Off-days mean…musical theatre! And other forms of culture.

Red Sox off-day. Nationals off-day. Which means a post on the absolutely impossible project I’ve been turning over in my head. See, it seems to me that the English language is filled with terms that if, say, you were a foreigner with new English and no baseball experience, you’d find utterly confusing. So this post is to keep track of baseball and baseball terms popping up in places you wouldn’t expect them. And there a lot of them. Far too many to list. Yet I try anyway, so…

For example, baseball in Damn Yankees doesn’t count, because the show is about baseball. But lines like this do:

Merrily We Roll Along, Now You Know – “The side is retired, but there’s still another inning. Right?” (Just randomly put in the middle of a song about the aftermath of a divorce. Makes perfect sense in context, might confuse the hell out of a Danish musical theatre buff who’s translating.)

Songs – Ragtime: “What a Game”

You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown: “There is No Team, Like the Best Team”

Falsettoland: “The Baseball Game” (We’re watching 67 pounders, watching Jewish boys hit grounders…”)

Things like this. I’m going to add more, when I get home from work. (So, it’ll be a while.)

Oh you’ve gotta be kidding me.

Guzman probably done for the year.

Yeah, when I made the crack about not wanting Guzman to make Bowden look good? I didn’t mean it. I take it back.

Damn. The worst part is, we have to put Lopez back at SS. He’s a crappy SS. Between him there, Belliard at 2nd, and Young at 1st, we’re gonna have hideous infield defense. Zim can’t make up for all of them, no matter how good he is.

Guzman and Repko of the Dodgers, no luck at all. (They both were injured all of last year, and got season-ending injuries this year.)

23 to go.

As it happens, I agree with the Red Sox hive mind – Mike Timlin does not have much time left in his pitching career. And more to the point, his usefulness is already pretty shot (the back to back homeruns given up last night? Were a fairly convincing indicator.)

But…

Per the Red Sox website, he’s pitched in 977 games. That leaves 23 to go for him to get to 1000 appearances, which is his stated goal. The Red Sox have played 75 games, with 87 left to play. We’re 10 games up on our nearest competitor, Toronto, who have been as badly hit with injuries this year as we were last year (in fact, I still owe my Blue Jays friend a sympathy call.) The Angels are at our level. No one else is – the tops of the other divisions are all around 44 wins or so. Which is immaterial anyway because the likelihood of our needing to compete with them for a post-season spot is slim, at best (or they’re in the NL.)

My longwinded point is that we have breathing room. With 87 games left, there are going to be blowouts where we’re ahead by 10 or behind by 10. There will probably be at least 23 of them. Letting Mike Timlin, a good Red Sox citizen, reach the personal goal that is important to him is not going to cost the team. We’re not burning new options, we’ll bring Breslow & Corey up in Sept (assuming that no one else gets hurt; never a safe assumption,) we won’t nickel-and-dime the guy regarding his career. Because it’s not going to matter in 4 months, and the goodwill will remain even when Timlin leaves.

Yeah, you don’t usually win games where the SP walks the bases loaded in the first with no outs…

We stole a game from the Padres tonight. If the “pitching-and-defense-wins-playoffs” theory held unerringly true, the Padres should be a terror in the post-season (which has yet to happen so far.) But tonight was good for us. 2 RBI singles does it. (Thank god for futile NL offenses.)

All of the NL West in theory wins with pitching (except for the Diamondbacks, I think.) I’m not sure I’m entirely impressed by them. But for the rest of the field: the Jays win 9-8 over the Rockies in extra (blown save by Fuentes.) The Giants…lord do they suck…lose 7-1. I’m afraid Dave Roberts only went 1-5 (it’s okay Dave, we love you forever.) Although from the boxscore, it looks like Jeter was both caught stealing (hee!) *and* picked off of first (HAH!) Orioles kick the crap out of the Diamondbacks, 7-1. Interleague, ladies and gentlemen!

(Although I’m very irritated to say that the Dodgers won, 6-3, over the Devil Rays. Kazmir, sir, I beg you. KICK THE EVER LOVING CRAP OUT OF THE DODGERS TOMORROW PLEASE. I am completely done with them, and it’s entirely due to the godawful  fans. From now on, I want Nomar to go 4 for 4 in every game he plays until he’s traded to an NL contender, and then the Dodgers to fall to last in the West. )

6-22-07 Nats vs Cleveland: Reverse Lock

I would not have been surprised if the Indians had swept the Nats this weekend. An offense that contains Sizemore, Martinez, and Hafner (who’s hitting sixth!) is, to paraphrase Bullwinkle, an anti-histamine offense (not to be sneezed at.) But we’re ahead 4-1 in the bottom of the 8th. This is unexpected. (And thank you Trot for striking out with men on first & third to end the inning.)

Guzman apparently feels he needs to make up for 2005, and I see no reason to stop him. He just hit another HR, and is batting 337/OBP/872. Guzman! (But damn it, I don’t want Bowden to be proven right.)

Temporary intro post

At some point, this will become an amazing introduction post that will convey wit and wisdom to the world. Sadly until then, we’ll have to make do with this. Hello.

And while I’m at it, here is a Credo for this blog (with 100% less Latin)

- This is a Red Sox & Nationals blog. Yes, both. Not a Reds blog, in case anyone was confused.* Who do I cheer for if they play each other? On the one hand, that shouldn’t happen often; AL East vs NL East. When it does, I’ll cheer for whoever is in the pennant race and needs it most. (So that should be the Red Sox for at least the next 5 years or so.) On the other hand, I’m a born and bred Red Sox fan.** I can’t turn my back on the old loyalties. So that makes the hierarchy: 1) Red Sox 2) Nationals 3) Wherever Nomar is playing these days, unless it’s the Yankees (and more on that later).

- I like rationality. So, with rare exceptions (which I’ll state in a moment), I look at the numbers when judging players. By numbers, I mean OBP/OPS/Win Shares/ERA plus, not wins or the other traditional stats. I reserve the right to be irrational when it comes to the Yankees, and to the following players:

- This blog is a Tim Wakefield fan zone. No dissension is tolerated on this matter. None. I don’t care if knuckleballs give you agita. I don’t care if you’re desperate for Lester to join the starting staff. I don’t care if you think Doug Mirabelli is useless (join the club, babe) and blame Wake for that. I don’t care if you’re an idiot and blame Wake for his lack of run support. This is a Tim Wakefield friendly blog. He is my favorite player, the knuckleball is a wonderful pitch, and that’s the final word on the matter.

- Ryan Zimmerman is the third baseman to watch in the NL East. Yes, I know that David Wright and Miguel Cabrera play in this division (for the moment, anyway.) I don’t care. Zim is gonna do great, great things.

- I’m a Nomar fan. Not a Cubs fan, not a Dodgers fan, a Nomar fan. I don’t give a damn how the teams do, except as I want Nomar to win a ring*** and MVP for the World Series. I will really tolerate no dissension here. I don’t care if you were mortally offended by him sitting on the bench while Captain Intangibles threw himself into the stands (and why *do* you care?) I don’t care if his batting mannerisms drive you crazy. I don’t care if you think James Loney is going to be the best first-baseman in the history of the game (here’s a hint, Dodger fans; IT’S UNLIKELY.) This is a Nomar fan zone, with all that entails. You don’t have to love him, or even care about him. But insults won’t go over well. (Unless he chooses to play with the Yankees. Then we all hold our breath until he comes to his senses. But he won’t do that to us? Right? [twitch, twitch, twitch]) By the way, from 1997 to 2001, Nomar was the best shortstop in the game. (From 2002 to 2003, he was second to A-Rod.)

- There are a few other players that I’ve become attached to, that aren’t on the Sox or Nationals. I’ll follow them as the mood takes me.

- I’m a historian. I like footnotes. I use them.

- Anything else needs to be covered, I’ll add it here. Cheers!

*Although I still cheer for Bronson Arroyo. Go Bronson! Give some hell to Jerry Narron for completely overusing you last year and this year, thereby killing your arm. (Seriously people, check out the pitcher abuse points.)

**There was no local team to root for growing up. No, the Orioles didn’t count. I didn’t live in Baltimore. I didn’t even live in Maryland. And Peter Angelos is evil. Also, I come by my Bostonian connections honestly.

***Yes, I know Nomar got his 2004 ring. I want him to win one for games he played in.