Rain Sox
It is officially summer, and the weather is finally acting like it: a day with absolutely no rain (at least in Montana) and it is 80 degrees. Yet, I’ve been awkwardly introduced to the harsh realities of life: I’m stuck in an office. The low hum of computers attempting to breathe through the ill circulated air finds a harmony with the spontaneous clicking of keyboards. There are no windows, no opportunities, to see what I’m missing in the daylight by being stuck inside.
However, when the door is not open, and there is no window to open, you create your own. Being 2 hours earlier and 2,000 miles away from Fenway, I have opened a new window. A small one that I can discretely hide behind the others, (containing spreadsheets, word documents, and research strategies) the Red Sox Gameday Live is providing me with play-by-play coverage of their current game.
At first disappointed when the 1:35pm start time was pushed back due to rain, I kept busy and hoped that the Northeast rain would clear so the Sox could play. Finally, the first pitch was thrown. The tasks I was assigned seemed a bit less mundane, as I could reward myself with checking the game once I finished something. Another delay. A few phone calls and some wishing the skies would clear in Boston led to a return to play in the 3rd.
The window opened and instead of a bright number in the runs column for the Sox, I saw a dark, dismal 0, the Boston weather made it’s way to Montana. While it could still possibly be quite sunny outside, I would have no way of knowing until 7pm when I could run for home.
Instead, it’s raining. It’s raining walks and runs. Lackey is drenched in disappointment, what happened in the 4th? Was he even aiming for the strike zone? Another rain delay. At least I didn’t miss anything when corporate research averted my attention.
Thank goodness for Gonzalez bringing Ellsbury across that plate. Gonzalez is growing on me; I’m always skeptical of the new players, they have to earn their place in Boston, they can’t simply put on the uniform and demand respect (the same goes for the veteran players, they have to continuously earn my affections). But Adrian, 4 for 4 in the 8th, he’s climbing through my ranks. Finally a ray of sunshine peaks through with a 1 on the board.
Yet, it’s dampened by another rain delay and another dead end in my research. The rain delay continued to end the game. A 5-1 loss to the Padres, really? The Sox simply dissolved in the rain. I closed the window and settled on thinking about the next game. Perhaps the sun will shine in Pittsburgh on Friday or at leas the Sox won’t drown as they did in the first four innings.
As for Montana, maybe the sun is shining and it still feels like summer outside, or it could be pouring (the weather is rather spontaneous here), but a prolonged rain delay won’t end the working day early.
~~Trenna Field, on the Trolley at large
Fire & Ice
Boston is on fire.
Currently 9 wins in a row for the Red Sox and a total of 35 runs scored during their sweep of the Blue Jays. The smoke is still clearing from the net that Roberto Luongo was cleared out of with 4 goals scored during the first period (three of which were scored during a time frame of three minutes, four seconds) of Game 6 in the Stanley Cup Finals.
For three weeks in a row, a Sox player has earned the title of AL Player of the week, first Crawford, then Ortiz, and now Ellsbury. Ortiz is calling his shots, never mind the cocky “bat flip” homerun against the Yankees, but perhaps the next homerun, his 15th of the season. Ellsbury racked up 10 runs and 4 RBIs to earn the title and Crawford is earning more respect along with his $142 million as he’s playing more and more like a Sox player (but Tuesday’s game will tell against his former Rays).
The Bruins regained momentum after their 2,500 mile trip back to their home ice and again not only beat the Canucks but outscored them within a few short minutes of the first period. After winning 5-1, the Bruins secured a Game 7 and another 2,500 miles back to Vancouver on Wednesday night. After Game 5, Luongo took jabs at what sports anchors have dubbed, “the toughest goalie in the NHL,” Tim Thomas, saying that the 1 goal Thomas let through was “an easy save.” Needless to say, both goalies have their strengths, but Thomas has been on fire throughout the season and into the playoffs, and when the team backs him offensively and defensively they are the best 5- on-5 team in the NHL.
If a team is strong as well as lucky, they will be able to pull out a win in a Game 7 of the Stanley Cup. If a team continues to call their shots and not let the small errors amount to big errors, they could increase their winning streak to 10 games against the Rays with Wake pitching. Pedroia’s recent scare of a bruised kneecap provided haunting reminders of last season, of what can go wrong, of a mounting disabled list. With Nathan Horton out with a concussion for the final games of the hockey season, the Bruins know all to well what injuries can do to reshape the team. It doesn’t take long for something to put out the fire. It was a relief to see Pedroia back on the field over the weekend just as it was a relief, a little bit of lighter fluid to ignite the Bruins during Game 6 with Horton in the stands waving a Bruins rally towel.
Boston is on fire. Although all fires will eventually burn out, they will first use all of the passion and breath in the air completely. In order to burn out, you must first be on fire and at the moment these teams are blazing paths through their 2011 seasons. How long will last? The Bruins will be decided Wednesday night while the Sox might reduce to embers and rise again during the coming months. As long as the passion feeds the fire, these teams will continue to ignite the scoreboards and stats. At the end of the day, game, or season, “it’s better to burn out than fade away,” so as long as the fire in the heart of the teams is left behind, that is all that fans can ask.
~~Trenna Field
The Classics
At least one Boston team had a successful night in Canada.
The Red Sox have consistency on the road and at home, a consistency that the Bruins seem to lack. Just look at the last two games in Boston, the Bruins lit up the scoreboard, but once back in Vancouver, the struggled with turnovers and keeping control of the puck. The Red Sox haven’t had that problem lately. They were on fire against the Yankees when every player in the starting lineup had a hit and now they added another W against the Jay’s. 7 in a row? The Bruins should take some notes.
I think the key is in the classics. In literature, it’s the classics that are read and re-read, referenced in popular culture, and tend to outshine the new books. Joyce’s Ulysses is celebrated every year on June 16 because it is rough. It is weathered and difficult to break into. Joyce once said, that if readers can’t make it through Ulysses, then they couldn’t make it through life. It’s difficult and sometimes slow and loses its rhythm but it has stayed the course and remained consistent. It’s still celebrated.
The same is for athletes. The classic players, the veterans of the team, the ones who have been in the game before it became a place for product placement and increasing the bottom line for the brand (note Shawn Thornton unable to wear Red Sox hat during press conferences and NHL interviews), are the ones who stand the test of time. They are sometimes slow, don’t always perform to the expectations of the club, and are sometimes considered too old to be relevant or useful in today’s game. But, they stand the test of time.
Wakefield is back in the rotation, a place he deserves to be. At 44, he might be tired compared to the younger, Alfredo Aceves but he is consistent and he walked away with a win on Wednesday night’s game in New York. Wakefield isn’t tired just yet; he deserves to be the starter on Tuesday against the Rays. The Bruin’s 33-year-old Shawn Thornton has been dusted off and joined the team during Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals, his first game back since Game 3 of the Conference Finals. When Thornton hit the ice, the game reached a new level, with only 9 shifts in Game 3 he fired the team up. In Game 4 his shifts increased and so did the energy of the team, and it showed on the ice and on the scoreboard. Thornton waited nine seasons in the minors before getting his break. Not to mention right wing Mark Recchi (43) or Jason Varitek (39), two more veterans of their games; players who should not be shelved.
These players might seem rough and worn. Tired and outdated, but they have patience. They stand the test of time as the minutes of the game tick away. They know the game from a different time, yet they are still relevant today.
It’s always good to take the classics off the shelf because they can teach the newcomers something about the game. As Joyce wrote in Ulysses, “a man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.” These players have the errors behind them and are leading the teams to new levels of the games they play.
~~~Trenna Field
Sox-Yanks, A Rivalry Without the Feud?
In a recent story in the New York Times, journalist Jennifer Schuessler reported the end to some long time, bitter feuds between famous authors. One even involved an incident where the novelist Richard Ford spit on Colson Whitehead after Whitehead wrote a nasty review. Norman Mailer decked Gore Vidal in another famous writers’ feud. We don’t see this kind of venom in literary circles too much anymore, since the most acrid statements are blurted on Twitter, where one can safely take jabs. During an episode of Saturday Night Live, actors portraying George W Bush and Kanye West presented their new “friendship.” This brought to mind our beloved Sox and their most important rival. I wonder if in some ways the spitting and the brawls have ceased after ’04 and ’07.
Tony Massarotti asked the same question a month ago, during the opening series, on the Baseball Reporters. When I tried to call into the show, I couldn’t get through. What I wanted to report was my attempt to conduct an experiment here in New Jersey. Wearing my Red Sox hat out in public more frequently in a territory marked by Yankees hats and everything else, I have been hoping to get a gauge on the fuel that feeds the feud. Thus far, there has been only one sour comment, and even that was pretty mild. “I didn’t know you were a Sox fan,” the manager of a nearby restaurant said. “Well, I am a Mets fan,” she added, “but my husband is a Yankee fan.” The three other vocal responses have come from fellow Sox fans, who excitedly shared the satisfaction of some recent victories.
So, I ask, is there something missing from the rivalry? Do we want some blood? Is this just a natural evolution of the game, where ballplayers from opposing teams are best friends? Where are the days of Bob Gibson, who didn’t speak to opposing players, even during the All-Star game?
Little Things
Strike three and game three. Saltlamacchia struck out swinging; at least he swung. The whole team swung during the past three games. Granted, they lost, three times over and it doesn’t look good from afar. Not to mention the loss to Detroit in the makeup game from May 28. The Red Sox have four dark losses in a row. But it could be worse, it could be April again and they could have played worse.
It’s better to look at the little things. It’s a double play to end an inning that has stretched on for too long. It’s Varitek’s homerun during the bottom of the fourth to put the right colored Sox on the scoreboard during the May 31st game. Or Varitek’s base hit in that same game during the bottom of the sixth after 4 runs were gained by the White Sox, just to lift the team again to realize, ‘hey, we’re still playing.’ Ortiz’s Monster homerun in the sixth during yesterday’s game, putting the Red Sox on top, at least for a moment.
The moments that inflate the spirits of the team and the fans, they came back from a rough beginning, they played almost non-stop through the month of May. It’s Jenks coming back after being gone for the month, and coming back to play against his former team. It’s errors made by the umpires, like the fifth inning declaration that Juan Pierre was safe, though all angles (except apparently Marty Foster’s) that Pedroia had tagged him. It’s the little things like Rene Rancourt singing the anthem before the game because the Bruins were in Vancouver. It’s the movement of Saturday’s game from it’s night slot to a 1:00 pm time just so fans can watch the Bruins take on Vancouver. It’s the little things that make the losses not as dark.
In the aftermath of the tornadoes that swept through Western Massachusetts, it’s messy to look from afar. The destruction and sadness is there and leaves a dark mark of loss on the state. But if you look at the little things, you see state police and search teams helping people, you see hospitals setting up extra triage units to help the injured, and you see people grateful and relieved that the majority of things lost can be replaced or rebuilt, realizing, ‘hey, we’re still standing.’
It’s better to look at the little things because the big picture can be messy and overwhelming, and heartbreaking. But it’s in the little things where you find some solace and happiness in the small moments where the right play is made or communities helping one another to clean up and rebuild.
Yes, the Sox were swept, but it was bound to happen. In 162 games, they can’t be expected to win them all. And just because I can’t help it, the Bruins lost to Vancouver with 18.5 seconds left, that’s a hard loss. But, it’s the little things, the fact that Tim Thomas had 36 shots on and only one got in. The things like, another game will come, whether it’s Friday against the Athletics or Saturday’s game 2 against the Canucks. The losses could always be worse and the limited destruction of the tornadoes has given perspective to the games we love.
~~~Trenna Field
Joy in Beantown & the Slumping Blog
Happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length, said the poet Robert Frost. If you have spent a few days or weeks in my class on the Confessional Poets, or long enough in a bar in conversation with me, you would hear me repeat this quote. I am interested in Happiness. In recent years, the subject has been the source of many studies, a great deal of research and blogs(See Daniel Gilbert) and books, and now perhaps more of a topic at the tavern. (Well, perhaps it’s always been a topic at the tavern.) The difference is now we are looking at sustaining joy, beyond its term limits implied by Frost. But consider readers of Dante. The number of those who study The Inferno significantly outdo those who read Purgatorio or Paradiso, no to mention how many times The Inferno has been translated into other languages. Could this point to our desire to understand pain and tragedy because it feels more mysterious than joy? Or is it that pain is the territory we most often occupy?
The question I have about our current state, which is first place, is if the relief and joy we are feeling now is a result of how terrible April went for the Sox? On a more personal point, my blog has slumped for many reasons recently(including the switch to WordPress) but one of the reasons this week is a solid feeling of contentment. So, here is what I would like to celebrate with you, in communal happiness(doesn’t pain always feel too personal?):
1)Let’s give the middle relief some. How about Rich Hill’s curveball in the 8th in Cleveland
2) Carl Crawford’s awakening
3) Carl Crawford’s awakening
4)Carl Crawford’s awakening
5)I can’t say it enough, but I will move on to Ellsbury. We missed you last year for certain.
6)I bow down everyday to A.G.
7)How about Pap’s consistency?
8)If you get down for a minute or two one of these nights, consider that sweep a few weeks ago. You know the one.
Ice Cream Men Don’t Deliver . . .
But Nostalgia & Winning Shine through.
For a short time Saturday night, the Red Sox looked like a parody of old time baseball performed at the circus for the entertainment of 4 year-olds. Last year, when the team donned the white Memorial Day Stars & Stripes hats, Tito commented that the hats were ridiculous. Some fans commented that the proceeds going to Veterans was bitter paradox, since MLB hats are all made in China. Although Fox blocked many of us from seeing the game, I was surprised at how unreal the game seemed in highlights, along the clownish acts of later innings.
On a more serious note, we are all happy to hear that Marlon Byrd is doing ok. And thank you Jed Lowrie and Youk for taking a few hits for the team. It’s all part of the code of the game, something that won’t ever change. Last night as I turned between MLB Network’s number 1 game of all time and ESPN Sunday Night baseball, that was central feeling I had–that the game doesn’t change that much and it’s one of the reasons we love it. Dewey’s catch still seems impossible. As do the ushers in those old time uniforms–this in the days when they could show emotion. Ok,so perhaps the game changes in some details. Then there are”the codes,” which I will write more about in my next post.
For now, the Indians are on my mind, more specifically Justin Masterson. He gets my vote for the “one that got away.” I’ve said this before but I must repeat it. We can never have enough young pitching talent. Like great marathoners, our best pitchers take time to reach their true potential. Masterson has made further adjustments to his pitch selection and now has the lowest ERA of his career. But here I am longing again for what might have happened.
The end of the semester here coupled with the change over to WordPress delayed a new entry, so it’s good to be back.
(Obvious) Song of the day: Tom Waits, “The One that Got Away.”
Boston Springs
“Good. I think that’s great,” Francona said when
apprised of Selig’s comments on Thursday about the playoff expansion. “I
wish we were hockey. I don’t like hockey, but the more teams, the better. I
can’t see how it wouldn’t be [good for the game]. It gives a lot of fans reason
to stay with their teams.”
Staying with their teams is something Boston fans know all too well. It’s nice to
be from a place where the teams have a shot at the playoffs. So, even if the
Sox are off to a rocky start, over the last night few nights, fans were able to
glimpse the beginning of one season and the end of another. The Sox and Bruins
have both been able to send wins home in extra innings and overtime. Just
what the Boston fans needed. Not mention the possible second coming of Dice-K last night in California.
The Bruins were in a more dire position; the playoffs limit
the amount of acceptable (if that’s possible) losses. Being down two games in
the quarterfinals was not something the Bruins seemed comfortable with. Michael
Ryder secured a shot at winning the first round of playoff games on the road to
the Stanley Cup. Ryder scored the opening goal for the Bruins as well as the
game-winning goal to bring them back from the brink of the quarterfinals. The
Bruins now lead in the best of seven series.
“But you need your players to step up at this time of
year and every night a lot of times there is a different guy stepping up and
tonight it was Michael,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said after the game.
And through the course of the same nights, a different guy
stepped up for the Sox. Finally. In what seemed to be the eleventh hour, Adrian
Gonzalez made his move in the eleventh inning with a double to bring J.D. Drew
home to put Boston
on top.
Maybe Gonzalez was waiting for the right moment to step up
but as the team attempts to regain its position as a contender for the
seemingly far off playoffs, he might have urged Carl Crawford to make his move,
too.
As the Bruins pulled out another overtime victory, (followed by the Celtics sweeping New York) and
as the Sox season is picking up, staying with their teams is something fans can do
easily without having to wish baseball was hockey.
—Trenna Field
Jedding Ahead
In 2008, Jed Lowrie set a Major League Record, one of those quiet records that doesn’t splash across the screen or on the ESPN news ticker. It’s in the fine print, where some fans might easily forget–or tucked in the details some of us without the right reading glasses might not bother to squint for, the lower footnote.
In 155 total chances, Lowrie did not record an error at shortstop. After the divorce with Nomar (followed by a retirement reconciliation of course), we might consider how important Jed is to the future of the Sox. The episode, a long battle in fact, with mono last year is over.One of the more impressive performances last night, excluding the brilliant pitching of Lester for all innings except one, was turned in by Lowrie. If I want to remember the game, I don’t have to try to recall the look on his face as he tore through first base on his way to double off Price.
With some recent growth on his face, Jed looked tougher than any other moment he has played on the Sox. As he offered some academic advice for a complaining Price, Lowrie exhibited the intensity we have been missing. Finally. Finally the Sox look ready to grind it out. Youk(no surprise there), joined Lowrie on the panel, screaming at Price then encouraging Lowrie.
Mr. Crawford, are you listening? Take notes. Chin up, sir. Chin up!– the same chin on which you might free up for some shadows, lending yourself to the biting, angular intensity missing on the field.
VICTORY! and a Mannywood ending.
With Barry Bonds’ girlfriend detailing the physical changes effected by steroids in recent weeks, one wonders about the choice. The first image is of a desperate ballplayer, reaching his late thirties, feeling the natural decline.I imagine Ali fighting Larry Holmes. Let me rephrase: I remember the aged Ali as Holmes’ punching bag, the brutality of unanswered punches.The other story of that beating is that one of Ali’s doctors prescribed “diet” pills for him. The drugs in question made him sluggish. And pathetic. As a young boxing fan, I hadn’t been filled with quite that much sorrow before.
My sorrow today is lighter but wider. It has more to do with the game of baseball than it does with one player. The loss is about the Red Sox, its history and its players, specifically those who played alongside Manny, who are at a loss for words. There were some of us who were baffled by Manny but still kept our affections. There were a few of us who were hopeful for the revival of the Idiots, even if they were in Tampa. One segment on the MLB Network during Spring Training showed him working as hard as any ballplayer could and losing more than twenty pounds, not to mention making major adjustments to his stride to avoid hamstring problems. Painful work.Now the pain is ours.Ortiz compassionately summed it up: “It’s sad.”
But baseball has redemption built into the stats. It has time, which makes the grass sturdy and green..In a few hours the Sox will take the field again, afresh from a laser show and good, old hometown glory.
mlblogsthomasox
Recent Comments