Citius, Altius, Fortius.

NESN has video of the athletic prowess of Jacoby Ellsbury but check out this David Ortiz hustle.

Awards.

It's probably not worth mentioning as he's been passed up for the award twice already (and Brandon Roy, the athlete who won both of those years, is again up for the award) but Jacoby Ellsbury has been nominated for the Harry Glickman Professional Athlete of the Year Award at the Oregon Sports Awards. I suppose I could cross my fingers for him.

The Award Goes To...

There is a certain segment of the population that realized a few days ago that the acquisition of Mike Cameron would potentially free up Theo to move Ellsbury to San Diego in order to get his paws on Adrian Gonzalez. They're vocal about their belief that Ellsbury has serious defensive deficiencies and on top of that he doesn't get on base enough to make up for that. He doesn't walk enough and he doesn't seem to be able to bunt. His only positive attribute is his speed and speed may be fleeting.

Now, I'm not the biggest Jacoby Ellsbury fan but I do think that that's a very dour take on him as a player. I agree that he could get on base more but I also think that if he would take fewer pitches he'd have a better chance of doing that. He seems to be looking for a walk and falling behind because of it. I do think that if he could bunt for a base hit, then he'd be golden. I also think that his defensive issues are over blown. He goes side-to-side beautifully but seems to have depth perception issues. I'm inclined to think that experience or maybe a new glasses prescription might help that out.

But I would guess that the Ellsbury-detractors are the in the minority as Ellsbury won the Defensive Player of the Year for the This Year in Baseball Awards. So congratulations to him. May he prove me wrong.

The Old Switcheroo.

I really do try to not just pilfer stuff from other sites but sometimes someone is just faster than I am. And there doesn't seem to be anything else to write about.

Jacoby Ellsbury has switched his number from 46 to 2. Interesting? No, not really. True? Yup. Why? Don't know but a cynical part of me can't help but wonder if the marketing department didn't approach him about lowering his number so that they could sell a whole slew of new Ellsbury paraphernalia.

Different Strokes.

A couple of nights ago Jacoby Ellsbury was spotted whooping it up at Rain nightclub in the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas--which is where Real World Las Vegas was based. (Don't judge me.) It was the night of John McCain's daughter's birthday party but it seems as if Ellsbury's appearance, his dance floor adjacent table, and his vodka cocktails were merely incidental and that he wasn't part of the big do.

Meanwhile down in Texas, Josh Beckett will be playing in Vernon Wells' Charity golf tournament on November 2. The tournament is meant to raise money for the Vernon Wells Perfect 10 foundation. I'm not entirely certain but it seems that the foundation works to help homeless children in the Arlington, TX area.

Cool Jacoby Ells.

With his seventy stolen bases this year Jacoby Ellsbury will once again be the recipient of the Cool Papa Bell Award presented by the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City. The award (given to the league leaders in stolen bases) is no surprise but even the winners of the subjective awards were well chosen; Elvis Andrus is a good choice for a rookie award, Mike Scioscia is a decent choice for a manager award, and Jack Zduriencik is a deserving executive.

The only one I questioned was Joe Morgan receiving an award for career excellence in the face of adversity. Joe Morgan does an award-worthy job? If you want to talk about his career as a baseball player, that's fine. But if you're going to talk about career excellence, then you can't ignore his ESPN gig and his general ineptitude at that job. But then I thought about it some more and realized that despite some pretty severe adversity (being a complete moron and not actually watching the game that he's supposed to be commenting on) he manages to keep himself employed. And that does take some sort of excellence.

Sweet Deal.

Watching Jacoby Ellsbury play in last night's game saddened me. My favorite player has almost always been the guy out in center field. I love spectacular catches and the stunning athleticism that goes into them. Torii Hunter, Adam Jones, Curtis Granderson, even Carlos Gomez. I love to watch those guys play. But I don't love Ellsbury, at least not anymore than any other member of the team.

So, why? Why is Ellsbury different? It's more than needing to distinguish myself from the teeny-boppers. It's that he's always struck me as boring. It seems to me that he does the right thing, says the right thing, and goes about without an original thought in his head. It's very (forgive me) Jeter-like; very white bread.

I suppose that it's not really fair. Beside Curtis Granderson (whom I adore beyond words), I don't know if any of my other center-fielders are interesting as people. But that's just the way it is. Skimming the paper this morning, however, may have caused me to rethink my position on Ellsbury just a little. Describing the catch of Pat Burrell's gapper:

"Go. Go. Gadget-Arm."

It made me smile. And he may be in need of an upgrade. I'm thinking seedless-rye. But he gets points taken off for getting the Inspector Gadget theme song stuck in my head, so maybe only whole-wheat.

A Happier Note.

Big congrats to Jacoby Ellsbury on tying the Red Sox record for stolen bases tonight. Plus, unlike a certain opposing third baseman who has a knack for accomplishing feats when they don't have an effect the outcome of the game it was an important run at the time. Before things fell apart.

You're So Vain.

Jon Lester is a pretty serious guy. He seems dour, humorless, and to be a man of few words. I would feel perfectly comfortable calling him boring. He does nothing to dispel that image in the pop culture grid of last week's Sports Illustrated. His answers are uninspired but completely believable.

I can imagine him steadfastly refusing to read the headlines of the tabloids while waiting in line at the grocery store. Of course he can cook salmon: he's from Washington, baked salmon is ridiculously easy, and it tastes terrible. It's the perfect food for Jon Lester. Dustin Pedroia doesn't shut up, Mike Lowell works on a more fabulous level than Lester and, therefore, Lester can't read Lowell. And he can't think of one thing good or interesting about himself.

But wait! Here's an interesting answer: Jacoby Ellsbury spends too much time looking at himself in the mirror. Ellsbury's mom would have you believe that her son is a good boy; that he didn't have a girlfriend in high school. I do believe his mother; he son's features, while exotic around here would be fairly common on a reservation. But I also believe Lester that the attention may have gone to Ellsbury's head.

Run Like A Duck.*

Sometimes when I watch Jacoby Ellsbury charge down the line I think I could take him. Most of the time I realize that I'm just full of myself and after last night's steal I'm probably less likely to think it. In a mid/long distance event, however,I'm fairly confident that I would come out on top--he's a sprinter and shouldn't be able to maintain that speed over any length of time.

There's a video of his post game presser on NESN.com but since he doesn't say anything particularly interesting, I picked this one instead. In awe of Jacoby's speed, Dustin has sworn off base stealing. Justin Masterson is happy and cool as a cucumber. And Michael Bowden has a cute little accent.



*Blerg. It turns out Jacoby went to Oregon State and not the University of Oregon resulting in the title not making sense. But I like it, so I'm keeping it.

Batter Up.

Batting Stance Guy was down in Fort Myers for spring training back in February. Don't know how I missed it but Bradford had some footage of him doing Manny and talking to Daniel Bard at the time. He also accosted Jed Lowrie with his impression of Jed Lowrie back in January.

The Kevin Youkilis strike out is spot on (and hilarious) as is the Jacoby Ellsbury nodding routine. But David Ortiz cracking up is the absolute best.

Get the Smelling Salts.

Fan-girls of the world will need to be scrapped off the floor as Jacoby Ellsbury threatens: "I think the whole package will be on display this year." (I may secretly be twelve-years-old.)

There's nothing too interesting in the video as Ellsbury steadfastly clings to his cliches but the gist: He feels physically prepared for the coming season. He plans to work hard. He didn't think the holes in his swing (and his susceptibility to the inside fastball) made him that horrible of a player last year. He plans on working hard. There's always room for improvement. He worked hard. He's relaxed. He likes batting lead-off. He thinks they have a great team that is solid one through nine, with an explosive offense. They also have a pleasing defense. He plans on continuing to improve by working hard. It's all about having fun. He likes his teammates, especially Jed Lowrie. He wants to get back to the World Series [Aside: That was a stupid question. Which professional baseball player is going to say: "You know what? I have no desire to play in the World Series."?] And he's ready for the season to start.

There's Always Next Year.

Jacoby Ellsbury is 0 for 2 when it comes to the Oregon Sports Awards and the Harry Glickman Male Professional Athlete of the Year. On Monday night, Jacoby again lost out to Brandon Roy of the Portland Trailblazers. Perhaps next year he'll be able to get on base more often so that he can use his blazing speed and have a chance. [Aside: The woman who won the female award could probably give him a run for his money on the basepaths. Kara Goucher is a middle and long distance runner not a sprinter but even so, going from her record time in the 1500m she would cover the distance of ninety feet in a hair over four seconds.]

Could This Be His Year?

Last year Jacoby Ellsbury lost out on the Harry Glickman Professional Athlete of the Year Award at the Oregon Sports Awards to Brandon Roy of the Portland Trail Blazers. He gets a chance to rectify that on February 8 as he has, once again, been nominated for the award.

His competition this year?

Kevin Boss, NY Giants

Troy Polamalu, Pittsburgh Steelers

Brandon Roy, Portland Trail Blazers

Nick Symmonds, Track and Field

Good luck to Jacoby!

Awards Night.

On January 10 in Kansas City, Jacoby Ellsbury will be presented with the James "Cool Papa" Bell Award by the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. The award is given to the AL and NL stolen base leader. If nothing else, it probably has the best name for an award. Congratulations to him.

Ralph Waldo Ellsbury.

Oh, Ellsbaby. You seem like a really sweet kid. Earnest. Honest. Sincere. Innocent. A great thing about you? You don't use 'good' as an adverb-it drives me nuts when people do that. But other than that sweetcheeks? You are a terrible writer.

Happy Birthday Ells!

Jacoby Ellsbury turns twenty-five today. So...happy birthday to him.

He seems like a sweet kid. And I know that there's a certain faction of fans enamored of his cheekbones. It is fun to watch him run. Hopefully, he can learn to hit left-handed pitching and become really, really useful.

Regardless, a happy birthday and many happy returns.

The Boys of the Pacific Northwest.

(or the story of Red Sox rookies whose names start with the letter J--except for Justin Masterson who doesn't count)

1. Jed Lowrie has done such a fabulous job filling in for Julio Lugo--another J--that people are taking notice.

2. Jacoby the thief. Jacoby Ellsbury steals bases in much the same way that he steals hearts-often and, seemingly, without effort. The first bit of Ellsbury-ana comes to us from the Projo. The second piece comes from The Register-Guard of Eugene, OR.

3. Jeff Bailey is just happy to help.

4. This post was originally titled "The Boys of Oregon" but that had to be scrapped once it was discovered that Kelso, Washington was, in fact, not in Oregon and, therefore, Jeff Bailey wasn't Oregonian. With the title change it seemed only fair to find something about Jon Lester. This was the best I could come up with. Who would have thought that Jon Lester's musical tastes were about as exciting as Jon Lester himself?

Mystery Solved.

So, curious about Manny's new found speed? Desperate to find out the reason his balky knees suddenly went un-balky? Turns out, the answer-the way to fix Manny Ramirez-was under our noses the entire time. Navajo magic.

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.