Photo from Newsweek. It wouldn’t surprise me if you see many of these at Fenway in April. |
I’m cranky and I’m tired. Not really a good mix.
Both are mostly due to still feeling crappy and not being able to just hide in bed. Having to actually contribute to society when I feel like death is no fun. So I’m watching live Red Sox baseball – which doesn’t suck -to perk me up, but I’m still a little crabby. Let me rant a bit, won’t you?
Is it Barry or Elliot? It’s Elliot right? He’s the one doing the Jordan’s Furniture commercials? He’s the guy on tv standing in a snowy Fenway Park and telling people who are watching a Spring Training game in February on NESN that he knows we “aren’t thinking about baseball”. Brad Wilkerson committed an error tonight and I heckled him. First official game of Spring Training and I yelled at him. Something about throwing like my grandmother. I don’t remember exactly what I said. Does Elliot really believe we aren’t thinking about baseball? Who approves copy like that?
Speaking of Brad Wilkerson…guess who has his own website? He hasn’t updated it since the beginning of 2008, though. We should get on him to blog. Really blog, not that fake stuff Youk did with MLB. No phone interviews with someone else transcribing and writing the blog. We need to get at least one active Red Sox player to keep a real blog. How cool would it be to have Javier Lopez on Blogger after a bad game writing about how he wanted to throw a fastball at the jerk behind home plate heckling him all night? Maybe Dustin Pedroia writing about how he had to take the long way home to lose the stalkers following him from the park? This is the stuff I want to read.
Watching this game I realize it doesn’t bother me too much that the Sox are losing so I just must have unconsciously chosen poor Brad Wilkerson to beat up. It wasn’t a horrible throw either (even though he got an error for it). I’m a lot more rational now than when I first got home. I must be feeling better!
I feel like maybe I’m picking on him, but I found another quote by Red Sox Nation Vice President Rob Crawford that annoyed me just a wee bit.
“I think the anticipation [for the first Yankees-Red Sox game at Fenway] is heightened because of what’s going on with A-Rod,” Crawford said. “But it’s even more heightened because of Mark Teixeira.”
Huh? Okay, maybe I’m totally out of the loop. It’s possible. It isn’t like I spend the majority of my time reading about the Red Sox, writing about the Red Sox, talking about the Red Sox and picking the brains of Red Sox fans. Oh wait, I kind of do. I haven’t read or heard one word mentioned about Mark Teixeira since the Slappy stuff broke. No one seems to care. Sure, sure, once the season starts and the Yanks show up, he’ll be getting the obligatory boos for selling his soul to the Steinbrenners. That’s a given. But I know people who are planning things to do before that first Yankees/Sox game at Fenway. People planning to make anti-A*Rod shirts, people planning to hand out anti-A*Rod posters, people trying to figure out how to torture Slappy for nine straight innings. I haven’t heard of one Red Sox fan looking for creative ways to make Mark Teixeira miserable upon his first visit to Fenway in pinstripes.
I’m sure Rob Crawford is a nice guy and I really don’t mean to pick on him. But I don’t remember reading quotes from him in Newsday last year. I think it’s great that he’s getting some publicity outside Boston, good for him. I just wish his comments actually DID reflect those of most Red Sox fans since he’s supposed to be representing us.
Highlight of this evening has been listening to Brian Daubach alongside Don Orsillo tonight. I hope Jerry Remy is feeling better sooner rather than later, but Brian Daubach has done quite the job of entertaining us tonight and it was great to hear him. Keep him in mind, NESN, that’s all I’m saying.
I’m watching MLB Tonight right now…apparently they think A*Rod hitting a home run today took “a monkey off his back”. Oookay. Get back to me when Selena Roberts’ book comes out, fellas.
I was one of those people who absolutely did not believe Spring Training games would begin without Manny Ramirez having a job. Color me wrong. Won’t be the last time I’m wrong this season but I certainly didn’t think this one would be where I was wrong. Might not be the case for long, though, since the Dodgers made another offer.
The Dodgers have made another offer to Manny Ramirez, a two-year deal calling for $25 million this season and $20 million for the next — providing the slugger chooses to exercise the second-year option.
The player option on the second year came at the request of Ramirez’s agent, Scott Boras, said a source with knowledge of the situation who did not have authority to speak publicly.
Now I know collusion was brought up by Barry Bonds last year and I dismissed it. My belief was, Bonds is an ass, and he brings a lot of LEGAL baggage with him, so no one wanted him. Collusion didn’t have to factor in. But I’m wondering what the deal is here. Manny’s a great player albeit a pain in the backside. Was there really not one other team, aside from the Dodgers, who wanted him with them? I suppose it’s entirely possible that they looked at Theo Epstein cutting him loose and thought that there was something more serious behind it. It’ll be interesting to see this pan out.
Afternoon baseball Thursday! Unfortunately, the Red Sox/Pirates game isn’t available anywhere. Not on NESN, MBLN, Gameday Audio and not on MLB.tv. So we’ll have to rely on the scoreboard updates from mlb.com (which were totally unreliable today). Fortunately, for me, the Mets game is on both Gameday Audio AND MLB.tv. Fortunate because Kyle is supposed to pitch during the game. It’ll be good to catch a peek and see how he’s looking out there.