34 Days!

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Reading Material.

I may have found a new Yankee to like. His name was Bob Shawkey and he pitched for New York from 1915 to 1927. Huh? Dude's been dead for twenty-nine years. How can he possibly be elevated to the status of liked Yankee? The only good Yankee is a dead Yankee, is that what you're saying? Maybe.

There's a book coming out on March 1, Remembering Fenway Park: An oral and narrative history of the home of the Boston Red Sox. In the excerpt (linked on the book's website) the author, Harvey Frommer, shares this little story:

"Yankee Bob Shawkey walked in a run in the 4th inning and became so irritated that he began yelling at home plate umpire George Hildebrand. The agitated Shawkey then took 5 minutes to tie his shoe on the mound. He resumed pitching and was credited with a called 3rd strike on Harry Hooper. That prompted him to sarcastically tip his cap and bow low to Hildebrand who ejected him from the game. Shawkey's parting shot was a swing at the ump who banged him with his mask. The crowd loved it. Shawkey did not. A one week suspension and a $200 fine was the price the Yankee hurler paid for his temper tantrum."

I'm just delighted with this Bob Shawkey; maybe not with the trying to punch the umpire bit but that bow must have been a spectacular thing to see. I can't imagine anyone on the current Sox staff having the guts to do that. It's pretty bad ass.

Days Until Pitchers and Catchers.

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35 days until February 13, the day pitchers and catchers report to Fort Myers.

I've seen this on NYYfans.com (I really need to stop going there, it's bad for my health) and I'm not above swiping an idea that amuses me. I was going to start on a more logical day but I couldn't find a Mike Greenwell picture that would do.

Now is the Winter of Our Discontent.

Made glorious summer by this son of York.

I figure the son of York in this case must be the makers of MLB the Show 11 or something. The preview for the video game has Josh Beckett striking out Ryan Howard. They seem to have taken the liquefy tool to both Howard and Beckett and they seem to be ignoring the fact that Varitek is likely to be Beckett's personal catcher (also, the person who set up the preview clearly has no idea how to go about lineup construction: It says that it's the bottom of the first, 0-0, nobody on and nobody out. Who in their right mind would use Ryan Howard to lead off?) but it looks of Summer. So I shall pretend.

Nomar!

If you're up for a little drive, Nomar Garciaparra will be appearing at the Mohegan Sun World Baseball Coaches Convention on January 21. He's participating in two sessions: My Approach to Hitting and Talking Baseball with Ms. Mae. I figure prime stalking (um...yeah) time would probably be between the sessions. I totally recommend bugging him while he's at dinner.

Catching Up.

Firstly, congratulations to Adrian Beltre on his deal with the Rangers. He was a tremendous amount of fun to watch play last season and he seemed like a good guy. It's a move that might make me rethink my general position on Texas but probably not because he seems somewhat superfluous for them. They, as they have presumably since the beginning of time, still need pitching. Nevertheless, all good things for Adrian.

Secondly, the departure of Spitty McGoo from Tampa to the Cubs makes me infinitely happy; not because the move weakens Tampa (it probably doesn't) or because he pitched well against the Sox but simply because he's disgusting. I'm sure the ground crew at the Trop (Do they have a ground crew?) is just as glad because they no longer have to clean up the trail of phlegm that boy undoubtedly left in his wake.

Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine.)

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Hideki Okajima appears to be headed back to the Boston bullpen. I wasn't completely heartbroken when they let him go but it also doesn't strike me as a terrible move for them to bring him back. Hopefully, it all works out for the best.

Okaerinasai, Okajima-San.