FourFriends1679

For me, this is a hereditary mental disorder. It just runs in my family. Especially in the men. My grandfathers all had it. All of my Uncles have it, and my father has it. So, sadly, I inherited the gene as well. There was little hope for me, I guess. LOL. (Somehow I managed to give it my wife. Not sure how that works!) My father was at the Bucky Dent game in '78. (I still have the ticket in my Baseball Card Album to proove it!) I came into it in '86, living in Connecticut, going to school with a bunch of Mets and Yankee fans. Yeah... Schiraldi, Stanley and Buckner (not to mention Johnny Mac) REALLY let me down that year. (In a one-minute time span I went from literally jumping with joy at the prospect of bragging rights, to utter depsair and dreading the ribbing I'd be getting the next day!) LOL. DW and I had a bottle of Champagne for 2004, and I DID NOT, WOULD NOT, open it until Menkavich (not even going to try!) stepped on first and the ump called out. Even three games up, I wasn't going to risk it! Hey - WE just came back from 0-3, who's to say the Cards couldn't do it, just to spite us? I'm just really glad about the current ownership and managment team though. They really know what they're doing and really want to win. FINALLY, for the first time since the 1910's, I really think the teams is really in good hands. (And YES, I'm including the Tom Yawkee era in that statement!)

I hate to say it, but I expect (HOPE FOR might be a better way to say it) a little LESS patience with DAVID ORITZ. Don't get me wrong: I LOVE THE GUY. But he's done. Washed-up. And over-priced. Everyone's down on Varitek's bat, but Ortiz really wasn't all that much better. And he's a DH! You can live with a offensive black hole at Catcher, just like at Short, if the player brings something else, which 'Tek does. But if a DH can't hit... why bother? He gave us some good memories, but I don't think we'll be seeing that anymore, second half resurgence not withstanding. He reminds me of Jim Rice c.1987-89 or Mo Vaughn with the Mets. Harsh, I know. And I truly do hate to say it. But he was by far the biggest disappointment in the lineup in BOTH of the last two years. I wrote a post like this, saying about the same thing, about a year ago on oneredseat.com, based on his 2008 season. I really hate being right all the time!

I say, "Let him go as far as his back & arm will carry him." Healthy, he can still be the best 5th starter in the league by far. If he gets hurt again... IDK. He is getting up there. Knucklers' arms last longer, but that says nothing about their BACKS. I'm not crazy about him in the 'Pen. Bad memories from '99 and 2000. *shudder* (The image of Jim Thome sending one of his pitches into ORBIT in the '99 LDS will be etched in my memory next to Schiraldi, Stanley and Buckner, even though we did end up winning that series.) Not to mention Aaron -bleepin'- BOONE in '03, even though Wake never should have never even had to pitch in THAT game. My big beef with him out of the pen is that if he needs a batter or two to find his groove (and, IMHO, he does) two runs could score before he gets an out. Plus he's not a strikeout pitcher, or LH/RH specialist. An inning or two here and there, coming in with bases empty... MAYBE. But aren't you better of developing younger talent / future straters in that role? If he can't start, sadly, I think he should retire. He's wasted on mop-up duty.

Hello! ANother N00b joining your ranks! That's FourFriends1679, as in: #1 Bobby Doerr, #6 Jonny Pesky, #7 Dominic DiMaggio and #9 Ted Williams. I recently started a blog about All-Time, All-Star Teams. (link in sig) Since I share the same mental illness as most of you (Red Sox fandom) the first two I put up were the All-Time Red Sox, Classic Edition and All-Time Red Sox, Modern Edition. Please come on by sometime and let me know what you think of my picks!