Author! Author!

Given that just today Dustin Pedroia proclaimed that baseball players did not have the ability to write well, it seems that they wouldn't want to expose themselves to ridicule by writing publicly. Kevin Youkilis and Daniel Bard, however, are going to attempt to prove Pedroia wrong. Both have agreed to blog for ESPN Boston this season. I suppose they can't really prove him wrong as they both dictated their entries, though.

Wedding Bells.

Congratulations to Daniel Bard on his wedding this weekend. He seems like an extremely nice young man. I don't pretend to understand the joy one would get from killing an animal for the express purpose of knocking one off but he's found a gal who'll go with him (albeit a girl with questionable taste--the china pattern she registered for is faux Greco-Roman) so bully for him.

The Bard.

It seems that every year come playoff time some player or another is roped into writing a blog. Why? I don't know. With the exception of Pedroia's and Masterson's, they're never particularly successful. They're almost always poorly written and they're not insightful, let alone interesting. (Pedroia's WBC blog was not well written but it was interesting and while Justin Masterson's only had occasional syntactical stumbles, it did suffer from lack of focus every once in awhile but because he is quite possibly the sweetest person to ever walk the face of the Earth--and I'm not prone to hyperbole--I'm willing to forgive and I'll gladly read about his trip to the outlet mall.)

This year's victim is Daniel Bard, who does not live up to his last name. It's not the best. The syntax is often awkward but given that it was spoken, that can be ignored. What he writes is all pretty obvious. But it's mostly just not interesting. Maybe when he actually has something to write about it will go better.

Bard of Catawba.

Daniel Bard seems to leave a nice impression in his wake. He and his two younger brothers (Jared and Luke) have all pitched for Charlotte Christian School in Charlotte, NC. Says the baseball coach:

"They are great kids, great citizens who'll do well in life whether they're baseball players or not. They're extremely talented, but they're humble and they work hard. They'll give you 100 percent no matter who you're playing or what's the score.”

Also, he's apparently close with his brothers. Says his mother:

"What touches me the most is how they encourage and support each other. They're always calling or texting to see how the other one's doing. That's just a blessing to me. They're all humble and don't brag on themselves. They've been gifted, but work hard at it.”

Say it with me: Awww.