February 2007
Manny Ramirez: I may hate you sometimes, but I’ll always love you
I enjoy a good conversation or debate as much asanyone–okay, perhaps a little more. I might even have a bit of a rep for
not letting up until I’ve won, although with age the virtue of diplomatically
agreeing to disagree has become more of a goal. But there are a few
subjects I find I can’t discuss rationally with folks who disagree with me, to
the point that I just won’t debate them at all. The legitimacy of sharing
copyrighted music on the Internet, for one. The Mooninite scare in Boston, for
another. And… Manny.
I can’t stand the media frenzy over when Manny will show up to camp. I
can’t stand the knee-jerk reaction of fans to defend him, saying that as long
as he plays during the season it doesn’t mean anything if he breaks all the
rules. And I can’t stand that a man possessing both phenomenal baseball
skills and one of the most lucrative contracts in MLB cannot take the rules seriously
enough to avoid setting in motion this whole yearly charade.
I am fond of rules. I admit this. I enjoy precision in language,
from composition to rules of grammar and punctuation. (A former colleague
once wrote me from her new job despairing that she no longer had anyone with
whom to debate comma usage!) And so I
will admit that it gets my back up when someone stakes a claim to be treated
specially. Manny is already treated
specially. With his contract.
I am well aware of what Manny brings to the Boston Red Sox,
both in the power that shows up in the stats and in the entertainment factor
that makes so many fans want to sit in left field. I don’t have an issue with time he has needed
for injuries, and I particularly think he was unfairly vilified for his knee
issues last year. But at the same time…
Jon Lester, a pup, making a pup’s salary, gets blindsided by
cancer. He’s at camp early.
David Ortiz, a lion, a bull, a man whose power is comparable
to Manny’s, who is (I would argue) more beloved than Manny in Boston—he reports with the position players.
I don’t want the Red Sox youngsters absorbing the lesson
that if you are good enough you can flout the rules with impunity. I don’t want fans across MLB laughing and shaking their heads the way I do when I think about Barry Bonds, whose excesses (and yes I know Manny’s are not criminal) are excused in parallel form by his
numbers.
In the end, of course—he’s ours, and no one will give us a Miggy Cabrera or an Andruw Jones for him, so we’ll make the best of it. And as you’ll see below, I’m not immune to the appeal of “Manny being Manny.” But I wish it didn’t have to be this way.
September 10, 2006.
An Oakland Raiders do-rag? September 8, 2006.
August 13, 2006.
Hail the conquering hero! August 12, 2006.
August 11, 2006.
July 29, 2006.
July 14, 2006.
June 29, 2006.
Manny takes an interesting lead. May 23, 2006.
It’s good!
Getting saucy with Alex Cora. April 2, 2006.
Going back to the old pictures, one of my favorite "Manny" days was July 31, 2005. Tensions were high around the trade deadline. On July 29, with the fans unhappy that he wanted to be traded, Manny was booed. July 30, he was in the original lineup but was pulled by gametime, and twenty thousand people whipped out cellphones in shock–had he been traded? July 31 there was no sight of him before the deadline passed… but perhaps both Boston and Manny had had long enough to imagine life life without each other, and found it lacking.
Do you think you could treat me
Like somebody special
I can’t be everything to everybody
Could I at least be something to you?
Ah, Manny. You’ll always be special to us!
Lenny DiNardo: I waited for you winterlong
The first real winter storm of the year blew through Boston today, making it that more important that Spring Training be right around the corner. Post-Truck Day, I wasn’t expecting much in the way of surprises, until word came that in the roster shuffle to make room for J.D. Drew, Lenny DiNardo had been claimed by Oakland.
Lenny was solid for the Sox. Unlikely that he was going to make the 25-man roster, but he was one of the guys you got used to having "in case" and after an injury-plagued 2006 he looks to have a good year in 2007.
I loved the fact that he was one of the more serious music aficionados on the Sox, playing along very seriously at Hot Stove Cool Music on that beautiful black and white Rickenbacker. And he always took a good picture! I’m not sure anyone on the Sox had more reliably good facial expressions…
Spring Training 2006:
Fenway Park against the Orioles: some overhead shots from the Pavilion Boxes, May 7, 2006:
May 21, 2006 in Philly:
July 30, 2006 at Fenway:
September 6, 2006 at Fenway:
Good luck in Oakland, Lenny. Keep playing that Rickenbacker.
David Ortiz: Strength and courage overrides
Manny Delcarmen has changed his number to 17, which was freed up when Dave Wallace left the team. As Steve Buckley wrote for the Herald last July:
The right-hander is so enamored with No. 17 that he has the number tattooed on his right biceps.
"Itwas always my father’s number, so when I was a kid it was the first
number I asked for," Delcarmen said. "I wore it all through the minors
until I got to Pawtucket."
Delcarmen explained that when he arrived at Pawtucket the number was already being worn by Dave Berg, a veteran big leaguer.
Delcarmen,
who knows well the pecking order in place, not to mention his respect
for Wallace, has absolutely no plans to ask for No. 17.
"If ever
in my career it’s available, sure, I’d like it," he said. "But that’s
way down the road. For now, I’m very happy with the number I have."
Of another favorite of mine, Buckley wrote:
Craig Hansen’s favorite number, a number he wore in high school and college, is No. 34.
Alas, that number belongs to David Ortiz, a former Minnesota Twin who chose the number out of respect for Kirby Puckett, who has since passed away. And given the way Ortiz has been playing the last four years, it may turn out that he’ll be the last Red Sox player to ever wear that number.
As boston.com tallies the votes for "most beloved" players (since ’67), they made an exception at DH they made for no other position–they called the category "Most Beloved DH Not Named Ortiz." No voting was necessary to determine a winner.
Big Papi is the best of all things for Red Sox Nation: a hitter who redefined clutch, a man of fearsome power paired with an affable nature and an easy smile.
Some of my best classic baseball shots have been of Papi,
June 29, 2006.
May 1, 2006.
(I always wondered if he really spit on his hands!)
July 29, 2006.
September 10, 2006.
September 27, 2006.
But so have some of my best character shots.
(Hey, wait a minute…) June 3, 2005.
August 9, 2005.
In Philly, proving he’ll be just fine at first if he doesn’t drop the glove, May 20, 2006.
With Kevin Millar, August 11, 2006.
With Papa Jack, September 10, 2006.
It’s always worth watching Papi when he stands next to a less-imposing player…
September 29, 2006.
June 18, 2006.
And it’s never hard to catch Papi with his arm around someone.
May 2, 2006.
July 31, 2005.
… even me!
Clearly, I didn’t take this one! 2006 fundraiser at Fenway.
There are only a few players for whom words fail me, but Papi is one of them. I saw four of his walkoffs last year; I even got my mom to one of them. All of them were joys–perhaps none were surprises. July 31 in particular–we counted out the batters who would merely have to get on base to bring Papi up. It’s not fair that he’s been asked to carry the team, to never mis-step, but he always comes through. It’s a rare privilege to feel this way. But we love you.
TRUCK DAY! Today I’m starting the rest of my life
Truck Day. The real harbinger of spring in Boston. You can have your groundhog; if the truck’s leaving, pitchers and catchers are guaranteed to be right behind!
Since I work very, very close to Fenway…
View from my window
I decided to head over for the festivities!
Not much room left in the truck by now.
But I was glad to see there was still room for the vacuum cleaner. Whew!
Construction workers deciding we’re all crazy.
Not an easy job to get that thing tied securely for a two-day drive!
Suddenly, to the roar of AC/DC’s "Thunderstruck"…
Wally and the gang!
Wally and crew brought music: "Sweet Caroline," "Dirty Water," "Tessie," "Joy to the World," "Here at Fenway." (Message for my fellow attendees: it’s okay to sing "Sweet Caroline." You came out to see a truck. if you’re worried about looking silly, it’s too late now.)
(See? He knows. You look silly already.)
Getting ready, and Wally’s truck pulls out front.
One last car decides to squeeze down Van Ness…
… and away we go!
See you in sunny Fort Myers!
Billboards on the walk back:
Bronson Arroyo: I want to wake up where you are
"I can’t believe the news today," but Bronson Arroyo signed an extension with the Reds.
Good for Bronson… if, perhaps, not so good for me.
He holds a special place in Red Sox lore for me. All but a castoff from the Pirates, when he pitched for the Sox he was good. Much is made of the ace, of the dominant starter at the top of the rotation; the innings-eating, reliably okay-to-good 4 or 5 starter is underappreciated. Particularly one as talented, as personable, and as downright determined (even if I perhaps can’t repeat Schill’s comment on MLB!) as Arroyo.
He had a rangy physique and a distinctive leg kick.
July 3, 2005.
Not to mention a handsome face.
July 31, 2005.
August 4, 2005.
I worried a little anytime I saw him carting around a bucket of balls–he looked too tall and slender for that kind of work!
September 2, 2005.
I really enjoyed seeing him hanging out with buddy Lenny DiNardo.
October 1, 2005.
I was delighted to try out the new camera on Bronson in Spring Training, catching both a belly flash…
… and the distinctive green St. Patrick’s Day uniform.
March 17, 2006.
But it was shortly thereafter that I learned that would be my last photo of Bronson in a Sox uniform for a while.
I’m hard pressed to say I don’t believe–if a little hopefully–in karma, and i worried about the 2006 Red Sox from that moment on. Partially, because I think you trade away reliable starting pitching at your peril. But partially because Bronson had signed a contract with the Sox in good faith. Faith–a word that means so much to a Sox fan. I understand the business, really I do–but there were greater aspects of human character on the line here, and they were ill-served by the decision to trade him.
I did see the Reds in Cincinnati, but because of a willingness to pitch on short rest in September I wound up not seeing Bronson pitch. I did see folks walking the streets of Cincinnati in "Arroyo 61" jerseys; I did see plenty of Arroyo gear in the Reds team store. I guess it was the "Got Bronson?" tee that brought a bit of a tear to my eye. I suppose he couldn’t have had the success, the opportunity, he had in Cincy if he were still in Boston. But I missed him.
In December Bronson appeared at a dinner, autograph signing and performance event for Sure Shot.
December 17, 2006.
And there I got a photo I (obviously) didn’t take myself…
I told Bronson I hoped to see him back at Fenway, and he said he missed it; he’d worked out there that day.
But I can scarcely blame him for signing his extension. And my disappointment is really only my respect for him, and my gratitude for 2004, and my appreciation for his time here. I wish him all success.
Jonathan Papelbon: You make my heart sing
Had a lunchtime meeting today to review an event we’re planning at BU, and as soon as I took my seat, I was put on the spot.
"So Kelly… Papelbon in the rotation. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?"
I went through the basics: how incredibly valuable the innings of starting pitchers are, how it’s not the worst thing in the world not to know your closer before the year starts, how he can better manage his shoulder strength starting (at least for now), and how closing still isn’t totally ruled out. But it got me thinking about this remarkable young man.
I was fortunate enough to be at Fenway when he made his major-league debut:
July 31, 2005.
it was an extraordinary day, and I think his performance was all but overlooked in the trade-deadline Manny furor. But it was the first of many good outings for the long-awaited prospect.
October 2, 2005.
After the season came to a crashing halt, I took the money I got back on my ALDS Game 4 ticket and sponsored two pages at Baseball Reference: Craig Hansen and Jonathan Papelbon.
Got to see him in Spring Training 2006, of course.
March 17, 2006.
April 1, 2006.
I still delight in remembering the Boston media’s efforts to create a
closer controversy about the switch from Foulke to Papelbon, and the
magnificent response of Red Sox nation, who were far too busy watching
our newest phenom.
I did joke quite a bit through the year about the way Mike Timlin appeared to have adopted him–not that this was a bad thing.
May 5, 2006.
May 23, 2006.
In Atlanta, I was struck by the fact that Jonathan came out to sign every day. He may have been a budding superstar, but he was a genuinely nice young man as well.
And it was a delight to see him close out Jon Lester’s first major league win.
June 16, 2006.
Even if I personally wish he’d kept a little more hair!
June 17, 2006.
He accepted some good-natured ribbing about being busted doing the tomahawk chop at the Ted…
June 18, 2006.
(well, he accepted it for a while, anyway!)
It’s hard to explain how electric Fenway became when he pitched, or how many Papelbon jerseys and shirts appeared in a matter of months.
July 29, 2006.
He was playful tossing the ball around…
August 11, 2006.
… intense as ever on the mound…
August 13, 2006.
and relaxed off of it.
September 29, 2006, not letting Timlin get away with the long pants.
September 1, 2006.
September 1 was the last day in 2007 we saw Jonathan Papelbon pitch for the Sox. i was there to see that last outing; I won’t soon forget him dropping to his knees there, and I was greatly relieved to learn that the problem wasn’t worse.
Of course we all know that whatever is best for Jonathan’s health and durability is best for the Sox, and I know he’ll bring the same skill and intensity to the mound as a starter. But I’m grateful for that stellar year as a closer, and I bet he is, too.
Kyle Snyder: They say you got a bad reputation, but I know it’s their imagination–you’re an angel…
I was in Atlanta for the Braves series in June when the Sox signed Kyle Snyder, and had to sneak down to the hotel’s business center for an Internet fix to see what I could find out. I scribbled some numbers on a piece of scrap paper to report back to Beth.
"Uh… he has an ERA for this year of about 27. Released by the Royals. Hasn’t won a game in the majors since 2003. And… he may be starting Monday!" Wasn’t until I got home Monday night for the game that she other shoe dropped. And he kinda reminds me of another leggy blond righty we used to know…
Kyle Snyder wasn’t actually Bronson Arroyo, of course, but he pitched well enough for the win that first night and did a great job of describing what it felt like to be waived by one of the worst teams in baseball only to get the call from one of the best.
July 18, 2006.
One of the first chances I had to snap him was when the Royals came to Fenway, and to my surprise one of his former teammates gave him a big two-handed shove…
… but it was clearly good fun.
Snyder certainly seemed a very gentle giant with an easy smile.
July 18, 2006.
July 30, 2006.
Well, all right–maybe he could get suspicious of the camera, too!
More than once he looked like he wished night games could start just an hour or two later.
July 31, 2006.
He had some good innings and some tough ones, but his performance on July 31 in relief of David Wells (struck by a line drive in his return to the rotation) was magnificent, as he held the Sox in the game until Big Papi could step to the plate in the bottom of the ninth.
August 11, 2006.
August 12, 2006. (It’s clear I’m a ****** for good hair.)
August 13, 2006.
I think Snydes had a little more back trouble than he let on.
September 6, 2006, perhaps hurting before one of his lesser outings.
He certainly fit right in with the hugging tradition of the Sox…
September 8, 2006.
… and there’s a reason songs get written about pale blue eyes.
I felt all last year like Tito and Tek saw something in Snyder that they would want back in ’07, so i was very happy that he did sign over the winter. I hope he’s healthy this year; we need reliable bullpen arms, and even if the rotation looks fully staffed right now, it’ll be a long time before we think we have a surplus of starters. May you continue to persevere, as you have through the surgeries, the ups and downs, and all the times you’ve had to battle back. The fight’s not over, and I look forward to seeing you on our side this year.
Cla Meredith: I left my home in Richmond, Virginia, California on my mind
May 8, 2005 was Mother’s Day. The Seattle Mariners were in town, and I surprised my mom with the best tickets I’d ever had to see the Sox. Little did I know what was in store for us, though. A rainout the night before was played as the opener of a Sunday doubleheader, pushing our game’s start to the late afternoon. Checking SoSH before we left I learned we had called up young Cla Meredith, who’d scarcely acquired a roster number in Pawtucket after being lights-out for Portland.
The game started badly. Bellhorn played shortstop and made an error on the first ball he touched. It was cold, and wet. I bought Mom a ten dollar poncho. But the skies were gray, and the air held more mist than should have been possible, and when the winds tore through you would have sworn there were ghosts in the lights shining on the field.
Wade Miller pitched well, but Halama struggled a bit, and in the seventh young Meredith was called in with two outs and a runner on second. He very uncharacteristically walked his first batter. And his second. The rain fell, the wind swirled, the ghosts hovered and dipped… and Richie Sexson came to the plate.
Perhaps on any other day Meredith would have had what he needed, would have been ready for his Fenway debut. Perhaps he was rushed; perhaps there were ghosts in the sky that night that knew his time had not yet come. However it happened, the wind took a long fly ball from Sexson, carried it out and wrapped it around the Pesky Pole, and the Sox could not come back.
And neither, for the moment, could Cla Meredith.
It’s a huge jump to the majors under the best of circumstances. The pool gets smaller, the competition harder. Maybe you were something special at a lower level–suddenly you look around and everyone is at least as good as you are. At least. And so you fail in a way you’ve never actually failed before.
My thinking at the time was that his brief foray into the majors before he was prepared cost Meredith a year. And indeed, he went back to the PawSox and did all right, but not better than that. The momentum from his ascent from AA was gone.
I got to see Cla in Spring Training last year:
March 14, 2006
March 16, 2006
but he didn’t make the club out of Spring Training. Back to Pawtucket.
In the first few weeks of the season, as Josh Bard struggled to catch Tim Wakefield, Theo Epstein decided (perhaps too hastily) that the best solution was to bring Doug Mirabelli back from San Diego. With the Yankees also short on catchers, Brian Cashman could plausibly put forth an offer to SD, and Epstein added Meredith to the deal. I was glad I was already a Padres fan!
May 13, 2006 was the day before Mother’s Day. I was in Chicago to see the Padres. It was cold, windy and rainy. Have you heard this story before? The day before, Woody Williams had suffered a calf injury, and called up to patch the bullpen was Cla Meredith.
May 13, 2006
This time Cla came in for the eighth with his team losing, and this time he pitched well. Mike Piazza put the Padres ahead in the ninth, Trevor Hoffman came in for the save, and almost exactly a year after his ill-fated debut, I watched Cla earn his first win.
Cla went back to the minors for a while, but as fate would have it he was called up on July 2 just before my trip to see the Padres on July 4. (Incidentally, that was also the first day I used my new telephoto adapter…)
Shooting into the bullpen during a rain delay.
July 4, 2006
Cla pitched two innings and picked up the loss this time, but he was with the big club to stay–and, as everyone knows, went on not merely to be one of the top relievers in MLB but to set the Padres record for scoreless innings! I was able to see him in Washington
July 8, 2006
July 9, 2006
in Cincinnati, even if he didn’t pitch
(I joke all the time about getting busted when it appears players are looking at me, but there was no one within twenty feet of me for this shot, so I really was!)
September 14, 2006
and back in San Diego.
Whoops. Looks like Cla’s better pitching than just tossing the ball back after catching…
September 22, 2006
Holding the game steady so Trevor could come in for his record-setting save.
September 24, 2006
Trevor’s day of history was the same afternoon as the Padres set off on their last road trip, with the traditional surprises for the rookies, so this is my lingering memory of the last time I saw Cla…
As Dorothy, September 24, 2006.
Most of my other favorites are gone from the Padres roster now, but as long as Cla is there they’ll have a piece of my heart. I got to speak with Cla a couple of times during the year and he was unfailingly polite and genuine, a real sweetheart. And it was interesting to watch the change in his reflections on Boston, from his memories of being booed at Fenway and a certain willful arrogance about whether he’d been ready for what he faced that day to a growing understanding as he achieved success with the Friars of how far he’d come and how only now he truly was ready.
Who knows if he’d had the season he had if he had stayed in Boston? Sometimes our setbacks and disappointments are as important to our ultimate happiness as our triumphs and successes; sometimes it’s the unexpected upheavals life throws us that land us where we were supposed to be all along.
(P.S. Yeah, I know, the song says “Norfolk.” A little slack, OK?)
"Hey! You! Put that camera down and get back to work!"
(Papelbon, Hansen and Delcarmen, June 27, 2006 at Fenway)
Longer posts this weekend…
Boston Baseball Writers’ Dinner: Do you believe what you read?
Playing fast and loose with chronology here, but I thought I’d post my photos from the Boston Baseball Writers’ awards dinner last month. I rarely take indoor photos, but it’s hard to resist the boys all dressed up for a change!
Awards were doled out:
The dinner itself is a very nice gathering; as a friend of mine says, it used to be the first harbinger in the dead of winter of the march to the next season! Of course, these days it’s just a few weeks after buying Sox Pax and wound up being within days of the Hot Stove Cool Music events as well as the Jimmy Fund’s "New Stars for Young Stars," so all in all it was more a celebration of the way that baseball never rests in Boston!
On to some photos!
Craig Hansen and David Pauley. All of the pups in the Rookie Development Program attended; Ellsbury, receiving an award, and the ones who had played at Fenway were seated at the head table while the others were sitting right up front.
Kason Gabbard. I’m not sure if they were told to wear silver, but I like it!
Craig Breslow opts for silver on black.
David Murphy, who has noticeably put on some muscle in the offseason.
Kyle Snyder. (Fashion critique: gorgeous pattern on that vest, but he ought to wear a vest cut more like Hansen’s, with a deeper V in front. Kyle, if you’re out there and want to do some shopping, just drop me a line.)
Peter Gammons and an uncharacteristically somber Dan Roche.
Hansen and Pauley again.
The past (in the person of handsome Gentleman Jim Lonborg) chats with the future (in the person of young Ryan Howard). I can only imagine how proud Howard’s parents were to see the respect he got from a Boston audience!
Mike Lowell, described by Schilling as an exceptional teammate and competitor but "the worst fantasy football player I’ve ever met." (He laughed and nodded sheepishly.)
Basket of kittens at the other end of the table? Darned if I know…
Hmmn–there’ll be a Snyder photo montage one of these days…
mlblogssittingstill
Recent Comments