Home Run Derby

The Anaheim Angels have the Rally Monkey …
The New York Yankees have the Rally Squirrel …

The Boston Red Sox could have had the Rally Hawk …

… until it went and attacked a middle school student on a Fenway Park tour on Thursday. 

Here’s a pic right after the attack.

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Remember when you used to get a stick of gum in a pack of baseball cards?  That oblong piece of stale bubblegum hasn’t been seen since 1991 … and I’ve always felt that something was missing from my baseball cards ever since.  Maybe we should replace it with something …

I know!!  A Bottle of Wine!!  It tastes better than gum, and it’ll just get better with age.  Not to mention the side effects you can’t get from gum.

In 2007, a trio of Red Sox players unveiled wines which would benefit some of their favorite charities.  There were wines for …

Manny Ramirez: ”Manny Being Merlot” (CHARLEE Homes for Children)
Tim Wakefield: “CaberKnuckle” Cabernet (Pitching in for Kids)
Curt Schilling: “Schilling Schardonnay” (Curt’s Pitch for ALS)

The response was so good, that there’s a lot more players on wine bottles in 2008.  Something called Longball Cellars is at it again with wines produced by Selby Winery, but now there’s 21 baseball players (past and present) on wines which go for about $12 or $13 a bottle, all available in Spring 2008.  100% of the proceeds go to a charity of the player’s choice. 

The art on some of these bottles rivals the baseball cards my dad has in his collection from the fifties. 

Let’s see whose face you could be drinking, and who they’re supporting. 

You can believe that the Red Sox are back on the bottle with new “Championship Edition” bottles …

David Ortiz: “Vintage Papi” (The David Ortiz Children’s Fund)
Jason Varitek: “Captain’s Cabernet” (Pitching in for Kids)
Kevin Youkilis: “SauivignYoouuk Blanc” (Kevin Youkilis’ Hits for Kids)

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The Interleague Inequity Series is winding down …

And since Nick just previewed the Angels, let’s head out West.  As in the American League West.

There are two likely contenders in the AL West (Angels and Mariners) and two likely also-rans (A’s and Rangers) … even before a singl;e pitch has been thrown.  Seattle and California will be locked in a tight battle all season … so a easy Interleague schedule for one of them could easily tip the scales in one team’s favor.

The MLB Schedule makers didn’t absolutely screw one contender over another one like they did in the NL Central.   But the Angels have a right to complain …

2008 AL West Interleague

A quick glance shows you that the AL West is playing the NL East.  All four teams in the Division have Interleague Rivals, so each team misses at least one team from the NL East.

And among the Contenders … the Angels drew the short straw.  They get back-to-back series against the Phillies and the NY Mets, missing only the lowly Florida Marlins.  They also get six games against the crosstown Dodgers, who will likely be better than their 2007 record. 

Meanwhile, the Mariners also miss a NL East team.  But they don’t miss an also-ran like the Marlins or Nationals.  No, the M’s miss the defending NL East Champion Phillies.  The Mariners do get the honor of facing the pitching-rich San Diego Padres for six games.  Someone needs to explain to mean why this is considered a rivalry?  San Diego?  Seattle? 

Meanwhile, rebuilding Texas and Oakland get sextets against two lousy teams.  And get to get whomped by the Mets and Phillies and Braves.

It’s been over 21 years since Game Six of the 1986 World Series … you know, when the Red Sox were only one strike away from winning their first World Series in 68 years … and Bill Buckner let that lazy Mookie Wilson grounder roll through his legs to give the Mets new life and eventually the Championship.

Since then, the Red Sox have won two World Series Championships.  Bill Buckner and Mookie Wilson even co-sign photographs of the play and baseballs.  Red Sox Nation has forgiven Buckner and has expunged October 1986 from their franchise history. 

So it’s been long enough.  Home Run Derby presents … Buckner’s Revenge.

For those of you weren’t around to remember any video games before Madden and Sega Genesis … that’s the graphics from RBI Baseball (the greatest baseball video game ever) combined with the music and sound effects from Custer’s Revenge (which was a naughty game for the Atari 2600). 

So Mitt Romney bowed out of the Presidential race yesterday.

The Wall Street Journal had its own analysis as to why Romney couldn’t win the votes of Republicans …

He looked the part … He sounded the part … And he acted the part … But in the end, Mr. Romney didn’t fit the part.

He looked presidential, but ran a beginner’s campaign and never managed to ignite passion among voters.

That’s pretty spot on from the point of view of a credible news source. 

But this is a baseball blog … who cares about that?  The real reason (in my overly-baseball-tainted mind) that Mitt Romney lost is that he couldn’t tell the difference between a Baseball Mitt and a Baseball Glove.

Here’s a sample of some of Romney’s campaign merchandise …

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Baseball is a game with a lot of downtime. 

For nearly half of the game, you hang out and wait for something to happen.   If you’re not in the starting lineup, you have even more free time.

• You wait for your turn at bat.
• You wait for someone to hit a ball towards you
• You wait for the starting pitcher to get tired so you can come in from the bullpen

Spring Training, practice, and days off present even more opportunities to develop some really cool skills like … 

• Spitting sunflower seeds
• Dating Alyssa Milano
• Putting gum on Dice-K’s hat 
• Berating the clubhouse kids
• Talking about free tacos   
• Or bouncing a baseball off the skinny end of a baseball bat …

Watch as Red Sox CF prospect Jacoby Ellsbury demonstrates his mad ball-bouncing skills … 

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Even though the Cubs play the American League East this season, for some reason the Chicago Cubs don’t play the Boston Red Sox. Or the New York Yankees. Do you think MLB wants the Cubs to make the playoffs again this season, or what?

So that means we’ll have to wait until the 2008 All Star Game (maybe) or the 2008 World Series (even bigger maybe) to see Kosuke Fukudome (the Chicago Cubs’ prize acquisition in free agency) take some swings against someone like the Red Sox’ Josh Beckett, who won 20 Games last season and was the AL Cy Young Runner Up. Right?

Wrong. Over ten years ago, a Texas High School flamethrower named Josh Beckett pitched for the semi-pro Reno Astros (then in Houston) in the 1997 Grand Forks International Tournament. Beckett was on loan from another Texas team for the tourney.

In the tournament, Reno played a Japanese National Team and Kosuke Fukudome was a member of that squad. Let’s watch Josh Beckett pitch to Kosuke Fukudome …

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With all the YouTube hunting I do, I usually find things which are …

• Goofy – The dancing Orioles fan who looked like Peter Griffin from Family Guy
• Weird – The Dance Off between a Mexican Mascot and a BatBoy (who happened to be a little person)
• Amazing – Ryan Zimmerman unintentionally fielding a ball with his jersey
• Infuriating – Two Boston Sportscasters blowing off the National Anthem for his pregame lineups before Game One of the ALCS.

But somehow, I missed this one. 

Back on June 30, 2007, the Boston Red Sox were hosting Disability Awareness Night at Fenway Park.  A Monkey (part of Monkey Helpers for the Disabled) threw out the first pitch.  No, I don’t have video of that … yet.

But the real story of the night was when Peter Rometti, a young man with Autism, was singing the National Anthem before the game. 

Partway through the Anthem, Rometti started to stutter a couple of times, then he started laughing, and then he stumbled on a verse.

Watch as the Fenway Faithful rise to the occasion and help him out …

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Okay, this post is in complete homage to something one of Jayson Stark’s readers found. 
But that awesome blog is via ESPN subscription only, so I’ll share with you.

The Red Sox have a number of four-game ticket packages called “Sox Pax“ for the 2008 season.  You get to see four different opponents at Fenway Park thoughout the year (okay not anymore, they’re all sold out).  Two of those packages, the Boomer Pack and the Brew Crew Pack feature either Friday or Saturday games against the Tigers, Angels, Brewers, and Yankees.

“Brew Crew” Pack makes sense with Milwaukee on the schedule but I’m not sure of why the other one is called the “Boomer” pack.  Maybe the Red Sox know something about David Wells’ 2008 plans that I don’t.  Mind you, Wells has played for the Red Sox, Tigers, and Yankees during his career.

But I think the Red Sox wanted to call those packages something else …

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