Unbelievable.

The big man does it again. I'm speechless. I watched this very entertaining - if at times frustrating - game from the first pitch and it was one of the best of the year. Ortiz hit another dinger in addition to the walk off, breaking the record for most HR and RBI in the month of July in the entire history of the Red Sox. Manny also poked one, as did Willy Mo's tape measure bomb which had to have cleared the Landsdowne Parking Garage. Wells looked poor in his first appearance in two months but that's not totally unexpected under the circumstances. (The crowd seemed to agree as they gave him a healthy affirmative as we walked off despite giving up 8 runs.) But the story of the night, rivalling the walk-off, was the outstanding relief work by Kyle Snyder. He's obviously been roughed up lately but his performance tonight was truly special. He struck out 6 while only allowing 1 hit in 4+ innings. After the flurry of runs that they saddled Wells with early on, this great performance was totally unexpected. He threw some of the nastiest breaking stuff i've seen lately and absolutely deserved the win. This kid has some stellar stuff and if he can become consistent, I'd like to see much more of him.
But Papi! The crowd stuck around for minutes afterwards chanting "MVP" repeatedly. All hometown bias aside, given his accomplishments through the year I don't see how any true afficianado of the game can possibly disagree.

J.W. Dundee Sampler 12 Pack

I tried a new variety pack this last week end. I took it up to share with Dad. This 12 Pack had 3 each of J.W. Dundees Pale Ale, Hefe Wiesen, Amber Lager and Honey Brown Lager.

The Wiesen was excellent, of course I have a soft spot for it, with 2 plus years in Germany hefe wiesen is a sentimental favorite, and I can't remember not liking one. This one had a nice flavor, good color and the short after taste I like. I'm not a big one on long after taste. If I want to taste it again, I'll burp. (Ok it's gross, but admit it you laughed). The wiesen was one of those beers that was as good a little warm as it was cold.

The Honey Brown Lager was good too, though, unlike the wiesen, better ice cold than luke warm. It had a nice sweet flavor, that made it a good sipper brew, but don't take too long.

The Amber Lager was nothing special, a good brew for a hot day to quench the thirst, it had more flavor than Bud, but that doesn't take much.

The Pale Ale I left for last as I'm not a use fan of Pale Ales, I find them ok, but not to my tastes usually. So I hesitate to say it was a good Pale Ale, but I did like this one. Since Dad went back for the last one, I'm assuming he thought it worth the time. Of course it could just be it was handy, you all know Dad.

Stone Brewing and Charity

so, MM and I went to a charity event last night at the bar called The Penguin last. There was a raffle and silent auction. I thought I would report on the beer I drank and one of things I bid on.

First the bid, a signed Pedro ball! It sold for $240! I peaked at below $200. I think it might be worth over $400.

Second the beer,... I tried a few by Stone Brewing Co. of San Diego. the IPA was great - right there with Harpoon's - great fruitiness:) http://www.stonebrew.com/tasting/ipa/index.html. the other one I tried was http://www.arrogantbastard.com/index2.html. Whoa Nelly! 7.2% alcohol. It was quite good, but definitely had a kick. A few of them and you would be on your butt.

Trade Rumors gallore....

Here is a link to the Globes latest trade rumors: Rumors and also More Rumors

There are talks about a trade for Jason Schmidt or Scott Linebrink and Julio Lugo. San Diego wants Lowell and San Fransisco is talking about Youkilis. I'm not sure I like either trade to be honest. It's too bad that Wells start tonight isn't until after the deadline. If he pitches well we may be Ok. Although Another pitcher, starting type, would allow them to shit can Tavaris and move Snyder to the pen. That is as long as Wells is good to go. The other news today, Clement was moved to the 60 day DL tomake room for Wells. I dont' have any faith that Clement will ever pitch for the Sox again.

Papi Does it Again!!!

Quick chat on Saturday's gem. Mama Joan, Uncle Bruce and his fiancee rolled down to see the game with MM and I. We at in Section 42, Row 16 - sweet bleacher seats. I figure if Trot had actually connected, we might have caught that ball. ok,... the game was great of course. Beckett pitched fine after he shook off the first few innings. Waiting it out to see Papi do it again was outstanding, but tell me... can someone else step up? Geeez. Uncle Bruce hadn't been to Fenway in 12 years! it was great to see him so excited to be there; like a little kid. The park is so much nicer than 12 years ago. Man, was it hot at the game! Sammy came to the rescue though;-) By the way, there were a few close plays that Terry got pissed about? One of the them was a play at the plate where Lowell? was safe? The don't replay stuff like that so i had no idea what happen? What did? I wanted Terry to get kicked out - the guy is too nice.

Anyway,,...get this trade day over with PLEASE!

Dreadful.

That's it. Absolutely dreadful.
I'd talk trade stuff but i'm too pissed off.

An interesting statisic

Because i'm such a frigging geek (and because i'm in a fantasy league... not that those are mutually exclusive, come to think of it) I decided I would subscribe to ESPN "Insider" and did so tonight. Well, baseball guru Jayson Stark (by the way Jayson, I love your baseball acumen but you've got to lose the "y", dude) offers a series of stats indicating the leaders in various categories using the All-Star games in '05 and '06 as signposts. While there were a couple of Sox entries (Papi having the most HRs and RBIs and Papelbon with the lowest ERA for a reliever, both in the entire major league over that time period), one stat stood out for me: the Sox have the most wins with the least losses. Between the two summer classics, the Sox have been 99-62 - the best in the majors. The White Sox - the only team in the neighborhood - also had 99 wins but logged three more losses, with 65. (He only listed the top couple of teams so I don't know where the Yankees stand but i'll bet they're not too far in the rearview. They do have a knack for always being closer than they appear, no?) Anyway, I didn't expect that they had topped the crowd but I suppose it makes sense. They had a great second half last year, almost unbeatable for a stretch until the late season (and playoff) doldrums. This year... well, we all know about the general excellence tempered by some rare but significant stretches of sloppy baseball. Nonetheless, they find themselves still in the driver's seat. Therefore I think the most important aspect of this stat is that although they drastically altered their roster and game strategy this year, it hasn't hampered their success in the least. It's amazing that with the huge differences in the lineup and staff between this year and last there hasn't been some sort of alteration to their win ratio in one direction or the other. On the contrary. With the consistency, one would never know that there was such wholesale change over the winter. Has the whole offseason soap opera paid off?

Mixing Sports and Politics

Charles Barkley is thinking of running for Governer in Alabama according to this Fox News report: Barkley for Gov

So what do you guys think of sports figures running for office. There have been a few that made successful runs, but Barkley just doesn't strike me as a politician, quite frankly he's too damn honest and straight forward. He speaks his mind and doesn't care who hears it. Quite frankly I like those characteristics, but they tend to doom politicians.

I'm curious to see how you guys wiegh in on this. Perhaps this will be the oppurtunity for the man from DC to offer his opinion.......

Just Manny being Manny....

There was story in yesterdays Boston Globe that talked some of Manny's stats. What they did was to take a split before the All-Star break as opposed to after the All-star break, then also home versus away. These numbers are for his carreer, not just with the Sox.

Before All-Star break: .314 BA, .409 on-base, .598 slugging
After All-Star break: .314 BA, .411 on-base, .601 slugging

Home: .313 BA, .413 on-base, .608 slugging
Away: .314 BA, .407 on-base, .591 slugging

I don't know how much more consistant, you can read that as reliable if you like, a guy can be. It just re-enforces what we already know, Manny is going to perform all year, every year. I just found these interesting, it would be interesting to see how other top hitters stack up in these areas. As we all know Vlad won an MVP the year before last basically in the last month of the season. I know I thought Manny would get the votes that year based on his year long play, I wonder if anyone even looks at these stats when looking at MVP candidates.

Sean McDonough Rant

At Zebster suggestion, the following is extracted from a comment that I had to AA Post about last night's game.

Tell me I am wrong, that's fine, but he irritates me. MamaJoan can't take him either.

"Now on to Sean "freaking" McDonough. He is on EEI with Holly. I hate this guy. I think he is a prick. He has been whining about how Orsilo "sounds" like him (as if Don had a choice on how his voice sounds) he claims that Don steals his ways of describing the games events, etc... If the Bald Prick could keep he mouth shut and just call games, I would never of had a problem with him, but he always babbles about non game crap, spends more time ripping his cohost than providing good game calling... whatever, i was just irritated and thought I would whine. "