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.

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.

My Spat With A Minor (Single-A) Celebrity

Pete Abraham is a troll, both in social media and in appearance.

I’ll admit I have enjoyed reading his “Extra Bases” blog on boston.com as he provides some good insight on the Red Sox and his summaries offer quick notes before each game.  However, there are times when Mr. Abraham has taken an attitude that chaps my ass and affects my overall opinion of him.

Here is the anatomy of these Pete Abraham posts:

Pete:  *Offers a series of stats that puts the team or a player in a bad light* 

Victim:  “Well, the team should do (X).” 

Pete:  “You’re stupid.  Look at these other facts I did not include in my original post, yet seem to have handy after you posted your silly response.” 

Victim:  “I’m not stupid.  You’re a hack!” 

Pete:  “No.  You are.”

The conversation starts to devolve from there; and woe onto those who use the improper version of ‘you’re.’

I had been annoyed when witnessing these baiting tactics, but my ass-chapping reached its zenith when I fell victim to them; hence the ease with which I made my earlier ad hominem attack.  In early August, Pete had tweeted where in the batting order Boston first baseman Mike Napoli had typically hit.  He ended the tweet saying the team was being patient with him.  I used this as an opportunity to ask if he felt Napoli would break Mark Bellhorn’s regular season team record for strikeouts.  Below is the exchange.

Now, I might be overly sensitive, but I felt Pete’s attitude was very dismissive; and he may have thought the view was “senseless,” but he used the word in an exchange with me, so I took it personally.  I probably didn’t use the best of baseball logic, considering I borrowed the “strikeout is the most unproductive of outs” from Tim McCarver, but if you dig through enough of his dirt, you can find some gems.  At any rate, Pete seemed uninterested in discussing Napoli’s strikeout total, until less than a week later he made this tweet:

WTF, Dude?!

Happy New Year!

I spent much of 2012 getting to know Twitter. I created a Twitter account in hopes to link this blog with another social medium. I liked the simplicity of Twitter as I found it easier to make random tweets in 140 characters or less than to create a blog post. However, I typically have much more to say.

Since creating my Twitter account in late 2011, I have over 2,000 tweets. Many of these are retweets from other people or me giving the business to rival sports fans or people with differing political opinions. In between, there are a few Captain's Originals I think are pretty clever or humorous and I wanted to start the New Year with my favorites of 2012. Since I have linked my Twitter account to Facebook, many of you will have read these posts before.

One of the hashtag trends on Twitter is "#FF," which means "Follow Friday" and tweeters use it to recommend people to other followers. This term is similar to one I've seen in the HuffPo comment sections for "Fan and Fav." To those who may think I'm fanning and favoring myself, might I suggest that you FF yourselves.

There are 50 tweets, but they're short, so this should be a pretty quick read.  I hope you enjoy.

General Humor