Road Trip.

When a team is losing, they're hard to write about. How many ways can you say, "Yup. Lost again."? When they become an unlikeable group, well who wants to write about them, anyway? But they've been doing this Red Sox Road Trip for the past couple of days (Side note: Ivan De Jesus? Bummed.) and it's worth mentioning because there are glimpses of likeability in this group.

First, there was this picture that showed up on the Red Sox twitter feed on Tuesday. Pedro Ciriaco and Ryan Lavarnway in a Vermont restaurant, wherein he appears to be pouring maple syrup onto a plate of french fries. If the napkin tucked into his shirt is any indication, he's already determined that eating his maple french fries is not going to be a clean operation and yet he hasn't bothered to remove his nice wool coat. It made me smile.

Then yesterday a different group of players, Mark Melancon, Chris "S.C." Carpenter, and Ryan Kalish went up to Maine. The group visited the Briarwood Children's House in Lyman, ME and gave an interview to the Bangor Daily News. I know that this isn't what he meant and that it came out wrong but S.C. is quoted as saying,

"It’s always a great feeling coming out here and meeting people, and just seeing the other side of things. Kids that are less fortunate, can’t hear like everyone else, like you and I. It’s fun to come out here and see that."   

 You know what else is a laugh riot, kiddo? Listening to the hearing-impaired try to talk. 

Meet and Greet.

Iván de Jesús (You didn't forget that he was around, did you? He'd be totally bummed, if you did.) is playing winter ball in his native Puerto Rico. He gave an interview to the El Nuevo Día in which he seemed to hint that he felt he was part of the team's future plans. He says that he has been invited to participate in a caravan and meet-and-greet type events later this month. He thinks that the invitation bodes well for him (my rickety high school Spanish translation):

"It's an advantage for me. I was in the Dodger organization for seven years and they never gave me this opportunity. It's my understanding that they're counting on me and that's a joy for me, that the fans might know me. This is going to be very important for me."

Both he and Ciriaco are out of options.

Talkin' Softball.

On Sunday the 18th, there will be a celebrity softball game at the Estadio Quisqueya in Santo Domingo, Domican Republic to support the foundation Quiereme Como Soy (Love me as I am). The foundation works to help integrate children with intellectual disabilities into society. Among the attendees will be David Ortiz. It's unclear whether he's just supporting the event or participating but I would pay good money to see David race in a hundred meter dash.