Why A – Roid Why?

Alex,
Come on!

You’ve been beat up by Tek, played slap hands in the playoffs, ripped an MVP away from Papi, hit a GWHR off Paps on a night I stayed in the pouring rain to watch it, and various other incidents. I’ve purposely never drafted you for a fantasy team because you were the one player i could not bear to have on my team.

But I respected you. I respected your ability, your talent, and your consistency.

You will always be tainted.

Will the clean slugger please stand up?

Congrats Jim Ed Rice!

It took 15 years but Jim Rice was elected to the Baseball hall of fame today. Jim Rice was my first real baseball hero. I grew up watching him, reading about him, and collecting his baseball cards. Every day I went to the Globe not only to read about the game from the night before but to read the box score and look at Rice’s stats.

It’s amazing what you recall 25-30 years later, but I remember quite vividly watching Rice play left field, and I still to this day disagree with those who found Rice to be slow. After all, Rice did have two straight seasons of 15 triples in 77 and 78. That 78 season was a bittersweet one with the loss to the Yankees in a one day playoff, but it solidified Rice in my mind as the hero of my Red Sox youth. 46 home runs, 135 RBI’s and a .315 average were great numbers, and something more…my original fantasy baseball passion. Yes, Jim Ed helped me enjoy math, enjoy stats, and enjoy the game behind the game.

Congrats Rice, it never should have taken 15 years.

Josh Hamilton…good for you

Watching the home run derby the other night, I couldn’t help but get slightly teary thinking of the depths this young man has come back from in two and half years. The natural talent on display was something for the average fan to marvel at, but watching his peers just look in awe was another thing.

You could say a lot of things about the guy, you could harp on his addiction, his missed early opportunities, his tattoos, etc. But for me I just have a little hope that this path continues for him.

Good Luck Josh Hamilton, and in the ever present words of my Mom when one of us did something well…Good for you Hamilton, Good for you!

Red Sox win, Red Sox win.

Did anyone else catch the pre game fanfare this morning?

Dice K may soon be the most annoying pitcher to watch work a game outside of Mike Mussina who has turned his Kathy Smith back stretch into a seven minute ritual with each pitch.

I guess it was just Manny being Manny…

GAME ON!

Game On.

Sox season starts tomorrow at 6am with a game against the A’s in Japan.  I will wake up and watch the first few innings before getting out the door.

I read about the Cask and game On being open at 5:30 am to let fans in. And people will be there. Boston.com predicts tomorrow will be a bad day for work in Boston.

There will be a bunch of people who will go to the Cask or Game On at 5:30 in the morning tomorrow. I am jealous of them. I do want to go and act like there is a real reason to watch the game there. I do want to tell people I know that I spent the first game of the season in a bar at 5:30 am and watching the Sox play in Japan.

But I won’t be there.

If I told you all the reasons why I won’t be there you would have already known most of them.

I can try to rip on the people there for many reasons. Try to call them homers, wanna be’s, phonys, whatever, but I won’t. You know why? Because I can actually say – I’d like to be there. I’d like to have nothing else better to do than grab my boys, my bros and start drinking at 3am, show up with a good glow and watch the game amongst members of the nation.

Eat some greasy breakfast or order calamari at 7 am, and drink diet coke until the taps are turned on at 8.

So Bless yer souls. Enjoy.

By the way, the combined cask/Game On capacity is somewhere around 1000 people I am guessing. There will be at least 7000 people who will claim they were actually there. Most of them will be BU/Northeastern/COF students. Most of them will not be there.

The season is starting.

Our entire season falls into the hands of our pitching. The ability of lester/bucholtz/beckett’s back and bartolo’s wild arm will determine what SEPTEMBER REALLY LOOKS LIKE!!!