Kyle with the Captain in 2006 (Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission)
There was a lot to dislike about last night’s game but the one positive I took from it was the general reaction of the fans. Most of them seemed to stay at Fenway last night and a good many of them stuck with it on NESN as well (if updates on my Twitter feed and Facebook page are any indication). It was a horrible game yet Red Sox fans were still compelled to watch. As Larry Lucchino said to Don and Jerry last night: “This game is one of those games that happens every year”.
And he was right. Of course, finding out that Dustin Pedroia is back on the DL and having this blow out happen against one of our two top pitchers (currently) makes it feel worse than just a randomly bad game. The Red Sox have had 19 different players on the DL and while some will argue that many of those players weren’t starters (as some have to me in email) those people need to remember that some of the back up players who have been DL’d were in there before their injury replacing the starters who were injured. To pretend that it hasn’t had an effect on this season is absolutely ridiculous.
Yet, here the Red Sox sit, 6.5 games out of first place on August 21st. Still right in the hunt for the playoffs, especially thanks to the six games left against the Rays and the six games left against the Yankees. The minor leaguers the Sox have brought up to help out have been making this season a lot of fun (Yamaico Navarro getting his first major-league hit last night, for example) and well worth watching. So last night sucked. The bright side is that the chances of tonight’s game being that bad have diminished.
Not so randomly:
I think WEEI does a wonderful job with the Jimmy Fund radio/telethon. No one can criticize that. What bothers me is listening to the likes of John Dennis and Gerry Callahan talk like they care about people for two days out of the year when they’re absolutely horrible folks the rest of the year. If you believe that living a good life means an afterlife of happiness you have to believe that these guys need to do more than host 48 hours of a telethon for sick kids each year to get a seat at the table upstairs. It’s what makes me not listen to the telethon (I find other times or ways to donate).
As if having them on isn’t bad enough, WEEI hit a new low yesterday by having Roger Clemens on. Roger Clemens who is being indicted for lying to Congress was on with this donation yesterday (pre-planned if you follow the time line on Twitter). Roger Clemens who….well, hell, I won’t get into the Roger Clemens bashing I could. I’ll just send you here to Joe Posnanski’s Sports Illustrated piece on Clemens and let you judge for yourself. I’ll tell you what, unlike what Joe Cochran had to say to the Boston Herald about him, I’m pretty sure you won’t be calling Clemens “A real good guy”. (As an aside, I think the equipment manager making the decision to not give out Roger’s “21” is absolutely asinine and makes the team look like a teenage girl who got stood up for her prom waiting outside her house clasping her corsage in anticipation of the date who will never show.  It’s embarrassing.) Of course, that story came from John Tomase so there’s a good chance there’s a retraction by the Herald tomorrow.
The Jimmy Fund is a wonderful organization most worthy of your donations but I find it difficult to promote their telethon when there is so much about it I find offensive. You know it’s on; you can watch or listen if you like and do what your heart tells you so you don’t need me pointing it out to you. (This paragraph comes to you courtesy of the handful of emails I received yesterday wanting to know why I hadn’t mentioned the telethon. Now you know.)
In much happier news (also known as “News that doesn’t make me want to throw things at my television”), we have a Kyle Snyder update! His rehabilitation from his fifth arm surgery is going well and there are still plans for him to play winter ball. He’s not yet throwing from the mound but that will come soon as a natural progression of his current throwing program. I probably receive two or three messages a week asking about Kyle and his progress and hearing that he’s “healthy and pain-free” yesterday is news I was eager to share. Here’s to continued success to Kyle in his bid for making it back to the mound and, hopefully, a ballpark near you!
Today I’ll be in Lowell getting to see the Spinners play for the first time this year. Game time is 5:05pm which means I’ll miss most of if not all of Daisuke Matsuzaka v Ricky Romero. I have a good feeling about tonight’s game. If nothing else, the Blue Jays are probably tired from those 20 hits last night.