A Large Regular

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Yesterday was National Cereal Day but I didn't celebrate because I couldn't find any of my favorite cereal... Grizzly Slippers would be a good name for a band...  How vulnerable Democrats will feel about Trump campaigning in their states the next couple of years... The Democrats slogan going forward should be "The Democratic Party: Embrace the Suck." Have the bumper stickers been made up yet?...  Who knew? Bon Scott wasn't even the original lead singer for AC/DC. It was a guy named Dave Edwards who Scott replaced after about a year... Supposedly Douglas MacArthur didn't spend a single night in Korea during the entire duration of the war. Can that possibly be true?... Happy 68th birthday to Hall of Famer Jim Ed Rice... 

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Thinking about changing my name to Sugar Ray Chris Lynch. Just like the idea of people calling me Sugar Ray... I would love to own one of these tree houses... Just a reminder - the New York Yankees practice batting in cold weather by clubbing baby seals... Tough call to decide who had greater Presidential love affair - Harry and Bess Truman or Ron and Nancy Reagan. RIP Nancy... It's stories like this that explain why I want Marco Rubio to be the next President... Seriously I've decided to self-identify as a Sugar Ray. Please respect my Sugar Rayness... I wonder if Ernest Hemingway had CTE from all those years of boxing and drinking?... With Carl Crawford accepting a back-up role with the Dodgers despite his $20 million salary - it makes me wonder if Pablo Sandoval could accept back-up role with Red Sox... When I die I would like my ashes spread over people protesting things I'm in favor of. I also hope it rains that day so that my ashes get extra sticky... Who knew? Bon Scott wasn't even the original lead singer for AC/DC. It was a guy named Dave Evans who Scott replaced after about a year... Happy 63rd birthday to Jim Ed Rice...

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Interesting - Tom Brady is 4-1 in the playoffs when passing at least 50 times. Every other NFL QB in history is a combined 3-27 when passing 50 or more times in the playoffs... Bill Clinton and Pussy Riot. That would be a great name for a fantasy baseball team (or a porn movie)... Snapple Facts: Yankees first baseman, Mark Teixeira, practices his cold weather swing by clubbing baby seals... Who knew? Ulysses S Grant is only person on regularly used US currency that graduated from college... This is a photo that is just begging for a caption... Just a reminder - according to my American College Dictionary "physicality" is not an actual word. I wish basketball announcers would stop using it...  Scott Peterson was sentenced to death in 2004 for killing his wife Laci. He's still on death row. Get it over already!... Welcome to Kentucky... On this day in history 153 years ago - the Battle of the Ironclads (aka the Monitor vs the Merrimac) began. The battle ended in a draw as neither ship's cannon could penetrate the iron defenses of the other. The battle gave birth to modern navies... Happy birthday to Hall of Famer Jim Ed Rice...

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

The David Ortiz controversy with the official scorer at Fenway Park reminded me of the story of when Jim Rice was the team's hitting coach and he called the scorer to get an error changed to a hit for one of the guys. The scorer changed it immediately and Rice asked him if he wanted to know Rice's argument for the change. The scorer said no because when Rice was playing he never once complained about the scorer's decisions and if he thought enough to call about this one then Rice must be right... Cool - Joe DiMaggio once had to wear a Red Sox road uniform when his Yankees road uniform showed up late at Fenway Park... Idea for a movie - Zombie Inventory Takers. The undead converge on a popular mall to take inventory... I would love to see these changes made to the IRS... I'm not ashamed to say that I miss Zima. Especially Orange Zima. I'm comfortable enough in my manhood to admit this... Vegetarian Water. Seriously...  If there were a DVD of just the David Letterman Top 10 Lists over the years - I'd buy that DVD in a heartbeat... Holy crap - the ferocious bug that that sucks prey dry and wears their corpses...

Here's who I consider the Top 5 living Red Sox players.

1. Carl Yastrzemski

2. Pedro Martinez

3. Jim Rice

4. David Ortiz

5. Tie: Dustin Pedroia, Dwight Evans, and Freddy Lynn

Missing the list - Roger Clemens and Wade Boggs. Clemens misses the list because of steroids and playing for the Yankees. Boggs misses the list because he's a douche (why do you think you never see him around Fenway Park - the team doesn't want him around).

David Ortiz hit his 400th HR today and his 342nd as a member of the Boston Red Sox. Ortiz is in 5th place on the Red Sox all-time HR list. If he stays one more season - then both Dewey and Rice could be in his sights. That's pretty incredible when you stop to think about it.

1. Ted Williams - 521
2. Carl Yastrzemski - 452
3. Jim Rice - 382
4. Dwight Evans - 379
5. David Ortiz - 342

Opening Day - Red Sox Magic Number 163

Yay Opening Day! I will gorge myself on baseball today. Either ESPN or the MLB Network will be on in my office all freaking day baby! I may even go out for a cigar and a few beers later if I'm productive and need to reward myself.

The Red Sox don't play today but like every other team on Opening Day their Magic Number is 163. Unlike a team like the Pirates, however, it may not be too early to start keeping track of the Magic Number for the Red Sox (Pirate fans on the other hand can start tracking who they think Pittsburgh should take with the first pick in the draft).

In baseball when you mention the number 163 some people think of Lou Gehrig's career 163 triples or Cowboy-up Kevin Millar's career 163 home runs. Me? When I associate baseball and the number 163 - I always think of the fact that in 1978 Jim Rice played in all 163 games for the Red Sox (the regular 162 games plus the Bucky "F-ing" Dent game with the Yankees).

Happy Opening Day everybody!

Steroids

I need to get this off my chest. With the Hall of Fame ballot results to be announced this week - many writers have been discussing their selections and with their votes how they feel about steroids.

What has gotten me worked up most is the attitudes of normally bright and logical people like Joe Posnanski who becomes illogical and hypocritical when it comes to steroids.

In discussing Jeff Bagwell - Posnanski opines:

I think my e-migo Craig Calcaterra has made this point on Twitter, but I’d like to also make it as strongly as I can: I’d rather a hundred steroid users were mistakenly voted into the Hall of Fame over keeping one non-user out.

He doesn't see that this thinking leads to the exact opposite results. You let in 100 steroid users and their numbers keep clean players from getting proper consideration. You let in a Mark McGwire and you make it harder for a Fred McGriff or Don Mattingly. Posnanski makes a case for Kevin Brown without once mentioning Brown was named in the Mitchell Report for taking human growth hormone and Deca-Durabolin. At the same time he takes shots at Jack Morris. I guess if Jack Morris had improved his numbers by taking steroids then he'd have a better shot in Joe's book.

The hypocrisy drips from his choices.

Fred McGriff and Mark McGwire - he votes No on McGriff but he votes Yes on Mark McGwire! Even if you think McGwire just used steroids for the last 3 seasons of his career (yeah right) then that's 3 seasons in which McGwire made $30 million and hit 126 HR. If for the last 3-seasons of his career McGriff used steroids to hit just half of those HR that McGwire got over his final 3 years then McGriff has well over 500 for his career and is probably in the Hall. Even more insidious though is the fact that McGwire used steroids to secure contracts bigger then what McGriff ever came close to making. The $11 million McGwire made for his final season was 34% more than McGriff ever made in any one season in his career. So not only did McGwire cheat to get paid - his cheating now screws clean players like McGriff's chances at the Hall of Fame as well. That's too much to swallow.

To take it one step further - if you buy what McGwire is trying to sell Posnanski about using steroids just to heal from injuries then what about a player like Don Mattingly? What if Mattingly had used steroids to extend his career? Would that have made him a Hall of Famer? I know you can't play this what if game but at the same time you can't reward a player like McGwire for cheating to get what was denied to a Donnie Baseball. Put another way - Posnanski's thinking on steroids is 0% logic and 100% bullshit.

Rafael Palmeiro - Posnanski has the balls to compare Palmeiro to McGriff:

McGriff: .284/.377/.511
Palmeiro: .287/.369/.510

You know what this comes down to - clean player who will be kept out of the Hall of Fame versus dirty player who would have been in Hall of Fame if he didn't get greedy and come back for one last season. Boo-freakin-hoo for Joe Posnanski who feels bad that he has to vote No on Palmeiro.

I am slightly surprised that Posnanski didn't go full-jackwagon when it comes to steroids and make the case for Jose Canseco.

One argument that really bugs me is the "he was a Hall of Famer before he started using steroids" argument. This is normally used to defend Barry Bonds. Well what about a player like Dale Murphy? He was a Hall of Famer in his prime - what if he started taking steroids at the same time as Bonds? Is he a Hall of Famer now? What if Bonds never took steroids? Does he break down like Murphy?

Two discussions on Twitter really set me over the edge on the subject of steroids.

A number of baseball writers were doing an echo-chamber re-Tweet-athon about how fans don't care about steroids and the Hall of Fame and that it was just the writers making a big deal of this. They have a point but they miss the forest for the trees. People are stopping to care about the Hall of Fame but it is precisely because of steroids.

The other Twitter discussion which pissed me off was the uber-smug King Kaufman knocking Jim Rice as not being Hall of Fame worthy but granting he was at least not a mediocre player. Jim Rice is the poster child for players whose accomplishments have been harmed by comparison to steroid cheats. It was nice of King Kaufman to say at least Rice wasn't mediocre. I'd like to return the favor. King I don't think your writing comes close to being worthy of Sports Illustrated good but I think at least you could hold your own at the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

1971 MLB Draft

Jim Rice was taken by the Red Sox with the 15th pick of the 1971 MLB Draft. Couple of observations about the first round of that draft:

- Of the 24 picks - besides Rice only Frank Tananna taken 13th by the Angels and Rick Rhoden taken 20th by the Dodgers had significant MLB careers.

- All of the picks from the 1st round were taken out of high school - compare that to today where picks are just as likely to be college players

- The state of NY had more picks (4) than the state of FL (3) - my how times have changed!

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

I wonder if all the votes for AL Rookie of the Year are already in? If not Rick Porcello has the ultimate stage to impress voters when he starts for the Tigers in the one-game playoff on Tuesday. Not sure who wins this game but my gut says it will be a relatively high scoring affair.... Joe Flacco was OK for the Ravens yesterday but don't forget the name Dominic Randolph. He's the starting QB for Holy Cross and he's a better player than either Flacco or Ryan Fitzpatrick were in college... The one game playoff reminds me of one of my favorite stats. Jim Rice started for Boston back in 1978 when the Red Sox faced the Yankees in a one-game playoff (f*cking Bucky Dent). That meant that Rice played in all 163 games that season. Only Brandon Inge is close to that mark having played in 160 games so far this season... The New Orleans Saints defense has been as impressive as the offense. Adding Gregg Williams as Defensive Coordinator and Darren Sharper to a one-year deal have really made a difference... I think one of the main lessons so far in this NFL season is don't fire your Offensive Coordinator during the pre-season games. The Bills and the Buccaneers have been awful so far.... Happy 60th birthday to baseball genius Bill James...

Age Catching Up with Chipper?

I was surprised to notice that Chipper Jones' batting average was just .269 for the season. It seems like just yesterday that his batting average was well over .300. It turns out that wasn't yesterday. That was back in June.

Since the All-Star break Chipper has hit just .242 with a .763 OPS. In September those numbers are just .207 and .634. That's almost Varitek-esque. Chipper signed a 3-year extension for $13 million per year early this spring. You have to wonder if Chipper will start to face some boos if he starts off next year like he's been finishing this season.

I think Chipper is a Hall of Fame player but if he puts his current .308 career batting average at risk with 3-years of sub-par performance then he could also be putting his Hall of Fame election at risk as well. Jim Rice allowing his career batting average to dip below .300 (he finished at .298) was a major factor in the delay in his election.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Alex Rodriguez needs one more run to pass Cal Ripken for 31st place all-time with 1648. You know that passing Ripken means something to A-Rod... My respect for Bono just dropped several notches. On Twitter he's following both Tony Robbins (not much of a problem) but Yoko Ono? WTF?... Who knew? Eric Aybar of the Angels is the hottest hitter in MLB - hitting .420 over the last 30 days. Aybar's improved performance this year is in large part due to cutting down his strikeouts from 1 every 7.69 AB to 1 every 9.23 AB... Quote of the day: "God is an intelligible sphere, whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere" How deep is that?... With Boston retiring Jim Rice's #14 - I wonder how many Red Sox fans will now starting playing Keno slips with the numbers 1,4,6,8,9,14 and 27? All 7 numbers wins $5k on a $1 bet using the Mass Lottery... Way cool - Billy Mays Gangsta Remix - now the scratch has met its match!

More Opening Day Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

The Cincinnati Red Stockings won the first ever professional baseball game on May 4, 1869. They then went on to win their next 129 games until their winning streak was broken by the Brooklyn Atlantics. That seems to be some cosmic bad news for the Reds who today play the Mets (the spiritual heirs to the Brooklyn Dodgers who I guess would have been heirs to the Atlantics)... Ted Kennedy is scheduled to throw out the first pitch today at Fenway Park if he is healthy enough. No disrespect to Kennedy but this is an insult to Jim Rice who is newly elected to the Hall of Fame. Can you imagine another franchise who would have a player elected to the HoF but not have him throw out the first pitch while instead having a politician do the honor?... Time flies. The last time the Indians opened against the Rangers in Texas- Manny Ramirez was still on the team and Cleveland was so loaded offensively that ManRam batted 7th... Nick Johnson is the only remaining player on the Nationals roster who was with the Expos when the team moved to Washington... The Tampa Bay Rays had 16 sellouts last season but 8 of those sellouts were playoff games. The Red Sox always have full capacity at Fenway...

Jim Rice and Andre Dawson - Poster Children for the Clean Player

Nick Cafardo opens today's column with the following:

NEW YORK - Poster child for the clean player?

That's precisely what Jim Rice's legacy might be.

While I agree with the sentiment - I think Jim Rice will be the just the first poster child. The next will be Andre Dawson of whom Ryne Sandberg went out of his way to say the following during Sandberg's own induction speech:

Andre Dawson, the Hawk. No player in baseball history worked harder, suffered more or did it better than Andre Dawson. He's the best I've ever seen. Stand up Hawk. The Hawk. I watched him win MVP for a last place team in 1987 and it was the most unbelievable thing I've ever seen in baseball. He did it the right way, the natural way and he did it in the field and on the bases and in every way, and I hope he will stand up here someday.

Emphasis mine. Jim Rice and Andre Dawson the poster children for "the natural way."

Mark McGwire got the numbers and he also got paid over $74 million during his career. Steroids helped McGwire get his numbers but being clean helped Jim Rice earn the Hall of Fame. Same will be true for Andre Dawson.

The Hall of Fame Vote

Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice were elected to the Hall of Fame yesterday. I've come to accept the flaws involved in the Hall of Fame voting. How can 28 people leave Rickey Henderson off their ballots? It's because it's a flawed process. How can it take the voters 15 years to decide that Jim Rice is a Hall of Famer? It's because it's a flawed process. How can Jay Bell get 2 Hall of Fame votes? It's because it's a flawed process.

Too bad that the title I Am Third was already used by Gale Sayers for his biography because that title would have been perfect for Jim Rice. He's third in almost every hitting category in Red Sox history behind Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski. Rice is also the 3rd best left fielder in Red Sox history behind those two greats. In addition - Jim Rice is the 3rd best player ever to come out of the state of South Carolina (behind Shoeless Joe Jackson and Larry Doby).

Many people will question the election of Jim Rice. I won't argue that the steroids backlash probably helped Rice get elected but I would argue that is the way it should be. Comparing Jim Rice's numbers to steroids era guys had been a huge detriment to Rice's candidacy. When I look at the list of all-time home run hitters - I have to question at least 9 of the players from the steroids era who are ahead of Jim Rice. In his prime was almost always in the top 10 in total bases and top 5 in MVP votes six times. When I saw him play - I said to myself "There's a Hall of Famer" and that to me has always been the key indicator.

I thought that Andre Dawson was also a Hall of Famer when I saw him play and I fully expect Dawson to eventually get to the needed 75% for induction. I have to wonder if Dawson had played for a single team whether he'd have been inducted by now.

Baseball Hall of Fame Vote

Interesting site which is tracking the Hall of Fame votes made public so far.

It looks like Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice will get the votes needed for enshrinement.

I want to point out this vote:

Hal McCoy - Andre Dawson, Bert Blyleven, Jim Rice, Lee Smith, Rickey Henderson

As far as I'm concerned - if Hal McCoy says the guy is a Hall of Famer - then the guy is a Hall of Famer. I wasn't on the Blyleven or Lee Smith bandwagons but who am I to argue with Hal McCoy?

Johnny Pesky

It is right and fitting that the Red Sox will retire Johnny Pesky's #6 on Friday. Pesky turns 89 on Saturday and has spent the better part of his life as a member of the Red Sox organization. For almost every year since 1942 Pesky has been associated with the Red Sox in one form or another.

Retiring Pesky's number required "bending" the rules the Red Sox had established that stated a player's number can only be retired if the player spent 10 years with the Red Sox, was a Hall of Fame player and also retired with the Red Sox. Technically Johnny Pesky did not meet a single one of the conditions (he last played with the Washington Senators) but the Red Sox owners wisely viewed the rules more as just guidelines.

That leaves open the question of other players such as:

Jim Rice - he will have his number 14 retired. The Red Sox are waiting to see if he gets voted into the Hall of Fame this year. If he does not - then the Red Sox will "bend" the rules once again. Rice still works for the Red Sox as a studio analyst.

Roger Clemens - nope - not gonna happen. Clemens is tied for all-time wins for the Red Sox but his number 21 won't be retired. It's not just the steroids business either. Clemens left the Red Sox with bad blood and many Red Sox fans have no love for him. Heck he's tied with Cy Young for wins and do you see Young being recognized by the Red Sox?

Wade Boggs - nope - not gonna happen. Boggs can get misty about his days with the Yankees or Devil Rays but there's a reason you never see him around Fenway Park (unless he's selling hair plugs).

Dwight Evans - many stat heads will argue that Evans was every bit the player Jim Rice was and if you include defense then I won't argue the point. However, there's a reason contemporaries voted Jim Rice in the top 5 in MVP voting 6 times and Evans just twice. Evans left the Red Sox with bad blood and look no further to the fact that the Red Sox gave 24 to among others Kevin Mitchell as evidence that they had no plans to retire 24. That could have changed if Manny Ramirez stayed with Boston but now you'll see someone else wearing 24 shortly.

Tony Conigliaro - some oldtimers will argue for the retirement of number 25 but you don't retire numbers for "could have beens". Gord Kluzak could have been one of the greatest defensemen in NHL history but knee injuries caused him to retire early. You don't see the Bruins retiring his number. There have been 12 players to wear 25 since Tony C - the most current being Mike Lowell.

Dewey, Garret and Manny

Compare the career numbers of these two players:

Player A - .272 BA / 1470 R / 385 HR / 1384 RBI / 127 OPS+
Player B - .295 BA / 1000 R / 266 HR / 1259 RBI / 105 OPS+

It should be noted that Player A played 20 seasons while Player B is in the midst of his 15th season. I'm not treating this as a quiz because I'm guessing the title of the post was too big of a hint. Player A is 3-time All-Star and 8-time Gold Glove winner Dwight Evans. Player B is 3-time All-Star Garret Anderson.

Why am I making this player comparison?

It occurred to me that when Anderson is done playing the Angels will be retiring his number. That's fitting seeing that Anderson holds almost all the franchise batting records except triples, stolen bases and home runs. Also consider that the Angels only have a couple of player numbers retired and those players (Fregosi, Carew and Ryan) didn't even play 90% of their careers with the Angels.

It can be argued that Dwight Evans was the much better all-around player. Anderson can play for 4 more years and still not pass Evans in many offensive categories. Yet Dwight Evans won't have his number retired by the team he played 19 seasons for while Anderson will. Irony isn't quite the word that I'm looking for but the comparison struck me nonetheless.

Where does Manny Ramirez fit into the discussion?

Going into this season a perfect storm was brewing to get Dwight Evans' number 24 retired by the Boston Red Sox. It looks like Jim Rice may finally get elected to the Hall of Fame this year and that opens the way for his number 14 to be retired by the Red Sox. Rice has to be honored by the Sox before Evans is - that's just the way it is. Going into the season it looked like Manny wanted to retire as a member of the Red Sox and that would have made retiring his number 24 (the same 24 that was worn by Evans) a no-brainer. Now it looks like Manny may separate from the team at the end of the year on maybe not the best of terms. That could dash any future plans to retire the number 24.

My guess always was that the Red Sox would honor both Manny and Dewey during a retirement of the number 24. I could see a 24 on the right field porch with a DE (for Dwight Evans) above and a MR (for Manny Ramirez) below. Now my guess is that the number 24 may not be retired at all.

But Garret Anderson's number 16 will.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

I know that sometimes people make predictions purely to get the shock factor. I think this prediction of a Jaguars victory over the Patriots fits that bill. You would think that a guy with credentials like Jeremy Green wouldn't be so cavalier. The again - maybe there's a reason Green is writing about scouting instead of actually doing it... Interesting break down by Karl Rove on why Hillary won in New Hampshire. I'd take issue with this sentence though:

Despite Sen. Harry Reid's son serving as her Nevada chairman, she's likely to lose that state's caucuses on Jan. 19.

I'd argue that she may lose Nevada because Harry Reid son is her state chairman. Harry Reid isn't the most popular guy in his home state right now and if Reid was up for re-election this year he'd be a big underdog despite his years in office... I don't agree with Dan Shaughnessy often but I do agree with him that Jim Rice was a better hitter than Wade Boggs. Kudos for pointing out that 3 straight years with 35 HR and 200 hits tops 7 straight years with 200 hits. Wade Boggs was never even the best player on any team he ever played on yet he gets to be in the Hall of Fame while Jim Rice is still on the outside looking in... One stat to think about - Wade Boggs is considered a hitting machine but he only made the top 10 in the league in total bases 4 times in his career. Jim Rice meanwhile led the ENTIRE league in total bases 4 times (and was top 10 in 9 seasons)...