An Early Red Sox Post Mortem

Well, the All-Star Game will be played at Target Field tomorrow night, and although the game is the ceremonial halfway point, the timing is right to do a post mortem on the Red Sox season. Some may call me fair-weathered, but at 43-52, 9.5 games out of first place, and showing few signs of going on a tear, I have little hope I will be enjoying October baseball as much as I did last year.

Not all the news is bad.  The Red Sox made a solid start prior to the trade deadline by excising a clubhouse cancer; true addition by subtraction.

I believe Pierzynski is Polish for "peckerhead."

All the euphoria of the 2013 World Series run was tempered by the appearance of A.J. Pierzynski during the telecast of one of the games at Fenway.  There was already talk of Jarrod Saltalamacchia not re-signing with the Red Sox, and seeing AJ in the booth with little reason brought a foreboding sense of doom. I eventually accepted the fact Salty wouldn't be with the Red Sox, but had hopes he would show up to my benefit.

Little time passed before I learned what I hope wouldn't happen, did. I still had some faith the Red Sox, a team of professionals, would be able to find a workaround to having AJ as the team's primary catcher. Other than Salty and Jacoby Ellsbury, most of the key players were returning. I chose to take a wait-and-see approach, but would have little patience if things turned sour.

The Red Sox have a lot of things to work on offensively that can't solely be blamed on Pierzynski. I do think a key component to a successful baseball team is having an established catcher. The Red Sox had Varitek for many years and were very successful when he was on the team. One of the worst seasons during his stint was when he was out with an injury. Saltalamacchia was acquired in 2010, survived the crash of 2011, the lost Valentine year of 2012, and was the primary catcher of 2013. When the Red Sox signed AJ, Ben Cherington should have announced 2014 was a bridge year, in spite of the fact the team would be defending World Champions.

365 in 365 for 2014: Images 083 through 089

I'm on a pretty good blogging kick right now, so I'll bang out the month of March for my picture series.  I had my first business trip during the month and flew down to Memphis. The trip wasn't one I planned and I took it to satisfy a requirement from my general manager. It was a trip from hell as I missed connections and had to spend the night in Chicago on the return. I should write more about that as the story is amusing, now that I'm four months removed from it. I'll do what I can to break out the monotony of picture posts with other interesting factoids that happened to me.  Maybe I'll write about that one time I saw a blimp!

No. 83:  03-24-2014

A picture from outside of Graceland.  I need a camera that
takes better pictures at night.

No. 084:  03-25-2014

A street car on Main Street in downtown Memphis.

No. 085:  03-26-2014

A lighthouse near Boom Island in Minneapolis.  The old
Grain Belt brewery is in the background.

No. 086:  03-27-2014

This is a cut-through under a building in downtown Minneapolis.
It saves people from having to walk around the full block.

No. 087:  03-28-2014

A faux facade in an area where the buildings were converted
to medium to high end condos.  Seems to be the way of things
in downtown Minneapolis.

No. 088:  03-29-2014

The Wife and birthday gal in-between stops during a night
full of celebrations.

No. 089:  03-30-2014

The Captain and his First Mate.

365 in 365 for 2014: Images 076 through 082

Chris Kuball isn't the only person who can ruin a summer day with reminders of winter. Here is my next series of pictures from back in March.

No. 076:  03-17-2014

There used to be a large building that blocked the view of the
highway.  The view will be blocked again when the St. Paul Saints
have their new ballpark in 2015.

No. 077:  03-18-2014

An old brick building in downtown Minneapolis.

No. 078:  03-19-2014

The new Green Line light rail going through the U of M campus,

No. 079:  03-20-2014

The slowly melting Mississippi River.

No. 080:  03-21-2014

The slowly thawing downtown St. Paul.

No. 081:  03-22-2014

A quick freeze after a thaw creates a skating rink at
the Battle Creek dog park.

No. 082:  03-23-2014

A beacon in Mounds View for the small,
regional St. Paul airport.

For One Week, The "Happiest Place on Earth" Wasn't

Well, it's Sunday and a full week back from my vacation.  Having a four day work week to get back into the swing of things would have been just the way I would have drawn it up if I actually planned it.  We had an absolutely gorgeous July 4th weekend, most of which was spent outside doing yard work. Yet another storm rolled in the early hours this morning, and left a small amount of rain, but the day is hot and muggy and perfect for staying indoors for things like laundry and blogging.

The first half of my vacation started on Thursday and was spent in Orlando to attend the AAU National Tournament for G-Bug's volleyball team. We would probably have enjoyed being in Orlando more if the tournament was held in February, like the one in Wisconsin Dells, but the Orange County Convention Center was a nice place to be to get out of the mid-90 degree heat.

I had given my family the heads-up on the tournament months in advance, envisioning the trip would be a good way for all of us to get together this year. My brother and his family stayed the whole week we were there, while my mom was in town from Thursday to Monday.  As an added bonus, my aunt and uncle, who live in the Palm Beach area, drove into town for the weekend.  The tournament ran from Saturday afternoon until Tuesday, so there were a couple of "free" days for G-Bug, although she was required to stay with her team.

Our crew had rented two two-bedroom condos at Lake Buena Vista Resort.  My mom stayed with my brother's family while G-Bug's mom stayed with the Wife and me. Let me repeat that for effect, I was staying in a two-bedroom condo with my wife and ex-wife. Fortunately, the master bedroom and bath were on one side of the condo and a second bedroom and bathroom were on the other side, so we were able to stay out of each other's way.

The first night we all went out for a group dinner, G-Bug's mom included.  We tried to go to Downtown Disney, but we followed the cones and traffic attendants in an elaborate loop that got us back to the main road we took to get into downtown.  We settled on Landry's Seafood House, which, as a second choice, was pretty nice.  Our waitress was a sour prune and put on the hard sell to buy member cards to other restaurants or theme parks, but we declined. The food was excellent, as I had a crab stuffed Mahi and the Wife had a Cedar Planked Salmon.

We were finished with dinner after 10p and we tried to make our way back to the resort. I had followed my brother in our rental car to get to the restaurant and with the detour around the crowded Downtown Disney, I had lost my bearings. I wanted to follow him back to the resort and be there before 11p as we all could visit G-Bug before curfew. Mom had said it was just a couple of lefts to get there, so we chanced it on our own.  The roads were still busy with traffic and the stop lights off the main road only allowed a couple cars to go through before changing. I was gunning through "pinks" (just turned reds) by the third light.

We saw a building with 'Lake Buena Vista' on the side, but the building was a different resort.  I pulled into the parking lot, but was confused by the traffic cones by the entrance, as our resort didn't have any construction near it. We made a U-turn and I waited for a break in the traffic to get back on the highway.  Once on the road, I quickly realized I didn't see any of the landmarks that were close to our resort.  The signs for the airport confirmed we were headed the wrong way.

My biggest pet peeve is stupidity. I have little patience when others exhibit it and get very angry with myself when I do. Plus, a clock was ticking in my head to get back in time to see G-Bug.  Needless to say, when I asked my three passengers for help with directions, I used some serious invective and my foot became leaden.  And let me confirm for effect, I had my mom, wife, and ex-wife in the car with me. The directions were a back-up, now that I knew what road we were traveling. I knew once we turned around I would be able to find my way again. When we dropped off mom at her condo, my brother's family had already gone to bed and we only had a few minutes to see G-Bug. We decided to pass on a visit with her.