Blogging BLOHARDS

Fat Man Leaves, Fat Lady Sits

Who loved you Boomer?

Wells, we did!  And well we wish you with the Padres. Thanks for ALWAYS entertaining us and for giving us fans your all... which is considerable if you try to wrap your arms around it.

In other news...

Sox On A Roll!

Boston snapped a six-game losing streak and broke THE CURSE OF THE FAT MAN tonight by pummelling Toronto 6-4 to tighten their grip on second place in the AL East. Great hitting from the Mighty Cora and Powerfull Lowell, great defense, and the pitching was... ahh... good enough to win!

No crow here. Live from the Seinfeld Alternate Universe: We're on a winning streak! Hey Fat Lady, sit down and shut up!

Jose Can You Pitch?

Should the Hefty Lefty David Wells head southwest by sundown today, the Red Sox will need a pitching replacement, especially since rosters expand wider than Wells' waistline tomorrow.

So BLOHARDS, what has Jose Canseco been doing since the Long Beach Armada shut down their season last Sunday?  A la the immortal Dave McCarty, former Sox Slugger Canseco can do it all. Just not very well. But that shouldn't be an issue at this point really, right?

Curses, Foiled Again!

How about these plot elements?

• A manager spitting up blood.
• A beloved icon stricken with anxiety so fierce he is hospitalized with heart episodes.
• A future Hall-Of-Famer with mysterious, debilitating joint ailments and all-to-frequent brain lapses. (Early Alzheimer's?)
• An injured Captain catcher unable to help; and a back-up catcher batting .185.
• Various and sundry broken bones, unexplained illnesses, blistering cuts, and inexplicable poor performances.

Somewhere, Dan Shaughnessy sits...

No Strangers To Adversity, BLOHARDS To Meet

Keep-the-Faith Friday
September 15, 2006
Festivities - High Noon
High Balls - 11:30
The Yale Club
50 Vanderbilt Avenue, 20th Floor


To: BLOHARDS Members
From: VP - Luncheon Operations
Re: Luncheon Still On!

Had we mailed the luncheon announcement at the end of July as scheduled, this memo would be touting Beckett's pinpoint control, Manny's durability, the poise of the young set-up relievers, and Jon Lester's fine driving record. Things had been chugging along so efficiently that Dan Shaughnessy even opted to cover the Tour de France in late July rather than serve up Puff Piece #15 about Big Papi and another improbable, walk-off win.

The shifting landscape, however, has forced the BLOHARDS' Dept. of Homeland Security and Patellar Tendinitis to work overtime to offer up rays of sunshine at a dreary time for those of us who live and die with the Olde Towne Team. Here goes:

Signing Off?

1967. Thirty-nine years ago today*, weak-armed Red Sox outfielder Jose Tartabull threw out Chicago's Ken Berry at the plate to complete a game-ending double play and preserve a dramatic 4-3 victory over the White Sox. That play, aided by a spectacular Elston Howard tag, was described as the "signature moment" of the 1967 regular season in Stout and Johnson's book Red Sox Century.

2006. The immortal Cha Seung Baek of the last-place Seattle Mariners, along with three relievers, combined to two-hit and defeat a Red Sox line-up consisting of subs and walking-wounded. The 6-3 loss dropped the Red Sox 6.5 games behind the New York Yankees in the AL East. It was the first three-game sweep of the Red Sox in Seattle since 1989. Another "signature moment" of a different kind for this free-falling team?

*Note: Thanks to Bill Nowlin's Day By Day with the Boston Red Sox for the fun fact.

Ball Fore

  This morning, former Yankee pitcher and author Jim Bouton was interviewed about his involvement in the Vintage Base Ball Federation (VBBF) by longtime Friend-of-BLOHARDS and WFAN radio host, Ed Randall.  Bouton, the famous author of Ball Four, is Chairman, CEO, and Commissioner of the new league which will be governed by 19th century rules.

   You can read more about it on the VBBF website and also watch a documentary video clip of the sport.

   Any BLOHARDS interested in fielding a team?

When Lowell Comes To Town

Next weekend the Lowell Spinners, the Short Season-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, head to Brooklyn for a three game Labor Day weekend set against the Cyclones. Spinners-to-watch include Joshua Papelbon, kid brother of Red Sox Rookie of the Year Candidate Jonathan Papelbon. Check out the events scheduled for each game below:

Sat, Sept 2

6:00 pm

vs. Lowell Spinners

Bat Day (first 1,250 kids 14 and under)

Sun, Sept 3

5:30 pm

vs. Lowell Spinners

Kids Run the Bases

Mon, Sept 4

6:00 pm

vs. Lowell Spinners

Fireworks Night

Click here for tickets!

Viva Lost Wages

Other than the all too obvious and sudden splintering of a once delightful world, here is what we know for sure. 

That like Jim Lonborg’s downhill run on Christmas Eve, 1967, it all fell apart on Monday, July 31….the day the front office failed to make a deal for Dontrelle Willis or Barry Zito.

And we know that facing reporters during the Yankee massacre, Theo Epstein, sleep deprived and suffering from an uncommonly severe flare-up of his Bright’s Disease, staggered into an ill-advised tirade against the Yankee’s payroll.

We can now pinpoint with precision the exact moment our darkest suspicions were confirmed.

And So It Begins, Again (Part 2)

The Postscript

It's funny, I won't know where I was for this one.

The Boston Massacre of 1978, I was in Montreal. I was working at a club in Franconia, New Hampshire, that summer, and the short-order cook and myself decided on a road trip. We threw our gym bags and a six-pack in the car, and headed north to enjoy our days off in what was, then, a magical, partying city. We camped open-air in our sleeping bags on top of Mont Royale, and basically roamed during the day. I had been following the Sox' spectacular fade on various feeble White Mountains airwaves already, and now I was buying French language newspapers and getting day-old or two-day-old box scores that looked more foreign than the language: numbers like 14, and 15, and 2, and 3. Geezuz, what's happening down in Fenway? Holy God.

Thank You Sir, May I Have Another?