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June 21, 2007
BACK ON TRACK: With five wins in their last six games, and a lead that's back to double digits in the A.L. East for the first time since June 7, the Red Sox appear to be over whatever was ailing them in the first few weeks of this month. Last night's 11-0 win over the Braves was all but flawless, featuring superb pitching from Julian Tavarez and two relievers -- who helped nail down Boston's second straight shutout -- and a season-high five-homer performance. (One of them was by Manny Ramirez, AP Photo above.) Tavarez' dominance is more impressive in light of comments he made to reporters afterwards, saying his mind wasn't in the game and ''I wasn’t even in the mood to be here today.'' (Boston Herald) It's tempting to write it off as Julian being Julian, but he makes some interesting comments about the life of a professional baseball player.
LISTEN TO THIS MAN: In his latest ESPN blog entry, Peter Gammons decries what he calls ''IGR (Immediate Gratification Radio),'' in which the normal up-and-down cycles of a season ''are not allowed to be placed in perspective.'' He quotes one GM as saying: ''The nature of the business right now is if you lost yesterday, someone should pay today . . . The notion that someone has to be fired for every three-game losing streak is disturbing." And then Gammons adds: ''What makes it so disturbing is that there are so many new, fan owners who think like radio-schlock jocks.''
After just lived through the hysteria of a 5-9 Red Sox stumble, which happened to coincide with an 11-2 Yankee surge, I repeat: Listen to this man.
DL-BOUND: That's where Curt Schilling's headed as he attempts to recover from his latest shoulder ailment. (projo.com) The Red Sox won't summon a new starting pitcher until Tuesday -- because of today's off-day, they can juggle the rotation so that Schilling's spot doesn't come up again until then -- and will instead probably call up either Brendan Moss or David Murphy from Pawtucket for the three games in San Diego and first one in Seattle. The Herald's Rob Bradford tracked down the surgeon who operated on Schilling's shoulder in 1995, who said this latest problem may actually have its roots in Schilling's left hip; if that's the case, ''it’s easily fixed with a stretching program.”. Still no Internet word from the big guy himself, whose blog hasn't been updated since last Wednesday's Colorado game.
THE DARK CLOUD: It wasn't all peaches-and-cream last night, as J.D. Drew had to leave the game in the third inning because of tightness in his right quadriceps. (projo.com) That could be why the call is going to Moss or Murphy -- both of whom, obviously, are outfielders -- for the weekend.
COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS: If you somehow are able to receive NESN's feed, that is. Otherwise, your Sox viewing could be limited to ESPN broadcasts, and Allan Wood tells why that's a bad thing. (joyofsox.blogspot.com)
BLAST FROM THE PAST: At the beginning of the season, NESN did a special on the 1967 Red Sox entitled Impossible To Forget. The DVD has just been released and, as good as the program was, the special features make this a must-buy. For one thing, it has more than two dozen little vignettes on virtually everyone and everything connected with that season, profiling both people and moments. For another, it has the entire broadcast of Channel 5's The Impossible Dream television special -- a TV version of the album, featuring Ken Coleman and Don Gillis, which aired just before Super Bowl II in January 1968. But most importantly, it has the entire color game broadcast of the Saturday, September 30 game against the Twins, the next-to-last game of the season. The Globe's Bob Ryan waxes poetic about it, and all I can add is: Amen.
SPEAKING OF '67 . . . June 21 was a pretty noteworthy day in that memorable season. The Red Sox and Yankees had a famous bench-clearing brawl at Yankee Stadium -- they also had an ongoing beanball war throughout the game that, incredible as it may seem to modern audiences, resulted in zero ejections -- and owner Tom Yawkey threatened to move the Sox out of Boston unless the city and/or state built a new stadium to replace Fenway Park.
BACK TO THE PRESENT: The Wall Street Journal profiles Bill James. He has gotten the reputation from those who don't understand him or his work as a numbers-crunching geek who thinks he has all the answers, but that couldn't be farther from the truth; James is, in fact, open-minded and curious and doesn't think anyone has all the answers. ''People'' -- and by that he means sabermetricians as well as traditional baseball folk -- ''think they understand how to win in baseball much more than they really do,'' he said. ESPN's Rob Neyer thinks that, in a way, it's a shame James works for the Red Sox because he no longer speaks about what he's working on and 'what good (to us) is a sage who may speak only in generalities?'
IT HAPPENS EVERY TIME: The Yankees were soaring heading into Coors Field and everyone anticipated an orgy of offense from the red-hot Bombers. Instead they've been held to one run in each of their first two games, including last night's 6-1 loss. (New York Post)
THROUGH THE EYES OF MO: Mariano Rivera reflects on his years with the Yankees. (yesnetwork.com)
EENIE, MEENIE . . . The Orioles have offered their manager's job to Joe Girardi, but he's not sure whether or not to take it. (New York Daily News)
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER: The various threads of the Orioles' saga are put together nicely on the blog Soccer Dad.
TODAY'S THE DAY: Jason Giambi has to decide by this morning whether or not to cooperate with George Mitchell's investigation on performance-enhancing drugs in baseball. (New York Post)
MR. 600: He has the same steroids taint as Barry Bonds, but the fans responded positively when Sammy Sosa hit his 600th career home run last night. (Dallas Morning News)
YA THINK? Rangers owner Tom Hicks suspects Juan Gonzalez used steroids during his time in Texas. (Dallas Morning News)
AS BAD AS IT GETS: Is anyone playing worse than the Mets? (New York Daily News)
MONEY TALKS: Dave Stewart says the only reason the Blue Jays' J.P. Ricciardi and the Pirates' Dave Littlefield haven't been fired ''is because there are teams in the league that are more concerned with making money than they are with winning.'' Funny, I never thought of Toronto and Pittsburgh as cash-cow franchises.
EARLY MORNING CALL: The Devil Rays' Elijah Dukes called a Tampa radio station at 7 a.m. EDT Tuesday from Phoenix, where the Devil Rays were for a series against the Diamondbacks, and spoke angrily for 13 minutes as he, for the first time, addressed publicly some of the accusations against him. Rather than clear the air, however, both the team and radio-station employees think Dukes did himself more harm than good with some of the things he said. When approached by reporters later yesterday in Phoenix, Dukes cursed them and refused to speak. No wonder then, as the St. Petersburg Times' Marc Topkin writes, that the Rays ''seem poised to accelerate efforts to trade or release the 22-year-old rookie.'' The Tampa Tribune's Joe Henderson says it's time for Dukes to go.
ROAD TO RECOVERY: The A's Rich Harden is almost ready to return. (mlb.com)
ROAD TO SAN DIEGO: That was Michael Barrett's route after the embattled Cubs catcher was traded to the Padres. (Chicago Sun-Times)
ROAD TO PERDITION: Astros reliever Chad Qualls is stunned at a three-game suspension he received for throwing a ball into the stands in frustration (Houston Chronicle), and plans to appeal.
WHISPERS: Eric Gagne can be traded to the Yankees, Mets and Angels without his permission, according to FoxSports.com . . . The Palm Beach Post speculates that the Marlins may make Dontrelle Willis available. Willis, incidentally, says he feels better after coming out of Tuesday's game because of arm pain and doesn't think he'll miss a start (Miami Herald) . . . The Twins may pick up Aaron Boone from Florida (twincities.com) . . . The Mets are looking for pitching, though they also have interest in Jeff Conine and Mark Sweeney (Newsday)
OLD FRIENDS: Anibal Sanchez' season apparently is over, as he gets set to undergo arthroscopic shoulder surgery (Miami Herald) . . . Wil Ledezma is headed to the National League, traded by the Tigers to the Braves (Detroit News) . . . Tom Gordon could be back with the Phillies by July 1 (Philadelphia Inquirer) . . . Wade Miller may soon be throwing full bullpen sessions (Chicago Sun-Times) . . . Pedro Martinez threw the fifth bullpen session of his rehab on Tuesday (Newsday) . . . Johnny Damon says he knows he has to go on the DL, but he doesn't want to (New York Daily News).
-- ART MARTONE
Posted by Art Martone 
at 6:55 AM | Permalink
