From the Pedro Binder

1998 Fleer Ultra

I don't know how I feel about this card, exactly.

The design? Obviously fantastic. I'm a sucker for full bleed photos, and this card has one. I love it when the graphics float over the picture, and this card obviously has those. It lists Pedro's name and team, along with position. Those are all tucked out of the way. The best part is that the Ultra logo is even more tucked away, and almost hard to find. It's a perfect design to give all the focus to the picture.

Now, about that picture...

On the surface, it's uninspired. Sure, it's different. He's not throwing a pitch. But, laying on the ground stretching? Bleh. This is our new ace! We don't want a picture of him stretching.

But, then I remember that he's our new ace. I realize that I should probably appreciate a pic in the Red Sox uniform. It's not an Expo jersey, or an airbrush. It's not even a photo shoot. Ultra did their best to get him in "action" wearing a Red Sox uniform. Maybe I should be commending them. I just can't quite bring myself to do it.

What about you?

Bye Bye Beckett

As you probably noticed, Josh Beckett announced his retirement last night. I've always been a Beckett fan. How could you not like someone who dominated the Yankees in the World Series as a youngster. When he came over to the Sox, that was clearly a big deal. Even when times were rough, I always thought he got the short end of the stick from fans in Boston. As I started thinking about this post, I flipped though my scorebooks looking at Beckett starts I had scored, and noticed something pretty cool.

Here is how Josh Beckett performed in games when I was at Fenway.

?? TOR-W 7 IP, 1ER, 2 K

9/19/06 NYY-L 5+IP, 9 ER, 2 K

4/10/07 SEA-W 7 IP, 1 ER, 7 K

9/15/07 NYY-W, 7 IP, 1 ER, 7 K

4/7/09 TB-W, 7 IP, 1 ER, 10 K

5/23/08 NYM-ND, 8 IP, 1 ER, 5 K

4/13/12 TB-W, 8 IP, 1 ER, 1 K

My goodness! If I was going to Fenway, and he was pitching, apparently I was assured of having a

good day. Even with the one absolute stinker against the Yankees, his career ERA in games I went to was 2.75. Ignoring that one (which, I know, you can’t do)? In six games he gave up one earned run per game, and went at least seven innings each time. That’s a 1.23 ERA. We’re talking Pedro numbers there. (Well, maybe Kershaw.) Look at that consistancy. 7 IP and 1 ER, like he was rolling out of bed.

So, maybe that’s why I’ve always had a soft spot for Josh Beckett. It’s not like I saw him have one great start, and be mediocre the rest of his career in Boston. His seven starts that I saw were spread out pretty evenly throughout his tenure. They were almost all amazing. Almost all of them allowed me to leave Fenway happy.

Not a bad result from a starting pitcher.

List of 36: Things I enjoyed about the 2014 season

1. Popcorn in a helmet

2. Blog readers

3. Ring ceremony

4. Magnet schedule with 3 trophies on it

5. Jackie Bradley Jr’s defense

6. Twitter followers

7. New pics in Section 36

8. Watching the Sea Dogs

9. Brock Holt

10. Pedro visiting

11. New pics with Section 36

12. David Ortiz going 30-100

13. Blog commenters

14. Replica World Series championship rings

15. Facebook likes

16. Mike Lowell visiting

17. Ice cream in a helmet

18. Grady Sizemore starting

19. New pics of Section 36

20. Christian Vazquez throwing to second

21. Walk-off wins

22. World Series merchandise

23. Scoring

24. Mookie Betts’s emergence

25. New “Rather be in Section 36” pics

26. Sunny days

27. Joe Kelly

28. Raising a banner

29. Instagram followers

30. Reading Red Sox books

31. David Ortiz Bobblehead

32. New pics from Section 36

33. Yoenis Cespedes’s throws

34. Jason Varitek visiting

35. Ticket stubs with World Series pics on them

36. Derek Jeter finally retiring

Is Value Overvalued?

Many of us credit the 2001 Patriots for contributing to the 2004 Red Sox World Championship. They proved that a team full of quality could win a title. It didn't take three stars and a bunch of scrubs. There's a feeling that their success allowed Theo Epstein the freedom to construct a team the way he wanted to. Well-balanced, and efficient. As the Sox enter a very important off-season, here's hoping that they don't adhere to one Patriot mantra.

Value.

Sure, I understand getting good value. Nobody wants to pay too much for something. If I'm at a game, I don't want to hear that the person sitting in front of me paid less for their ticket than I did. Or, that I paid twice as much as the person sitting the row behind me. I want to know that I got good value for my money. The same way that the Patriots want to be sure that they get good value for their offensive linemen. But, that can be carried too far. Lets say I was looking at ticket prices. I see a ticket for sale that I can afford, but see that one previously sold in the row in front of me for less than I would need to pay. I can tell that I'm not going to get good value if I buy the ticket. So, I could pass. I wouldn't have overspent. But, I won't be going to the game either. That's the trade off.

The Red Sox did something similar with Jacoby Ellsbury this last off-season. He was overpaid. I know it. You know it. The Yankees know it. Heck, even Ellsbury probably knows it. So, the Sox let him go to New York. He'll never be worth the contract in five years. Nobody ever talked about whether he was worth the contract this year. This year they needed to go on without their lead-off hitter. The same thing happened when Pedro left. Everyone rightly said the contract was too big. There wasn't value there. But, he was still darn good that next year. One time the Sox didn't get value in their move was with the JD Drew signing. He was overpaid. But, he was the best option out there. He put up great numbers for the Sox. If they didn't have him, who knows what they would have been forced to play in right field. They didn't have value. They had an all-star.

This off-season the Sox have some holes to fill. They also seem to have some organizational rules they're trying to follow. Rules about value. No long term contracts for pitchers, or old players, or old pitchers. There's not good value there. We can't give Jon Lester a five year contract. There won't be value there. Maybe. I guess they'd know. After all the Sox have some experience with pitchers on long contracts. That Lackey guy just carried them through the playoffs, winning the decisive game in the World Series in the fourth year of a five year (becoming six) contract. There wasn't value there.

Just a World Championship.

From the Pedro Binder

2003 Sportclix

Does this even count as a card? I suppose it has to, right? It's certainly card size. It's cardboard. It has Pedro on it. It came in a pack of cards. Sounds good to me!

Honestly, I have no idea where I got this card. I want to say it came in a pack of cards of some sort as an advertisement. It was trying to get you to buy player Sportclix when they came out. I didn't. Not even the Pedro. Guess the ad didn't work.

As for the card itself? Well, it features three stars of the day. As far as pitchers go in 2003, this might have been the cream of the crop. The Pedro Clix is a great pose. The angle of the picture, though, makes the base much too obvious. It's like I'm looking at a big green blob, with a little Pedro on top. Maybe an angle more from the top.

There's zero information about Pedro on the front, since he shares the card with two other pitchers. The ad portion is actually nicely tucked up top to allow the three pictures all the room they would need to be enjoyed. I'm actually a little amazed the "Available March 2004" wasn't three times that size to get the point across. But, it wasn't. It makes for a much cleaner card. Wish card companies would take note. Simple can be good. Usually is, in fact.

It was in this case.