Wednesday, January 9th, 2008
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Though this isn’t the typical fare here at PFB, I had to make mention of the amazing day I had on Saturday while spending the weekend with my folks in Massachusetts. My brother Josh, who manages at The Paradise, got us guest-listed at Theo Epstein’s Fundraising Sports Roundtable, which was being held at Fenway Park. The event itself was amazing, as I got to hear from Epstein, Brian Cashman, Bill James, Scott Boras, and Peter Gammons on the state of Boston sports and baseball.
There were a few highlights for me. First off, I got to shake hands with Peter Gammons, which was an honor. Secondly, I got to meet Theo Epstein, a personal hero of mine, and thank him for doing his job so well. That was fun.
I also donated $25 to Theo’s “Foundation to be Named Later” in order to be able to pose for this picture, which I was more than happy to do.
Yeah, I’m still smiling.
Tags: Happiness, world series
Posted in MLB, site news | 8 Comments »
Monday, October 29th, 2007
The World Series is over and the Boston Red Sox are your World Champions (although, my wife asked me last night why they called themselves the World Champions when they don’t play teams from outside North America and I didn’t have a good answer. It is a bit of a misnomer)
Though most people have already put the baseball season behind them, for the sake of closure we need to take a look at my pre-game predictions that i posted last night. I have a feeling I’m going to come out looking like a genius on this one.
1. When the Rockies scored in the first inning, they knew they had a chance to win this one. It was actually the Red Sox who plated a run in the first, and it seemed to happen in about 13 seconds. The Rockies never led in Game 4.
2. How about that one inning where Pedroia made all 3 outs? - Didn’t happen. Dustin made a handful of outs, but he scattered them throughout the game.
3. Manny’s hits > Hawpe’s hits + Helton’s hits. - Manny pulled an 0 for 4, Helton had 2 hits and Hawpe had the homerun. Wrong again.
4. The Red Sox put up runs in more innings than the Rockies did - The Red Sox scored a single run in 4 of 9 innings, with the Rockies only scoring in the 7th and 8th.
5. Not surpisingly, the Rockies used more pitchers than the Red Sox.- Not surprisingly, I’m wrong again. The Red Sox used 5 pitchers, Colorado only used 4.
6. Also not surprisingly, the Red Sox saw more pitches than the Rockies.- Also not surprisingly, I’m still wrong. The Red Sox hitters saw 112 pitches from the Rockies, while the Rockies saw 160 pitches.
7. Tulowitzki’s total bases > Lugo’s TB + Lowell’s TB- Wow. My endorsement is the kiss of death in these prediction pieces. Tulowitzki had zero total bases. Lugo had 1 on a single, Lowell had 6 on a double and homer. 0 is not greater than 7, unless you’re talking about your golf handicap.
8. Double Double Toil and trouble, the Red Sox out-doubled the Rockies again.- Each team had 2 doubles, the most important of which might have been Ellsbury’s to lead off the game.
9. Jon Lester gave up more runs than he had strikeouts.- Lester had 3 strikeouts and gave up no runs in 5 and 2/3 innings. He pitched a great game.
10.Joe Buck impaling Tim McCarver in the temple with his microphone was fascinating, if only for the sound.- Joe and Tim take a hefty beating from the sports writers online, maybe more than they deserve. McCarver does drive me crazy sometimes, but overall it was palatable.
11. Amazingly, the second out recorded in both halves of the sixth inning was on fly balls to center field.- i was half right. Ortiz grounded out to short and Helton lined out to left for the second outs in each of their sixth innings.
12. The Rockies will have more 2-out RBI than the Red Sox have HRs- It takes a lot of talent to be this consistently wrong. The Red Sox had 2 HRs while the Rockies scored all their runs with less than 2 outs.
13. The number of half innings in which 0 runs were scored will be less than 10.- Wrong. Zeroes were put up 12 times.
14. The Rockies were running from the get-go, stealing more bases than the Red Sox.- There were as many stolen bases in this one as there were streaking pigmen. Zero.
15. Manny Ramirez’s helmet fell off his head while running the bases, tripping the runner behind him and causing Tim McCarver’s brain to explode out of his head.- I think even Tim and Joe couldn’t get mad at Manny by the end of the series. Manny taking off his helmet while running to first base left them snickering and speechless.
16. The Rockies will leave more runners on base than the Red Sox have hits.- The Sox had 9 hits. The Rockies left 7 on base. I have 1 prediction right so far. Joe Buck would be disgusted with me.
17. Aren’t back to back homers fun?- They are, but there weren’t any in this game.
18. Can you believe the Patriots took the field in the 9th inning and outscored the Rockies 28-0?- It didn’t happen, but if it did, the Redskins would probably cry about that too. Listen, NFL players shouldn’t be complaining about teams running up the score. If you don’t want them to score again, stop them. It’s up to you. (and no, I’m not a Pats fan.)
19.The Red Sox walked more times and struck out more times than the Rockies.- These predictions I’ve made are historically bad. The Red Sox had 1 BB to the Rockies’ 3 and 4 Ks to the Rockies’ 7.
20. The Red Sox are your World Series Champions!- What do you know, I got the most important one right. I guess I did come out looking like a genius.
Enjoy your non-stop Yankees coverage on ESPN all week!
Tags: baseball, world series
Posted in MLB, reviews | No Comments »
Friday, October 26th, 2007
I made 20 Post-Game comments before Game 2 started last night. Let’s see how they panned out:
1. Schilling’s line wasn’t bad…4 earned runs over 5 and 2/3 innings. - try 5 and 1/3 innings and only 1 earned run.
2. Who would have thought Brad Hawpe and Willy Tavares would combine for more hits than Kevin Youkilis and Manny Ramirez? - i was close. both tandems combined for 1 hit.
3. Manny’s helmet flew off his head again. Dude needs to switch to a L from that XL. - yeah, no surprise here. As he went first to third on Mike Lowell’s RBI double in the 5th, Manny lost his hat again.
4. Thank you Willy Tavares for earning me a free taco on October 30th with that stolen base in the 6th inning. - What i meant to say was, “Thank You Jacoby Ellsbury for getting me a taco with that SB in the 4th inning.”
5. Ubaldo Jimenez was throwing some laser beams, hitting 100 MPH on the gun more than once. - He was hitting the mid 90s consistently, but I didn’t see anything above 98 MPH.
6. Boston outhit Colorado for the second straight game. - barely, though. 6 hits for Boston, 5 for Colorado.
7. Jiminez not only struck out more batters than Schilling, he also walked less. Nice outing for the rookie. - Um, wrong and wrong. Ubaldo struck out 2 and walked 5. Schilling struck out 4 and walked 2.
8. That catch by Ellsbury was amazing. - No it wasnt. He did only have one catch, but it was routine.
9. The Red Sox laid down more bunts than the Rockies tonight. - Actually, i think it was 1 each. could be wrong about that one though.
10. Ellsbury stealing third caught everyone off guard…including me. - It caught Ellsbury off guard too, because he didn’t do it.
11. Big Papi’s home run almost landed in Colorado. - The one from batting practice. I guess i should have specified that.
12. Manny wasn’t really hustling on that play. - this one was true the moment i typed it. No references needed.
13. I never thought I’d see that day that Manny Corpas would walk out of the bullpen with no pants on. - and i still haven’t, thankfully.
14. Papelbon struck out more batters than he left on base. - 2 Ks and 0 LOB thanks to the pickoff that no one saw coming.
15. Can you believe John Kerry streaked naked onto the field like that? - funny thing was, first he ran out there, then he came back to his seat, then he ran out there again. Poor guy just couldn’t make up his mind.
16.Matt Holliday busted for using a corked bat? Who would have thought. - dude went 4-4, but i just missed this one. The bat WAS corked, he just didn’t get busted for it. (i kid, of course).
17. J.D. Drew’s Strikeouts + Mike Lowell’s Walks = Torrealba’s base hits + Helton’s doubles - Lowell’s lone walk was the only non-zero in this equation. 1 = 0? not today it doesn’t.
18. Varitek hit for the cycle! amazing! - Only if we redefine “the cycle” as: Strike out looking, strike out swinging, fly out to Left Field, and a Sac fly to Center.
19. Garret Atkins should be suspended for all of next year for tripping Pedroia as he rounded third. He should be suspended for 5 years after that for pulling out a tazer and tazing Dustin multiple times in the small of his back. - Don’t taze me bro!
20. The team with the most runs won the game. - I hit this one right on the head! When you’re good, you’re good.
If I’m feeling Nostradamic this weekend, maybe we’ll do this for Game 3 or 4.
Tags: baseball, world series
Posted in MLB, reviews | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, October 24th, 2007
The fun begins tonight around 8pm, when the Rockies return to action against the Red Sox of Boston.
Five Thoughts on this series, and a prediction:
1. Anything bad that happens to the Rockies in Game 1, whether it’s errors in the field or poor at-bats, will be blamed on “rust”. While I agree that 8 days is a long time off when you’ve been playing baseball 6 days a week since March, let’s not go crazy with this. It’s not like their coming back from Christmas Break and have been off for two weeks eating candy canes and ham. They’re professional ballplayers who have waited all their lives for this. Let’s take it easy on the rust.
2. That said, I’ll tell you right now that if the Rockies lose in Game 1, I’m betting it will have more to do with Josh Beckett than with the layoff. In that regard, there might be more pressure on Boston to win this first game. With Beckett on the mound they’re expected to win, and if they fall into a 0-1 hole after a Beckett start, there will be a lot of people jumping onto the Colorado bandwagon.
3. If Joe Buck says the word “jub-jub” during one of the telecasts, Conan O’ Brien will donate 1000 to a charity of Buck’s choice.
4. Will Leitch over at Deadspin has been playfully calling the Rockies “God’s Team” every chance he gets lately. I wonder if the FOX announcing team will touch on the subject at all? I’ll also be interested in seeing how the Rockies’ handle post-game interviews. Personally, I’m hoping those on the team that are Christians don’t go for the “out of context Jesus namedrop” just because they are on TV, that always rubs me, and most everyone else, the wrong way.
5. Anyone who tells you that they know what to expect from the Rockies in this series is dreaming. Never has a team been this hot before at the right time, layoff or no layoff. The Red Sox are the better team because of their pitching, but Colorado can slug you to death (like they did to Boston earlier this year). It’s one of the toughest championship matchups to get a feel for in a long time, which should make for some riveting games.
My Prediction:
Red Sox in 7 games.
leave your prediction in the comments and the winner will receive a robot sister like that girl from the Small Wonder TV show.
Tags: predictions, world series
Posted in MLB, previews | 5 Comments »
