Entries Tagged 'General' ↓

Punny.

So! The Wakefield we all know and love was on the mound last night and not his evil twin with the flat, hittable and highly overrated knuckler. Nope. We got the GOOD Wakefield last night and when that dude is on, his knuckleball is in a class by itself. Well, truth be told, he is in a class by himself since he was the only knuckle ball pitcher on any big-league roster as of Opening Day.

With Papi and Manny hitting back-to-back “dingers”, we see three home runs shy for Ramirez to hit 500. I thought for sure it would have happened already, but I guess we’re just lucky he’s making contact and getting on base.

Schilling continues to downplay his initial hardcore stance about surgery over therapy. We’ll see how it all goes…

I would never want anyone to finish or even come close to beating the Sox into the playoffs, especially not from our own division. But how ’bout those Tampa Bay Rays?

For the first time in their history, the Rays aren’t the worst team in baseball, they are not being called the Double A’s, they don’t have any gimmicks for the fans to get to the Trop and they don’t have a disgruntled and totally unappealing aquamarine aura.

The Rays are slowly gaining confidence and you can thank some young, dynamic players being helped by the two or three veterans on the team. Will it last? Who the hell knows. Hey, the Rockies were in the World Series last year, so anything is possible.

My money is on the Sox to take the division, but I can’t help but secretly smile a little seeing the Rays in first in May.

Beckett starts the game with five straight strikeouts.

The Rays. The Tampa Bay Rays. Winners of SIX straight and the first sweep of Boston in their roller coaster (kiddie roller coaster) history.

Everyone on the team is thinking the same thing: That trip overseas sucked and it sucked the life and heart out of most of the team. It’s too much and it shouldn’t be done. Enough said.

The Sox just went up against the best bullpen in the majors. That’s right, the Rays have the best mark and they’ve NEVER been this good this late into a season. Ever.

Boggling minds and inciting passion in a place where baseball ranks third (football and strip joints being the other two), the Rays are coming on strong this year and they’ve finally got a nice mixture of young and veteran talent to do it. Unlike the seasons where Wade Boggs was supposed to be the meal ticket (1998/1999, 213 games, 9 HR, 200 hits, 81 RBIs and 1.3 innings pitched in 1999 where he collected a 6.75 ERA).

The flu and some injuries have put the Sox on the hot seat. How does third place behind Baltimore and Tampa Bay (tied for first) sound? How about WEIRD? It sounds weird.

Rings, Championship banners and smiles… then the harsh reality that in this early, early season the Red Sox are minding the basement apartment for the vacationing Rays.

It’s not out of the question that Toronto sticks around this year, but the Orioles!? Oy. Doomsday and disaster, right?

The Sox have a few issues, but mainly these things can work themselves out in a couple of weeks. And don’t forget that the Sox have been traveling as much as a rock band (and even treated like one in Japan).

Time for everyone to chill out at home and enjoy the atmosphere. Time for baseball: Home style.

Yesterday afternoon’s game was filled with some great “stoopit” trivia stuff. As pointed out by Boston.com:

• Kevin Youkilis has broken the record for consecutive games without an error by a first baseman (194)
•  Jon Lester is the first left-handed Sox starter to record a win in Oakland since 1995.
• Terry Francona still misses chew. (Yes, I made that one up, but I guarantee you he does.)

It’s not a bad thing to take care of Oakland, regardless of their 1 and 2 starters. They needed to walk out of there with the series win and give the fans a nice start to the season.

With J. D. Drew starting last night, the team finally felt a little like normal, I suppose. Tomorrow night, Tim Wakefield gets the start in Toronto’s home opener and Kevin Cash will begin the campaign to prove he’s not Mirabelli.

First homers for Papi and ‘Tek felt good as well. Nice to see it starting to become a “regular” season.