. Saves aren’t saves anymore. ERAs get held in check by pitching less. But, nothing is as funny to me as the hold Saito got in Tuesday’s game. He got a hold…and a loss. I wonder which one he’ll bring up during his next contract negotiations. Bill James needs to come up with a couple meaningful stats for relievers, and fast.

Lost in the craziness of the last couple games is the gem pitched by Jon Lester on Monday. He’s starting to get a hold of a few key factors to good pitching. He’s starting to get a lot more consistent with his outings. After a few awful starts to begin the season, he’s clamped down and strung together a run of solid performances. I’m not wondering what I’m going to get out of him anymore. He’s also cutting down on his walks. I’m sure the two go hand in hand. When he’s not walking guys, he’s not getting in so much trouble, and he’s going deeper into games. He’s becoming a strikeout pitcher too, which is nice. Nothing gets you out if a jam better than a quick K. While I’m not quite ready to say that I’m glad he wasn’t traded for Santana, he’s great to have in the rotation.

It’s also great to have John Smoltz in the rotation. His great performance was also lost in the rain and collapse Tuesday. If he’s going to be pitching like that the rest of the way, the Beckett-Lester-Smoltz combo could be fun in a division series.

Since the bullpen came back less than 24 hours after the collapse, I’m willing to chalk it up to the rain delay. I can imagine a bullpen with an 8 run lead, sitting through an hour-long rain delay. I’d have been amazed if they didn’t mentally check out at that point.

A nice homestand is on the way leading up to the break. I don’t think 7-3 is an unreasonable expectation.

With all the injuries, and below average performances, I can take being up 2.5 going into the break. A little more would be even better though. The Yankees and Rays are playing about as well as they can right now, and the Sox have a lot of scrubs filtering through. Keeping their head above water is a great benchmark.

Does Seattle have an advantage playing in wet weather?

Red Sox A-Z: D is for…

DiMaggio, as in Dom

I’ve often wondered what it’s like to be Dom DiMaggio. Imagine being a ball-player. Pretty cool, right? Now, imagine being a very good ballplayer, borderline Hall-of-Famer even. That’s just amazing. You have a brother who plays in the majors, and you’re better than him. Wonderful. That has to be a dream of some sort. But, then, you have another brother, Joe DiMaggio. You could cure cancer, and not quite get out from under his shadow. You could even convince yourself that you’re a better outfielder than he is, but it wouldn’t help. Then, to make matters worse, you find yourself a best friend on your team and pick Ted Williams. Why would you do that? No matter where he went, he was the second best part of the duo. If you went out with your best friend and your brother, you’d be that other guy getting in the picture. Amazing.

Obviously, I don’t remember seeing Dom DiMaggio play. He retired before my parents were born. But, I have stumbled upon him here and there. For me his recent passing cut yet another link, maybe a last link, to the past glory days for the Sox. I know Pesky is still around, but I always thought of DiMaggio as the elder statesman for the Sox. Maybe it’s because Pesky is around so much, I think of him as a current Sox. But, since Williams’s passing, I always thought of DiMaggio as the link to the great teams of the 40’s.

There have been a couple instances when I’ve been at Fenway, and they’ve had greats of the past on hand. One I remember was the Red Sox 100th Anniversary celebration. They had a ceremony before a game that year where they invited all kinds of players. Each player took his position in the field. From the bleachers, my closest view was of DiMaggio in center. You could tell he moved a little slower than the others out there. It just cemented the fact that his attendance was just a little bit more special than Mike Andrews or Luis Tiant. It was pretty cool to see the distinguished “little professor” in his old position.

Another time I saw Dom at Fenway was during Ted Williams’s memorial celebration. Once again, DiMaggio was there as a link to the glorious past. Again, he was slower than some other players as we went about honoring Ted. I also remembered that his speech was the most passionate. Every speaker spoke of how wonderful Ted was, and how lucky he was to know him. But Dom was really speaking from the heart. He spoke out against the way Ted’s body was being handled with the energy of a man much younger than he. It was moving to see a good friend take his chance to right what he felt was a great wrong. It made me hope to one day have a friend like Dom DiMaggio.

It’s one of the things that I always loved about being a Red Sox fan. There was a history there. It wasn’t a group of people that stopped by to play for a ring. To be a Red Sox player meant something to people, and Dom DiMaggio always seemed to define that for me. I’ll miss seeing him at the park.

D is for DiMaggio, Dom