And then, at 11:18, Dustin Pedroia took a piss

February 26th, 2007 → 4:34 pm @

Hey, guess what: Manny arrived at the Sox spring training site in Ft. Myers. Here’s proof.

And here’s proof that Boston is, without a doubt, the city most in need of some perspective of the relative importance of baseball. Since this morning, the Globe and the Herald have combined for 12, count em, 12 blog posts on the situation down in Florida.

Here are a rundown of the Globe‘s entries:

Manny’s Here
Ramirez Ready for Work
Manny in the Cages
“10 bucks for a haircut”
Q&A with Manny’s agent
Q&A transcript
Manny vs. Dice K
Dice-K’s session
Manic Monday

And the Herald‘s:

Manny’s in the Fort
Manny’s agent, not Manny, speaks
Dice-K update

Contrast that to the three dailies in New York. The Times* insofar as I can tell, doesn’t have a Yankees blog. The Daily News has posted eight Yankees blog entries in the past week, and that’s a week that’s included Mo’s talk of leaving New York, the Bernie Williams situation, and the A-Rod/Jeter clearing of the air. The two Post blogs total 11 entries in the past week: seven in Joel Sherman’s spring training diary and another four in the tabloid’s catch-all Bombers blog.

It’s a suffocating situation. Just ask David Wells, who recently told the Globe‘s Nick Cafardo:

“‘It was the worst. You go to a mall with your kids and you have people always wanting to take pictures. They should call it ‘Picturetown’ not ‘Beantown.’ … Listen, I know the people are Red Sox-friendly. They love the Red Sox. I understand that. They have to understand that when we’re not at the ballpark, we’re not subject to autographs and pictures and we need to be able to enjoy ourselves. I don’t think they see that and don’t get it.’

New York, where Wells spent four seasons, ‘is a cakewalk compared to Boston,’ he said. “But you know what? Boston is a great town. When I was playing against them, it was great coming in. Great stuff in that town. Great restaurants and nightlife. Historical stuff.

‘But you have to be able to deal with it. That’s why Manny [Ramírez] is always a little loopy — because he can’t do stuff. If you want to be subject to that kind of stuff, God bless you. But as you get older, you want to relax.'”

Relax? As a member of the Red Sox? Dude…get a grip.

* And, as reader TPIRman points out…I’m wrong about the lack of a Times baseball blog. (Shoot, it’s not like I’ve written a book about the Times or anything.) “Bats,” the Times blog, has two-dozen posts up from the past week; that covers the Mets, the Yankees, and the rest of MLB (including everything from Ichiro to Bonds). And, naturally, there are three posts dedicated to the Red Sox included in there.

Post Categories: 2007 Spring Training & David Wells & Manny Ramirez & Red Sox Fans & Sports Reporters

The grass is always greener

February 22nd, 2007 → 10:01 pm @

I’ve only been to one spring training in my life — 2005’s, when I was just beginning work on Feeding the Monster (bookplates, get yer free bookplates here!). Spring training is, for the most part, pretty tedious stuff…especially before the games start. (I never cease to amazed at the number of fans who truck down to Ft. Myers just to watch the workouts!) But every now and then, I miss it.

Today is one of those days. I would have liked to have seen Dice-K’s 103-pitch bullpen session, which, apparently, is no big deal for the $51 million man. I definitely would have liked to have been on hand for Curt’s press conference after Theo told him the Sox wouldn’t be offering him a guaranteed contract for ’08 before the end of the year. And I’ll never, ever tire of watching David Ortiz play baseball or talk to the press. Now that I’m no longer a working journalist — or at least one covering the Red Sox — I have absolutely no problem admitting that Ortiz is, far and away, my favorite player on the team, and certainly the only one who can get away with wearing lime green Izod shirts on a regular basis.

There’s more than a month before I’ll see the ’07 edition of the Sox in person. And yeah, I’m looking forward to it.

Post Categories: 2007 Spring Training

(Yawn! Stretch!) Did I miss anything?

February 15th, 2007 → 2:48 pm @

It’s true: I haven’t posted in a week, which is by far my largest absence from the Interweb since I started blogging back in June. Sadly, I don’t have any great excuse: I haven’t been in Washington blogging the Libby trial; I haven’t been getting laid off by the Globe; I haven’t been obsessively chronicling Dice-K’s every long toss; and I haven’t been fomenting Mariano’s discontent.

My days have been spent on much more pedestrian tasks: scrambling to deal with the one-two punch of Valentine’s Day and the pre-wife’s birthday, and trying to buy a place to live in the ulcer-inducing New York City real estate market. (I’ve also been taking full advantage of the latest medical breakthroughs and treating myself to a minimum of one nap per afternoon.) Oh, I’ve also been making a thus-far less-than-impressive effort to, um, what do they call that? Ah yes: work.

There’s also the little matter of there being almost nothing to write about. Yes, Lefty Lenny has decamped for California, but really, all that means is that the last member of this illustrious crew has finally has left town. J.D.’s finally on the 40-man and the beginning of several weeks of non-news out of Fort Myers has begun (the Globe is actually running a hacked version of Google Maps that marks “attractions” and “Globe picks.” I’ve been to Fort Myers. There’s no such thing as a Fort Myers attraction.)

So. I’ll make every effort to be more diligent. But if I’m going to try to stick to my “don’t open my mouth unless I have something to say” policy (as well as my temporary hiatus from Chass-ville on my heart doctor’s orders), I’m going to need some more material to work with…

Post Categories: 2007 Spring Training & TMI