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July 5, 2009
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Some flashback footage of Tony C. singing, yup singing, on the Merv Griffin Show, courtesy of the brilliance of YouTube.
Other links of note today:
* Win Varitek’s Fourth of July equipment (and look like Evel Knievel) — (Sox and Dawgs)
This is a semi-regular feature here at Red Sox Blog, as we ask Don Orsillo’s decapitated bobblehead to use a familiar baseball term — three up, three down — to hand out compliments and insults to Red Sox players, coaches, owners, beat writers, broadcasters, groundskeepers, sideline reporters and inferior opponents.
Take it away, Decap…
Up: All right, Smoltz, no pressure, no pressure. Eck and I will be shining your pate from the press box this evening, my follicle-challenged friend, so you just go out and do what’s expected of ya, i.e., don’t blow this sweep against the Nationals!
Down: Bob Ryan, would it kill ya to smile once in a while? You’re on Around the Horn on a regular basis, basically representing the Boston media on the WWL (well, you and Jackie Mac, who seems incapable of saying "Hey, the sun’s out" in less than 54 words) and you rarely smile. Bob, you’re a sportswriter, you’ve convinced people to pay you to watch men play children’s games, so stop acting like a guy awaiting the results of a prostrate exam and start acting like you’ve got the game beat.
Up: Canadian native Jason Bay told WEEI he’s becoming an American citizen on July 2. "I figure I might as well since this is where I’ll be working for probably the rest of my career," Bay said. "It’s just a natural progression." I guess Blue Jays fans should abandon any hope of signing Bay this offseason.
Jason Varitek made good on his promise to call into The Baseball Show on Saturday morning, even after catching all 13 innings of Friday night’s marathon game in Philadelphia.
Michael Felger, Steve Buckly, Sean McAdam and Lou Merloni talked asked the Red Sox pitiching staff and how Jason handles each pitcher. Varitek discussed his new back-up catcher as well as the need for Daniel Bard to "throw harder."
When it came to discussing his excellent clutch hitting this season, Varitek was consistently elusive, as he prefers to discuss the defensive aspects of his game.
Other highlights of the show, which airs live every Saturday from 9 AM until Noon on CSNNE and WEEI, included an interesting discussion of John Henry’s recent Twitter taunt of Mark Texiera, as well as the entire panel discussing the Big League arrival of future Hall-of-Famer John Smotlz ,
Varitek Interview: Part 1
Varitek Interview: Part 2
Henry vs. Texeira
It started out as a typical exercise in time-wasting and stupidity. The goal: Amass a collection of the creepiest and most awkward Red Sox fan tribute videos that the Internets have to offer.
You know, things like this…
and this…
and this…
And as you can see, there’s plenty out there. Jacoby, Beckett and Tek were actually my first three searches; I figured they were the three guys most likely to have a stalker watch them from a distance at the park and then run home to express their feelings in video slideshow form.
Batting clean up, was Kevin Youkilis.
But when I searched Youk’s name, I didn’t find any heartfelt tributes set to the tune of I Will Always Love You or Don’t Want No Short Tort Man. No, instead I found this. Kevin Youkilis had a cameo in Milk Money.
(He’s the big kid with the wiffle collecting all the money)
Anyway, I googled Youkilis and Milk Money and apparently a million people have talked about it already, but somehow I’d missed it. Maybe you did too.
I admit I was one of the many who wanted the Red Sox to replace Jason Varitek as Boston’s catcher this season.
Given his anemic 2008 statistics — 13 home runs, 43 RBIs and these splits .220/.313/.359 — it wasn’t unreasonable to think the Red Sox would have been better off letting Varitek sign elsewhere and perhaps trading one of their young arms to Texas for Jarrod Saltalamacchia.
Well, with one-third of the season now complete, it looks like the Sox were much better off keeping their captain, because Varitek is matching or outpacing the 24-year-old Rangers’ catcher in every hitting category and is putting up numbers reminiscent of the 2003-2005 Varitek.
Here’s some comparisons and breakdowns:
Both catchers have started the same number of games (39) and have the same number of official at-bats (141).
Varitek has more home runs (10 to 5), a roughly approximate batting average (.248 to .259) and a superior OPS (.869 to .718) and OPS+ (117 to 87).
His OPS+ is his highest since 2005 and well above his career average (101).
Tek’s current slugging percentage (.532) is higher than 2003, when he posted career highs in home runs (25) and RBIs (85), and it dwarves Saltalamacchia’s (.407)
Varitek’s career best OPS was .872 in 2004; it’s now at .869.
Varitek’s OBP percentage (.337) is still below his career average (.346), but it’s much better than Salty’s (.307).
In short, he’s outpacing the young Rangers catcher at the dish.
You may not know it, but that Sox jersey you wore to the game last night—or that you’ll wear to the bar tomorrow—says a lot about who you are.
It says a lot about your lifestyle. A lot about what makes you tick.
What follows is a breakdown of Sox fans by their jersey of choice. It’s important to note that not every fan has every characteristic. It’s just that if you own said jersey, there’s a good chance you fall into one of the categories below it.
Here we go—
• You played high school football
• You will never dance at a club, but have no problem standing in the corner and staring down your girlfriend while she does.
• Drinks of choice: Bud Heavy on draft and shots of Jaeger.
• You own a Tedy Bruschi jersey.
• You REALLY like yelling "Yooooouuk!"
• You’re less than six feet tall
• You own a Wes Welker jersey.
• You think guys with long hair are hippies
• You loving doing stupid and dangerous things in the name of proving that you can.
• You had a rat-tail in the fourth grade.
Julio Lugo
• You’re Latin American
• Your last name is Green
This is a new semi-regular feature here at Red Sox Blog, as we ask Don Orsillo’s decapitated bobblehead (henceforth, DODB) to use a familiar baseball term — three up, three down — to hand out compliments and insults to Red Sox players, coaches, owners, beat writers, broadcasters, groundskeepers, sideline reporters and drunk, dancing fans.
"RemDawg says I need an outlet for my well-known anger issues," DODB says. "I can’t think of a better way to channel my energies, since the distribution of insults is what I do best. The three ‘up’ part was not my idea, and if I had my druthers, I’d call this feature 27 down. In baseball speak, that’s a perfect game."
Up: Through four games, Kevin Youkilis (.625) is the only regular hitting above .250. Any day now, Lowrie. A slugging percentage of .067? You’re making me pine for Julio Lugo.
Down: Tim Wakefield didn’t throw a first-pitch strike to the first eight Angels he faced on Friday night. Shocker, we lost 6-3.
Up: In 12 at-bats so far this season, Jason Varitek has yet to strike out. He’s getting himself out early in the count, and for that we’re thankful, because his at-bats are downright painful.
Down: George Kottaras allowed the Angels to go 4 for 4 on steals on Friday night. Varitek later said, "Jesus, even I could do that."
