A few Red Sox meanderings from the present to the past while recovering from a coffee fueled 6-5 win.
The Yankee home opener had lines two hours long to get into The Stadium. What was the attraction? A home run contest between Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle? Nope. Metal detectors. MLB now requires them so be aware when you come to Fenway Park the entry may be a bit longer than usual.
Clay Buchholz pitched a wonderful game that got the attention of baseball’s rules regulators. Buchholz got a letter – do they express mail them? Does a player have to sign for them? Well, anyways, Buchholz took too long – hitting. A warning before being given the dreaded double secret probation.
Rusney Castillo is now 5-9 at Triple-A after two games. Rusney, sent to the minors after an outfield logjam, is stationed in right field while fellow consignee to the pleasures of the International League, Jackie Bradley, is doing “his thing” in Center and hitting .300 after two games.
Bryce Brentz is also rolling after two games and could be a hidden gem for a team wishing a right hand bat that has some power upside. Is Ruben listening? Watching?
Will Middlebrooks brought back memories with a 0-5 and all five being strikeouts. The best ultimate 0-5 horse collar I ever saw was Andruw Jones of the Braves doing it at Fenway a few years ago. I believe Andruw did his while only having two balls in the entire streak.
Fenway Park is a fiscal gold mine and not for just the Red Sox. Parking enforcement in Boston will increase fines in the Kenmore area during opening day. Based on what the lots charge it may be better to eat the ticket.
The Red Sox win in Noo Yawk after 19 innings. Remember when we use to lose games like that to you know who? Last season the Red Sox were 7-12 against NY.
Today – April 11th – represents the first time the Boston AL team played as the Red Sox. That was 1907 and they finished well under .500.
Ted Williams has an unusual statistical accomplishment. In 1957 Williams hit .388 and followed that in 1958 with .328. That represented the lowest single season drop in batting average by a reigning batting champion – yet still winning another batting title.
Williams fought off fellow Red Sox, Pete Runnels, to win that title. Runnels eventually won two of his own and served briefly as Red Sox manager going 8-8.
The average age of the Red Sox is 29.5 years with an average height of 6’ and weight of 205 pounds. I’m not sure of the metric equivalents. Five teams are older than the Red Sox. The youngest team is Texas at 27.4 years.
David Ortiz now is AL leader in consecutive years of service with one team. Time to re-negotiate.
Xander Bogaerts speaks four languages. From what I have been able to determine that is the most on the team since Moe Berg played for them.
Dick Radatz struck out Mickey Mantle 12 times in 16 plate appearances while allowing “The Mick” a lone home run.
The Red Sox have been known as the Pilgrims, Somerset’s, Puritans and if I remember my Red Sox history – The Plymouth Rocks.
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