One of the baseball blogs I frequent on a regular basis is 38cliches.com, it’s a blog devoted to the downfall of the Red Sox radio broadcast. Downfall you say? Well 38cliches is a big fan of Jerry Trupiano who called Sox games for many seasons with Joe Castiglione. “Trup”, who was known for his “way back” calls on HR’s and even some near misses, didn’t have his contract renewed after the 2006 season. The Sox and WRKO replaced him with ESPN announcer Dave O’Brien, who in my opinion does a great job. BUT when “Obie” is gone due to his ESPN commitments he is replaced with former Red Sox and Padres PR guy, Glenn Geffner. Here is where the broadcast falls off.

Geffner you see is very amateurish in his calls of the game before him. He relies heavily on the media stats he used to once create and has no camaraderie at all with Joe. In fact in a lot of cases it seems as if Joe just tunes him out. Geffner, who is referred to in 38cliches.com as “3×5”, just cannot function in the broadcast booth and the broadcast suffers immensely in the days when O’Brien is absent.

Now that I’ve laid the ground work, let’s get on to the basis of this post. With three days off for the All-Star break , Castiglione has decided to take a little extra time off and will not be on the air when the Sox resume the season with a four game series against their AL East foe Toronto. Instead we be hearing O’Brien call the games with Geffner. Like I said personally I love “Obie” calling the games with Joe, Geffner I can do with out. It should be interesting to see how O’Brien meshes with Geffner if at all for four days. Geffner hasn’t learned anything from sitting next to Joe for half a season so I hold little hope he will learn something from Dave in four days.

I just hope Castiglione isn’t using this time off to contemplate retirement or leaving the post he has held for 20 years. It would surely be tragic if he decided to leave the broadcast because Double L (Sox CEO Larry Lucchino) continually force-feeds him Geffner and his 3×5 note cards on a regular basis.

During today’s Phillies-Rockies game in the 7th inning, it started to rain so the grounds crew came out to put the tarp on the field. Things were going smoothly until the wind came. I’ll let the video do the rest of the talking. Hit play to watch.

To me this is a classy move by the Phillies players and even the umpires. This is not a common site you see the in the majors. Players helping put the tarp on the field. To put themselves at risk to help out the grounds crew is an unbelievable thing to do.

I’ve been in that situation too many times. I’ll be honest I hated the tarp pull, mainly because for my last 3 or so years of working in Minor League Baseball in New Haven, I was the most hated guy in the front office. Why? Because unless the umpires called for the tarp, the general manager usually relied on me to make the decision of whether or not to put the tarp on the field. So that meant many of the front office people had to stay around after the game and wait for me and my two or three man crew to finish the field before the tarp pull. Or having to make that call on someone’s day off to get their butt to the park to help pull tarp. If you met anyone who has ever worked in the minors and they tell you they have pulled tarp before and enjoyed it, I call BS. It is the worst thing possible.

I have had that happen more than once to me what happened today in Colorado. I’ve seen people get dragged like the grounds crew member did or even pulled up in the air. I’ve seen people get hurt because the wind has taken the tarp and pulled their shoulders out. That is why I say it is very commendable what the Phillies players did. A lot of these guys have million dollar contracts but didn’t care today.

So as a former groundskeeper/grounds crew member, a big hats off to the Philadelphia Phillies players and the umpires for helping the members of the Rockies grounds crew.

The Boston Red Sox came into Detroit hoping to win at least 2 of 3 games but instead they were swept out of the Motor City by the Tigers. The Tigers got homeruns from Gary Sheffield, Marcus Thames and Carlos Guillen off of Red Sox starter Daisuke Matsuzaka enroute to a 6-5 victory in front of a packed house at Comerica Park.

After Nate Robertson set down the Bosox in order in the 1st inning, the Tigers pounced on Dice-K to grab an early lead. In just three pitches, Matsuzaka had gotten two outs as Curtis Granderson and Thames both flew out. The fourth pitch was a fastball left up in the zone that Sheffield planted into the seats for a 1-0 lead. Matsuzaka then walked Sean Casey but got Guillen to ground out ending the inning.

Robertson had some wildness in the 3rd inning. Jeff Bailey led off with a fly out. Robertson proceeded to walk Julio Lugo and Lugo stole second and went to third on a throwing error by catcher Mike Rabelo with Covelli Crisp at the plate. Crisp worked a walk and Robertson’s wildness continued as he walked Dustin Pedroia to load the bases for David Ortiz. Robertson grazed Big Papi with a pitch forcing in Lugo to tie the game at 1. This was the first time the Red Sox had scored in 14 â…” innings. Mike Lowell followed with a sacrifice fly bringing in Crisp to give the Sox a 2-1 lead. With the switch-hitting Jason Varitek at the plate, AL All-Star manager decided to walk him to face the lefty J.D. Drew. The move payed off as Robertson got Drew to ground out ending the inning.

The Tigers struck again in the 3rd inning. After Matsuzaka had gotten Granderson to fly out, Thames absolutely crushed a ball to centerfield for a solo homerun. The tale of the tape had it at 440 feet. The homerun seemed to unnerve the Japanese import as Sheffield roped a double and went to third on wild pitch with Casey at the plate. Casey brought home Sheff with a single making it 3-2 Tigers. Guillen then took a Matsuzaka fastball and put it into the first rows of seats in rightfield, giving the Tigers a 5-2 lead. Matsuzaka settled down after this getting Craig Monroe and Rabelo out, ending the 4-run 3rd inning for the Tigers.

Wily Mo Peña led off the 4th inning with a huge blast to left center that was a homerun until Granderson did his Spiderman impression, climbing the wall and taking the homerun away. When he came back down with the ball, it was snowconed in his glove. Bailey flew out to Granderson in a more conventional way for the second out. Lugo followed with a single, one of 3 hits on the day for him but Crisp grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the 4th.

The home squad would push another run across the plate in their half of the 4th inning. After Omar Infante lined out to start the inning, Brandon Inge reached on an infield single. Granderson got Inge to third on a double to deep right. Thames hit a grounder to Lugo at short who went home with the throw to get Inge at the plate. Sheff followed with a ground rule double to left scoring Granderson, making it 6-2 Tigers. Matsuzaka got Casey to strike out swinging ending the inning.

Matsuzaka pitched the 5th for the Sox and that would be the last inning he pitched due to a high pitch count. Matsuzaka threw 90 pitches, giving up 10 hits, 6 runs, 1 walk and just 4 strikeouts.

Robertson had an easy 5th and 6th inning but ran into some trouble in the 7th. Bailey led off with a homerun for his first hit in the big leagues. Lugo followed with a homerun of his own to make it 6-4 Tigers. Robertson regained his composure for a second and got Crisp to groundout. Pedroia followed with a grounder to Guillen at short that he booted for his 16th error of the season. Macay McBride came in for Robertson and uncorked a wild pitch moving Pedroia to second with Big Papi at the plate. McBride ended up walking Big Papi and was given the hook by Leyland. Jose Capellan came in for McBride and got Lowell and Varitek to fly out.

Mike Timlin had taken over for Dice-K in the 6th and pitched two outstanding innings. He faced just the minimum six batters.

Drew led off the 8th inning for the Red Sox with a walk off of Capellan. Wily Mo struck out for the 1st out of the inning bringing Bailey to the plate. But instead, Francona had a different idea as he brought Manny off the bench to pinch-hit. With Manny at the plate, Francona also wanted to put a hit-and-run on to keep themselves out of a double play. Capellan checked Drew at first but threw the ball away allowing Drew to get all the way to third base. Manny ended up striking out on a very questionable third strike call from the home plate umpire. Lugo’s third hit of the game, a double, brought in Drew with the final run for the Red Sox. Zach Miner relieved Capellan and got Coco to strikeout ending Boston’s chances in the inning.

Todd Jones had some trouble with the Sox in the 9th inning. Pedroia led off the inning with a single. Jones settled back down and got Big Papi to strikeout and Lowell to fly out. Varitek followed with a single and Pedroia went to third on an error by Monroe. Jones got Drew to foul out to Inge at third base for the final out of the game. It was Jones’ 22nd save of the season.

The unofficial 1st half of the season is over and I am sure this is not the way the Red Sox wanted it to end. However, they do have the best record in baseball right now. As a matter of fact, the top 5 records in MLB are from the American League. The Sox will need this break as Kevin Youkilis and everyone else could use it. For the 6 All-Stars, it’s off to San Francisco for three days.

The Red Sox return home to play the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday night. Tim Wakefield will take the hill for the Sox and be opposed by Jays ace Roy Halladay.

Continue reading →