If the sun don’t shine forever you gotta let it go

Well it was nice to miss all the suck yesterday.  Due to obligations unrelated to baseball I watched a total of about an inning and a half last night.

But I refuse to dwell on the negative.  It’s been a shitty April so far and there’s no denying it.  We just have to be grateful that the Orioles only have one win this month so the Sox aren’t sitting in the basement.  Still, if I let a bad month of baseball ruin my Red Sox-loving attitude, what would the point be?  Anything can happen in a season and while I would like to see a more cohesive unit out there I certainly am not even close to giving up on this team.  That isn’t to say that the way they’ve been playing and the outcomes of these games haven’t been utterly frustrating.  They have.  But if I gave up on my team in April I would have missed out on a lot of good games.  Besides, what kind of fan only pays attention to or roots for their team when they’re winning?

Today is another day and the Sox get another chance to start that winning streak.

There were good things that happened yesterday:  Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez threw a no-hitter against the Braves.  It’s the first thrown for the Rockies and the 16th that was pitched against Atlanta.  Nothing beats a no-hitter (well, except a perfect game, but I’m not greedy) and this one was saved by a fantastic catch by center fielder Dexter Fowler.  Congratulations to Ubaldo!

Mr.  & Mrs. Jonathan Papelbon had their second child yesterday.  A boy named Gunner Robert.  So while everything at Fenway was stinking like cheese, at least Paps had something to celebrate.  Gunner joins his older sister Parker at home, prompting possibly my favorite Twitter interaction ever:

@sittingstillsox: Parker and Gunner? I hope they stop before they get to Driver and Bombardier.

@RIREDinTN But “Bob Papelbon”??

Hey, I needed the laugh.  Many good wishes to the Papelbons.  I hope everyone is happy and healthy and that daddy gets his butt to Fenway today.  🙂

I often mention Metsgrrl on my blog.  Caryn is a fantastic writer (if reading about the Mets isn’t your thing, she has a blog that details her travels to ball parks all around the country here and she writes about music here AND she co-hosts a podcast that covers all baseball here) and a lot of fun to read.  She also takes her Mets fandom very seriously.  I’ve been reading her for so long now that I don’t remember how I found her but I DO remember one of the first things I was taken with was her comments policy on her blog. It’s quite detailed so I’ll highlight my favorite parts here:

Constructive criticism is by all means welcomed, but if all you’re doing is coming here to rip apart everything I do, I kind of need to ask why you’re bothering, and wonder about your real motivation.

We welcome fans of other teams (and have quite a community of people from all over the world visiting here), and while trash talking with class is fine, we’re nice people here. I don’t have enough time in the day to read the blogs for the team I like, I cannot imagine having enough spare time on my hands to go find fan blogs of other teams to taunt the fans there. There are sites that welcome that. Go find one of them.

I do not tolerate sexism, racism, or homophobia even once. It wasn’t a joke, because that stuff isn’t funny, and you weren’t “kidding”. There are places that embrace all of that. Go there. Or better yet, go play in traffic.

The best I can add to this is “what she said”.  Regular readers here know I try to make this a place you can go the day after a lousy game (or four) without feeling like you’re being beat about the head with how the world is coming to and end and your team sucks so much they’ll never get anywhere in the season.  It’s also a place, I hope, folks can vent in the comments if they want without degrading the fan base or writing personal attacks against the players (or other commenters).  So if you were around for the taunting comment left last night and now notice it is gone…know that will happen all season long.  I’m still currently unemployed.  I do most of my job searching during the day…online.  Which means, really, I can be here all day if I have to and I’m not going to put up with the likes of Yankees fans coming here to make Sox fans miserable.   I’ve written it here before, this isn’t America, you have not rights here except the ones I give you…and I reserve the right to decide to delete your ass and send it to ‘spam’ if you’re only here to make others miserable.

Now that we have that out of the way…

The Mad Bobcat Murderer is on the mound today.  Mr. Crabcakes currently has an ERA over 7, a win/loss record of 0-1 and has given up 14 hits and 8 earned runs in 10 innings pitched.  I write all this just to say, if the idiots who booed Papi the other night took a moment to actually pay attention to the damn game they would realize most of the freaking team is struggling right now, not just Ortiz.  Beckett, Lackey and Pedroia can’t do it all (nor can Varitek and Lowell – but it sure is fun watching them do well, isn’t it?).

1:35pm ET game at Fenway today.  By the looks of things this morning, the weather most likely won’t be an issue.  A win going into Patriots’ Day would be appreciated.