13 Sunday Sep 2015
Posted in Go Sox
Tags
500 Home Runs, Big Papi, Boston Red Sox, David Ortiz, Home Runs, Papi, Red Sox, Sox
No doubt by now many of you know that David Ortiz last night hit two home runs to get to his 500th home run, a ‘feat’ accomplished by 27 other major league players.
Here are a few other bits of information for you:
09 Wednesday Sep 2015
Posted in Go Sox
Tags
"Angels of Fenway", "Before This World", "You've Got a Friend", and Storen, Arnie Beyeler, Big Papa, Boston Red Sox, Brian Butterfield, Familia, Fenway Park, Jackie Bradley Jr., James Taylor, Joe Kelly, Jordan Zimmerman, Matt Harvey, Mets, Mookie Betts, Nats, Nieuwenhuis, NY Mets, Papelbon, Red Sox, Rick Porcello, Rivero, Rusney Castillo, Ryan Zimmerman, Sox, The Washington Nationals, Trieinen, Tyler Clippard, Werth, Xander Boegarts
Angels of Fenway
No. I’m not referring to the new Sox outfield of Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley, Jr., and Rusney Castillo, tho “Angels of Fenway” might be an apt way to talk about to those three young, exciting players (see more below).
But I am talking about that Fenway and someone familiar to most Sox fans.
02 Wednesday Sep 2015
Posted in Go Sox
Tags
baseball, Beantown, Betts, Bradley, Bryce Harper, Castillo, Cherrington, Dombrowski, Don Orsillo, Hanley Ramirez, Jerry Remy, Mets, MillersTime Baseball Contests, MLB, Nats, NESN, New Rules, Orioles, Red Sox, Son Orsillo, Sox, Yankees, Yunkees
In no particular order, here are some comments, thoughts, observations, and perhaps even an occasional insight at this point in the 2015 baseball season: ** For those of you who can remember back to preseason, I wrote about the new baseball rules for shortening games and predicted they’d work (see: It’s Gonna Work – Betcha). At the All Star break this year, roughly the halfway mark of the season, the average length of the games was down almost exactly 10 minutes. The rule about batters having to keep one foot in the batter’s box accounted for half of the reduction in game time. Calling for a play challenge from the dugout and limiting the time between innings, probably make up the other half. Recently, however, the game time has crept up a bit. (It seems to me that batters are staying out of the box more now than they did at the beginning of the season, perhaps because MLB and the Players Union agreed not to use the financial penalties that were supposed to kick in in May?) ** If you think there are more no-hitters this year than last, you’re right (six already versus five for all of last year). And there were 33 no ‘hitters’ thru 6 innings (better than all of last year), 17 through 7 innings and 10 through 8 innings. But pitchers on the whole are doing worse than last year. The ERA of all the Major League teams is up over 2014, from 3.74 (full season) to 3.82 (thru 8/31/15). Batters are doing better (makes sense if ERA is up) in all categories: Ave. – 254/.251, OBP – .315/.314, SLG. – .402/.386, and OPS – .718/.700. Fielding PCT is virtually unchanged (.985/.984). ** What’s up with the Sox? They have been out of it for most of the season, largely because of weak pitching and weak hitting. (Outgoing GM Cherrington should’ve listened to me when I said stay away from Hanley Ramirez). They have done well over the past several weeks as they have settled into what is likely to be an outstanding outfield — Bradley, Betts, and Castillo (photo below) — for next year and beyond, tho it’s not clear yet which position each will play in that outfield. Their hitting is up and so is their starting pitching; relief pitching, however, has worsened, especially with the loss of Uehara for the remainder of the season. They have a modest chance of avoiding last place if they continue at their present pace. Everyone is on their toes trying to prove to their new president of baseball operations Dombrowski that they deserve to play next year.
Caylor Arnold/USA Today Sports
14 Tuesday Apr 2015
Posted in Go Sox
Tags
2015 Millerstime Baseball Contests, baseball, MLB. Predictions, Nationals, Playoffs, Prizes, Red Sox, Rookie of the Year, Wild Card, World Series, Yankees
I’m not sure if the contestants in this year’s 2015 MillersTime Baseball Contests are geniuses, fools, frustrated writers, or wannabe comedians (see #s 28, 32, and 43, for example).
You decide.
Judging by previous years in this contest, at least 10 of the predictions below — Question #2 in this year’s contest — will come true.
Which 10, of course, is the question.
If you predict how many actually come true, you will also receive a prize — a t-shirt proclaiming you a MillersTime Baseball Contest Winner. Send your guess (the number of predictions that will come true) to me at samesty84@gmail.com or put the number in the Comments section of this post. Multiply winners are possible, but you only get one guess/prediction.
11 Saturday Apr 2015
Posted in Family and Friends, Go Sox
Tags
baseball, Big Papi, Dear Eli, Evil Empire, Mark Teixeira, Never Over 'Til It's Over, Red Sox, Yankees
Dear Eli,
It was fun going with you to the baseball game Thursday. And I’m glad we stayed until the very end of the game, even if your favorite team, the Nats, lost.
You always have to stay until the end of the game. No matter how bad or how good it might seem for your team.
Yesterday was a good example of why it’s so important to understand the game is never over until the final out.
Last night in Yankee Stadium, it was the bottom of the 9th inning, and my heroes the Sox were ahead 3-2. There were two outs. One more and they’d beat the Evil Empire (the Yankees).
Disaster struck.
Instead of the final out, the Yankees hit a home run to tie the game.
Extra innings.
Nothing much happened for the next seven innings, although Friday had turned into Saturday. Then, in the 16th inning, Big Papi, the great David Ortiz, hit a home run and put the Sox ahead 4-3.
Then, the Yankees got a home run in the bottom of the 16th when one of their players, Mark Teixeira, who was 34 years old when the game started and had turned 35 by the 16th inning, hit a home run.
Bummer. The game tied again, 4-4.
In the top 18th inning, again the Sox went ahead, 5-4.
And wouldn’t you know it, again the Yunkees tied it. Score now 5-5.
Then, in the 19th inning, after more than seven hours, the Sox went ahead 6-5.
This time, the bad guys didn’t tie it in the bottom of the inning, and the Sox won.
And that’s why you never, ever leave a game until the final out is made.
Never give up.
16 Friday Jan 2015
Posted in Family and Friends, Go Sox
Tags
baseball, Family, Loyalty, Nationals, Red Sox, Tyler Clippard, Values, Winning, Yunel Escobar
My post yesterday, Nats: Terrible, Terrible Decision, reminded me of what most bothers me about baseball, a game I’ve loved for as long as I can remember (at least six and a half decades).
17 Wednesday Sep 2014
Posted in Go Sox
Tags
Baltimore Orioles, baseball, Dilemmas, Las Vegas Bets, Red Sox, Washington Nationals, World Series
(Not shown: Multiple Red Sox tickets to win the 2014 Pennant & World Series.)
Dilemma #1:
The Facts: The Washington Nationals and the Baltimore Orioles secured playoff positions last night in their respective MLB Divisions (NL East and AL East). Thus both have a shot at winning the 2014 World Series. I have been a Nats’ fan (a distant second, of course, to being a Red Sox fan) since they arrived in DC. I have rooted against the O’s for years, except when they play the Yankees. I hold two Las Vegas $10 bets. One for the Nats (payoff $110) and one for the O’s (payoff $260).
The Dilemma: Whom do I cheer for to win the World Series?
(Note: I also hold three $10 tickets for the Nats to win the 2014 Pennant. Total payoff for the three tickets, $145.)
Dilemma #2:
The Facts: On my Orioles’ WS ticket, I have written the name “Nelson” in the upper right hand corner of the ticket. Nelson is a friend who roots for the O’s and rubs it in when they beat the Sox. Nelson does not know I bought this ticket with him in mind.
The Dilemma: Do I inform Nelson I have the ticket, and do I give it to him?
Dilemma #3:
The Facts: I also bought a bunch (I’m embarrassed to say how many) of Sox tickets for them to win the 2014 Pennant and World Series. (If either the Nats’ or the O’s win the World Series, I can recoup the cost of most of my foolish Sox bets.)
The Dilemma: What do I do with all my useless Sox 2014 tickets.
Please advise.
01 Friday Aug 2014
Posted in Go Sox
Tags
Andrew MIller, baseball, Ben Cherington, Bill Beane, Boston Red Sox, John Lackey, John Lester, Red Sox, Sox, Yoenis Cespedis
Twenty-four hours ago I asked my wife Ellen to lock up all the sharp knives and put a barrier across the stairs to the third floor.
It was clear to me that the Sox were about to explode, that GM Ben Cherington was about to cast off, minimally, our two top pitchers and one of our top relievers.
For what? A bunch of prospects?
My well being was threatened, and I needed protection from acting impulsively.
This morning I told Ellen she could unlock the knives and take down the barrier to the third floor.
For the moment at least, things didn’t seem so dire.
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.
25 Wednesday Sep 2013
Posted in Go Sox
Tags
2013 Baseball Contests, baseball, Major League Baseball, Red Sox, Washington Nationals, Wild Card, World Series, Yankees
As the 2013 MLB season winds down, or, for some of us, winds up, there are already three winners to announce for this year’s MillersTime Baseball Contests.
Contest #4 – Will Nats make the playoffs? If yes, how far will they go? If no, why not?
More than 90% of you said the Nats would make the playoffs, and some of you thought they’d make it to the World Series or even be the winner of the WS. Most seemed to believe the Nats would pick up right where they left off last year (98-64). With four games remaining, they are 84-74 and have been eliminated from the Wild Card.
Matt Gallati (“they will be plagued by injuries and thus lose more often than they win.”), Larry Longenecker (“Davey Johnson will eventually upset people by speaking his mind…”) and David Price (“…they won’t even be close…”) all thought they wouldn’t make the playoffs and seemed to understand that 2013 would be different for them than 2012.
But Randy Candea wins this contest with this prediction for 2013: “Nats (88-74) will finish behind Atlanta and not make the playoffs due to sophomore jinx. Unlike last year, they won’t win the close games.” He gets two tickets to a Nationals’ game of his choice in 2014.
Contest #5 – Predict the Sox-Yankee Split of the 19 games they play against each other. Since Jere Smith failed to take the opportunity to appeal my decision, Meg Gage wins the two tickets to Fenway in 2014. (See this earlier post for more details on the results of this contest.)
Contest #7 – Worst Prediction.
Actually this one was not one of the six original 2013 contests. In a moment of anxiety about how the Sox were doing, I distracted myself by going through everyone’s predictions and decided to add a category of the Worst Prediction for 2013. I found 15 predictions that were pretty wide of the mark and let you folks choose which one was the worst. (See all the 15 in this earlier post.)
Elizabeth Hedlund ‘won’ (got the most votes from you) with her prediction that “Stephen Strasburg wins 30 games, first since Denny McLain in 1986.” And because contestant Tracy Capullo encouraged Elizabeth to join the contests, these two Red Sox fans get to go to a Nats’ game of their choice in 2014.
Also,
Contest #3. Which League wins the All-Star game, what will the score be, and who will be the MVP?
I announced the winner of this contest earlier. Tim Malieckal and I will go to Minneapolis next summer.
Finally, there are still three contests to be decided: Best overall prediction (#1), Best Team Prediction (#2), and World Series Contestants and winner. We’ll have to wait until the end of October to see who wins these.
06 Friday Sep 2013
Posted in Go Sox
Last night proved once again that you simply have to stay until the end of a baseball game, whether that’s the 27th out or the final out or run scored in extra innings.
So after blowing a 7-2 lead to the Evil Empire last night, the mighty Sox were down to their final strike in the ninth inning. Mariano Rivera, the great God of closers, was on the mound. Mike Napoli, the strike out leader for the Sox with 171 so far this season, was up with two strikes. The Yunkee fans were all on their feet screaming for the final punch out, an amazing comeback, and an important win as their long season was hanging by a thread.
And I had my hand on the off button on my iPad so I wouldn’t have to see the Bronx celebration.
If you’re reading this post, you probably already know the outcome. Napoli scratches out a hit. Recent Sox acquiree and speedster Quintin Barry replaces Napoli on first, steals second and gets to third on a bad throw and a missed stop by hobbled Derek Jeter. Stephen Drew, unsung Sox player who was 0-4 already, scratches out a single, and the Sox tie the game. Rivera blows (another) save opportunity against my heroes.
So if you had left the stadium, as perhaps half of the Bronx fans had already done, or switched off your TV, iPad, or radio, you missed the come back.
Then it was another 15 minutes or so before the Yankees further imploded with Soriano getting greedy trying to steal third after having swiped second. He was caught. The Sox got out of the inning with the next batter.
In the 10th, after a blown call by an umpire on whether Shane Victorino had swung or not, benefiit to the Sox, chubby Joba Chamberlain gave up a go ahead RBI to one of this year’s key Sox players (Victorino).
Koji Uehara, the not so surprising Sox closer (to those who have followed his career closely), and perhaps the new, next God of closers, shut down the Yunks in the bottom of the 10th.
Four hours and thirty-two minutes.
And if you hadn’t stayed through the end of the 9th and on to the 10th, you woulda missed it.
There were enough mistakes by both teams, their managers, and the umpires to fill another post, but I’ll spare you that.
Suffice it to say, Thursday night’s game was simply another confirmation that no matter what, you have to stay until the end.
(PS – Elsewhere I’ve written why you also have to be at the park for the first inning, as the three hardest outs are not at the end of a game but in the first inning, when most runs are scored, before the pitchers settle in and while the offensive teams have their best hitters lined up).
03 Tuesday Sep 2013
Posted in Go Sox
Tags
Joe Sheenan, MillersTime Baseball Contests, Nats, Os, Red Sox, SI, Worst Baseball Predictions, Yunkees
Bryce Harper goes nuts. — Harper’s age-19 season was arguably the best ever for a player of his age. It wasn’t just his physical tools, but his approach at the plate, with a good walk rate and acceptable strikeout-to-walk ratio, the way he worked to improve in the outfield, and his unmatched aggression on the bases. Mike Trout set the bar high for 20-year-olds last year; look for Harper to clear it and set a new standard for baseball playing by a guy who can’t legally buy a drink. He will challenge for the NL MVP for a Nationals team that might be the best in the game.
You can vote once, you can get friends to vote, you can vote for your own predictions, and you need to get your votes in by September 30 (tho I’d prefer you do it sooner). You can put your vote in the Comment section on this post or send it to me by email (Samesty84@gmail.com)
Whoever’s the winner (i.e., the author of”The Worst Prediction for 2013) will have the ‘honor’/’dishonor’ of attending a Nats’ game with me next season.
19 Monday Aug 2013
Posted in Go Sox
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.
10 Wednesday Jul 2013
Posted in Family and Friends, Go Sox
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?
10 Monday Jun 2013
Posted in Family and Friends, Go Sox
Tags
Billy Goodman, Dom DiMaggio, Eli, Grand Papa, Jimmy Piersall, Red Sox, Ted Williams, Washington Nationals
June 8, 2013
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:
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.