Chase is done

I’m a little rusty so I’m taking it slow today, but I wanted to write about Chase Utley and chasing records.  I’m really sad that Utley’s hitting streak is over.  I watched his last at-bat last night and was really rooting for him.  I watched with my father, who is old school in that he didn’t want Chase beating Joe D’s record…heck, he doesn’t want Manny to beat Lou Gehrig’s grand slam record either.  Not me…I had a hard time with Cal Ripken, Jr. becoming the "Iron Man", but I’m over that.  I wanted to see Chase do it…and I’d love to see Manny beat Lou’s record.

Steve Buckley, from the Boston Herald, wrote a great article about David Ortiz earlier this week (in contrast to his piece of junk article about Javy Lopez today).  I remember Keith Olbermann writing that Cal Ripken, Jr., knew nothing about Lou Gehrig.  He said that he was going to read up on him after he retired.  Olbermann thought that was ridiculous…as did I…well, Buckley’s article about Ortiz shows that not all baseball players are as ignorant to the history of the game as Ripken was.  Ortiz wants to learn all about Jimmie Foxx, the last Red Sox player to hit 50 homeruns in a season, because there is a very good chance that Big Papi will be the next Red Sox player to hit 50 in a season (he hit 38 & 39 last night!).

Said Papi:

“I want to know what he looked like, how big he was. I want to know how he swung the bat. I’m telling you, he must have been some (expletive) good hitter. I’ll bet someone’s going to say that he hit 50 home runs because he played in Fenway Park. Well, if it was that easy, why is he the only guy to hit 50 home runs for the Red Sox?"

Papi never ceases to make me proud.  I hope Utley knows and appreciates the greatness he was chasing. And I hope he, or someone else as worthy, gets the chance to do it again.

Welcome to the team, Javy Lopez.  Very, VERY happy to have you aboard!

One Sox/Yanks item.  From today’s Boston Globe business section.  Apparently, Red Sox tickets in July were a hotter selling item than Yankees tickets.  Doesn’t really mean anything…but it’s an interesting note just the same.  🙂