For Those Who, Obviously, Have Too Much Money to Begin With...

A luxury napkin company in Wisconsin called Jerseynaps has been awarded the contract to provide the napkins for the All-Star Game Gala and Pre-game celebration.



So when you think luxury napkins your first instinct is to wonder what the hell a luxury napkin is anyway, right? Are they made of silk with gold threaded through them? Taffeta? Tulle? (I can't think of any non-cotton fabrics that would be absorbent.) Secondly, you've got to wonder: How could I not know that such a product as a luxury napkin existed? Why have I been rubbing my face and my fingers down with rough cotton or *shudder* paper? Could I seriously have saved all of those shirtsleeves from ruination?



As it turns out, the napkins they will be producing are paper. The twist is that they can be folded into the shape of a baseball jersey that will look like the All-Star Jersey. Nifty, huh?

But baseball is about the common man and the common man can't possibly afford to attend either of those soirees, you protest. How can I get my grubby little hands on those napkins? Well, you can't. Not yet, anyway. MLB has decided, though, to sell the licensing rights to the napkin company so that they can produce napkins depicting the jerseys of eight major league teams including the jersey of your Boston Red Sox. So fear not, chickens.

Manny Needed That.

The smile says it all.

Maybe, he was getting a little antsy on the road; his thighs were bugging him, things weren't working the way he wanted them to, he couldn't figure out how to fix the problem, frustration was setting in (and spilling out), and he was becoming unhappy. An unhappy Manny is both a strange and unpleasant sight. Then he got back home, re-centered himself, got his feet back beneath him and figured it out.

Last night, he got a single to drive in the winning run. Tonight, he launched a game-tying, two-run home run over the monster. And a cheer rose throughout the land celebrating the return of Manny. Hopefully, he hangs around for awhile.

Next Up: the Minnesota Twins.

Scott Baker throws tomorrow. He throws a mid-nineties sinking fastball, a good change up, a slider, and a knuckle-curve. He has very good command and doesn't walk many people. He gives up a fair number of hits but he does get strike outs. Lefties have pretty good success against him.

Nick Blackburn is scheduled to pitch on Tuesday. He has very good control and doesn't walk many. He pitches to contact, so he does give up hits. He has a high eighties four-seam fastball, a two-seamer, a curveball, a slider, and a change-up. He's been inconsistent this year but if he's having a good day, it's a really good day. He's easier on righties than on lefties.

Livan Hernandez takes the mound on Wednesday. Hernandez has pretty good control but he struggles against lefties. His mid-eighties fastball has become hittable, as it's pretty flat. His change-up isn't all that much of a change from his fastball. His out-pitch is an eephus pitch. He'll last pretty deep into the game. He won't walk many and he won't give up many home runs.

They have a good lineup but their biggest bats are Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, and Alexi Casilla (with Denard Span filling in very nicely for the injured Michael Cuddyer.) The Twins are a well-trained team, so they don't make a lot of errors. They turn a lot of double plays. They're not a particularly free swinging team (Mauer, in particular, doesn't strike out very often.) Carlos Gomez is the biggest threat to steal a base (having taken twenty-one this season.) I would send a friendly wave to Craig Breslow but it didn't turn out that well the last time I did that, so I won't (he's been doing well-hasn't given up a run yet, really cut down on the walks-he did wrench his back recently and he hasn't pitched since June 30.)

Breaking News!

The returns from the battleground state of Connecticut are in and in a stunning turn of events, Red Sox fans outnumber Yankee fans in the state for the first time in, probably, forever.

The poll (conducted by Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT) found that fifty-eight percent of the people in the state claimed to be baseball fans and of those fans forty-one percent claimed the Red Sox as their team while only forty percent went for the Yankees (the rest were mainly Mets fans.)

So, are these new fans due to the afterglow of a World Series championship? I don't think so. My guess is that the increase in fans is directly due to the tireless campaigning and the spreading of the good word by our fearless leader, Jerry Remy. Congratulations President Remy on a job well done!



That said: I'm off to Block Island for the weekend. No tv. No internet. If I survive, I'll be back late Sunday night.

Next Up: the New York Yankees.

Since it's been awhile and there are some new faces...

Andy Pettitte goes tomorrow for the Yankees. As of late, Pettitte has really been doing well. In his last four starts, he's given up three runs. Lefties still have trouble touching Pettitte but righties do have success against him.

Darrell Rasner is the righty brought up to replace Ian Kennedy. He throws a low nineties fastball, a curve ball, and a change up. None of it is truly excellent but he does have very good control to help even it out. He's not a big strike out guy and he gives up a good number of hits but he's not easily rattled by base runners. He started off really well in May but has hit a rough patch as of late.

Mike Mussina is the scheduled pitcher for Saturday. After a rough start to the season, Mussina has recently settled into something closer to his usual self. Mussina is vulnerable to righties (Manny in particular, though with the way Manny's been hitting it probably won't be to his advantage.) They hit Mussina really well back in April (at a .405 clip) but it took him awhile to get his old bones rolling this year.

On Sunday night's ESPN game Joba Chamberlain/Dan Geise takes the mound. Chamberlain's conversion to a starter has worked out well for the Yankees. He's exhibited some control problems recently (he's made five starts and twice not made it to the fifth because of his pitch count) but even with the extra zip he's had to take off the fastball to enable himself to throw more of them, he's still a big strike out guy. Lefties have had more success against him. If Chamberlain should find himself in trouble early, then his wingman, Dan Geise, generally takes over. Geise throws a fastball, a curve ball, and a slider. He's got very good control.

Hidecki Matsui is out of the lineup with a bum knee and was replaced with Brett Gardner. Gardner is a speedster but had significant trouble getting his first major league hit. Giambi, who earlier in the season seemed unable to get a hit off anyone but Timlin, has since come out guns blazing. Melky Cabrera has gotten off to a dismal start this year. The fact that they're still carrying three catchers (even though Posada has been back for almost a month) is interesting-it might signify a belief that his shoulder isn't 100% or it might not.

Oof.

I haven't done a game recap in awhile and I'm not going to start again now but damn, that really sucked.

Matsuzaka should have gotten that win. Yeah, it would have been better if he could have gone deeper into the game so that Francona didn't have to bother with the craptacular bullpen but there's no way this game should have ended up as a win for the Rays. Daisuke did a good job-he held the Rays to one run through five innings but when 2008-Okajima and Javier Lopez are the bright spots of your relief pitching, something is desperately wrong. It was as if someone told Manny Del, Hansen, and Aardsma that the Rays wanted to win the game and they collectively said: Oh! Sorry about that. Here you go.

Maybe in the same way that Cleveland has the bugs and the ex-girlfriend anthem/God Bless America singers (I don't remember which it was), their equivalent of the bullpen cop is secretly a hypnotist and whispers in the relievers ear: Don't throw strikes! Don't throw strikes!

At least they had offense tonight which is definitely an improvement. It mostly came in the form of Dustin Pedroia (who was a single short of the cycle.) I'm not generally one for second-guessing (it's easy to decide something was the wrong move after things have fallen apart) but what was Varitek doing out there to end the game? Had Lowell not been caught stealing, he would undoubtedly have grounded into a double play. You've got Casey sitting on the bench-let him try to score the game winning run on his birthday. If he struck out, it wouldn't be any worse than what you were likely to get from Varitek anyway.

It's the Red Sox of my youth-finding new and creative ways to lose games daily. Oh, how I missed you.

Happy Birthday Sean!

Today marks Sean Casey's thirty-fourth birthday. To be honest, I didn't know much about Sean Casey when he first showed up here. But with a-mile-wide grin plastered to his face (perhaps he was hired to replace Hinske in more ways than one), a twinkle in his pale blue eyes, an apparent love of wrestling, stories about eating food off the floor, his nutty batting stance, and being ready to go to the mattresses, he's worked his way into my heart. And he's not a bad baseball player to boot. There's an open and honest quality about him that's very appealing. So happy birthday Sean and many happy returns.