Category Archives: Go Sox

Red Sox: Wrong, Dumb, & Foolish

19 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by in Go Sox

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , ,

A-Rod Answers Dempster

I don’t usually post about the most immediate events, whether sports or other, but Sox fans need to make their voices heard on this one.

When I learned last night that Dempster had hit A-Rod, I couldn’t believe it. I turned off the game and said to myself, “The Sox deserve to lose this one.”

I was on an early morning flight today to San Francisco (and later in the week will head to Portland and then to LA) to visit with friends and see two Sox games vs the Giants and two vs Dem Bums. So I don’t know what is being said about Dempster hitting A-Rod (except for the email I got stating disapproval from my long-suffering Sox cousin). But I can say I’m not as excited to see them tonight as I thought I would be.

Hitting A-Rod was simply wrong, despite his disrespect for the rules of the game.

Yes. He’s a cheater and a liar, amongst other things. But the best Sox players could do would be to speak out against him, not to hit him.

Because A-Rod is wrong doesn’t give the Sox the right to hit him. A-Rod’s peers should call him out publicly. That’s the best and most powerful way to respond to his behaviors and to send a message to other PED users.

Additionally, it’s dumb and foolish. You’re in a tight race, ahead in this game 2-0, and why do anything that takes the focus off winning and gives the Yunkees and A-Rod fuel?

Simply wrong, dumb, and foolish.

Sox got what they deserved.

Share

MLB’s New Challenge System: The Right Call?

17 Saturday Aug 2013

Posted by in Go Sox

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , ,

canstockphoto9695161(2)

As far as I understand, here are the key elements of a new review system that have been announced by MLB:

  • It is a ‘challenge system’ and not one initiated by an umpire (or a replay umpire).
  • Each manager will have three challenges in a game, one in the first six innings and two in the remainder of the game (no carry over from the first six innings into the latter part of the game).
  • If the challenge is successful (and the call overturned), then the manager gets back that call, potentially allowing many more than three challenges during a game.
  • The reviews will be done by humans at the MLB Advanced Media facility in NYC.
  • Balls and strikes cannot be appealed but most other plays can (89% of the umpires’ calls are to be reviewable, tho the specifics have not been announced yet).
  • Non-reviewable plays can still be argued by a manager who can request the four umpires meet to discuss a call.
  • The new system, if approved by the owners, the players, and the umpires, will be instituted for the 2014 season and will be reviewed for adjustments prior to the 2015 season.

There is also a report that the umpires will ask for what is being called a ‘doomsday trigger’ – the ability to request a replay themselves if a manager is out of challenges.

To read (and see) for yourself more specifically what MLB’s commissioner Bud Selig actually announced, see this link, MLB to Expand Instant Reply.

Apparently, MLB had to decide whether to go with a ‘challenge system’ or a system which would let the umpire or a replay umpire decide what would be reviewed. In deciding on the ‘challenge system,’ they chose a variation of what is already in use in other sports, particularly NFL football.

130815_SNUT_BaseballReplayChallengeUmpire.jpg.CROP.article250-mediumMLB believes that this new system will compensate for umpire error and will take only 1 1/2 minutes per challenge, less than the three minutes that it now takes when the umpires go off of the field to review a play themselves. Additionally, MLB seems to believe that there will be a reduction in time spent with managers arguing calls as the replays will be triggered immediately when a team asks for one.

One of the criticisms of this system is that it is only a ‘half step’ and that MLB should have gone with an umpire directed replay scenario if the intent is to get all of the calls right and not be dependent upon a manager asking for or being out of challenges.

The best article I’ve seen that argues that the ‘challenge system’ is only a partial response to getting calls right is Joe Posnasnki’s MLB Blows Call with Challenge System.

So, what do you think?

Is this system a good one?

Is baseball going to be better off because of it?

Will the ‘human element’ be taken out of baseball and so change what we’ve had up until now?

Will games be lengthened, shortened?

Is it the right replay system?

Please add your Comment below.

 

Share

Jeter: Tell Him

06 Tuesday Aug 2013

Posted by in Go Sox

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , ,

AROD_JETERI wasn’t going to post about the A-Rod suspension, etc. as MillersTime is not a place that competes with the various new and old media to be on the cusp of ‘breaking’ news.

But something occurred to me last night and this morning as I thought about what is happening here and as I’ve read most of the mainstream and not so mainstream media accounts of the A-Rod situation.

The good news, from my perspective, is that a group of important players have been caught and most of them have agreed not to drag us through their phony attempts to claim innocence. Ryan Braun for example last year.

The further good news is that more and more MLB players are speaking out and saying what they previously refrained from saying: there is no place for PEDs in our game.

Even the Players Union seems to have gotten the message for the most part, tho they have slid back a few steps in their defense of A-Rod. (Yes. Due process is central to our way of life, but in cases such as these, I don’t believe the accused should be allowed to play while the appeal process takes place.)

But there is one more piece that could help nail this coffin.

Derek Jeter needs to go to A-Rod and tell him to take his punishment now and not drag this out. (A-Rod has a three-day window in which he can still agree to abide by the suspension.)

A-Rod can’t do it by himself. He cannot distinguish between what’s good for A-Rod and what’s good for baseball. Even though he says he loves the game, basically he loves himself in the game. And if he really understood what was good for A-Rod, he’d take his punishment now.

Don’t hold your breath. It looks as if he’s going to drag everyone through months of ‘torture’ so that he can “get his day in court.”

No one is fooled. A-Rod knows this might be his last chance to play for the Yankees.

It is also his last chance to save anything good that is left of his name.

Jeter can help him and help baseball.

This situation is not about having your teammate’s back. A-Rod never had anyone’s back but his own.

If rather than ask A-Rod in the clubhouse, “How’s it going man?” Jeter took him aside and said what perhaps only a friend could say. “Do what’s right. Do it for yourself. Do it for baseball.”

Then we might well be on our way to putting the PED issue behind us.

Share

Join Me

03 Saturday Aug 2013

Posted by in Escapes and Pleasures, Go Sox

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

, , ,

More tickets available. Baseball and a talk. Let me know if you’re interested.

Baseball – Tho the Nats are struggling mightily, what’s better than a summer evening at the park? Final games available at no cost to you, other than perhaps buying me some peanuts and having to listen to my baseball natterings:

Wednesday, August. 7 at 7:05 vs Braves
Tuesday, August 13 at 7:05 vs Giants
Friday, September 13 at 7:05 vs Phillies
Sunday, September 15 at 1:35 vs Phillies
Tuesday, September 17 at 7:05 vs Braves
Wednesday, September 18 at 7:05 vs Braves

Sixth & I – Lee Child

If you know the name Jack Reacher and have read lots of Lee Child’s books, then you might want to join me Tuesday, September 10 to see and hear Child’s talk about his newest book, Never Go Back.

For those of you who haven’t had the good fortune to read any of Child’s thrillers, he’s a British writer named Jim Grant (Lee Child is his pen name). His 16 or 17 books all (?) featuring the ‘detective’ Jack Reacher are some of the best escapist books I know. Grant/Child’s books have won numerous awards, beginning with his first one, Killing Floor, which won a best first novel award in 1997, and on to his 2012 A Wanted Man which won a National Book Award for Thriller/Crime Novel of the Year.

First to let me know via email (Samesty84@gmail.com) or by leaving a note in the Comment section of this post, gets the ticket(s).

Share

At This Rate…

02 Friday Aug 2013

Posted by in Go Sox

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

, , , ,

Judging from what the Sox have done on August first, won two games in walk off fashion, one in the 15th and one in the bottom of the 9th (that one they were behind by five runs), the Sox could win 62 games in August alone. At least if they had two games a day scheduled.

I know. I know. Won’t happen. But maybe the usual August swoon won’t happen either. Enough players are healthy, there are some back up players available, they seem to have a good balance in their pitching-hitting-fielding, and the management and team chemistry, if those are factors, seem quite good. At their current winning percentage of .600, they would end up winning about 97 games. If they simply break even in their final 52 games, then they’ll end up with 92 wins.

Continue reading »

Share

A ‘Two-Fer’ and Another Reason to Love #15

01 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by in Go Sox

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

, , ,

Whenever I attend a baseball game or watch one via the various electronic mediums, I’m always looking for something I’ve never seen before. My ‘baseball bucket list’ is down to five: I want to see, live, a no-hitter, a perfect game, a triple play, an unassisted triple play, and a successful suicide squeeze play. (I may have witnessed a no-hitter, but I can’t swear to it.)

Last night, which actually includes this morning, I saw two ‘events’ I’d never seen before, ones that were not on my must see list.

My wife Ellen was out of town working (if you call being at Google-Land working), which meant I could watch the Red Sox-Mariner game with no fear of disparaging remarks or ‘that look’ that wives give when they suppress the urge to tell you what an idiot you really are.

I settled into a comfortable chair, and when in the bottom of the first, the Sox loaded the bases, I think with no outs, and then failed to score, I knew it was going to be a long and difficult night.

But I had no idea how long and how difficult.

Continue reading »

Share

MLB: Discipline Ortiz

29 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by in Go Sox

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, ,

davidortiz.1

David Ortiz, the best Designated Hitter in baseball, deserves to be disciplined.

Ortiz simply lost control the other night in Baltimore and had a tantrum that fortunately did not result in any damage, other than to the bullpen phone box and to his own reputation.

He should be fined or suspended, whatever MLB determines is proper for similar, previous situations.

Apparently, Ortiz was most incensed by the umpire’s unwillingness to admit he had made a mistake in the call and is reported to have said something like, “we all make mistakes, but we need to admit when we do. That’s all.”

Will Ortiz apply that to himself?

I hope so.

Continue reading »

Share

A MillersTime Baseball Contest Winner

24 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by in Go Sox

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , ,

-AP Photo/Matt Slocum

AL Wins 2013 All Star Game, 3-0                  (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

As I posted earlier, no one correctly chose the answers to all three questions in the MillersTime Baseball Contest #3 (Winner of All Star Game, Score, MVP). In fact, no one even predicted two of the three correctly.

There were a few creative suggestions on what I should do to choose from those who had some of the answers and/or were close on some of the questions.

Previous multiple winner Tiffany Lopez had a terrific suggestion, saying  I resort to the time tested ‘rock-paper-scissor’ means of dispute resolution. Tim Malieckal suggested I chose the person who had Cabrera as the MVP because he scored the first run in the 3-0 AL win. And several contestants said I should choose the person who was closest to the final score since no one correctly got the Rivera as the MVP.

Continue reading »

Share

Buchholz: What Gives?

23 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by in Go Sox

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, ,

(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

I’m generally critical of Boston sports’ writers who ‘go after’ Sox players, but I’ve been wondering about something for several weeks now.

Let me start with the admission that I do not know the details of the issue I’m about to discuss. Other than what I read in the media, which includes various blogs and social media outlets, I have no inside knowledge.

Nevertheless, to me, something seems wrong with the Clay Buchholz, “I won’t pitch until I’m 100%.”

For those of you who may not be as obsessed as I about the Red Sox, a quick update. Buchholz started the season going 9-0 with an ERA of 1.71. He was as good as any pitcher in the Majors, probably the best.

Then around June 8, Buchholz apparently felt stiffness in his neck area and shut himself down, saying he didn’t want to risk more serious damage. That seemed to make sense.

Continue reading »

Share

The All Star’s All Star, (Plus Who Deserves to Win the MillersTime Baseball Contest #3?)

17 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by in Go Sox

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , ,

MARIANO RIVERA

MVP

SHANNON STAPLETON/Reuters

Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

 No matter your team loyalty, you’ve gotta respect this guy and what he’s done.

*                   *                     *                    *                 *                    *

No one in the 2013 MillersTime Baseball Contests got all the correct answers to Question #3 (Who will win the All Star game, what will the score be, and who will be the MVP).

Overall, however, a majority of you picked the AL to win (56-44%), tho no one got even close on the score.

And no one foresaw Rivera being named the MVP.

So what to do?

Continue reading »

Share

A Question From a 4 1/2 Year Old

10 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by in Family and Friends, Go Sox

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

noname

I was playing the card game “Go Fish” with my four and a half-year-old grandson the other day when he said, “It’s OK not to win, isn’t it?”

That was a bit of a surprise, as in the last six months or so he’s found a way to turn every possible kind of play into a game that has a score and a winner. Plus, he’s been quite skilled at setting the rules, and resetting them, to favor himself.

So clearly I was surprised when he came up with the question about not having to win.

Was some part of his parental unit trying to teach him about winning and losing? Has a teacher or a coach said something to him?  Just what was going on here.?

And what should I tell him?

Continue reading »

Share

So What’s with the Nats?

01 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by in Go Sox

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

, , ,

 

 Team Won Lost PCT GB
Atlanta 48 34 .585 – –
Washington 41 40 .506 6.5
Philadelphia 39 44 .470 9.5
NY Mets 33 45 .423 13.0
Miami 29 51 .363 18.0
 

Preseason predictions were for the Nats to win their Division. The only National League team with better Las Vegas odds to win the World Series were the Dodgers

So, what’s going on?

Expectations too high for the Nats?

Harper out for a month?

Strasburg not winning?

Failure to win close games like they did last year?

Bullpen problems?

Yours truly, who earlier thought the Nats would not win 98 games and might not even make the playoffs again, has looked at the first half of the season, and here’s what the numbers show.

The Nats’ record at the half way mark of the season is primarily due to poor hitting. They are 13th of 15 teams in the NL, scoring only 295 runs. Only the Marlins (259 runs) and the Dodgers (294) have scored fewer runs. The team BA is .236, and other than Rendon, no position players is hitting close to .300.

Their pitching hasn’t been all that bad. They are 5th in the NL with an ERA of 3.54 and have done about as well as any other team converting 23/31 save opportunities.

And their fielding hasn’t helped at all. They are dead last in the NL and have made 59 errors (only the Dodgers have made more, 60). The Nats have given up 31 unearned runs compared to the Braves 20.

To be a bit more specific, if we look at Runs Scored vs Runs Given Up, The Braves are + 68, the Nats -20, and the Phillies -46.

And, unlike what I predicted, their weak showing has not been particularly a result of losing close games. They are 24-24 in games won or lost by two or less runs (16-13 in one run games). Last year at this time, they were 21-23 in games decided by two or less runs (15-10 in one run games).

Their Division is a tougher, as everyone expected, with the Braves starting off in spectacular fashion, tho they haven’t maintained the pace they had in April (.645).

Certainly not having Harper for the month of June has hurt the Nats, but perhaps not as seriously as some might think. In April and May, when the young phenom was playing, the Nats were 28-27. Without him in June, they were 13-13.

Yes. The season is only half over, but if the Nats don’t start scoring a lot more runs than they give up, all those ‘fans’ who thought a WS playoff was a near certainty, are going to (continue) to be disappointed.
Share

At the Halfway Mark

28 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by in Go Sox

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, ,

Team W L Pct GB
Boston 48 33 .593 –
Baltimore 44 36 .550 3.5
NY Yankees 42 36 .538 4.5
Tampa Bay 41 38 .519 6
Toronto 39 39 .500 7.5
 

Well, everyone said at the start of the season that the AL East would be a tough Division and all five teams had a shot. Most people who cared about such important matters, myself included (see my preseason predictions), thought the Sox and Yankees would be contending for the bottom of the Division, not the top.

So it is a pleasant surprise to see the Sox in first place in the AL East and with the best record in the AL.

I know. I know.

As my ‘Yankee friends’ (not so much of an oxymoron as it might seem) continually remind me, August is a coming, and that is very different than April (where the Sox were 18-8).

It’s a bit worrisome that it is hitting and not pitching that has gotten the Sox this far. They are at the top of their league in all the important hitting categories while their pitching and fielding is only average. We know what happens to teams that rely on hitting to carry them through the season.

Their lack of pitching depth is worrisome, and while the Sox have weathered some injuries already, tho as yet nothing equal to last year in that respect, the 162 game season is beginning to take its toll on the pitchers.

And how have the Yankees with all of their injuries and second and third string players managed to win so many games? They are probably likely to get better as some of the injured return, probably after the All Star break.

Then there’s Toronto who is finally beginning to play as well as everyone expected. Plus, Baltimore has a lineup that is powerful and relentless. And Tampa Bay can never be counted out.

But it’s exciting to have all five of the AL East teams at .500 or better for the first half of the season.

For the Boston fanatics, the Sox Magic Number is 76 with 81 games remaining!

But I’m sticking by my preseason predictions.

 
Share

Who Is Right?

27 Thursday Jun 2013

Posted by in Go Sox, The Outer Loop

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

,

size0

Or maybe the better questions is “What Is Right?

Yesterday I finished a reread of Erich Maria Remarque’s powerful All Quiet on the Western Front, a story recounting what life was like for young recruits in WWI. As with other war novels I have found the most moving, the portrayal of war through the eyes of the soldiers who have to fight the wars (as opposed to those who send them to war and the professionals who direct them) once again reminded me of the human costs of war, of those who are its true victims, whether because they are killed or wounded or psychologically maimed.

Remarque’s book set me to thinking about an experience I had a few weeks ago while attending a Washington Nationals’ baseball game. The Nats “have made military outreach a top priority, so much so that USO Metropolitan Washington honored the team with the Legacy of Hope Award during their 2012 Awards Gala.” (See Military Initiatives for a full description of all the Nationals are doing in this regard).

Just one of the initiatives is the honoring of soldiers, and often their families too, at the end of third inning during every home game. The fans always give these honorees a standing ovation.

Usually I stand too and applaud as I have come to understand that no matter the right or wrong of a particular war, those who have been sent into battle deserve to be honored.

But sometimes I find myself in a quandry, not because of any doubt that appreciation is valid but because I feel that every game I am being required to follow what the Nationals’ are dictating.

A few weeks ago, at the end of the third inning, I was talking with a friend and  clapping, but I did not stand up. A few rows in front of me, a man gestured to me to stand. When I didn’t, he gave me a disgusted look, and later in the game, he walked by me and said, “You ought to be ashamed.”

I wanted to respond that he had no right to tell me what to do nor if what I was doing was wrong. But he passed too quickly.

Nevertheless, this incident and my general discomfort each game when I feel I have to follow the crowd, when I’d really like to express my disgust at those who lead us into wars through lies and deceptions and who do not have to pay any personal price for their actions, continues to be on my mind.

I would be interested in your thoughts, respectfully stated, either in the Comments section of this post or in an email to me: Samesty84@gmail.com.

Share

Eli: “The game was awesome…can we go again?”

10 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by in Family and Friends, Go Sox

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Eli baseball game IMAG0134_ZOE008

June 8, 2013

 

shapeimage_4

July 2, 2009

 

Four years have passed between these two pictures, and tho grandson Eli may still be a bit young (4 1/2), I thought I’d see if he was ready for a trip to see the Washington Nationals and thus begin this important part of his education.

We made it through the end of the 7th inning, with Eli standing on his seat and singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” with 41,000 other fans. He was clutching his souvenir, a foul ball, flipped into the stands by a Twins on deck batter. His face was still covered with the remnants of the chocolate ice cream that had dripped all over him.

The only downside of the whole day was when we left, the Nats had lost their 3-2 lead, tho they were tied at 3-3.

More than anything, Eli wanted the Nats to win.

On the way home he said, “The game was awesome. When can we go again?”

He also told me that his “three favorite teams were the Red Sox, the Orioles and the Nationals.”

Another convert!

I was a bit older when my grandfather took me to Fenway (about 60+ years ago), but I remember it as if it were yesterday. He had box seats behind the Sox dugout for evening and weekend games, and all the players seemed to know him.

Imagine what it was like for a 10-year old kid to hear Ted Williams yell to his grandfather, “Hey Pops, where were you last night? You weren’t here?”

At least that’s my memory. Perhaps it wasn’t Williams, tho he was there. Maybe it was DiMaggio or Goodman or Piersall.

After that first time in 1952, trips to Fenway became a yearly ritual. The week school let out in Florida, where I lived at the time, I’d go to Boston before I went to camp, and Pappy would take me to Fenway, and we’d watch batting practice, yell to the Sox players, and talk baseball. I was hooked.

Some of you know that I passed on this obsession to my own daughters, mostly taking them to Baltimore because Fenway was too far away, tho we went to Fenway also. And if you missed the letter one of my daughters wrote me after the 2004 WS game, check it out:

The e-mail on the kitchen table, by Elizabeth Miller.

(When I returned home from St. Louis in October of 2004 after the Sox won the World Series in four straight, after being down three games to zero against the Evil Empire in the ALCS, I found this e-mail on the kitchen table, a letter my daughter had written, and my wife had printed out for me.)

If you are a parent, or plan to be one, definitely check out this reflection, written when Elizabeth was 21 years old.

Also, if you have a few more minutes to waste/enjoy, check out the letter I wrote to Eli after taking him to that first game when he was only six months old:

Letter to a Grandson, 7/2/09

PS – Although we weren’t there to see it, the Nats lost the game in the 11th, 4-3. When I told Eli, his face dropped, and he got sad.

Thus begins another generation’s introduction to the joys and sorrows of what for me still remains one of life’s wonderful obsessions.

Share