“How like a winter hath my absence been from thee…”

3/21 – DEADLINE EXTENDED: Contrary to the information at the end of this post, the deadline for submissions has been extended until the first pitch is thrown on Opening Day, March 31, in the US (as opposed to the two games early opening day games in Australia between the Dodgers and Diamondbacks). For individuals who have submitted their picks in a timely fashion, you are welcome to amend any or all of what you’ve submitted. For those of you who are slaggards, your procrastination/careless reading of the previously announced deadline has been ‘rewarded’. However, in case of a tie in any of the contests, the individual who first submitted the prediction will be declared the winner.

Contest #1:

Who Said “You Can’t Teach An Old Dog New Tricks?”

14 Friday Feb 2014

Posted by Richard in Go Sox

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

2014 MillersTime Baseball Contests, baseball, Boston Red Sox, Contests, GoSox

An updated version of this wonderful picture will be posted following my family’s attendance at the 2014 Opening Day at Fenway in April.

The title of this post is perhaps slightly misleading, but then it may have gotten you at least to get this far into today’s post.

It’s about that wonderful time of the year when football, basketball, and most of those other minor sports are either off the front of the sporting news or are tiresome, and folks who understand the fascination of baseball are beginning to get revved. After all, truck day has come and gone, most pitchers and catchers have reported, full squad practices are beginning, and we will have a year without A-Rod disgracing our blessed game.

What more could we ask?

The point of this post, you ask?

I am ‘working’ on the 2014 MillersTime Baseball Contests and need a bit of your help.

Final 2013 MillersTime Baseball Contest Winners

11 Monday Nov 2013

Posted by Richard in Go Sox

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

2013 Baseball Contests, baseball, MillersTime Baseball Contests, Winners

With the conclusion of the World Series (wasn’t that just dandy?) and the naming of Wil Myers as the American League Rookie of the Year today, the voting closes for choosing the winners of Contests #1 and #6.

Contest #1 – Make a Prediction about the 2013 baseball season:

I put the 12 predictions that came true to a vote of MillersTime/GoSox baseball readers, and the result was a tie between two as voters seemed to appreciate the specificity of the these two predictions:

#3 – RA Dickey will struggle, his ERA will be higher than the past three seasons, and he won’t win more than 15 games. (His ERA was indeed higher, 4.21 vs 3.28, and his record was 14-13.)

#7 – Jordan Zimmerman will be the Nats best and most consistent pitcher, over Strasburg and Gonzales. (Zimmerman was 19-9, Strasburg 8-9, Gonzales 11-8.)

So Rob Higdon (#3) and Dan Cate (#7) tie. Their prize is an all expense over night car trip with me to Cooperstown between the end of the 2013 MLB baseball season and Opening Day in 2014. Hopefully we can work out a mutually satisfying time for this trip.

Dear Eli, (cont.)

01 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by Richard in Family and Friends, Go Sox

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

2013 World Series, 2013 WS Winners, baseball, Boston Red Sox, Red Sox, Rob Goodman

First Game: 7/09

Most Recent: 9/13

Dear Eli,

My grandfather, Pappy (Rob Goodman, your great, great grandfather), was the person who introduced me to baseball and to the Red Sox. In all of his years going to Fenway Park (he was a season ticket holder, nights and weekends), he never saw the Sox win a World Series. (He might have seen them play in the World Series one time as the Sox did make it that far in 1946. But he never saw them win because they lost to St. Louis that time.)

The Sox didn’t get to the WS again in Pappy’s life time and so he never got to see what his grandson (me), great granddaughters (your mother Annie & auntie Elizabeth), and great great grand son (you) have had the good fortune to experience.

“Worst. Dad. Ever” ?

14 Monday Oct 2013

Posted by Richard in Family and Friends, Go Sox

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

ALCS, baseball, Boston Red Sox, David Ortiz, Detroit Tigers, Parenting

No doubt if you’re reading this post, you know of the Sox 8th inning comeback last night from a 5-1 shellacking with an Ortiz grand slam to tie the game and then the win in the bottom the 9th.

Baseball and/or Football

30 Monday Sep 2013

Posted by Richard in Articles & Books of Interest, Go Sox

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Austen Lane, baseball, Football, Jonathan Mahler

One of the delights for me being able to pursue interests other than professional ones is having time to read and think about some of those other interests.

Today’s post links to three articles that I have found particularly interesting about sports.

And you do not have to be an obsessive sports’ fan nor do you need to pick baseball over football or vice versa to enjoy them.

The first two articles (sent to me by BT) are written by a football player who is particularly gifted in his ability to convey what it is like to be a professional football player, to fail at that profession, and to continue to pursue his dream to play.

Both of his articles are worth your time I believe:

* What It’s Like to Get Whacked, by Austen Lane

* A Game with No End, by Austen Lane

The other article I draw to your attention (thanks to AR for alerting me to this one) appeared yesterday in the New York Times and discusses the current ‘decline’ in interest in baseball as the ‘National Pastime’, some of the reasons football (and other sports) has/have gained in popularity, and the differences between them.

Its author, Jonathan Mahler, doesn’t seek to persuade you about one sport over the other but rather writes about how they differ. And, perhaps, as interesting as the article itself are the Comments by readers that follow the article. If you have the time and the topic interests you, there is much here to enjoy and consider.

Is the Game Over, by Jonathan Mahler

Why Having the Best Record Matters

26 Thursday Sep 2013

Posted by Richard in Go Sox

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

baseball, Boston Red Sox, Home Team Advantage, MLB Playoffs, Wild Card, World Series

Dear Ellen,

I appreciate that you have been quite patient with my mishegas (craziness) again this year with the Red Sox.

I have also noticed that you haven’t ‘rolled your eyes’ when I’ve said that getting into the playoffs isn’t enough, that the Sox need to have the best record in the American League too.

But I’m not sure you understand just how important it is have the best record.

So a quick post for you to know why I am continuing to stress about my heroes even tho they will be in the playoffs.

If they have the best won/loss record that means the following:

1) They will have home field advantage in the two series they would have to play to get to the World Series. In the first best of five series and then in the second best of seven series if there are final games, those crucial games would take place in Fenway, home of the brave.

How important is that, you may ask?

Of the 81 games they have played at home this year, they are 53-28. They have won 65% of their games at Fenway.

Of the 78 games they have played away from home so far this year (they still have three left to play this weekend in Baltimore), they are 43-35, 55%.

Enough of a difference to matter.

2) They will face the winner of a one game Wild Card play off. And that team will have used their best pitcher in that Wild Card game, meaning the Sox won’t have to face the likes of say a David Price in their first game.

3) They will not have to face Detroit in the first playoff series. Detroit has both terrific pitching and strong hitting. And there is always the chance they will be defeated by the time the Sox have to play them.

4) They will not have to make two trips to the West Coast to play Oakland (going back for a final game if the series goes that far), which means they will be more rested.

But you may ask, “Don’t they still have to beat the Tigers and whoever wins the playoff games against the Wild Card anyway?”

True.

But playing at home, playing with the most rest possible, and not having to face one of the best pitchers in baseball to get to the World Series all matter.

Those are not guarantees that the Sox would make it to the World Series.

But every advantage helps.

Questions?

Richard,

Go Sox

Announcing Three New MillersTime Baseball Contest Winners

25 Wednesday Sep 2013

Posted by Richard in Go Sox

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

2013 Baseball Contests, baseball, Major League Baseball, Red Sox, Washington Nationals, Wild Card, World Series, Yankees

As the 2013 MLB season winds down, or, for some of us, winds up, there are already three winners to announce for this year’s MillersTime Baseball Contests.

Contest #4 – Will Nats make the playoffs? If yes, how far will they go? If no, why not?

More than 90% of you said the Nats would make the playoffs, and some of you thought they’d make it to the World Series or even be the winner of the WS. Most seemed to believe the Nats would pick up right where they left off last year (98-64). With four games remaining, they are 84-74 and have been eliminated from the Wild Card.

Matt Gallati (“they will be plagued by injuries and thus lose more often than they win.”), Larry Longenecker (“Davey Johnson will eventually upset people by speaking his mind…”) and David Price (“…they won’t even be close…”) all thought they wouldn’t make the playoffs and seemed to understand that 2013 would be different for them than 2012.

But Randy Candea wins this contest with this prediction for 2013: “Nats (88-74) will finish behind Atlanta and not make the playoffs due to sophomore jinx. Unlike last year, they won’t win the close games.” He gets two tickets to a Nationals’ game of his choice in 2014.

Contest #5 – Predict the Sox-Yankee Split of the 19 games they play against each other. Since Jere Smith failed to take the opportunity to appeal my decision, Meg Gage wins the two tickets to Fenway in 2014. (See this earlier post for more details on the results of this contest.)

Contest #7 – Worst Prediction.

Actually this one was not one of the six original 2013 contests. In a moment of anxiety about how the Sox were doing, I distracted myself by going through everyone’s predictions and decided to add a category of the Worst Prediction for 2013. I found 15 predictions that were pretty wide of the mark and let you folks choose which one was the worst. (See all the 15 in this earlier post.)

Elizabeth Hedlund ‘won’ (got the most votes from you) with her prediction that “Stephen Strasburg wins 30 games, first since Denny McLain in 1986.” And because contestant Tracy Capullo encouraged Elizabeth to join the contests, these two Red Sox fans get to go to a Nats’ game of their choice in 2014.

Also,

Contest #3. Which League wins the All-Star game, what will the score be, and who will be the MVP?

I announced the winner of this contest earlier. Tim Malieckal and I will go to Minneapolis next summer.

Finally, there are still three contests to be decided: Best overall prediction (#1), Best Team Prediction (#2), and World Series Contestants and winner. We’ll have to wait until the end of October to see who wins these.

We Have a Winner in MillersTime Contest #5

16 Monday Sep 2013

Posted by Richard in Go Sox

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baseball, Boston Red Sox, MillersTime Baseball Contest #5, New York Yankees

Contest #5 : The Red Sox and the Yankees play 19 games this year. Last year they played 18, and the Yankees won 13 of them. What will the split be in 2013? Tie-Breaker: Who will be the outstanding player for each team, and who will be the dud on each team this year?

Prize: Two tickets to a Sox-Yankee game in 2014. Winner can choose the park and whether or not I join (use the second ticket).

Fifty-four per cent of those participating said the Yankees would win the series, taking 11.4 games to the Sox 7.6.

The 46% of you who thought the Sox would win said they’d win 11 games to 8.

With last nights 9-2 victory by the Sox, a sweep of the final three game series between the two teams, the Fenway heroes put the final nail in the coffin of any possibility of the Yankees winning the AL East Division.

The Sox, on the other hand, improved their record to 92-59 (.609) and increased their Division lead to 9.5 games over the tottering Tampa Bay Rays. With 11 games remaining in their regular season schedule, the Sox Magic Number is down to four.

(For those not paying close attention to the 2013 Red Sox, Yes, these are the Red Sox who last year ended the season with a record of 69-93. Certainly an amazing turn around, about which I probably will write in more detail on another, later post.)

Oh yes. The Sox-Yankee split this year?

Sox 13 to the Yankee’s 6, with the Sox scoring a total of 120 runs to the Yankee’s 85.

A(nother) total reversal of 2012.

Four of the MillersTime contestants were tied with the closest predictions. Dan Fisher, Meg Gage, Jere Smith and Tracy Capulo all predicted a split of 12-7, favoring the Sox.

(Ed. note: one contestant, Elizabeth R. Miller, predicted the Sox would take the series 15-4, being the only one who said the Sox would win more than 12 of the 19 games. Obviously, Ms Miller must have been raised well. On the other hand, Yankee homer David Price will have to live with another one of his sorry predictions, “Yankees will win 14 games. The Sox will be lucky to get away with the other 5.” David comes from ‘Across the Pond’ and perhaps that contributes to his continual misjudgments.)

Since Dan and Tracy failed to make predictions about who would be the outstanding players and who would be the duds, they tie for third place in this contest.

That leaves Meg Gage and Jere Smith.

Meg said Pedroia would be the Sox hero, and Dempster would be the dud for the Sox. And Cano would be the hero and Teixeira the dud for the Yankees.

Jere said for the Sox, Middlebrooks would be the outstanding player and Aceves the dud. For the Yankees, he picked Sabathia as the hero and Youk as the dud.

By the power invested in me by me, I therefore declare Jere Smith runner-up.

And Meg Gage wins the prize and gets to see a Sox-Yankee game in 2014.

However, if Mr. Smith would like to appeal this decision to the MillersTime readers, I will give him one week to present his case, and then I will put the appeal decision up to a vote.

Finally, the best quote I heard about last night’s game and the Sox-Yankee rivalry this year came from that no good fellow Alex Rodriquez: “I guess the good news is that we’re leaving Boston.”

Hopefully, for the rest of this season. And for ever (forever) for A-Rod.

Screen Shot 2013-09-16 at 9.49.33 AM

Finally, if you didn’t have a chance to see the Sox tribute (and roast) to Mariano Rivera last night, you can see it now:

Fenway Gives Mo One Final Standing Ovation

Jeter: Tell Him

06 Tuesday Aug 2013

Posted by Richard in Go Sox

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Alex Rodriguez, baseball, Derek Jeter, MLB

AROD_JETER I wasn’t going to post about the A-Rod suspension, etc. as MillersTime is not a place that competes with the various new and old media to be on the cusp of ‘breaking’ news.

But something occurred to me last night and this morning as I thought about what is happening here and as I’ve read most of the mainstream and not so mainstream media accounts of the A-Rod situation.

The good news, from my perspective, is that a group of important players have been caught and most of them have agreed not to drag us through their phony attempts to claim innocence. Ryan Braun for example last year.

The further good news is that more and more MLB players are speaking out and saying what they previously refrained from saying: there is no place for PEDs in our game.

Even the Players Union seems to have gotten the message for the most part, tho they have slid back a few steps in their defense of A-Rod. (Yes. Due process is central to our way of life, but in cases such as these, I don’t believe the accused should be allowed to play while the appeal process takes place.)

But there is one more piece that could help nail this coffin.

Derek Jeter needs to go to A-Rod and tell him to take his punishment now and not drag this out. (A-Rod has a three-day window in which he can still agree to abide by the suspension.)

A-Rod can’t do it by himself. He cannot distinguish between what’s good for A-Rod and what’s good for baseball. Even though he says he loves the game, basically he loves himself in the game. And if he really understood what was good for A-Rod, he’d take his punishment now.

Don’t hold your breath. It looks as if he’s going to drag everyone through months of ‘torture’ so that he can “get his day in court.”

No one is fooled. A-Rod knows this might be his last chance to play for the Yankees.

It is also his last chance to save anything good that is left of his name.

Jeter can help him and help baseball.

This situation is not about having your teammate’s back. A-Rod never had anyone’s back but his own.

If rather than ask A-Rod in the clubhouse, “How’s it going man?” Jeter took him aside and said what perhaps only a friend could say. “Do what’s right. Do it for yourself. Do it for baseball.”

Then we might well be on our way to putting the PED issue behind us.

Sox Atop AL East. Magic Number Down to 162.

02 Tuesday Apr 2013

Posted by Richard in Go Sox

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

baseball, Magic Number, Nats, Sox, Yunkees

Yes.

162 is correct and not a misprint.

According to a young friend who studies these things (who ever knew there were such people?), apparently even though the Sox play 162 regular season games, they start the year with a magic number of 163.

Something about a need to put a cookie jar out of reach.

Once I return from this week’s trip to New Orleans, I’ll explain all of that in a future post for the few of you out there who may be interested in the metrics of such ‘foolishness’.

And the White Sox, Detroit, Houston, LAA, Seattle, Atlanta, Mets, Nats, Dodgers, Arizona, Cubs, Brewers also have magic numbers of 162, if I fully understand what this sabermatrician is trying to teach me.

Also, thanx to all of you who succumbed to my constant nagging (redundancy?) to participate in the 2013 MillersTime Baseball Contests.

I haven’t had time to put all the answers on a spread sheet yet; that will have to wait a week or so. But suffice it to say that not many of you picked either the Sox or the Yunkees to go all the way. In fact, many of you seem to believe neither will make it to the playoffs, but they will fight each other — for last place in the AL East.

Harrumph.

Better predictions for the Nats, however.

Cheers.

Why Is Baseball So Much Better Than Football?

08 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by Richard in Go Sox

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

baseball, Football, Frank Deford, Tom Boswell

This question is a no brainer, of course.

But a friend recently gifted me an original of a January 18, 1987 Washington Post article by my sports’ writing diety, Thomas Boswell, on this very subject. I don’t remember having seen this particular article and thought I’d pass it along.

“Let Me Count the Ways,” Boswell wrote more than a quarter of a century ago, and then continued:

Some people say football’s the best game in America. Others say baseball.

Some people are really dumb.

Some people say all this is just a matter of taste. Others know better.

Some people can’t wait for next Sunday’s Super Bowl. Others wonder why.

Pro football is a great game. Compared to hockey. After all, you’ve gotta do something when the wind chill is zero and your curveball won’t break. But let’s not be silly. Compare the games? It’s a one-sided laugher. Here are the first 99 reasons why baseball is better than football. (More after lunch).

Now the list of his first 99 reasons.

My favorites are: 11 (especially if you add that Weaver was once thrown out of a game before the game even started), 21, 25, 54, 60, 64, 69, 70, 72, 91. And those don’t include the ones Boswell must have listed after lunch.

Which ones are your favorites? (List them in the Comment section below.)

Or even better, list your own reasons why Boswell is correct.

And while I’ve never claimed MillersTime is either fair or balanced (as far as my views on baseball are concerned), you can see this lame list of 25 Reasons Football Is Better. (Some of these seem to make Boswell’s case even stronger.)

Finally, Frank Deford, someone I had also held in high esteem in the world of sports’ writing, at least until I came across this article, sees it differently.

What say you?

2013 MillersTime Baseball Contests

05 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by Richard in Go Sox

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

baseball, Baseball Contests, MillersTime Baseball Contests

(Workers on Tuesday are loading a truck with the Red Sox’ gear for spring training. Marie Torto photo)

2013 MillersTime Baseball Contests

A few changes for this year’s contests in response to some readers’ suggestions.

Primarily, I have de-emphasized the Sox and Yankees (only one contest involves these two teams), and I have tried to allow for your specific interest in a favorite team, a favorite player, and/or your baseball knowledge (or lack of it also) in general.

Contest #1:

Make a prediction about the 2013 MLB baseball season.

“The Last Days of September”

28 Sunday Oct 2012

Posted by Richard in Go Sox

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baseball, End of the Season, poetry

(The author of the poem below is Troy Lovett, a retired high school math teacher living in Louisville. The poem came to me through a long time Kentucky friend who regularly sends baseball and other good, current writing, and I think received a copy of the poem in a recent email.)

The Last Days of September

The last days
of September carry with them a sense
of change; a longing for what is
fleeting; a remembrance of what is no more;
and an awareness of approaching winter.
Days are filled with a little of all that–warm afternoons, chilly nights, bluer skies,
less daylight, and warm cider.

There is urgency in the precious last days
of autumn. Squirrels and birds scurry to beat the night’s cold and we
unpack winter sweaters and knitted scarves and brace for change.

The greatest game
follows its inevitable path toward conclusion with
athletes playing through the wear and tear of a long season, trying to
find the resources to make one final push
for glory. For some it is the morning of a promising career; for others
the evening of a journey through paradise passing far too soon.

For the players, and for us,
we sense, as at no other time,
that the game goes on and we are fleeting;
that what is real is much more than what is seen;
that life is a prelude to a greater glory;
that we have been blessed in incalculable ways
to have played another season; and that life
and the game are gifts from a Father’s love.

There are lessons to be learned from
late September days.

Sleep warm, my dear friend.