Moment 5: Fight!

June 5. Tampa Bay at Boston.

Covelli was a good egg all season. He wanted to play but was being passed over for the younger, hunkier version. Then, David went down and Manny became the DH. For four days, Coco was the starting centerfielder. On the fourth day, Jason Bartlett dropped his knee in front of second base as Coco dove for the bag. This pissed off Coco because a similar incident resulted in him missing quite a lot of playing time and he'd just gotten some for himself. Assuming Bartlett would again be covering second, Covelli stole second the next time around and slide hard--he didn't go in spikes high, he just copped a feel--and took out Akinori Iwamura. Later during a pitching change, Maddon and Coco started yelling at each other.

The next night, Coco was batting eighth and James Shields was pitching. Covelli's at bat came at the start of the second inning. With his first pitch, Shields plunked Coco in the thigh. Coco charged the mound and all hell broke loose. The fight resulted in the suspension of eight players: Coco, Sean Casey, and John Lester from the Red Sox and Carl Crawford, Jonny Gomes, Akinori Iwamura, Edwin Jackson, and James Shields from Tampa Bay.

Was it as momentous as the Tekrod fight? No. But Coco got to call them little girls and so it's my number five moment from 2008.

Happy Birthday Covelli!

Today marks Coco Crisp's twenty-ninth birthday. I don't know why he became my favorite player. I suspect it has something to do with his Junior-esque batting stance. It might just be that he patrols centerfield. It could be his intelligence. It could be his humor. It could be his humility. But whatever it is, he absolutely is.

I hope that whatever happens to him next season (I read that Chicago might be interested) he enjoys himself. I hope that he gets back to what he was at the end of his time in Cleveland. Mostly I hope that he has many happy and healthy returns of the day. I also hope that his Dad is doing alright.

So, Uh, When it Rains? It Pours.

So Coco started off the second inning of tonight's game by picking a fight with the Rays pitcher. After being hit by the second pitch he saw, Coco charged the mound. Watching Coco it seemed pretty clear that he probably spent some time in the gym with his dad (why you would throw a punch at someone who's father had been a boxer is beyond me. I suppose he might not have known.)

Shields threw a weirdo, over-the-top, lazy, probably pretty ineffective (had it landed) punch, which Coco bobbed-I'm going to guess that Shields doesn't have all that much experience throwing a punch, especially given the fact that he used his pitching hand. Coco answered with an ill-placed roundhouse that seemed to clip Shields' shoulder. The catcher (Navarro) tackled him and then a couple of extraneous Rays jumped on top (Crawford, Gomes, and Iwamura) and started pummeling him.

To hear Coco tell it, however, they were fighting like "little girls", scratching at him and pulling his hair. From his post-game interview, he seemed to find the whole thing very amusing; which leads me to believe that he's been in some real fights in his time. He's always struck me as more deserving of the "scrappy" descriptor than Pedroia, anyway. Every time he comes up to bat he looks like a five-year-old ruffian. If you take away his toys, he's going to come at you fists flying; even if you put your hand on his forehead to keep him back, he'll keep trying to land a punch.

In all likelihood, he's looking at a ten-game suspension. As much as I love Coco, it wouldn't have been too horrible. But then the fourth inning happened.

In the fourth inning, Ellsbury made a beautiful diving catch to get the first out. Unfortunately, in the process of doing so he seemed to roll his wrist over. They did x-rays to determine that nothing was broken. It was announced as a sprained wrist but all that means is that it hurts like a sonofabitch but nothing appeared to be structurally wrong with it. They intend to do more testing tomorrow to figure out what exactly is wrong.

And then the weirdest thing happened between the fourth and the fifth innings. In the dugout, Manny took a swipe at Youk. Youkilis seemed absolutely utterly, confused by the whole incident. No indication from anyone what it was about, with Francona only saying in his presser that it had been taken care of. Indeed, when Manny came out of the game in the seventh, he and Youkilis shared a fist-bump.

The last unpleasant moment of the evening came in the seventh inning. Manny was the first to bat in the Sox half of the inning and watched most of the pitches thrown at him sail by. After one of those pitches sailed by, he shook out his right leg and Francona came jogging over. They left him in the game until he had drawn a walk but perhaps his hamstring is worse than they've let on. Anyway, Cash ran for Manny and really looked adorably perplexed that he was being asked to DH.

Who's Got the Pain?

JD Drew left tonight's game in the third inning after making a very good effort to catch a ball out in right. They say that it's a sprained wrist and that he's listed as day-to-day. Ellsbury came in to replace him.

Then in the sixth inning, Coco left the game with an upset stomach. It must have been really bad, like upchucking in the locker room bad, because their solution seemed desperate at best. They put Youkilis in right and moved Ellsbury into center. Hopefully, it's not anything really serious because although Kevin Youkilis seems like he can do anything baseball-wise, making him play right field is not a long term solution-especially given the fact that tomorrow's game is in the afternoon and getting someone down from Pawtucket might be cutting it close.

Coco on a Mission

It became pretty obvious last night that Coco is not going down without a fight. He had a single, a walk, a double, stole two bases, and made three plays in center. Now if only he could keep that kind of play up (he had a batting average of .666, an OBP of 1.00, a SLG of 1.00, and an OPS of 2.00) he might get himself a fair shake for the job in center. It's really too bad that the games don't count.

He told the Herald that he was happy with his performance last night.

"I feel as good as I did then (two years ago.) That's when I was able to workout in the off season. Last year was different. But now I feel like I did two years ago."

I'm glad he's making a serious run at the job or at the least, getting himself a good situation somewhere else.

Also, Kottaras' home run was very exciting.

A Multi-talented Crisp

He's like having Hermes in center field. He plans to vote democratic. He had the music thing (I think I read somewhere that he's given it up.) He ice skates. He tastes cookies. He reads. And now, according to Rob Bradford's latest blog, he can breakdance (which I assume he does better than Mr. Ortiz.) Besides hitting well consistently, is there anything the man can't do? (I kid because I love.)

Crisp v. Ellsbury: A (Batting) Cage Match

I know the title is corny but it really took me a very long time to come up with. So I'm leaving it.

If Coco smacked Jacoby over the head with his bat, as it looks like he's about to do in this photo, it would solve our problem. I'm not suggesting that he should because he would probably be charged with assault and then we would be center fielder-less but it would temporarily solve the issue of who gets to play. Unfortunately for my poorly thought out scheme, Coco is a really good guy and the two of them get along famously so he would not be a party to it.

It's not that I don't like Jacoby (with this posting he'll take the lead for the most posts in this little acre of cyberspace), or that I condone violence as a way of solving problems, it's just that I really enjoy watching Coco Crisp play baseball. And it seems like a huge leap of faith to just give the job to a kid who happened to get hot right at the right time.

Will Ellsbury be an offensive improvement over Crisp? Probably. Crisp has really struggled offensively since coming here from Cleveland. He used to be able to hit, though. He's been banged up a lot since the trade which might explain the lack of hitting. But when he showed up in Florida today, he looked bigger to me. It might be sign that he's finally found his bat again.

Will Ellsbury be a defensive improvement over Crisp? Nope. Crisp is practically a magnet out there. He was nearly perfect-he was charged with one error last season. He had the highest range factor at center field for the entire league. Will Ellsbury be able to match what Crisp can do in center field? I don't know. And while there's little doubt that Ellsbury is a good center fielder, it'd be a hard row to hoe.

It's definately a pickle. If they haven't already made their decision as to who gets to start, it'll come down to who is hitting better (hence my oh-so-clever title.) And that remains to be seen. How much of a hot streak was Ellsbury on? Has the lost bat of Coco Crisp been located over the off season?

If I was in charge (and Red Sox fans the world over should be glad that I'm not in charge-I'd be prone to making some pretty suspect decisions based on irrelevant things like quality of smile, hair style, and how good of a story the player has) I'd have Crisp as the starter for the first couple of months, let him build up some trade value, then allow him to choose which team he wanted to go to (because I am nice and I would want him to still like me at the end of the day) and get the best I could from that team trade-wise. But unless Ellsbury turned out to be a flash-in-the-pan, I would trade Crisp even though I like him a lot.

Shouldn't They Call it Round-tine?

On a recent aimless ramble across the Internet I happened upon this interview with Coco Crisp from Sports Illustrated-March 6, 2006. Now, I have a well-documented thing for center-fielders and the interview did absolutely nothing to diminish my love of Crisp but this:

"...Josh Beckett is new, too, so I'll put him on the spot -- say how funny he is
before an interview so he has to come up with something good."

gave me pause.

What?

Perhaps it's because I don't generally pay too much attention to Josh Beckett and I'm out of the loop but I don't recall him ever being intentionally funny. I've laughed at him. A lot. But unless the dumb-hayseed-thing is an act (in which case I would say that he might have missed his calling), it's not quite the same thing.

When I first read it I thought that maybe Crisp was making fun of Beckett-Crisp didn't think that Beckett was funny but Beckett thought himself to be hilarious (which doesn't seem like it would be totally outside the realm of reality)-but now I'm not so sure. They might both be delusional or I suppose (if I was going to be kind) there might be a hidden side to Josh Beckett.

Josh, kitten, this might sound harsh, but eye-rolling and mono-syllabic answers to questions are neither funny nor are they good responses.

Schilling, Ortiz, and Youk has got a golden glove (sung to the tune of "I've Got a Golden Ticket")

So much to talk about:

Schilling:

So he's back. I didn't think he would be, so good on him. Disregarding his big mouth, he seems like a good-enough guy; the type of guy you would like to have in a clubhouse. Plus, he's still a good pitcher. The deal they hammered out seems like it would be beneficial all around. He's guaranteed probably about what he's worth and if he can find away to be impressive he can get what he wanted. And maybe if he gets himself into decent shape, his fast ball might pick up a little bit of it's lost speed.

Ortiz:

He went in for arthroscopic knee surgery today. Which, as I understand it, involves trimming excess cartilage from the knee. From my limited research (i.e. I did a Google search and read one of the first articles that came up), it seems that the surgery isn't always productive and often results in the patient needing to have a full knee replacement in a few years. Let's hope that this is not the case here. Hopefully, it will make it less painful to watch him run (I was, seriously, having sympathy pains in my wonky knee watching him in the last couple of games). With reconstructed knees, it's best to put as little weight as possible on them; so perhaps there's a way to tack Schilling's weight-loss clause onto Ortiz's contract.

Youkilis:

Hooray for Youk and his Gold Glove! One thousand and eighty chances to make an error and he got away clean from all of them. It is an impressive feat. As much as I admire Youkilis, though (and I do), I love Coco Crisp. And Crisp was robbed of his award. It is a joy to watch Crisp play and there is no way that Grady Sizemore was a better defensive player than he was. The fact that he didn't have much offensive output shouldn't have had any bearing on an award for defense. And just because he is fun to watch: