Author Archives: djstevem

Baseball’s Top 5 Ballparks

Fenway Park

With the 2011 Major League Baseball season underway less than a week comes a report from Joshua Nichols published on Internet Broadcasting called “Take Me Out To Baseball’s 5 Best Ballparks”.

While some of the selections did not surprise me, like PNC Ballpark, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates and AT&T Park, home of the World Champion San Francisco Giants.  The fact that baseballs two OLDEST parks, Wrigley Field home of the 1908 World Champion Chicago Cubs and Fenway Park, home of our beloved Red Sox also made the list.

He says that since 1992’s debut of Camden Yards in Baltimore no more than 19 ballparks have made their debuts, including Target Field the new home of the Minnesota Twins in 2010.  And next year the Florida Marlins, will be renamed the Miami Marlins and enter a new park at the site of the old Orange Bowl.

Nichols lists the Top 5 as Safeco Field, the retractable roof home of the Seattle Mariners, was fifth.  PNC took fourth place, Wrigley Field was third, AT&T was second and Fenway, which has undergone numerous renovations in the nearly decade long ownership of John W. Henry and Co. took the top prize.

I was kind of surprised Fenway was first but then I haven’t been there since 2005 and I was more than shocked that my favorite park, Camden Yards only pulled an honorable mention.  Others in that category are Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, San Diego’s PETCO Park, Coors Field in Denver and Detroit’s Comerica Park.

Photo credit: Baseball Pilgrimages

2011 Red Sox Baseball on NESN

Don Orsillo & Jerry Remy Bobblehead desk

The Boston Red Sox return to NESN as their lone local television outlet for the sixth consecutive season and as a broadcaster of televised Red Sox baseball in New England for the 28th year in a row in 2011.  And like they have since 2001, Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy will bring you all the Red Sox action.  They are joined on the field for the fourth season by field reporter Heidi Watney.

Red Sox baseball on NESN actually starts with a two half hour pregame shows Red Sox 1st Pitch airs 60 minutes prior to the game and Red Sox Game Day Live air 30 minutes prior to the game hosted by Tom Caron with a crew of rotating analysts that include Hall of Fame writer Peter Gammons, Hall of Fame players Jim Rice and Dennis Eckersley..  It also includes segments with Boston Globe writers and Red Sox game analyst Jerry Remy.  The broadcasts concludes with a pair of post game shows “Extra Innings Live” and “Red Sox Final” also hosted by the same cast of characters.

Don Orsillo, a New England native, is entering his 10th season as the play by play voice of the Boston Red Sox on NESN.  Announcer Boy is a graduate of Northeastern University where he studied under Red Sox radio announcer Joe Castiglione.  Before he came to NESN, Orsillo was the play by play voice of the Springfield Falcons hockey team, the Pittsfield Mets and Pawtucket Red Sox.  The two-time New England EMMY winner called a no-hitter for Hideo Nomo in his first game covering the Red Sox.  In addition to his Red Sox duties he has called men’s college basketball and the Beanpot Hockey tournament for NESN.  He has also called Big East basketball games for the Big East Network and works for TBS during the MLB postseason calling one of the division series since 2007.

Jerry Remy, the Rem Dawg, is entering his 23rd season as the color analyst on Red Sox baseball.  Remy played with the California Angels and Boston Red Sox during a major league of 10 years that ended due to bad knees.  A Fall River native, he is also the first President of Red Sox Nation and owns two restaurants RemDawgs, a hot dog stand outside Fenway and Jerry Remy’s Sports Bar & Grill behind Fenway Park on Boylston Street.  In addition he also has a successful website, the Remy Report, and is the author of “Watching Baseball” and five children’s books based on Wally the Green Monster.  He is a member of the Red Sox Hall of Fame having been inducted in 2006.  In addition to his NESN work you will see Remy on occasion as a color analyst for regional MLB on FOX games usually involving the Red Sox.

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Heidi WatneyHeidi Watney is starting her fourth season as the Red Sox field reporter during NESN broadcasts after replacing Tina Cervasio following the championship season of 2007.  Prior to working for NESN, Watney was a weekend tv sports anchor and a sports talk radio host in Fresno California.

The University of San Diego grad was the first runner up in the 2002 Miss California Pageant and she is the cousin of professional golfer Nick Watney, and the daughter of Fresno State golf coach Mike Watney.

Tom Caron, a Maine native, is the Red Sox studio host for the pregame and post game festivities through the year with many of the pregame shows coming from outside Fenway Park amongst the sea of Sox fans.  Caron who has been at NESN since 1995, has also hosted the Boston Bruins studio show, been the Red Sox field reporter and has done play by play for the Pawtucket Red Sox games on NESN as well as college basketball and college hockey. TC is a three-time New England EMMY winner and is also a frequent guest on sports talker, WEEI the Red Sox flagship station.

Peter Gammons is a Boston Sports Icon having started his career at the Boston Globe in 1969 covering Boston sports. He has also written columns for the Sporting News, been lead baseball columnist for Sports Illustrated and has been a baseball analyst for ESPN, the MLB Network and NESN.  Peter has also written several books, is a three-time National Sportswriter of the Year and in 2004 was selected as the 56th recipient of the J. G. Taylor Spink Award for outstanding baseball writing, given by the BBWAA, and was honored at the Baseball Hall of Fame during induction ceremonies on July 31, 2005.

Dennis Eckersley is a NESN studio analyst since 2002.  The Hall of Fame closer is only one of two players to have a 20-win and 50-save season in MLB history.  Eck played for the Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Oakland A’s and St. Louis Cardinals in a 24 year career. Eckersley also won the 1992 AL Cy Young Award and 1992 AL MVP Award becoming only the 8th player to win both awards in the same season.  In addition to his NESN work, Eck works as a studio analyst with TBS during the regular and post seasons.  He also was given his own dictionary by the Bleacher Report blog because of his own very colorful baseball vernacular, called The Eck-tionary.

Jim Rice is a NESN studio analyst since 2003 and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame after playing his entire career in Boston with the Red Sox from 1974 to 1989.  The 1978 AL MVP in his career hit for a .298 average with 382 HR, 1451 RBI and 2452 hits. His #14 is retired by the Red Sox and sits on the right field facade at Fenway Park. Jim Ed is also heavily involved in community service with the Jimmy Fund and MLB’s RBI program.

One Week Away from Play Ball!

Play Ball!!

We are a mere seven days away from the Boston Red Sox opening the 2011 season on the road in Texas against the defending American League Champion Rangers.  About a week ago Boston manager Terry Francona announced his five man rotation, now I got the Rangers starters from the Providence Journal and it looks like we will be seeing some good match ups.

Opening Day the 4 p.m. EST matches Jon Lester against C.J. Wilson in the battle of lefties.  Lester has a career mark of 61-25 with an ERA of 3.55 in 123 starts with 6 complete games and 1 no-hitter of the Kansas City Royals.  He is considered a Cy Young Award candidate this season.  The Rangers counter with Wilson who is to be their ace in 2011 replacing the departed Cliff Lee as the main man in the rotation.  The former closer has a career record of 27-28 with a 3.90 ERA.  He has made 39 career starts all with Texas and has 3 complete games.

Saturday’s game matches tall Texan John Lackey in his second season with the Sox against right hander Colby Lewis.  Lackey is 116-82 in his career with a 3.89 ERA with the Angels and the Red Sox.  He has thrown 14 complete games in 266 major league starts. Lewis, who was probably the best postseason starter for Texas last year, is expected to help anchor the rotation.  The 6’4” righty is 24-28 with a 5.27 career ERA.  He has one complete game in 66 starts with Texas, Oakland, Washington and Detroit.

The three game set will wind up on Sunday with another native Texan, Clay Buchholz on the mound for Boston against lefty Matt Harrison.  Buchholz, who threw a no-hitter in his second major league start in 2007 against Baltimore, is already 29-21 in his career with a 3.68 ERA in 62 starts; he also has thrown three complete games.  Harrison is 16-10 in his career with a 5.39 ERA all with Texas.  He has made 32 big league starts and has completed three of them.

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Expect Boston manager Terry Francona to use possibly a few different lineups in the first series as he may try to work veteran catcher Jason Varitek in for a game against a lefty starter.  He will possibly have different lineup variations based on if the opposing starter is a lefty or a righty.

A potential lineup vs. a lefty starter is:

Scutaro
Crawford
Youkilis
Gonzalez
Pedroia
Ortiz
Drew
Varitek/Saltalamacchia
Ellsbury

A potential lineup vs. a right starter is:

Ellsbury
Pedroia
Crawford
Gonzalez
Youkilis
Ortiz
Drew
Saltalamacchia
Scutaro

The biggest advantages the Sox have in lineups is both catchers and the utility infielder all switch hit and they have a lineup made up of guys who can hit in at least three different spots in the order.

When Varitek does play this year expect most of his AB’s to come against lefty starters.  The right side is his strongest side and he has hit better right handed while Saltalamacchia seems to be better suited from the left side.

I don’t know about you, but I can not wait for this season to start.  Ever since they traded for Adrian Gonzalez and signed Carl Crawford the expectations have become massive.  It’s finally nearly time to put the team on the field and let things play out.

Hopefully they can fight off the injuries that ruined them last season and anyone who was injured last year seems to be ready to go in 2011.  Luckily they have built a lot of depth into this club again and hopefully we won’t end up with a situation like the one developing in Philadelphia where right now they have no RF, no 2B and no closer with all of them starting the season on the DL.

Enjoy the season, it has all the makings of a great one.

Buck Blows Hard

Theo Epstein & Buck Showalter composite

Let me start by saying I haven’t seen the question(s) that prompted this response, nor have I seen the context of the full interview.  But like most baseball fans, I was kind of surprised to see Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter bashing Boston Red Sox executive V.P./General Manager Theo Epstein in print.

Showalter’s comments may seem innocent and innocuous to some, but to others it shows a lack of respect for someone who has helped to build one of the top teams of the new century.

Showalter in a print interview with Men’s Journal Magazine disparages Epstein by asking, “I’d like to see how smart Theo Epstein is with the Tampa Bay payroll”.  The Orioles manager goes on to add “you (Boston) got Carl Crawford because you paid more than anyone else, and that’s what makes you smarter”?

But Showalter like, most people should think before he speaks.  Seems this man has managed three well-funded teams in his day.  He guided the 1992-1995 New York Yankees, the 1998-2000 Arizona Diamondbacks and the 2003-2006 Texas Rangers prior to taking over in Camden Yards late last season.

In his time with those teams, Showalter has managed big payroll, superstars.  Don’t let him fool you because now he has Peter Angelos pulling the purse strings.  In New York he had such high priced talent as Wade Boggs, David Cone, Don Mattingly, Paul O’Neill, Darryl Strawberry, Danny Tartabull and Jim Abbott.  What did it get him besides fired?  A 313-268 record and one playoff appearance in which they got eliminated by the Seattle Mariners on Ken Griffey Jr.’s mad dash to the plate.

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The next season under new manager Joe Torre, the Yankees restore their dynasty (gag) and win the first of 4 World Series in 5 seasons and have a run under Torre in which they made the post season all twelve seasons he was the manager.

Then in Arizona, ownership outfitted him with Curt Schilling, Randy Johnson, Steve Finley, Luis Gonzalez and Matt Williams.  All well paid vet’s who wanted to win they ended up 250-236 in three seasons and had only one playoff appearance to show for it.  Guess what?  He gets canned.

The next season the Diamondbacks beat the Yankees in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series as Johnson and Schilling are named co-MVP’s of the series.

Well then good ol’ Buck ends up in Texas with the Rangers for the next four seasons in which time he once again manages some of the highest paid talent on the books thanks to Tom Hicks.  Amongst the highly paid players under Showalter’s watch were Kevin Millwood, Sandy Alomar Jr., Chan Ho Park, Kenny Rogers, Carl Everett, Juan Gonzalez, Rafael Palmeiro and Alex Rodriguez.  He goes 319-329 in those years with no playoff appearances and where does he end up?

In Bristol, CT pontificating for ESPN.  Meanwhile Epstein has gotten the Red Sox to two World Series titles, 4 ALCS appearances and the team has been in the playoffs in six of his eight seasons as the general manager.

So Buck, you wanna re-think who the smart one really is?

Whalers Live On In Their Fans

The State of Connecticut is full of long suffering Hartford Whalers fans, like Ian and myself.  For those of you who aren’t aware the Whalers left town in 1997 when Carpetbagger Peter Karmanos, who had come from Michigan and bought the team, moved it to North Carolina and re-named them the Carolina Hurricanes.  It’s a move that still stings.

In fact after disparaging the ‘Canes head d-bag in a tweet I heard from one of his cousins who tried to inform me what a generous and nice guy Karmanos is.  I told her I felt sorry for her due to the relation and reiterated that he is still hated and despised in CT.

But I digress, the fact is many of us still love the Whalers and threw my new friend Brittany Auerbach who runs the BA Loves the Whalers blog come these two items.

First are Hartford Whalers sneakers designed on a pair of Nike Air Jordan Retro 1.  Uber cool high tops in Whalers colors rocking the Whalers logo.  Nice.

Hartford Whalers Air Jordan Retro 1

Brass Bonanza Plays Again: How Hockey’s Strangest Goon Brought Back Mark Twain and a Dead Team—and Made a City Believe AgainThe second item on the Whale is a book written by Andover MA resident, Robert Muldoon.  Muldoon worked his way through his college years and early twenty’s by working part-time for the Whalers.  Most of his duties consisted of driving the new cars on ice between periods for promotions.  His book: Brass Bonanza Plays Again: How Hockey’s Greatest Goon Brought Back Mark Twain and a Dead Team – And Made a City Believe Again was published in January of this year.

The book which took nine years to write, “is a mix of real characters such as Ron Francis, Kevin Dineen and Ulf Samuelsson along side a fictional goon who goes from being homeless and living under a bridge to center ice with a reunited Whalers team”.

While working for the club he even wrote articles for the Sunday Hartford Courant and Goal Magazine. Muldoon worked for the team from 1984-1994 and was heartbroken when the Carpetbagger run away to Carolina with his favorite team.  When the team left he even attended the “Irish Wake” with the city journalists at a local bar.

He is selling his Book through Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

Photo credit: Casey Custom Sneakers, Andover Patch

Red Sox Players Have Two of Top 20 Jerseys

MLB announced today the sales of the most popular player jerseys in 2010.  Long time New York Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter had the best selling jersey by Majestic the official uniform supplier for MLB.  After the Yankee captain 2nd on the list was Minnesota Twins All-Star catcher former AL MVP Joe Mauer who was followed by three Philadelphia Phillies; Cy Young winner pitcher Roy Halladay, All-Star 2B Chase Utley and former Cy Young winner pitcher Cliff Lee.  Lee’s sales figures not only are for his Philadelphia jerseys but for his Seattle and Texas jerseys all combined.

Dustin Pedroia jerseySixth of the list was the SOX & Dawgs choice for Player of the Decade (2000-09) St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols, a three time NL MVP.  Also in the top 10 were Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia, was 8th, and in the Top 20 was his teammate Jacoby Ellsbury, who was 16th.

The ironic thing about Pedroia, a former ROY and AL MVP, and Ellsbury is that both spent considerable time on the disabled list in 2010 but fans still came out and bought their jerseys.

Pedroia says “It’s cool when we’re playing at home at Fenway it’s fun, because it seems like everybody in the whole stadium is in one of our jerseys, and we all kind of look up there and see who it is.  It just makes it fun.”

Ellsbury, who used to don a Ken Griffey Jr. #24 growing up said it was meaningful to be on the list after his injury riddled 2010 season.

“It goes to show I’m blessed to have these great fans that go to the game and support me.  It’s exciting.”

Others in the Top 10 were AL MVP Josh Hamilton, New York’s Alex Rodriguez and San Francisco ace Tim Lincecum.

In the second half of the Top 20 were: Yankee first baseman Mark Teixeira; Braves OF Jason Heyward; Washington phenom Stephen Strasburg; Brewers OF Ryan Braun; former AL MVP Twins first baseman Justin Morneau; Texas second baseman Ian Kinsler; Philadelphia 1B Ryan Howard; Giants catcher Buster Posey and Tampa Bay third baseman Evan Longoria.

NFL Lockout

NFL LockoutThe NFL and the players are involved in a lock out, this is Day 3 of what will forever seem like an an eternity.  I love NFL football, especially the Patriots, but I’ve had enough.  As of this moment I’ve locked out the NFL and all my NFL related feeds from my Twitter account.  If they can lock out the players and screw the fans I can lock them out too.

I urge you all to do the same AND boycott the NFL Draft.  Don’t watch it.  Don’t tweet it. Don’t post it. I don’t know how far I can go but I’m willing to try.

Are you on the bandwagon with me?

Photo credit: JerseyAl.com

Patriots Have Refund Plan

New England PatriotsIn the event that the NFL lockout stretches into the season the New England Patriots have announced they will refund season ticket holders the face value of the tickets for missed games plus 1% interest.

Season ticket holder MUST renew their ticket plans by March 31st or their seats will be offered to one of the 50,000 names on the season ticket waiting list.

To follow this and any other info on refunds go to patriots.com.

Big East Big Dog in 2011 NCAA Tourney

On Sunday the NCAA Selection Committee picked the 68 schools to play in the 2011 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Tournament with the Final Four being held at Reliant Stadium in Houston. 

The big news in the selections were as always the teams that were left out or teams that made it that didn’t deserve it and there are a number in these categories.  Among the teams being bashed for their selection by the committee are Southern Cal; UAB; Penn State; Marquette and Clemson.  While teams like St. Mary’s and Colorado were left out.

Big East ConferenceOthers are chirping about the seedings. Why is Florida a #2 seed when Kentucky a #4 seed beat them twice?  Why is Texas a #4 seed?

But to me the biggest thing is that the NCAA took eleven teams from the Big East, clearly the beast of the college basketball world.  I’d put the top four Big East teams up against the top four teams from all the other conferences any day.  Supposed powerhouse conferences like the ACC had four teams picked as did the lowly Pac-10. While the Big Ten put in seven teams, the SEC has five as does the Big 12.  But other smaller conferences like the A-10 got three bids, the CAA got three as well as did the Mountain West.

Granted their were four more slots to fill this year as the tournament expands from 64 to 68 teams but I think teams like St. Mary’s and Colorado deserved a better shot at making the tourney as opposed to 11 teams from one conference or mid-level teams from mid-major conferences.

As a Big East basketball fan since Day 1 I am proud to say the conference has the most bids ever in a single tournament even if maybe some were border line picks. The Big East has one #1 seed; one #2 seed; two #3 seeds; one #4 seed; one #5 seed; three #6 seeds; one #9 seed and one #11 seed.  In the past the committee has tried to avoid having conference members meet head-to-head in the tournament but this year that went out the window as Connecticut could face Cincinnati in the round of 32 as could Syracuse and Marquette. The Big East has had multiple final four teams 3 times.  In 1985, Villanova and Georgetown played in the title game and St. John’s also made the semi finals; in 1987 Syracuse lost the title game and Providence went down in the semi’s and in 2009 UCONN and Villanova lost in the semi final games.  Since it’s inception in 1979 the Big East has been represented in the Final Four 17 times (last school was WVU in 1010) and has won five National titles with UCONN winning twice and Georgetown, Villanova and Syracuse each winning once.

As a UCONN fan I never thought at Day 1 of the Big East that the team would travel to the heights it’s been with  seven conference tournament titles, three Final Fours and two National Championships.  This league is the best of them all and obviously one school from the conference could in all probability be raising the championship trophy on April 4th. It’d really be something if it was Kemba Walker with his hands on it.

Don’t forget to fill out your bracket and enjoy the games.

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Here is a list via the AP of all 68 schools selected by conference:

America East (1): Boston University

Atlantic Coast (4): Clemson, Duke, Florida State, North Carolina

Atlantic Sun (1): Belmont

Atlantic 10 (3): Richmond, Temple, Xavier

Big East (11): Cincinnati, Connecticut, Georgetown, Louisville, Marquette, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, St. John’s, Syracuse, Villanova, West Virginia

Big Sky (1): Northern Colorado

Big South (1): UNC Asheville

Big Ten (7): Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Wisconsin

Big 12 (5): Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Texas, Texas A&M

Big West (1): UC Santa Barbara

Colonial Athletic Association (3): George Mason, Old Dominion, Virginia Commonwealth

Conference USA (2): Memphis, UAB

Horizon (1): Butler

Ivy (1): Princeton

Mid-American (1): Akron

MEAC (1): Hampton

Missouri Valley (1): Indiana State

Mountain West (3): BYU, San Diego State, UNLV

Northeast (1): Long Island University

Ohio Valley (1): Morehead State

Pacific-10 (4): Arizona, Southern Cal, UCLA, Washington

Patriot (1): Bucknell

Southeastern (5): Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Vanderbilt

Southern (1): Wofford

Southland (1): Texas-San Antonio

SWAC (1): Alabama State

Summit (1): Oakland (Mich.)

Sun Belt (1): Arkansas-Little Rock

West Coast (1): Gonzaga

Western Athletic (1): Utah State

Follow Steve on Twitter @djstevem

Video: Dancing With The Bradys

Some people are disappointed with the “stars” that were selected for ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars”. Well producers missed the boat by not signing up NFL MVP New England Patriots QB Tom Brady seen here in action with his ponytail and wife Gisele Bundchen at Carnaval in Brazil: