Baseball blatherings 6/23
*OK, I know from my feedback that even as my site continues to grow, a portion of my audience is still composed of fellow sports journalists. So those of you back in Boston -- let's start a project. Let's get Roger Clemens back in a Red Sox uniform.
You know how it works. Just take a page out of the New York tabloid media's book. Every year, weeks before the trade deadline, they decide who they want to see in a Yankee uniform, and start planting stories about how that player really wants to be a Yankee, even if they made it up off the top of their heads.
So let's head them off before they get started and start the drumbeat to get Roger back in town. I want it. You want it. Every Sox fan age 25-40 deep down wants it. Roger has a 1.53 ERA after 15 starts. Never in his 22 MLB seasons has his ERA been this low after 15 starts. Not in 1986. Not in 1990. Never.
The "Roger wants to be a Yankee again" hype should flare up again any day now. Beat them to the punch. The Yankees aren't winning anything this year, Roger or no. The Sox with Roger could win Boston's first back-to-back World Series since 1915-16. I'd say "this is how his story should end," but we all know he'll be pitching somewhere until he's 50.
Oh and here's a stat line I read this evening: Roger is 334-167 in his career. The Royals' 12-man staff, combined, is 163-173.
*One of the great records of all-time is about to fall. Craig Biggio was twice hit by pitches on Wednesday. That's 266 for his career. Don Baylor was hit 267 times.
Now, I specifically remember three Don Baylor hits from 1986:
-- His game-breaking double at Yankee Stadium in June that I think scored three. That was the moment it really sunk in the Sox might be up to something that year.
-- The home run he hit at Yankee Stadium in August on NBC's game of the week, where NBC flashed a graphic of the George Steinbrenner quote "Don Baylor's bat will be dead by August" as he rounded the bases.
-- And of course his two-run homer to kick-start the rally in the bottom of the ninth of Game 5 of the ALCS against the CA (now LAA of A).
Admittedly I don't have the stats in front of me, but I am pretty sure he got hit by a pitch in every other plate appearance that season.
*I don't know if anyone else has come flat-out and said it. If not, let me be the first: Scott Kazmir's going to be The Next Big Thing in pitching, *if* being a Devil Ray doesn't crush his confidence first. After Tampa's debacle on Tuesday, he came out on Wednesday at Yankee Stadium and wasn't perfect, but put in seven strong innings and got the win after Nick Green belted a clutch three-run homer off Carl Pavano in the seventh (I'm sorry. That phrase just made me laugh, so I'll say it again: after Nick Green belted a clutch three-run homer off Carl Pavano in the seventh).
(Oh and a memo to NESN, well in advance of the next Sox-DRays series: Enough with playing "Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin every single time Kazmir's name is mentioned or he is up on the screen. It was mildly amusing the first time, back in April; eye-roll inducing the 592nd time, on that same day in April).
*Yet again, it is time to call myself out for popping off about something and being completely wrong.
Mariners rookie Mike Morse, who I rather blithely dismissed last week, belted a two-run, game-tying single with two outs in the ninth against Oakland Wednesday night in a game the Mariners won in 12 innings, 5-4. The kid's gotten hits in 10 of 12 games since getting called up from Tacoma and is hitting .397. Morse (a shortstop), center fielder Jeremy Reed, and second baseman Jose Lopez (the guy who's going to push Booney out of town) are three Mariners youngsters to store in your mental rolodex.
Baseball blatherings 6/16
Feedback
<< Home