Posts Tagged ‘sports’

All quiet on the Red Sox front

Posted: February 13, 2009 by datechguy in baseball
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The Boston Globe notes that its as peaceful and quiet in Red Sox land as opposed to the land of the Yankeess:

The calm and the chaos – the tale of the Red Sox and Yankees.

But does it really matter in mid-February that the Red Sox seem a sea of tranquillity compared with the Yankees and the turmoil they are about to endure with L’Affaire A-Roid? The fact is these are the two elite teams in baseball.

As pitchers and catchers reported to the Sox’ minor league complex yesterday, the atmospheres of the rival camps will be diametrically different. As Terry Francona and Theo Epstein addressed the Red Sox media, you wouldn’t have been surprised to see a cocktail waitress carrying a frozen drink with an umbrella. When Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi address the Yankees media, you might see a few men in white coats carrying straitjackets.

There’s plenty of time for things to fall apart, but right now the Red Sox are on Easy Street compared with the Yankees.

I wouldn’t make too much of it, the yanks have always been strong finishers. A tumultuous clubhouse doesn’t mean losing the A’s of the 70’s did just fine. Don’t forget there could be steroids revelations on the sox side too:

I find myself having to come to grips with something that I have looked to ignore for a considerable amount of time. Red Sox players are not exempt from the steroid debacle that has engulfed our National Pastime. It would be foolish to be optimistic enough to think that our Red Sox were on such a moral high ground that none of the players that we let into our lives cheated to earn their place there.

It is with that thought, and attempting to come to grips with my reactions towards a player that was let into my home and my heart on a nightly basis, that I decided I must flesh out my stance on such a player before he was named publicly.

Now, I have no knowledge of any players, outside of Jeremey Giambi, on the 2003 roster (or God forbid, the 2004 Championship roster) that used performance enhancing drugs and I don’t claim that anyone in particular used them. But with 5-7% of Major League ballplayers having tested positive during that season, that leaves 1-2 players on every 25 man roster and 2-3 players on the 40 man roster a user of performance enhancing drugs on every team.

There are a 100 of unnamed names. It won’t be fun to find out.

755 > 762 Happy Birthday Hank Aaron

Posted: February 5, 2009 by datechguy in baseball
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Baseball Musings notes that today is Hank Aaron’s Birthday.

Here is an interview from last year:

aaron1

Aaron wasn’t a flashy player he just showed up every day and did his job better than almost everyone else in the game. He had a solid bat , 3 gold gloves and some speed on the bases (240 stolen bases). He is the all time leader in RBI’s and Total Bases and Extra Base Hits. He is in the top 5 all time in Games, at bats, Plate Appearances, Runs, Hits, Home Runs, Times on base, Sac Flies, Intentional Walks and a few less popular categories such as Grounded into Double Plays and Outs.

There is absolutely no way I would want Bonds on my team over Aaron. I don’t care what the numbers say. The only time I would choose Bonds over Aaron is if the bases were loaded and I needed one run for a world series.

Aaron is one of the all time class acts of the game. We were very lucky to have him.

Don’t blitz with so little time left

Posted: February 2, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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I’m not a football guy but C’mon

With no timeouts and a lot of yards to go you don’t blitz, you fake it but you don’t blitz. You need double coverage on receivers.

And isn’t it true that football is the one sport where you can blow a game by scoring too fast?

What a finish
.

Was it only 5 years ago…

Posted: January 28, 2009 by datechguy in baseball
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…that blogs were worrying about Curt Schilling’s comments on strike zones and writing how Tim Wakefield was worried that he wouldn’t be able to show his face in Boston?

We’ll flash back every now and again to that glorious year full of surprises.