Youki
That
sweat dripping from Kevin Youkilis’s helmet beak must be distracting. Couldn’t he solve that problem by shaving
his bushy goatee and growing some hair on his head?
The
Baseball Season – not on Halloween, please!
The
three of the last four World Series have ended in 4 game sweeps, while the remaining one took only 5 games to end. Honestly,
many fans are relieved. For baseball nuts whose only sport is baseball, by this time of year, they are anxious to get on with
their lives. The games are fun and enjoyable, but too much is too much.
It
is Halloween season, Bud! If this series went 7 games, were we expected to watch baseball on Halloween? That is too much to
ask and could turn fans away from baseball. Watching football on Thanksgiving is another matter. No doubt many guys would
rather the game be the center of attention for a good chunk of the time they are thrown together with their relatives. On
Halloween in the house dwelling families even the dads can’t escape, one parent generally walks with their young wards,
while the other parent has dish-out-the-goods-at-the-door duty. For the young folks with no kids, Halloween is often the party
highlight of the year. How can the powers which run MLB ignore that?
Francona
Terry
Francona is our kind of manager. Unlike a typical lefty-lefty/righty-righty auto-manager, Francona showed no qualms about
bringing in lefty Okajima to face right-handers whenever he was best arm available for the situation. With the way Hideki’s
pitches moved, outside of Papelbon, he was the Red Sox’ best reliever against both right-handed and left-handed batters.
Unlike an old-fashioned give-the-pitcher-a-chance-to-work-things-out manager, at any point after the 5th inning,
Francona took his pitchers out of the game at the first sign of trouble (not cheap hits, but a real sign of fatigue or loss
of command). This preserved his pitchers’ arms for the long run and nipped rallies in the bud for the short run.
Lowell vs. A-Rod
After
the final victory last night, which was nearly upstaged by Alex Rodriguez’s decline of his option year for the Yankees,
and hearing Series MVP Mike Lowell say how much he loved playing for Boston
in a completely genuine tone – I thought the Red Sox should re-sign him and say no thank you to A-Rod. That would be
the best for baseball. Adding A-Rod to the Red Sox arsenal would be even more anti-competitive than when the Yankees acquired
A-Rod. At least, that time, the dominant team had to give up something significant (Alfonso Soriano) to get him. The Red Sox
would become their worse enemy: the New Yankees.
Many
are trying to ascribe that moniker to them already. There are some parallels, however, to me the Red Sox represent innovation,
thoroughness, and intelligence while the Yankees represent egoism: “Steinbrenner and New York City demand the Yankees
to be no. 1, because Steinbrenner is only happy if he has proved he is the greater than everyone else and who’s task
is to make his like-minded New Yorkers happy by re-assuring that they live in the greatest city on the planet.”. Of
course, that characterization is not quite fair. It is difficult to say where a competitive spirit crosses the line from healthy
to not. I admired the Torre Yankees for their internationalism.
I
don’t know if clubs have anything against Alex Rodriguez personally and have long considered him peerless as a baseball
player. Yet, Mike Lowell is the Red Sox’s Nations’ thirdbaseman and even they would rather keep him than pursue
Rodriguez. Baseball Prospectus’s Joe Sheehan reporting from the championship celebration at Coors Field: “Every now and again a chant goes up, with the most popular ones
being ‘Re-sign Lowell!’ and ‘Don’t Want A-Rod!’” I hope Theo and the Red Sox listened to that chant and
will heed it. Why not let those happy well paying fans have what they want?
