Red Sox Reality Check

Numbers don't tell everything...but Scott Boras has made his clients (and himself) a fortune by creating statbooks that celebrate their excellence. So let's distill some post-season numbers, past and present. AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS 147 21 41 9 0 7 17 17 38 .279 .361 .483 .844 A. RODRIGUEZ 495 85 153 22 3 17 49 51 96 .309 .377 .469 .846 JETER 322 41 76 19 0 9 31 57 77 .236 .352 .379 .731 POSADA 97 16 27 8 0 4 20 11 12 .278 .348 .485 .833 LOWELL 353 55 95 14 0 24 64 59 81 .269 .376 .513 .889 RAMIREZ 189 35 60 16 1 11 42 32 47 .317 .418 .587 1.005 ORTIZ 65 15 24 3 0 4 11 9 3 .369 .447 .600 1.047 YASTRZEMSKI 113 11 27 7 1 4 19 15 20 .239 .333 .425 .758 DWIGHT EVANS 105 16 33 7 1 7 23 11 16 .314 .378 .600 .978 GARCIAPARRA 60 12 17 6 0 2 10 6 7 .283 .348 .483 .821 PEDROIA 51 16 19 4 1 4 10 9 9 .373 .459 .725 1.183 YOUKILIS ...

Most Sox fans are in more of a state of exhaustion than exhilaration, only because of the lateness of the hour. And whining about much of anything smacks of just plain negativity. We CAN enjoy the moment. Here are a few thoughts, I hope mostly positive. Can Terry Francona get enough credit for what he has done? Will people get off of Theo's back? The most exciting aspect for those of us old enough to remember is player development...the exciting young players, from Ellsbury, to Youkilis and Pedroia I'm happy for Lugo, who looked like he needed suicide watch earlier in the year, and turns out celebrating hitting over .300 in the Series, and playing pretty good defense overall A weight came off J.D. Drew's shoulders Papelbon...nerves of steel, or just none at all Great moment for Jon Lester Will Lowell 'settle' for something like three and 36? Okajima needs the rest How excited is Japan? Would adding another Japanese pitcher help the whole comfort thing? Kudos to Vari...

For years the Red Sox organization, players and coaching staff, and fans played the role of the guy at the beach who gets sand kicked in his face. He doesn't get the girl, gets seagull droppings deposited on him, a sunburn, and every imaginable form of insult that Mother Nature and human nature can deliver. That was then, this is now. I'm not expecting a piano to fall out of the sky and hit me. I'm not concerned about sunspot activity, bad weather, black cats, or triskaidekaphobia. Okay, so I haven't abandoned some pet superstitions, but I have a limit, you know? From baseball to 'taco stand and deliver" the Red Sox have simply gotten it done, so far. No superhero has emerged to carry the locals back to baseball's promised land, rather an assortment of character guys, from Jason Varitek, the bruised warrior, to foreign imports Lowell, Ortiz, Matsuzaka, Lugo, and Okajima, to the "Blew Bayou" guy in Jonathan Papelbon, and the rookies. We haven't...

Boston fans awake to a World Series berth, a 7-0 professional football team, the number two ranked team in the BCS (Boston College) and at least hope with the Celtics with the second generation of the Green Trio. Pinch me? Sports provide a vicarious means for ordinary Joes to feel important, as though we have become part of something bigger. Our issues like job security, paying the mortgage, filling the tank with three dollar gas become tolerable. Our heroes performance lends gentle amnesia to our pained consciousness. I couldn't have been more wrong about Dustin Pedroia, the raging mite with the oversized swing. Manager Terry Francona agreed that it was the microcosm of the regular season, with adjustments creating success. "And a child shall lead them." Rookies Pedroia and Ellsbury came up big, and MLB rookies but Japanese League vets Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima carried their weight as well. The much-maligned Theo Epstein got a chance to get champagne soaked, a...

Just enjoy the music... Rookie magic at work...

Props to Curt Schilling for his Old Man River performance in picking up another post-season win. And to J.D. Drew, an unexpected hero with a grand slam and five RBI. With Daisuke (DICE-K) Matsuzaka pitching Game 7 after the Sox win tonight, have the Sox received an omen with a 12-2 win? The only dice combination that give a unique 12-2 score are a pair of sixes and a pair of ones. So there you have it.

It's not even noon yet, and football is in the air, but New Englanders today have locked in on the Sawx. As I drove up Route 1 North today, an electronic sign in front of a car dealer said it all, " START ELLSBURY ". Shortly thereafter, pulling out of the Barnes & Nobles parking lot, the car in front of me had the license plate " SOX GAL ". It's almost enough for me to start violating my superstition, no Sox garb to be worn on game day, no hats, jackets, T-shirts, or whatever. But not enough. Much of the Nation flipped out when Manny Ramirez suggested that life could go on if the Sox lost. The old saying goes "baseball isn't a matter of life or death, it's more important than that." Although I passed by Home Depot today, I didn't load up on tar and feathers to prepare to vilify Terry Francona or Theo Epstein. As unrealistic as I can be, baseball remains a game played by people, who struggle with stress, biorhythms and cyclicality, i...

Thoughts on a Friday morning as the Sox stave off an elimi-nation (hat tip to Boston Dirt Dogs) game. If you have a typewriter without A, E, and I, you can't write much. That would be Big Papi, Manny, and Mike Lowell. If you don't have Q, X, and Z (Julio Lugo, Coco Crisp, and JD Drew) then you still can write something. But you can also use some different letters. My, but doesn't Terry Francona have the horseshoe in the right place. Hanley Ramirez is a great player. But you can't get top of the rotation pitching for nothing. Josh Beckett again simply magnificent. Six hits, eleven strikeouts. Kevin Youkilis has certainly stepped up in the post-season. Where's Jeff Maier when you need him, Manny? A great day for Yankee fans, as the team they love to hate, lives to be hated longer. Do you think Kenny Lofton really wants a piece of Josh Beckett? That's an early TKO. Is Chief Knock-A-Homa still around?

Probably the most frustrating part of watching major league hitters against Paul Byrd is the feeling that says, "you can't hit THAT?" Byrd, the right-handed Jamie Moyer, throws rotten grapefruit up to the plate. Worse yet is the double pump delivery that he occasionally uses. Intellectually, I wanted Terry Francona to shake up the lineup, because a number of players aren't doing anything, not for lack of effort, just baseball. Inserting Ellsbury and Cora for Drew and Lugo might have been harsh on management ego, but you've also got Mirabelli's diminished offense in the lineup with Wakefield pitching. They've just shown some fairly unorthodox grips from Byrd, but what would surprise you now? A keen sense of the obvious says this is what Sox fans feared most, offensive doldrums in the postseason. Nobody would confuse Westbrook and Byrd with top of the rotation pitching, but timing counts. Even bottom of the rotation pitchers have quality starts, occasionally...

As I've mentioned before, one aspect of baseball that astonishes me is watching low probability events happen on an everyday basis. For example, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz reached base ten consecutive appearance last night. If you view each at bat as a random event (may or may not be), and have an expectation of reaching base at 40 percent (.04), then you're looking at about a one in 10,000 chance of two players getting on ten consecutive times. You'd have to watch about sixty consecutive seasons of Red Sox games to see that. Last night's announcers mentioned that Javier Lopez has a higher success rate against right-handed batters than left-handed ones. I wouldn't have guessed that...of course, Casey Blake then promptly deposited his second two-bagger into the left field corner. I saw some fans who showed up wearing windbreakers. Maybe they had neoprene wet suits underneath, but it looked pretty cold out there last night. Does Jason Varitek get enough credit for ...

Unlike the NFL, Major League Baseball seems to have some informality associated with it. Sure, they practically strip searched Terry Francona to see if he were wearing a uniform jersey, but what can you expect from a sport whose motto is, "so great that even idiotic management can't ruin it." Baseball players have a thousand different kinds of shoes, wear socks of an infinite number of lengths, and some guys like Manny Ramirez wear their unis like pajamas. Others want the tailored look, as though chasing Baseball Annies was their primary job. Not to mention differing gloves, wristbands, body armor, and so on. Some players just look 'professional' like Mike Lowell every day, and others have caps (Timlin/Nixon) that look as though they've been trampled daily in the Ponderosa. But that omits my own personal issues. As a loyal Red Sox fan, can you picture yourself wearing a Yankee cap or a Yankee jacket? Nausea? How about projectile vomiting? Yes, I do have a pict...

How does Red Sox Nation feel about the demise of the Bombers and the arrival of the Tribe? Maybe if the Nation understood the health issues of The Boss, they would have at least a modicum of empathy. Surely with a new stadium in the works, and loads of Yankee Bucks, New York isn't headed back to the early 70s. As for the present, I rejoice in playing Cleveland, because of so many issues. I'm worn out by the four and a half hour marathons that every Sox-Yankee games has become. How many times can we hear 'pitch count', 'full count', 'working the count', and 'quality at bat' during a game? I can go out and get gas and a coffee in the time a Kevin Youkilis at bat takes. I don't have to listen to Yankee fans complain about insects. I won't have to listen to Yankee fans complain about umpires. We can focus on our young guys like Pedroia and Papelbon. We can talk about some quality opposition pitching, Sabathia and Carmona. We can reminisce abo...

Let's See How Far We've Come ... The Red Sox eliminated the Angels (gawd, please change the LAA designation) as the Old Lion showed himself to be anything but toothless, with Curt Schilling proving his resilience once again. Schilling ran his post-season record to 9-2, lowering his post season ERA to under two, propelling the Sox to the the ALCS and further enhancing his chance of enshrinement at Cooperstown. Great players elevate their game in the big moments, and the Sox witnessed back-to-back homers by David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, and tacked on a seven run eighth inning to send the Angels heavenward. So the Red Sox move to the ALCS for the third time in the past five seasons. They boast the top AL pitching staff, the second ranked defense, and one of the most productive offenses in the American League. They seem to genuinely like each other, and have some serious baseball junkies on the team, from Captain Jason Varitek, to Alex Cora, and Dustin Pedroia. What was the best ...

Josh Beckett pitched one of the most dominating performances I have ever seen in Fenway Park with a 4-0, four-hit, complete game shutout in Game One of the ALDS. Beckett fanned eight and walked none, using 108 pitches to dispatch the Angels. He gave a clinic for other Red Sox pitchers and fans. How did he do it? First pitch strikes Overpowering heat (fastball regularly touching 96-98) with outstanding fastball command Use of secondary pitches to complement the fastball Beckett had tremendous repetition of his tight delivery, with outstanding leg drive, and his ball had tremendous movement, running down and in to right-handers and he seemed to use a cut fastball at times to the lefthanders. The single most dominating game I've seen this year at Fenway was Buchholz's no-hitter, but Beckett reminded us of Jim Palmer with his ability to use both sides of the plate. We can only hope that Daisuke Matsuzaka was taking notes.