Sports Views

Johnny Damon defected from the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees Tuesday night and immediately asked George Steinbrenner for political asylum… and a couple gift certificates to SuperCuts for Christmas.

The Boston sports media is aghast that Johnny Damon has left the Boston Red Sox to sign with the New York Yankees, and rightly so. For reporters, Johnny Damon was their “go-to” guy; Damon could always be relied upon to speak after every game, no matter how great the defeat or insignificant the victory. For the armchair pundit, losing Johnny Damon is the pinnacle of an offseason where the Red Sox traded their starting shortstop for a spunky, unproven third baseman and failed to re-sign Theo Epstein.

Now, I'm not into sports, but this is complete BS. The White Sox won their first World Series in a generation, but Monday Night Football (which is the main cover photo) is more important? A big FU to SI!

Anyway, here I am, defender of the trendy pick, picking the Astros in six. I think the White Sox are being given credit for the serious flaws of their playoff opponents thus far. The Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels did not have much starting pitching to speak of when they played the White Sox. The Red Sox never had dependable starting pitching this season, and the Angels were exhausted after their five game series with the Yankees and with the loss of their ace, Bartolo Colon. Most teams would have folded to a well-rested White Sox team under similar situations.

Somewhere along the line, the poets and bards of baseball decided there were better stories out there, better tales of endearing futility that unfolded under more mystical circumstances, than the Chicago White Sox and Houston Astros, two relatively boring franchises that simply never won. So, the poets and bards turned teams like the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs into the darlings of folklorists and merchandise salesmen, while the White Sox and Astros merely kept losing in relative obscurity.

Boston Red Sox hurler Bronson Arroyo was one of those guys. Only he never grew out of it. After a start against the Angels Saturday, Arroyo will appear at the Sunset Guitar Center signing copies of his recently released debut album, “Covering the Bases.” The album features twelve cover songs including Plush, Black and the “I’m going hungry” song.

Oh, I guess I should mention that Nick Cafardo did the typical Boston media “bash Manny while praising a scrappy but crappy player” article for the Globe this morning. A bunch of blind quotes, none even moderately damning, but Cafardo saw a story say Manny doesn’t have heart. Of course, the player with Heart, Kevin Millar, is damn near replacement level at 1B and wants to play in every game so that he can try and get a job next year. Manny’s one of the top 3 hitting OF in baseball and has played in 109 games this season. That would be 5 more than Kevin Millar’s heart. 1 less than crazy Johnny Damon. 2 more than The Professional. 7 less than David Ortiz, who doesn’t have to play the field.

People get so shook up anymore over different opinions, some people think everyone should think only as they, themselves, think. How utterly boring would that be? I wouldn’t have a bit of fun with that. In our household, alone, we have a whole world of opinions - but they all live very nicely under one roof. Many game days find all five of us on different sides. It gets really fun during baseball season - our oldest daughter is a Boston Red Sox fan and our middle daughter likes the Yankees. Fortunately, they both like the Cardinals, too, so my husband and I allow them to live with us.

This is a little bit of a side track post. As I became a huge baseball fan again last year, after just being a casual one for years, and being a Christian for a number of years, it was cool when Curt Schilling came out last year after playing with the bloody sock and such, saying that he owes his pitching to God. I thought that was one of the coolest statements I’d ever heard, and not only that but brave for someone that is quite possibly one of the most infamous sports players in the last twenty years to be talking about. So upon hearing that, I found out that a good portion of the Red Sox team are Christians. Here they are in no certain order, (also these are the ones I know about.)

Last night, we went to a Trenton Thunder game. The Trenton Thunder is a AA minor league baseball team. They are affiliated with the New York Yankees ::shudder::. Ironically, the team that they were playing against was the Portland Sea Dogs, who are the AA affiliates for the Boston Red Sox! I have to say, I felt a bit torn. I wanted to root for my "home team", the Trenton Thunder, but I also wanted to root for the Sea Dogs because I knew they might eventually be Red Sox players.

So, one day my friend Toby offered a trade. He was much more into D&D than I was and I was much more into comic books than he was. A stack of second-rate comics for the old 3-volume D&D set. The deal was done, and I was happy with my trade. For the time being. Never did I ever think that I was making a decision that I might regret 18 years later, and probably ’till I die. It ranks up there with me trading my collection of 1984 Fleer baseball cards for a small 3″ lock blade knife and trading my Darryl Strawberry rookie card for a handful of Boston Red Sox All-Star cards. Well, life goes on and it’s all a part of it. But, I can still be reminded from time to time of those seemingly stupid things I did. The Red Sox won the World Series and Strawberry was in rehab.

The last thing I ate was some caramel snack called, I believe, “Crunch & Munch.” I ate this while watching the Cardinals beat the Boston Red Sox on television. I like the Red Sox, so the game depressed me slightly. The Crunch & Munch cheered me a bit, until the sugar crash, which has left me feeling hopeless.

I've been thinking about Magazine Man's story about the time he wrote to Carlton Fisk, the legendary Red Sox catcher who smacked the winning homerun in Game Six of the 1975 World Series. Perhaps you've seen the highlight of him bouncing down the first base line as he willed the ball out of the park. For a Red Sox fan, it's a top three memory. Some would argue top two. (Number one is fresh and inarguable.)

Like Magazine Man, I've written a fair share of letters in my life to people that I admired. Although I never wrote to a member of the Boston Red Sox (although I did meet Carl Yastrzemski at the annual "Baseball Dinner" in Manchester), I have also written a few letters to people in my lifetime that shockingly, responded to me.

For our sakes, let’s hope Mr. James isn’t entirely correct about that (although he probably is). Once again, our thanks to Joe for an engaging read. You know, Bill James used to complain that he could never get any of the real baseball “insiders” to listen to his ideas. Well, that has changed, as he’s now on the payroll of the Boston Red Sox. But I hafta say, it’s a pity, now that he’s finally found a job in the baseball world, that the public has limited access to his material. He deserves the recognition,...

Prime examples are the Baltimore Orioles in the American League East and the San Diego Padres in the National League West. Although the Orioles just got a dose of bad news regarding their All-Star catcher, Javy Lopez, I believe they have the pitching, offense and bench depth to hold off the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. The same can be said for the Padres who have one of the best young pitching staffs in baseball, a potent offense, solid bullpen and a steady hand at the helm in manager, Phil Garner.

I have been saving the best for last. I don’t know where my SP found such a perfect gift for me: RED SOX POINT PROTECTORS. Yes. Point protectors. Which I needed. But these are in the shape of red socks. As in, the World Champion Boston Red Sox. At this point I was completely delirious.

The White Sox and the Orioles began their day with the White Sox having taken the first two games of this series, with White Sox began their day six ahead of the Minnesota Twins in the American League Central and the Orioles a single game up on the Boston Red Sox in the AL East. The two surprisers swapped single runs in the opening inning. First, Roberts swatted a 1-1 pitch on a hanging rope off the right field wall, took third on a sacrifice from a Hall of Fame sportswriter’s son (David Newhan), and brought home the first Oriole run as Melvin...

The A’s clung to their lead thanks to some masterful pitching from their promising reliever, Huston Street. Octavio Dotel took the ball to nail down the save in the ninth. I happened to be talking to Jeff over Instant Messenger at the start of the inning and when I saw that Millar would be the third batter to face Dotel, I said to Jeff, “if he sees 4 pitches from Dotel it will be a moral victory". After all, Millar had been made to look foolish by Huston Street earlier in the game and the nastiest righthanders tend to have their way...

The Boston Red Sox called up pitcher Jeremi Gonzalez from Triple-A Pawtucket on Monday and designated first baseman David McCarty for assignment.Gonzalez, the starter for Monday's game against Detroit, was 1-2 with a 3.00 ERA in four starts for Pawtucket. He has made 79 major league appearances with the Cubs (1997-98) and Devil Rays (2003-04), going 24-32 with a 4.69 ERA.

Earl Wilson, who died 23 April of an apparent heart attack, hit 28 more lifetime home runs than Jerry Remy. What was wrong with that picture? Wilson was a pitcher. In the American League. Yes, children, once upon a time pitchers swung the bat in the American League, and once upon a time was a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox and the Detroit Tigers who took as much quarter at the plate as he did on the mound.

According to Bennett, the bartender asked for his order, then Morehead’s, but refused Wilson rather brutally: “We ain’t serving you. We don’t serve niggers in here.” For Bennett, it was his first brush with racial prejudice on that sort of level of commerce. For the trio of Red Sox pitchers in full, it was an invitation to leave. “To (the bartenders),” Bennett eventually told Red Sox historiographer Peter Golenbock (for Fenway: An Unexpurgated History of the Boston Red Sox), “we were just two white...

BostonGlobe: The new owners of the Boston Red Sox have greatly expanded alcohol sales at Fenway Park, adding at least 16 new stands where beer is sold since taking over in 2001, according to the city licensing board. The team has also increased by a third the size of beer cups, from 12 ounces to 16 ounces.

#2... Timed perfectly with the release of the movie Fever Pitch, Johnny Damon of the Boston Red Sox has been appearing on talk shows promoting his new book. I think I actually want to read it!