September 27th, 2006 → 5:50 pm @ Seth Mnookin
For two-and-a-half months, I’ve been trying to tell Josh Beckett how to translate his remarkable skill into a remarkable record. I started back in mid-July, when I said that Josh needed to stop talking and start learning how to pitch. On August 4, I was even more forceful: “Beckett’s ego seems to be getting him in more trouble than anything else. As I’ve said before, the days of him being able to rear back and blow hitters away with his disturbingly straight fastball are over; this ain’t the NL East.” Finally, on August 20, I all but gave up, pointing out that in his previous nine starts, Beckett was posting an ERA of 6.83. That was immediately after his 5.2-inning, nine run, nine walk disaster of an outing against the Yankees. You remember that game, right?
Well, it seems as if Beckett’s finally listening to me, and all I can say is: it’s about time. I know bloggers have a reputation for sitting around in their bathrobes writing for a handful of similarly obsessed freaks, and I’m happy my work is helping to correct the record. For one thing, I work in my underwear. For another, at least two World Series MVPs are paying attention to what I’m saying (although I never did find out what Schilling thought of the book). Clearly there’s no other explanation for what’s happened to Beckett since that start versus the Yankees.
To wit: I said Beckett’s “ego was getting him in more trouble than anything else.” After the Yankees game, Beckett attributed his inconsistency to “stubborn stupidness.” If those two sentences were any closer Beckett would be nailed for outright plagiarism (and I could write about that, too).
And: since my August 20 post, Beckett, as the always-worth reading Alex Speier writes in today’s Union-Leader, has gone 3-2 with a 2.70 ERA and has coughed up just two homers over five starts; previous to that, he’d given up two or more homers in nine of his starts. As Speier points out, a big reason for that success is the fact that Beckett has begun focusing more on movement and location as opposed to velocity, using 92 or 93 MPH two-seamers that dive out of the zone instead of his ruler straight four-seamer that comes in at about 4 mph quicker…and leaves the park even faster than that.
(Beckett’s not the only uniformed member of the Sox to take my advice; Terry Francona finally seems to be listening to me. “He’s trying to be more of a pitcher,” Speier quotes Francona as saying inre: Beckett. That sounds an awful lot like my saying Beckett needs to “learn how to pitch,” doesn’t it? Francona previously said that I’d upset some people with my book; I’m glad he’s finally come around.)
(And: I know I’m throwing caution to the wind by posting this a couple of hours before Beckett’s start tonight against the Devil Rays; if he bombs, I’ll look like an ass. But think of smart I’ll look if he comes up aces again!)
Post Categories: Josh Beckett
September 27th, 2006 → 9:41 am @ Seth Mnookin
Four days off the grid…and I didn’t implode. (In fact, it was surprisingly pleasant.) But I know the group of people who want to hear about how I spend my off hours includes my parents and…well, that might be it. So let’s get back into it, shall we?
There are four more games left in the season; it looks unlikely that David Ortiz will top Ruth’s or Maris’s 60 and 61 home run seasons, respectively. But if he gets to 58 (he sits at 54 currently), he’ll tie Hank Greenberg and Jimmie Foxx at 58, which would put him fourth on the all-time list (behind Maris in ’61 and Ruth in ’27 and ’21) of people who weren’t publicly shamed at last year’s Congressional hearing on steroids. That’s reason enough to watch the remaining games. (There’s also the mini-drama of whether the Sox will finish above the Jays in the rankings…)
One other quick note: after Schilling’s win last night — and how gratifying is it to see him end the season on a high note? — the verbally expansive righty was his usually classy self. When discussing the season he put the blame on his shoulders by saying, “I should have won a lot more. I should have pitched better.” That’s a little like Ortiz saying he should have hit for a higher average.
I’ll have lots more in the coming days, including season-ending report cards on players, executives, the front office, and much more…
Post Categories: Curt Schilling & David Ortiz & Red Sox
September 23rd, 2006 → 8:18 am @ Seth Mnookin
Posting is likely to be very sporadic for the next few days: I’m off to a small island off the coast of North Carolina. Hopefully there won’t be any hurricanes. Remember to enjoy each and every one of Ortiz’s moonshots. And remember: you’re witnessing history.
Post Categories: Vacation's all I ever wanted
September 23rd, 2006 → 8:17 am @ Seth Mnookin
The final (mini) leg of the 2006 Feeding the Monster Tour is done and gone (with some individual dates still to come in the next few months). It included: one Amtrak ride from NYC to Rhode Island, 160 miles on a Hertz rental car (some sort of Mazda non-mini-van mini van, which was surprisingly fun to drive), three nights with my parents, and stops in Providence, Newton, and Burlington, MA. As usual, it’s been an entertaining trip. Without further ado…
* Who’d of thunk? Interest in the Sox is greatly diminished when the team’s not doing well.
* All the same, there’s no end of questions as to what’s up with Manny, why Johnny Damon was, um, traded to the Yankees, why Pedro was, uh, traded to the Mets, why the Sox didn’t make any moves at the deadline, and what that means for the future of the team.
* It is always delightful to see one of the Sittenfelds. Providence featured cousin Jo (the sister of cousin Curtis.)
* Private events sell lots and lots of book: more than 100 at a Boston investment firm on Thursday. Get in touch if you want me to come to an office near you. Or, as it were, your office.
* Hometown readings will always draw old faces: Grace Galton, my sixth-grade math teacher (and one of the great teachers of my youth), came out to the Newton Public Library, as did some old neighbors and the lawyer (and family friend) who represented me after some youthful indiscretions got me in trouble in high school.
* The readers of this blog are more varied than previously thought, and include at least one grandmother and at least one good friend of my sixth grade math teacher.
* The Burlington, MA Barnes & Noble (the biggest in New England), makes enormous banners when they have authors come to town. Truly enormous.
That’s it for now. You’ve been great! And hope to see you all down the road…
Post Categories: Feeding the Monster Readings
September 23rd, 2006 → 6:00 am @ Seth Mnookin
Be honest: if, at the beginning of the year, someone held a gun to your head and asked you who the two pitchers would be to post complete games, you’d most likely have said Josh Beckett and Curt Schilling. You would most definitely not have said Julian Tavarez and Tim Wakefield. (This was likely what came to mind when thinking about Tavarez on March 30.)
And yet, those are the guys who’ve thrown the only two complete games of the season: Wakefield, more than six months ago, on April 15, and Tavarez, who worked his sinker to devastating effect while throwing a complete game, 99-pitch, 1-run gem in Toronto last night. (Tavarez was so excited about the second complete game of his career he wouldn’t shut up in the post-game, on-field interview.) Tavarez is signed for next year (for around $3 million), and his end-of-season tenure as a starter (he’s now 2-0 since moving to the rotation) makes him more valuable in a world where Chris Benson commands ten of millions of dollars; it also makes him more attractive as a trading chip, yet one more reason this offseason should be interesting.
Lots of other news out of the Sox last night:
* This column by Gordon Edes is gonna cause lots of talk show chatter. The essence of it is that Manny’s a quitter and a punk and has let his teammates down by refusing the play hurt. (Things like this will get more attention than the remaining games; as of 5:30 AM, it’s leading the Red Sox page on the Globe‘s site. The game story is only alluded to in a caption.) I did another reading last night in Burlington (MA, not VT), and was asked — as I almost am — why the media hates Manny; Edes’ piece isn’t going to help my contention that they don’t. The nut graf: “Do you suppose that 20 years from now, Ramírez will feel even the slightest bit of remorse for the way he quit on his Red Sox teammates in 2006, refusing to honor the code that is an article of faith for Jason Varitek and Mike Lowell, Curt Schilling and Coco Crisp, Trot Nixon and Alex Gonzalez, and Mark Loretta — even the now-departed fat man, David Wells — that you do all within your power to play hurt.” The answer to that rhetorical question is, of course, no. But if you look at the playing-in-pain performances of the above list, it’s unclear these warriors were doing the Sox any favors by suiting up while dinged up. Manny’s always had a low pain threshold; he’s also always been a bit flakey. But he also loves to play; you don’t rack up season after season of 155 games because you’re looking for time off. He is in some pain; other players would likely play through that pain; Manny won’t. The Sox’s baseball operations staff isn’t particularly upset by this: Manny played hard for most of the season. What’s of much more concern is the recent appearance of Manny’s agent in Boston. If you guessed that he was here to, once again, relay Manny’s late-season request for an off-season trade, you’d be right. (I think Edes is one of the best reporters, and one of the best writers, working the beat today. His column — which didn’t contain a single quote — gets to one of my pet peeves: the fact that sports writers are, uniquely given the latitude to regularly elide from the role of reporter to that of columnist. But enough of my media musings for now.)
* Speaking of dinged up, it turns out there was a good reason Coco looked like a shell of himself at the plate: on Monday, he’ll have surgery in which a pin or a screw will likely be inserted in his left index finger. This is for an injury Crisp suffered on April 8.
* Notice how devastating Keith Foulke’s split fingered fastball was on Thursday? That was as well as he’s ever thrown that pitch, and Foulke knew it, too. His change still isn’t as sharp as it was in ’04 — or any of the years before — but he has his confidence and his swagger back, and last night he was up and throwing in the eighth; if Francona hadn’t let Tavarez go for the complete game, Foulke would have appeared for the third night in a row. I think we’re seeing an audition for the role of the Red Sox’s 2007 closer… (One thing I guarantee is that Matt Clement — a guy with control issues and self-confidence issues who takes a long time to warm up — will absolutely not, under any circumstances, be closing games next year.)
Post Categories: Coco Crisp & Gordon Edes & Julian Tavarez & Keith Foulke & Manny Ramirez
September 22nd, 2006 → 5:36 pm @ Seth Mnookin
“Allston-Brighton City Councilor Jerry P. McDermott wants the Hub to fire back at Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for calling President Bush ‘the devil’ at the United Nations on Wednesday. His modest proposal: removing Kenmore Square’s famed Citgo sign, which is owned by Citgo Oil, a Venezuelan subsidiary.
“‘Given the hatred of the United States displayed by dictator Hugo Chavez, it would be more fitting to see an American flag when you drive through Kenmore Square,’ said McDermott, who yesterday filed a resolution with the city clerk to have the sign removed. ‘I think people would soon forget the Citgo sign.'”
“Sign off, Hugo: Pol lights into Bush-bashing Venezuelan loudmouth”
By Laura Crimaldi and Renee Nadeau
The Boston Herald
September 22, 2006
This man’s salary is paid by your tax dollars…and this is what he spends his days doing. Seriously. Think about that.
Post Categories: Rampaging morons & The Citgo Sign
September 22nd, 2006 → 12:14 pm @ Seth Mnookin
Earlier today, the Huffington Post put up an interview with press critic, Committee to Protect Journalists co-founder, and New York Review of Books contributor Michael Massing. It’s a long, interesting piece; I don’t always agree with Massing, but I’m (almost) always interested in what he has to say.
But one of Massing’s answers particularly bothered me. When asked about the political pressures today’s media outlets need to deal with — pressures that are both very real and very frightening — Massing says, “If you look at The New York Times and The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times – probably our three top newspapers – it’s pretty extraordinary what they’ve been running. The New York Times has in some ways become the voice of the opposition in this country. Day after day, I’ve been looking at the Times and have been struck by how much they’ve been willing to run stories exposing incompetence and wrongdoing and documenting things that have been going wrong around the world.”
First off, it’s incredible (and incredibly upsetting) that coverage of politics has devolved to the point where people are struck by the extent to which the media is doing its job. Just as troubling is the way in which Massing frames this coverage: as the “voice of the opposition.” This is language that is (and should be) used to describe a political party not in power. It’s precisely this type of language that gives ammunition to politicians (in this instance, the Bush administration) who want to paint negative coverage as fundamentally stemming from a ideological divide (the NY liberal elite versus the politicians that represent the hoi polloi). Exposing incompetence and wrongdoing, documenting problems in the world — that doesn’t mean the Times (or any other outlet, for that matter), is the voice of the opposition, it means the paper is doing its job: ferreting out the truths that the politicians, business leaders, etc., want to hide from the public. Massing is right to say this important work is under attack, but when he uses language that makes it sound like it’s the voice of the opposition and not the voice of a free press that’s being muzzled, he must be warming Karl Rove’s heart.
Post Categories: Media reporting & Michael Massing & New York Times
