September 23rd, 2006
Reflections from a (half) week on the road
The final (mini) leg of the 2006 Feeding the Monster Tour is done and gone (with some individual dates still to come in the next few months). It included: one Amtrak ride from NYC to Rhode Island, 160 miles on a Hertz rental car (some sort of Mazda non-mini-van mini van, which was surprisingly fun to drive), three nights with my parents, and stops in Providence, Newton, and Burlington, MA. As usual, it’s been an entertaining trip. Without further ado…
* Who’d of thunk? Interest in the Sox is greatly diminished when the team’s not doing well.
* All the same, there’s no end of questions as to what’s up with Manny, why Johnny Damon was, um, traded to the Yankees, why Pedro was, uh, traded to the Mets, why the Sox didn’t make any moves at the deadline, and what that means for the future of the team.
* It is always delightful to see one of the Sittenfelds. Providence featured cousin Jo (the sister of cousin Curtis.)
* Private events sell lots and lots of book: more than 100 at a Boston investment firm on Thursday. Get in touch if you want me to come to an office near you. Or, as it were, your office.
* Hometown readings will always draw old faces: Grace Galton, my sixth-grade math teacher (and one of the great teachers of my youth), came out to the Newton Public Library, as did some old neighbors and the lawyer (and family friend) who represented me after some youthful indiscretions got me in trouble in high school.
* The readers of this blog are more varied than previously thought, and include at least one grandmother and at least one good friend of my sixth grade math teacher.
* The Burlington, MA Barnes & Noble (the biggest in New England), makes enormous banners when they have authors come to town. Truly enormous.
That’s it for now. You’ve been great! And hope to see you all down the road…
September 23rd, 2006
Cats and dogs, living together
Be honest: if, at the beginning of the year, someone held a gun to your head and asked you who the two pitchers would be to post complete games, you’d most likely have said Josh Beckett and Curt Schilling. You would most definitely not have said Julian Tavarez and Tim Wakefield. (This was likely what came to mind when thinking about Tavarez on March 30.)
And yet, those are the guys who’ve thrown the only two complete games of the season: Wakefield, more than six months ago, on April 15, and Tavarez, who worked his sinker to devastating effect while throwing a complete game, 99-pitch, 1-run gem in Toronto last night. (Tavarez was so excited about the second complete game of his career he wouldn’t shut up in the post-game, on-field interview.) Tavarez is signed for next year (for around $3 million), and his end-of-season tenure as a starter (he’s now 2-0 since moving to the rotation) makes him more valuable in a world where Chris Benson commands ten of millions of dollars; it also makes him more attractive as a trading chip, yet one more reason this offseason should be interesting.
Lots of other news out of the Sox last night:
* This column by Gordon Edes is gonna cause lots of talk show chatter. The essence of it is that Manny’s a quitter and a punk and has let his teammates down by refusing the play hurt. (Things like this will get more attention than the remaining games; as of 5:30 AM, it’s leading the Red Sox page on the Globe’s site. The game story is only alluded to in a caption.) I did another reading last night in Burlington (MA, not VT), and was asked — as I almost am — why the media hates Manny; Edes’ piece isn’t going to help my contention that they don’t. The nut graf: “Do you suppose that 20 years from now, Ramírez will feel even the slightest bit of remorse for the way he quit on his Red Sox teammates in 2006, refusing to honor the code that is an article of faith for Jason Varitek and Mike Lowell, Curt Schilling and Coco Crisp, Trot Nixon and Alex Gonzalez, and Mark Loretta — even the now-departed fat man, David Wells — that you do all within your power to play hurt.” The answer to that rhetorical question is, of course, no. But if you look at the playing-in-pain performances of the above list, it’s unclear these warriors were doing the Sox any favors by suiting up while dinged up. Manny’s always had a low pain threshold; he’s also always been a bit flakey. But he also loves to play; you don’t rack up season after season of 155 games because you’re looking for time off. He is in some pain; other players would likely play through that pain; Manny won’t. The Sox’s baseball operations staff isn’t particularly upset by this: Manny played hard for most of the season. What’s of much more concern is the recent appearance of Manny’s agent in Boston. If you guessed that he was here to, once again, relay Manny’s late-season request for an off-season trade, you’d be right. (I think Edes is one of the best reporters, and one of the best writers, working the beat today. His column — which didn’t contain a single quote — gets to one of my pet peeves: the fact that sports writers are, uniquely given the latitude to regularly elide from the role of reporter to that of columnist. But enough of my media musings for now.)
* Speaking of dinged up, it turns out there was a good reason Coco looked like a shell of himself at the plate: on Monday, he’ll have surgery in which a pin or a screw will likely be inserted in his left index finger. This is for an injury Crisp suffered on April 8.
* Notice how devastating Keith Foulke’s split fingered fastball was on Thursday? That was as well as he’s ever thrown that pitch, and Foulke knew it, too. His change still isn’t as sharp as it was in ‘04 — or any of the years before — but he has his confidence and his swagger back, and last night he was up and throwing in the eighth; if Francona hadn’t let Tavarez go for the complete game, Foulke would have appeared for the third night in a row. I think we’re seeing an audition for the role of the Red Sox’s 2007 closer… (One thing I guarantee is that Matt Clement — a guy with control issues and self-confidence issues who takes a long time to warm up — will absolutely not, under any circumstances, be closing games next year.)
September 22nd, 2006
Boston City Councilor also swears off Cuban sandwiches, Chinese electronics
“Allston-Brighton City Councilor Jerry P. McDermott wants the Hub to fire back at Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for calling President Bush ‘the devil’ at the United Nations on Wednesday. His modest proposal: removing Kenmore Square’s famed Citgo sign, which is owned by Citgo Oil, a Venezuelan subsidiary.
“‘Given the hatred of the United States displayed by dictator Hugo Chavez, it would be more fitting to see an American flag when you drive through Kenmore Square,’ said McDermott, who yesterday filed a resolution with the city clerk to have the sign removed. ‘I think people would soon forget the Citgo sign.’”
“Sign off, Hugo: Pol lights into Bush-bashing Venezuelan loudmouth”
By Laura Crimaldi and Renee Nadeau
The Boston Herald
September 22, 2006
This man’s salary is paid by your tax dollars…and this is what he spends his days doing. Seriously. Think about that.
September 22nd, 2006
Framing the debate
Earlier today, the Huffington Post put up an interview with press critic, Committee to Protect Journalists co-founder, and New York Review of Books contributor Michael Massing. It’s a long, interesting piece; I don’t always agree with Massing, but I’m (almost) always interested in what he has to say.
But one of Massing’s answers particularly bothered me. When asked about the political pressures today’s media outlets need to deal with — pressures that are both very real and very frightening — Massing says, “If you look at The New York Times and The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times - probably our three top newspapers - it’s pretty extraordinary what they’ve been running. The New York Times has in some ways become the voice of the opposition in this country. Day after day, I’ve been looking at the Times and have been struck by how much they’ve been willing to run stories exposing incompetence and wrongdoing and documenting things that have been going wrong around the world.”
First off, it’s incredible (and incredibly upsetting) that coverage of politics has devolved to the point where people are struck by the extent to which the media is doing its job. Just as troubling is the way in which Massing frames this coverage: as the “voice of the opposition.” This is language that is (and should be) used to describe a political party not in power. It’s precisely this type of language that gives ammunition to politicians (in this instance, the Bush administration) who want to paint negative coverage as fundamentally stemming from a ideological divide (the NY liberal elite versus the politicians that represent the hoi polloi). Exposing incompetence and wrongdoing, documenting problems in the world — that doesn’t mean the Times (or any other outlet, for that matter), is the voice of the opposition, it means the paper is doing its job: ferreting out the truths that the politicians, business leaders, etc., want to hide from the public. Massing is right to say this important work is under attack, but when he uses language that makes it sound like it’s the voice of the opposition and not the voice of a free press that’s being muzzled, he must be warming Karl Rove’s heart.
September 22nd, 2006
The wonder of it all
Yesterday afternoon, I took advantage of the fact that I’m in Boston for a few days to catch up with some folks at Fenway. The conversation, as it naturally does, ended up on David Ortiz; I expressed some concern for how he’d fare against Johan Santana, a.k.a. the left-handed Pedro Martinez, circa 1999. (Going into last night’s game, Ortiz was 0-6 with 3 Ks against JS.) Not to worry, I was told: Papi has gotten so good at recongizing change-ups — and not swinging at them — that he’ll just lay off those and wait for something he can hit.
He got that something with the first pitch he saw, showing once again the extent to which Ortiz has become a smart hitter and not just a good one. He’s almost Williams-esque in his desire to wait for his pitch. (OK, fine: not quite Williams-esque. But very good.) He’s Bird-esque is his ability to rise to the moment. And he remains a stone-cold pimp; when talking with the guy who caught his #51, he inquired as to whether the dude was married. Told he was not, Ortiz said he’d soon have two girlfriends. At least.
As an aside, the at-bat that resulted in Ortiz’s second homer of the night — in the seventh inning, off of Matt Guerrier — reminded me a little of the at-bat in the 14th inning of Game 5 of the ‘04 ALCS…you know, the one where he had a walk-off single off of Esteban Loaiza. Loaiza got ahead of Ortiz early on, while Guerrier started Ortiz off with three balls, but after swinging through on 3-0, Ortiz fouled off four straight pitches before launching his rocket to deep center. In one game, we got to witness history and also were given a clinic in the ways in which Papi has improved as a hitter: he can handle lefties and he can spoil pitches until he gets one he can handle.
The frenzied adulation of last night is why Fenway’s remaining five games will be electric and exciting: every night (or afternoon), fans have a chance to witness history. (And to compute the chances you’ll get a free, personalized copy of Feeding the Monster by winning the Big Papi prediction contest. Ortiz’s HR+RBI total is currently 184, and there are nine games left…) Even the Boston media is treating the games themselves as if they’re sideshows; in today’s Globe writeup, the game is barely described; Ortiz, needless to say, is given plenty of ink.
(Speaking of games getting short shrift, Josh Beckett has seen two of his better pitching performances of the year be relegated to second fiddle status: his 7 innings of 2-run ball against the Mets was overshadowed by Pedro’s return to Fenway, and last night’s 8-inning shutout was more or less ignored b/c of Ortiz.)
September 21st, 2006
All hail El Papi Grande. (And: The best Trupiano could come up with is “The Foxx hunt is over?”)
In case you missed it, last night David Ortiz hit his 50th home run of the season, equaling Jimmie Foxx’s club record, set in 1938. Amalie Benjamin has a nice line in her write up in the Globe:
“They stood, as the ball from the hand of Boof Bonser — what a name for that footnote — lifted off Ortiz’s bat with two outs in the sixth inning, a home run that in its flight, in its landing in the center-field seats to the right of the yellow line, did more than equal a Red Sox record. It did exactly what it should have, breaking a 1-1 tie, though the Twins went on to an 8-2 victory.
Because that is who David Ortiz is. And that is what David Ortiz does.”
I know this has been repeated ad infinitum, but here are some of the Red Sox players who never hit 50 home runs:
* Ted Williams (career best 43, 1949)
* Carl Yastrzemski (44, 1967)
* Jim Rice (46, 1978)
* Mo Vaughn (44, 1996)
* Manny Ramirez (45, 2005)
* Jerry Remy (2, 1978)
To further honor the greatest clutch hitter in the history of the Red Sox…
Here’s an outtake from the book on how the Sox ended up with Ortiz in the first place.
Here’s an excerpt on Papi’s breakout ‘03 season.
If you go to the bottom of this page, there’s an audio link to my reading about Ortiz’s game-winning single off of Esteban Loaiza in the 14th inning of Game 5 in the 2004 ALCS. (As Joe Buck memorably said on national TV, “Damon coming to the plate, he can keep on running to New York. Game 6, tomorrow night!”)
Here’s a photographic recap of Papi’s 50 homers (courtesy of the Globe).
And here’s a gallery of Ortiz’ walk-offs (also courtesy of the Globe).
Enjoy.
September 21st, 2006
Yes, I’m the kid who…
…(insert memory from high school here). After last night’s lovely reading in Providence — lovely if you cut out the tangled thicket of interweaving on-off ramps for 95 and 195 that surround the city — it’s back to my hometown for tonight’s event at the Newton Free Library. That means if you come out tonight, you’ll not only hear all about the the book (and the Sox more generally), but you’ll also get a chance to meet old high school teachers/siblings of ex-girlfriends/etc. And who’d want to miss that?
