June 20th, 2006 → 9:08 pm @ Seth Mnookin
SCENE: The bottom of the fourth inning of the July 20 Red Sox-Nationals game with Boston leading, 8-0.
SETTING: NESN broadcast booth, Fenway park.
CAST:
* Red Sox color analyst Jerry Remy
* Red Sox play-by-play announcer Don Orsillo
* A three-inch plushy of Red Sox mascot Wally the Green Monster.
Remy: We all have parties–birthday parties, crews go out and have parties. Wally likes to attend those parties and he has a heck of a time, but the next day I’ve got to put up with that. He’s miserable, not feeling well, cause it’s hard if, you know, when he goes out people take care of him.
Orsillo: See, I thought he was all done with that. I thought that was another life for Wally. I thought the whole rehab thing took care of that.
Remy: The thing about it is, he’ll look the same tomorrow, but he won’t feel good.
Orsillo: He’s always gonna be green.
PAUSE
Remy: The women love Wally.
Orsillo: I can see why. They’re only human.
It makes you wonder what Ron Gant would have come up with…
Post Categories: Broadcasting & Don Orsillo & Jerry Remy & Red Sox & Ron Gant & Wally the Green Monster
June 20th, 2006 → 7:15 pm @ Seth Mnookin
Watch Jonathan Papelbon as he tries to make Red Sox fans forget about the loss of Bronson Arroyo. (Link via Deadspin.)
Alternate headline: So this is how rookies augment their major league minimum-salaries.
Alternate headline #2: Further proof that the only way car salesmen ever get to hang out with ballplayers is to pay them.
Post Categories: Bad Advertising & Bronson Arroyo & Car Salesmen & Jonathan Papelbon
June 19th, 2006 → 11:18 pm @ Seth Mnookin
This is the third in a series of outtakes from interviews done for Feeding the Monster, to be published on July 11 by Simon & Schuster. This will be the first of three outtakes from this interview with Nomar Garciaparra, which was conducted in Austin, Texas on October 28, 2005. This year, Garciaparra’s first with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the recently converted first baseman is hitting .355 with 8 home runs and 42 RBIs. Read the book for exclusive details on Garciaparra’s career with the Red Sox, his reaction to the July 1, 2004 game against the Yankees, and the contract negotiations that resulted in his being traded to the Chicago Cubs.
On being a superstar in Boston: I don’t know if you’ve ever read a book by Ted Williams. It was called My Turn At Bat and it’s really just his own words. It was written back in 1969, right before he was a manager for the Washington Senators. If you read that, it’s funny what he went through. He never said anything [in his book] about the ownership. It was more about all the stuff that was being said about him [in the media] and the reception he got [from the fans]. It happened to Ted who was probably the most, the greatest person there is. I knew Ted personally. He was the biggest icon in that city. He is a hero to me. But he had to endure that and went through it–the best ever. Jim Rice had to deal with it. You’ve got Roger Clemens, Mo Vaughn, all these guys who are the heros to every single person there, to the fans and they endear themselves and throw themselves into the community. But then on the last stretch, it’s different. It’s the same thing. It’s the same thing with Ted, Jim Rice. It happened with Mo. It happened to Roger.
I mean, Mo Vaughn was a wonderful person. I love Mo. I love this man. He was a role model, this guy. He was never late, he played everyday, even in the worst pain, he talked to me everyday I was there. He was available because he thought maybe that would help. He gave back to the community. This guy is awesome. So he went to a strip joint. What does that have to do with him as person, as a ball player, what he represents? I think actions speak louder than words at times, and if you’re getting that action, that has nothing to do with Mo Vaughn as a ball player and as a person. He encompassed it all, and Roger did the same thing. So when they left, that made you scratch your head. Now Mo is gone, Pedro, myself, maybe Manny.
On the difference between playing in Boston and other cities: It’s just the only thing that’s there is in Boston. It’s just the Red Sox. I always joke about it cause I grew up in LA. You ask somebody in LA, ‘What do you want to do today? Do you want to go to the beach? Do you want the movie? Do you want to go the baseball game?’ And the person will think about it. You ask a person in Boston, ‘What do you want to do? Do you want to go down to the North End, do you want to see a movie, or do you want to go to a Red Sox game?’ ‘You got tickets?’ I mean its like, ‘You have to ask? You are giving me a choice? What, are you crazy?’ That’s the mentality. That’s just the way it is. Which I thought is great—it’s awesome. I think the same way. If you ask me what do I think, I mean I’m playing! What do you want to do, play baseball or see a movie, I want to play baseball. In a city where people thought the same way I did, it was great.
On the differences between the Boston media and the Chicago media: I think that in general—and this isn’t a knock on the media—in general, I think a lot of times the media, and we see it all over society, the media is more interested in the story than the truths so to speak. They have to get a story no matter what it is. But in Chicago there’s a different mentality. They are so supportive of the Cubs, they are just wonderful fans. It’s just different. I don’t know you might have to ask the media about that, but like I said, from reading stuff and history, it’s always been there in Boston.
Post Categories: Feeding the Monster Outtakes & Nomar Garciaparra & Red Sox
June 19th, 2006 → 1:37 am @ Seth Mnookin
* Braves fans are pathetic. After 14-straight division titles, this is a city that deserves to have a baseball team that sucks.
* Did Brian Runge, the homeplate umpire in Sunday’s game, remind anyone else of Leslie Nielsen in Naked Gun 2 1/2? Man, did Runge get a kick out of ringing guys up.
* If Jonathan Papelbon isn’t cast as a stone-cold killer in a teen-slasher movie, Hollywood is missing out on an amazing opportunity.
Post Categories: Atlanta Braves & Crappy Fans & Jonathan Papelbon & Leslie Nielsen
June 19th, 2006 → 1:24 am @ Seth Mnookin
In the bottom of the seventh inning of tonight’s Braves-Red Sox game, Rudy Seanez came in to pitch to Jeff Francoeur with two on, two out, and the Sox leading 3-2—and Francoeur hit Seanez’s first pitch over the left-field wall to give the Braves a two run lead. Which means Seanez screwed up, right? Well, not exactly. Jason Varitek gave a target on the lower left-hand corner of the strike zone, and Seanez hit his spot almost perfectly with a nice slider…or he would have, anyway, if Francoeur hadn’t deposited the ball into the stands.
There’s plenty to second-guess here, to be sure. Francoeur is a free swinger—he has only five walks on the year, to go along with 57 strikeouts, 15 home runs, and 52 RBIs—and Seanez’s pitch was obviously hittable. But with two men on, the Red Sox didn’t want to give Francoeur a 1-0 count, on which he’s hitting .481 this season. And Seanez didn’t throw a hanging slider or leave a pitch out over the heart of the plate—it just nipped the outside corner.
Francouer’s 3-run shot certainly won’t be one of the turning points in the season. The Sox scored six two-out runs in the eighth and went on to win the game, 10-7. And Seanez’s role in the game probably won’t be remembered for long, either, except for those fans who’ve already decided they hate the man. But it is a good example of how baseball offers up numerous daily illustrations of how a good process doesn’t always lead to good results. The Red Sox—with a front office that has a well thought out reasons for virtually every decision they make—offer almost daily illustrations of this. After the 2002 season, the Sox let Cliff Floyd walk rather than pay him the eight or so million he likely would have gotten in arbitration; then, in a move that was criticized at the time, they signed Jeremy Giambi, Bill Mueller, David Ortiz, and Todd Walker for a combined $8.8 million. Before this season, the Sox traded Bronson Arroyo to the Reds for hard-hitting outfielder Wily Mo Pena. That move was, for the most part, treated as good news: with the Red Sox’s outfield in flux, the injury-prone, left-handed Trot Nixon manning right, and the need to start turning over a veteran team that was in danger of rapidly aging, picking up a 24-year old power-hitting outfielder who had a couple of years left before he reached free agency made a lot of sense, especially when the cost was a pitcher who threw up a 4.52 ERA last year. Of course, now that Pena’s on the DL, Arroyo’s 8-3 with a 2.51 ERA, and the Red Sox starting rotation appears to be in danger of falling apart, that move is drawing plenty of criticism.
Hindight, of course, is 20-20, and baseball fans (and sportswriters) have a rich history of knee-jerk reactions in response to whatever happened last night (or last inning). But indulging that tendency, especially in regard to a Red Sox team owned by John Henry and Tom Werner and run by Theo Epstein, would mean missing out on a lot of opportunities to think about and learn why a given decision was made. During spring training this year, Epstein told me the reason he loved working for Henry was that both men believed in making decisions based on carefully articulated processes. That doesn’t mean never paying players more than they might be worth according to a strict statistical analysis—there are some decisions that need to be made for stability, or because of excessive turnover. But it does mean coming up with a plan and sticking to it. And if the team decides certain players are only worth risking three years on, well, that’s what they Sox will offer.
“It doesn’t always work out perfectly,” Epstein said that day. “That’s life. But we believe that if we come up with a plan and stick to it, it’ll work out more often than it doesn’t.”
There’s more–lots more–about the Red Sox’s management philosophy and all the roster moves and in-game decisions of the last several years in Feeding the Monster, out July 11.
Post Categories: Baseball & David Ortiz & Jason Varitek & Red Sox ownership & Sports Reporters & Theo Epstein
June 16th, 2006 → 9:28 pm @ Seth Mnookin
“One right now is just as valuable as putting two or three on the board.”
— Ron Gant after Chipper Jones hit a sac fly with the bases loaded in the fifth…to bring the Braves to within three runs.
(I have a feeling Gant’s gonna keep me busy all weekend. And…my man delivers. After calling the 6th inning “the middle of the game,” he says if Tim Hudson can keep the Red Sox from scoring there, “You have a good chance to come back and win.” Don’t ask; just embrace it. It’s a zen thing.)
Post Categories: Baseball & Broadcasting & Red Sox & Ron Gant
June 16th, 2006 → 8:42 pm @ Seth Mnookin
“Boy, I tell ya, you got a team like the Red Sox coming to town and you have all those fans chanting for them and you really want to beat that other ballclub. That’s what I was talking about earlier – these guys should be inspired tonight.”
— Atlanta Braves broadcaster Ron Gant in the top of the third inning as Atlanta’s Turner Field was filled with “Let’s Go Red Sox!” chants. Braves pitcher Tim Hudson was so inspired he served up a three-run triple to Jason Varitek after walking the bases loaded.
Post Categories: Baseball & Broadcasting & Jason Varitek & Red Sox & Ron Gant
