Opening Night for the Pats - 2015 for Us All

The 2015 Patriots.  Opening night!  Between Bob Costas, Train and Ellie Goulding, I had grown tired of the pre game festivities.  An hour of looking at people in California dancing to crappy songs was enough to almost put Mike Felger on.  Almost. 

After all of the suspension talk, after all of the hype surrounding whether Edelman and LeFell would play, after all the talk about whether the Patriots were going to win the AFC East, it was finally to put up or shut up on the field.

Patriot Hall of Famers Troy Brown, Willie McGinest and Ty Law brought out the first three trophies; I have to admit, those red jackets still look pretty cool.  Tony Eason and Drew Bledsoe were unavailable to bring out the runner-up trophies for some reason.  T-Pain was rapping (T-Pain?).  The boys and I wondered who would bring out the 2014 trophy.  Insert stupid joke here.  I thought it would be Darelle Revis.  The boys had no idea.  Suspense builds...and, of course, Bob Kraft brings out the 2014 Trophy.  With his sweet kicks.

The 2014 Banner is raised.  All I do is win, screams T-Pain.  And of course Cris and Al try to squash the excitement with Deflate gate talk.  Although Al Michaels does talk about "Us against the World," which gets me fired up for some reason, maybe it's my belief that Al Michaels will still talk about believing in miracles.  I'll be OK.

From 2013, but still!!

First play is a little wrong as there is no contain on the right side.  Second play gains 9 yards.  Third play for a first down.  Both boys start crying about how the Patriots were not going to be as good this year.

"After three plays you know this?"  I incredulously ask.

"Yes, Dad.  They lost all of their good defensive guys!" C shouts back at me.  Missed Field Goal is all they could muster during his rant though.  Patriots ball!

A lot of back and forth and a lot of punts.  Don't forget about the headsets not working.  0-0 at the end of the First Quarter.  I do like what Dion Lewis is doing and makes me think that the patriots knew what they were doing when Jonas Gray was released.

Gronk!!  With the Seam Pass and then a little pass as he was uncovered down the right side for a touchdown.  7-0 Patriots with 11 minutes left in the Second Quarter.

Gronk!!  A little seam pass from the 5 yard line and now it's 14-0 with 4 minutes left in the first half.  C asks me how tall Gronkowski is.  That should tell you all you need to know.

14-3 Patriots at the end of the First Half.

Gronk!!!  No, no wait, that was Chandler with the 2 yard TD pass to make it 21-3 with 10:30 left in the Third Quarter.  Although with no TDs or big plays, Julian Edelman is having a huge game, catching 6 passes on Third Down for First downs.

The Steelers then come back with a TD of their own to make it 21-11.  Big Ben seems to have gotten hurt on the pay before.  We'll keep an eye out on that one.  Never mind, he's back out there to lead the Steelers to another field goal, making it a 7 point game.

Gronk!!  He recovers a Dion Lewis fumble to score the touchdown.  What can he not do?  I know, he was at the right place at the right time, but still, I would have been on the opposite side of the field running my Cornerback off.  Nevermind, not a touchdown.  Fantasy players deflate all at once.  Wait...Gronk!! Third Touchdown on a little fade pass to the left.  28-14.  4 Touchdown passes from Tom Brady, all to the TEs.

Chants of "Where is Roger?" start echoing through the stadium.  I think I know where he isn't.  Security and all.  It doesn't matter as time expires on the Steelers, 28-21.  Patriots win!

See you next week. 

Day at Fenway - Johnny Cueto Edition

Maybe its the dreadlocks, or maybe the Luis Tiant-style hesitation in his windup, but the boys love Johnny Cueto.  Do they know that he won 20 games, led the league in strikeouts and came within a hair (no pun intended) of winning the Pitching Triple Crown in 2014?  Probably not, they just know that he dreadlocks and funky windup.  In either event, once they found out that we got tickets to go see the Red Sox and the Royals play, and that Cueto was going to be the starting pitcher, the boys were in.

DLG was ambivalent "Do I have to watch another baseball game?" she tells me picturing more AAU games in her head.

"We'll buy you ice cream." I answer back.  Although I stop short of allowing her to bring her stuffed animal snake, she seemed satisfied that it was actual baseball being played.

"Who's Johnny Cueto?" She asks.  Of course she would not have spelled it correctly, but in either event the boys groan

"You don't know who Johnny Cueto is? G asks startled.  He did answer the Reds when I asked him his previous team, so maybe he does know a little bit.

Boston, MA.  6pm.  We finally arrive in stadium to watch the Royals take batting practice.  Everyone is getting antsy, but the security guard tells us to wait 30 minutes because the Red Sox will come out to stretch.  He mentioned that Brock Holt signed autographs the night before so we might be lucky.  David Ortiz and Xander Bogearts elicited a response from everyone, but it was Johnny Cueto walking to the bullpen in the distance that caught C's eye.  Too far to get an autograph from him and too close to the protective net to get BP foul balls, we returned to our seats in the RF Roof Deck.  These are our favorite seats when we come to the ball park.  It's generally not as busy and the field perspective from perched high above is breathtaking.  The tickets are more expensive than in past years, I guess it's not our secret any more.

Once we sat down, we finally started talking about the Red Sox.  Henry Owens was going to be starting.  The lanky lefty was still finding his way through a major league order, but he showed enough in his previous 3 starts to earn more time, event though Rick Porcello and Joe Kelly were coming back (and coming back strong!).  Owens was going to have his hands full tonight since the Royals were one of the top hitting teams in the American League and riding a 5 game winning streak.

The Red Sox were looking a little stronger themselves.  Mookie Betts and Jackie Bradley Jr. were both hitting the cover off the ball.  Rusney Castillo and Blake Swihart were slowly getting the averages and OBP up.  There was less emphasis on Ramirez and Sandoval too which I think was part of the reason that the Sox showed some signs of life.

Tonight was no different.  Utilityman Jeff Rutledge hit a home run, Betts had three hits and Swihart has 4 hits in a 7-2 drubbing.  Cueto was chased after giving up 7 runs in 6 innings in his worst start as a Royal.  On the other hand, Owens only gave up 1 earned run in 8 strong innings.  We left as rain drops started hitting us, but it was another great game at  Fenway.

We stopped at the souvenir shop of course after the game, event though we left with the idea of beating traffic home, and spent hundred bucks on some meaningless trinkets.  I think I've already thrown out the things that G bought.  But everyone was still excited and DLG found her stuffed Wally the Green Monster animal.  There you go.

Thoughts on Pedro Martinez

1999 was a special year.  The Red Sox, despite three appearances since Bill Buckner, had not won a play off game in 12 tries over 3 playoff series.  The Indians and the Red Sox were facing each other in the ALDS and in a normal year, I would not expect anything different.  The Indians were led by a (still normal) Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, Roberto Alomar and Harold Baines.  The Red Sox had Nomar, and really not much else.  It seemed so long ago.

The difference this year was palpable.  One thing, I mean one Pitcher, slighter than my 13 year old son made this all different, all special.  Pedro Martinez won 23 games, had an ERA of 2.07 and led the league in Strikeouts with 313.  He won the Cy Young that year and was second in the MVP only because a couple of sportswriters decided not to put him on the MVP ballot (Thanks George King!!).  He was the difference this year that we did not have in 1986, 1988, 1990 or 1995.  Yes we had Roger Clemens, but he usually shrunk in the playoffs.  Not Pedro.

His Game 5 appearance, while hurt, while on fumes after leading the team this far, was one of the greatest performances in big league history.

That's what I was thinking while watching his Hall of Fame Speech and number retirement 16 years later.  He's a little pudgier.  He's a little more humble.  But Number 45 was still his huge personality self.  He was speaking off the cuff.  People hated that he didn't seem prepared.  He was still pissed about that 1999 vote and people were pissed about that.  But he was being himself and that what most of us loved.

Although he was only with the Red Sox for 7 years, they were 7 ELECTRIC years that we will never experience again.  Not many righthanders could do that.  And that is when the boys perked up.  All of a sudden, they were interested in Pedro.  The best righthander in Red Sox history?  All of a sudden, 1999 doesn't seem so long ago, when the boys are interested.

More importantly, he is a Red Sox for life.  And that is what's important to me.

2015 Home Run Derby Recap - Who is Todd Frazier?

I got tired of the Home Run Derby.  So many players taking pitch after pitch.  So many players complaining that the Derby was ruing their swing.  Way too much Chris Berman yelling "back, back, back."  There was very little drama and very little excitement.  Everyone would go in turn, the first round took an indefinite amount of time.  We rarely got past the First Round before everyone fell asleep. 

But this year promised to be different.  It would be head to head, rather than against the field.  Order of play was based on some random seedings (but who cares).  It would be timed, rather than based on outs (which led to 20 minute at bats for the more patient hitters).  Runner up last year, Todd Frazier would be in the groupings along with Josh Donaldson (one of C's favorite players), Prince Fielder and the honorable (yet steroid free) Albert Pujols.  We also had Kris Bryant, one of G's Favorite players.  We still had Boomer to listen to, but there seemed to be more excitement based on the fact that the timer makes things more needy for the hitters as time gets long. Mom and DLG almost immediately left the room, although to her credit, she did ask about how many home runs you had to hit to win.

The new format was immediately a hit, as the urgency was palpable and the interminable at-bats were long gone.  So what if Fielder and Manny Machado were gone?  Joc Pederson and Frazier were still in.  And the home runs were flying out of the park.

In the second round, it would be Frazier against Donaldson and Pederson against Pujols.  C was particularly excited because his favorite player was now flip-flopped to Pederson.

Joc

"Dad, have you heard a name like "Joc" before?" C asked me, clearly excited about his new hero.  I had never heard of the guy before, so my answer is "No."

G was not as excited about the Derby as C and I were, particularly when Pujols, one of his favorite players was knocked out by Pederson.  As Frazier beat Donaldson on a walk off last second wall scraper, the Derby became fun again.

Pederson went first and clubbed 14 home runs, including some of the longest home runs hit that night.  What was funny was the pro-Frazier crowd booing every home run and cheering every out.  Wow.  Frazier then came up.  He struggled at the beginning and took his time out.  After the time out ended, his roll began.  Although he needed extra time to do it, his first pitch in bonus time led to his win.

C and I were disappointed since we both wanted the other guy to win, but we were still interested.  Can't wait for next year, Hanley...

2015 New England AAU Championships - The Lost Weekend

Free baseball!  I guess I wouldn't call it free baseball since I pay through the nose for this stuff, but it was free in that both boys received at least 4 more games of baseball without me having to pay for it.  In our neck of the woods, playing AAU baseball meant playing some division games, some out of division games, and then if you are good enough at the end, playing in the New England Regionals. 

We were lucky because both of their teams made the playoffs.  Neither of the boys' teams last year made the playoffs, so it was exciting to see that BOTH of them made it this year.  The format was round robin with 4 teams in each pool.  The best four teams would then go on tot eh Championships the following weekend.  Although we could never afford going tot he US championships, it was fun to talk about Kansas as the next stop if either team won the New Englands.

Welcome to Connecticut!

U10 Team's Path.  I watched the first game at Little Fenway in Freetown, MA on Saturday afternoon.  We played the Lakeville Cardinals earlier in the season here and it was fun to see all of the same angles and the Green Monster.  Although we did not play at the Little Fenway park for the first game that I saw, it was still interesting to walk around the complex.  I Game 1, we played one of the tougher teams, the Northeast Gators.  We split with them in the first doubleheader earlier in the season so despite being the #1 seed, we thought we could take them.  Our ace was out of gas, though, almost immediately and gave up 8 runs in three innings.  G pitched and gave up one run and didn't do anything at the plate, himself.  Sunday was a different matter though, while Mom was with him, the boys won their second game on a walk off Grand Slam in extra innings.  G hit TWO home runs that game to keep it close.  Game 3 was won in a walk over.  It appeared that we were going to be a wild card entry.

U12 Team's Path.  Mom took C on his doubleheader on Saturday to Mansfield, MA.  Only a couple of miles away from the local Buffalo Wild Wings.  They split their doubleheader so they had to win to move on.  C pitched in Game 2 and while garnering the win, had to struggle to get there.  I took C to his final make-or-break game on Sunday.  It was against the Mass Hurricanes, the team that swept C's team in the regular season.  In what has become known as the telephone pole game, C and one of his teammates both hit home runs to left field striking the telephone pole that sat behind the fence.  Behind some strong pitching, we took that game 4-3.  C's home run was an absolute bomb that probably would have traveled 280 feet if not for the pole.  It was a tense game throughout and it was great to see the boys step up when they had to with big hits, big fielding plays and big pitching.  With that win, C's team won their pool and was moving on to the New England Championships.

Mound where G's HR landed

U12 Championship Game.  This was a tough one against the New England Storm.  We got slaughtered ignominiously.  C gave up a grand slam.  The other team's pitcher pitched a perfect game (although to our credit, it was only a 4 inning perfect game because of the slaughter rule).  It was tough.  To top it all off, we were in Brooklyn, Connecticut, which is in the middle of nowhere.  Oh well, it was still a great season.

U10 Championship Game.  G's team played much closer to home in Hanover, MA.  our first game was against the East Cobb Expos - a team from North of Boston.  G topped of a great playoff run with a bomb of a home run and 3 RBIs on two hits.  G's team won the first game to make the Championship Game.  Unfortunately, the run ended their as we again lost to the Northeast Gators.  Even though we had our other ace going, it was a tough row.  G's team kept it close but things fell apart in 4th inning as the Gators scored 9 runs to again defeat G's team by a slaughter rule.

Still a lot of fun.  Forget about how both Championships ended, we were both very proud of the boys.  Yes, it would have been nice to win the whole thing, but they learned a lot about where they are in pecking order.  Not a bad experience at all.