pilumpyphi

No (see below) but I don't know how that influences The Curse. Does it help to have another Bill Buckner in the system now, 18 years after the spine cracking collapse of our shoe-in champs?

Is Kansas City nuts with pick #55? http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/draftday/y2004/tracker_round_2_1.html

They were trying to ship him to Baltimore earlier this season. Rumors about Perez for Jay Gibbons.

Didn't he have a similar injury to Nomar, except about 4 weeks after Nomar? Where's Nomar?

What? No Pokey Reese? All the Asians are looking at these posts thinking "What's wrong with Shigetoshi Hasegawa?" My vote is for Chone Figgins.

Is anyone else nervous that Nomar's return might be bad for the team? Nomar's guaranteed to displace at least one of: Youkilis (17 runs in 18 games, sick), Bellhorn (2nd in AL in BB), or Reese (sorry, but he's better defensively than any of the above, including Nomar). I'm glad that Nomar's taking it slow, being his typical self and stringing us along for his return. Now they're talking about "one more" game in Pawtucket. I'm not so sure he's going to tear it up when he gets back. Francona seems to be aware of this assuring everyone that Bellhorn and Youkilis will get ample playing time after Nomar comes back. I anticipate Mueller's return to be similar, but that's probably a little way off since he just had surgery.

I have to agree with yawkeyway. Everyone can relax, we have new ownership. I think so many Sox fans have been beat over the head with the same ownership for the past few decades that they're worried the old habits will hang around to haunt us. Not so. The renovations are meant to be as minimally invasive as possible. The Monster Seats, the Right Field seats are an attempt to make use of the space available without altering the geometry or nostalgia of the park. Although I am concerned about the "annex" mentioned in the diagram. Does that mean they'll get rid of Boston Beerworks!!!?? People are busting down the doors to go to these games. They need more seats. I'd rather them put seats on top of the wall or roof rather than add a whole new tier around the park making it look like a football stadium. Instead they're using the space they have. Henry and Lucchino know best that it would be cheaper and easier to just build a new park somewhere else and move the team out of the Fens rather than keep renovating and repairing. Jon Harrington was the one that wanted to do just that. He's gone and these guys are doing their best to balance the demand while preserving the spirit of the experience. The same goes for Theo. He's not Lou Gorman. Those days seem well behind us. No more Jack Clark, Rob Deer or Kevin Mitchell roster moves. Pitching and OBP wins championships. And I have no idea where people get the idea that a park ever sets up a home team to lose. It's nine ups each for any game. The only advantage a home team has is to bat last. If anything, the home team's manager should know the situation and how the park favors/limits the team in each situation.

Yeah, that's tough to do. You have to be watching a lot of baseball or just be in right place at the right time.

Did you miss David Wells' perfect game in '98 or David Cone's in '99? I think New York has had enough perfect games. Makes me ill thinking that Moose almost did it too (thus the T-Shirt). Way too many for NY in a short period of time.

No one can convince me that there hasn't been something wrong with Pedro since spring training. A fastball blinking at 90 is like BP for guys like Vlad. Petey was making excuses before the game last night, saying "boo hoo, the weather... boo hoo, my body reacts to the weather... booo hooo hooo" Weather's pretty damn nice in Southern Cali mijos amigos. Explain the 7 earned ones off that. The boy ain't right.

I love the fact that for someone to say they went to a Dodgers game is not believeable enough to keep them out of jail. Cop: Where were you at the time of the murder? Catalan: I was at the Dodgers game with my daughter. Cop: Yeah, right. You went to a Dodgers game? Can't you come up with something better than that? Nobody goes to Dodgers games. Even if he was at the game, if he's a standard Dodgers fan he probably showed up in the 4th and left in the 6th.

I immediately went out and bought a Carl Everett T-shirt after that game. I'm not sure, but wasn't that Mussina's first season with the MFY?

I heard this morning on Sports Desk that Nomar's leading the All-Star votes. That's brutal. I've had just as many MLB at-bats as he's had this season, but guys like Tejada are being left out. Not to mention Poppy.

Youkilis is amazing to watch at the plate. It may be in my head, but the pitchers seem afraid to try to fool him with stuff on the corners and end up paying for it by grooving one down the middle. They're realizing they're facing the Greek God of Walks.

Yeah, who elected the Bennifer to be the unofficial spokesperson for Red Sox Nation? Now I know where they came up with those obnoxious "Wendy's unofficial spokesperson" ads. Who's going to believe that someone who's gettin' the big bootie cooties is a pureblood Sox fan when she's from NYC? Breaking up with her doesn't make it right. He should have to wear a big NY symbol on his chest for all eternity. UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN!! Two words Ben: Gi-Li

I think he'd have less back and hip pain if his teammates stopped dragging him out blindfolded in the middle of the night and beating him up.

Excellent analogy.

Does anyone besides me think the whole medical staff for the Red Sox is somewhat suspicious? I've never seen such ambiguity over injuries before. What exactly is Nomar's injury? We know it involves his leg, specifically his Achilles tendon, but what's wrong with it exactly? Is it torn, frayed, swollen, stretched? I've seen dozens of conflicting reports. Mark Prior had a "similar" injury, in the sense that it was to his Achilles, and is pitching rehab games in the minors. There were no questions as to when he'd be back. It's kinda like that wrist injury that they knew Nomar had in September 2000, let him go all offseason with it, comes into spring with it, plays virtually all spring with it and then BOOM just as the season starts he needs surgery. How does that work? What exactly is Trot's injury? First his butt, then his back. Why is it they can nail down Mueller's time frame to 4-6 weeks, with a surgery already scheduled, but the with the superstars there's no details?

I don't trust Scott Boras. I think he's pushing the envelope way to far with Lowe asking for eight figures. He's a dangerous person, so much so I wouldn't put it past him to be using his other clients for his cause. I love Jason Varitek like a brother, but I'm not seeing the same things he's seeing. Maybe it's because I'm not behind the plate, but the results speak for themself: 6.02 ERA, 1.91 WHIP. That's almost a walk and a hit each inning my friends, not good. It makes me wonder if there's some kind of conspiracy going on with Boras as the ringmaster. Lowe and Tek have been together for a long time and both have Boras as their agent. I just hope Tek's being objective and not trying to puff up his buddy for the sake of the brotherhood.

I see Millar's usefulness as a quasi-utility player. I don't see his value as a major leaguer eclipsing the $3 mil mark though. I guess he may have earned his whole contract's value last season having a terrific year for the Sox, but I don't see his career statistics (which are also pretty decent) going up before they head down. I guess I'm flagging him as a "higher percieved vs. actual value player." This is a good thing though because that means other people may want him while the price may seem right. The opposite of this is something like the BH Kim situation where you have a crappy player getting paid too much.

I'm sorry, I don't mean to be negative. I'm not an optimist, but I'm also not an outright pessimist. I guess I'm a cynic. Let me at least justify my comment on El Gato: I see in my mind the image of Andreas coming to the Sox and all the past images (ghosts if you will) of old, rusty re-treads come flooding into my head. It's like Lou Gorman is GM again and we're signing Willie McGee, Jack Clark, Rob Deer... it goes on. I don't think Galarraga is that type of player though (yet). I don't see Galarraga's return to the field being as benificial to the team he plays for as it is to himself. In an effort to be more positive, I think Galarraga is a very intelligent player. I think he might have a few more years of playing left in him, but his new value can be found in developing young hitters, teaching them how to approach plate appearances, and study pitchers. I've always seen that as a strength of his and figured that's how he was typically in the hunt for batting titles year after year. He'd be a great hitting coach or member of player development, especially since he's mulit-lingual.

Absolutely The Sandot. "You're killin' me Smalls!" - Hamilton "Ham" Porter Honorable mention will go to the original Major League and who could forget The Bad News Bears?

I think he'd look good in a nice red sports jacket and a rag in his hand. They don't have enough of those ushers to wipe the peanut shells off the seats at Fenway.

Has Kevin Millar officially out lasted his usefulness? I saw in the Herald he's only a few plate appearances short of triggering an option for 2005 for something like 3.5 mil. What can I do to stop this?