Barack Obama honors Red Sox at White House

You can read the full story behind this picture HERE.

Good News On A Crummy Day

My work day started horribly.  It got okay in the middle.  And then ended horrifically.


But then I see this story HERE, which can be summed up:

Major League Baseball is returning to Montreal — at least for a brief time. According to a report by Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi on Tuesday, the Blue Jays are expected to officially announce that they will play a pair of exhibition games against the Mets at Olympic Stadium next spring. Via Twitter, Frédérique Guay  from TVA Sports says that the games will take place on March 28 and 29, 2014.

Olympic Stadium was home to the Expos for most of their time in Quebec. (John Iacono/SI)

...and once again I am happy.

Apparently they are still playing baseball...

from si.com

I would SO love a Nats-Os World Series!!

As Lee said on The Facebook, for Phillies fans, "Raul Ibanez and Jayson Werth win games on back to back nights with game-ending homers. It's 2009, right? RIGHT?"

Take Me Out To The Ball Game!

Last night my son was among some students who were recognized for a summer reading program at an on-field, pregame ceremony  at our local minor league farm team, the Vermont Lake Monsters!

 

We met up with The Armchair Squid, Wikes and their daughter for a pleasant evening of baseball and good conversation.

They arrived with a puzzler....apparently they play a license plate game where one takes the letters found on a plate (Vermont starts with 3 letters and then a space before 3 numbers) and try to think of a word that contains those letters in the same order (but not necessarily consecutively).  They arrived having seen a plate like this:

Any guesses?  It took us a while....and some help from the lady sitting in front of us, but I eventually got TWO and the flood gates opened!

(On the way home we spotted a plate with ZXF.  However, it was from Quebec which raised several questions around foreign plates and foreign languages!)

Now the two highlights of the night were BOTH baseball related!

First, we found out that the first 500 ticket holders each received an AJ COLE bobble-head!  I'm still not sure why I should be excited about that!  Cole was a member of the Lake Monsters in 2010.  He pitched in one game, facing 4 batters, walking one, striking out one and giving up one hit.  If you think about it, that's only one more inning than I have pitched for the team!  Where's my bobble head!?!?

Second, when I looked at the team's website before the game I was underwhelmed.  The Monsters were coming off a losing streak, were 11 games under .500, and the starting pitcher, JC Menna, sported a 0-9 record with an ERA north of 5!

However, he threw a gem!  He walked a few and had an error behind him in the field when he gave up his first hit in the 5th.  The Squid and I debated the ruling but didn't linger on it.  Shortly, we noticed the call had been reversed....the hit was gone and there was a second error on the board!

Menna gave way to Deyvi Jimenez, who kept Tri City hitless in the 7th and 8th before Ryan Dull came in for a perfect 9th! It was rather exciting and the first no-hitter in the history of the Vermont Reds/Mariners/Expos/Lake Monsters!

I have been to probably 50 major league games....and maybe the same amount of minor league games and this was one of the most exciting nights at the park for me!  It was cool to be a part of "history".

Ken Griffey Jr. game through our system for 17 games back in 1988.  The number of people who claim they saw him here continues to grow to near impossible numbers....I wonder if the 2,800 in attendance last night will swell in the same way?!?1

T-Shirt Tuesday: July 31, 2012

Given that today is the trade deadline for Major League Baseball, I thought I would take a "group photo" of all of my Sox tees at the same time.

I was saddened to realize that ALL of the players I like enough to get their shirts are no longer on the team.  I still have my customized shirt which when I wore it to school one day several of the younger students in the building thought I had played for the team at one point!  Admittedly I was in far better shape than I am today but still I enjoyed the compliment!

And as I was loading all of my tees back into my dresser, I found another one from the '03 Division Series!

Not sure whose shirt I will get next...and since it looks like the Sox made NO significant moves today, I'm thinking I might have to wait a year to grab one...though a Pedroia would be tempting!

A predictable prediction....

Not going against the grain here....

Texas in 6.

One Month From Today...

October 2011

October
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat             1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Phases of the moon: 3: 11: 19: 26:
Holidays and Observances: 10: Columbus Day (Most regions), 31: Halloween

American League Division Series (both A and B)
Game 1: September 30
Game 2: October 1
Game 3: October 3
Game 4: October 4*
Game 5: October 6*

American League Championship Series
Game 1: October 8
Game 2: October 9
Game 3: October 11
Game 4: October 12
Game 5: October 13*
Game 6: October 15*
Game 7: October 16*

World Series
Game 1 at NL: October 19
Game 2 at NL: October 20
Game 3 at AL: October 22
Game 4 at AL: October 23
Game 5 at AL: October 24*
Game 6 at NL: October 26*
Game 7 at NL: October 27*

* - if necessary

Stan Lee Throws Out First Pitch Phillies versus Nationals August 19

'Nuff said....

Opening Day!

Here are my predictions for the 2011 Baseball Season.

American League

East: Red Sox
Central: Tigers
West: Angels
Wild Card: Yankees

Pennant: Red Sox

National League

East: Phillies
Central: Reds
West: Giants
Wild Card: Braves

Pennant: Braves

World Series Champs: Red Sox

Being an unabashedly biased Sox fan, I am sure my predictions might seem self serving.  But I believe, on paper, they have by far the best all around team in the Bigs this year.  Some may have stronger starting rotations (and despite my cousin and teaching partner's fondness for the Phils, I think that is their ONLY strength right now) but in overall performance, it is the Sox this year.

And being the Yankee hater that I am, I will not be surprised to see some Yankee names when it comes time to start discussing individual award winners this year.

Do you need help choosing a baseball team to root for?

via Joy of Sox

Mike Lupica Sums Up The Yankees Loss

Mike Lupica, Daily News:

The end of it for the Yankees, the end of a four-game sweep that just happened to take six games, was the bat on Alex Rodriguez's shoulder against a kid closer named Neftali Feliz. It was 6-1 for the Rangers in Game 6 by then. The Yankees hadn't just been beaten. They had been bounced around most of the last week, Arlington to the Bronx and back, and finally been embarrassed. So there really was no need for A-Rod to take the bat off his shoulder. The Yankees had stopped playing an hour ago. ...

This wasn't as bad an AL pennant defense as we got from the Yankees in 2004, when the Red Sox came back from 0-3 down. It was bad enough. ...

One out away. A-Rod. Of course. Of course it had to be him. Took a called third strike. They paid him $252 million once to put the Rangers in the World Series. Now he had.

(via Joy of Sox)

Happy 57th Birthday Warren Cromartie

Among the Montreal Expos Top 10 list, Cromartie ranks fifth in doubles (222), triples (30), games played (1,038) and at-bats (3,796), sixth in runs (546, hits (1,063) and total bases (1,525), and 10th in walks (310) and average (.280). His 659 at-bats in 1979 are a Montreal record.

This Day In Baseball History

On September 24, 1985, while a member of the Expos, Andre Dawson became just the second player in baseball history to hit two home runs in an inning TWICE in a career!

I kid because I love....

Ha ha, it’s a trick question! There’s no such thing as “valuable” Kansas City Royals memorabilia.

( from The Comics Curmudgeon by comics)

We're Going To Fenway!!!!

Earlier this week, for some reason, I popped "Field of Dreams" into the VCR while we were picking up after camping last weekend. I really enjoy the movie. I got kind of misty eyed as it started, suddenly remembering the ending and the missed opportunities of life, the whole father/son dynamic.

As it progressed, Nan, Logan and I all made our way to the various seats and ended up doing more watching than picking up. I shared with the two of them how I first saw the movie while I was living in Boston, how the crowd cheered when the characters went to Boston, how Costner's character drove right past the apartment I was living in.

I also shared how James Earl Jones' character was originally J.D. Salinger in the book and I had JUST read "Catcher in The Rye" for the first time.

The ending got all of us really choked up (despite Logan's unsolicited protestations of "I'm not crying!").

That night, I stayed up FOREVER (really like 3:00 AM....I am trying to squeeze as much out of the rest of this summer as possible) and woke up grumpy at 6:30 AM. I requested no television that morning for no real reason, other than I was cranky and it seemed like we were watching TOO much television lately. Nan encouraged me to lie down for a little while longer but held true to my no television edict.

I set my alarm for 9:00 AM so that I wouldn't sleep too long. The radio came on and I caught part of the local DJ asking a Red Sox trivia question. I hit snooze and Nan opened the bedroom door.

I was confused as to what was going on, but she was listening to the radio in the other room and asked me if I knew which Red Sox player was the only one in team history to score 150 runs in a season. I came up with three choices....David Ortiz, Wade Boggs or Ted Williams. All three seemed like valid guesses....Ortiz hit 54 home runs in 2006, Boggs batted well north of .300 from 1982 to 1991, and Williams, well, was Williams.

I said go with Ortiz. In my sleep deprived state it made sense. She got through....and was wrong. She asked me who she should try next. I went back in forth for a few seconds and suggested Williams.

Still not fully awake, I hear her talking and obviously getting the answer right. She comes running in and tells me she won two tickets to this Saturday's "Vermont Day" at Fenway, when the Blue Jays will be playing the Sox!

Well this wakes me up! We start trying to figure out who will watch Logan and when we would go down and so on. We decide we will run to the DMV first (to get our Enhanced Drivers' Licenses for a trip to Montreal this October) and then will hit the radio station before Haley comes home.

The DMV is a mini bust, as we do not have all the documents we need, but the lady is helpful and gives us all the right forms. We decide to try the DMV the next day and debate on whether to go get the tickets right then or wait.

(I'm babbling but it all has a point!)

We give ourselves a time limit....if we are not at the station by 11:30 AM, we will have to turn around and head home to meet Haley and will get the tickets later.

We make every light and hit the parking lot of WJOY at 11:28 AM. Nan, Logan and I go to get the tickets. The station manager is out front and is chatting, asking which of us will go to the game. We said just Nan and I, since there are two tickets....that Logan will go to his first game another time.

The manager goes out back, gets a group of four tickets and offers to trade them for Nan's two! He apologizes because they are one row back but we jump on them! Logan is giddy! Nan is giddy!

The only down side is that Haley is away this weekend. We took her to her first big league game when she was four. She lasted six innings at Olympic Stadium, mostly because it was so empty she was able to play and run around. If our extra ticket remains unused, Logan will have a little wiggle room, perhaps allowing him to last longer....(I was willing to leave an Expos game....I don't see myself willing to leave a Sox game.)

We struggled to find a decent hotel at this late a date, but a site I never heard of before (booking.com) found us a room in the same hotel Nan and I stayed at when we went to a game three years ago! It is less than 3/4 of a mile from the park AND the site found it cheaper than ANY comparable room!

So we are going to Boston on Saturday! We will hit some Paneras and Targets on the way down....maybe a comic book shop or two on the way home!

The ONLY minor negative is the fact that the Sox are playing the Jays. I have been to more than 20 games at Fenway and seen them play the Jays more than any other team....and they have lost EVERY TIME!!!

Buster Olney and The Lake Monsters

Cousin Lars and his son invited Logan and I out to see the Vermont Lake Monsters play on Friday. I hadn't been to a game yet this year and had just finished two weeks of a summer program with some "heavy hitters", so I thought it would be a good little reward.

We arrived and found out it was Buster Olney night! I enjoy watching the ESPN and Olney is rather insightful. Plus I am EASILY starstruck. We didn't arrive early enough to get an Olney Bobblehead, but I did muster up enough courage to wander over and ask for a picture (after a group of 10 year old boys, leading Lars to begin making fun of me.....)

It was announced that Olney grew up in a town here in Vermont that is home to several distant relatives of ours, so I dropped some names and had a good laugh with Buster.

Here is a video montage of the event from the Lake Monsters official YouTube account. I caught a little story at the end of Baseball Tonight Friday, but I can't find it on-line....

Bud Selig Maintains His Legacy As Incompetent, Worthless A$$hole

from The Joy of Sox by redsock via ESPN:

Commissioner Bud Selig won't reverse an umpire's admitted blown call that cost Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game.

Selig said Thursday that Major League Baseball will look at expanded replay and umpiring, but didn't specifically address umpire Jim Joyce's botched call Wednesday night.

A baseball official familiar with the decision confirmed to The Associated Press that the call was not being reversed. ...

Former Cub Milt Pappas, who lost a perfect game in 1972 when the home plate umpire called a ball on a full count on the 27th batter, ridiculed Selig for his refusal to reverse Joyce's decision.

"What an idiot. How the hell can [Selig] not do that? ... I can't believe that, after the umpire even admitted what he did," Pappas told ESPNChicago.com's Willie Weinbaum. "[Joyce] ruined the kid's perfect game and said so. Unbelievable. It's too bad."

(PS: Go ahead and "google" Bud Selig....half the images look like the one above....)

Ortiz Sets New Record for 2010's Slowest HR Trot

David Ortiz broke out of his April slump in a big way, and he seems more than willing to enjoy the glow of is returning home run prowess -- to the tune of four home run trots that have lasted at least 28.95 seconds.

According to a website that tracks such things, David Ortiz home run trot last Monday night lasted 30.59 seconds, slowest in the majors this season.

But Ortiz has earned the right to strut. Including his two-run double last night, he's batting .359 with 21 RBI and a .781 slugging percentage this month.

Boston Herald

Ray Stung By Stingray

07:19 AM ET 05.27 |

Ah, the irony. Infielder Sean Rodriguez earned a painful distinction this week he could do without: the first Ray to be stung by a stingray.

Rodriguez was on the beach Monday morning behind his Redington Beach rental condo when he took his 2-year-old daughter, Sofia, a couple of feet into the water for a closer look at some dolphins.

A few steps (and a stingray shuffle or two) later, he saw something flash through the water and felt something on his right heel. "I actually thought it was a catfish at first, that it grazed me. I didn't think much of it," Rodriguez said.

"And then I got out of the water, and I was like whoooaaaa."

St. Petersburg Times

Opening Day

Game 1: Yankees at Red Sox: Tonight at 8:05 PM