He got out of an 8th inning jam, just like a couple hundred times before. He walked off the mound to about as much fanfare as there is for the 162nd game of the season with nothing postseason oriented on the line. As he strode off the mound he stared at the ground the entire way, almost embarrassed almost shy, but he's been there more than any right hander in baseball history. He finished his inning with a strike out, low and out of the zone, just where the catcher called for it.
The Great John Updike once wrote that "Gods don't answer letters", apparently he was right. Because when Mike Timlin left tonight's regular season finale where he faced the New York Yankees, he might have also faced his own baseball mortality. For a guy with 4 World Series championships there isn't a lot out there left to prove besides maybe breaking the all-time appearances record. This might be the end to one of the best career's by a middle reliever since the role has become defined, because there is no guarantee that he makes the playoff roster this year and next season is never promised when you hit the age of 40.
So when Mike Timlin made his way off the Fenway Park mound tonight, I took in the moment and savored it what might be, his final bow.
Sterling Pingree
Sunday, September 28, 2008
His final bow?
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Come, Labor On Red Sox-Angels Round 3
Oh, it's been a while. Between being engulfed in the pennant race and having no time to talk about it, I haven't posted a new column in weeks. It actually feels like years, so much has happened but nothing has changed, except now it's official. The Rays have won the division and the Red Sox finished second, but captured the Wild Card. It seems fitting that the last post is the longest running headline in the history of the website, because that was the night that if hope wasn't lost, it was evident that hope had taken a few wrong turns. It became official late last night that the Rays would by default of David Pauley, win their first division title and make their first appearance in the postseason. The Rays seem to have Boston's number, the Angels are 8-1 against Boston this year (I was at the one game that Boston won, the starting pitcher in that game? You guessed it, David Pauley.) The Twins are leading the Central by a half game over the White Sox. The Red Sox had some battles with the Twins this season in their few games against each other. The White Sox on the other hand held a decent record against Boston, but I don't see how they match up against this Boston team well at all. The Angels are on tap again for the Red Sox to kick off the first round, so here's the break down.
The pitching: The old saying's go, a good running game and good defense wins in the NFL, defense and an inside game wins in the NBA and pitching wins in the playoffs. There is a stark contrast right off the bat between the Red Sox and these Angels. During the season a deep rotation should in theory get you the best record because you are throwing 4 and 5 pitchers out there, that in theory are better than the other team's 4th and 5th starters. In the playoffs that goes out the window, because maybe two starts are going to be made by those number 4 guys and that's it. The Red Sox have arguably the two best pitchers in this series. Josh Beckett being the predominant postseason starter in baseball now and then you can argue that Jon Lester is throwing better than John Lackey and if I wanted to get crazy and get a lot of e-mails I could say that at 18-2 before today's start, Dice-K is better than Lackey and he would be Boston's number 3. Saunders is solid and has pitched well against Boston, Weaver is owned by Ortiz and most of the Boston line up. Ervin Santana hasn't faced the Red Sox much and has had a very up and down season and right now is trending downward.
The bullpens right now favor the Angels, but they don't have a lot of play off experience in the pen besides K-Rod and Scot Shields and Boston has had Shields number his entire career. Papelbon at the end of the game has been almost as lights out as K-Rod and right now Manny Delcarmen and Justin Masterson have been very tough and Hideki Okakima looks like he is back to where he was last season using his curve ball more than ever and more effectively.
Be sure to check back soon for the offensive break downs of the Red Sox and Angels heading into the ALDS.
Sterling Pingree
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Doing the Drunk Texas Reaction and then not
I believe the date was September 16, 2005, ( I know because I was there) I went to a Red Sox game at Fenway Park against the Oakland A's. I don't remember the pitching match up, only that Wakefield threw 9 innings, but before the game even started there was an hour and a half rain delay. This was my first rain delay experience and it wasn't bad, I had some pizza and sat in the drizzle talking to my buddy, Squirrelly. There were a couple guys in front of us, one of the greatest sections I've ever sat in, I mean the people not the seats. The seats weren't bad they were down just beyond Pesky's Pole and about 12 rows off the field, but the people were good. There was a couple from Georgia, she went to school at BU so he came up to visit her. Next to them were two guys who came up from Texas to see the weekend series. Well one of the guys spent the entire rain delay drinking heavily, the more it rained, the more he drank. The original 7 o'clock start ended up taking place at about 8:30 and by this time the red headed Texan had all he could do just to stand up during the National Anthem.
Then came the moment. As soon as the PA announcer started reading off things to do with the game all he could do when the crowd erupted was throw his hands over his head with his shoulders touching his ears and the look on his face was like he was lifting the bottom of the pyramid cheerleader above his head in some elaborate toss or something. I suppose it was just a natural reaction when you're in that state and feeling that kind of joy and on occasions since then, I have found myself doing the same thing (such as when the Red Sox won the World Series last October.)
Why am I telling you all of this? Because I just had the same reaction to what Jason Bay just did for the Red Sox. He took a two out, one on offering from Dan Wheeler and drilled a low line drive into the front row of the Green Monster. The pure guttural roar of the crowd and of Jason Bay screaming "Get up!" as the ball left the yard gave me an instant rush of the "Drunk Texas Reaction".
Right now it looks like it might have been a little premature, as Joanthan "I am probably 6 months away from legally changing my last name to Cinco Ocho" Papelbon has given up a game tying home run to Dan Johnson. I guess this is fastball mode? Two doubles in a row and the Sox are trailing.
Right now though, I am still somewhat confident in this teams ability to come back. The Bay home run was a big moment for this team, it showed how badly they want to finish first in the division and how badly they want to get home field advantage in the playoffs. The moment like almost like this happened in 2004 when Orlando Cabrera hit a walk off homer against the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park in extra innings. This could be that moment if they use the home field advantage they have at this moment and score in their final time up.
This bottom of the 9th will be telling, will the Red Sox battle back, will the Rays resolve be enough to hold off the defending champions or will Troy Percival cough one up to the greatest clutch hitter in Baseball history? (Yes, I stole this from Batman and yes I did read this old column from Bill Simmons at work today.)
David Ortiz is coming to the plate with a man on base down by one in the bottom of the 9th. Doesn't it seem like a while since he hit a walk off home run? Wasn't the last one last September against these Rays at Fenway Park off Al Reyes? It doesn't look like he will get the chance as he's ahead in the count 3-0 and Percival doesn't want anything to do with him. Can Ortiz turn back the clock and give us one more day of summer (stolen from Vin Scully in For Love of The Game) and knock one out of here?
3-1, he pops out to right field, it had hope off the bat, but he was just under it. Ellsbury comes on to run, you have to steal second here so you have a shot to tie the game with a single from the red hot Coco Crisp right? HE DOES!!! He steals second and the throw bounces away, Ellsbury at third with two outs.
I can't help by notice, if Ellsbury had run two batters ago, this game would be tied after Ortiz's fly out to left. I'm never going to make it through October.
Coco flies out, game over, drive home safely, the Rays have won for the first time this season at Fenway Park. My spirits are lifted knowing that Josh Beckett is on the hill tomorrow, and no matter what, there is still October.
If I can only make it through.
Sterling Pingree
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Living in some tall cotton
The scale of how great these times are for Boston/New England sports fans are, (diehards, not pink hatters. I hate that I have to specify) championship sports teams and all, but you know things are huge where a beat writer changing papers is big news. Tony Massarotti has left the Boston Herald and is now anchoring the online coverage for the Boston Globe, primarily the same thing that Gordon Edes did before he left the paper. My friends and I were talking about how great it is that he is now with the Globe and makes the current staff of writers there perhaps their greatest, ever. Something that I have thought of though is that this move really gives Rob Bradford a nice bump at the Herald. Bradford deserves it without question, I have been reading him consistently since he wrote for the Providence Journal and had a terrific blog on their website.
The thing about this is that in not many sports cities are the scribes of a team or personalities that cover it, almost as big of stars as the players. Think about it though, who would you say has bigger stars, the Pittsburgh Pirates or the Globe's sports staff? In New England anyway, it's definitely a toss up.
On to some random shots:
~ Game four of the International League playoffs between Scranton Wilkes/Barre and Pawtucket features a pitching match up of Bartolo Colon and Phil Hughes. Colon has a better record and a much lower ERA (Hughes is above 5). I will now pause while Yankee fans swallow their tongues trying to say "We made the right move by not trading for Johan" over and over and over again.
~ Tim Wakefield tonight is making his 499th appearance for the Red Sox, second most in the history of the team for a pitcher only behind Bob "Steamer" Stanley, whom nobody will catch. Interestingly enough though is that Mike Timlin is third on the Red Sox list of pitching appearances with 388. What are the chances of getting to 400? Probably slim, but you never know, I'd love to see him come back next year and try to get the all time major league appearances record. Gamers and gentlemen like Timlin don't come around every season.
~ The Red Sox could pull to within just a game and a half of the Tampa Bay Rays tonight with a victory in Texas after Troy Percival blew a save today in the 13th inning by surrendering a grand slam to Greg "I used to only bat over .200 against the Red Sox" Zaun. You knew this run was coming for Boston, next week's series though is "Hu-yuge" in the words of Chris "Mad-Dog" Russo. Three games to decide first place, at the Fens and the Sox have their three best going, (Dice, Lester and Beckett) against three mediocre (Jackson, Kazmir and Sonnastine). I will preview this series in my next post.
Sterling Pingree
Thursday, September 4, 2008
NFC Previews Continued
So the season is underway as of 7 pm tonight, and I am co-anchoring a local sports show for football season, so I am going to do the NFC South preview fast. I want to get them in before the season, and Sterling has been a slacker, plus if you've been watching ABC you'd know I've been putting in a lot of hours lately. So here we go with some speed previews.
NFC South
1. Carolina Panthers-Projected Record 12-4, first in NFC South.
QB: This teams ranking is based solely on Jake Delhomme. If he is injured again disregard this ranking completely. If Delhomme does well I expect them to be a great team, because they have a good mix of defensive and offensive weapons.
RB: Deangelo Williams is one of my big time sleepers for this years fantasy season, and Jonathan Stewart isn't too shabby either. I can see them putting up the best rushing offense in the league.
WR: Steve Smith is good, but streaky. After that they don't have a whole lot.
TE: Not going to be a big factor.
Offensive Line etc...: The offensive line only needs to be decent with two backs like they have. Their defense goes as Julius Peppers goes. When he is playing to capacity he looks like the best defensive player in the league, when he's not he looks like a defensive version of Ethan Albright.
2. New Orleans Saints-Projected Record 10-6, second in NFC South, Wild Card winner.
QB: We all know Brees will put up numbers and be an elite quarterback.
RB: If Reggie Bush can learn to become a running back and not a kick returner trying to play running back he can be the next Barry Sanders with better receiving ability. If he continues to make too many cuts and always go for the big play then he'll struggle.
WR: Marques Colston is still a very good receiver, and I have Robert Meachem as an impact player this year.
TE: Jeremy Shockey, regardless of what Giants fans tell you, is an elite tight end and will thrive with the Saints.
Offensive Line etc...: Their defense should be much improved with Jonathan Vlima, and their special teams will be intriguing if they use Reggie Bush as a kick returner.
3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers-Projected Record 9-7, third in NFC South.
QB: I bet you thought that I would have the Bucs in the playoffs considering they're my favorite team and I said earlier I thought there would be two playoff teams in the South. Unfortunately I don't see it, and the offense is why. Garcia is old and I think last year was it for him, and after that they don't have much. Well, they have plenty of QB's, but none that are good.
RB: Warrick Dunn is washed up, Earnest Graham is average and after that they have nothing. They need Cadillac Williams to come back and perform, but I don't think it will ever happen.
WR: Joey Galloway continues to put up numbers, but after him they've got nothing.
TE: Jerramy Stevens was overrated with the Seahawks, and he still is terrible with the Bucs.
Offensive Line etc: Their offensive line is young and getting better, but it has nothing to protect. Their special teams is mediocre at best, and the defense will be carrying this team yet again.
4. Atlanta Falcons-Projected Record 4-12, last in NFC South.
QB: Matt Ryan is a rookie and he'll have his struggles, but they made the right choice even if it doesn't show this year.
RB: Michael Turner has a lot to prove, and I expect he'll prove it by putting up some good numbers. If Jerious Norwood can finally break through the running game could be good.
WR: Roddy White quietly put together a great season last year with a bad team, lets see if he can duplicate that.
TE: They lost Alge Crumpler, so who cares who they have now.
Offensive Line etc...: Their offensive line is decent, their special teams are pretty bad and their defense will struggle because of the offenses shortcomings.
~Aaron Jackson
Monday, September 1, 2008
White Hat Sports Draft Co-Jogging Diary
Alright, so here is our special segment, a co-jogging diary via AOL instant messenger. There is no other way to intro this, so here we go....
~Aaron Jackson