See ya, Boomer.

ESPN.com says the Sox are shopping David Wells and expect to see him go, confirm what I told me office neighbor this afternoon: The Sox are toast. But then we all knew that already.

I'm sorry to see him go, but hope he can win something in his last season. It was fun to watch him pitch in the fifth game of the Yankees series last Monday, notwithstanding the context, a reminder of what he could have done this year if not for a poorly placed line drive.

Stupid Headlines

This can't be the first time that something like this has come up, but I laughed heartily when seeing the short ESPN headline of New York's win last night, highlighting the success of their starting pitcher:

"Yanks Wang wins 15th"

Chris

Bob Ryan needs a drink, or a therapist, or both

I haven't been following the Red Sox as closely this year as in years past. Certain distractions (one of which some of you were at) have kept me from following the team as religiously as my father and brother, to name two. This may be part of the reason why a sweep by the Yankees doesn't hit me as hard as some.

Yesterday afternoon Bob Ryan sat down to his word processor and decided to do a whole lot of venting. A piece that runs down every disappointing thing that he can think of about this year's squad ends with the following:

The truth is that this is not a good time to be Theo Epstein. For two years running, he has been unable to construct a viable pitching rotation. Theo was cut one year of afterglow slack, but overheated fans, already in a bloodthirsty mood, are downright rebellious now that the Yankees have humiliated their team with a five-game sweep.
The truth is that in this perverted sports climate, the other team is never just allowed to be better, even for a day, let alone a series or a season. No, no. Blame must be affixed. Heads must be severed.

Once upon a time, losing brought a brief period of sorrow. Now it brings rage. The rest of the season, I fear, will not be much fun.

The truth is we need to sit down and figure out what sports are all about. We've lost our way.

Truth is, I've only been to one game at Fenway this year, watched perhaps one game a week on television, and spent less time over at SOSH than in years past. That said, I don't know anyone in Boston who feels the way Bob does.

I know a lot of people, however, who feel the Sox have had the kind of disappointing, lousy year (injuries, underperforming acquisitions, old pitchers falling apart) that happens to lots of teams all the time. Only one baseball team a year gets to have everything go their way and win the World Series. In today's sports climate, another team is almost always better.

With about half the payroll, Theo and the Sox are leading the Yankees in recent championships, 1-0. Let's say hypothetically that current Sox management is only good enough at their jobs to win one World Series a decade. While all that losing might send Bob to an asylum, it would still make the team significantly better than most.

Good news!

It took some work to find good news at Fenway Park today, but here it is:

ESPN baseball analyst Peter Gammons was at Fenway Park on Saturday, his first visit to a major league stadium since his brain aneurysm in June.

Gammons visited both clubhouses before the game between the Yankees and Boston Red Sox. . . .

Gammons and his wife, Gloria, watched the game from owner John Henry's box. A note welcoming him to the game was posted on the scoreboard during the sixth inning, drawing an ovation, while a recording of Gammons singing the Chuck Berry song "Carol" was played over the loudspeaker.

No TV here.

Since I wasn't watching, can someone tell me which of the Sox' cornerbacks got beat for that touchdown in the top of the seventh inning? Ouch.

Rem-dog rendered speechless

I missed this part of last night's TV coverage, when Dennis Leary stopped by the broadcast booth to make a fundraising plug for New Orleans firefighters, and ends up riffing on Mel Gibson and Kevin Youkilis. Poor Remy doesn't seem to know whether or how to shut him up.



EDIT: credit where its due: Deadspin and Seth Mnookin. Mnookin clues me in the guy with Leary is Lenny Clark who is a recovering alcoholic, hence Leary's reference at the end to 'you've been there yourself'.

EPL ahoy!

I'm sure that you've already seen this guide to picking a EPL team, but perhaps not this one. I have to admit that I understood less than half of the second, from which I assume that it's pretty good.

As for YNWA, this is a pretty enthusiastic version from a Liverpool - Chelsea championship league match:



The crowd gets going at 1:09. The music kicks in at 2:00

Will we walk alone?

A story in today's Financial Times (page 18) about the purchase of Aston Villa by Cleveland Browns owner Randy Lerner notes:

Other US football team owners are interested in expanding their sporting interests over the Atlantic. The Kraft family, owners of the New England Patriots, have been linked to Liverpool FC.

I had started to gravitate toward Arsenal, largely on the strength of Nick Hornby's book Fever Pitch, but a Kraft purchase of Liverpool could swing me over.

So, time to familiarize ourselves with Liverpool? If you watched the World Cup, you know stork-like striker Peter Crouch. Midfielder Harry Kewell was the key to the Australian offense, and his absence against Italy was one of the reasons the Sockeroos looked so flat. Much of the rest of the squad is a mystery to me, but not the captain, Steve Gerrard. He had a terrible World Cup -- he kept knocking field goals trying to replicate this sort of thing:



And I've posted this before, but it still amuses me. A Liverpool song, to the tune of "Que Sera."

Steve Gerrard Gerrard
He hits it from 40 yards
He's big and he's f***in hard
Steve Gerrard, Gerrard

"Take a bow, sir. You have been immense."

Boomer.

Has David Wells just saved the season?

Will anyone miss Harry Sinden?

Will Teddy Bruschi be 100% this year?

Where will Allen Iverson play next year?

Which Premiership team should I root for?

#61 still stuck on #9

After a torrid start, Bronson Arroyo is still looking for win #10.  He failed in his 8th consecutive try this week.  One might think that would cool off fans upset that the B's traded him for Wily Mo.  Well, put me firmly in the camp of people who say this trade was still a mistake.

 

To be fair, I'm willing to give Pena more time to pan out.  You can't judge a trade when the key player in it has been on the DL for most of the time since the deal.  But here's what I wrote about Arroyo back on March 20th.

Far be it from me to question Theo and the gang. But Arroyo was a pretty valuable player/trading asset, and Pena doesn't seem fair value, at least not yet. Arroyo is relatively young (29); under contract for three years in what should be his prime; puts up consistently good ERA and win totals (admittedly on a great offensive team); and is never, ever on the disabled list. (He supposedly has the proverbial "rubber arm; in fact, I read once that he doesn't even ice down after games, which is pretty much unheard of.) That's a great guy to have at the back end of your rotation or in your bullpen, particularly for $3m per year or so.

So far this year, Arroyo is 9-7 with a 3.31 ERA.  Even if you assume his ERA would be significantly higher in the American League, particularly pitching in the AL East, I think it's safe to say it would probably be about where it was last year, when he went 14-10 and had a 4.51 ERA.  But more significantly, here's the key stat:  157.2 innings pitched.  That's better than any Sox pitcher this year -- Curt Shilling tops the list (152.1 innings), followed by Josh Beckett (134.1) and Tim Wakefield (119.2).  No other Sox pitcher is over 100.

 

While Arroyo's innings would undoubtedly be fewer in the AL (just like his ERA would be larger), his durability would be a great asset to a team that has been throwing pitchers like Jason Johnson and Dave Pauley out there.  Hindsight is 20-20, but wouldn't it be nice to have a 4th or 5th starter who could have pitched about 115-130 innings so far?

The Bledsoe Face

Bill Simmons writes about the "Peyton Manning Face" often enough that I think it's become part of the sports lexicon.  Can't wait until the "Drew Bledsoe Face" is also in the dictionary.

Time to break a long silence

Of all things to motivate me to figure out how to use this blogger account again, I didn't think it would be Boston Globe sports coverage. But I was very distressed to read the discussion of Peter May's horrid Paul Pierce contract article. I admit that I have lately fallen into the casual fan category for the Celts, and thus was not aware of the contract specifics; I was fooled by May's poor reporting, wondering if the new contract was necessary and valuable. Globe sports writing is a significant part of the discourse of the Boston (and even national) sports scenes, and the general tendency of readers is not necessarily to passively accept what media show, but to think within the categories that media present (thank you, Professor William Gamson of Boston College). However untruthful, the discourse he creates can wind its way into the talk of other fans and become part of how they perceive the situation.

Has anyone seen any significant follow-up from May (apology/clarification), or from the Globe? A mistake of this magnitude for a reporter is grounds for suspension or firing.

On a completely different topic, I hope everyone was watching Big Papi come through again last night. Out in the West, it happened during the tail end of dinner. I had left the game on after cooking, and was chatting with my girlfriend when I heard the crowd start to get excited when the first two men reached base. I jumped up to watch the end, and of course celebrated rambunctiously after the homer. I think I have some relationship repair-work to do now...but worth it for Big Papi!

Chris