Saturday, April 21, 2012

ONE DOWN, TWO TO GO

Okay, so it's only one game and it's early in the season. Still, it's a big win and highlighted the Red Sox problems. Their pitching is simply not good: the starters have not performed well and the bullpen is terrible. They do not have a competent outfield. They fielded well yesterday, but were no threat at the plate. David Ortiz is the only player who looked good at the plate.

The Yanks used the long ball effectively, hitting 5 homeruns off starter Clay Buchholz, ruining Fenway Park's 100th anniversary party. as ESPN writer, Wallace Matthews said, "Invited to share the centennial of a 7-6 Red Sox win over the club from New York then known as the Highlanders, the Yankees didn't just attend the party. They trashed it."

Two former Red Sox, Pedro Martinez and Kevin Millar, stood on the dugout and tried to incite the crowd, but only succeeded in embarrassing themselves by whooping and hollering. Bobby Valentine was booed and, to add a further insult, the crowd serenaded him in the ninth with a chant of "We want Tito! We want Tito!" Well, so do I.

***WHO'S FIRST, WHO'S NOT***
With less than a tenth of the season gone, it's always fun to see what teams are over-achieving and which ones aren't.
Most of the teams currently in first expected to be there: Texas, Detroit, New York (tied) plus the Dodgers and St. Louis. But Washington and Baltimore? Well don't expect to see the Orioles fighting for the crown come September, but Washington's pitching staff was thought to be pretty good and they're outperforming expectations. They might still be around at the end.
In last place is where some real surprises are taking place. San Diego, Cubs, and Kansas City are used to looking up at the rest of the league. Nobody expected the Angels and the Red Sox to be wallowing in the basement. I've already mentioned the Sox' problems but the Angels are a different story. They look like they're waiting for Albert Pujols to carry the club on his back, but he hasn't performed the way he can yet. But even if he does start mashing the ball, you can't rely on one man to take you to a pennant. They'll do better when they figure this out.

## The White Sox and the Orioles played before a whopping crowd of 11,800 fans at Cellular Field in Chicago on Thursday. Where's Ozzie Guillen when you need him?

## Bud Selig announced yesterday that the Oakland A's are in need of a new stadium if they are to survive. Gee, thanks, Bud. You appointed a "Blue Ribbon Panel" to study that two years ago, and it took this long for you to come to this conclusion? We all knew this going in. The question we want answered is, what are you going to do and when?

***THEY SAID IT***
"Congratulations to Jamie Moyer on his first win with the Rockies. Word is they had trouble clocking Moyer's fastball; they couldn't find an egg-timer." -- RJ Currie
" Fenway Park is 100 years old today. Wow. When it opened those “Cubs World Champions” shirts had barely faded at all." -- Janice Hough
"Aggieland Outfitters had to recall a bunch of SEC T-shirts that mistakenly had North Carolina on them instead of Missouri. Next thing you know somebody will screw up a Big East T-shirt and put San Diego State on it. Wait. What? ... uh, never mind." -- Dwight Perry

CP-






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