With the Red Sox going wild and crazy, I figured I'd write about general baseball for a change. Yesterday, I stumbled across an article mentioning a Vote for Manny website. At first, I didn't actually read the article and simply stewed in my rage that any baseball fan is dumb enough to pull a Bud Selig and basically ignore a superstar who used steroids while celebrating his padded accomplishments.

Today, I finally read the article. It turns out that the Vote for Manny website is actually a protest against Selig and Major League Baseball. The webmaster says it himself:

In a fit of insanity, I created a new site called "Vote for Manny". Why would I possibly try to help Manny get elected as a starter to the 2009 All Star Game?

Simple.

I think it'd be wonderful to watch MLB (Selig & Co.) uncomfortably try to figure out a new policy on the fly to keep him out of the game. Rather than proactively inact a rule similar to the NFL's "Shawne Merriman rule", the league is simply hoping that good ole Manny doesn't get voted as a starter. They can then strongarm manager Charlie Manuel into not selecting Manny. (Even if Torre is his bench coach!)

Except one thing: We're here to make sure Manny makes the Top 3.

Guess what? He's already at #4 with over 1.2 million votes.

So what can you do?

Click here to VOTE FOR MANNY.

Vote early and often, kids.

Prior to seeing this, I was vehemently against LA's treatment of this whole steroids issue. They have been embracing Manny, supporting him through this suspension and basically acting like Manny cheating is no big deal.

To some degree, I agree with them. Yes, most baseball players through the 90s and the beginning of the millenium likely took steroids, so in a way, the playing field was even.
 
At the same time, an even playing field does not mean any of this was okay. Every player found using performance enhancing drugs needs to be punished. Their image should become just as tarnished as Major League Baseball's. They should be ineligible for the All-Star Game at the very least, and they should count their blessings to be allowed to play in the World Series and keep the awards that they artificially won.

Bud Selig will not do a thing about cheating. He does not care about the integrity of the game; he's made that quite clear with his minimal action post-Mitchell report and his joke of punishment for steroid use. There is no reason for Manny to be eligible to play in the All-Star Game. After reading the point that Vote for Manny makes, however, I will vote for him as frequently as possible. I'd love to see Selig and the top brass at MLB handle this one.

The bottom line is that Major League Baseball - both players and management - have failed their fans in a major way. Let's see if they make any attempt to re-establish some sense of morality into baseball.

a

I'm off to try to piece small parts of my soul back together before Tuesday arrives. You'll find me softly sobbing in a corner alone until then.

photos from boston.com and red sox photo from bostonherald.com

Alright. This is finally unavoidable. David Ortiz is in one of the worst power slumps of his career, and the uproar is getting worse with each passing day.

I personally do not put too much weight into his batting average right now. He was actually worse through April of last season, when he finished the month batting .184. He is batting .200 right now. It is not a fantastic number, but the more attention people pay to slumps, the worse the slump will be. There is no reason, historically, to be concerned about Papi's average.

The real problem here is the home run total. In 2009, whenever a clutch home run hitter goes into a deep drought, steroids enter the picture. Did David Ortiz take steroids? I cannot say for sure either way, and it is not my place to infer anything. The bottom line is that the ball is not leaving the park for Papi. He's been robbed a couple of times at Fenway by the Monster, and he's been able to drive the ball deep, but luck is not on his side right now. Nevertheless, some of Papi's doubles off of the monster and his fly balls on the road show that Papi does still have the power to hit homeruns.

For Terry Francona, when Julio Lugo has more home runs than your DH, something must be done, no matter who the DH is. He has no choice here but to bench Ortiz, give Papi a bit of time to clear his head and then start all over again on Tuesday. Luckily for Francona, this is the best time and the best choice to make here. 

The media has to stop this intense focus on Papi. The benefit of benching Papi for a series plus a day off means that Papi has a couple of days where people should be relatively quiet on ESPN and talk shows about his slump, and this should help to let him just relax and swing naturally. Perhaps Papi will not even come back on Tuesday. I wouldn't mind, at this point, giving him a week in the cages to just hit, hit, hit and see what happens.

In reality, the Red Sox have to be more worried right now about their starting pitching than the state of their lineup. Ellsbury is lighting things up, Bailey is hitting well, and Lugo was the Red Sox player of the week this week, so they do not need a DH right now to carry them. Francona can put Baldelli or Lugo/Green in the lineup right now while giving the team an equal or better chance of winning. 

This break is a great thing for Papi. He needs to milk it for all the time he can and just get back into a form where he feels comfortable before returning. Will he ever be the Ortiz of 2003 or 2004 again? I doubt it. He's older now, and for whatver reason he is not that hitter anymore. However, Ortiz will still be able to hit, and he will still be able to hit home runs. He will never, however, hit 54 homers in a season again. 

There is no need to panic right now. If anything, fans and the media alike should concern themselves with the state of the Red Sox starting pitching or perhaps the Celtics and just leave Papi alone for a few days. By July, we'll be watching Papi go yard once more.  

I'm starting to run out of clever things to say about three Boston teams winning in one night (for the third time in recent history, might I add).

Boston, Carolina and California all personally saw Boston victories last night. The C's took the magic into their own hands at the Garden in Boston, winning in the last four minutes to take a 92-88 victory out of Orlando's grasp. The Bruins took Raleigh by storm, winning handily 4-2. Finally, the Sox rallied in Anaheim to win 4-3.

It goes without saying that it still rocks to live in Boston right now. Sportscenter could have 30 minutes worth of fresh material just by showing what is going on right here.

The time schedule last night worked out perfectly. I turned on the Bruins game right after dinner, watched them sure-handedly force game 7, switched to the Celtics during commercials and then exclusively watched TNT once the Bruins won, witnessing their come-from-behind antics back in action, and finally switched to NESN to see the Red Sox crush the Angels' bullpen. From 7 PM until 1:30 AM, I watched three different Boston sports teams win three different games in a span of 6 1/2 hours. My TV needed a bit of a break afterwards.

I don't know what I'll do if either the Bruins or Celtics lose their series (or both! what a horror show that would be!). Tonight is boring because there's only one sport on. I resorted to watching the Penguins/Capitals game which wasn't even that interesting. The Penguins took the Capitals confidence and then whipped their butts.

I can't wait until tomorrow. The time schedule is a little bit more complicated, as the Red Sox will start the action at 3:30 in Anaheim, the Celtics play at 7 on ESPN and then the Bruins start at 8 on NESN. This means that I'll probably have to either miss part of the Bruins game to watch the end of the Celtics game (unlikely) or only watch the beginning of the Celtics game, which means I won't see any of the real action. Additionally, my mother wants me to attend my oldest brother's graduation ceremony. He got his masters in December and they finally are holding a ceremony tomorrow. A masters degree, though? I don't think it's good enough to take the Red Sox's place.

This is quite a predicament, but it's one I'm really glad to be in.

picture from bostonsportsmedia.com
 

Seasons have certainly collided here in Boston once more. Tonight we had the Bruins starting things off at 7:30 PM on Versus, the Celtics tipping off at 8 PM on TNT and the Sox finished off their series against the Rays at 8:20 on ESPN. I'm not sure where the Patriots are - they seem to think that their season doesn't start until Fall, but we here in Boston would really appreciate having the four major teams in action at the same time. I don't think I have enough carpal tunnel yet from channel switching.

So, I'm going to do my best to sum up all the action here. I'm not the biggest basketball fan, so you can skip that part if you run out of time.

Red Sox
My boys in red always come first. Beckett had a rough first inning, but he recovered pretty well, keeping the Rays hitless for a while and holding the Rays to a 3-3 tie before he left. Okajima came in and was 2007-like lights out. Interestingly enough, according to Joe Morgan and Harold Reynolds, the Rays are winless when they score 3 runs or less. Luckily, the Sox staff was able to keep them to 3 runs.

David Ortiz, who the whole world seems to be having a heart attack over, delivered tonight. He led off the bottom of the eighth with a nice double off the monster, then advanced to third on a wild pitch/passed ball (haven't checked to see what they ruled it yet). Harold Reynolds then lamented for a few hours about how the Red Sox should bring in a pinch runner for Papi
because, well, Ortiz runs as well as a broken-down Hummer. Pinch runners are a great idea when you have a deep enough bench to bring one in, but the Red Sox were without Youkilis, Pedey was injured (groin) in the fourth and so both Lugo and Green were already in the game, the Sox can't overuse Baldelli because of the mitochondrial disease and so options were pretty low.

Jason Bay (aka Jay Bay the RBI machine) came in and made a non-issue of it. He joined Papi in doubling off the monster, and Papi could run as quickly as possible (re: jog) and score the go-ahead run.

Pap decided to make things interesting in the ninth because both the Celtics and Bruins were over, so all eyes were finally on the Red Sox. After walking one and giving up a hit, then making an errant throw to first creating a runners on first and second situation, Pap proceeded to strike out the side. He finished his night off by embarassing Carl Crawford with 97 mph heat. That was a great ending to a lovely Sunday.

Bruins
The night started with the Bruins at 7:30. Milan Lucic apparently was confused by which sport he'd be playing tonight, as he tried to start a fight with Gleason only a minute into the game. Unfortunately, Gleason declined the chance to spar with Lucic, and our favorite basher finally figured out he was supposed to be playing hockey, not MMA.

14:48 into the game, Zdeno Chara started the scoring with a knuckler towards the net that Recchi tipped in to give the Bs a 1-0 advantage. Four minutes later, Phil Kessel added to the score, making it 2-0 Bruins after the first period.

In the second, the Bruins started shutting the door. Kessel got his second goal of the night to make it 3-0, and Chara ensured that the Whalers (er, Canes) knew who was in charge by leveling top-scorer Eric Staal twice in one shift. Late in the second, Jussi Jokinen showed what a great guy he is by karate-chopping Chara's ankle with his stick. Chara writhed in pain on the ice for what seemed like forever, apparently unable to stand up. Finally, he skated/used his superhuman abilities to get himself off of the ice and into the locker room where he recovered from the cheap shot in between periods.

The third period wasn't overly eventful in terms of hockey. Milan Lucic got in on the scoring action with the fourth Bruin's goal 12 minutes in, and Tim Conboy was beat up by two different Bruins about ten minutes apart. The Whalers (er, Canes) continued to show what upstanding gentlemen they are by allowing Scott Walker to drop Aaron Ward when Ward still had his gloves on. Even Lucic knows that's a d-bag move, and Tim Thomas called it one of the most blatant cheap shots he's ever seen.

Anyways, the Bruins will live to see another day . . . two actually, before they head back down to Carolina for Game 6 on Tuesday.

Celtics
Basketball is a sport where you really only need to watch the last three or four minutes to get the essence of the game. The Celtics decided to add as much drama without going into OT as possible, so they basically blew every opportunity they had for the last two minutes of the game. Whether it was missing shots, neglecting to aggresively fight for rebounds or taking ridiculous fouls, the Celtics seemed to want to lose that game.

With 11.4 seconds left, the Celtics got the ball down 94-93. Everybody, even the casual basketball fan, knew that the Cs would try to get the ball to either Pierce or Rondo who were sure-shots. Neither had a good shot, so Big Baby Glen Davis got the ball and with 0.7 seconds left drained a two-pointer to give the Celtics a 95-94 win and a tied series.

Typically, sportswriters are supposed to say things like "the Bruins earned the top spot in the Eastern conference" or "Papelbon earned the save," but I really feel like a liar saying the Celtics "earned" that win. Nevertheless, I'll take it and we'll have more carpal tunnel-inducing fun on Tuesday.

 The Green Line
For those who don't live in Boston or have never gotten the pleasure of riding the oh-so-efficient Green Line (it's part of the T), you will probably be surprised to learn how almost comical I think this whole Green Line crash is.

Obviously, I don't think it's hilarious that 49 people were injured. That is extremely unfortunate, and the MBTA better be generously covering their medical bills. I hope everyone recovers quickly and fully.

However, this was a long time coming. At school, I'm on the B-line of the Green Line (it's not as confusing as it sounds). The B-line is anything but efficient and safe. BU students are warned about getting hit by two things when crossing the traffic-filled Comm Ave: bikers and the T. Drivers are often incompetent and the trains themselves squeak and creak and sway beyond belief. There are Facebook groups called "I have been screwed over by the T" and "The Green Line has ruined my life." It's a bad situation that the MBTA should really look into.

Apparently, before the Sox game on Friday night, a Green Line driver was too busy texting to watch what was in front of him and he slammed into a different train. Many of the people who were on the train were en route to the Sox game, so the T was packed at the time. In addition to the 49 people who were actually taken care of, there are reports of people who had no visible injuries and were thus turned away.

The MBTA has now started a "no phones on the job" policy, but there is a ton of work and inspections that need to be done. The Green Line is a horribly inefficient and dangerous way of travel, bottom-line, and simply taking phones away from drivers won't help matters greatly.

"Oh he'll never return,
no he'll never return
and his fate is still unlearned
- poor Charlie! -
he may ride forever
'neath the streets of Boston
he's the man who'll never return!"
- Charlie and the MBTA, written circa 1920. Nothing has changed.

Anyways, I should get some rest so I can do this again on Tuesday. Until then, be safe, don't ride the T!

all pictures from boston.com

I am still in the midst of finals, but the good news is that my last one is at tomorrow in History of Journalism. The bad news is that the exam is at 9 AM. That's going to be a bit rough for me.

Anyways, I found this gem while studying:

On Sept. 28, another bombshell. Woodward and Bernstein had discovered that

John Mitchell, the chairman of CREEP, had, while serving as Attorney General,

controlled a secret slush fund that was used to spy on Democrats. Citing anonymous

sources, the story said some of those funds had been used by the Plumbers. As any

conscientious reporter must do, Bernstein called the target of the story to invite him to

comment. When he called Mitchell, the president's man exploded:

All that crap, you're putting it in the paper? It's all been denied. Katie

Graham's gonna get her *** caught in a big fat wringer if that's published. Good

Christ! That's the most sickening thing I ever heard."118

To his great credit, Bernstein followed one of the basic tenets of reporting: when people

get mad at you, don't take it personally, but do take notes. 
Covering America: Chapter 11  (DRAFT) 80 of 103 © 2008 Christopher Daly
www.journalismprofessor.com  All Rights Reserved
 

What now, Nixon?

Anyways, the Red Sox got another win against the Yankees under their belts after a 2 1/2 hour rain delay that so many Yankees fans stuck around for (NOT). I'm hoping they'll be able to play tonight, but if what is outside my window right now is also in New York, it doesn't look good.

Go Sox. Time to get back to the books.

I have them.

Did you know we could find the probability of finding aliens by completing this simple equation:
Number of civilizations = NHP x flife x fciv x fnow ?

Because I don't think it gets any easier than that. Back to the books.