Red Sox Breakdown 2010

“Our best Effort”


My beloved Boston Red Sox last week finally ran out of gas after what has been a disastrous injury plagued season. Almost from the outset though you could see that management had made a decision early on that this would be an “in between” season. The Sox made hardly any huge additions, signing Mike Cameron & Jeremy Hermeda (who is already gone) were minor signings & the only major addition was John Lackey. So it was clear that the owners were not willing to compete with our down the coast rivals the dreaded Yankees.
The fact that baseball needs badly a salary cap is for another post, along with I might add a REAL Commissioner, not a “rooster watching the hen house!”. But these Sox fought through a ton of injuries. Just about everyone has been on the dl this year: Veritek, Ellsbury, (for the year) Cameron, (also forever) Beckett, Wakefield, Buchholtz, Youk (out for the year) & Pedroia (also for the year) & more! It’s been a nitemare, but they stayed in contention way beyond my wildest dreams.
If Pap’s didn’t have 7 blown saves, like giving up 4 runs in the 9th vs. the White Sox, who knows where we would be? The Sox lost a lot of games in the last 2 innings this year & also gave up a lot of runs in the early innings having to play “catch up” way to many times. But I was deeply impressed with 2 players especially, 3b acquisition, Adrian Beltre & if/of utility man, Bill Hall. Hall has hit like 18 homers & has been playing maybe “over his head” as some have said, but this is a good ball player & I would be fine to see the Sox keep him around.
Beltre is a throwback from all I can see. He is a player form another time, he reminds me of the gritty give it all you got always type of player we rarely see anymore. He played through pain, is a great teammate they say & just gives it his all. He reminds me of the old Spoke Owens type, Pedroia is exactly the same way too! On a really sad note, it look like this will be Mike Lowell’s final season. What a class act this guy has been, he came in the Beckett deal & no one expected him to do much, especially coming off a .207 batting avg. w/ the marlins, but he rose to World Series Mvp in 2007 & I for one (and my wife who is crazy about him) will be sad to see him go, but it is time. We do have some good young players though as the Sox have gone to great pains to take care of their farm teams & we’ve seen some great moments from players like Kalish, Bowden, Reddick & others. So now it is time for me to root for my 2nd favorite team, the Minnesota Twins & I’ll also root for the Rays!

Here’s to hoping that one of these teams will topple that “evil empire” in 2010!


stay tuned,
Al

Random Thoughts about John Adams

John Adams was our nation’s 2nd president & it seems in everything he get’s little to no credit. He was also our nation’s 1st Vice-President & he was, in my opinion the 1st president to steer us out of a war. (with the French) He is also considered to be perhaps the strongest voice in the Continental Congress for Independence & gave an impassioned speech & worked behind the scenes in those last hours before the vote to secure that Independence. In his keeping us out of war in 1799, he did so at his own peril, something we rarely if ever see today from our Politicians. A quick search reveals little in the way’s of memorials to this man who as I stated above was a “pillar” to our Revolution. Yes there is a Library of Congress building named after him, but not much else sadly….. On a website, someone recently wrote this about him:

“There would be no United States of America if not for the efforts and sacrifice of this great patriot! .. John Adams made two CRUCIAL decisions. It was he who nominated Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence and it was he who nominated George Washington to lead our new continental Army“.

So, it seems to me that we could be recognizing this great contributor to our Nation in more ways then we do now.

Oh well more to come,

stay tuned,
Al