singapore sox fan: the red sox from half the world away

Horndog

You can get on Friendster with Mark Bellhorn. Or a fake version of Mark Bellhorn, at least.

Hall of Fame 2004 voting

The Hall of Fame ballot is out, with the following names (an "x" means first time eligible):

x-Jim Abbott, Bert Blyleven, x-Wade Boggs, x-Tom Candiotti, Dave Concepcion, x-Chili Davis, Andre Dawson, Steve Garvey, Rich Gossage, Tommy John, x-Mark Langston, Don Mattingly, x-Jack McDowell, x-Willie McGee, x-Jeff Montgomery, Jack Morris, Dale Murphy, x-Otis Nixon, Dave Parker, x-Tony Phillips, Jim Rice, Ryne Sandberg, Lee Smith, x-Terry Steinbach, x-Darryl Strawberry, Bruce Sutter, Alan Trammell.

My personal take, based on who's already in by the fairly generous HoF standards, is that Boggs, Sandberg, Blyleven, and Trammell should be voted in. My guess on what actually happens is that Boggs makes it and Sandberg just ekes in, and Blyleven is unfairly deprived, leaving him atop my "should-be-but-won't-be" list along with Ron Santo.

"Constructing a Teen Phenom"

Can you groom a baseball player by hothousing? The New York Times has an interesting article on how IMG Academies has extended its programmes from its famed tennis work to baseball and other team sports. The weird part is how far-reaching the programmes are:

Tommy Winegardner's parents had gone in for one of IMG's new offerings: media training. It is provided by a company called Game On, which has an office on campus and is ''retailed out,'' as it is said at IMG, for $2,500. Tommy is many years (if not forever) away from having to face some media mob after a game, but the program is also designed to prepare students for such eventualities as college and job interviews as well as to bring ease to everyday social interactions.

Man, soon they'll even teach "clubhouse chemistry". There's lots of interesting nuggets in that one article. For one, there's a bit on how un-athletic even the jocks in high school these days are, at least in terms of all-round ability:

The culprit is early specialization: many young athletes can perform the mechanics of their own sport, but too often in a repetitive, almost metronomic way, and they lack many of the other elements of all-around athleticism.

And if you were a sabermetrician planning on spending the money on the academy, you might be offended by their emphasis on productive outs:

Out at the ball field, I watched a four-hour practice devoted to ''situations.'' ''Runner on third base, one out, infield drawn in - what do you do?'' Bolek asked. Tommy was the first to answer. ''You hit a fly ball.'' ''Right,'' the coach said. For the next 30 minutes, hitters stood in against pitching from an assistant coach and practiced taking the kind of swing that would produce an outfield fly ball. When the infielders moved back, they practiced hitting ground balls to score the runner. They worked on sacrifice bunts and on hitting ground balls to the right side of second base to move runners from second base to third base.

It's entrenched small-ball philosophy like this that lets the Sox swoop in and pick up the Mark Bellhorns of the world on the cheap.

Pedro in Auction

Some thoughts on auction theory as it pertains to the bidding for Pedro (hey, I was an ec major, I might as well put it to some use). This was my post (in slightly modified form) on SoSH in response to another poster's idea of requiring that all teams making contract offers to free agents to do so in writing to the player and the agent, in effect making all the various contracts being offered explicit rather than rumours:

The current system of trying to get a free agent to sign makes teams rely on guessing other bids, which is in effect a first-price, sealed-bid auction for the FA's services, as opposed to the more familiar open auction, which the original proposal.

It may be frustrating to compete in the sealed-bid format, and certainly eBay, or, preceding that, the Sotheby's-style art auctions, are some well-known auctions, and these are open-auction in format. However, there are good economic arguments for both kinds of auction design. The economist William Vickrey argues that the two should return equivalent results; however, this depends very strongly on a set of assumptions that does not hold in many markets, including that for a baseball player.

One of the main problems associated with an open auction is the possibility of collusion. A recent Athey, Levin, and Seira paper comparing auction designs notes that the potential effects of bidder collusion can well dwarf the relatively minor efficiency effects of an English auction. Collusion doesn't have to arise overtly, but can also arise tacitly. Since there are different players up for auction (Pedro, Pavano), an open auction would allow buyers to signal to each other who "should" win the bids for each player. (eBay is somewhat insulated from the effects of potential collusion in that eBay has relatively costless entry into the auction. Same goes for the stock market - hard for all the buyers to collude. In Major League Baseball there can only be 30 entrants - plus the odd Japanese team here and there - entering any auction for a player.)

Moreover, open auctions tend to create incentives for stronger bidders to deter weaker entrants through aggressive bidding; you could read the Sox's fairly high, publicly known initial offer to Pedro as falling into this category - basically indicating "yeah, you can try to top us, but you'd just be wasting effort since we'll top anything".

By comparison, sealed bids attract more entrants into the auction. Regardless of how accurate Will Carroll's data on the Beltran market was, it does seem more that there are more bidders on Beltran besides the Yankees and Astros, whereas the Sox's initial offer to Pedro helped wipe out a lot of the competition. This works in favour of the sellers, generating more revenue for the sellers. Which is why players like them and owners don't, and I tend to side with the millionaires over the billionaires.

Theoretically I think openly putting all the information out there has a minor efficiency advantage, but in a market with limited buyers like baseball, the potential for collusion, tacit collusion, and entry deterrence probably makes for a system in which it is overall most economically efficient to keep with the current practice. "Lying" by agents in the latter format is merely another source of (dis)information on what everyone else is bidding - it would be disingenuous of teams to claim that they trusted the agents completely, and teams accept the imperfect signalling and discount the claims accordingly.

(Another helpful article: What Really Matters in Auction Design, which also makes the point that signalling and retaliation are much harder when bids are somewhat unknown.)

Okay, my ec theory may be a bit rusty, but the basic point - that the Sox's high, publicly known initial offer to Pedro probably dampened the overall market for Pedro - remains.

Mets offer Pedro 3/38

When I saw the title of this NY Times article - Mets Top Red Sox in Offer to Martínez (registration required) - I was worried that the Mets had really gone to 4 years/$50 million. But the Mets' offer is 3/$38, with a vesting option, which isn't that far from the Sox's 2/$25.5 with an easily-attained 3rd year. I think this is the point in the negotiations where Theo et al guarantee the 3rd year. At least, the Pedro fan in me hopes so.

Meanwhile, from the same article, it looks like the Yankees have dissed Pedro:

By contrast, the Yankees' principal owner, George Steinbrenner, met with Martínez on Nov. 16 in Tampa, Fla., and has still not offered him a contract... Steinbrenner could always change his mind, but as of now, he appears willing to let Martínez relocate to Queens instead of the Bronx.

Instead, Steinbrenner and the Yankees seem more focused on acquiring Randy Johnson from Arizona.

So that meeting in Tampa was only so much dry humping... the real bidding has started (a post on auction theory will follow soon). Incidentally, if Pedro really ends up in the NL, I don't doubt that he'll have a Cy Young season.

Sportsmen of the Year, naturally

"Collectively, the Sox were Sportsmen in the truest sense - professional, collegial, colorful athletes who were easy to root for." (Link)

Annus Mirabellis

So it looks like Doug Mirabelli will be re-signing for the Sox for $1.5 million. Great deal for the best backup catcher in the business (not hard, admittedly, as Slate has pointed out - backup catchers are the slackers of MLB). I wonder whether Mirabelli was hurt by the perception that he's a knuckleball catcher, since Wakefield's the only competent knuckleballer in the majors. I can imagine other clubs going "yeah, I know it's probably likely that Mirabelli's passed balls are due to catching the knuckler, but I'm not sure I can afford to take the risk".

Of course, us Sox followers know that Mirabelli has caught the rest of the staff quite competently at various points. And he can hit.

Combinations

Just discovered Sex and Sox, a blog by a woman who's fascinated by both topics. (Okay, guys jealous of her boyfriend, form a line.) Makes me think of that old cliche about men thinking about baseball to, um, delay themselves. But given her passion for the Sox that probably wouldn't work. Here's her thoughts on Kapler leaving: "Too bad you never got to spank me for them."

The curse lives... in one man's mind

Dan Shaughnessy's new book - The Legend of the Curse of the Bambino - is out soon. There'll be a million books on the Sox after this magical year. Please don't get this curse-perpetuating one.

I still think the stories of 1) Sox fans chanting "Yankees suck" and then chanting "Shaughnessy sucks" at the end of Game 4 of the World Series and 2) Shaughnessy being booed at the World Series DVD premiere are great.

Maybe he was Bashful

Pruning my blogroll, and realised that one of the (formerly) linked blogs, Grumpy Sox Fan, only has one entry. Guess he had nothing left to be grumpy about.

Yes, players take planes like the rest of us

Tales of Johnny Damon on a plane - with pics, even.

From Boston Common.

Detroit Rock City

Turns out the Piston fan who started the whole Ron Artest thing has a huge rap sheet, and may have been violating parole by being there.

Nintendo owns the Mariners

I don't know why, but the news that Nintendo has upped its stake in the Seattle Mariners amuses me greatly. I guess I just like the idea of Bret Boone striding to the plate accompanied by that famous duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh! theme to Super Mario Brothers. Or Ichiro's stealing a base accompanied by the "boing" jumping sound.

Now that I think about it.... Mario would get suddenly bigger, and then be prone to weird moments of rage where he would destroy everything he touched.... wait a minute, I think Mario was on the juice!

Wait Till Next Year

Sox 2005 schedule. When this first came out, I thought it was a bad idea to play the Yankees on Opening Day - thought Opening Day was already a huge enough event, and to save the Yankees for later. Now the idea of the Yankees having to watch as the Sox do some World Series celebration is sweet.

Shortstopped

In the Globe, Bob Hohler notes that the Sox have not even shown any interest in the OC. Okay, the whole melodrama of "you never return my calls..." aside - hint: He's Just Not That Into You - it kind of shows one thing. If you expect Pedro to be "loyal" and not even talk to the Yankees, then surely the Sox should at least talk to Cabrera. If you want the Sox to be run all business-like, then Pedro should get to be all business-like and at least see what the market is offering.

I guess now that the Sox have won the World Series, I guess there's not much angst in me about the idea of Pedro talking to the Yankees, or even having meals with A-Rod.

Also in the Hohler article, a nice titbit (I know, I know, "tidbit" in American English - apparently Americans prefer either the older or more prudish form): "Sources familiar with the proposals said the Sox have offered Varitek about $36 million over four years and have asked Mirabelli to return next season for about $1.5 million".

It's a psony

Here's an article on monosopnistic competition, including references to the oligopsony that is Major League Baseball. (Hey, I'm an economist by training, but I never get to use the word "oligopsony" in regular conversation so I'm sneaking it in here.) Just as a reminder of the reserve clause days - while the way agents work may not be the most tasteful, it's not like teams are fully altruistic either.

Holiday Reading

Just read T. Coraghessan Boyle's old collection of short stories, Greasy Lake and Other Stories, which has a nice baseball story, "The Hector Quesadilla Story", on a game that goes on into extra innings and the eternal nature of baseball:

"The wind-up, the delivery, the ball hanging there like a pinata, like a birthday gift, and then the stick flashes in your hands like an archangel's sword, and the game goes on forever."

Good stuff. And speaking of stuff, or stuffing, happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers. May Theo bring in another great player this Turkey Day.

Nixon to China? No, Kapler to Japan

So Gabe Kapler, sculpted bodybuilding backup outfielder, is moving to this side of the world. Well, I guess Dave Roberts can teach him the language.

Seriously, though, seeing the world while you're young and getting paid millions ($2 million, plus undisclosed and probably immense signing bonus, plus all living expenses) for it? Not a bad deal at all. Especially if Kapler wants regular paying time.

Thanks for 2004, Gabe. Come back to the Sox anytime.

Dream until your dreams come true

Dragging out an old article - remembering the 1967 Impossible Dream team.

Reggaeton

Holiday shopping? Try David Ortiz and Cynthia Roquez, Bases Loaded. Presumably with an album title that's Big Papi himself, although really the song titles seem to leave much to be desired - the album includes "For the Money" / "Per Dinero" (thankfully Ortiz signed for a lot less than he's now worth) and "Punani", which inspired the disturbing thought of Papi going all Ali G, aight?

Welcome Nationals

Still would've liked them to be the Grays. Anyway, I predict at least one headline that reads "Nationals' League", one that reads "Capital Punishment" for a blowout loss, and a reference to filibustering for any games that go into extra innings. Ah, subediting.

Look what came in the mail today

Yes, the patch on the left sleeve says "World Series 04 Champions". I don't want to even peel off the World Series hologram above the "SOX".

Thoughts on other sports

Harvard, the best team that doesn't see a bowl game? Bob Ryan thinks so.... as for the Pacers-Pistons brawl, Detroit got off bloody easy. Okay, perhaps not really much to put on its players, but the fans & the organisation should have gotten some punishment. Otherwise what's to stop a crowd from provoking its most hated rivals? If the drink-throwing fan can be identified, he should be banned from the Palace. And I like the idea of imposing a soccer-style penalty by making the team play a home game in an empty arena (i.e. lost revenue, lost homecrowd advantage).

Okay, that's my $0.02.

Battle Cry of the Sox

The Battle Cry of the Red Sox. A seriously deranged cartoon. I'm a sucker for all these. Keeps me warm through the... um... warm November and December months.

There's a swingin' town I know called... Capital City

Just added Red Sox Prospects to my blogroll, and that reminded me of something: why is the new Sox affliate down in Capital City called the Capital City Bombers, and not the Capital City Goofballs?

Thunder in a teacup

This is just pathetic:

Just a few weeks after the Yankees' ALCS self-destruction and the Red Sox's first World Series parade in several years, the Yankees' Double-A team in Trenton has announced the scheduling of Reset the Curse Day on April 16 - the first visit by Boston's affiliate, the Portland Sea Dogs.

Among the supernatural festivities planned by the Thunder that day:

The first 2,000 fans under 16 will receive Bambino replica jerseys, with the No. 3 on the back.
"The great Babe Ruth in person" will throw out the first pitch, according to the Trenton press release. If this is true, it would require the Babe to reverse a more powerful force than The Curse (seeing as how he's still extremely dead). But whatever.
There will be a ground-ball fielding contest at first base, in honor of Bill Buckner.
And to make sure they summon all the curse-restoration powers in the cosmos, the Thunder will hold a séance "to conjure up ghosts of Yankees past." Sorry, Aaron Boone won't be able to make it. (From Jayson Stark's column)

Given that Trenton was a Sox affliate (redsoxbaseball.com still has it listed as a Sox minor-league team) till a few years ago, it's sad how quickly they went over to the dark side. Surely they should have learnt there's no such thing as curses?

Pedro's contract

So Newsday has Pedro being offered a guaranteed third year, while the Globe says it's all-but-guaranteed. I guess it's just dancing around with legalese: it's probably near-impossible for Pedro to miss the 3rd year, but for insurance purposes it'll count as 2 years, or something like that.

One thing to note is that the guaranteed third year is what makes Pedro's contract more like Schilling's actually: while Schilling was offered a 2-year contract with options, this doesn't count the 2004 season, which was the last season of his DBacks contract. So Schilling's Sox contract starts now, and in effect Schilling's 2 years at $25.5 million are something like a 3-year deal. (Details at Dugout Dollars.)

World's oldest man dies

Dies happy, presumably:

Born December 1, 1890, Hale last month watched his lifelong favorite baseball team, the Boston Red Sox, win the World Series again after 86 years. (Link)

The freaky thing for me, I think, is that he was older than me when the Sox won in 1918. Oh, and that he was boogie-boarding at 95. I guess with a last name like "Hale" you can't go wrong.

Fools rush in

Regardless of where Pedro ends up, I'll say this: I think he will have a better 2005 season than Curt Schilling. I think Curt's going to be great. I just feel Pedro will be greater.

The Man Comes Around

More on the Pedro negotiations, by Bob Hohler:

At the very least, Martinez almost certainly needed to sense some willingness by the Sox to improve their initial offer if he were to maintain faith in the negotiations. And the Sox needed to determine whether they could afford to reasonably satisfy Martinez's expectations, particularly if he believed his meeting with Steinbrenner improved his bargaining position.

I thought this was actually a fair recap of the delicate balance of the negotations, rather than the "Pedro is betraying us" tone.

Varitek and no-trade

Varitek looking for a no-trade clause. I must admit, initially I thought "oh, that's another of Boras's demands", but then I realised, if, as people seem to think, Varitek is willing to take a "hometown discount" and settle for 3/$27, he wants to know that the Sox don't just turn around and trade that contract, otherwise he's making less than he would've got and he's still out of Boston.

Don't know how likely Theo would be to do a turnaround trade like this - the PR would be awful and make it that much harder to sign future free agents at discounts - but the fact that the possibility exists might play in the person's mind.

An ALCS blog

There are a few blogs that are devoted to Yankee hatred, but this is more specific than that: just a blog revolving around the 2004 ALCS (by a Mets fan). The blogger still hasn't discovered this great story about Dave Roberts' classic steal, though:

In the fifth inning, Dave Roberts left the dugout to go into the locker room. He asks one of the coaches to come with him. From the 5th-8th innings, he sat there with the coach and watched film after film after film of Gordon, Quantrill and Rivera... all just in case he was needed to come in and "do his job" aka "steal one base" against one of the three of them. Sure enough.... (from Sons of Sam Horn)

Cosmic sucking sound

On the ethics and metaphysics of the Yankees sucking (from Majikthise).

Pedro and George

Some people are getting their panties in a twist about the very thought of Pedro meeting with Steinbrenner. Nothing wrong with meeting Steinbrenner, I think. Pedro's a free man. And even if he had no intention of signing for the Yankees, he should know at least what they're offering.

If Pedro stays at the Sox, SiaS should be sent a nice "I bought lunch for Pedro Martinez and all I got was this lousy T-shirt" shirt.

Vlad the Impaler

So AL MVP results are in, and Vlad's the man. Sheffield being second over Manny is annoying though. I think of Sheffield as "There's Something About Gary", since, like the Cameron Diaz character in the movie, he found some cream, had no idea what it was, and still put it on his body.

Wonder who put Manny and Ortiz as their #1 vote?

Carlos Beltran bidding

Here's the numbers for the Carlos Beltran bidding war, courtesy of Will Carroll. As I said on SoSH, if those numbers are accurate and for guaranteed contracts, the Yankees offer (8 years, $18.1 million per) looks the best. Too much of a risk signing up for the Angels and then trying to get better than 3 years / $15 mil per once he's 32.

Good offer from the Phillies though. Confirms for me that the Phillies have finally realised that they actually play in a major market.

Angell on the Sox season

Ooh, this week's New Yorker has Roger Angell wrapping up the season. He's a baseball writer from the old school - I remember his meditations in the New Yorker on family life and on his mother and his stepdad E.B. White - and his words still resound like poetry. Here's his take on the heartstopping point in Game 5 where Wakefield is pitching in extra innings:

Smiling wanly, the rooters foresaw a fresh end: the Red Sox eliminated by a butterfly. Sierra, at bat with two on and two out, swung through the three-and-two and missed it cleanly, as Varitek, a mastiff after a song sparrow, jumped at the ball and swallowed it clean.

Captures the inherent tension between repose and explosion perfectly. And of course, right now I could devour anything on the Sox season.

Ortiz lauded

Rick Reilly rites Rortiz rin... okay, Scooby-Doo voice aside, Rick Reilly writes Ortiz in as his vote for Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year. And a glowing tribute it is too, noting not only Ortiz's 3 game-winning hits in the postseason, but also the All-Star game homer. Plus some classic Ortiz quotes, including:

"Don't worry. We're going to drink their beer and kick their ass!"

That man is classic. Look, he goes to Japan for one tour and everyone's in love with him. Heck, even hit a homer on his last day of baseball. Moises Alou was impressed:

"After all he achieved during the season, then coming here and playing his butt off for another 10 days when he wasn't even done celebrating."

I still wouldn't shake Alou's hand.

Look, this year, the only way SI doesn't give any Sox player (or the entire team) the award is because the various players split the vote.

Boston, Town of Champions

"Hey, we could use him. We could definitely use him." - Richard Seymour on Johnny Damon's energetic entrance.

The Sox were at Foxboro to show off their trophy. Nice. Now for it to become a sort of mutual ceremony - November the Sox appear at Foxboro with the World Series trophy, April the Pats appear at Fenway with the Vince Lombardi...

Vizquel gets lucky

Omar Vizquel is getting 3 years, $12.25m? Wow. That's ludicrously high, and I hope it doesn't affect what the OC thinks he should be getting (any more than $7 million and I say the Sox should look into alternatives). I have no idea what Brian Sabean is doing, except cornering the lucrative AARP market. Maybe he'll get John and Julio Franco next - heck, they're still available.

Fenway snowed under

I suppose this would be a good test of the new drainage system.

The Curse of A-Rod

Are New York sports teams cursed? Heh. When things go wrong people like to look for any possible explanation. But in retrospect, you could say there was the accretion of fate-tempting moments for the Yankees, including Sheffield's boast and there were incidents such as Tom Gordon's champagne eye injury. Celebrating too hard? Did this lead to his crap Game 5? And then John Olerud stepped on a bat, necessitating the use of Tony Clark... cue the Twilight Zone music.

Or you could say: the Sox won with Nixon and Nomar out for much of the season, the Pats have been winning despite horrendous injuries because Belichick is ahead in exploiting flexibility (a necessity in a salary-cap restricted league), and Danny Ainge is a better GM than Isaiah Thomas. Any "curse" of injuries is just business as usual - deal.

In a related question: can St Louis teams ever beat Boston? Not unless the St Lunatics take on the Made Men in a rap battle.

More thoughts on the Japan series

The Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka gave up only 1 ER on 5 hits in his complete game against the MLB All-Stars yesterday. He won't be eligible to play in the majors for the next three years because of Japanese free agent rules, but that's quite a feat. His post-game quote says something about the Sox's increased fame worldwide though:

"This is an unbelievable feeling," Matsuzaka said. "I wanted to face [Manny] Ramirez and [David] Ortiz but I still feel satisfied because I beat a very good major league lineup." (Link)

Everyone in baseball knows Manny Ortiz. Even if Vlad wins the AL MVP, is there a scarier 3-4 punch in the majors?

Sox acquire Billy Traber

Another day, another waiver wire pickup by Theo Epstein - LHP Billy Traber. Looks like a low-risk, potential high-yield move to me. Worse thing happens, he doesn't recover well from Tommy John (he wasn't throwing that hard even before surgery), hardly any money lost. And I like anyone who's one-hit the Yankees, even Mike Maroth.

The whole difficulty Cleveland has in trying to sneak anyone through waivers makes me wonder. At some point the marginal benefit of any additional good players in the farm system may be negligible, in that they're likely to get claimed off waivers. So while you don't want to bankrupt a farm system (hello, Yankees), at some point your players are more valuable as trade bait.

Yes, no, Pavano?

Peter Gammons' column this week is, as is expected, hot stove stuff with a lot on Boston. He had this to say about Carl Pavano:

Pavano has serious interest in the Red Sox because he wants to pitch with a mentor, and Curt Schilling is a longtime respected comrade.

I'm not sold on Pavano. I could go all stathead and say I foresee issues in the decline of his K/9 ratio (6.09, 5.96, 5.63) but you could equally argue that his K/BB numbers are promising (2.04, 2.71, 2.84) - losing command but gaining control. But it's more than that. In general I'm not sold on NL starters who move to the AL. I know I support a team whose current rotation is comprised mostly of former members of the Senior Circuit - Pedro, Schilling, Arroyo, Wakefield - but I think that's a uniquely high number of successes, and there've been flops too. Jeff Suppan in 2003 anyone? Or Javy Vazquez this year?

1918 - The Film

One of the filmmakers of 1918 - The Film, an independent film about the Sox, contacted me:

I just finished shooting a film about Sox winning the World Series. It's a comedy about two life-long Red Sox fans who miraculously land tickets to the World Series. Completely professional too, we shot in High Definition. We used all local guys and even used a Dunkin Donuts as a set. All the planning was done before the playoffs even started. Aswe started filming the Sox were down 3-0 to the Yankees.

It sounds like a cool story - features more authentic Sox fans than Jimmy Fallon, that's for sure. Right now I'm a glutton for all things Sox. Unlikely to come over to the Singapore market, mind, but those of you in the New England area might want to check it out.

What does "1918" mean any more? Just another year. Flu pandemic. First World War. That sort of thing...

Tek the money and run

Apparently Jason Varitek is asking for a 5 year $50 million contract, as per Scott Boras on WEEI. I love Tek - heck, like I said before, Tek is my freakin' middle name - but that's a ludicrous demand for a 33-year-old catcher. I know you start high but isn't there a point in negotiations where the other side goes "wow, he's starting so high that even meeting him in the middle's too much"? I don't know if Boras' strategy is right... he was a great negotiator for his players during the boom years, but will that work in this era of belt-tightening? (Kevin Millwood anyone?) I guess we'll see how it plays out...

Edit: apparently this was big enough news that it made Boston.com's front page. Lord knows how long that link will last, but here's a pic:

World Series bobble head dolls

Can I say how excited I am to see Red Sox World Series bobble head dolls? Mmm. Pedro holding the trophy. It doesn't get any better than this.

From the horse's mouth

Curt Schilling seems to have been tooling around Sons of Sam Horn a lot lately... like his comments here on Pedro being the #1 free agent, and the need to sign Jason Varitek (he posts as "gehrig38"). Great stuff. So that's what people do while waiting for ankle surgery.

Singapore's Only Major Leaguer

Also, seeing as I was talking about a possible World Cup, here's a pic of the only major leaguer ever to have been born in Singapore, Robin Jennings.

Ortiz's blast to the past

Ortiz hit a monster homer in Japan. 514 feet! It looked like it carried beyond the international date line and landed in the day before. Here's the quote from the pitcher, Shunsuke Watanabe:

"Since the count was 3-and-0, I knew I could not walk him, so I threw a fastball knowing he might hit it. I saw one of the greatest home runs in the world."

Actually, I thought Watanabe did pretty well to hold that MLB lineup to 3 runs over 5 innings. And his submarine pitch has to be seen to be believed. It seems to start on the mound - the very opposite of a 12 to 6 overhand curve.

Architectural thoughts on Fenway

Over at Sons of Sam Horn, there's a discussion on the ongoing renovations to Fenway, which sidled nicely into the age-old debate on whether to move Fenway. I'll skip aside the business perspective for this post (quick summary of my view: there's already huge revenue from Fenway despite small crowds, and there are big 'ifs' regarding viability of paying back loans). From the standpoint of this architecture buff, there's something that strikes me as inauthentic about many "quirks" in new ballparks exist only as an allusion to the fact that earlier ballparks have quirks. One of the things that's nice about the Green Monster is that it exists as a way of fitting a ballpark into an urban space. (My favourite football/soccer team is Everton, which has a church that stands in one corner of the stadium, so I suppose I have a thing for urban integration.) A random quirk in a suburban park would just be a simulacrum of a feature.

This is not to say I want stand cookie-cutter ballparks. I just think that there's something to be said for quirks actually arising from some relationship with the space (say, Camden Yards using the adjacent warehouse) rather than being plonked onto a structure. Of course, what a "relationship to space" means for suburban parks like the Ballpark at Arlington is debatable.

And it's hard to guarantee a ballpark with atmosphere. It's true, no one goes to the park just for the architecture (and many cities who've paid for spanking-new parks have found that without winning teams on the field, attendance starts to dwindle again). Still, many people think there's something about Fenway, whereas a new park could very easily end up being 'blah'. If a new park for the Sox merely follows the trends in ballpark design, it's going to be just another postmodern retro ballpark, and will always end up unfavourably compared to Camden Yards, since that was the first of the postmodern parks. I trust the ownership won't let that happen even if they do decide to move, but it's just so hard to capture magic in architecture. Of course, New Fenway could be a park that ushers in a completely new trend in ballparks, which would be amazing.

Tangential link: A Daily Dose of Architecture had a post a while back on the idea that only losing teams ask for the construction of new ballparks... "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" I guess.

World Cup?

Looks like the World Cup is on its way! Incidentally, the idea that the World Series is named for the New York World is an urban legend. It's nice to think that the origins of the name weren't self-aggrandising, but it's not true.

Edit: fixed link to urban legend story.

Radar - oh really?

From Peter Gammons' new column:

the Yanks' front office was furious during their playoff series at the complaints filed by Boston with the Commissioner's Office for things like Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez getting radar readings from the stands.

Wow, in all the news on the Sox this is the first I've heard of it. Is the Yankee front office furious because it's not true, or because the Sox shouldn't have complained? Not that it seemed to help Jeter and the Slapmaster much.

Truly arbitrary

There's living and breathing the Sox while I was in Boston. And then there are the entirely frivolous reasons I like the Sox:

1. Only semblance of South-East Asian lineage in an MLB team that I know of (Johnny Damon).

2. One of my middle names is Tek.

Damon for the Gold Glove

The folks at Baseball Prospectus think that Damon should have won the Gold Glove, based on runs above average (8). Also notes the fact that he had the most putouts of centre fielders in the AL this year. Seems to go with what I think: Damon has a weak arm, but is otherwise a good defender. Sure would be more deserved than Jeter's Gold Glove...

As long as we don't get Slocumbed

In a more light-hearted vein, ESPN also has an article on the Sox free agent class of '04, largely focused on Lowe and Varitek. Tek wants to stay, which is encouraging:

"My heart's here, so we'll see"

And as usual, Lowe can't make it count when there's no pressure:

Lowe played golf on Friday and was "awful.''

Good ol' Derek Lowe. I hope he stays. To go all Jimmy Durante: Did you ever have a feeling that you wanted to go? Still had the feeling that you wanted to stay?

The last days of Ken Caminiti

ESPN has an article on the final hours of Ken Caminiti. Sad reading. Although the possibility of a link between steroids and heart attacks was the first thing on a lot of people's minds, it seems quite clear that it wasn't the steroids that killed him: it was a pattern of drug abuse.

Easing into the offseason

Apologies for the lack of updates. Was busy looking at the elections and with work, plus I'm guessing bloggers are going nuts since it takes forever to access Blogger. But on baseball, two things: Gammons back on the Globe is a welcome sight, even if only for a chat. And, sadly, the Yankees seem to have realised that Mel Stottlemyre is not a good pitching coach. Dang!

The Sports Illustrated Curse?

One thing about the Sox pitching in the World Series is that it became an "anything you can do I can do better" rotation, which was killer. Schilling goes 6 innings with 1 unearned run and the Sox let in 2 runs? Fine, Pedro will go 7 shutout innings with 0 runs and the Sox will let in 1. Really? Then Lowe's going to pitch 7 shutout and the Sox will shut the Cards out. Pujols, Rolen, and Edmonds were anemic throughout. Wait a minute... does this mean the end of the famed Sports Illustrated curse in favour of a new ESPN: The Magazine curse (the trio appeared on the cover of the Sep 27 issue - sadly, can't find a pic yet)?

Hell no! No such thing as curses!

Parade

In honour of the 2004 World Champions, I'm holding a one-man parade in Singapore. All Sox players welcome.

Moneyball

The New York Daily News has a good article on the Sox being the first so-called "Moneyball" team to win it all. Good in that it actually points out that Moneyball isn't just playing for high OBP.

You say you want a revolution

"Someone said this is the biggest thing to happen in New England since the Revolution." - John Henry (Link)

Boy, New Englanders love their soccer team. :)

Baseball enters politics

Apparently Schilling was shilling for Bush in Ohio today, while the ownership and Theo went to a Kerry campaign stop. I'm not an American, so I'll stay out of the general favouring of either side, but would Schilling really have that big an impact in Ohio? (As opposed to, say, Pennsylvania, since he was a Philly, or Arizona, or New Hampshire.) I guess we'll see soon. Just interested as an electoral politics spectator.

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