Red Sox to Win World Series

Posted by Steve Honig on August 08, 2012

I am about to ensure 2012 World Series victory for the Red Sox by declaring that the team will win it all.  I am the sort of pundit who is always wrong; if I were to declare the world to be round, some damned fool in a sailboat off the coast of Malaysia would promptly fall off the edge and into empty space just to prove me wrong.

Here is the analysis.  Last night our "ace" pitcher gave up four runs in less than 7 innings which was, remarkably, one of his better starts.  A series of three relief pitchers, two of whom I (a season ticket holder) had never heard of until last week, each gave up one run.  Against those six runs the Red Sox managed three, on a home run by the kid replacement for Kevin Youkalis (whom we never should have traded) whose homer, in turn, was set up by a fielding error by the Rangers and thus almost doesn't even count.

In other developments, Sox management took enough time away from its soccer interests to assure the public that it was not blaming manager Bobby Valentine, the very fellow they will fire in the off-season no matter what happens including my predicted World Series triumph, just because they can.  Big Papi, one of only three big league players on this year's roster, remains sidelined with an achilles problem and is at the stage of taking shots to control the pain which, I can tell you from personal experience, is an inadequate temporary palliative that does not address the basic issue; my achilles sojourn with shots deep into my heel resulted in half a year on a cane as an alternative to surgery and half a year on a cane -- but then again Big Papi is a professional athlete and hopefully can be cured while I was relegated to a lawyerly limp.  And finally the Sox have carefully explained why they did so little at the trading deadline: the team is so darned good as it is that tinkering with it was a mistake.

All this plays on the backdrop of the Yankees losing 7 of their last 10, the entire American League drifting together with no team playing consistently good baseball (no one approaching .600), and yet the Sox are this morning only the ninth best team out of the 14 in the AL.  That means there are eight teams ahead of us, three will win divisions and make the playoffs automatically, and so we need to overtake four of the five other teams ahead of us to get the wild card slot that will allow us to slip into contention and thus win the World Series, as I have promised (see paragraph #1 above).

Did I mention our team is below .500, having lost more games than we have won?  (That's how it works, by the way; when you lose more than you win, you are below .500!)

SO, per Sox management we have them right where we want them.  I predict, along with John Henry and Ben Cherrington, that the Sox will take the Series this year; I say 6 games.  I have already looked onto MLB's website, put the dates on my calendar, and made sure I do not schedule anything that might conflict with those dates and any possible rain (or snow) postponements.

I am offering World Series Seats to you readers for all home games in the playoffs, American League championship series, and the World Series at a flat $1000 per seat per game, first come first served.  Reservations are non-refundable and must be accompanied by bank checks for the seats committed.  You really don't want to miss this Series; it will blow away 2004 and 2007 for drama, and allow you also to say good-bye to half the team that will join Valentine in the off-season by trying on different uniforms for their new employers.

Blue Sox

Posted by Steve Honig on July 11, 2012

It has been a while since I posted about the Boston Red Sox, and followers of baseball likely know the reason: they have been playing terribly.  And if you go back to the last (2011) All Star break, they are 50 wins and 63 losses, which probably puts them in the bottom quarter of all teams while having the second or third highest payroll.

And it is hard to post about the Red Sox when in Boston, where the constant sports press beats incessantly on their failures, on management, and on the running joke of all games being sold out for the umpteenth straight time.  But there are some interesting things to think about as the Sox sit today at exactly .500, tied with Toronto for last place in the super-performing AL East.

First, let us lay some blame on Bobby Valentine, who for some reason was on Kevin Youkilis' case and claimed that Youk (of all people) was dogging it, not putting it all on the line for the team.  We gave him away to the other Sox in exchange for a minor league pitcher and a utility infielder who is hitting below .170 AND we still get to pay his salary of five or six million dollars.  The result?  Youk was named Player of the Week in our very League, and his replacement at third is an injured rookie and his replacement replacement put on the worst show I have ever seen from a big league player, when I suffered through the Yankee destruction of the Sox at Fenway last Sunday night: he made an error at third; he bounced a throw to first on a double play by not setting up correctly; switched to first, he ran to the bag rather than catching a catchable grounder that bounced into right field through the space he left open; on a grounder to first he whipped the ball to second and then ran over to cover first for the return double play ball and thus blocked out the view of the pitcher who was properly covering the bag; he went hitless and clearly had never seen a big league curve ball before in his whole life, striking out I don't recall how many times.  Gomez may be a lovely guy and just watch--given my powers of observation he may end up as the next Wade Boggs-- but he sure stank the place out on Sunday, and all you could think about as this clown bounced from third to first was, "but these are Youk's positions, and did he not win a Gold Glove at first?"

Some folks "in the know" think that Youk was done, stick a fork in him, and he burned bridges in the clubhouse, with Big Papi, etc.  I am not in the know, but I do know this: after Gonzalez left the game Sunday (illness) there was not a person in the infield, and indeed in the entire Sox line-up, who could carry Youk's bat-bag as far as I am concerned.

You could win a playoff spot with the people the Sox have on their DL or who are playing below historical norms: Beckett, Lester, Pedroia, Lackey, Jenks, Bailey, Ellsbury, Gonzalez,  Bard, Crawford, Dice-K.  But these guys cannot play, or not as in the past; and we are still paying them (and Youk too!).  The front office is end-gamed on trades, out of money by any rational measure, and must be thinking that the sainted Theo got out of town just before he should have been run out on a rail (watch out, you Cubs fans).  Now the front office has to figure out whether to try for the new second wild card slot this year (they are only 2 1/2 games back for that slot although there are five teams ahead of them) or whether they should declare this a building year.  Their goals will drive their trading strategy.

Speaking of which, the Boston press seems to think that management must trade Ellsbury, which would be a real crime because last year he was about the best position ball-player I have seen since Willy Mays (yes -- Willy Mays).  He will be a free agent, very expensive, and is rumored as not long for the Sox in any event.  And truth be told, we need pitching more than we need outfielders.  But how many cynical hits can the fans take and still want to buy season tickets?  This is actually a subject of email traffic even now within my own group who split the season.

Today's Red Sox look like the Mets of a few years ago; aging or under-performing players with big price tags playing sub-.500 ball.  It will take a big effort, or a few years, to compete at the top of the League but the question is: which of three paths does management take? Tweak ourselves into the playoffs, or go blockbuster to fix it all now, or mentally accept we are rebuilding and spend a couple of years doing it.

In a way, fans might be more comfortable with the last option, which can be understood and holds out clear hope for the future while lifting the pressure for current performance.  Does management have the dough and the resolve to fix it all now?  That option is the only one that will permit further increases in ticket prices.  Do they need to increase prices any more when water is $4 a bottle and "premium" beer is $9.25 and my sandwich was $9.50?

Another school of thought is that the once-vaunted Sox management is out of touch and has so much ego, so much being invested in being the big sports gorilla in a big sports city, that they will NEVER declare, or appear to be in the midst of, a rebuilding year.  It will always be "we are trying like crazy to win NOW."  I am unable to analyze these people as easily as the sports writers and cynical fans seem able to do, however.  I just think they are greedy and end-gamed, an ugly thought.

Sox fans were better before we won two World Series.  Now we expect excellence, not just a day at the Park.  And now that we are paying the price of excellence in the ticket scale, we also are entitled to get it.  Poor blue Sox.

Knock Your Sox Off

Posted by Steve Honig on May 09, 2012

Early in this season, I blogged briefly about the pitiful state of the Boston Red Sox who are, if you are not local to Boston, the nearest thing we have to royalty since most of the Kennedys have moved onward.  My dire predictions of doom were promptly followed by the Sox winning five games in a row, which shows how the blogging gods punish anyone who offers a clear position on anything-- immediate discredit by example.

But alas, the Sox have lost again, often and terribly, with horrible pitching and a bunch of guys who are lionized around here for hitting .250.   Indeed we have a few fill-ins, people promoted from the minors, who over the short haul show some promise, but you cannot easily replace the guy who almost won the MVP voting with a rookie and expect to win ball-games.

Today a friend called to my attention a post by Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe staff.  (Blog posts must be brought to my attention; I write but do not read, a set of habits that bodes ill for my journalistic future, but that is another issue.)  Abraham notes that since last September 1, which comprises the equivalent of more than a third of a whole season, our pitching staff has an ERA of about 6.  During this time, the team has won only 19 of its last 56 games.

If you look today, you see that we are in last place in our division.

What to do?  My thought was, wait for the return of our injured players (we have $78M of talent on the DL, including two outfielders, our third baseman and our closer).  But no team can win by giving up 1.50 WHIP (that is, one and a half walks and hits for each inning).  So we need pitching (pretty clever of me, eh?).

We await the return of Dice-K from Tommy John surgery.  Will that help?  Who knows? Dice-K had a couple of good years and a couple of bad ones; he is stubborn, and also (not that it matters, but...) no fun to watch.  But we cannot expect he will bring iron to the rotation.

Abraham says we ought to trade for good pitching which means trading good position players.  He notes that in 2004, that season of blessed memory, we traded Nomar and shook the team into the World Series.  Let us say that is a good idea; who do you trade?  Assume no one is untouchable.

You have a choice; trade young guys and become the NY Mets of a couple of years ago.  We have a couple of young guys doing great right now.  Sweeney is hitting .360 in 25 games; he actually is not so young, been up in the Show a few years and last year got into over 100 games and hit a mere .265, but he sure looks good today.  Middlebrooks is hitting .409, but that is only over 5 games and while he has had a pretty good minor league career he has had only a handful of AAA games.  Others deep down in the system?  Maybe, but not sure there is gold there; I do not follow our depth charts.  Our much touted shortstop phenom who some in the press wanted to keep with the Big Club and start at short in favor of Aviles in hitting around .200 at Pawtucket and does not seem like much trading bait at this juncture.

Trade older guys on the major league roster?  Maybe not a bad idea. Shakes things up. But who?  Big Papi?  Big nerve to trade him.  Youk?  Popular idea in the press but, in the stands?  And right now he is not in the best position to be traded, some have suggested we put a fork in him (although that is likely an over-aggressive criticism).   Ellsbury?  No doubt high value but frankly he is the most exciting player we have.  Pedroia?  Wow.  Gonzalez?  Hard to say what to do.  Compared to these choices, Nomar was easy.

I think the Sox should forget this year and draw up a "rebuilding plan" that excludes old guys and trades for young pitching talent.  I don't see them pulling it out of the fire this year.  Not sure, either, that the current management has it in them to rebuilt with the average loge seat costing almost a hundred bucks, guts-wise or skill-wise.

Now why have I taken so pessimistic a view?  I will tell you: it is part of my scheme to have the Sox finish first this year.  As soon as I write that X will happen, we get Y happening.  Having predicted doom, we will no doubt win fifty in a row.  I have tickets for this Saturday and again this coming Monday.  I hope to see my first Fenway-attended win by the Sox since early last August.  I will report.  Well, I will report if we win....

And meanwhile, the Newton South Little League AA Brewers are doing great this season.  This really young catcher is pounding the ball, sets up well with a big target, is learning to get the ball to second base.  Clear the roster for him if you will.  Matthew Honig is his name, and he looks a hell of lot better than the current Sox line-up, and can be had for a few sets of Legos on a long-term contract basis.

Red Sox Victorious

Posted by Steve Honig on April 23, 2012

The Boston Red Sox scored a major victory last night when their 8pm game against the Yankees was drowned out by torrents of wind-driven rain.  Any game the Sox don’t play these days is counted as a victory.  The team lacks two outfielders, a credible short-stop, predictable starters and any hope at all from the bull-pen.

But failure on the field is not unknown to Red Sox Nation; recent World Series wins set off insane celebration just because everyone knew the Sox were woeful as a general proposition.  Why, now, has the slow start caused such angst among the faithful?  The folks with whom I share season seats have been emailing about this, and there is no shortage of theories.

First, when you expect a lot and don’t get it, you are angry.  For the first time, Sox fans have expectations.

Second, we pay the highest or second highest tariff in the Big Leagues.  At this price point, one can go to a Patriots game and see true brain trauma, so why waste the bucks on so tame a sport as baseball. 

Third, there is the carpetbagger syndrome.  We are owned by non-Boston people, and they are not very sympathetic folks at that.  (Principal owner John Henry ties his yacht up at the Boston Harbor Hotel in the summer, and there is something about the winding staircase sweeping up the front of the salon that is, shall we say, lacking in New England frugality.)  Henry’s Boston-based mouthpiece sounds smarmy so the overall feeling is one of, well, invasion.

Just the other day, management invited all true fans to come to the ballpark (America’s most beloved ballpark, they call it; must be true, as it sells out even though half the seats are obstructed view and you take your private parts in your hands if you try to sit on a toilet after the first beer dumping – whoops, I mean the second inning).  Come on over free and have the run of the park.  Morning to night.  People flocked.  Of course, there was no ball game that day.  The idea of a free ballgame would cause management cardiac arrest.  You poor folk can walk the by-ways of Fenway to see how it might feel if you could afford a ticket; noblesse oblige I think the French call it.

Which brings us, fourth, to soccer.  Any true member of Sox Nation knows that soccer is that effete European low-scoring, high-boring, foreign thing that the rest of the world erroneously chooses to call a spectator sport to the detriment of the beautiful symmetry of baseball.  SO --  HOW MUCH did that non-Boston owner (the guy pronounces his Rs in his words, fagodzakes, what the hell is THAT all about) pay to buy a soccer team?  In Europe?  Do you have any idea how many starting pitchers we could have bought with that kind of money spent here in the US of A?  We couldda had Verlander in the bull-pen, facryinoutloud‼

There is still time for the Sox to turn it around.  This year I hear the Major Leagues have added another wild card team to post-season play (MLB is beginning to look like my kid’s Little League: every team gets a trophy, every player an award, there are no losers in the new Valhalla).  But, and this is the shocker, no one cares.  We are watching the Bruins, the Celts, the NFL draft, Nadal playing tennis, Tiger imploding for the umpteenth time (this is really too much punishment for just wandering off the reservation a few times, why take it out on his putts?)….

I hope this is not the end of Red Sox Nation; that powerful marketing combine that posts the number of days of consecutive sell-outs with the breathless fervor of reporting a real score in a real ballgame.  I hope to see the continuing traffic of visitors to Boston who just want to see Fenway Park and don’t care whether the Sox win that particularly game.  I hope Senator Scott Brown, who once urged a Sox move to Foxboro and now advertises the singular grace of a rehabbed Fenway, continues to get seated in one of the eight seats that has both no poles and a visual orientation onto the playing diamond. 

So I have a few tickets for games that I cannot use.  Interested?  No scalping, I can give them to you for face value because, well, you’re a true member of the Nation.   … What, no takers?  Hey, these are SOX tickets, ya hear?  SOX SOX SOX, get em while you can, this won’t last forever.

Wait til May, you’ll see.  Then there is always next year….

Poor Red Sox

Posted by Steve Honig on December 06, 2011

I am surprised that it is so late in the year and still no startling news from the Sox front office.  No one buys season seats because Bobby Valentine is manager, and we are getting very close to the deadline for our checks (this allows the club to have our cash interest free for several months; always pleased to help out the poor fellows).  By now, we should have had a couple of breathless announcements of signings, perhaps as fortuitous as our signing Carl Crawford.

And the Sox are in trouble in the American League East, make no mistake about it.  We have lost the best closer in the game to Philly; you many not like Papelbon but based on performance, age and durability he is the best closer around, and if he is overpriced by a few million we should not care, we have spent more than that on pure speculation. 

One of the folks with whom I correspond privately about baseball is very knowledgeable [and indeed I assiduously keep private my interchanges with truly knowledgeable folks lest my own ignorance become (even more) publicly known.]  My secret correspondent notes the paucity of replacements for Papelbon, replete with analysis of records, age, salary and value placed on these closers by their present teams; the picture is not pretty.  K-Rod, Madson, Lidge, Cordero are all in the hunt but two are 35+, two are with the Phillies who nonetheless opted for Papelbon, three already made Papelbon-type money last year, one has only one season as a closer; the list goes on. 

Can Bard close?  I thought this was his year to grow into it and I did not see it.  My expert tells me he has only two pitches which is one more than I noticed.  He does not seem to have a thirst for the ball.  Papelbon reminded me of Larry Bird, or Y. A. Tittle:  "I know the game is on the line and there is no room for error, so why the hell are you delaying, just give me the friggin' ball."  When Bard picks up the ball I think he is thinking "ouch, this thing is really really hard...."

 We are likely also to lose our second-best hitter last year, Big Papi; the Big Man was grateful that Valentine flew to the DR for that golf tournament, but if you scrolled down Papi's pronouncements you found, buried in the back pages of the Boston Globe, the admonition that it was still indeed all about the money.  Such candor could be lauded were it not so painfully venal.

We don't have a left fielder you would have walk your dog.  We don't have a right fielder who does not yet look different from your dog.  You have a ninety year old, much-loved starter who wants another year to watch his knuckler flutter up the plate and thence flutter up into the Monster seats (okay, he is only fifty-ish).  You have a hospital ward for the rest of your starters except for those headed for Weight Watchers (do you know how many points there are in fried chicken, guys?  it's as bad as Twinkies). 

What?  Oh, yeah, I did send in my check to the Sox for next year....

Papelbon Leaves Red Sox for Money! Imagine....

Posted by Steve Honig on November 14, 2011

Back from three days in a cabin in the mountains with almost no contact anywhere, hiking with deer and porcupines and nameless large poop that made us think “bear,” I return to learn, indirectly, that "Papelbum" is gone. For some reason – perhaps because he is a moron? – I am neither surprised nor unhappy yet, if you compare his career to many other “closers” who had no staying power, he has been net super for us and will I agree likely continue. In  any event we will not do better.

 The team may not believe in the concept of dedicated "closers," but each game gets closed by someone so all we can really say is, either the team gets 9-inning starters (we cannot even get enough 5-inning starters!) or they will employ closers,  and if management wants to call them something else I guess owning a billion dollar business gives you a lock on lots of things including nomenclature.

 The team has announced flat ticket prices.  It is hard to envision the team's composition at this point, but I think spectacular moves will be forthcoming.  They did it each of the last few years when things did not look depressing, as they do now.  We have outfield holes, starter holes, righty holes, and mojo holes.  Holy moly, ain’t we got holes.  They will do something before they want our money, and it is likely to be flashy even if unwise because they really do not want to drop down into their waiting list for season seats and ruin the attendance karma which, for management, is much better than winning ballgames because it generates cash;  the last time I rang up a bill at Whole Foods and told the cashier we were even because the Sox won last night they called the cops on me….

 My 8 year old gasped, when I told him, “You mean he left the team???!????”   So really truly sad, I could cry.  He LEFT the team, he abandoned us when we put so much trust in him.  Loyalty to the team is the myth we give the kids and still cannot rid ourselves of, after all these years and all these lessons. “ Yes,”  I replied, trying brutal frankness and watching an 8 year old both age and acquire cursed wisdom at the same time, “he left for money.  Remember they only do this for the money.”  Matthew looked glum; he should look glum.  Loss of innocence always sucks.

 

Baseball only for Red Sox Fans

Posted by Steve Honig on October 13, 2011

On this morning’s drive in, radio said Big Papi is looking to NY Yankees, is tired of the "drama" in Boston.  Is that a plausible excuse for jumping for the money?  Is it better than Roger’s?  How about Damon’s?  It is of course bullshit but is it good bullshit? 

 You know the other side of all this is a growing belief that tickets should not be bought at all.  I know, I know, I have waxed eloquent about how in the Spring men cannot resist the call of the green viewed through the ramp when you first enter the ballpark, but this is Fall, heading for Winter, so I am not there yet.  If you think about the team without Pap, Tek, Wake, Papi, a  questionable Scutaro, maybe Beckett, Bard as no real closer’s closer, Crawdaddy feeling even more pressure, looks like a solid lock on third place.

 BTW, remember how careful the team was to relieve the players, platoon them, not over-work the pitchers, so there would be general gas in the tank for the year-end?  I thought Francona was really smart in that way and what did it get us?  Not sure it mattered one way or another, but perhaps it backfired?  The winning teams I think (need data here) just played balls to the wall all year.  Like a good race horse, you don’t run a loose race, it ruins the animal who always should be looking straight ahead.  That’s what blinders and whips are for.

  Plus you just cannot get comfortable in rooting for a team when its key elements go out the revolving door all the time.  Remember when you could recite from memory the starting line-up of most teams?  More important than where you finish is, how do you feel spending $500 to take your family to the ballpark?  You should not feel angry.  Right now I have this floating anger.

Morning headlines: our sainted teen-aged General Manager likely is going to Chicago.  Radio says he will be promoted to President, etc. and get $15M for five years.  The same guy who John Henry is quietly firing ala Francona (you're fired, now go out to the microphone and say you quit).  The same guy who brought us the much criticised 2011 Red Sox!  Either the Cubs are nuts to hire this loser or the baloney in the press about the Red Sox dream team being garbage is simply space filler for the Globe.  I vote the latter; we lost, we won lots of games, we lost two starters, we had a team of overpaid, immature morons (like every baseball team), so what's new?  What GM can hire or predict team cohesion and hunger?  My only wish is that Theo takes Crawford with him as a doorstop.

 Playoff games last night were really fun.  Good to see some other teams show their grit.  These guys want it bad, you can tell.  My partners from the hinterlands (not NY, not Boston, not Philly) are emailing about how good this is for fans and baseball, albeit not for Fox TV.  Likely Fox will be mildly surprised by how much TV attendance they will get for the Series, they will get my attention regardless of who is playing from among these four survivors.  I have respect for teams that act like teams.  But no doubt the Series loser, whoever it is, will be skewered in a tell-all mega-press article about how they hated each other really and further how they never washed out their jocks after an extra-inning game.

 I see deja-vu.

 OR, as in the children's rhyme:

I see London, I see France,

I see Papi’s -------------.

 

Yankee Executive Suite, the next morning

Posted by Steve Honig on October 07, 2011

Cashman (nervously): So, Georgie ,did you happen to catch the game last night?

Young Steinbrenner (annoyed):  What, are kidding or something?  And don't call me Georgie.

Cashman (slightly abashed): We didn't look too good, did we?

Young Steinbrenner (coldly): That's why we pay you the big bucks, I guess.  For your incisive analysis.

Cashman (defensively): Well, it wasn't ME out there on the field, stinking it up.  It's all Gerardi's fault.  I think we oughtta Francona him.

Young Steinbrenner (unsure): Francona him?  What's that?

Cashman (eagerly): You know.  Fire him and make him go on TV and resign.

Young Steinbrenner (pensive): I dunno.  What would daddy do?

Cashman (musing): I don't know.  Maybe bring in Billy Martin to manage.  (softly) Ya DO know, Georgie, the old man is dead now.

Young Steinbrenner (curtly): You don't think I know that?  And DON'T call me Georgie!

Cashman (sucking up): Well, I know you will think of something brilliant.

Young Steinbrenner (pensive): Right now all I can think about is mailing back all that seat money for the Series.  And also--how are we going to sell those $500 field box seats next year?  We gotta sell 'em, Brian.  Look at our payroll.

Cashman (with growing fear):  Well, we can lighten ship.  You know, trade the fat guy who used to be our ace until he gave up the winning run.

Young Steinbrenner (aggressively): I got a better idea.  Let's make all the executives under me buy those seats and then let THEM have the job of remarketing them.  Yeah!  So how many do YOU want, Brian?  A thousand?

Cashman (apprehensive): With no bonus this year, I don't think we can afford the tab.

Young Steinbrenner (eyes narrowed): Hey, did you hear the rumor that Epstein is talking to the Cubbies?  Let me give you John Henry's direct dial, there may be an opening in Boston.

Cashman (sweating profusely): Oh, you kidder, you.  You know I got us the best talent.

Young Steinbrenner (angry as hell): Then how come we were knocked out in the first round?  By some no-names from the Rust Belt, fa Chrissake!!!  (quietly now)  Twenty-seven banners and it comes down to this. Our guys golfing with the Bosox and Rays while Detroit and Texas are playing baseball in October....  (tears in his eyes now)  Oh, daddy, you never told me there'd be days like this.

Cashman (with an effort at a smile):  Wait til next year.  We'll get Big Papi and David Price and...

Young Steinbrenner (steel in his voice): Brian, you are SO fired.

The Law of Clemens-y

Posted by Steve Honig on July 20, 2011

When the Rocket testified a couple of years ago before the House Committee on Governance, in-person observers were suspicious of his credibility. Boston fans were suspicious before that; after four very mediocre years at the end of his Sox career, Roger went on to forge a spectacular coda to his 192 Boston wins.

And it is hard to believe that a disgusting bag of blood and drugs did not prove his sins, although perhaps any person we believe capable of saving that bag could perhaps be capable of concocting it from unrelated elements.

Along comes a much-reviled prosecutor who presents hearsay evidence, on film no less, which the judge believes is prejudicial to the point of mistrial. We don’t have the benefit of a transcript and, well, it would take a bunch of lawyers to figure out whether the judge was correct or just didn’t want this tawdry but fundamentally irrelevant procedure on his docket. What we do know is, in common baseball and legal parlance, that Roger walked.

We now await early September when the judge decides if a retrial is even possible, while Rocket’s counsel ponders double jeopardy as a defense. If an impartial jury could have been found for the first trial, it is hard to understand why an impartial jury could not be found for a second; after all, the jury pool will not include anyone present at the first trial who viewed the offending film. If Rocket’s case was sufficiently non-topical before that a dozen people could honestly say they were fundamentally clueless, surely another dozen can be found who missed the Rocket’s red glare in the heat and blazing sun of their summer vacations.

We are left to ponder why the House of Representatives stuck their noses into baseball steroids in the first place. Today we have proof positive, on Capital Hill, that there were more important things going on in American governance and economics than worrying whether baseball players were shooting up. It may be that baseball is America’s game, but it is alas only a game.

 

Numbers, Baseball and Being American

Posted by Steve Honig on July 13, 2011

Much no doubt has been written about statistics and baseball. I think baseball is the National Pastime only because it is rich in numbers, has so many years of numbers to draw upon, and therefore reinforces the American passion for putting numbers on everything.

Look at grade schools: we teach reading and numbers. It is a very human thing. Our street games and our formal games are all shot through with numbers.

So Jeter is now a king of an important number, and gets all this adulation. As one of the Sox was quoted in the paper, Jeter is actually (now here is big surprise to all) a pretty great ballplayer and “there is a reason he has 3,000 hits.” Imagine, up to now I had sort of thought it was random, like getting a free cola from an occasional screw top soda cap.

I look forward to the Yankees coming to Fenway as I plan to stand up and cheer for Jeter because I love numbers too and think I can remember the batting averages of people from 60 years ago when I used to study the backs of chewing gum cards. I believe that most people at Fenway will do the same, particularly if a) the Sox are still in first place, and b) the Sox continue to own the Yankees, as they have all this year.

Joe Posnanski of Sports Illustrated, about the only blog I read (and only because one of my partners forwards his stuff to me), has had a lot of fun messing with numbers and their anomalies (things like Jacoby Ellsbury having many times the number of steals as Jackie Robinson or some infield substitute accumulating over a long and dolorous career more hits than Ted Williams). His piece on Jeter’s 3000th hit touches upon the simultaneous importance and irrelevance of the statistic. Real merit in a ballplayer has to do with integrity and grace and the occasional ability to pick up a team and carry it up a big hill all alone (and then in the locker room babble about how it is a team sport).

Which leads to a final melancholy; whatever the statistics, what can one really say about Manny Ramirez? That can be printed in a blog that my kid may read….