I have decided to try once again to obtain autographs of Red Sox players through the mail. I know my last two attempts haven’t panned out so far. Neither Jon Lester nor Wily Mo Pena has responded to my request. (Really, how many requests can Wily Mo have to sift through?) But, if you don’t try, you’ll never succeed, right? Once again, I’m trying the Red Sox Spring Training address. My fastest responses in the past have come from Spring Training sites. The reasons? I don’t know for sure, but it would make sense that there is less for players to do during Spring Training downtime. It’s not like any of them are home. They don’t have chores to do, or family functions to attend. The wife and kids are at home. So, a player's nights must provide more time to sit in front of the TV and open fan mail, right? Who’d I try this time? Four members of the 2007 World Championship team:
Jacoby Ellsbury. As I’ve said before, I love watching this guy play. He has game changing speed like nothing the Sox have ever seen. It’s much like having Randy Moss on your team. With Moss, the “red zone” might as well be at the 50-yard line. With Ellsbury, scoring position is really at first base. I’ve always been a fan, and it would be fun to get a sig.
Clay Buchholz. A future star in the making. While his role on the 2009 team is questionable (another reason to send it to Fort Myers), there appears little doubt that Clay will be a mainstay in the rotation for years to come. How could I not want his autograph?
Manny Delcarmen. Middle relievers don’t get a lot of love on the team. But, a quick look at the 2007 Playoffs shows that he deserves some. Where would the Sox be without his 1.1 scoreless innings against the Angels? Would the other Manny have been able to smash his walk-off in game 2 without Delcarmen? He’d be a great addition to my collection.
Jonathan Papelbon. This one’s easy. How could you not want the autograph of an elite closer? I just love seeing him trot out from the bullpen. He’d be an amazing autograph to have.
Hopefully, at least one of these three guys answers. I’ll be sure to keep you posted.
And, this won’t be the end of this year’s requests.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Reversing The Curse By: Dan Shaughnessy
As you may have heard, the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series,
ending an 86-year drought. What is constantly amazing to me in the number of authors who apparently just happened to be writing books about that season. This is yet another. The book implies that it was in the works the entire season, and by lucky chance it was the year. Dan Shaughnessy, as a long-standing Boston Globe reporter, has a unique view of the season that he relayed through this book. Through research and first hand knowledge, Shaughnessy is able to recreate the story of the magical 2004 season.
This book is brought to you by the creator of the curse nonsense himself. While Shaughnessy wasn’t the first person to think the Sox were cursed or the first person to trace it back to Babe Ruth, he was the first person to publish a book using a catchy name: “The Curse of the Bambino.” He certainly didn’t mind telling you that throughout this book. You could sense the annoyance that his personal curse gold mine had dried up. But, I will never tire of reading about the 2004 Red Sox. One of the more interesting points of the book was to see how Shaughnessy relayed stories I had heard many times before. Tid-bits that I have heard for years as fact, he presented as rumors. Quotes I’ve heard 100 times were different, or longer, when included in this book. It just goes to show how authors, including Shaughnessy I presume, can alter history to their liking. Since I don’t expect to learn anything new anymore from a book about the 2004 Sox, this was an enjoyable read…especially if you ignored the constant self-promoting. I’m not normally a fan of Shaughnessy’s writing…he may be the only thing that Curt Schilling is right about. But, this book may be the exception that makes the rule. It even makes me want to track down a copy of the original “The Curse of the Bambino.”
Rating: 3 bases
This book is brought to you by the creator of the curse nonsense himself. While Shaughnessy wasn’t the first person to think the Sox were cursed or the first person to trace it back to Babe Ruth, he was the first person to publish a book using a catchy name: “The Curse of the Bambino.” He certainly didn’t mind telling you that throughout this book. You could sense the annoyance that his personal curse gold mine had dried up. But, I will never tire of reading about the 2004 Red Sox. One of the more interesting points of the book was to see how Shaughnessy relayed stories I had heard many times before. Tid-bits that I have heard for years as fact, he presented as rumors. Quotes I’ve heard 100 times were different, or longer, when included in this book. It just goes to show how authors, including Shaughnessy I presume, can alter history to their liking. Since I don’t expect to learn anything new anymore from a book about the 2004 Sox, this was an enjoyable read…especially if you ignored the constant self-promoting. I’m not normally a fan of Shaughnessy’s writing…he may be the only thing that Curt Schilling is right about. But, this book may be the exception that makes the rule. It even makes me want to track down a copy of the original “The Curse of the Bambino.”
Rating: 3 bases
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Liars and Cheaters
When Mariano Rivera was an up and coming pitcher, he had surgery on his right arm. A tendon from another place in his body was inserted into his elbow to replace an inferior tendon. After this artificial enhancement, Rivera added around 5 mph to his fastball, and went on to become one of the greatest closers in the game. Nobody blinked an eye because any number of pitchers have had Tommy John surgery, and went on to have productive careers. When Wade Boggs was entering the latter half of his career, he had a laser shot into his eye. This laser was able to improve his vision so that it was better than 20/20. After this artificial enhancement, he went on to collect his 3000th hit and finish a Hall-of-Fame career. Curt Schilling once had an ankle tendon that was giving him trouble. He had a doctor insert stitches into his ankle to create a tendon sheath that wasn’t there. After this artificial enhancement he went on to win two playoff games and was hailed a gutsy hero.
Clearly, it’s not “natural” ability that makes players popular. Clearly, artificially enhancing your natural ability isn’t cause for alarm. How does that apply to steroids? Aren’t they just another way to artificially enhance performance? Where do the differences lie? Steroids are bad for you. That’s one issue. But, just being a professional athlete is “bad” for you. Jerry Remy played baseball, and now can barely walk or sit due to his bad knees and back. So, steroids aren’t banned because they’re bad for you. They’re illegal. That’s a big one. Although, athletes do lots of illegal activities, and it doesn’t throw away their reputations. If a player is caught with a DWI, or assaulting his wife, fans may call him a butthead. But his career plugs along. I think the big issue is that steroids combine all the things that, on their own, would be barely ok. They’re illegal artificial performance enhancers that are bad for you. That’s a pretty big triple whammy. Similarly, if a player is found to have smoked pot, fans may call him a pothead, but not call his career into question. But, if CC Sabathia is so nervous about the expectations of pitching in NY that he smokes a little before each start to calm down? That’s crossing the line. Getting a massage to relax is OK, doing an illegal drug to relax is not. Having surgery to enhance performance is OK, doing an illegal drug to enhance performance is not. As far as “cheating” it’s about opportunity. Anyone dedicated enough can have a massage, or surgically repair damage. Anyone can work out, and use batting gloves or pine tar. But, not everyone “can” do an illegal activity. That’s when it becomes cheating.
So, what to do with the people who have been found to (or admitted to) use steroids? Obviously, they need to be punished somehow, no matter when the drugs were taken. Please don’t give me the load of crud that “steroids weren’t banned by baseball.” They’re illegal. From where I sit, that makes them banned in baseball. I’m pretty sure there’s no specific rule on the books prohibiting a player from murdering the catcher to avoid being tagged. I’m hoping though, that if that happened, the run wouldn’t be allowed to count…and the player would be promptly sent to jail. You can say that there was no punishment spelled out prior to a few years ago. And, that would be true. So, either Bud Selig can use that “best interests” clause and make up a punishment, or there has to be a different kind of penalty. I always like the way the NCAA treated an ineligible player by erasing him from the record books. While I have a hard time punishing a team, I don’t mind STATS Inc. erasing a player. So, if ARod admitted to cheating from 2001 to 2003, those years are erased from his career. Gone are his 156 homers, 395 RBI, and 569 hits. (In a perfect world, we could go back and change the ERAs of pitchers he faced, or runs for players he drove in…but that gets a little too iffy and complicated.) He’d be stripped of his MVP from that ERA. From there, his career would go on as it would…with a cloud of uncertainty over it. If you want to question the rest of his numbers because, obviously he didn’t stop using when he went to NY, you’re free to do so. If you think his 400 “clean” homers still makes him one of the all-time greats, you’re free to do so. If you want to add in those years when you consider him, you can do that too. It would be like including Ichiro’s Japan numbers or Satchel Paige’s Negro League numbers when considering his place in history. His official numbers, however, would not include the ineligible stats. Plus, he’d always be a liar and a cheater.
Now, is that perfect? No. Is it fair that he is punished because he was dumb enough to get caught, while others get away with it? No. Just like it’s not fair that everyone drives faster than the speed limit, but only some people get a ticket. It’s the best you can do. Frankly, if you cheat, you deserve to be punished, whether it’s fair or not. That’s just the way it is.
Now, let’s go out and get real testing so we can put this subject to rest.
Clearly, it’s not “natural” ability that makes players popular. Clearly, artificially enhancing your natural ability isn’t cause for alarm. How does that apply to steroids? Aren’t they just another way to artificially enhance performance? Where do the differences lie? Steroids are bad for you. That’s one issue. But, just being a professional athlete is “bad” for you. Jerry Remy played baseball, and now can barely walk or sit due to his bad knees and back. So, steroids aren’t banned because they’re bad for you. They’re illegal. That’s a big one. Although, athletes do lots of illegal activities, and it doesn’t throw away their reputations. If a player is caught with a DWI, or assaulting his wife, fans may call him a butthead. But his career plugs along. I think the big issue is that steroids combine all the things that, on their own, would be barely ok. They’re illegal artificial performance enhancers that are bad for you. That’s a pretty big triple whammy. Similarly, if a player is found to have smoked pot, fans may call him a pothead, but not call his career into question. But, if CC Sabathia is so nervous about the expectations of pitching in NY that he smokes a little before each start to calm down? That’s crossing the line. Getting a massage to relax is OK, doing an illegal drug to relax is not. Having surgery to enhance performance is OK, doing an illegal drug to enhance performance is not. As far as “cheating” it’s about opportunity. Anyone dedicated enough can have a massage, or surgically repair damage. Anyone can work out, and use batting gloves or pine tar. But, not everyone “can” do an illegal activity. That’s when it becomes cheating.
So, what to do with the people who have been found to (or admitted to) use steroids? Obviously, they need to be punished somehow, no matter when the drugs were taken. Please don’t give me the load of crud that “steroids weren’t banned by baseball.” They’re illegal. From where I sit, that makes them banned in baseball. I’m pretty sure there’s no specific rule on the books prohibiting a player from murdering the catcher to avoid being tagged. I’m hoping though, that if that happened, the run wouldn’t be allowed to count…and the player would be promptly sent to jail. You can say that there was no punishment spelled out prior to a few years ago. And, that would be true. So, either Bud Selig can use that “best interests” clause and make up a punishment, or there has to be a different kind of penalty. I always like the way the NCAA treated an ineligible player by erasing him from the record books. While I have a hard time punishing a team, I don’t mind STATS Inc. erasing a player. So, if ARod admitted to cheating from 2001 to 2003, those years are erased from his career. Gone are his 156 homers, 395 RBI, and 569 hits. (In a perfect world, we could go back and change the ERAs of pitchers he faced, or runs for players he drove in…but that gets a little too iffy and complicated.) He’d be stripped of his MVP from that ERA. From there, his career would go on as it would…with a cloud of uncertainty over it. If you want to question the rest of his numbers because, obviously he didn’t stop using when he went to NY, you’re free to do so. If you think his 400 “clean” homers still makes him one of the all-time greats, you’re free to do so. If you want to add in those years when you consider him, you can do that too. It would be like including Ichiro’s Japan numbers or Satchel Paige’s Negro League numbers when considering his place in history. His official numbers, however, would not include the ineligible stats. Plus, he’d always be a liar and a cheater.
Now, is that perfect? No. Is it fair that he is punished because he was dumb enough to get caught, while others get away with it? No. Just like it’s not fair that everyone drives faster than the speed limit, but only some people get a ticket. It’s the best you can do. Frankly, if you cheat, you deserve to be punished, whether it’s fair or not. That’s just the way it is.
Now, let’s go out and get real testing so we can put this subject to rest.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Big Trade
A few years ago, when I got my internet access through America Online, I got in the habit of trading baseball cards online. AOL had a message board set aside for the purpose of discussing and making trades through the mail. I had good luck with this. It was an easy way to find people from around the country who wanted things I considered junk and had things I wanted. For an example, I found someone who actually wanted a Hideo Nomo card, and was willing to send me a whole pile of Nomar Garciaparra cards for it. It was beautiful. Unfortunately, when I decided that AOL was too expensive and slow for my liking, I lost this little ability. Since then I had been looking for a new place to make trades, with no luck. Until, that is, a couple weeks ago.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the internet is full of people blogging about baseball cards. If you look around enough, you’ll find all sorts of people talking about the hobby, or their collections, or both. From what I’ve found, the best one out there is called “A Cardboard Problem.” It’s the best for a couple reasons. It’s updated regularly. It’s usually at least once a day that I find a new post. It helps that it’s actually a couple girls that contribute to it, so it increases the frequency a bit. It also doesn’t take itself too seriously. A lot of baseball card bloggers think they’re the only “real” collectors because they appreciate the “little” things. They’re not bandwagon fans, they’re real fans. (Sort of like the annoying members of SOSH) Instead, they get excited about their collections. They just enjoy talking about cards. It’s usually the first website I go to every day.
As it turns out, even the one glaring flaw with the site is actually good thing. As it happens, both girls are Yankees fans. (It’s OK, they’re the good kind) Ordinarily, this might be a problem. But, not when it comes to making a baseball card trade. As you may guess, I have little to no use for baseball cards featuring the Evil Empire. Oddly, they have little to no use for cards of Red Sox players. It’s a match made in heaven. One man’s trash is another’s treasure. I was able to purge a bunch of Yankees cards like from my collection. In return, I got a shipment full of Pedroia, Papelbon, Ortiz, Ramirez, and Youkilis. I certainly plan on taking advantage of this arrangement as often as I can.
So, if you’re a baseball card collector, or even if you’re not, I strongly suggest you check out the girls at “A Cardboard Problem.” It’s a must read, and will be at the top of my “favorite links” list once I get around to writing it down.
Just don’t let the interlocking “NY” scare you off.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the internet is full of people blogging about baseball cards. If you look around enough, you’ll find all sorts of people talking about the hobby, or their collections, or both. From what I’ve found, the best one out there is called “A Cardboard Problem.” It’s the best for a couple reasons. It’s updated regularly. It’s usually at least once a day that I find a new post. It helps that it’s actually a couple girls that contribute to it, so it increases the frequency a bit. It also doesn’t take itself too seriously. A lot of baseball card bloggers think they’re the only “real” collectors because they appreciate the “little” things. They’re not bandwagon fans, they’re real fans. (Sort of like the annoying members of SOSH) Instead, they get excited about their collections. They just enjoy talking about cards. It’s usually the first website I go to every day.
As it turns out, even the one glaring flaw with the site is actually good thing. As it happens, both girls are Yankees fans. (It’s OK, they’re the good kind) Ordinarily, this might be a problem. But, not when it comes to making a baseball card trade. As you may guess, I have little to no use for baseball cards featuring the Evil Empire. Oddly, they have little to no use for cards of Red Sox players. It’s a match made in heaven. One man’s trash is another’s treasure. I was able to purge a bunch of Yankees cards like from my collection. In return, I got a shipment full of Pedroia, Papelbon, Ortiz, Ramirez, and Youkilis. I certainly plan on taking advantage of this arrangement as often as I can.
So, if you’re a baseball card collector, or even if you’re not, I strongly suggest you check out the girls at “A Cardboard Problem.” It’s a must read, and will be at the top of my “favorite links” list once I get around to writing it down.
Just don’t let the interlocking “NY” scare you off.
Monday, February 16, 2009
List of 36: Red Sox Players with Names I Like to Say
1. Benny Agbayani
2. Orlando Cabrera
3. Doug Mientkiewicz
4. Dick Drago
5. Dwayne Hosey
6. Roberto Petagine
7. Jose Melendez
8. Daisuke Matsuzaka
9. Nomar Garciaparra
10. Orlando Cepeda
11. Adam Hyzdu
12. Rudy Pemberton
13. Sun-Woo Kim
14. Lenny DiNardo
15. Curtis Leskanic
16. Carlos Baerga
17. Jacoby Ellsbury
18. Ugueth Urbina
19. Arquimedez Pozo
20. Hector Carrasco
21. Rolando Arrojo
22. Wilfredo Cordero
23. Manny Delcarmen
24. Stan Belinda
25. Tim Harikkala
26. Creighton Gubanich
27. Vaughn Elshelman
28. Eusebio Gonzales
29. Gar Finnvold
30. Pumpsie Green
31. Paxton Crawford
32. Luis Alicea
33. Rheal Cormier
34. Fabian Gaffke
35. Midre Cummings
36. Tony Graffanino
Who’s on your list?
2. Orlando Cabrera
3. Doug Mientkiewicz
4. Dick Drago
5. Dwayne Hosey
6. Roberto Petagine
7. Jose Melendez
8. Daisuke Matsuzaka
9. Nomar Garciaparra
10. Orlando Cepeda
11. Adam Hyzdu
12. Rudy Pemberton
13. Sun-Woo Kim
14. Lenny DiNardo
15. Curtis Leskanic
16. Carlos Baerga
17. Jacoby Ellsbury
18. Ugueth Urbina
19. Arquimedez Pozo
20. Hector Carrasco
21. Rolando Arrojo
22. Wilfredo Cordero
23. Manny Delcarmen
24. Stan Belinda
25. Tim Harikkala
26. Creighton Gubanich
27. Vaughn Elshelman
28. Eusebio Gonzales
29. Gar Finnvold
30. Pumpsie Green
31. Paxton Crawford
32. Luis Alicea
33. Rheal Cormier
34. Fabian Gaffke
35. Midre Cummings
36. Tony Graffanino
Who’s on your list?
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