Cha'lie Zink.

June 19th game vs the braves... i saw a marriage proposal flash up on the big screen in center field, and all of a sudden a man who is literally 2 feet to my right (i'm on the aisle, grandstands) and 3 steps down drops to his knee in front of his girlfriend! that was a crazy moment.

Just recalled that and had to jot it down. The Paw Sox offense showed signs of life (they had scored 3 runs in the last 31 innings prior to tonight's game, or something crazy-ish like that) and it even appeared as if they were staging some sort of come back throughout the game- they fell behind early- but it wasnt enough. I hung out by the bullpen before the game and watched Charlie Zink warming up, because I was curious to see what his knuckleball looks like up close. What a sweet pitch. I was mesmerized even though I could tell that it wasnt 100%. Quite a few pitches actually had some spin on them but the ones that he nailed, well, I just had to see it again and again. [[I probably looked pretty silly- a 23 year old female sitting by the chain link fence, surrounded by boys 5-12 years of age i'm guessing (most of them in boy scout uniforms- it was boy scout sleep over night). That's how it is for me a lot of the time though... I have learned not to let not fitting in stop me from doing things. What woman (of my age.. of any age..) goes to baseball games alone (and not just major league but minor league, all around new england), and who among them enjoys SCORING these games for the mere sake of.. scoring the game? I guess stopping to think about it makes me self-conscious.]] Anyhow. Suffice it to say that I learned a little bit from watching Charlie and now that I have a better sense of how to grip the ball I want to try again :) I had always gripped it with all 4 fingernails and sort of heaved it almost shotput like (well, not that drastic obviously, but it felt a little like that)... just trying to get the spin off of it... we'll see how my new knowledge helps.

The Red Sox had an interesting night themselves, a bit of a rollercoaster. Aaron Bates got his first major league hit (I've been a little out of it lately.. i dont know that I even mentioned here that he got bumped up to Boston). Smoltzy did it up. We were ahead 9-1 at one point, the Royals closed the gap by the 7th inning to 9-7, and then we broke it open again in the 7th when a few KC pitchers loaded the bases several times (a couple times on purpose! boy did that backfire, and i was positively gleeful listening to the game in my car heading back up I-95 from Pawtucket. One thing I've learned- if the bases are gonna be juiced, opposing teams should never intentionally walk a guy to get to Tek.. it always backfires, whether we're talking errors, more walks, or grand slams). But you know, we pulled out the win. Tek got another homerun (slowed up a bit on this front, but still on his way to 30!!! i swear it. now or never).

In other news, today was BEAUTIFUL once again. Although now it's raining. This concerns me, because I wonder if it will stop again (last time it started, it lasted for 4 weeks).

WHY am I still awake? Poor decision!

$5 shorts!

Michael Jackson?
Surreal.
I loved his music growing up. Thinking about him makes me want to watch Free Willy.


Last night I did something very unusual: I went shopping. I never buy clothes for myself. Once in a while I'll find myself in Goodwill, where I'll see a shirt or a skirt that I like, and I'll get it. But (he he) I tend to wait and let my parents take me clothes shopping once or twice a year. I'm still young enough to get away with that. Anyhow, I realized that I dont have the clothes I want/need for the summer, gave myself a budget, and went out to Old Navy. They were selling shorts for $5!! A pleasant surprise. Until last night, I had one pair of non-athletic shorts to my name and so I loaded up. Then I hopped back in the car to listen to Smoltzy's start, which left something to be desired to say the least, but it's the man's first time back from a long, long winter (so to speak). It would have been great if he came back and completely dominated, but the guy's been pitching to AAA kids for the last 3 months. I'm willing to wait this out, give him the benefit of the doubt... and you'll notice that he locked in for the last few innings, retired something like the last 7 batters he faced. Bard had another inconsistent outing- definitely has some more developing to do, but if Theo lets it happen he'll be our closer in a couple years when Cinco Ocho is in pinstripes (as much as it pains me to say). I'm excited to see Bard back in Pawtucket this summer, because the next time he goes up, it'll be for good I'm sure. Selfish thought. Of course I'd love to see him stick it out in Boston for the rest of the season but things are going to get really interesting over the next 30 days.
Please dont make any trades we'll regret.

Today started with sun, and will end with rain. I am extremely upset with the way the weather has been. This weekend was supposed to be a break from all of the grey skies and rain. Now it looks like thunderstorms, and the possibility of hail tomorrow afternoon. I dont care, I will be in Pawtucket no matter what... I've waited long enough. Next week is also forecasted to be rainy, which is terrible as a few area churches have put together this Soccer Nights soccer camp - free - for kids around the area. Supposed to get around 300 participants. I'm volunteering as a team coach. Playing in the rain is fun, and at least it will be warm rain. But enough already. June was 97% rain, and that's no way to kick the summer into gear.

A new housemate moved in last night. Cory. More to come on that, but after 45 minutes of first-impression chat, he gets the thumbs up.

A little Sox excitement

The nap has yet to happen. How crazy is it that the Phillies made 3 errors in the first 15 minutes of the game?! We'll take it though. And Aaron Bates just hit a homerun over in Syracuse for the Paw Sox, and Bowden is fine so far (only pitched one inning at this point). 

Ok. Having MLB GameDay and ESPN GameCast open at the same time for two different games is making everything run slowly. I'm done.

UPDATE: 8:42pm

Aaron Bates makin it look easy... second homerun of the night. Picture me quietly chuckling to myself in admiration. This guy is looking like who we thought Lars Anderson was all of 3 months ago. (Lars is off to a slowish start, picking it up a little bit as of late, but still not having the season he was projected to have at this point. At the Double A level, though, still plenty of time for development, and he's by no means off the radar.)

UPDATE 8:48pm

Bowden has given up 5 hits in 4 innings, 2 of them hrs (one in the 4th, one in the 5th where the game is currently at right now, none out, one on). He had looked great up till the end of the 4th- before that first hr, only 2 hits given up. Here we go Mikey.

Red Sox still in a rain delay, up 5-0 in the 2nd.

Bowden just earned himself another strikeout. That's 3 on the night so far. And the inning is over (the K was out #2 but Dusty Brown caught a guy stealing to end it). Not sure if they'll put Mike back in for the 6th, though after 5 he's only thrown 62 pitches, 38 for strikes. That's pretty efficient. For once, our offense is booming.. 6-2 Paw Sox.

UPDATE 9:34pm

Impressive little battle between Bowden and Casto just now, but Mike got the best of him, as Casto K'ed swinging on the 9th pitch. Thus ended the 7th inning. Syracuse has sent 4 pitchers to the mound, but Pawtucket has relied on Bowden, who after 7 innings has struck out 5 and given up 6 hits, 1 BB, 2 ER. 96 pitches (58 for strikes) for MB, compared to Syracuse's combined pitch count of 125 (79 of those for strikes).

2 Months In.

I cant believe it's June. After yearning my way through the offseason, I feel like I've barely been to Fenway. I think I've seen 10 Sox games so far, so i'm more or less "on pace" to get to as many as I did last year- but it's all I want to do lately, which has become a problem while the team has been on the road for the past 2 weeks (nearly). It's surreal; I feel like I havent been to the park in ages. Meanwhile, I think I'm nearing the 20-game mark when it comes to the Paw Sox. I cant say for sure, but one of these days I'll get all of my ticket stubs together and see where I'm at. In all seriousness, going to Pawtucket has become what I imagine gum chewing is like for people who usually dip- a compulsive and necessary reaction to the absence of something I enjoy immensely. Thank goodness that when one team is on the road, the other is often at home; I rush home from work, hop in my car, sit in traffic and scream the day's angst away to the tune of Tessie or Spicy McHaggis or Blame It On The Rain, and make it to McCoy sometime within half an hour after the first pitch.

The Paw Sox are a tough team to watch, in my opinion, for a number of reasons ranging from the technical to the sentimental. For one, the pitching is pretty decent if you average it all out. We've got some stellar prospects, and some unremarkable guys too. But when it comes to the bats on this team, now there's the killer. It's really pathetic. Jeff Bailey, who was just this week dropped back down to make room for Mark Kotsay in the bigs, is hitting the ball around the .300 mark, but beyond that, you'll be hard-pressed to find someone on this team hitting over .265. When that's the best it gets, things are pretty bad. (Jeff Natale just came off the DL and i believe he is hitting over .300 for the moment... but he has been on and off the DL all season and his at bats count is incomparable with the guys who have been playing day to day.) I've seen Jonathan Van Every, who had a stellar stint with Boston to start the season, make more errors in center field and hit so poorly... I've seen daily starter Chip Ambres (the leader in BA, after Bailey and Natale who again have had incomplete seasons with Pawtucket to date) strike out 3 (i fear it may have even been 4) times in one somewhat recent extra-innings game... I've watched poor Gil Velazquez make error after error at SS, which still qualifies him to be making spot starts for Boston at this point (I recently read a column that stated something along the lines of "Julio Lugo is still up to his normal shenanigans at short stop".. well put, because at this point humor is all we've got). For these technical reasons and more, it's tough to sit and watch most other teams we face come up looking much sharper than we do. At this point, I have also developed favorites (though i generally like all of them, want to see them succeed), and so not only is it wince-worthy to see them working out the kinks night to night, but it's bittersweet to realize I cant keep them. I'm spoiled with the Red Sox... we've locked down some great players, and so the team of '08 (my rookie year with the Sox) is closely resembled in the team of '09, and will be for some time still. (PLEASE DO NOT BLOW IT WITH JASON BAY.) I have fierce love for a lot of our players, because they are gritty and tough and they're fighters, and they are heart and soul for Boston. The Paw Sox, though... I look out at the field, and I dont see many guys I can let myself get attached to in any longer-term sense. There's no room for infielders coming up, and as it stands now the outfield is pretty set too- the funny thing is, the organization's highest-touted up and coming outfielder isnt even at the AAA level yet. 

I'm at the point of free-flowing thought here, so why not jump into my anxiety over our pitching scene. I'll start by exclaiming YES! We have so many strong pitching options, that even when our rocks are struggling, we can patch it together and are none the worse for wear. I was injured by our rotation early on this season- I had so many high hopes, as did we all. Starting pitching was the least of Boston's concerns coming out of Spring Training. There's no need for me to recount what happened with Beckett, Lester, Dice-K, and Penny for the first 1.5 months. My trust was in Jon Lester, and I figured the others would follow suit; but I learned quickly that this was not to be the case. After a few sorely disappointing starts, I didnt even want to think about the starter of the night unless it was Wake; and the high I had ridden for the last half of the 2008 season with Petey and Lester dominating every chance they had simply did not pick up where it left off (Petey had a slow start too this season but I figured it couldnt last long). Fast-forward to just recently- Beckett had been showing signs of life over his last few starts, but my sigh of relief and my confidence in our rotation came back when Jon Lester became Jon Lester again, just this past week. If he can get another good one in there the next time he takes the mound, all will be right with the world.

So we've got a rotation that looks astounding on paper, and that is coming back around in reality (and that ultimately hasnt hurt us too badly even while struggling, if the standings are any indication). Look on any Boston MLB blog and you'll see at least one note about how, just below the 5 starters, we've got a bottleneck situation with John Smoltz, Justin Masterson, Clay Buchholz, and Michael Bowden. Fantastic- we've got options. But not so fantastic- the possibility that we might cut away some of the excess here by making a trade for, say, a SS or a DH (both sorely needed). If not for my own tendency towards sentimentality (including my desire to see young minor leaguers succeed) I would be just as excited as the next Boston sports analyst (read: any Boston fan, because as Boston fans we give our opinions as fact)... seems only natural to look at our depth and think of how we can best use it to our team's advantage. If we have TOO many pitchers (come on, any baseball enthusiast knows there is no such thing) and the market is in desperate demand for pitching, we can get whatever we need at a "lesser cost" to the organization. We have what we need as far as pitching goes, after all, so we have room to play around.

...Please, no. I'm desperate here in my hope that this is not the higher-ups' POV.

I'm thankful that I havent come face to face with Theo for a few months now. As it is, I all but forced Jed Hoyer to publicly pledge his commitment and devotion to Michael Bowden back in April. If I spot Theo around town, I fear that I will be in very real danger of throwing myself at his feet and begging, pleading for him to hang on to Michael Bowden and Daniel Bard. Clay Buchholz is still such a question mark in my mind, though I feel that he has the potential to become an excellent major league starter near or at the top of the rotation (depending on who's rotation he's in). So far this year, he has been looking like a big leaguer through the majority of his starts, so no complaints regarding Buchholz's AAA performance. Anyhow, that's a bit beside the point-  what I'm saying here is that I like these fellows. I like them very much, Bard and Bowden in particular. They're two who I want to add to the list of players I can allow myself to consider comfortable, dependable, home-grown Boston warriors, who grow to love the team and the city as our other guys who are here to stay do.. and as I do, too. I want Boston to be their home, and for them to become part of my home. I believe in the good things that they have to offer, if only they stick around long enough to get their respective chances.

I wont delete the last paragraph+, but it's not a very productive part of this entry. My bias, I will admit, is toward the young ones in general. I'm fascinated by them. The ones my age or younger in particular, well, they astound me.

No more trade rumors. They have been making me neurotic. Buchholz and Bowden are always on the chopping block, with fainter hints that the names Masterson, Bard, and Penny are frequently being mentioned in negotiations as well (though the latter doesnt seem to fit in this grouping of sought-after prospects... but there are so many rumors that Penny's gonna be a-movin on before long).

I'm so relieved that the Sox are back in town. I have missed them more than I had realized up until the past few days. Tonight I bought tickets for 6/11 vs the yankees... and i'll have to make it to a game this weekend vs texas so i can see Elvis Andrus. another exciting one.

Losing steam... time to wrap it up and head to bed. It's been a long week of Paw Sox games, and I'm ready to find myself back at Fenway in a couple days.

Adieu.