A Perfect Ten

The Sox won their 10th game in a row last night. Lester pitched out of two difficult bases loaded jams in the fourth and fifth innings. His record now stands at 3-0 with an E.R.A. of 2.95. His batting average against is around .221 and he's averaging more than one strikeout per inning. If he cuts down on his walks, he won't be in as many jams. I definitely think that the kid is here to stay; he would have to have a Clement-like meltdown to be sent back to Pawtucket. I actually have more confidence in Lester right now that I've ever had with Clement. I think Lester will be fine down the stretch and in the playoffs.

Coupled with a Yankee loss the Jedi/Rebel Forces now have a three-and-a-half game lead over the Evil Empire.

We all know that the Yankees are the Evil Empire in the galaxy of baseball. The role of the Sox was never clearly identified. I think that historically the Red Sox would equate to simply an average band of Rebel Forces. Now that the ghosts of the past have been vanquished the case could be made that they play a more prominent role in the galaxy of baseball.

Here in an image I created in 2003 during the ALCS. I think that Clemens and Nomar came out the best.

I don't want to preach in this corner of cyberspace, but I will take a quick moment to stand on my virtual soapbox. I hate and abhor three types of people in this world: child molesters/abusers, wife-beaters, and drunk-drivers. I'm glad that the local and national media did not let the Philadelphia Phillies sweep the Brett Myers incident under the rug. Myers was seen assaulting his wife on Boylston Street in Boston last week. He is a foot taller and weighs twice that of his wife. What he did has no place in our society. The Phillies did not handle the incident correctly this weekend. Thanks to the media it appears that they may be taking steps in the right direction.

*steps down*

I was glad that Sox fans applauded Pedro yesterday. It was a classy move by the Sox to show the highlight clips and a classy move by the fans to show so much love and respect. Yes, Pedro was my favorite Sox player through my college years and beyond. No, I don't condone his actions when he left (it's never okay to agree verbally to a contract with a team only to have your agent leverage your verbal agreement against another team to get more money/years). Pedro didn't pull a Damon here; he didn't say that he could never play for the Yankees and then run to them. Pedro simply used the Sox to get a better contract from the Mets. His Koufaxian career has been like a comet, incredibly bright, but short-lived. He deserves to be remembered as one of the best, if not, the best, pitcher in Red Sox history.

The moron running Boston Dirt Dogs had been planning, nay, hoping and praying for, a boo-fest for Pedro for weeks. I'm glad the fans were smarter than him. Once he sold-out to Boston.com his content went from uber-fan who believed every rumor to be stone-cold truth to a simply rehashing the daily headlines and pushing his opinion on the rest of us. I liked him more when he still cared about the team and not the money. The only content worthwhile on his site these days are the custom illustrations.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the Commissioner, Peter Gammons, and his family.

Walk This Way

Big Papi, the greatest clutch hitter in the history of the Boston Red Sox, did it again. Ortizzle hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the 12th inning yesterday to give the Red Sox their 9th consecutive victory. Ortiz beat the Phillies with walk-off hits in back-to-back games to close out the three game series. That gives him three walk-off hits in the last 15 days. Somewhere, ARod is crying.

Kevin Youkilis scored the winning run and had a hit that was just as important yesterday. His game-tying double with two outs kept the Sox hopes alive and gave Big Papi a chance. I hope that Youk gets his due.

Craig Hansen got his first victory of the year after allowing an inherited run to score in the top of the 12th inning. Why does GL2:EB insist on bringing Hansen into games with runners on base? Let the kid cut his teeth with clean innings. Then if he gives up a hit, he's not giving up a run at the same time. He needs to gain the confidence that Papelbon possesses. Giving up runs every time out won't help him.

Bill Simmons wrote a piece about Papelbon for ESPN the Mag. I totally agree with his sentiment; my head says that Papelbon should be a starter next year, but my heart says he should remain the closer.

The Sports Guy somehow decided that Papelbon's nickname is "Paps". I think that sounds like a gynecological procedure. Simmons has had nickname issues ever since he moved to L.A. I don't know if he has faulty sources or if he's just too far out of touch with the east cost, but he misspells "Youk" and used to misspell "Big Papi". Someone needs to tell him to simply stop using nicknames altogether.

My last post was #50. So pop open the champagne (or better yet, a beer), but drink responsibly.

I Heard That You Missed Me

I suppose that I'm obligated to explain the dearth of posts here for the last month or so. The simple truth is really multi-faceted.

1. I've been crazy busy at work.
2. The Sox went through a funk and seemingly everyone had the injury bug.
3. Feedster claims that they were going to add Digital Sox to the list of Sox blogs on Boston.com. It hasn't happened yet.
4. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to capture thoughts and ideas and save them to write about at a convenient time.
5. I want to put the necessary time and effort into blogging so that I can write creatively and really find my voice. I don't want to simply rehash news or data that you can find on any website or blog.

Without giving away too much detail I will say that I currently work for a large consumer products company that is based in Boston. At least it was for the last ninety years or so. They "merged" with an even larger consumer products company based in Cincinnati. As a result I will be helping provide "the best a man can get" for only 5 more business days. Trying to launch three SKUs (possibly four), transition a chemical business, clean out your lab and desk, and find a new job is not all it's cracked up to be. A short while ago I was either taking a quick 15-minutes to post in the morning or leaving work on time and posting as soon as I got home. That hasn't happened for a while.

The Sox were starting to bum me out with the yearly June swoon. I certainly have become accustomed to it, but I've never attempted to blog through it in the past. The fact that the injury bug had seemingly bitten the team didn't help the matter. Sure, I poked fun at it with this post but frustrations with work made it difficult to blog about. I am by no means a fair weather Sox fan. I bleed Red Sox red through-and-through. I don't believe that real Sox fans could ever be fair weather fans given the history of the team. I watch way too many innings on NESN every year (at least according to my wonderful wife). Thankfully, the team has righted the ship and currently have an eight game winning streak.

I submitted my blog to Feedster to submit to Boston.com's list of fan blogs during Spring Training. At the start of the season I was blogging almost every day. Feedster said they would be submitting my blog to the list. I haven't seen it yet. It was sort of disheartening knowing that I could have increased readership by being added to the list at Boston.com but that nothing was happening on that front.

I have to figure out how to save "seeds" of posts. I can always type a few sentences and save the post as a draft but for some silly reason Blogger will treat the date of creation of the draft as the post date no matter when the draft is actually finished and posted. This might work, but I don't know how it would handle posts that are seemingly out-of-order chronologically. Maybe I can start using my PDA or saving drafts in GMail or something. I'm open to suggestions.

I like using creative metaphors and analogies. I enjoy carefully crafting pieces. Sites like Blogspot make bloggers a dime a dozen. I want to be different if only in quality, not necessarily content. I want to put the effort into posting that results in a blog I can be proud of.

The good news is that I will have a lot more time in July to post. I will be starting a new job August 1st and will have to reevaluate the blogging situation at that time. In the interim I will be attempting to post 5 or 6 times a week in July, save for the trip to San Diego we'll be taking.

Back to the Sox. Today they try to win their 9th straight game. They haven't made an error in almost two weeks. They are 10-1 against the National League so far this year. If they lose today, it will probably be because I jinxed them and the team made three errors. Let me apologize right now if that happens.

He Ain't Pretty No More

Steelers' QB Ben Roethlisberger crashed his motorcycle on June 12th in Pittsburgh. While I don't ever wish harm on anyone, I think that Big Ben might have been the victim of some much needed karmic retribution. You see, Mr. Roethlisberger is a big, fat liar. In July 2005 he was interviewed about riding motorcycles by ESPN's Andrea Kremer. How many times did his proverbial pants catch on fire? At least three by my count. And everyone knows that it's three strikes and you're out.

Here are his own words compared to the facts.


Roethlisberger: But when you're riding a Harley or a chopper and you're riding with a group of people and you're not on the highway and you're cruising, you're relaxing. I don't think its as much of a risk as people make it out to be.

Strike 1: LIAR! Benny-boy was riding solo.


Roethlisberger: I think it can be a risk. It depends on how you ride. I don't ride a sport bike. If I'm riding a sport bike and trying to do tricks, and going 200 miles down the highway, that's probably pretty stupid... I ride a Harley and a chopper.

Strike 2: LIAR! He was riding a black 2005 Suzuki Hayabusa, a "large, racing-style bike".


ESPN: I assume you have your license?
Roethlisberger: Yes.

Strike 3: LIAR! Roethlisberger did not have license. That means he was required to wear a helmet and will face a whopping $388 in fines. He should be thrown in jail.


Roethlisberger is lucky to be alive. Helmet or no, he's lucky that he only scrambled his face and not his brains.