The reason why Yoshi and I took a hiatus last week was because we had a reason to. No, it wasn't because we were slacking or had lost interest or enthusiasm for our Big Ass Blog. I think it's necessary to say so because a friend of ours (mine) who will remain nameless (Gary) expressed skepticism in regards to our blogging stamina. He doesn't think we'll last longer than a month. Well, we are accepting his challenge. But only because it's easier than writing about the Red Sox.
The Red Sox are making it hard to write about the Red Sox. So hard, in fact, that Yoshi was forced to use variables:
Yoshi: Red Sox need to put player x here bc player y is not producing. Team Q looks good. What's up with player T? Do you think c will show-up or will k be back. I miss Manny.
And Yes, Manny is a variable because what if he came back??? I'll leave that to Yoshi because for me, by weeks end, this is what I had surmised:
Greg: Red Sox record on April 19, 2009: 6-6, .500 (http://espn.go.com/mlb/standings/_/date/20090419). April 19, 2010: 4-9, .308. -- Don't panic. It's only a 2.5 game difference.
And Yoshi agreed! Turns out Yoshi was using weapon's grade calculus to determine whether or not we're mathematically eliminated already. Guess what? We're not. Yoshi saw his shadow and ducked back into his hole. You know what that means? Means we have six more months of worthwhile baseball to look forward to.
But it's going to take a little umph! Francona is not one of the people who needs to hear my advice about not panicking. He's cool. Calm. And mellow. And that's exactly what the Red Sox Don't need right now! (That's the part he should hear)
There's got to be somewhere in between panicking and Franconatose. Lester sucked today -- Fracona said he didn't have his best stuff. Cameron let two fly balls fly over his head today (and therefore sucked) -- Fracona said "in his defense..." The only thing in his defense was more Tampa Bay offense. I want Francona to start calling out his players. Make them own the fact that they are sucking right now. Everyone knows he's, like, the most loving coach in Baseball; be the loving Dad who tells you that you sucked... today.
Remember Red Sox, the reason why we're let down by you when you suck is because we're expecting you to be really good. Our expectations are based on statistics. So if you continue to be as bad as you are, you don't just deserve to be in last place, you deserve to be in a Malcom Gladwell book (http://www.gladwell.com/outliers/index.html).
Monday, April 19, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
The Ghostbuster
Beautiful moment this weekend when Yoshi introduced me to his and Tim Wakefield's love child:
http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/news/story?id=5071066
Dying art no more; the knuckle ball lives on. As Yoshi said, he was just the vessel.
A bunch of other stuff went back and forth between us over the weekend, as well. Yoshi's particularly excited about Hermida; hope no one missed Varitek's season debut: 2-4, 2 hr's; also, nice to see Beckett go 7 strong innings and out-pitch Zack Greinke for his first win of the season. But mostly, our conversation focused on Ortiz. Here's what we came up with:
David Otiz is 4 for 26. Throw in his two walks and he's been on base a grand total of 6 times in 28 trips to the plate. That's... not good. And by watching him, you don't get the sense you should expect much to change.
In his prime, Papi WAS ConEd. His offense and personality powered a power grid that fed the team and the fans and lit-up a city. He carried us on his shoulders. And in process of outfitting us with two World Series rings, we road him into the ground. Now, we're asking him to get-up and do it all over again.
Otiz's demeanor has changed over the past two seasons. He still sheaths his bat in his arm pit while he spits into the palms of batting gloves and claps his massive hands between pitches. But the spark is gone. It's like thunder with no lightning. These are painful words to write because they're about the end of the best era in my Red Sox history. Youkilis is fantastic. A true Red Sox. So is Pedroia. Ellsbury might be this teams Mike Greenwell -- really solid, but never a star. The rest of the position players are good too, but I'm sure they will vanish in the years to come. But Oritz, he was something special. He made it possible for Youk and Pedroia to flourish because he showed them how to win. He showed them that one player has the ability to turn a game around. You can see it in Pedroia when he steps to the plate -- he's looking to change the game with every swing. So is Youk. And they know how to do it because they saw Papi do it.
Papi packed a long career's worth of highlights into 5 seasons (2004 - 2008). He's obviously spent. So let's allow him to leave in peace. Maybe not tomorrow if he goes 1-4 with 3k's and a single. But wait until the game at Fenway when he goes 3-4, with a homer (or two) and 3 rbi's. Let him take a final curtain call on the field where he chased-off the ghosts of the past and won the hearts of a Nation. He wasn't here long, but he was here long enough to teach us how to win.
http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/news/story?id=5071066
Dying art no more; the knuckle ball lives on. As Yoshi said, he was just the vessel.
A bunch of other stuff went back and forth between us over the weekend, as well. Yoshi's particularly excited about Hermida; hope no one missed Varitek's season debut: 2-4, 2 hr's; also, nice to see Beckett go 7 strong innings and out-pitch Zack Greinke for his first win of the season. But mostly, our conversation focused on Ortiz. Here's what we came up with:
David Otiz is 4 for 26. Throw in his two walks and he's been on base a grand total of 6 times in 28 trips to the plate. That's... not good. And by watching him, you don't get the sense you should expect much to change.
In his prime, Papi WAS ConEd. His offense and personality powered a power grid that fed the team and the fans and lit-up a city. He carried us on his shoulders. And in process of outfitting us with two World Series rings, we road him into the ground. Now, we're asking him to get-up and do it all over again.
Otiz's demeanor has changed over the past two seasons. He still sheaths his bat in his arm pit while he spits into the palms of batting gloves and claps his massive hands between pitches. But the spark is gone. It's like thunder with no lightning. These are painful words to write because they're about the end of the best era in my Red Sox history. Youkilis is fantastic. A true Red Sox. So is Pedroia. Ellsbury might be this teams Mike Greenwell -- really solid, but never a star. The rest of the position players are good too, but I'm sure they will vanish in the years to come. But Oritz, he was something special. He made it possible for Youk and Pedroia to flourish because he showed them how to win. He showed them that one player has the ability to turn a game around. You can see it in Pedroia when he steps to the plate -- he's looking to change the game with every swing. So is Youk. And they know how to do it because they saw Papi do it.
Papi packed a long career's worth of highlights into 5 seasons (2004 - 2008). He's obviously spent. So let's allow him to leave in peace. Maybe not tomorrow if he goes 1-4 with 3k's and a single. But wait until the game at Fenway when he goes 3-4, with a homer (or two) and 3 rbi's. Let him take a final curtain call on the field where he chased-off the ghosts of the past and won the hearts of a Nation. He wasn't here long, but he was here long enough to teach us how to win.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Hip - Hip - Victor!!!
Yoshi: "Lackey is like Ringo Starr from the Beatles. You know what I mean?"
Me: "Not really..."
And I didn't. I didn't know what Yoshi was talking about. So I thought about it.
Here's what I know about Ringo Starr:
My friend's band shares a Manager with George Harrison's son. George Harrison's son is responsible for helping put together Cirque du Soleil's "Love" show in Vegas. If you've never seen it, it's amazing. I hate Vegas. I think it should die. Not the people. The place -- Vegas. But that show is unreal. Creative. Beautiful. Riveting-ly entertaining. That's what George Harrison's son did with his family name. Ringo Starr's son? He fell off a Garage. Seriously. He did. One night, Ringo's son was dining at the restaurant I work at. He was walking with a serious limp. I overheard him explaining to his friends that he'd jumped off the garage after he'd locked himself out of the house he was renting and couldn't manage to open the upstairs window. I don't know, maybe that doesn't make him a huge loser. But I just thought it was funny when I pictured him telling his dad, Ringo Starr, the story. Would Ringo even give shit?
That's when I realized what Yoshi was referring to. Lackey had a good thing going with the Angels. But he won a Word Series Ring his rookie year! What more did he need to accomplish with the Angels? Or with life for that matter? Suddenly, Ringo Starr steps into the picture. Just as Ringo's family means nothing to his legacy, Lackey's career record with the Angels means nothing to his pay check. Dude won the deciding game of the World Series. Otherwise know as: money in the bank. Remember when Ringo was in the Tom Petty video for "I won't back down". He didn't even play the drums on the recording, but he was like, "Sure, whatever, I'll play air drums in a Tom Petty video - I might look like a jackass (and did), but it'll probably be fun." Well, Lackey thinks it might be fun to play baseball in Boston. And what does that mean for Boston? It means we got a guy who's willing to risk looking like a jackass in exchange for the opportunity to drive the most storied franchise in sports history.
It scares me how complex things are so obvious to to Yoshi.
Oh, and it Turns out that Yoshi has dated an ex-girlfriend. Twice. But he's not sure if it was the "ex" part or the "dating them at the same time" part accompanied by the "and them finding out about each other" part that ruined it. Whatever it was - and Yoshi could give two whiskers about it (side note: Yoshi is an animal lover because he loves whiskers not because he loves wild life. (double side note: Yoshi hates wild life because it makes him feel old fashioned. What? Exactly, that's what I said.)) - it ruined ex's for Yoshi. That's why he's up on Victor Martinez. Not Pedro, as I'd interpreted. My bad Yoshi. And my apologies.
Yoshi on Victor Martinez: "He could well be our Posada for the next few years."
Right? Blew my mind too. Posada is 83 years old and putting dents in JP's Pole. Show some respect for thou's elders! And Vic's got that respect. He's calm and cool. Supposedly dude's mamma set him straight early on. Maybe if Manny's had done the same - instead of teaching him about small size soft drinks and free refills - Jacoby would still be playing his god given position.
Tomorrow, Yoshi explains the physics behind Tim Wakefield's knuckle ball.
Me: "Not really..."
And I didn't. I didn't know what Yoshi was talking about. So I thought about it.
Here's what I know about Ringo Starr:
My friend's band shares a Manager with George Harrison's son. George Harrison's son is responsible for helping put together Cirque du Soleil's "Love" show in Vegas. If you've never seen it, it's amazing. I hate Vegas. I think it should die. Not the people. The place -- Vegas. But that show is unreal. Creative. Beautiful. Riveting-ly entertaining. That's what George Harrison's son did with his family name. Ringo Starr's son? He fell off a Garage. Seriously. He did. One night, Ringo's son was dining at the restaurant I work at. He was walking with a serious limp. I overheard him explaining to his friends that he'd jumped off the garage after he'd locked himself out of the house he was renting and couldn't manage to open the upstairs window. I don't know, maybe that doesn't make him a huge loser. But I just thought it was funny when I pictured him telling his dad, Ringo Starr, the story. Would Ringo even give shit?
That's when I realized what Yoshi was referring to. Lackey had a good thing going with the Angels. But he won a Word Series Ring his rookie year! What more did he need to accomplish with the Angels? Or with life for that matter? Suddenly, Ringo Starr steps into the picture. Just as Ringo's family means nothing to his legacy, Lackey's career record with the Angels means nothing to his pay check. Dude won the deciding game of the World Series. Otherwise know as: money in the bank. Remember when Ringo was in the Tom Petty video for "I won't back down". He didn't even play the drums on the recording, but he was like, "Sure, whatever, I'll play air drums in a Tom Petty video - I might look like a jackass (and did), but it'll probably be fun." Well, Lackey thinks it might be fun to play baseball in Boston. And what does that mean for Boston? It means we got a guy who's willing to risk looking like a jackass in exchange for the opportunity to drive the most storied franchise in sports history.
It scares me how complex things are so obvious to to Yoshi.
Oh, and it Turns out that Yoshi has dated an ex-girlfriend. Twice. But he's not sure if it was the "ex" part or the "dating them at the same time" part accompanied by the "and them finding out about each other" part that ruined it. Whatever it was - and Yoshi could give two whiskers about it (side note: Yoshi is an animal lover because he loves whiskers not because he loves wild life. (double side note: Yoshi hates wild life because it makes him feel old fashioned. What? Exactly, that's what I said.)) - it ruined ex's for Yoshi. That's why he's up on Victor Martinez. Not Pedro, as I'd interpreted. My bad Yoshi. And my apologies.
Yoshi on Victor Martinez: "He could well be our Posada for the next few years."
Right? Blew my mind too. Posada is 83 years old and putting dents in JP's Pole. Show some respect for thou's elders! And Vic's got that respect. He's calm and cool. Supposedly dude's mamma set him straight early on. Maybe if Manny's had done the same - instead of teaching him about small size soft drinks and free refills - Jacoby would still be playing his god given position.
Tomorrow, Yoshi explains the physics behind Tim Wakefield's knuckle ball.
.500
So Yoshi wants to know how many "Yoshi"'s I know. That leads me to believe that he's not as excited about our new blog as I am. Or it's one of his games. Either way, it obviously didn't effect his fire today:
Yoshi: Ortiz should beat the c out of Burnett tonite.
followed by: Ellsbury too.
followed followed by: You got to sign Martinez.
Right. Right. And... What? But, first, Yes, Ortiz should've and Ellsbury kind of did. But Martinez? As in Pedro Martinez? Yoshi. Bro. He threw one good pitch at Fenway this season and let's leave it at that. Re-signing Martinez would be like dating an ex-girlfriend -- it feels right at first and then... Wait! That's it! Yoshi never dated an ex-girlfriend.
Quick crash course in dating an ex-girlfriend: At first, she's totally cool. She doesn't do any of the things you used to hate, i.e. cheat on you, tease your kid brother about his stutter, or steal from you. So you think, wow, who cares if she's put on a few pounds? I've put on way more. Compared to me, she looks kind of ok; which is kind of smoking hot compared to the more recent blog-hags. But you're wrong. You already know she's cray-cray. She didn't change and neither did you. She's going to hate you for the same reasons. You're going to hate her for the same reasons. And things are going to end for the same reasons; i.e., she's old and you're no willing to pay her enough money.
Yoshi, there was a reason Pedro was wearing dress slacks the other night: Theo wasn't willing to pay him to pitch.
And then I read the recap of tonight's game...
Hideki Okajima - the kid Yoshi used to babysit in high school - walked in the winning run in the 8th. That got me thinking. Maybe Yoshi's right. What if Theo signed Pedro and put him in the pen. You saw him pitch last year for the Phillies. Old man still had some heat. Imagine: Pedro - Bard - Pap. Yoshi, that's not fair.
How many Yoshi's do I know? Maybe a dozen, or so. But how many Yoshi's do I know who'd jump back in with his ex and make her convert to a dope-ass set-up man? Only one.
Yoshi: Ortiz should beat the c out of Burnett tonite.
followed by: Ellsbury too.
followed followed by: You got to sign Martinez.
Right. Right. And... What? But, first, Yes, Ortiz should've and Ellsbury kind of did. But Martinez? As in Pedro Martinez? Yoshi. Bro. He threw one good pitch at Fenway this season and let's leave it at that. Re-signing Martinez would be like dating an ex-girlfriend -- it feels right at first and then... Wait! That's it! Yoshi never dated an ex-girlfriend.
Quick crash course in dating an ex-girlfriend: At first, she's totally cool. She doesn't do any of the things you used to hate, i.e. cheat on you, tease your kid brother about his stutter, or steal from you. So you think, wow, who cares if she's put on a few pounds? I've put on way more. Compared to me, she looks kind of ok; which is kind of smoking hot compared to the more recent blog-hags. But you're wrong. You already know she's cray-cray. She didn't change and neither did you. She's going to hate you for the same reasons. You're going to hate her for the same reasons. And things are going to end for the same reasons; i.e., she's old and you're no willing to pay her enough money.
Yoshi, there was a reason Pedro was wearing dress slacks the other night: Theo wasn't willing to pay him to pitch.
And then I read the recap of tonight's game...
Hideki Okajima - the kid Yoshi used to babysit in high school - walked in the winning run in the 8th. That got me thinking. Maybe Yoshi's right. What if Theo signed Pedro and put him in the pen. You saw him pitch last year for the Phillies. Old man still had some heat. Imagine: Pedro - Bard - Pap. Yoshi, that's not fair.
How many Yoshi's do I know? Maybe a dozen, or so. But how many Yoshi's do I know who'd jump back in with his ex and make her convert to a dope-ass set-up man? Only one.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Opening Day
This is the first blah-g on our blog: "Greg and Yoshi talk about the Red Sox". It's brand new. It's so new, in fact, Yoshi doesn't even know we have a blog. And what if he's not interested in taking part in our blog? I'll find another Yoshi who is.
A little background about the authors: Yoshi lives in NYC, but is from Japan. I live in LA, but I'm from NY. We're both Red Sox fans. Die hard? Yes. Super-knowledgeable? Kind of. Or more like kind-of sort-of. But we're passionate, so...
A little background about our relationship in relation to the Red Sox: Yoshi, being a wise old Japanese man, asks me speculative questions. Me (Greg), being the young, handsome, intelligent, and modest American man I am, provide him with answers. Throughout our give and take, transmitted via text message and resembling the Socratic Method, Yoshi informs me as to what is going on in Red Sox Nation. And then we talk about other things.
So, here it is: Opening Day. We're not warmed-up; we barely spoke during the off-season; and Yoshi doesn't even know he has a blog yet (I don't know if Yoshi has a computer). No worries, I'll bring you all up to speed on what we said when we talked about he Red Sox today (re: Opening Night vs. Yankees).
Me: Lots of good about last night. Beckett?
Yoshi: He just sign 4 yr extension 68mil back to back hr was lame but he should wind lots.
Me: I think so too
There you have it. Short. Sweet. Insightful. If this doesn't give you something to look forward to you should feel good about yourself.
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