Tom Williamson's MLB Baseball fan blog

Yesterday was the Red Sox home opener, a welcome sight for the thousands of Red Sox fans and for the players themselves who had just completed an 18 day road trip that brought them to Japan, California and Canada and saw them open the season with a 3-4 record.  For me this was a bit of a sad day, the first time in the past seven years that I was not attending the game at the ballpark, but for Red Sox Nation it was day that lived up to the hype.

First there was the ring ceremony.  This was an event for the ages.  I was present for the 2005 ring ceremony when the Red Sox opened their season at home, something that seemed hard to top; first world series in 86 years, ceremony taking place in a game against their biggest rivals, but from what I heard of yesterdays ceremonies they were at least just as good.  There were flags from  62 nations to symbolize just how far Red Sox Nation has extended in the past few years.  There were champions from other Boston teams: Bill Russel, Bobby Orr, and Tedy Bruschi.  There were the World Series Rings of course.  But probably the most touching thing was there was Bill Buckner.  Buckner was chosen to throw out the ceremonial first pitch, and was announced to a standing ovation.  Red Sox fans, and the media have finally forgiven the poor for the mishap that was scrutinized for 18 years.  He was cheered, he was respected.  And I almost forgot, the lifelong Red Sox, 88-year-old Johnny Pesky, helped to raise the World Series banner up the center-field flag pole.

Continue reading "Red Sox Home Opening Day 2008"

Today the Boston Red Sox and Doug Marabelli have agreed on a deal that will bring him back for an 8th season with the team.  The dealing is pending a physical, and has not been finalized, but it looks as though he will be back to catch knuckleballer Tim Wakefield once again. 

Marabelli will be taking a pay cut from last years salary of $750,000.  His new deal calls for a base salary of $550,000, but he can make more than double that in bonuses.  His potential bonuses are the following:

1-$275,000 in roster bonuses

2-$150,000 in conditioning bonuses

3- $1.25 million in performance bonuses (games and games started) 

The 37 year catcher originally joined the Red Sox in June of 2001.  He was acquired from Texas June 12, 2001 in a trade from the Texas Rangers in exchange for minor league right hander, Justin Duchscherer. The trade was made necessary when Jason Varitek broke his elbow diving for a foul ball.  Aside from a brief stint with San Diego, Marabelli has been with Boston ever since.

Continue reading "Mirabelli Staying in Boston"

The past week has been relatively quiet in the world of the Boston Red Sox.  Sure, the team was in the headlines concerning Jim Rice and his 14th attempt at becoming a Hall of Famer but besides that very little has happening in Red Sox Nation. But besides that let's run down what other news has happening concerning the Red Sox.

Former owner Edward "Buddy" LeRoux, died of natural causes this week but his name is not one of prominence in Red Sox Nation, he was only a part time owner during the Yawkey Era.  He was probably more important for his role as a trainer from 1966-74 and as the team's vice president in 1978 and 79.

Over the weekend, Boston's Hot Stove, Cool Music was once again a success.  It is estimated that the event raised $200,000 putting the total for the event after 8 years to approximately $1.5 million.  All of the profits go to charities.

Continue reading "No news is good news for the Red Sox"

This past week the awards for the regular season were handed out in the NFL.  The New England Patriots were well represented.  They picked up, NFL MVP, AP Offensive Player of the Year, AP Coach of the Year and five AP All Pro First Team spots plus four other players were named to the All Pro Second Team.

 Tom Brady received the most recognition capturing the MVP and Offensive Player of the Year Award, plus being named to the All Pro team.  This season Brady established established career highs for completions (389), completion percentage (68.9), passing yards (4,806), passer rating (117.2), and touchdown passes (50), certainly a season worthy of the recognition he received.  He was not however, a unanimous winner in the MVP nor was he a unanimous selection to the All Pro Team.  One vote split his votes between Brady and Brett Farve.  The Patriots did one unanimous selection to the All Pro team.  That was Randy Moss.  LaDainian Tomlinson was the only other unanimous selection.   The other All Pro's for the Patriots were: First Team-Matt Light, Mike Vrabel, and Assante Samuel; Second Team-Wes Welker, Dan Koppen, Vince Wilfork and Logan Mankins.  Last year the Patriots did not have any player on the All Pro First Team.

Continue reading "Award Season Rewards Patriots Perfect Regular Season"

Yesterday the St. Louis Cardinals signed former Red Sox right hander Matt Clement to a one year deal with an option for a second year.  This move gives the St. Louis Cardinals two starters who were members of the Red Sox within the past six months.  The other pitcher is Joel Pineiro.  Pineiro was acquired by the Cardinals this past July in exchange for a minor leaguer. 

 He enjoyed his time in the National League and pitched his best baseball in years finishing the year with a sub 4 ERA as a starter.  Over the past few seasons he had struggled while with the Mariners as a starter and then was inconsistent with the Red Sox as a reliever.  The Sox eventually sent him to the minor leagues where he was playing at the time of the trade.

 Clement, meanwhile, has not pitched in a major league game since the 2006 season following major arm surgery.  He should be ready to pitch with out holding back at the start of spring training and is a legitimate option to fill one of the rotation positions come the start of the season.  This may change as the season goes on, as St. Louis has two star pitchers of their own, Mark Mulder, and Chris Carpenter, who are due back at some point in 2008.  

Continue reading "Clement makes 2 former Red Sox in Rotation"

Last year the Patriots traded their first round pick, the 28th, to the San Francisco 49ers.  In exchange the Patriots got a 4th round pick for last years draft and San Francisco’s first round pick this year.  Basically what that translates to is Randy Moss, and the number 7 pick this year for Joe Staley, the 49ers right tackle who started all 16 games this season.

Basically the Patriots struck gold with this deal.  They obtained a record setting pro bowler for with that 4th round pick, certainly much more production than they would have gotten by picking any body at the 28th spot, and they managed to get a top ten pick in this year’s draft.  In a way this makes the stripping of their own first round pick irrelevant.

Historically the Patriots don’t pick that high in the draft but they have managed to draft really well and have a good mix of home players and free agents.  If they don’t find a fit at the number seven pick they could swing that pick for picks and extend the life of the original trade.  A number seven pick certainly has more value than a number 28 and they could potentially even get two first round picks from a team that is desperate to move up.  That may be dramatic but it has been done in the past.  Currently Dallas is the only team with two first round picks so it seems that a trade between the top seed from each conference would be unlikely.

Continue reading "Patriots Struck Gold From San Francisco"

Today is the last day of a year that brought the Boston Red Sox another World Series Title. The fact that they the World Series is enough on its own to make this a great year for Red Sox Nation but there was more to it than that.  The Red Sox provided great entertainment throughout the year, so here is a look at some of the highlights the hometown team provided during 2007.
 1. Papelbon's dog ate the World Series Ball.
This is one of the most entertaining stories in probably all of sports from 2007.  The star closer’s dog actually jumped, grabbed the ball that was used to record the final out of the World Series from the mantle and chewed it until it was no longer a baseball.  This time around it will be impossible for there to be controversy over the ownership of the ball. 

Continue reading "2007 ends and the Red Sox had fun"

In just under an hour the New England Patriots will play their final game of the regular season.  They are a mere sixty minutes away from becoming the first team ever to win sixteen games in the regular season and from becoming the second team to finish the season undefeated.  They have said many times that though they would love to accomplish this feat they are more worried about the winning the Super Bowl.  This begs the question of how long their starters will play.  National experts will tell you that the Patriots should sit their starters and rest up for the playoffs.  New Englanders will cry to you that the starters have to play, two in particular, Randy Moss and Tom Brady so they can capture individual season records for the most touchdowns receptions and most touchdown passes respectively.  Well, what are they going to do?

Continue reading "Patriots Pursuing Perfection"

The New England Patriots have had 8 deserving players named to the roster for the 2008 version of the Pro Bowl.  Those players are, Tom Brady, Randy Moss, Assante Samuel, Mike Vrabel, Vince Wilfork, Dan Koppen, Logan Mankins and Matt Light.  While all of those players are deserving there is one name in particular that should be there and isn't. Why isn't Wes Welker on the Pro Bowl team?  He has 96 catches and is probably the best slot receiver in the game of football.  The reason, the Pro Bowl is a numbers game.  That works on a couple levels.  First people are elected to the team based on their stats.  Second, there are only so many spots available on the team and there just wasn't enough room to fit Welker.  This is unfortunate yes, but let's look deeper into the reason why that is the case.

Continue reading "Patriots Pro Bowlers"

So far 8 awards have been given out by This Year In  Baseball, TYIB.  Red Sox players have won half of those rewards and when not finishing in first have finished no worse than third place.  Three of the four non first place winners had the second highest amount of votes.  This years TYIB awards, voted on by the fans, show just big Red Sox Nation has become.  So far, Josh Beckett has won the award for best starting pitcher, Jonathan Papelbon won for best closer, Clay Buchholz and his no-hitter won for best performance of the year and Hideki Okijima won the award for best setup man of the year.  Though all of those accomplishments were nationally recognized, three of the pitchers made that AL all star team, and Buchholz throw his no-hitter as a rookie, it shows how much Red Sox fans really want to reward their players for a job well done.

Continue reading "The Red Sox This Year In Baseball"