Of course no one will actually confirm that this 2013 Red Sox roster is official, but if you ask me, it looks pretty solid so I’m going with it. There was no ceremonial announcement that Jackie Bradley Jr. was a definite to be in New York on Opening Day but word on the street is he is headed to NY with the club. [Yay!] After finishing up the spring with impressive numbers — .419 average and a 1.120 OPS — it would’ve have been a damn shame if he found himself in Pawtucket.

So without further ado…

Starting pitchers:
Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, Ryan Dempster, Felix Doubront, John Lackey
No surprises here, although I thought Felix might grab the #3 spot.

Bullpen:
Joel Hanrahan, Andrew Bailey, Andrew Miller, Koji Uehara, Junichi Tazawa, Alfredo Aceves, Clayton Mortensen
Daniel Bard, who the Sox broke last season, will start the season in Portland! Sounds like a rebuilding year for Bard. And I wonder what the over/under is on when Aceves has his first whiny meltdown.

Catchers: 
Jarrod Saltalamacchia, David Ross
And once again, Ryan Lavarnway is sent to Pawtucket. He’s like the high school senior that can’t seem to make the varsity club. *sigh*

Infielders:
Mike Napoli, Dustin Pedroia, Jose Iglesias, Will Middlebrooks, Pedro Ciriaco, Mike Carp
With Stephen Drew on the DL (WHAT? a Drew on the DL?), Jose Iglesias will get a shot to show us his moves and his greatly improved offense. He did hit a respectable .294 this spring.

Outfielders:
Shane Victorino, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jackie Bradley Jr., Jonny Gomes, Daniel Nava
I’m most excited about the outfield this season — Bradley, Ellsbury and Victorino could make up one of the best defensive outfield we’ve seen in a loooong time!

Tomorrow’s the day, Sox fans. The Red Sox visit the New York Yankees for an Opening Day matinee with Jon Lester taking on CC Sabathia. Game time is 1:05pm. Where will you be?

To say I’m excited for the Boston Red Sox 2013 Opening Day a week from tomorrow against the New York Yankees, is really putting it lightly. I’m in desperate need of this season to start because nothing announces the true arrival of spring better than a regular season baseball game on my television. So I’m hoping the giant mounds of snow in my yard will get the hint and skedaddle once April 1st comes.

For my last assignment in my Photoshop class (we were playing with text and effects), I let my fan flag fly. Maybe it will get you in the mood too—if you aren’t already!

Is it just me, or are the Red Sox just limping into the sunset this year?  Watching the games (I think I’m probably one of maybe a dozen people who are even still paying attention to the Sox this season), it seems like the players have been replaced by a field of zombies.  They lurch around the field, stare vacantly into space, grunt and moan at reporters, and then stagger off only to return again the next day.

Will Middlebrooks probably wishes he could just click his heels together three times and be whisked away home (photo courtesy of the Boston Red Sox).

With two more losses against Baltimore, this year’s Red Sox have hit 90 losses on the season – a feat that hasn’t been accomplished in Boston since 1966 (and think for a moment about how many terrible teams the Red Sox have fielded since then).  Truly depressing.  I think the only positive thing we can say about the Red Sox at this point is that the season’s tantalizingly, mercifully, close to over.  There are only three games left before we can finally hang up the phone on this lost season.  Sure, those three games are against the Yankees, which will make them sort of interesting on the rivalry backstory alone – but did anyone think that a season-finale series between two traditional AL East powers would be so meaningless?

The Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham made an interesting observation about this year’s Red Sox.  He reported that this year’s rookie hazing – an affair that usually sees elaborate costumes, drawn-out dance routines, and general hoopla – consisted of just some cheap Halloween costumes thrown together at the last minute.  Abraham writes, and I agree, that this year’s listless team can’t even seem to get it together to care enough about a ritual that’s supposed to be a fun, bonding experience.

Anyway, the series with the Yankees – the beginning of the end of the Red Sox campaign – starts tonight in New York.  I’ll watch, but at this point?  I’m more interested in whether the Yankees can hold off the Orioles than I am in whether the Sox can pick up a few meaningless wins against a team that’s already clinched a playoff spot.

See the title to this post?  That’s pretty much the takeaway from last night’s game.  The Red Sox sported some obvious holes in their lineup (most notably, Adrian Gonzalez ceded first base to Mauro Gomez last night – word is that he still doesn’t feel well) but pulled through for a strong win out of the All-Star break gate.  The Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-1, bringing them (wait for it… wait for it…) one game over .500, and putting them a game ahead of Toronto in the AL East standings.

Welcome back, Jacoby Ellsbury – we missed you. (Keith Allison, c/o flickr.com)

The marquee line on this game was that Jacoby Ellsbury finally made his long-awaited return off the DL, playing in his first game since partially dislocating his shoulder back on April 13.  He flew out to left in his first leadoff at-bat, but finally got on base when he dribbled a seeing-eye ground ball past second base in the seventh inning.  It’s good to have Ellsbury back – even if he doesn’t do much for a while, the simple fact that all Boston’s injured players are starting to make their reappearances will inject some life into this team, and into this fanbase.

Oh, on that note – yesterday team owner Larry Lucchino sent a letter to season ticket holders commiserating with them over the team’s lackluster first half and asking for them to keep the faith for the second haul.  The local news covered the letter this morning, and interviewed some Sox fans.  One of them actually said “it’s always been hard being a Sox fan… they do this to us every year.”  Excuse me?  It’s true that the Red Sox have had more down seasons than up seasons over the course of the last lifetime, but I think that guy missed the point.

The reason this season is excruciating as compared to other seasons, is because this season (and last season, for that matter), the Sox were supposed to be stacked.  Crawford, Gonzalez, Lackey, etc.  The Sox print money these days, and it’s an odd mixture of frustration and, I think, embarassment at continued high-priced free-agent failure that drives this melancholy.  The Red Sox are turning, if they haven’t already, into the early 2000-era Yankees – high paychecks, clubhouse discord, and an inability to back it up on the field.  That embarrasses a lot of Red Sox fans who have constructed a lot of their fan identity on, well, being the martyrs on the white horses, the anti-Yankees.  Must be tough to swallow that they’re quickly becoming them.

Anyway.  David Ortiz and Pedro Ciriaco, whose been playing out of his mind lately (3 for 3, sacrifice, stolen base last night, and 10 for 16 in his last four games) handled all the scoring for the Sox last night.  Papi launched a ball into the right field seats in the first inning to get things started, and then Ciriaco scored Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Ryan Sweeney on a bases-loaded single in the second inning.  From there, Franklin Morales held the Rays scoreless through five, allowing only two hits before giving the ball to Scott Atchison.  Atchison let the Rays score off a Sean Rodriguez double, but that was all the scoring the six total Red Sox pitchers would allow.  My new persona non grata Vicente Padilla picked up his 20th hold (maybe baseball’s too easy for him, and he should pick up a tougher sport that women play, like, oh, roller derby, or my “recreational” Sunday flag football league, which, yikes), and Alfredo Aceves picked up his 20th save.

So, that’s not a bad start to the second half.  Here’s a link to the box score, courtesy of the Red Sox.  Boston takes the field again in Tampa Bay tonight, when Clay Buchholz (8-2, 5.53 ERA) comes off the disabled list from his scary gastrointestinal bleed to face David Price 11-4, 2.82 ERA).

So, here’s a thought experiment for you: when your starting pitcher, your number two pitcher – let’s call him, say, Josh Beckett – gives up five runs to the Yankees in the top of the first inning what are the chances of then witnessing any kind of close, fun, enjoyable baseball game?

Josh Beckett (Amanda Laws)

Turns out, if you’re talking about a Red Sox-Yankees game, the chances are pretty good.  The Red Sox stormed back against an equally ineffective Hiroki Kuroda in the bottom of the first, and tied the game at five.  A wild first inning kicked off the last series before the All-Star break: Beckett gave up two singles and then hit Alex Rodriguez to load the bases, before walking Derek Jeter home on a Robinson Cano walk, allowing a two-run single to Mark Teixeira, and giving up sacrifice fly balls to Nick Swisher and Eric Chavez.

Phew.  Exhausting!  Good thing Kuroda had a similarly tough time getting outs in the first inning.  He gave up a leadoff double to Daniel Nava, moved him on a wild pitch, and let him score on a Ryan Kalish sacrifice fly.  A David Ortiz single, a Yankee throwing error, and an Adrian Gonzalez double brought the score to 5-2, before Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit his 17th home run of the year to right field, tying the game and marking a new career high.

The first inning took almost 45 minutes, which, well, let’s just say visions of a seven-hour game were running through my head.  This was a Red Sox-Yankees game, after all.

» Continue reading “Red Sox Drop A Wild One, And, The Teixeira-Padilla Chronicles”

Will Middlebrooks.  Will Middlebrooks?  Will Middlebrooks!

The young third baseman showed up again for the Sox last night, hitting a single, a double, and a homerun to pace Boston to an 8-4 win over the Atlanta Braves last night at Fenway Park.

This game was special to me, because I decided to get tickets and take my father to his first game at Fenway.  My dad was in town helping us with some construction/handyman stuff around the house (we’re expecting our first child in August, so needless to say there’s a massive Purge And Organize All The Stuff RIGHT NOW WE’RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME project underway at my place), and I couldn’t think of a better way to thank him for a day of lifting, carrying, and hammering than to grab some decent tickets and treat him to a game.

My dad is a Brooklyn native, New York City born and bred, so his reference points for baseball stadiums are Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium, and now, Citifield.  He vaguely remembers Ebbets Field from his days as a yute in Brooklyn.  He was so excited to go to Fenway, and I gave him the grand tour: Yawkey Way, the concourse, the view from behind home plate, I pointed out the Monster, the press box, Williamsburg, the Pesky Pole – those things you see on TV all the time (especially if you watch the hundred million Yankees-Red Sox games every season) but can’t really see until you’re right in front of them.

Disclosure: I’m from New York, and I’ve always considered the Yankees my team (it’s kind of unavoidable when you came of age during the mid-90s dynasty).  I don’t see my allegiances switching any time soon, but I’ll say this: I’ve lived in Boston for almost nine years now, and I’ve developed a serious soft spot for the Red Sox.  In 2004, I was in Boston for the first three games of the famed ALCS between the Yankees and the Red Sox, and I remember sitting in a bar (one of those gritty bars in my gentrifying neighborhood that’s since become a swank restaurant) watching the Yankees hammer the Red Sox to a 19-8 win to take a 3-0 series lead.  Eerie, because the Sox had last won the World Series in 1918, and the final score seemed in my mind to solidify that damning legacy.

For Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS, I was in Durham, New Hampshire.  The Yankees lost, and I was, for lack of a better word, pissed.  I had an early class back in Boston the next day, though.  As I drove down I-93 through Medford, Dunkin Donut’s coffee in one hand, WEEI on the radio, I saw the Boston skyline for the first time: it looked – different.  Shinier, almost.  Newer, almost.  Reborn, definitely.  I can’t say that I was happy, but the first glimmers of understanding broke through my pinstriped skull.  I took Storrow Drive towards Back Bay, and I noticed that someone had already repainted one of the “Reverse Curve” signs to read “Reversed the Curse” and I smiled.

Anyway, a lot of the credit for why I have a soft spot for the Red Sox goes to Fenway Park, the ancient ballfield they play at.  It’s small and intimate – even the worst seats in the park are pretty close to the action.  It’s beautiful – the green walls and open grandstands are, I think, unmatched in major league baseball.  And, it’s a place where, every time you go, you’re likely to run into someone you know, because everyone goes there.  Fenway fits perfectly and unobtrusively into its footprint: you round a corner and suddenly you’re there.  There’s no sea of parking lots, no towering upper decks, not even very many Red Sox-themed businesses in the area (my personal favorite, though, is the Popeye’s near Kenmore Square that has a banner proclaiming itself the Red Sox pitching staff’s favorite fried chicken since 2011).  It fits very naturally into Boston, and unless you’re looking for it, you don’t even know it’s there.  Without Fenway Park, the Red Sox would be just another big-market, free-agent, high-spending, anonymous team.  With Fenway Park, though, the Red Sox are a legacy, a history, and a standard that puts them in baseball’s upper echelon.

By the way, my dad loved Fenway.  We walked in and he fell silent, just looking around as we made our way through the bustling concourse and around the stands to our seats.  He just kind of looked around for a while, nodding occasionally.  When I finally asked him what he thought, he said it was “small… but gosh, it’s pretty.”  Then he asked me why our seats in right field pointed towards center field instead of towards home plate, and suggested that maybe they should be swivel seats instead.  Nope, Dad, that will never happen – just look to the left if you want to see the infield. and take solace in the fact that you get to watch a baseball game today.

Big tangent.  At any rate, the Sox pummeled the Braves last night.  Atlanta scored first in the top of the first inning, but that was the last time they’d hold the lead.  The Sox scored twice to get back on top, and cruised from there. The Braves starter lasted 1.1 innings, which allowed the Sox to dig into the underbelly of the Atlanta bullpen early and often.  Dustin Pedroia had a three-hit night to match Middlebrooks, and Adrian Gonzalez, Mike Aviles, and Cody Ross each proved their mettle with two-hit games.

Meanwhile, for-now Red Sox starter Franklin Morales pitched a six-inning, three run game, which Bobby Valentine told reporters was enough to earn him a third start.  Since he’s filled in for Josh Beckett, Morales has only given up four earned runs in eleven innings of work, and he’s struck out 17 batters while only walking one (the lone free pass came in the first inning last night).

Meanwhile, Will Middlebrooks remains on fire.  During his last at bat, the stands were buzzing because he only needed to hit a triple to hit for the cycle – and everyone in Fenway thought he had a more-than-decent chance of actually doing it.  How often do you see 30,000 people confident in someone’s ability to just hit a triple on demand?  the fact that he didn’t do it was, frankly, a little surprising, which shows you how far Middlebrooks’s stock has risen lately.

The coolest play of the game came care of Boston eighth-inning guy Vicente Padilla, who threw one of those ridiculous 50-mph curveballs to Jason Heyward.  Heyward bounced the ball back to Padilla, who then threw Heyward out at first.  That curveball looked so slow, I was sure for a moment that Padilla messed up, or was hurt, or slipped, or something.  I mean, really, 50 miles per hour?

Here’s a link to the box score from my dad’s first game at Fenway, courtesy of the Red Sox.  The Sox take on the Braves in a matinee today.  Clay Buchholz is sick , so Aaron Cook will take his start.  Cook is just back from the DL after having his shin gashed open by a spike on a play at the plate on May 5.  That May appearance was Cook’s only appearance for Boston this year, and it wasn’t great: he lasted 2.2 innings and gave up seven runs and eight hits en route to a loss to the Orioles.  Cook will take on Mike Minor (3-5, 6.04 ERA).

Sorry about the headline – I couldn’t resist.

Check this out: as of June 3, the Boston Red Sox were officially out of the AL East basement:

Exciting – take THAT, Toronto Blue Jays!  The New York Yankees are only a half game ahead, and lately New York couldn’t hit its way out of a paper bag with RISP.  The Red Sox pitching finally seems to be shaping up, the bullpen is sorting itself out, and the lauded hitters are, well, hitting laudably.  Even some rookies and unknowns have started to step up and help the club out.  Most recently, Clay Buchholz and Felix Doubront led the Sox to wins over the (last-place, snicker) Blue Jays with dazzling outings, and unexpected offensive outbursts from the likes of Daniel Nava and Nick Punto put the Sox over the top.  Kevin Youkilis is back, Dustin Pedroia sounds like he’ll play on Tuesday, and even Daisuke Matsuzaka’s had a promising rehab stint in Pawtucket on Thursday.

Daniel Bard will try for the series sweep today.  He’s won his last four decisions.

So, things look pretty darn good in the Nation.  Ben Cherington?  Genius!  Bobby Valentine?  A master of strategery.  Even Wally the Green Monster looks a little more plush these days.

Now granted, this could all turn around again quickly.  The Boston media is ruthless, the Sox have some tough series coming up (Orioles, Nationals, Marlins, and then a showdown with Theo Epstein’s Cubs…).  If Alfredo Aceves blows a save, Adrian Gonzalez grounds into a few double plays, or Youkilis loses his hot bat again, then the mood around here will turn from glass half full to glass half empty quicker than you can say “fourth place… that means we’re only better than one other team in our division, right?”  The histrionics of Red Sox fans and Red Sox media, both optimistic and pessimistic, should never, ever, be underestimated.

But for now, Sox fans, let’s enjoy this moment.  In the past year, we’ve gone from the team that was supposed to win 100 games, to the team that collapsed and missed the playoffs, to the team that lost its manager and its general manager, to the team that took a chance on a green general manager and a has-been manager, to the team with no closer, to the team with no bullpen, to the team with no pitching, to the team with no hitting, to… this incarnation.  A team with some good pitching, a basically reliable, if patched-together, bullpen, and an offense that can string a few hits together.

It seems like now, finally, for some reason, the Sox have a fighting chance at this thing.  Maybe this is how baseball’s supposed to be.  If you won games on paper, there’d be no such things as baseball stadiums.  If you won championships in the off-season, then fantasy baseball would just be called baseball.  Sure, fourth place isn’t really that amazing – but it feels so much better than fifth, and this team feels so much better than fourth.

On May 21, 2012, this version of the Boston Red Sox finally caught up with the rest of the AL East.  The Sox brought their winning percentage back to .500 following an 8-6 drubbing of the first-place Baltimore Orioles.  Currently, the Sox are tied with the Yankees for fourth place in the division.  It’s not where anyone thought or hoped they’d be, but all signs point to the tide turning.

“It’s definitely not a goal,” Bobby Valentine told reporters.  “But it’s better than being under .500.”

The AL East, May 21, 2012 (c/o mlb.com)

Another point: what’s going on with the Yankees?  They’re 3-7 over their last ten, have lost their last three, and seem to be sliding downhill just as quickly as the Red Sox – who have won eight of their last ten, and their last three – are pushing uphill.  Is it bad starting pitching?  Is it an inability to hit with runners on?  Is it something else?  Nobody expected the Yankees to be riding the basement with a quarter of the season gone.

The Sox scored eight runs last night, even without Cody Ross.  Word is, Ross will be out six to eight weeks with a fracture in his foot.  Every starter had a hit – including outfielder Che-Hsuan Lin, who notched his first career hit.  David Ortiz launched a home run in the sixth that still hasn’t hit the ground to overcome another shaky Clay Buchholz start.

The real story of this game, though, and of the past week’s renaissance, is the Red Sox bullpen.  The same bullpen that lost its closer the day before the regular season started, had to send its next-most-touted arm to Pawtucket, and couldn’t seem to keep runners from scoring, has recently become a massive strength for Boston.  Andrew Miller stranded two runners in the sixth inning and followed up with a 1-2-3 seventh inning.  Rich Hill stumbled and allowed a run in the eighth, but Vicente Padilla stranded two crucial baserunners to end the Baltimore scoring threat.  And, Alfredo Aceves found his tenth save of the year in the ninth inning.

The bullpen has a 1.59 ERA since April 23, and finally, those results are starting to show up in the standings. Also?  Boston’s disabled list is a great team.  That the Sox are winning games without several of their biggest names is a good sign for when those big names actually take the field again.

Here’ a link to the box score, courtesy of the Red Sox.  Tonight, the Sox toe up against the Orioles again at Camden Yards.  Felix Doubront (4-1, 4.09 ERA) takes the hill against Brian Matusz (3-4, 5.36 ERA).

Photo by me.

Up until yesterday, I had two very memorable trips to Fenway Park — my first trip in 1978 when I was eight years old. It was a four generation outing with my dad, my grandfather and great grandmother (who was a huge fan!), and the Derek Lowe no-hitter. This one definitely tops the list now.

Becca did such a fantastic job recapping yesterday’s events with some amazing photos (if you missed it, click here) which is great because basically all I did was cry and ended up taking some extremely blurry pictures. It’s hard to  cheer, sob and snap pics all at the same time. What an amazing day! Like the final out of the 2004 World Series, I know I’ll never be able to watch footage from yesterday’s festivities without bursting into tears. It was such an emotional day for all Sox fans. Even the season ticket holder next to me got misty when Nomar walked onto the field. He said to me, “he was worth the price of admission for every game I went to that he played in. Now I’m crying!”

When I arrived for the game yesterday, I had a good feeling about this series with the Yankees. I thought nothing could go wrong — it was a beautiful day, Fenway turned 100 years old and I wasn’t at work — the Sox had to win. But they didn’t. So they’d win the second game, right? Nope. I wish I could’ve had ended today’s game after the 6th inning so I’m breaking this recap into two sections.

PART 1: Innings 1 - 6

For the first six innings of this game, I laid on the couch thinking, “crap, this is how the game should’ve gone yesterday!” Felix Doubront pitched six strong innings, giving up just one run on five hits to a pretty potent Yankees offense. He looked good and his 93 mph fast ball looked effortless. His only mistake was leaving one out over the plate in the top of the 6th for Mark Teixeira to belt over the Green Monster. On the slo-mo replay, you could see Mark’s eyes get real big and I’m sure he was thinking Christmas came early. He struck out seven Yankees and walked just two. At this point, I thought nothing could go wrong.

Even the offense decided to show up today. Almost every batter in the Red Sox lineup had at least one hit — everyone except the 3rd base platoon of Kevin Youkilis, Nate Spears and pinch hitter, Nick Punto. David Ortiz went 4 for 4 with an RBI and raised his average to .436, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia broke out his early season slump going 4 for 5. Both Mike Aviles and Cody Ross had two RBI — Cody’s coming on a monster homerun to straight away center that hit the camera tower. The Red Sox scored two in the first, three in the second, two in the third and two in the fifth and looked to be on their way to breaking their current four-game losing streak leading 9-0 after five innings.

But we all know that any lead against the Yankees is not big enough. In the 6th, Doubront struck out Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriguez before giving up the four-bagger to Teixeira. Curtis Granderson popped out to short stop to end the inning. Doubront finished the 6th with 99 pitches. I totally expected to see him in the 7th. That was not the case…. hence the second part to this recap.

PART 2: Innings 7 - 9

Vicente Padilla relieved Doubront to start the 7th and struck out Andruw Jones to kick things off. Russell Martin singled to right field and then FOX switched over to the White Sox v. Seattle game for the final three outs of Philip Humber’s perfect game. Now I love to see a perfect game just as much as the next fan but in my opinion, they stuck with the celebration a bit too long for my taste. By the time FOX went back to the Red Sox game, the wheels were starting to fall off the bus. The score, which was 9-1 when they switched coverage, was now 9-5. WTF? Nick Swisher blasted a grand salami to pull the Yankees to within four. And my nails got considerably shorter.

Matt Albers came in to relieve Padilla who couldn’t get the job done, and promptly gave up a three-run shot to Teixeira to bring them within one. And I really started to sweat. This is one of those times being married to a Yankees fan really backfires on me. I may or may not have been nanner-nannering my husband about Freddie Garcia’s stellar 1.2 inning outing. Karma hates me.

Franklin Morales came in to relieve Albers who also stunk it up and got out of the rest of the inning unscathed. In the end, the Yankees scored *cough* seven runs *cough* in the inning so I guess there was some scathing, just not for Morales. I honestly can’t bring myself to give the gory details of the 8th inning without leaping out the second story window of my house so here it is in nutshell. Bobby Valentine brought in Alfredo Aceves for the six out save attempt after Morales gave up a lead off single to left. That didn’t happen, he got the loss. The Yankees scored seven more runs on a lot of hits and a couple of walks and now Red Sox nation is pissed off. The boos for Bobby V. were deafening.

The game lasted 3 hours and 52 minutes. It felt twice that long but I’m sure that had a lot to do with having to listen to Tim McCarver and his butchering of nearly every aspect of the broadcast. If you care to take a gander at the painful box score, here’s the link, courtesy of the Red Sox. The series wraps up Sunday night at 8:05pm with Daniel Bard facing off against CC Sabathia. Surprisingly, right now Bard has a better ERA then Sabathia (4.63 vs. 5.59). Let’s hope we can at least salvage one game of this series.

Baseball = Happiness

It’s finally here! In less than 24 hours, the regular season officially gets underway (sorry, I just can’t count the series in Japan since I barely knew it was happening.) I’ve been so caught up in the Red Sox preseason drama, I haven’t even had a chance to fully scope out this year’s competition in the American League East. This division has notoriously been one of the toughest divisions in all of baseball. In the 17 years the wildcard has been around, 13 of the American League teams were from the AL East. And I don’t see it being any different this year. I wholeheartedly expect the one game playoff between the two wildcards this year to be two teams from this division. Hold on folks, it’s going to be a wild ride!!

First (because I’m doing this alphabetically), the Baltimore Orioles. Let’s see what the Charm City Yakyuu lead writer, Stephanie Lynne Dioro has to say about her team.
» Continue reading “Red Sox: Sizing Up the AL East Competition”