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06
Jun
08

Coco Gets a Code Red

By slanch 1 Comment
Categories: Baseball and Boston
Tags: , , , , , ,

Last night’s Red Sox/Tampa Bay game featured so many crazy things going on that the actual action of the game was overwhelmed and pushed to the side. After Wednesday’s unnecessary hard slide and then subsequent yelling match between Coco Crisp and Rays hipster manager Joe Maddon (my favorite part was when Coco pointed at his uniform and yelled, “We’re the Red Sox motherfucker!”) there seemed little doubt that Coco was going to get plunked the next time he was at bat.

So, yesterday, in his first at-bat, first pitch, James Shields throws and hits Coco on the thigh. Then, as Crisp said,

I charged the mound. I feigned it like I was going to go to first base, just to get Navarro off me a little bit, and just charged the mound. He tried to hit me with a haymaker. He missed. I threw a punch. I pretty much missed. And the rest, went down to the ground… like the scratches on my face were people trying to scratch like we were playing football or something, like little girls, trying to scratch out my eyes. I move one hand down, scratch me right here [points to scratch to the right of his nose].

Now, as a Sox fan, I can admit that A) Coco shouldn’t have done the hard takeout on Wednesday, B) should have taken the hit-by-pitch and just gone to first. The brawl was unnecessary and Coco is definitely going to get a healthy suspension, (my guess 10 games.)

Continue reading ‘Coco Gets a Code Red’

05
Jun
08

BEAT LA!

By slanch Leave a Comment
Categories: Baseball and Boston
Tags: , , ,

Here’s a video of a guy running across the field at Fenway; apparently some Lakers fans dared him to do it, and since he was wearing his Celtics jersey, I suppose he felt it was his duty to defend the Celtics honor. I appreciate how far he got, he even nearly got back into the seats, although I don’t think he would have escaped the clutches of the Fenway security forces.

30
May
08

I Know It’s Around Somewhere…

By slanch 1 Comment
Categories: Baseball and Boston
Tags: , , , ,

Julian Tavarez was recently unceremoniously dumped by the Red Sox when they designated him for assignment. After no one stepped up to trade for him, he was released and then signed a deal with the Milwaukee Brewers. So far, his tenure there is very similar to his time in his previous homes as well. Case in point, Tavarez won a World Series ring last season with the Sox, and recently said, “I got my World Series last year and now I feel spoiled. I want another one and another one and another one.”

Perhaps he should take better care of the one that he has currently. This story out of Milwaukee reveals that Tavarez isn’t exactly sure what he did with his ring. After the Sox DFA’d him, he apparently left the $20,000 ring in his locker, somewhere.  “They’re going to mail it to me, I’m sure,” he told the Capital Times. Great.

I like Tavarez, well, not so much as a player but as a guy I’ve seen on TV and such he seems like a giant goofball who acts instintively and never thinks anything through. Perhaps that’s related to how he never really went to school as a child and has essentially been in an even more arrested state of development than other baseball players. That said, he loves to play baseball and while he’ll do boneheaded plays (like rolling a ball to first or punching a wall and injuring himself) he genuinely seems to enjoy himself out there.

But after having spent his entire career trying to win the World Series you’d think that something like your World Series ring might be a bit more valuable to him and at least he’d have a ROUGH idea of where such a thing might be. Maybe I’m just a silly Sox fan, but if I had a World Series ring I’d know where it was at every moment for the rest of my life.

I think Julian should just take Gagne’s. After all, he DEFINITELY didn’t deserve to get one at all. That would settle it easily.

15
May
08

Manny Ramirez: Simply the Best!

By slanch 3 Comments
Categories: Awesome, Baseball and Boston
Tags: , , , ,

Manny Ramirez is an athlete. Blessed with incredible instincts as a hitter, he can hit any pitch anywhere. His fielding is generally somewhat underrated. Sure, he sometimes makes absolutely boneheaded plays or takes crazy routes to balls occasionally, but he routinely will get a number of outfield assists because he has a strong accurate arm. Manny also has makes some great catches in the field because of his natural athleticism, which also leads to some mistakes, sure, but he can make some spectacular catches. For example, yesterday against the Orioles Manny went back made a great running catch near the wall, then climbed up half the wall to slow himself and at the top of his climb gave a high-5 to a Boston fan who was sitting there. Awesome. Then he got the ball in and doubled the man off first ending the inning. Awesome!

Check it out.

I love you Manuelito.

h/t to Boston Dirt Dogs for the kickass picture.

13
May
08

Jonathan Papelbon Wants You to Blow on His Dice

By slanch 3 Comments
Categories: Baseball and Boston
Tags: , , , ,

Last week in Detroit, the Red Sox were riding high, they pummeled the Tiger’s pitching, the Sox’ pitching made it impossible for the Tigers to get anything going and right next to the stadium are a couple of casinos for funtimes after the game.

In order to foster some fellow gamblers, Jonathan Papelbon held court out on the warning track before one of the games.

papsokicraps1a

papsokicraps2a

Here is teaching Hideki Okajima and his interpreter the black arts of Craps. Papelbon is apparently a pretty avid gambler, particularly during team poker games on road trips. He reportedly won some serious cash on the Sox’ flight to Japan where some big bucks were flowing over an all-day game. Now he’s taking his role as a leader of the bullpen even further, helping his teammates with their off-field activities too. That’s the sign of a true leader.

After the jump is video of the explanation, watch how enthralled Okajima is to figure it all out, he thought all this time that Papelbon had been talking about the come line he was getting hit on, now he knows!

Pictures and video all from Out in Centerfield

Continue reading ‘Jonathan Papelbon Wants You to Blow on His Dice’

30
Apr
08

Fenway Timelapse = Awesome!

By slanch 4 Comments
Categories: Baseball and Boston
Tags: , ,

Check out this time lapse video of a day at Fenway from setup through a game. Pretty damn awesome.

15
Apr
08

Root for the Black and Gold(en Showers)

By slanch Leave a Comment
Categories: Boston, Douches and Hockey
Tags: , , , , , ,

The Boston Bruins used to be a proud and respected franchise. They went to the playoffs every season for over 20 years at one point, but these days find it impossible to get out of the first round, if they are even able to qualify. Right now the Bruins are fighting for their lives against their arch rivals, the Montreal Canadiens. If not for an overtime goal in game 3, the Bruins would be down 3-0 in their 7 game series. Understandably the fans have been frustrated. I, for one, gave up on the Bruins officially after they traded away Joe Thornton for nothing and he went on to win the MVP.

Boston does love its hockey though and the fans have been coming out for the playoffs. One fan, Walter Cutler, 40, took his love of the Black and Gold to a new level when he was charged with open and gross lewdness and disorderly conduct.

Getting arrested at a hockey game is not a big story. In fact, it’s highly respected and expected, particularly during the playoffs. But ol’ Walt took it a step further.

Continue reading ‘Root for the Black and Gold(en Showers)’

09
Apr
08

All is Forgiven Bill Buckner

By slanch 1 Comment
Categories: Baseball and Boston
Tags: , , , , , ,

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to get a chance to go to Fenway Park for Opening Day. Now, I’ve never been to any opening day before and to get to go for a ring ceremony too, that’s simply amazing. And it was. The early festivities were great with famous champions of the Boston sports scene bringing out the rings to the Red Sox ownership group. The group included legends like Bobby Orr, Bill Russell, Tedy Bruschi, John Havlicek and Curtis Leskanik. Truly awesome.

After presenting the rings, the Sox players all went out to center field to raise the banner. Unfortunately the wind didn’t cooperate at first, and the banner just hung there, but then, the wind, which previously had been steadily blowing picked up again and unfurled the banner to a big cheer from the Fenway Faithful.

But the festivities were not done. Arriving through the garage door in center field, Bill Buckner came out to throw the first pitch. It was funny how Joe Castiglione introduced him, saying amongst other things, “the Red Sox would never have won the 1986 American League pennant without him,” clearly so that there wouldn’t be people in the stands booing. Even though we’ve won the Series twice now, people in Boston are definitely still miserable about ’86 and that could have put quite the damper on the whole afternoon if people had booed. I can’t seem to get the damn video to embed, and I have a bus to catch, so for the moment, the link is here.

Instead the crowd stood on its feet and gave a loud, hearty cheer as Buckner walked slowly in from center to the mound. When he got to the mound, the crowd started cheering wildly again. Clearly he was choked up. I was sitting high up in the rafters and could see the emotion on his face and him wiping his eyes. It was the first time he’d been back at Fenway since being the hitting coach for the White Sox in the late 90s. All in all, it ended up being a 4 minute ovation from the crowd. Add in the amazing music from the Boston Pops and Dwight Evans (one of my all-time favorites) catching the ball, and it was a truly epic moment and one I’m glad I was there for.

I’ll have some more on this later, but again, gotta catch a bus…

03
Apr
08

Theo Epstein and The Red Sox Present: The Birds!

By slanch 1 Comment
Categories: Awesome and Boston
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

There you are, just another normal day, getting a tour of Fenway Park with one’s middle school and then BAM! Hawk attack! It could happen to you. Or rather, it did happen, to this girl.

Apparently during the winter months hawks often make their homes up in the rafters of Fenway eating tasty mice and rats until the season starts and the massive crowds force them to find new digs. Then this middle school girl from Bristol, Connecticut had the gall to stand there idly minding her own business about 40 feet away from the hawk’s egg that it was protecting. Taking umbrage it seems, the hawk attacked, talons out. Fortunately the girl was taken to a hospital and wasn’t harmed at all. Still, that makes for quite the return bus ride to Connecticut. When appraised of what had happened, Hank Steinbrenner refused to be outdone and announced that from now on pumas will be given free rein of Yankee Stadium. “We want to be at the forefront of providing our fans with an experience they will never forget. Puma’s are majestic, beautiful creatures and we look forward to a long, fruitful partnership with them.” Steinbrenner announced in a statement beamed directly to my brain, “Our fans are so special to us, and to give them the opportunity to be that close up to such a deadly animal is a memory that they will all treasure as we play this final season at the Stadium.”

01
Apr
08

Fenway Franks, Now Without Pig Intestine!

By slanch 5 Comments
Categories: Awesome, Baseball and Boston
Tags: , , , , ,

At long last, Fenway is undergoing the necessary changes to become a modern baseball stadium. Originally built in 1912, there are some extremely outdated things about the stadium that need to be upgraded. Of course, I’m referring to the fact that for the first time, Fenway, which reportedly sells the most hot dogs of any baseball stadium is adding a new item to the menu; Kosher hot dogs, available from a vending machine.
Yum!

The front of the vending machine, Kosher dogs available 24/6!

The vending machine was recently demonstrated for Aramark and Fenway execs, who wore Red Sox yarmulkes for the taste-test. “We were very impressed,” Haggerty said. “It was a very interesting and unique machine and . . . the hot dogs were very tasty.”

Wayne Feder, the creator of the machine reportedly “first eyed Kosher Vending Industries because his children’s Jewish day school, the Maimonides School in Brookline, lacked a hot lunch program.” [emphasis added]

I think it is safe to say that very few schools across the country offer the hot lunch program. Although, I definitely can think of at least one…

21
Mar
08

Lost in Castiglione

By slanch Leave a Comment
Categories: Baseball, Boston, Funny, Pop Culture and Random
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

The Red Sox are in Japan and along for the ride is Joe Castiglione, the voice of the Red Sox. Castigs, 61, isn’t just in Japan for baseball. With plenty of off-time expected, the high-pitched vociferator has a full itinerary during his time in the land of the Rising Sun. Due to some clever detective work on our behalf, we managed to steal a copy of it for you to peruse.

Friday 3/21 – Red Sox train at Tokyo Dome in the morning, afternoon to be spent visiting a Buddhist temple, participate in 6:30pm Dance Dance Revolution tournament followed by an evening of libations at the Absolute Ice Bar.

Saturday 3/22 – 5am – Tsukiji Fish Market, wander through the booths, checking out all the fresh poisson, participate in fish auction, available budget: $750. Afternoon – return to hotel, drop off giant 6 foot tuna, quick nap and head to the Maid Bar.

"These women will do anything...Can YOU believe it?"

"These women will do anything for me... CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!"

Sun 3/23 – Breakfast with the team at hotel, afternoon and evening to be spent with Dustin Pedroia, Curt Schilling and Manny Ramirez sharking on the many subway lines around town. Dinner at Ninja Akasaka.

Continue reading ‘Lost in Castiglione’

19
Mar
08

Red Sox Stand Strong (UPDATED)

By slanch 1 Comment
Categories: Baseball and Boston
Tags: , , , , ,

Presumably there is an agreement of some sort as the stadium announcer just announced to a big cheer from the crowd that the spring training game between the Jays and Sox will start at 1:10. Likely something has been solved or else the Sox wouldn’t be going out there.

I’ll update as soon as I hear anything new.

Continue reading ‘Red Sox Stand Strong (UPDATED)’

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