It's Almost Spring

And....





...Forward.

And...

...Bend.

And...

...Reach.

And...

...Hop.

And...

Yes, I'm excited.

What? What's That? What's That You Say? You Say There Is Some News Today? (Apologies to Shel Silverstein)

I've twice attempted to write something about Matsuzaka's hair after Amelie Benjamin breathlessly informed us that he was wearing a mullet and twice I've deleted my efforts. I've been vacillating between defending him against the charge-I'm fairly certain that it's just the mohawk he was sporting in December (see photo) without the effort or gel required to maintain the style-and whether I was being too mean to her. Also, there was concern that I was spending too much time on baseball players hair anyway.

I suppose I could have written about Youkilis agreeing to a $3 million contract but there really isn't much to say about it. He's a good ball player, just really boring.

I could have written about Beckett appearing to be a little bit fat in the pictures from the Projo yesterday. But that was a can of worms that I wasn't ready to open-not because I feel guilty about making fun of him. A single look at that smug little smirk of his erased any romanticizing I had done of the man during the offseason-it just didn't feel worth mentioning (especially after the way I ripped into Ms. Benjamin regarding the fluff-tastic nature of her writing.)

I had this really brilliant post written in my head about how Pedroia and Manny are cut from the same cloth. The difference between them is that because Pedroia grew up in California he has a little better grasp of the English language and can form slightly more coherent sentences. I never got around to transcribing it, though, and then it was a few days later and less relevant.

I could have written about Wally the Green Monster welcoming a naval ship to shore (and I was tempted because I really like the picture that accompanies the story-here's this character who could have walked off the set of H.R. Pufnstuf and is now manning a battle station. It's very surreal.) but that's really stretching for material.

So what exactly is worth writing about? Is it Roger on Capital Hill desperate for someone to believe him? Not a chance. I've given up caring whether he's a lying bastard or not (at least that's what I'm telling myself.) Is it that despite (or perhaps to spite) this heinous, hideous weather NESN has seen fit to provide us with something damn close to actual baseball coverage tonight? Bingo.

Praise Jebus!

Today is the day, chickens!

Our long, cold winter is coming to an end. The truck departs gray, dreary Boston for the sunny climes of Florida and when they all come back, it'll be spring! It's better than that damn, pessimistic groundhog in Pennsylvania. What does he know anyway? He's a freakin' groundhog-he's got no cognitive abilities, whatsoever.

The weather in Boston today? A high temperature of 39 degrees with afternoon rain/snow showers, 68% humidity, and a southerly wind between four and seven miles per hour.

The weather in Fort Myers two days later? Mostly sunny with a high near 77 degrees, 54% humidity, and an East Northeast wind between five and fourteen miles per hour.

More important than the weather or the impending arrival of spring? Could it be the imminent prospect of actual, honest-to-goodness baseball? Yeah, I think so.

Baseball. The thought of it makes me giddy. Of course, it's also the time of year that people start to give you weird looks. "How can you adore a game that really has nothing to do with you?" they want to know. "What are you talking about? It's a truck loaded with baseball equipment driving down to Florida. What's exciting about that?"




In the fall, either they've gotten used to your obsession or fallen in love with baseball themselves and they can accept your devotion but in the early-early spring, when the roads are icy and you're buried under three feet of snow, only the crazies think about baseball. It's a time when you need to have an explanation for something that is really inexplicable. Trying to explain it satisfactorily here is just as hard as trying to explain it to the uninitiated.




If it weren't too corny, I would say "I live for this" but it is too corny so I won't. It does deserve a woot, though. Woot!

Tickets! Anybody Need Tickets?

If you haven't been able to get tickets yet there are some other options.

1. If you don't mind the flight to Canada, tickets for the Red Sox games in Toronto on April 5 and 6, will be available to Red Sox fans before they are available to the general public.

-Seriously, if I were a Jays fan I imagine that would annoy the hell out of me.

2. If you happen to live in south Florida, are going to be there for spring training, or happen to know someone else who fits those categories, on February 26 the Boys and Girls Club of Lee county will be sponsoring the 3rd Annual Evening with the Red Sox. Part of the event will be an auctioning of the fabulous prize of: 4 green monster tickets to a Sox/Yankees game, airfare, accommodation, and a VIP tour of Fenway.

-I'm thinking of dispatching the 'rents to procure this for me. It's only like a four hour drive from where they live. I don't know what I would do with the airfare and I can see it quickly getting out of my price range but whatever. I've done some stupid things for the Sox.

and lastly,

3. If you don't want to spend the kind of money that would require, the Exeter Area Chamber of Commerce is holding the Ultimate Sports Ticket Raffle. The prize is a pair of Red Sox tickets, a pair of Patriots tickets, a pair of Celtics tickets, a pair of Bruins tickets, four tickets to a University of New Hampshire hockey game, and a limo to two of the games.

-It's a lot of tickets. But if you've only spent $10 on the entry, then you could skip all of the games besides the Red Sox game.

Crap.

You've probably heard. Schill's shoulder is on the outs and it seems likely that he may not be able to pitch next season.

It was nice while it lasted, wasn't it? The feeling that the world was going our way-everything was coming up Red Sox. They were the World Series champions, they brought most of their players back, and other players wanted to come and play in Boston. It was such a nice feeling that I even started to forget my grim, New England-ish outlook on life.

But the baseball gods were having none of it. They smote us for our hubris, they smote us good. Schill was just unfortunate enough to bear the brunt of their ire.

Back in November (when I still remembered how to be a Red Sox fan), I predicted that something bad had to happen to even the score if they re-signed Mike Lowell. I figured that Josh Beckett accidentally shooting himself in the foot would make things even but the gods are fair. Losing Schilling, who managed to come through when it was really needed, makes us (Red Sox fans and the baseball gods) closer to even for managing to keep Lowell.

The sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach is a familiar one. It's the feeling that next season isn't going to be a walk in the park. That it's not going to be easy, in the least. That, in all likelihood, the Red Sox will be lucky to win the wild card.

In all seriousness, Curt has done a lot for this team and I wish him a speedy and complete recovery from the injury.

Johnny Damon is Still a Jackass

Maybe two weeks ago I wrote that the fact that Tim Wakefield still liked Johnny Damon had lessened my distaste for the man. I take it all back.



From the TCPalm:

"When I left Boston, they kind of had a feeling they weren't going to sign me, and they ended up being the third best team in the American League because of it."

Really, Johnny? The reason that the Red Sox finished in third that year was because they decided that they didn't want to sign you. It had nothing to do with that fact that the last two months of 2006 were a return to the Red Sox of yore-they finished the season miserably-and it's likely that not even you, St. Johnny of Kansas, could have pulled them out of it.

"Then last year, they ended up spending $200 million. They went off and got a guy in Daisuke, who's probably the number one pitcher on fifteen other teams. They got a shortstop that not too many people knew a lot about but is a very good player. They added J.D. Drew, who didn't show up until the post-season. They got a kid who probably should've been heir-apparent to me, Jacoby Ellsbury, who came on strong."

Well obviously, the only way that they could replace the awesome-osity that is you, Johnny Damon, was to bring in three new players, none of whom really performed up to expectations during the season, and sign them to big contracts. One Johnny Damon is worth three decent players. But, sweetheart, they'd drafted Jacoby while you were still on the team; unless, they were thinking three years in to the future they didn't draft him to replace you.

"They're not a better team without me. I know that. But that's how baseball goes. One guy leaves, sometimes teams get better because they get to add a few more players."

Oh, for the love of baby otters and all that is good in this world: Get over yourself.

Hu-freakin'-zah!

I know that a man's hair is no reason to hope that he gets a job as a baseball player. But the news that they've brought him back makes me quite happy.

The deal is one year, non-guaranteed, for $800,000 if he makes the major league roster.

The signing means that it's likely that they'll trade Coco (which is sad because he has great hair as well) but Coco deserves more than the fourth-outfielder-type role that he would have been given.