Will the Red Sox adapt or be content

We all watched as the Boston Red Sox fell to the Houston Astros in the American League Division Series 3-1. And as an Astros fan, it would be fun putting over the Astros as this team that will be on top for the next 5 years. Just look at the roster. Two position players are over the age of 30. That is it. Our pitching is starting to show up in the minors so there are some prospects that will start showing up in the rotation in the next couple of years. We look like we could be a power for the foreseeable future.

But that isn't what I am going to do. Instead this post will look at the Red Sox. I am impressed with the outfield, not so much with the infield. I am interested in how the Front Office comes up with solutions to the problems with the lineup and pitching staff. Also, what are they looking for in terms of Manager.

The outfield should be around for a while. Jackie Bradley Jr. in Center Field is good. He needs to figure out how to bring the batting average up a bit. And while I understand that he isn't the prototypical CF, some more stolen bases would be nice.  Mookie Betts seems to have taken a step back in 2017, but at age 25, that is to be expected the first time that you are talked to be a great player. Andrew Benintendi looks like he could also be a stud. A great first year for the kid, he might be the future CF and shift Bradley to left. However you put these three in the outfield, you have a foundation that you can rely on as the infield gets it makeover.

The infield will go through some personnel changes. I don't believe that Eduardo Nunez is an answer for third base. Rafael Devers is a prospect, but I think he needs a couple more years of seasoning to be a piece to help push towards a pennant. At shortstop, Xander Bogaerts is an upper echelon player. The defense is good, but the offensive production has gone down two straight years. He will still put up good numbers but not be the breakout star that he was projected to be a couple of years ago.

On the right side of the infield, Dustin Pedroia is starting to show his age. He is a great player that has the playing style of take no prisoners at all times. The body wears out quicker doing that and I believe that is what is starting to show. He might have one more great year in him, but I think that the decline will start to show fairly quickly. Maybe you put Brock Holt here instead of the DH or as the fourth outfielder. At 1B, Moreland and Ramierez are OK for now, but there needs to be a guy that can hit for power and have a decent average. 25 HR, 70 RBI, and a .250 average isn't what is needed.

At catcher, Christian Vazquez is growing. The offensive stats are increasing, he is a good defensive catcher and seems like the calling of the game is improving as well. And at age 27, he has time to grow into that veteran catcher who can call the game to give his team the best chance to win.

Now let's get to the achilles heel of the Red Sox, the pitching staff. Chris Sale and David Price are making lots of money. They need to be those workhorses that win 20 games and are the steady influences in the playoffs. For Price, that means you have to be a starter, not a reliever. For a guy who excelled in Tampa, it is like he is a different pitcher now who doesn't know exactly what he needs to do. For Sale, it is figuring out that the postseason is totally different than the regular season. With the White Sox, Sale did not pitch in the postseason. He will make the adjustments. Craig Kimbrel is a great save guy. But after that the pitching staff is in need of a shakeup. The starting staff has an ERA about 4.50. That isn't going to help the Sox in the postseason. You need two dominant starters. Sale is one of those, but you need to find a number 2. Price if he can come back to prior form should be that number 2. And you need a third guy who is dependable. I don't see that in the current pitching staff. The bullpen is dependable enough to get to Kimbrel.

Overall, the Red Sox have enough currently to do what they did this past year. Win the AL East and make the playoffs. That should not be acceptable for what the Red Sox are paying for their players. The team needs to get back to the Epstein theory of building a team instead of acting like the Yankees little brother. Until that happens, be happy with winning AL East pennants.

2016 Houston Astros Season Postmortum

The Houston Astros missed the playoffs by 5 games this year. And instead of being upset by that, I am happy. Why? Because the team was a flawed team and is showed during the last 2 weeks. In the final 10 games, the team went 3-7. Against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim they went 2-5. The Angels finished 21 games back of the West winners, Texas Rangers. When you are fighting for a wildcard spot, that cannot happen. The Astros also played the Mariners who were also fighting for a wildcard spot. The Mariners took 2 of 3. It hurt, but this will help the Astros for the future. There are three things that need to improve. 1) Beating the Texas Rangers. 2) Improve the batting average. 3) Improve the starting rotation. I believe that the Astros are figuring that out.

Sick of Pete Rose

Just a little rant I posted to FB earlier.  I've been sick and tired of him long before this recent uptick in the need to feel sorry for/talk about him at all.  As long as Shoeless Joe stays out, keep Pete out.  Never liked the guy, even before the gambling stuff.

Can we please, please stop talking about that asshole Pete Rose?! Yeah, he's one of the all-time greats but he also bet on baseball, worst yet his own team and he's always been a walking, talking prick. I get near vomitous every time they start talking about him.

I know I'm now talking about him.  I don't care to debate, just wanted to vent.  Plus I just remembered I need to finalize this week's pick 'em and then do a quicky about my trip to Houston.

Thank You, Blue Jays!

Even though baseball season ended last night for me, I'm not sad. I may have this empty feeling that the NHL and the NFL can't fill, but right now I have a huge smile on my face. From my perspective, the Toronto Blue Jays did something incredible this season. Sure, they went from 52-50 to being within a few games of the World Series. That was quite an accomplishment. Joey Bautista, aka Joey Bats, became the true King Of The North with the home run and bat flip that will forever be etched in memory. While I'm very pleased with what this team achieved this season, I have to give them props for something even bigger.

The Jays got me to care about baseball again.

To be honest, I never thought I'd say those words. My hometown team, the San Diego Padres, were once a good team on the verge of something great. Their owner at the time told us they needed a new stadium to compete with the large market teams. Coming off a World Series run, we put it to a vote and gladly gave them Petco Park.

What did we get in return? The dismantling of the championship caliber team we rooted for, followed by nearly two decades of "dumpster diving" for starting pitching and other castoffs and low-risk projects. They also became the unofficial farm team of the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, a place where these teams could acquire young, established talent from the Padres by trading away their better minor league prospects. Which the Padres would develop for a few years before trading them back to the AL East for more prospects.

As you can imagine, I don't have a great love for my local team anymore. I respect the fact they went out and acquired established players during the off season, but with rumors circulating during the second half of the season that they were going to trade away most of these players or let them walk at the end of season I thought to myself, "Same fucking Padres". I figured they were going to have another fire sale at the end of the year, so I conveniently forgot their games were on local TV all season.

I had pretty much ignored baseball during the summer months and then all of a sudden the Jays started stringing together wins. For years, it's always been the Yankees (boo!) and Red Sox (hiss!) at the top of the AL East and no one else dared compete with them. With each Jay win, I kept thinking to myself, "Maybe this year will be different?" It's too hot for me to wear my authentic batting practice jersey from the mid-80s around town during the summer months, so I went to the mall and bought a Blue Jays hat so I could proudly display my rekindled interest in the game.

Now that the ride is over, I can't wait for next season to begin. I might even buy MLB Extra Innings from my cable operator next Spring!

Making The Future Better Than The Past

1972 Alternate Logo

Go back to 2005. The Houston Astros have just played in their first and only World Series. They have just captured their first National League Pennant. Any Astros fan is riding high. We understand that Jeff Bagwell is having major trouble with his shoulder. But we have Lance Berkman moving to 1st Base. We have Roger Clemens and Andy Pettite and Roy Oswalt. We have a future HOF in Craig Biggio. The future looks bright and prosperous. That bright light in the future was an oncoming locomotive that we didn't anticipate as Astros fans. We couldn't overcome a slow start in 2006 and things started breaking down from there.

Go forward in time to 2011. 2005 is the last time that the team has made the playoffs. The Astros start the first of their 3 100+ loss seasons in a row. But the team is getting out of the penny pinching ownership of Drayton McLane. Jim Crane buys the team and agrees to move the Astros into the American League for the 2013 season. Crane also fires GM Ed Wade in November of 2011. He comes up with a member of the St. Louis Cardinals front office to name as the GM of the Astros, Jeff Luhnow.  Almost no one thinks that this is a good move for the team.

Now here we are in 2015. The Astros are going to be a strong team according to the experts in the future. Sports Illustrated has already proclaimed them World Series Champions in 2017. The farm system is rated in the Top 3 in almost every report that comes out. The Big League team is populated with youngsters. Jed Lowrie is the only position player over 30 on the roster.  Only 4 players from 2012 are still on the team in 2015, and one came back from a 2-year odyssey to Oakland, Lowrie. The other 3? Jose Altuve, Jason Castro, and Dallas Keuchel. The awards could start coming in for the Astros. SS Carlos Correa could be the AL ROY. Keuchel could be the AL Cy Young. Altuve is a perennial All-Star.

And if you think that the Astros are through with getting talented youngsters from the farm, think again. We have at least 15 players that are rated by scouting services who say that the players can have a long and successful career in the big leagues. Look for RHPs Mark Appel, Michael Feliz and 1B A.J. Reed to become major contributors next year. 3B Colin Moran has a shot at being on the major league roster as well. That is the #2,5,6, and 10 ranked players in the Astros farm system. The rest of the Top 10 will get more seasoning down on the farm. We don't need a bunch of 20 or 21 year olds in the major leagues right now. We have a glutton of prospects up the middle of the diamond. We have 3 SS in our Top 20 prospects, 2 2B, and 3 CF. That and lots of Starting RHPs.

I don't believe that Houston will repeat what the organization did in 2005 with missing the playoffs for the next decade. I do believe that the team has shown that they are young enough not to worry about the pressure of the playoffs. How is it that in the pregame before the Wildcard game with the Yankees that the players are jumping around, playing around, telling jokes and all around not being too serious about what is going on. The two major culprits of horsing around before the game? Carlos Gomez who hit a solo HR in the 4th, and Colby Rasmus, who hit a #ColbyJack in the 2nd inning. If the young players take their lead from the veterans who are staying loose and use that as their model of how to handle things, playoff baseball will become a regular fixture in Houston once again. The Astros can become a major player in baseball if they can continue to develop homegrown talent. Let's see if they can.

500

Not going to let this moment go by without at least posting something.  David Ortiz, the greatest clutch hitter of all time, hit his 500th career home run tonight, as well as his 499th.

I was out sightseeing today wearing my #34 t-shirt.

33 HR and 94 RBI at 39 years old. The greatest clutch hitter ever. Some of the greatest players of all time got nervous, tighten up trying to get by these milestones. Not this guy. He's hit a ton the last few weeks and needed two HRs going into tonight to get to 500 and hit both of them tonight and hit 'em hard!

Honoring The Legend

It'll be Tony Gwynn Week in San Diego, Feb. 19-28, 2016. pic.twitter.com/W1PuluKTKS

— GoAztecs.com (@GoAztecs) June 16, 2015

I just happened to take the day off from work and caught this gem on my Twitter feed. On the one year anniversary of his death, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer has declared February 19th through the 28th, 2016 Tony Gwynn Week.

I don't care if it's technically ten days. It begins on the 19th of the month and Tony deserves every one of them.

Beer League Red Sox

Sharing my little screed from FB on here.  My friends on here who know me know that the following is not the whining of a spoiled sports fan but that of a frustrated old school baseball fan who just wants to see good fundamental play.

You know, I'm really starting to get sick and tired of this men's league softball team masquerading as major leaguers in Red Sox uniforms. I may have a rant in me. It's bad enough that we don't have a single professional hitter on the roster (and those who know me know what that means), and haven't produced one in the farm system for years. Pappi trying to pull every pitch for a HR last night with 2 runners on in a one-run game. Fat guys who can't turn a friggin ball down the line into a double (Sandoval). Even Xander, who obviously slid too early and got thrown out at second --THROWN OUT AT 2ND ON A FRIGGIN BALL OFF THE CENTER FIELD WALL -- but how the hell was that even possibly close with his half decent speed?  I'll always love the Sox but I'm sick and tired of bad fundamental baseball. And you know, the pitching's been pretty darn good lately and it's an affront to all things holy that this lineup can't score any runs. Return to the top...it's like a vicious cycle. Let's just watch fastballs down the middle while we try to run up the pitch count sitting back on the bench. Rant over for now.

This after their anemic offensive output of late and bad fundamentals, including seemingly everyone trying to pull every pitch for a HR.  The straw that broke here was the 2nd inning of tonight's game, watching back to back hitters get thrown out at second base on easy doubles.  Get defensive plays but it shouldn't have been possible to throw them out.

Baseball and old friends

You may know already, which makes me very late posting, that I went to DC to see my old friends DCHomer and TPUBGU (aka George and Rick), two of my best friends in the world and old Marine Corps buddies.  So I'm here to just give a little rundown of my visit, mostly focused on going to a couple of minor league baseball games.
I landed at Reagan National, where Rick picked me up and went straight to the Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, VA, picked up some goodies and had a beer in the replica Tun Tavern.

New shirt bought at the museum
 

 Then we headed over to George's, where we caught up, told old "war stories" and drank plenty of scotch and had some very good Chinese take-out.

Me, George & Rick after a few scotches
 

Next morning we got up and headed to Gettysburg, where we spent a few hours with a tremendous guide who took us around the whole battlefield area and taught us history buffs a few things.  Then we had dinner at Dobbin House, which is a great restaurant that happens to be in the oldest house in Gettysburg and pretty much has always been at least a tavern.  If you've never been, go!
Then we hustled on up to Harrisburg for a AA Eastern League matchup between the hometown Senators and the Altoona Curve (it's still a stupid name, G!)  We had a very good time, of course but two things of note:  George decided he was going to be the world's biggest fan of this kid who played for Harrisburg, a first baseman by the name of Shawn Pleffner.  So G was hollering/rooting for this guy with every at-bat and every play at first base.  We had a great time with that.  On the way out I noticed a plaque, which George took a picture of but no longer has.  But since we all love baseball and history, this plaque telling us the history of the Harrisburg Giants of the Negro Leagues was pretty cool.  Oh, and the ball field is on an island in the river, same place that the Giants played.

The next day G had a prior engagement, so Rick and I shuttled off to Richmond to see his son and go to another Eastern League game, this one pitting the hometown Richmond Flying Squirrels against the Bowie Bay Sox.  Of most interest to me is the ballpark  in Richmond, which from the outside looks like a major league stadium.  There are very few of these "mini-major league" ballparks left.  Pawtucket is another, though even older than this one.


Me, Rick and Eddie.

It was a fabulous trip, getting to see old friends, drink and reminisce together and see baseball in the sunshine, which had yet to come to Maine.  And Eddie, thanks for suggesting Joe's, the food and beer were great.  Thanks for the ride also.

 George wanted to add these two pics.  The top one is of two pillars that border one end of a bridge that we drove through.  When you're coming across the bridge heading south, you'll see the State Capitol building between them.  Pretty cool.  The second photo is of the island that the ballpark sits on, and you can see it in this picture.   We did not take this.

Thoughts from the Weekend

Figured that we needed something on the blog, so let's try something new. Just some takes from the past weekend in sports (maybe something else at the end).

1. Tony Stewart needs to see a shrink. He goes up the track during the race, runs into Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s car and takes himself out of the race at Richmond and then blames Junior for the wreck. Here would be my plan for Mr. Stewart to get back to being a threat to win a race each and every NASCAR season:  1) Spend some of your millions on a shrink to help you with the bad memories that you have over the past 2 years. 2) Take some of that money and join a gym. The excess fat around the stomach probably ain't helping with the driving. 3) Let your business partner Mr. Haas take some of the leadership for the team. You have way too many irons in the fire. Eldora, Driving, leading the Corporation, and other things that I don't know about. You have spread yourself too thin. 4) Finally, stop being a cantankerous a-hole. Enjoy yourself and let yourself enjoy life. That might help relieve some of the pressure of your life right now.

2. Adam Wainright, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher hurt himself while batting this weekend and might be out for the year. That has national sports writers calling for the National League to institute the Designated Hitter. I strongly disagree. I would stop inter-league play. No more American League vs. National League. It causes the World Series to become just another series. I would have the American League end the Designated Hitter rule. I like the strategy that having the Pitcher hit. I also like the way that National League teams pace their games. If the NL implements the DH, I have worries that Dodgers-Giants, Cardinals-Cubs and Mets-Phillies will become 4 hours marathons like the Red Sox-Yankees. That is not good.

3. The officials in the playoffs need to be held to some sort of standard. In Game 6 of  the NHL Eastern Playoff game of Montreal-Ottawa, a referee whistled a play dead and negated a good Ottawa goal. The game was 1-0 until an empty net goal by the Canadiens with 0.7 seconds left made the final 2-0. The Senators were eliminated from the playoffs by that call. In the NBA, we have a separated shoulder for Kevin Love because a Celtic yanked and put wieght on Love's extended arm. and then we get a slap to the face of Jae Crowder by Kendrick Perkins and then a nice spinning back fist by J.R. Smith to Crowder's face. And all we hear is how the players were being overly physical in both sports. Well, who allowed it to get that way? The officials, that is who. When you have P.K. Subban trying to run a guy's face into the goalpost and nothing is done to him by either the league or the officials assigned to that game, you have problems.

4. Thank god that the NFL draft is this weekend. I am so tired of the hype. It needs to go back to the early part of April. I do not need someone giving me 14 mock drafts over 3 months. And I am tired of hearing about all the prospects. However, I am thinking about disowning the Buccaneers when they draft Jameis Winston.

5. Finally, something off of sports. We need a law or a constitutional amendment stating that there can be no political advertisments, political campaigns or announcing for political offices until January 1st of the year that the elections are being held. I am already tired of hearing about the 2016 elections. They are 19 months away. Right now, I don't want to hear anything about how this person took money for political favors, especially if there is no proof.

Quintissential New England

I love this new short commercial by NESN advertising that the Red Sox season will be here soon.  It exemplifies the grinding, gritty nature of New Englanders dealing with long, cold, snowy winters and how much we love baseball and the Red Sox and the tradition that thoughts of the baseball season herald the coming of spring (one of my best run-on sentences ever!)



I can't wait.

A look at the 2015 MLB Hall of Fame Ballot (Part 4)

The last post looking at the 2015 MLB Hall of Fame Ballot. This exercise hasn't been as easy as I thought it might be. It caused me to reevaluate some players, and actually support players that I personally thought were jerks (Here's looking at you Jeff Kent). It also made me look at the BBWA and shake my head at the political agendas that some of the voters have against certain players. The voting rules need to be changed and some of the political statements that the voters are doing need to stop. Deciding that you aren't going to vote for anyone because you don't know who used steriods is not a valid vote. That voter should be eliminated from voting. Sort of like Dan LeBatard for his stunt last year.

Down to the final 7 candidates:

A look at the 2015 MLB Hall of Fame Ballot (Part 3)

I am sorry for the lateness of this part. I have started a new job, the holidays hit and I had to travel out of state for personal reasons. And while I thought that this would be 3 parts, I am going to have to extend the series to 4. There will be 7 players this time and the last 7 next time. Just because of a time crunch this evening. One player in this part made my ballot. There are some fine players listed here. That leaves two spots for the final part of this series.

A look at the 2015 MLB Hall of Fame Ballot (Part 2)

Early this morning, I finished Part 1 of looking at the 2015 HOF Ballot. This post will look at the next 10 on the list. There will be a Part 3 sometime early in the work week to finish up the series. That will allow for people to mock my choices. Especially when I say that Pedro Martinez is an Expo and that the Hall of Fame bust should reflect that.

A look at the 2015 MLB Hall of Fame Ballot (Part 1)

I must be getting old. When I first saw the list of potential Hall of Famers for 2015, I immediately picked out 10 players that would have been on my ballot. After doing some research on their playing days, looking at numbers and comparing them against people in the Hall of Fame and each other, only 6 of those 10 stayed on what would be my ballot. My memory elevated some of those players above where they should have been. Here's looking at you, Aaron *&@#in Boone!

You will see that I did not disqualify those players that have been linked to performance enhancing drugs. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are #1 and #2 on my list respectively.  At the end of the Part 1 post, you will see my Top 10 list that has the players that I have talked about listed on what would be my Hall of Fame ballot. There are 4 people on there after Part 1. In the 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 6th slot. The remaining 6 slots will be filled during the 2nd and 3rd part of this series. 

Found On Twitter: Baseball Humor

Note: the date of the Taylor Swift 1989 tour show at #MMP is subject to change if it conflicts with an #Astros postseason home game.

— Houston Astros (@astros) December 11, 2014

The concert is October 13th, 2015 at Minute Maid Park, in case you were wondering.

2014 World Series

While it was fun to have a true underdog to pull for in the KC Royals, and you had a fabulous and historic pitcher performance by Madison Bumgarner (I mean truly historic in an era of never-ending hyperbole), did you really think you were watching good baseball?  Did you not feel a little cheated, as I did, to not be watching the best teams compete for a championship?  Yeah, yeah, to the winner go the spoils but don't kid yourself that the best team won.
We're in an era where getting hot at the right time is paramount, because all of these teams are mediocre, even the ones that I would say were the best teams this year.  But at least you wouldn't be watching hitters who don't know the strike zone make it unbelievably easy for a very good pitcher to dominate like never before.  Side note:  I heard today that KC isn't planning on resigning four or five of the most integral players in this playoff run.  So how good are they then? 
My own beloved Red Sox won the World Series last year with a team as flawed as they come.  Were it not for a shutdown closer, the greatest clutch hitter of all time and an ace pitcher, we would've lost to arguably a better team.  And my Red Sox seem to be content to keep building teams that way because we're seeing you can win it all with the best mediocre team.
Don't get me wrong, I like the kind of players that both the Giants and Royals displayed in this series, mostly hard-playing grinders (and I'd rather have a team full of those than a team full of Puigs) but where was even a modicum of star power?  Where were the five-tool players?  San Francisco's leader and best player was basically a no-show in this series and they still won.
And remember, this is the third time in five years the Giants have won this way -- with a team no one thought could go all the way (and again, kudos to them) -- add to that last year's Sox win and it's getting to be a real bad habit.
So while I understand that having more teams in the playoffs is good for those markets that seemingly can't get there without a crutch, I disagree that it's good for the game overall.  What's good for the game is being able to watch a World Series where it at least kinda feels like you're watching the best baseball possible.
This never happened when there were no divisions and the best record (best team) in each league played each other in the World Series; this never happened when there were two divisions in each league, so you had League Championship series to determine who went to the Series -- and remember how great those series were through the years -- and I don't remember it really happening when they added the wild card to the mix.  But it seems to be happening every year now that we have two wild card teams.
I dunno, maybe something else is to blame but the end result is that we're watching World Series that are well below par, well below what we deserve as diehard fans.

They’re At It Again

My alma mater’s baseball team had their annual Halloween Costume game. Enjoy!

Cincinatti

This will be a relatively short post since I plan on writing a bigger one on All Things Zebster regarding my whole weekend trip to Dayton to see my daughter and her beau.
I had bought tickets to fly from Portland to Atlanta to Dayton but the fire at O'Hare pushed our departure from Portland back 45 minutes, which was the exact amount of my layover in Atlanta.  Shelly was able to reschedule a connector for her from Atlanta to Raleigh to see her daughter but I couldn't get another flight into Dayton.  Luckily I was able to get a flight into Cincy, and since we were planning on seeing a game there on Saturday anyway, I just got us a hotel room and problem solved.
I got into the Cincy airport on time, where my daughter was waiting for me.  We went back to the hotel, had a cocktail at the bar and then had pizza and beer in the room.  The next morning we drove across the Ohio to park in Newport, KY to then walk across the bridge to the ballpark and see the Reds take on the Pirates in the next to last game of the season.

Crossing from KY to Cincy looking NE up the Ohio.

Some Cincy skyline and Reds history banners outside the park

Directly across the ballpark

We planned to get something to eat outside the ballpark but I was surprised, being downtown, how few choices there were at the ballpark.  We ate at Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill, where the food was good and service bad.  It's now a corporate chain.  So despite the fact there was a big Hudepohl Beer sign hanging inside (just like you can see on the outfield wall of old Crosley Field, they didn't have any to offer.  They are definitely missing out on opportunity down there.
The Reds really had nothing to play for but the Pirates still had a chance to win the division.  Unfortunately the ballpark was half full and frankly rather lifeless.  I ordered tix that would give us a view of the game but also of the riverfront behind the ballpark.  I guess I should've consulted a sun chart because the bright sun that day was directly in our faces. 

Dad and daughter

And Wes using the '14 Reds team photo as a visor

From our seats, right above home plate

From the top of our section in the shade, which made for a better photo

So we watched a few innings from our seats but then retreated to the overhang and concourse to walk around, see the park and game from different angles.  In the end the Reds dashed the Pirates' hopes of a division title.

I did like the ballpark and how it was built in a steamboat motif, with smoke stacks in right center and the centerfield deck looking like the captain's deck of a steamboat.
We subsequently walked across the bridge, taking pictures of the Roebling Bridge and back at the skyline and stadiums lining the river.

Roebling Bridge

Statue of a fullsize paddle wheel in the park along the river behind the ballpark

The bridge we walked across with paddlewheel boats

Back at the skyline at from L to R football, baseball and arena

Roebling Bridge

Even better skyline shot and sporting venues

On the concourse of the arena was a statue of a pig wearing a hockey helmet and carrying a stick, despite the fact that the ECHL franchise that plays there is called the Cyclones.  RJ, do you know of an earlier franchise there that would explain the pig?
Once across the bridge went to the Hofbrauhaus, an authentic German bierhaus, where we had arguably the best time of the weekend.  The atmosphere, food and especially beer were outstanding.
I would like to go again sometime and spend more time downtown, including WKRP.

401 Home Runs in a Red Sox uniform

And 459 overall.  Say what you will about the rumors and the grandstanding, there's arguably not been a more clutch hitter ever.



And an opposite field double to drive in two runs for a six RBI game.