With all the Sabermetric frenzy, facts and figures that drive baseball reporting, sometimes it nice to take a break to appreciate some of the more quirky aspects of what’s happening in and around Red Sox Nation. Consider this your mid-winter palette cleansing.
Sep 25, 2011; Bronx, NY, USA; Boston Red Sox starting pitcher John Lackey (41) pitches during the first inning against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports
How Does Boston Recoup John Lackey‘s Lost 2012 Season?
Fans wring their hands raw over an expensive acquisition who then gets injured and is lost to the team. In Boston’s case, they did a very smart thing with John Lackey’s contract. Boston wrote a clause into the contract enabling them to control him for an additional year – now through 2015 – at the league minimum were he to be injured and out for a season. If Lackey comes back strong after his elbow surgery and pitches effectively through 2015 Boston may actually be able to reduce the terms of the deal per annum while leveraging Lackey when he’s healthy.
The Spaceman Bags a Win For the Ages
Former Red Sox pitcher, Bill Lee, who was a known as much for his antics when not pitching for the Sox as he was for being one of Boston’s more creative and crafty hurlers, recently set a record by winning a professional baseball game at age 65.
In August of 2012, Lee, who won a 119 games in 14 seasons for the Boston Red Sox and Montreal Expos, threw a complete game win for the San Rafael Pacifics – and in so doing became, according to the team, the oldest man to earn a win in a professional baseball game.
The guy who cooked hot dogs in Boston’s bullpen, dubbed Boston manager Don Zimmer, with whom he battled throughout the summer of 1978 when Boston was busy fumbling a 14-game lead against the Yankees, “The Gerbil” – it stuck with the Boston press – and who berated an umpire for a controversial call in the 1975 World Series, threatening to bite off his ear (“I would have Van-Goghed him!”), was the epitome of talent and flat-out nuttiness. If you’re too young to have seen him, Lee was sublime theater of the absurd. There will never be another like The Spaceman. Go win another one Bill!
Feb 3, 2012; Indianapolis, IN, USA; MLB former pitcher Curt Schilling is interviewed on radio row at the Super Bowl XLVI media center at the J.W. Marriott. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
In Need Of Schillings…
The sooner Curt Schilling gets Hall of Fame status the sooner he may be able to pick up some endorsements and start clawing his way back from his gaming company debacle, 38 Studios, which went belly up in June 2012. During the Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing, 38 Studios reported that it owed more than $150 million and that it had less than $22 million in assets.
In an interview with WEEI last summer Schilling said he was “tapped out” after driving $50 million of his own money into the company. “I put everything in my name in this company,” Schiling said. “I believed in it. I believed in what we built.”
Money, get away
Get a good job with more pay
And your O.K.
– Money, Pink Floyd