PLAY BALLSKI                                                                                                      2/16/10

Finally, the catchers and pitchers report this Thursday so baseball is right around the corner. Who will be the first player to get injured, despite being in ‘the best shape of his life’? Who will hit the first clutch home run now that Jason Bay is gone? What pitcher will develop ‘a tired arm’ after throwing batting practice? Who will experience the weirdest injury? Think Wade Boggs taking off his boots or that time he fell out of the jeep and his wife almost ran over his head.

 

Obviously we hope none of our Red Sox get hurt during spring training or during the season. However injuries are part of the game. So if teams are close in competitiveness, staying healthy may be the key. Of course, the Yankees managed to overcome the loss of Chien-Ming Wang (just signed by Washington) last year. 

 

Sports talk radio is heating up. If the Red Sox get shut out more than 2 games early in spring training, the callers will be panicking, pleading for Theo to make a trade for a big bat. Hey, Manny wants to come back to the AL and DH.

 

The first NESN TV game is March 3^rd as the Red Sox give the Boston College Eagles another chance to sample spring training professional pitching and say they knocked in a run or hit a homer versus fill-in-the-blank. God forbid if Boston actually lost a game to BC. That would set the blogosphere on fire.

 

There are fewer questions this year because Theo Epstein has given the Sox more pitching and more defense. So you’ll see more features on rising stars like Jose Iglesias, the Cuban shortstop prodigy. Or columns on players who were injured (Zach Daeges) or are coming back from a dreadful year, like Lars Anderson.

 

Who will be the young star of spring training who gets sent down to the minors anyway for ‘seasoning’? Will Wakefield have to take another bullet for the team and start as the long man in the bullpen? Will David Ortiz hit more than his weight in spring training despite looking almost svelte and slender, prompting cries of ‘put the weight back on, you’ve lost all your power.’

 

Whatever the stories, we will inhale them, digest them and feel starved for more. When is the first televised game against another Major League team? It’s March 7 vs. the Orioles. 

 

BASEBALL QUIZ

Who holds the Red Sox career record for singles with 2,262?

PUT SOME   SOUTH   IN YOUR MOUTH

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BULLETS

• Last week I asked a couple college basketball savvy guys, which team led the Atlantic 10? They didn’t know it was Charlotte. Since then the Spiders of Richmond have taken the lead and Charlotte is tied for 2^nd with Temple and Xavier.

• Watched Apolo Ohno get his first Olympic medal in Vancouver (Silver and a record tying 6^th medal). The race went from Oh No to Oh Yes as Ohno got bumped out of the lead but then two of the three Koreans crashed. Ohno and teammate Celski medaled.

• The Bruins came back from the dead just before the Olympic break. Let it be shown that they broke their 10-game losing streak by beating the Canadiens in Montreal.

• Some Red Sox fans are worried about run production. This year’s edition could be a doubles and homers crew with the pounding split up amongst 7 players. Nick Cafardo of the Globe said Sunday that there are 6 guys who’ve hit 25 HRs. They could have a bunch of players with 20 or more HRs. Here are last year’s HR totals: Youk (27), Pedroia (15), Scutaro (12), Beltre (8), Martinez (23), Drew (24), Cameron (24), Ellsbury (8). You’d expect some players to benefit from Fenway but Beltre and Ells still might not make 20.

• The US won the America’s Cup back (best of 3 not 9) as BMW Oracle beat the Swiss’ Alinghi for the oldest trophy in international sports. A new 223’ wing sail helped.

 

E-MAIL

Jim, this time next week the truck will have arrived in Florida.  I’m feeling warmer already.

Jim Stapleton

Yes, Jim, I can almost hear the birds chirping, the frogs croaking and the bats flying. - Z

 

On celebrating the New Orleans’ Super Bowl win:

i  really should b a contributing editor, i have a million of em—-did also want to tell u dat as soon as the clock read 0:00, i put the tv on freeze, put my 2 daughters in the truck, and drove thru our entire allotment with my saints flag out the window, the windows down with the girls screaming who dat, and go saints, we’re #  1, while dad kept his hand on the horn THE ENTIRE RIDE while making all the turns, and dodging  snow drifts—-i know the kids will remember dat  4 ever—or etch it outta their minds immediately!!  just kidding—48hrs later, don’t think sober is in the nawlins vocabulary still!!

Bill Buda

The Saints’ prayers, and those of their fans, have been answered. Amen! Laissez le bon temps rouler.   -   Z

 

Coach,
4th RI connection to Super Bowl was the late Steve Furness……who played for Steelers in perhaps as many as 4 Super Bowls.
Q

Thanks to the Q, who once upon a time wrote a fun sports blog known as Q’s Letter. -  Z

 

BASEBALL QUIZ ANSWER

Carl Yastrzemski [Thanks to the Bear for the gift of Baseball Quizzes (Little Giant Encyclopedia)]

      Sportzine is also available at jimdawsonsports.com (Thanks Buffalo Steve)

THE HOT CLUB     WHERE HEARTS ARE ON FIRE       BUT IT’S NEVER TOO HOT       FOR THE DEVIL MAY CARE       575 South Water Street            Providence, RI

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE HOT CLUB

Foot Joy and I were talking about the possibility that the Celtics would trade Ray Allen. FJ figured they could get something for Allen, whose contract ends after the season, and his FG shooting % is down, sometimes a function of age. I told Foot Joy “No, No, No!” I would not trade Ray Allen because the Celtics have the best chance of winning another championship with him. I wouldn’t write off Ray Allen yet and when he’s on the floor, he has to be covered, allowing less doubling of Paul Pierce or Kevin Garnett.

 

Foot Joy offered a solution to the Celtics situation with Ray Allen. FJ says that the Green should start Tony Allen in Ray Allen’s place and bring Ray off the bench. That would cut down on Ray Allen’s minutes, making him fresher, and might help his scoring touch.

 

The Wizard said that there was snow on the ground in 49 of the 50 states. I said “Not in Hawaii.” “That’s the 50^th state”, he replied.

 

Jokin’ Joe walked in and saw Easy Ed, but called him Mr. Ed, which made us think of the talking horse show with Alan Young. Ed said that the wife didn’t know what was going to happen with the dialogue. They hadn’t added Mr. Ed’s lines yet.

 

David Latt, an English professor at RIC, taught Dryden according to the Wizard. However the professor mostly read from his thesis while doing it. The Wizard says that Latt disappeared from RIC and resurfaced working on Hill Street Blues as an assistant producer. The Wizard said that a lot of the lines out of Belker’s mouth came from the RIC Student Union.  You mean like ‘dog breath’? Yup! Woof!

 

Alexander the Great was walking by and heard me talking about doing a Google search for something. Alex suggested “Go-Ogle”.

 

Transparent Mike says that when he visited Graceland, they didn’t bring up the fact that Elvis Presley called his penis ‘Little Elvis’. And where did Mike get this info?  From The Ultimate Book of Useless Information.

 

Mr. D. says that he knows some people who go to gay bingo. When they announce “O69”, people yell out “Lunch!” And how would Mr. D. know this? Mr. D. says some people that go told him.

 

Jimmy Chelo’s friend Mario asked me, “If Albania attacks Turkey from the rear, does Greece help?” Oh and the European countries that are causing economic worries are called the PIGS of Europe – Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain. Mario said that’s what they call them on CNBC.