the boys of summer on a chilly day

[bluegreen17]

oh,how i love dennis eckersley,even if his hair is stuck in the seventies. what a retro-rebel.

i've been kind of lukewarm about the red sox so far this year. however,i was heartened to see jonathan papelbon blow three wicked fastballs past michael young,one of the league's top hitters for the last several years and a clutch guy,on sunday night. now that was a beautiful thing to behold.

i'm interested in following how matsuzaka does this year. he's good,and he's so likable. the only thing i'm not crazy about is he's a strikeout pitcher,and i only enjoy strikeout pitchers when they're closers. otherwise,i think it's kind of boring. i'm fond of curve balls esthetically and i love ground ball pitchers because i love to see the infield do their thing. boy,did i enjoy that last year. not so much yet this year. i miss the santana infield,and i have a special place in my heart for mark loretta. he did some good clutch hitting last year too. my dad even misses loretta,even as in his early (or is it middle?) stage alzheimer's he can't remember his name. we were talking baseball yesterday on the phone, and he was trying to explain who he meant,and i asked 'you mean last year's american league all-star second baseman?'. yeah,that's who he was talking about.

and it's hard to believe it took me so long to appreciate alex gonzalez last year.i think the explanation is that he's so good he makes it look easy,and it took me a while to catch on.

i'm rather peeved that i can't watch my favorites on other teams,since now the extra innings package is exclusively on direct-tv. i miss watching other teams already,especially feeling so-so about the sox so far. and the condo building where i live has a DISH dish mounted on the roof,as the condo association didn't want individual unsightly dishes on our balconies. so i couldn't even get directtv if i wanted to.it is annoying and disappointing, but it's not the end of the world.

Comments

[halfmountain.livejournal.com]

I love baseball, but I don't always 'get it'. (Nor do I get it on tv)... so toward that end I mooched the Complete Idiot's Guide to Baseball. So maybe the next game I go to will make more sense. I hope I can go to more games this year -- the Fisher Cats are cheap games to go to besides!

Dad mentioned Mark Loretta at Easter. Of course, someone else had to figure out who he meant. :)

[bluegreen17]

i love those idiot's and dummies guides. and feel free to ask me anything. i don't know EVERYTHING about baseball,but i have been following it for quite a few years (with a 30 year interruption!) so i may be able to help out. it'd be fun to go to a game with you. i'll have to experiment with the benadryl for the allergy and cocaine something for the energy thing and maybe it can happen.

[halfmountain.livejournal.com]

Any interest in Fisher Cats games this summer? I just ordered a bunch of tix for myself (since I imagine I will be going it alone) and a couple weekend ones with Rachel but there's a whole long season ahead!

[cereko.livejournal.com]

i love eck too. i'm a big cubs fan, and i still can't believe they had him for all those years as a starting pitcher and never tried him as a reliever or closer. that's the cubs :\

and the mlb extra innings package may be available soon. they went to court over it, and direct tv lost, so other cable/satellite companies, like qwest for me, say they might be getting it soon. i was real bummed about this too, with the cubs just getting soriano, so hopefully it will soon be remedied :)

[bluegreen17]

hey! good to see you on lj again. i meant to reply to this a while ago,but i've been even lazier than 'normal'. yep,the extra innings situation changed--yay!

so,in a city that has two baseball teams,how do end up choosing one over the other? is it geography?

[cereko.livejournal.com]

well i grew up in Phoenix with no baseball team in the area. my dad was from illinois and was a lifelong cubs fan and passed the sickness onto me. we'd go to their spring training games and watch them on wgn religiously. and phoenix always had a large cubs fan base because of all the snowbirds that would come for spring training. even today it still does. you'll hear local writers and sports radio hosts complaining every time the cubs come to town because 70-80% of the seats are filled with cubbie fans and the diamondbacks have to play an away game at their own ballpark :D