Growing up a Red Sox fan, I always had those players that I held close to my heart. When I was a kid, I named players like Rick Burleson, Jerry Remy and Carl Yastrzemski as my favorites. But as an adult, I hesitated to deem one particular player my favorite. Well… there was that one time, back in my early 20‘s when I was obsessed with Phil Plantier, but that was purely a physical attraction, definitely not for his mad baseball skills. [Insert sarcasm here.] Seems these days guys just don’t stick around long enough with one team to be worthy of that title.

David Ortiz (Keith Allison, c/o flickr.com)

There has always been something about David Ortiz that makes me want to hug him and buy him a beer. He’s always smiling, always patting a teammate on the back (or helmet), and rarely does something that makes me cringe. When the Sox signed the 37-year-old DH to a two year contract during this past off season, I was happy that he wouldn’t be going to another team. I had hoped the Sox could keep him through the end of his career— even with his bum heel.

Speaking about a bum heel… the achilles strain Ortiz suffered nearly eight months ago is still giving him fits. An achilles strain tends to linger more than a rupture since there isn’t anything surgical doctors can do for just a pesky strain. So he continues to work out and attempt to run bases, but it hasn’t been working out too well for him. At least his hitting doesn’t appear to be suffering.

Peter Abraham from the Boston Globe wrote this about David Ortiz today—pretty much sums it up as far as I’m concerned. The Sox need Ortiz and his big bat.

The Red Sox were working on learning signals Friday afternoon, a drill that involved players taking swings at balls thrown by a pitching machine while their teammates were on the bases.

When David Ortiz came to the plate, he defeated the purpose of the exercise by belting a ball high over the wall in center field.

The 2013 Red Sox baseball season is officially underway and to get Red Sox Nation excited—a challenge after a 69 win season—NESN sent broadcast team, Jerry Remy, Don Orsillo and Jenny Dell on a four-day, five-city tour of New England. It’s what I like to call the “we-know-the-Sox-totally-sucked-last-year-but-please-don’t-leave-us” tour. The NESN crew visited media outlets, businesses and schools and held meet and greets and autograph sessions.

Day 1: Tuesday, February 12 – Burlington, VT

Jerry, Don and Jenny departed the NESN studios bright and early on Tuesday morning and headed north to Burlington. They made an appearance at the State House where Jerry laid down the gavel—appropriate for the president of Red Sox Nation. From there, the trio made their way over to the Vermont Tourism Office, rounding up their visit to the Green Mountain state.

Day 2: Wednesday, February 13 – Hartfort, CT & Springfield, MA

Wednesday morning, Jerry, Don and Jenny stopped by a couple of Hartford radio and TV stations for interviews before dropping in at a local Chevy dealership. They also visited Comcast and surprised a few callers by answering the phones. Can you imagine calling to complain about your remote control not working, and being greeted by, “Thank you for calling Comcast, this is NESN’s Jerry Remy, also known as the RemDawg.”? Errrrr… ummm… huh? Can you fix my remote?

The crew ended day two with a free meet-and-greet at the MassMutual Center in Springfield, MA where they participated in a Q&A and autograph session with fans.

Day 3: Thursday, February 14 – Portland, ME

Finally… the NESN tour has arrived in my neck of the woods! First, the trio headed over to the WHOM-FM studios for an interview that quickly broached the subject of a certain event that happened on Patriots Day in 2007—PizzaGate! Definitely one of the funniest things I’ve seen happen on a broadcast, rivaled only by last season’s BoobGrabGate.

From there they gave a quick interview to WHOM’s sister station, WJBQ where the topic of conversation mainly revolved around RemDawg’s porn-style mustache. Yeah… baby!

As with other cities, the NESN Tour made stops at a local car dealership and a school where the threesome showed off their amazing dance moves and fielded questions from curious third graders—including one kid who really did his research and asked Jerry if it was true he only hit seven home runs in his career. It is, by the way…in case you were wondering.

They wrapped up Portland with yet another Q&A and autograph session—this one at Binga’s Stadium. Lucky for me, I know some people and was lucky enough to procure a private meet-and-greet with the team before they went on stage. Don spent the most time with us, and Jenny joined a few minutes later. Unfortunately, I met Jerry last and only got to spend a couple minutes with him. They’re all incredibly nice—although I was disappointed I didn’t get the chance to ask them any of the 734 questions I had floating around my brain. This will definitely go on my life’s highlight reel.

Day 4: Friday, February 15 – Rhode Island

The NESN tour concluded on Friday with a visit to Rhode Island. Once again consisting of a radio interview, visits to a few local businesses and a school and of course, a public meet-and-greet at the Warwick Mall.

Phew! That sounds exhausting! Next up for the trio… sunny (and not so warm) Florida for spring training. The first Grapefruit League game for the Red Sox is scheduled for Saturday, February 23rd against those pesky Rays at JetBlue Park.

The entire team deserves the gutter ball. (Photo by: Marcus McCurdy c/o Flickr.com)

Here’s a sure sign the Red Sox are terrible: the Sox vs. Jays game is on opposite the Orioles vs. Yankees game (a game that actually means something), and despite your allegiance to the Boston nine, you’d rather watch the O’s beat the Yankees. (I’m sure Yankees fans are still fuming over that bad call to end the game.) At least you know these guys are playing with heart. Plus, two hours worth of rain delays sort of makes watching the Sox even more tormenting.

Although, I will say I almost would rather watch the rain delay footage on NESN than the actual game. Don and Jerry did an #AskJerry segment where you could submit questions on Twitter and they would answer them on air. I had submitted a question during Friday night’s rain delay and it was actually used last night!! Pretty pathetic when that’s the most exciting that happened during the game.

Here was my question:

I was hoping they would discuss something like the Boob Grab of 2011. But they were thinking of the present and actually talked about how they had been practicing how to pronounce the last name of the Blue Jays third baseman – Adeiny Hechavarria. Neither one of them could seem to get it right and just the inning before, Don had a meltdown trying to get it right. I swear, if it weren’t for Don and Jerry, I might never watch a game.

Honestly, I didn’t care what the answer was, I was just giddy that they actually picked my question. Hey… give me a break. I’ve got very little good stuff to hold onto this season. Very, very little.

In case you missed it, the Jays beat the Sox 9-2 last night. Daisuke Matsuzaka once again proved that the win a couple weeks ago was a total fluke and he just plain sucks. He lasted an eternal 1.1 innings and gave up five runs on five hits. What happened to the Dice-K that went 18-3 in 2008? Here’s one pitcher I’m not going to be sad to see go once this season is over…

The Red Sox line up was almost as crappy as the pitching, mustering just two measly runs. Can you at least make it look like your trying? No one deserves to be named here. Nothing exciting happened. Everyone stunk.

Click here if you care to see the crappy box score, courtesy of the Red Sox. The Sox have on more chance to beat the Jays this afternoon behind Clay Buchholz. Or they could just lay down and give up like they seem to do every day and fall even further down into the cellar all by their lonesome.

PS: I’m afraid I’m going to have to pass on watching this game today… because I am ready for some football and the Patriots!! Finally… a team that plays like a team and a coach that doesn’t take any shit.

Damn. The Red Sox really needed a win today and I had a real good feeling about this game despite the fact that Clay Buccholz was starting. Coming off the high of last night’s walk-off win, I just figured the momentum was with the home team. I figured wrong.

Buccholz actually looked pretty good today. He seemed to make it through all seven innings of his outing without having a confidence meltdown. He gave up eight hits but just two earned runs while striking out six. It’s the best I’ve seen him pitch all season. It’s a shame he didn’t get the win.

The Rays got the scoring started, plating one in the fourth on a Matt Joyce double, a Red Sox throwing error and a Ben Zobrist ground out. And one in the seventh on a Sean Rodriguez double and a Will (Busta?) Rhymes single.

The Sox came alive in the bottom of the seventh. David Ortiz led off with a walk and Kevin Youkilis singled. During Youk’s at bat, NESN announcer Jerry Remy said he had a feeling that someone was going to hit a home run in that inning. As if on cue, Adrian Gonzalez hit the second offering from Jeremy Hellickson just over the Green Monster, very close to the foul pole for a three-run shot. Red Sox up 3-2.

Franklin Morales and Vicente Padilla combined for a scoreless top of the eighth. And then the Sox line up threatened to expand their lead in the bottom of that inning when they loaded up the bags for Adrian Gonzalez. Unfortunately, he wasn’t the hero for a second straight inning and grounded out sharply to the short stop to end the threat.

So you think it’s in the bag, right? Alfredo Aceves comes in for the save and he’s been pretty lights out lately. Today, not so much. He looked flat and uncomfortable. Aceves walked the first batter he faced and struggled with Luke Scott before getting him to pop out. Sean Rodriguez then hit a 93 mph fastball over the Monster to go ahead. Rays up 4-3.

Mr. Crooked Hat himself, Fernando Rodney came in for another shot at save #16 and set the Sox down rather quickly in order to secure the save. (I really hate that crooked hat.)

Click here for the extremely frustrating box score, courtesy of the Red Sox. Up next, the Sox square off against the Detroit Tigers for an afternoon Memorial Day game. First pitch is at 1:35pm. Felix Doubront (4-2, 3.96 ERA) tries to get back to his winning ways after his last disappointing start against Doug Fister (0-2, 1.84 ERA.)

Before I delve into recapping last night’s game, I just want to throw out a big Get Well Soon to Jerry Remy who has been noticeable absent from the broadcast booth these past few games. Not that Don Orsillo doesn’t do a fabulous job, and the replacements (Nick Cafardo, Peter Abraham and Peter Gammons) have done fine providing lots of great stats and info, but I miss Jerry. It makes me nervous when he’s out — I hate the thought of him missing the majority of the season like he did a few years ago. Those were dark days… So come back soon, Remdawg!

Ok… let’s get down to business. The Red Sox beat the Oakland A’s last night 11-6, once again unleashing an offensive onslaught that bailed out some less than impressive pitching. Mike Aviles, Darnell McDonald and David Ortiz all bashed home runs (Ortiz hit two) to power the team to the win and back to .500. The Sox had two big innings – the second and the fifth.

I bet Big Papi feels like he's batting with a tennis racket!

Ortiz lead off the second inning with a solo home run. After Kelly Shoppach struck out, McDonald hit a double to right field. Marlon Byrd, Aviles and Pedroia all had singles and Adrian Gonzalez reached on a throwing error. In the end, the Sox pushed four runs over the plate in the second, and took the lead for good at 4-1. Ortiz and Aviles both homered in the fifth to finish off the scoring and giving the Red Sox a commanding 11-1 lead. Safe, right?

Well, that’s where Clay Buccholz comes in. Through the first six innings, he looked… not bad. He allowed one run on four hits while striking out five and walking three. Not horrible. But then the seventh inning rolled around and the wheels fell off the bus in a hurry. I can’t stomach reliving the mess that ensued so I’m just going to giving you the results — he gave up five runs to bring the A’s to within striking distance. Are you kidding me? According to Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe, Monday night Clay Buchholz became the first Red Sox pitcher to give up five or more earned runs in five consecutive starts in 72 years. Not a good stat to be known for and his ERA is now at 8.69.

Junichi Tazawa and Vicente Padilla finished off the seventh without further damage. Scott Atchison and Franklin Morales combined for a scoreless eight and Alredo Aceves closed out the ninth, striking out two of the three batters he faced. This entire pitching staff baffles me.

Here’s the link to the box, courtesy of the Red Sox. Felix Doubront takes on the A’s tonight, going for his second win. First pitch is at 7:10pm. Here’s hoping May kicks off a little better than April did!

In other news…

On Sunday, the Red Sox six-game winning streak came to an end in the final game of their series with the Chicago White Sox. The bats never got going enough to get Josh Beckett the run support he needed and they lost 4-1. It was a tough loss for Beckett, but again, it’s not like he’s pitching lights out either… Here’s the link to the box for this game, courtesy of the Red Sox.

Also, today is the deadline for the Red Sox to make a decision on what to do with Aaron Cook who, after five games with AAA Pawtucket, is 3-0 with a 1.89 ERA. If they don’t promote him to the big leagues, he could opt-out of his contract and go elsewhere. At this point in the season, the Red Sox can’t afford to lose a promising arm and could be used in the bullpen or as a spot starter when needed.

It’s a rainy Monday and my mind is definitely not on work today. I’m still busy reminiscing over the events that transpired at Fenway Park this past Friday. The events that shot April 20, 2012 up to the top of my list of most memorable sports moments for me (at least that I’ve witnessed live.) For the life of me I couldn’t figure out how the Red Sox organization would pull off the introduction of some 200+ past players and still start the game on time. But they did it, and did it in star-studded style.

Photo by me.

Baseball has always been a very emotional sport for me. I’ve been a fan as long as I can remember — thanks to my dad, grandfather and even my great grandmother (who loved her Sox!) I don’t remember a time when I didn’t love this team. I’ve endured so many ups and downs over my 35+ years of following them — for most of those years, I suffered mainly through the ‘downs’. The ‘ups’ came later. When the Red Sox finally won the World Series in 2004 after an 86 year drought, I cried.

I knew from the time I secured tickets for this historic game that I would be a blubbering mess. And stupid me, I forgot my tissues. I spent a good portion of the celebration wiping tears from my eyes with the sleeve of my shirt. And just when I would get myself under control, another past player would appear and the waterworks would start again. But nothing made me out-loud sob like when Jason Varitek and Tim Wakefield (with David Ortiz) wheeled out a 92-year-old Johnny Pesky and a 94-year-old Bobby Doerr to the middle of the field. I’m too young to have seen them play, heck my dad is too young to have seen them play, but there is just something about Johnny’s relationship with organization that gets me every time I see him.

Photo by me.

My Top 5 6 Loves from Friday, April 20th:

1. Yaz. Enough said.

2. Seeing some of my favs from my childhood – Jim Rice, Dwight Evans, Jerry Remy, Carlton Fisk – to name a few.

3. The return of Bill Buckner to cheers! And of course, Terry Francona’s return to the biggest cheers. I miss him a lot right now!

4. The roar of the crowd each time a favorite walked onto the field. Fenway seemed to be almost buzzing with excitement, like nothing could ruin the day….

5. The throwback uniforms. Although having no numbers on them made it a bit difficult to keep track.

6. Getting to meet Becca in person!!

My Top 5 Dislikes from Friday, April 20th:

1. The obvious missing players. Where or where was Rick Burleson?? I know some had an excuse, like Fred Lynn. But Mike Greenwell, Ellis Burks, John Valentin, Bob Stanley… where were they?

2. A ceremonial first pitch that made me want to gag. Caroline Kennedy, Mayor Tom Menino and Thomas Fitzgerald threw out the balls to Jim Rice, Carl Yastrzemski and Pudge Fisk from their seats. Lame.

3. Not learning until after the game that the Budweiser Deck was filled with a bunch of old players. CRAP!

4. Warm grape juice. I’m going to tell you a secret… I barely took a sip. *bleck*

5. Losing the game. That sucked.

Despite the loss, it’s a day I won’t soon forget. I’m so thankful that my father-in-law invited me to meet him in Boston for this unforgettable event. (Happy Birthday to me — a few months early!)

While we’re anxiously waiting to find out who the next Red Sox skipper is going to be, I would like to reflect on one of the biggest things I miss about the baseball season – the NESN broadcast with Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy. Since I don’t get to a lot of games down at Fenway, I rely on this team to keep me informed and entertained. And they never fail to do either. Especially the entertaining part.
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