 Jonathan Van Every in happier days. Photo taken by Kelly O’Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission. |
I only watched Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN intermittently last night so I missed Joe Morgan’s jab at the Red Sox. I found out about it thanks to Ken Tremendous and Twitter:
@KenTremendous – Morgan: “Boston has stumbled a little in the last couple days.” Actual, measurable reality: Boston is 6-2 since last Saturday, 17-7 in June.
And let’s add to that Boston being 11-7 in interleague games, just for fun. Then Yankees (the AL team Morgan was covering when he brought up the Sox) are 10-8 in interleague this year. Since last Saturday, the Yanks are 5-3 and they’re 14-11 in June.
Let’s keep going. Yankees and Red Sox each played in 8 series in June. The Yankees won five out of their eight (only sweeping the Mets in this last series) and the Red Sox won 7 out of their 8 series and they swept 2 of them (including the Yankees).
I know I should be used to Joe Morgan (or Tim McCarver or anyone else on television) saying ridiculous things. What really tears me is that he says these things just as filler for his having to do actual research for his job – and no one questions him. No one bothers to say, “Gee, Joe, the Red Sox aren’t stumbling at all. Just because the Yankees are playing well on a day when the Red Sox happened to lose doesn’t mean you have to bring up the Red Sox in a negative light!”.
How can you look at anything the Red Sox have done in June and say they’re stumbling? Would I have liked them to sweep every series? Sure, you bet. But winning them is good enough. Would I have preferred they stay ahead of the Yankees by winning on the same days the Yanks do? Of course. But, again, the series wins seem to help that all even out in the end.
I hate when someone feels obligated to stir things up just for the sake of it. When Mr. Tremendous entertained us at “Fire Joe Morgan” at least there was SOMEONE willing to call the Hall of Famer out on his ridiculousness. Now we have no one. Now, Joe Morgan will be allowed to say insipid, untrue statements every Sunday night and sit there happily in his ignorance while baseball fans everywhere bang their heads against their televisions.
On a more serious note, pvs to Jonathan Van Every. He had his knee surgery last week and it turned out to be more serious than they expected – so now he’s out for the rest of the season.
Van Every had exploratory surgery last week to repair damage to his left knee. The hope was that the problem was a meniscal tear, which would have kept Van Every out for a month. But the damage was more extensive than anticipated, and a more significant operation was performed.
Without getting into medical specifics, Johnson said that the procedure should likely keep Van Every out for the rest of the year.
Never news you want to read. Van Every, as just about all Sox fans will remember, hit a game-winning home run in April against the Indians and followed that up the next night by pitching an inning of relief against the Rays. (He then went back to Pawtucket, where during his first game back he hit a ninth-inning grand slam to tie the game and help the PawSox eventually win.) He’s a personal favorite of mine (and a fan favorite as well, it seems!) and as someone who has plans to hit Pawtucket a few more times this year, I’m really disappointed I won’t be able to see him play. The recovery process will be long but I hope it brings him back next year stronger than ever.
Interleague…she is over!!! Tonight the Red Sox are in Baltimore (feels like home!) with Crabcakes pitching against Jason Berken at 7:05. Here’s hoping he pitches at LEAST as well as Brad Penny did on Sunday (another shout out to Penny. It isn’t his fault the offense didn’t come through for him!) and that the offense DOES come through this time around.
Hey, if you see Harmon Killebrew today wish him a happy 73rd birthday!