Nuf Ced...

Forget Jerry Remy, Michael "Nuf Ced" McGreevey was the original President of Red Sox Nation. Back in the day, before Fenway Park and the Great Bambino, back when the Olde Towne Team was referred to as the Boston Americans, McGreevey owned the original sports bar in the greatest sports town in America: Third Base Saloon, named so because "it was the last place you stopped before home." McGreevey was the founder of the Royal Rooters, the first organized baseball fan club in the world, and was the most intensely loyal fan the team ever had.

Most modern day fans have only heard of Michael McGreevey because of the tremendously popular "Tessie" by the Dropkick Murphys:

Tessie, Nuf Ced McGreevey shouted

We're not here to mess around

Boston, you know we love you madly

"Tessie," was a Broadway song that was the rallying cry of McGreevey's Royal Rooters, and was most famously sung so boisterously by the troupe during the first World Series in 1903 that it distracted the opposing Pittsburgh Pirates enough for Boston's team to rally and take the series.

Now, McGreevey and his Rooters lived in a golden age of Boston Baseball - the Americans/Red Sox won the World Series in 1903, 1912, 1915, 1916, and 1918 - but you can bet he'd be ashamed to see the fairweather fans of today.

Today's loss was hard to take [understatement of the year]. After the final out, I got up, called my dogs, walked them down to the river, and sat there for more than an hour. When I had collected myself [and gotten uncomfortably cold], I returned to my house and made fudge [coping mechanism]. There are as many ways to cope as there are fans, but those who malign the Angels are poor sports at best. The Angels did their jobs. The Red Sox did not. As heartbreaking as that is, it's the truth: our closer had a meltdown at a critical moment, after proving his mettle in countless high-pressure situations.

Nuf Ced would roll over in his grave to see so-called diehards behaving this way. You always cheer on your team, but should also applaud worthy opponents. Just because we have dispatched the Angels in quick fashion in recent October memory does not mean it is our birthright.

This loss was hard to stomach, but some of the reactions are even worse: Sox fans are acting like spoiled children who feel they deserve October glory. If you want to behave in that manner, go cheer for the Yankees - Red Sox Nation doesn't need you.

I Blame CB Bucknor.

Early this morning, I was on Twitter and saw libbycrews blaming the Red Sox for oversleeping... So, being the irrational Red Sox fan that I am proud to be, I told her to blame infamous umpire CB Bucknor instead.

When I returned to the site later this evening, fangsbites and Gabs10272004 had replied, blaming Bucknor for such things as overindulgance at the bar, the botched 2000 election, communism, global warming, and gout. This got me thinking: what else can we blame Bucknor for?

Bucknor was:

the spark that caused the Hindenburg combustion.

the iceburg that sunk the Titanic.

the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs.

the drought that triggered the Dust Bowl.

the money that paid off the Black Sox.

the crash that kicked off the Great Depression.

the volcanic eruption that buried Pompei.

the rats that carried the bubonic plague.

Your suggestions are welcome!

After this was first posted, the CB Bucknor Twitter account had this to say:

cbbucknor @toesinthesand82 @LoveSox15 -- i'll admit it, I thought that iceberg was high and away, so I didn't bother to turn the titanic. my bad.

Suck it, CB Bucknor!

Alright, I get that the Red Sox lost last night's game because they couldn't string enough hits together to score any runs. However, the umpiring staff sure wasn't helping: Bobby Abreu should have been the third out of the fifth inning, watching strike three but getting a called ball four... If the inning had ended there as it should have, who knows? Maybe Torrii Hunter would have homered in his next at-bat anyway, but probably not. And then there are the two botched plays at first... Sir, Kevin Youkilis does not make errors.

But Red Sox Nation is creative.. Somebody out there began to tamper with Bucknor's Wikipedia page, producing these:
Someone else (or maybe the same person?), then created a Twitter account for the umpire:

cbbucknor: #redsox I'm at 1B, blowin' the game.

cbbucknor: Hoping for another play at 1B. Might try and turn my back and close my eyes this time.

cbbucknor: How'd I get that one right? No idea, my eyes were closed.

cbbucknor: wondering if the rules prevent me from calling a runner out after a base on balls.

cbbucknor: is taking the over on the number of blown calls against #redsox.

Red Sox Nation, I applaud your creativity. For those who want to sign a petition to fire CB Bucknor, click here.

If Tito thinks you suck, you suck.

[Thanks to @fangsbites, @gx5, and @Gabs10272004 for the screenshots!]

Good Mojo

I fel that we needed some good luck for tonight, and happy Sox pictures has worked in the past. I'll try to get out a post with a little more substance later on, but I wanted to make sure I got these out there well before game time... Without further ado, I give you the starting lineup of Game 1 of the 2009 ALDS:

Get'er done, Jonny.

Hindsight is 20/20

Every winter, I preorder The Bill James Handbook for the upcoming year, and before I look at anything else, I flip to the projections for the coming season... Then, at the end of the year, I get to look back and compare the projections to the actual results. James and his cohorts are right more often than not, and this year was no exception:

Jacoby Ellsbury:
Projection:.302 AVG, .359 OBP, 9 HR, 53 RBI, 52 SB
Actual: .301, .355, 8, 60, 70The extra RBIs can be attributed to the fact that Golden Boy wasn't batting leadoff all season, something James would not have factored into his calculations...

Dustin Pedroia:
Projection: .315, .376, 15, 78,16
Actual: .296, .371, 15, 72, 20This year, Pedey had to deal with pitchers that finally took him seriously, which explains his average dropping, but Bill James obviously underestimated his wheels.

Victor Martinez:
Projected: .300, .374, 17, 92, 0
Actual: .303, .381, 23, 108, 1VMart had an overachieving year all around, according to James' projections... Here's hoping he can keep it up!

Kevin Youkilis:
Projection: .289, .386, 23, 101, 4
Actual: .305, .413, 27, 94, 7Youk continues to prove that underestimating him won't get you very far. A legitimate threat who never gives away a single at-bat, we're lucky to have him.

David Ortiz:
Projection: .288, .396, 37, 119, 1
Actual: .238, .332, 28, 99, 0
Obviously, if you factor in Papi's hellacious slump (something even the estimable Mr. James could not have predicted), this is an acceptable season. For many players, this is an exceptional season: for Ortiz, it's an off year. And that says it all.

JD Drew:
Projection: .273, .395, 22, 79, 5
Actual: .279, .392, 24, 68, 2You know how I feel about Drew, and if you don't, ask Theo how HE feels about Drew. It's the same. Drew is an extremely valuable player who is undervalued by the fans.

Mike Lowell:
Projected: .277, .343, 16, 75, 2
Actual: .290, .337, 17, 75, 2Wow. That is damn close. But if you had told me in April that Mikey would steal two bases, I would have told you to stop being so optimistic.

Jason Bay:
Projection: .280, .376, 30, 102, 9
Actual: .267, .384, 36, 119, 13Jason Bay had a great year, which is anything but a shocking new development. I'm just hoping he keeps playing for the good guys next year...

Jason Varitek:
Projection:.238, 334, 13, 52, 1
Actual: .209, .313, 14,51, 0
They say the first step is hitting your weight, and the beleaguered captain couldn't even do that this year (he's listed at 210)... Varitek has given his heart and soul to this team for many years, and as painful as this is, it's time to say goodbye.

[Alex Gonzalez did not have projections in the 2009 Bill James Handbook.]

Kevin Youkilis, I Applaud You

There's an excellent feature in the Globe by Jackie MacMullen today on everyone's favorite first baseman/third baseman/emergency outfielder, and I urge everyone to check it out. Just to whet your appetite, here are some of the gems from the piece:

“He plays hard, puts the team in front of himself. I don’t know what else people want.’’ -Dustin Pedroia

“In 2006, I couldn’t understand why he could be 2 for 2, then line out and the world was going to end. He’s matured since then.’’ -Mikey Lowell

[On his 2008 brawl with Manny Ramirez in the dugout] “It wasn’t cool when I got hit in the chin. He said some stuff. I said some stuff. What I should have said was I couldn’t play in the outfield for him the next time he came up with a sore hamstring. Manny can’t understand where I’m coming from. He wasn’t an eighth-round pick. He didn’t have everyone doubting him. Manny works hard. Real, real hard. But it also comes very naturally to Manny. Nothing came naturally to me. We have two different approaches to the game. Winning and losing isn’t life and death to Manny.’’ - Kevin Youkilis

[Youk and Manny being separated in the dugout... The Mayor-who is featured in the Globe piece-is trying to calm things down.]

“You can’t get no better than Youk. If you don’t want to play with a guy like that, then there’s something wrong with you.’’ - David Ortiz

“Kevin would have played for a six-pack of beer." - Mike Youkilis [Kevin's father]

Now, of course, Youk doesn't have to settle for beer... he gets the good stuff (and then pours it on Julio Lugo's error prone head, as a good American should).

Disclaimer: All quotes are attributed to Jackie MacMullen and the Boston Globe... I can only DREAM to someday have this kind of access.

Five Years Ago Tonight...

On October 4, 2004, the Boston Red Sox beat the LA Angels of Anaheim, 8-3, and took a 2-0 series lead in the ALDS. Pedro Martinez went seven innings strong, giving up three earned runs, while his counter part, old friend Bartolo Colon, went just six, also giving up three runs. The difference was in the bullpens: Boston's kept the Angels to just one hit, while the LA delegation surrendered five hits and five runs.
The only men to appear in that game that are on Boston's roster today are Jason Varitek, David Ortiz, and Kevin Youkilis (defensive replacement at third base), and as different as the roster looks these days, the attitudes of Sox fans have been even more changed.

In 2004, we were just one year removed from Aaron Boone. We were at eighty-six years without a title, and (as far as the world was concerned), "wait 'til next year" was the regional motto. Red Sox fans of all ages looked at the 2-0 series lead and decided that the home town team would doubtless find some way to blow it, if not against that Angels then against the Yankees. As painful as it is to revisit that mindset, the 2004 Red Sox might have been lovable and talented "Idiots," but the skeptics always won out when it came to playoff predictions: after all, the pessimists had history on their side.

Of course, the moral of Sox fans would fall to its lowest point just ten days later, when New York took a 3-0 series lead in the ALCS. No one, we told ourselves, had ever come back from such a deficit in the history of professional baseball. You know the rest, but most fans (let's be honest, ourselves included) were convinced that they would somehow blow it until the very last out was made. As Yogi Berra so famously said: "It ain't over 'til it's over."

And then? It was over. The years of suffering, the "1918" chants, and the lovable losers moniker. The people of New England, raised in the Puritan tradition of self-inflicted torture, had something to celebrate, and celebrate we did. I was fourteen at the time, so I didn't celebrate in quite the same way most people did, and not just because I was seven years away from the legal drinking age. My relative youth meant that the victory just didn't have the same significance for me as it did for those who had lived through decades of disappointment: I'm not belittling the joy of young Sox fans, but it's a fact that we lacked a certain perspective.
Now, of course, we start every season with the expectation of making it to the playoffs, but we need to remember that wasn't always the case, and that even within my short lifetime the Sox were more likely to finish their season in September than October (or November). Let's not take the Angels for granted: it's miraculous what the death of a teammate or a loved one can do for motivation. The major networks are already advertising for a Red Sox/Yankees ALCS, and honestly, it's what most fans of both teams expect. There would be a certain poetic justice in celebrating the five year anniversary of Boston's fist World Title in living memory by going through the same teams (Anaheim, New York, and St. Louis) to get another one, but the playoffs are often more luck than skill.

So let's find out if Lady Luck is a Red Sox fan.