Section 42, Row 37, Seat 21

Book Signing and Game Watch May 4th!

Fenway 100

While the Red Sox managed to turn Fenway’s 100th B-day Bash into another forgettable Yankee massacre I took a few minutes to compile some Bosox Bios Courtesy of the SABR Baseball Biography Project.

Bobby V’s…Book It!

On the eve of Red Sox-Yankees, Fenway 100, and our book signing at Bobby V’s we received more love from Tampa. The Sports Bookie Bob D’Angelo wrote an excellent review of our book. Glad to see he appreciated the humor and insight that went into “I Love the Red Sox” and yes some of it is tongue in cheek (I think). The review was so thorough that Bob D’Angelo even discussed our mention of Tampa Bay Buccaneers Ronde Barber and assorted wrestling name drops. As for the weekend ,looking forward to some Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins domination (we’ll settle for Sox and C’s domination). Don’t forget we will be appearing at Bobby V’s Friday at 6pm…see you there!

#42 at 65

Tomorrow marks the 65th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s historical start to his rookie season. As is the case every year now, most of the teams will wear his #42 as a tribute to first African-American to play in the major leagues. The Cleveland Indians usually wear #14 to honor Hall of Famer Larry Doby who debuted a few months later.  This week Sports Illustrated has a wonderful article on Jackie’s widow Rachel Robinson and Richard Rothschild supplies a wonderful Jackie Robinson article online.In particular I love Rothschild’s opening line: “Sixty-five years ago Sunday Jackie Robinson changed the course of history in his fourth-best sport.” 

Creative Loafing Tampa!

Long gone are the hideous uniforms and losing ways, the Tampa Rays are the new “Moneyball” of the majors. Surely their winning model is well on its way of being replicated. It seems I Love the Red Sox, Hate the Yankees  has a fan in Tampa, Bill McKeen of Creative Loafing Tampa gave our book a wonderful write up in his article. Your eyes are not playing tricks on you…that is Jon, Rit, and Allie sandwiched in between the likes of George Plimpton and John Updike. As a matter of fact the Updike piece is one that was referenced for our entry on Ted Williams. Much appreciated cltampa.com!

I Hate the Yankees Stadium Tour #1

Changing the Guard

Hey remember me?!? It’s the Red Sox trio of Mike Greenwell, Ellis Burks, and Todd Benzinger immortalized in this 1988 Fleer card. In our book I Love the Red Sox, I Hate the Yankees we took time to remember the underrated career of Greenwell in the section of great Red Sox leftfielders “Whether playing at Fenway (.312) or away (.294), at day (.316) or night (.296), against lefties (.293) or righties (.307) his numbers were rock solid.“  As you can see by this quote from our book Ellis Burks didn’t shy away from taking shots at the Evil Empire in our interview with the 2004 champ: “It’s a great organization, but I always said as minor leaguer I’d hate to be in the Yankee system because you wouldn’t get a fair shot to move up in the system because they’d go out and get free agents who would put you on hold.” Todd Benzinger was one of the few Red Sox players in the past quarter century whose name does not appear in our book.

Selig Corey Harts Castro

Ozzie Guillen was suspended five games by the Marlins for his awful decision in praising Fidel Castro. However, a photo of Castro and Bud Selig (circa 1999) has been circulating on the Internet. Disgruntled Orioles owner Peter Angelos certainly is not as captivated by Castro as those around him appear to be. No word on if the commish will retroactively suspend himself. Here is what Selig had to say about the Guillen situation today.

We Love the Red Sox, We Hate Castro

Just to be clear we love the Red Sox (especially after their first win of the season) and HATE Fidel Castro. Ozzie Guillen moments again ended an hour long apology. The Miami Marlins manager recently set off a firestorm with his comments about the Cuban dictator in Time Magazine. What he should have said is that Castro is so old he was once parodied in an episode of the Twilight Zone. Castro is seen here giving pitching tips to former President Jimmy Carter.

Green Hat, Pink Hat, Orange Hat…Ooops

There is one thing we can already be sure of in the 2012 baseball season…the Yankees and the Red Sox will NOT be wire-to-wire division leaders. The Jays, Rays, and O’s have jumped to 2-0 records while the Bombers and Bosox have each dropped their first two. This can all change quicker than you can say Francisco Cervelli five times. Francisco Cervelli, Francisco Cervelli, Fran-…are the Sox and Yanks back in first yet?! Well you get the point! Put on your green or pink Red Sox hat or hell even your orange Yankee hat and root, root, root for your team! It’s April and everybody is still in it!

Eye Opener

This Is Not the Griffey You're Looking For

The Mets have won two games before the Yankees and Red Sox picked up a win. The Sox were crushed today by Prince and Cabrera, while the Yanks look to recover after Mo blew the 73rd game of his career. Entering the game he was 60 of 61 in save opportunities against the Rays. However, he’s been known to blow a few in April, it’s the lack of blown saves in October that frustrates this Yankee hater. Adam Dunn hit his 8th opening day homer tying Ken Griffey, Jr. and Frank Robinson for the all-time mark. Octavio Dotel pitched for his 13th team (Detroit) setting a major league record.