Not Saying I Told You So, But…..

Red Sox pitchers and catchers have reported to Ft. Myers.
Their first workout is tomorrow. Columnists have been wondering whether there will be a championship hangover. But instead of talking about that…

Let's arrow back a year.
Clearly 2013 was a fun year to be a Red Sox fan. By my count even better than 2004, which is hard to top. But what were people saying about the Red Sox year ago? Mostly you heard that they'd be better than in 2012…how could they not be? But did you hear anyone predict a World Series win? If you read this blog you did. Okay, it was not a prediction, it was wishful thinking. But worth another look:

Feb. 12, 2013.

Hope Springs Eternal.

Pitchers and catchers open camp today in Fort Myers...
...and hope springs eternal for a better season in 2013. I mean, could it get any worse than 2012?

Sure it could.
I lived in Baltimore in the late 80's. In 1988 the Orioles were only five years separated from their last World Series win, in 1983. That's the exact same gap as the Red Sox had last year, 2007-2012. The '88 Orioles opened the season by dropping the first 21 games. After the 3rd loss, Bob Rivers, new morning show host on 98 Rock, announced that he'd stay on the air round-the-clock until the team won. And he did. The manager, Cal Ripken, Sr. (father of star shortstop Cal, Jr.) was fired after loss #6. Everyone slumped simultaneously. It was so bad they didn't put batting averages on the scoreboard because they all started with a zero.

The O's finally won a game in Chicago on April 29th, then dropped two more, and returned home for "Fantastic Fans Night" (this was already on the books before the season started) on May 2nd to a sellout crowd at Memorial Stadium. Bob Rivers was given a full Orioles uniform, name on the back and all, and got a standing ovation when he threw out the first pitch, like a girl, as they used to say. (An outdated phrase. I happen to know from experience that girls can throw really well if you show them how.) Baltimore went on to win that game, 9-4. They finished last that year, with a record of 54-107. That's fifteen games worse than the 2012 Red Sox.

So what happened the next year?
In 1989 they improved to 87-75 and finished 2nd, two games behind Toronto and four ahead of the 3rd-place Red Sox. That's a 33-game improvement. If the Red Sox do the same thing in 2013...win 33 more games than last year...they'll win 102 games, win the AL East and go on to win the World Series. Hopefully, the National League will win the All-Star game, so the Red Sox clinching win in the World Series will come at Fenway Park.

Hope springs eternal.

No more collisions at home

MLB is banning collisions at home.
As people head home slowly on a snowy December night…hoping to avoid those whoops-type sliding collisions (remember to steer into the skid) we're looking at another type of collision. Runner crashing into catcher at home plate hoping to knock the ball loose and score. Catcher trying to hang on to ball, get an out and not get concussed.

Taking a cue from the NFL.
The NFL made a settlement with retired players who suffered numerous concussions during their playing days and are feeling the effects, often devastating, years later. It has certainly been an issue in the NHL as well. Matt Cooke of the Pittsburgh Penguins effectively ending the career of Boston Bruins center Marc Savard when he concussed him with a whack in the head being one of the foremost examples. Sean Thornton's current 15-game suspension being another.

Now it's baseball's turn.
Red Sox backup catcher David Ross was concussed twice during the 2013 Championship Season. He was able to return and and take over the starting catcher job for the last three games of the World Series (following Jarrod Saltalamacchia's .188 batting postseason average and ill-advised throw to 3rd that cost the Sox a loss in Game 3. And the lack of a qualifying offer when he filed for free agency).

San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey, a Rookie of the Year and NL Batting Champion missed an entire season when his leg was broken in a home plate collision. Did that affect the Giants fortunes? Let's look at the numbers. Buster was also the catcher for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox of the Cape Cod League when they were champions in both 2006 and 2007 (the PA announcer always called him "Busta"). In his rookie year the Giants won the World Series for the first time since 1954 when they were the New York Giants (in case you've wondered why you hear people refer to the New York Football Giants, that's why. The baseball Giants preceded the football Giants by decades before moving to SF in 1958). He missed the entire 2011 season, but was back in 2012 and the Giants won it all again.

It's not a new rule.
Girls Fastpitch Softball has had the rule for several years. The catcher cannot block the plate awaiting a throw. She can stand just to the side of the plate and make a sweep tag for the out.

Three examples of it working well.
Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek splitting the uprights (okay, sliding into home safely, just ahead of a sweep tag). Sorry, Mr. Mayuh. Kara Kelley (my daughter) as a Wellesley High School Raider sliding home safely against the Needham High School Rockets and Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers stealing home against the New York Yankees in he 1955 World Series.

All three were safe.
But the plays were close, and no one got concussed. It's a good rule and I applaud MLB for adopting it. Let's hope the Players' Association doesn't try to block it at the plate.

Good News and a Note of Caution

The Good News

After the 9th inning 3-run homer from Stephen Drew on Wednesday night the Red Sox had a total of 70 wins. No team in Major League Baseball had more, and 70 wins is more then the Sox had for the entire season in 2012. And we're still in the single digits of August. A year ago at this time they had only 55 wins and were in 4th place 11 games out.

The Note of Caution

Go back another year. On this date in 2011 the Red Sox had 72 wins and were in 1st place by 2-1/2 games. Remember, the big chicken-and-beer collapse didn't start until September.

Let's look at some big years of the past on this date:

2007 World Series Champions. 69 wins, 1st place.

2004 World Series Champions. 60 wins, 2nd place and 10-1/2 games out. Can you believe it?

2003 Went to the ALCS and lost to the Yankees in 7 games (the Aaron Boone walk off). 68 wins, 2nd place, 6 games out.

1999 Went to the ALCS and lost to the Yankees. 61 wins, 3rd place, 8-1/2 games out.

1995 Won the AL East but were swept by Cleveland in the playoffs. 56 wins (but the season started late due to the 1994 strike), 1st place by 7 games.

1990 Won the AL East but were swept by the A's in the playoffs - that was when Roger Clemens was tossed for mouthing "vaccuum" (so he claimed) at the umpire. 60 wins, 1st place by 2 games.

1988 Won the AL East but were swept by the A's. 64 wins, 2nd place, 3 games out.

1986 AL Champions, lost the World Series in 7 games to the Mets (the Bill Buckner year). 64 wins, 1st place by 5 games.

1978 Blew an 11-1/2 game lead but tied the Yankees on the final day. Lost the one-game playoff when Bucky Bleeping Dent homered. No Wild Card back then. 70 wins on this date. Hmmmph. 1st place by 7-1/2 games.

1975 AL Champions, lost the World Series to Cincinnati in 7 games. 69 wins, 1st place by 6 games.

1967 The Impossible Dream Year. Lost the World Series to St. Louis in 7 games. 60 wins, 2nd place, 1-1/2 games out.

1948 Ended the season tied for 1st with Cleveland. Lost a one-game playoff. If they'd won, it would have been a Boston Red Sox v. Boston Braves World Series. The Braves also lost. 4th place, 3 games out.

1946 American League Champions, lost the World Series to St. Louis in 7 games when Johnny Pesky was slow making a relay throw. 76 wins (wow!) in 1st place by 14 games.

1918 World Series Champions, beating the Cubs. 63 wins, 1st place by 3-1/2 games.

They've been better off, they've been worse off.

Worse off much more frequently over the years, but right now they're better off than in any World Series year since 1946. And much much better off than anyone predicted.

Who's the best ever Red Sox Play-by-Play announcer?

Fred Hoey
It started in 1926. Fred Hoey did games for about 15 years but all I know is his name and the stations that carried the games (usually WNAC, which is now WRKO).

Jim Britt
Jim did play-by-play for both the Red Sox and the Boston Braves from 1942 until the early 50's. He only did home games, but the Red Sox and Braves were never scheduled at home on the same day so it worked out. Britt did the first-ever televised game in 1948 - Braves vs. Cubs at Braves Field, which is now Nickerson Field at BU. This preceded my time, so I don't know how good he was or know any of his special calls. I asked my father-in-law and he couldn't remember anything special. I'm on the Board of the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame and Jim Britt is being inducted in September, so he was at least that good. In 1951 both the Red Sox and Braves decided to broadcast all of their games, so each team needed their own play-by-play Talent. Britt chose to stay with the Braves, which was the wrong choice as they left town in 1953 in moved to Milwaukee. By the way, the "Yankee" you see on his microphone is not for the Yankees, it's for the Yankee Network, which was based in Boston.

Curt Gowdy
He did Sox games from 1951-1965 and had classic lines like, "It's a seat squirmer", "3 and 2, the big one due" and "Going...going...gone!" As a kid, when I realized that I probably would not be replacing Ted Williams in left field, I decided that I wanted to be like Curt Gowdy and do play-by-play. Gowdy was an A.

Ken Coleman
He replaced Cowdy in 1966 and lasted until 1974, then was back from 1979-1989. He had a mediocre voice and I always thought he sounded bored - even in 1967 when Carl Yastrzemski came to bat during his Triple Crown season and people would pull over rather than drive under a bridge and miss what Yaz did. The classic call of the 1967 Impossible Dream Season wasn't by Ken Coleman. Ken was a C.

Ned Martin
Ned was the #2 guy for Curt Gowdy in 1965 and took over the lead role in 1966. He had a nice voice, and his enthusiasm made Ken sound even more bored. On a long home run Ned would say, "He's just gonna look up and admire that one" or simply say, "Mercy" or "That's over everything." On TV, when a pitch that looked like it was right down the pipe was called a ball, Ned would just mutter, "Hmmph." His most famous line was in 1967 when the Red Sox won the pennant for the first time in 21 years: "Petrocelli's under it...the Red Sox WIN...and there's pandemonium on the field!" At the end of the 1978 season Ned and partner Jim Woods were fired for "not following sponsor dictates" and switched to TV where he lasted until 1992. Ned Martin was an A+.

Jon Miller
My favorite. He was the #2 guy for three seasons starting in 1980. Jon made exciting moments more exciting and slow moments - even rain delays - entertaining. He did great impressions of Vin Scully, long-time Fenway PA announcer Sherm Feller and many others. I was disappointed when he was gone for the 1983 season, but excited once again when I moved to Baltimore and he was the #1 guy for the Orioles. One time at Memorial Stadium when it was UMass Alumni of Baltimore-Washington night he did a Sherm Feller impression over the PA that was very funny for anyone from Boston. Miller was the first one, when referring to the on-deck batter when there are two outs, by saying, "He would be next." He subsequently went to the Giants and did ESPN Sunday Night Baseball on TV for many years. Jon Miller is an A+.

Joe Castiglione
1983 was a disappointing year. The ream wasn't very good, finishing in 6th place 20 games behind Baltimore. The play-by-play flagship station became WPLM in Plymouth, which had a bad signal and horrible small-town production. Even worse, Jon Miller was replaced by Castiglione, who is still around 30 years later. Compared to Miller's superb pipes, Castiglione has a voice that's mediocre at best. He sounds uninspired doing ads like Shaw's "from the deli-to-the-dugout sweepstakes" and can sound bored when bad things happen in the game. He also will go up a full octave when something exciting happens.

Joe has certainly put his time in and everyone is used to him. He's very knowledgeable...sometimes too much so, such as when he tells us the name of a visiting player's 3rd grade teacher. It was fitting that in his 22nd season doing Sox games he got to make the "Can you believe it?" radio call when they finally won it in 2004.

My only real complaint with Joe is that he mispronounces player's names. Even Red Sox players. There are three members of the 2013 Red Sox who's names Joe seemingly can't say correctly. Jacoby Ellsbury (he says it like Ells-BERRY), Jose Iglesias (he sticks an N in there making it IN-glesias) and Koji Uehara. Admittedly that's a tough one, and many people have trouble with it, but he's our closer and the play-by-play guy should get the name right. Joe says "YOU-ee-har-a" when it should be "WAY-har-a" (the opening U and e being a dipthong). So Joe Castiglione gets a B.

Sean McDonough
From 1987 until 2004 Sean did the over-the-air broadcasts while Ned Martin and later Bob Kurtz did the NESN games. It was Sean who came up with the nickname Rem-Dawg for his partner Jerry Remy. Sean was very good...so good that a guy doing the Pawtucket Red Sox games practiced trying to sound like Sean. That guy was Don Orsillo. Sean's Red Sox job eventually went to Orsillo, who sounded just as good for a lot less money. A new sports radio station called 1510/The Zone (the old WMEX frequency) was trying to compete with WEEI and spent a ton of money hiring Talent like Sean, Eddie Andelman and Mike Adams but the horrible signal doomed it to failure. Sean was an A+.

Bob Starr
Bob was Joe Castiglione's partner for three seasons, 1990-1992, but for some reason I draw almost a complete blank on him, so there's no rating. I do recall that he did Patriots games with Gil Santos for a few years.

Jerry Trupiano
Jerry was Joe's partner from 1993 to 2006. I never liked him. HIs voice was gruff and I kept wanting him to clear his throat. He is most famous for giving fans false hope with his "Way back, WAAAY back!" calls on fly balls that wound up being caught on the warning track. A legit complaint, but that wasn't the biggest problem. During slow moments he was tedious. "That brings up so-and-so...he's looking to get on base." Jeez, ya think so? How many batters aren't? He'd also say the same thing three times during a slow at bat, and made stupid jokes about song lyrics. Songs by Perry Como or someone else that no one cares about. And he used to work in Houston and talked about Houston a lot. Who cares? Jerry was a D.

Dave O'Brien
He joined the Red Sox radio team in 2006 as Joe's #2 guy, and became the lead announcer in 2011. Excellent. Great voice, colorful lines like, "Goodness, gracious" or "He really hit a rope...you could hang your wash on that one." He also has ESPN duties, so he's not always there and the fill-ins are never as good. Dave is an A. The only thing keeping him from being an A+ is missing a couple of games each week.

Don Orsillo
Excellent. Pleasant guy, great voice, very descriptive. "Well-hit toward left, high in the air, and when it comes down this game will be tied." His rapport with Jerry Remy is as good as it gets...entertaining with a lot of local color. He's definitely an A. The only thing that keeps him from being an A+ is that he can't pronounce W. And for W.B. Mason alone he has to say it about fifty times a night. It comes out as "du-bee-Mason." Surprising for an otherwise excellent Voice Talent as they call it in the business.

So here's the top 10 countdown
10. Jim Britt. Not rated because he preceded my time, but he's going into the Hall of Fame.
9. Jerry Trupiano
8. Ken Coleman
7. Joe Castiglione
6. Curt Gowdy
5. Dave O'Brien
4. Don Orsillo
3. Sean McDonough
2. Jon Miller
1. Ned Martin

Note: 3, 2 and 1 are all A+...Ned Martin wins overall on tenure.

What about the color analysts like Remy?
There are too many to do all in one blog. We'll rank them in the next episode.