06 Sunday Apr 2014
Posted in Family and Friends, Go Sox
Tags
2014 Ring & Flag Ceremony, Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park, Fenway's Finest, The "Bricks", The Family
April 4, 2014 – At Fenway Park to Celebrate the 2013 Magical Season
Outside Fenway:
Inside Fenway:
On the Field:
02 Wednesday Apr 2014
Posted in Family and Friends, Go Sox
The story behind the picture:
Most folks who follow the Red Sox and keep an eye on the President thought that the Sox visit to the White House was to recognize the magical year my heroes had going from last to first. And most of the press focused on Papi taking a “selfie” with Obama.
However, I can reveal here on MillersTime that that was only part of the story.
My good friend and buddy Nelson, through his beisbol contacts, arranged for my two heroes (backed by the entire Red Sox team) to personally wish me a Happy Birthday.
How’s that for friendship?
01 Tuesday Apr 2014
Posted in Go Sox
Tags
2014 Millers Time Baseball Contests, Boston Red Sox, Fenway, MLB, Opening Day, Washington Nationals
Now that we know the mighty Sox will not be 162-0 this season…
And now that 60 of you have responded to my incessant nagging to get in your 2014 MillersTime Baseball predictions (one-third of you doing so in the final 24 hours)…
We can proceed with the best six months (seven for some of us) of the year.
I’m listing below Washington Nationals’ games for which I invite friends, foes, fans and faux fans to join me for a game at no cost, save perhaps buying me a bag of peanuts and being captive to my baseball natterings for three hours.
These are just the games for April and May. Later, I’ll list some summer and September games.
19 Wednesday Mar 2014
Posted in Go Sox
Tags
"Winter in Fenway", baseball, Boston Red Sox, DGA Productions, Fenway, Shakespeare, Sonnet 97, Spring, Vimeo, Winter
In Shakespeare’s 97th Sonnet, the narrator writes about his separation from his lover: “How like a winter hath my absence been/From thee…”
For some of us, this winter has been a particularly difficult absence from our love.
I speak, of course, of baseball.
But now we are closing in on Opening Day.
Check out the DGV Productions Winter in Fenway below for 2:59 seconds of merging winter, baseball, and Shakespeare.
It’s lovely.
16 Sunday Mar 2014
Posted in Family and Friends, Go Sox
14 Friday Feb 2014
Posted in Go Sox
An updated version of this wonderful picture will be posted following my family’s attendance at the 2014 Opening Day at Fenway in April.
The title of this post is perhaps slightly misleading, but then it may have gotten you at least to get this far into today’s post.
It’s about that wonderful time of the year when football, basketball, and most of those other minor sports are either off the front of the sporting news or are tiresome, and folks who understand the fascination of baseball are beginning to get revved. After all, truck day has come and gone, most pitchers and catchers have reported, full squad practices are beginning, and we will have a year without A-Rod disgracing our blessed game.
What more could we ask?
The point of this post, you ask?
I am ‘working’ on the 2014 MillersTime Baseball Contests and need a bit of your help.
01 Friday Nov 2013
Posted in Family and Friends, Go Sox
First Game: 7/09 
Most Recent: 9/13
Dear Eli,
My grandfather, Pappy (Rob Goodman, your great, great grandfather), was the person who introduced me to baseball and to the Red Sox. In all of his years going to Fenway Park (he was a season ticket holder, nights and weekends), he never saw the Sox win a World Series. (He might have seen them play in the World Series one time as the Sox did make it that far in 1946. But he never saw them win because they lost to St. Louis that time.)
The Sox didn’t get to the WS again in Pappy’s life time and so he never got to see what his grandson (me), great granddaughters (your mother Annie & auntie Elizabeth), and great great grand son (you) have had the good fortune to experience.
31 Thursday Oct 2013
Boston Globe photo
20 Sunday Oct 2013
Posted in Family and Friends, Go Sox
(Shane Victorino hits a grand slam home run to put the Sox ahead, 5-2 in the the sixth and deciding game of the 2013 ALCS playoffs.)
Dear Eli,
The last time you spent the night at our house, you said, “Tell me how well the Red Sox are doing?”
Well, while you were asleep last night and I was worrying about the game, a Red Sox batter hit a grand slam home run, scoring all three runners who were on base, plus himself. That put the Sox ahead of the Tigers, 5-2, and shortly thereafter, the game ended.
14 Monday Oct 2013
Posted in Family and Friends, Go Sox
No doubt if you’re reading this post, you know of the Sox 8th inning comeback last night from a 5-1 shellacking with an Ortiz grand slam to tie the game and then the win in the bottom the 9th.
09 Wednesday Oct 2013
Posted in Go Sox
For those of you who follow such foolishness, you know the Red Sox defeated the Rays last night in Tampa to move on to the American League Championship Series and a possible chance to play in the 2013 World Series.
While last night’s event, and the earlier ones against the Rays, is not important to 99.99+% of America, it was important to a few of us, and to those who have to live with us.
But this post is not about the victory itself but about another example where I once again learned I don’t know myself so well and despite my advancing age, I haven’t learned how to handle certain things so well.
26 Thursday Sep 2013
Posted in Go Sox
Dear Ellen,
I appreciate that you have been quite patient with my mishegas (craziness) again this year with the Red Sox.
I have also noticed that you haven’t ‘rolled your eyes’ when I’ve said that getting into the playoffs isn’t enough, that the Sox need to have the best record in the American League too.
But I’m not sure you understand just how important it is have the best record.
So a quick post for you to know why I am continuing to stress about my heroes even tho they will be in the playoffs.
If they have the best won/loss record that means the following:
1) They will have home field advantage in the two series they would have to play to get to the World Series. In the first best of five series and then in the second best of seven series if there are final games, those crucial games would take place in Fenway, home of the brave.
How important is that, you may ask?
Of the 81 games they have played at home this year, they are 53-28. They have won 65% of their games at Fenway.
Of the 78 games they have played away from home so far this year (they still have three left to play this weekend in Baltimore), they are 43-35, 55%.
Enough of a difference to matter.
2) They will face the winner of a one game Wild Card play off. And that team will have used their best pitcher in that Wild Card game, meaning the Sox won’t have to face the likes of say a David Price in their first game.
3) They will not have to face Detroit in the first playoff series. Detroit has both terrific pitching and strong hitting. And there is always the chance they will be defeated by the time the Sox have to play them.
4) They will not have to make two trips to the West Coast to play Oakland (going back for a final game if the series goes that far), which means they will be more rested.
But you may ask, “Don’t they still have to beat the Tigers and whoever wins the playoff games against the Wild Card anyway?”
True.
But playing at home, playing with the most rest possible, and not having to face one of the best pitchers in baseball to get to the World Series all matter.
Those are not guarantees that the Sox would make it to the World Series.
But every advantage helps.
Questions?
Richard,
Go Sox
16 Monday Sep 2013
Posted in Go Sox
Contest #5 : The Red Sox and the Yankees play 19 games this year. Last year they played 18, and the Yankees won 13 of them. What will the split be in 2013? Tie-Breaker: Who will be the outstanding player for each team, and who will be the dud on each team this year?
Prize: Two tickets to a Sox-Yankee game in 2014. Winner can choose the park and whether or not I join (use the second ticket).
Fifty-four per cent of those participating said the Yankees would win the series, taking 11.4 games to the Sox 7.6.
The 46% of you who thought the Sox would win said they’d win 11 games to 8.
With last nights 9-2 victory by the Sox, a sweep of the final three game series between the two teams, the Fenway heroes put the final nail in the coffin of any possibility of the Yankees winning the AL East Division.
The Sox, on the other hand, improved their record to 92-59 (.609) and increased their Division lead to 9.5 games over the tottering Tampa Bay Rays. With 11 games remaining in their regular season schedule, the Sox Magic Number is down to four.
(For those not paying close attention to the 2013 Red Sox, Yes, these are the Red Sox who last year ended the season with a record of 69-93. Certainly an amazing turn around, about which I probably will write in more detail on another, later post.)
Oh yes. The Sox-Yankee split this year?
Sox 13 to the Yankee’s 6, with the Sox scoring a total of 120 runs to the Yankee’s 85.
A(nother) total reversal of 2012.
Four of the MillersTime contestants were tied with the closest predictions. Dan Fisher, Meg Gage, Jere Smith and Tracy Capulo all predicted a split of 12-7, favoring the Sox.
(Ed. note: one contestant, Elizabeth R. Miller, predicted the Sox would take the series 15-4, being the only one who said the Sox would win more than 12 of the 19 games. Obviously, Ms Miller must have been raised well. On the other hand, Yankee homer David Price will have to live with another one of his sorry predictions, “Yankees will win 14 games. The Sox will be lucky to get away with the other 5.” David comes from ‘Across the Pond’ and perhaps that contributes to his continual misjudgments.)
Since Dan and Tracy failed to make predictions about who would be the outstanding players and who would be the duds, they tie for third place in this contest.
That leaves Meg Gage and Jere Smith.
Meg said Pedroia would be the Sox hero, and Dempster would be the dud for the Sox. And Cano would be the hero and Teixeira the dud for the Yankees.
Jere said for the Sox, Middlebrooks would be the outstanding player and Aceves the dud. For the Yankees, he picked Sabathia as the hero and Youk as the dud.
By the power invested in me by me, I therefore declare Jere Smith runner-up.
And Meg Gage wins the prize and gets to see a Sox-Yankee game in 2014.
However, if Mr. Smith would like to appeal this decision to the MillersTime readers, I will give him one week to present his case, and then I will put the appeal decision up to a vote.
Finally, the best quote I heard about last night’s game and the Sox-Yankee rivalry this year came from that no good fellow Alex Rodriquez: “I guess the good news is that we’re leaving Boston.”
Hopefully, for the rest of this season. And for ever (forever) for A-Rod.
Finally, if you didn’t have a chance to see the Sox tribute (and roast) to Mariano Rivera last night, you can see it now:
Fenway Gives Mo One Final Standing Ovation
02 Friday Aug 2013
Posted in Go Sox
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.
01 Thursday Aug 2013
Posted in Go Sox
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.
