August 2011, Dog days indeed!!

Each season of the wire can stand alone but Season one sets the stage for the whole series. Season one and 3 are very linked.

Ok what the fuck is Varitek doing swinging at 3-0 with the bases loaded.

Most mad I've been all year.

FYI

August 8, 2011
Sox 70-43
NY 69-44 1GB
Tampa 59-54 11 GB
Can we say the Rays are goners now? Kind of impressive that the Sox, Yankees, Rays and Blue Jays are still above .500.
What is with CC and the Sox this year? 0-4 with a 7 ERA? Shouldn’t he kill the lefthanders in this lineup? Remarkable that he is 16-2 versus the rest of MLB.
I guess we can ask also what is up with John Lackey. Though not a dominant performance he battled and pitched well. That is all we can ask for from him I think.
It would seem that it is also the end of Posada’s run, benched maybe for good. Mel I hope he takes it better this time.
I thought that this series had a chance to get nasty after the late take out slide Friday night on Pedrioa. I guess these two are too professional to go down that road.
49 games left as these two jockey for position. Sox are still on pace to win 100 games after that horrid start.
Kind of looks like the old head coach in Foxboro has something up his sleeve. Loading up on D lineman for some reason. I suppose we will get a sneak peek Thursday night. Also we get to see Ryan Mallett, he really intrigues me.
Actually this whole Patriots team is intriguing, what the heck will they look like?

BB I watched the Wire in order as well. You can watch 2 without 1 but really you need to start at eth beginning. “I got the shotgun. You got the briefcase. It's all in the game though, right?

Yankees/Sox doesn't seem that chippy right now. I think it's more that both teams are way ahead for a playoff spot than professionalism. They do it all again in a couple of weeks, no? My greatest concern coming in was that the Yankees would continue to roll offensively. Series could have gone either way. On to Minnesota. Mother Flippin' Twinkies. Seems so long ago that the Sox and Twins were in a battle for worst record in baseball.

He's so washed up at the plate, he's actually become interesting to watch.. He steps out after every pitch and really puts thought into what might be coming next. He's a complete guess hitter and doesnt mind that everyone knows it.

My baseball career ended in 2nd grade, so I'm asking anyone who's played. Can a hitter see the infielders when he's up at bat? I never knew before last night that Peds does that hop/skip/jump before every pitch.. Is that distracting? Does he do it on purpose? Does it do it to get on TV? Was Bobby V making that up?

Valentine sure nitpicked the little stuff, huh? the discussion about Gardner having such a big lead that he could pickup the pickoff attempt was interesting. Baseball is a game of little stuff and I always thought I was pretty good. Then I got to the college level and heard guys talking about picking up signs by what watching the muscles as the sign was given by the catcher. Damn. It's been my experience that a hitter glances the field, gets a soft focus on the pitcher and then a hard focus as the hand gets to the release point. Pitchers have gotten very good at hiding the ball longer. I don't think most hitters see anything more than that. Some guys don't like stolen base attempts when they're at bat because it distracts them at the plate. Valentine has been known to impress the hell out of management and irritate the hell out of his players. I think he makes the game too complicated. I liked some of the back and forth between Hersheiser and Valentine but the national games irritate the hell out of me. I watch my team almost every game and those guys come in with often outdated information. Does anyone really consider Beckett to be the number one of the Red Sox staff? ESPN does.

I hear what you're saying on BobV. He notices everything on the field, which is pretty impressive. But since we know he's a sleaze, it's hard to know what to think of him. The Yanks were playing the Cubs a couple months ago and he went on & on on one play where Arod didnt round 3B the right way. He slowed down and took almost a 90 degree angle instead of charging around. BobbyV kept saying he was surprised since Arod's a smart & experienced player.

Well, anyone who watched recent yankee games knew Arod had a bad knee. Heck, BobV probably knew it too, but wanted to show off his baserunning analysis smarts..

Then again, Arod's a dick too

FU Smo

best way for Wake to get to 200 may be out of the pen. drove into town yesterday and the battery went dead. listened to the first few innings of the Sox game while I waited for cables to arrive. I got so pissed that I cursed Mr. Knuckles and turned on the Stern replay. Nice surprise for BB this morning.

I hope last night was not the beginning of a swoon for Wake, he has always been a boom and bust guy. Baker just sort of lost it last night; the pitch to Salty was awful. Especially since he had him 0-2.
Many people now opining that the Sox should sign Ortiz to an extension. Great but how many years should they roll over for, 2 years or 3 maybe? Not sure since he is at least 35 years old and sluggers even modern age sluggers do not age gracefully. If he wants one year and an option that is fine otherwise he is looking elsewhere. We only need to look at the precipitous drop off by Jorge Posada to see what can happen when father time catches up with you.
Is the HC of the NE Patriots cooking up some new hybrid defense with 5 DE and Tackles? I guess he got tired of seeing no pass rush.
BB needs to stay close to home or lose the black cloud hanging over him.

I'd like to see an agreement with Ortiz like Wake has, only problem I can see is if Ortiz is looking to cash in for one last big payday. He is so limited in what he can provide a team that he must have more value in Boston than potentially anywhere else. I have listened to more Boston Sports Talk in the past week than all year and have come to the conclusion that it's just too boring in Red Sox land to support all the talking heads.

regarding the battery, it caught me off guard. I took my middle child to Best Buy to look at a laptop and decided to head to another store for more information. When I started the truck it had a Bourne-like hesitation that suggested I was about to be blown up. I just thought it was strange. When I tried to start it next time it was completely dead, other than all my dashboard controls making strange clicking noises. I'm actually lucky the bastards didn't get me. Batteries just go dead instead of the halcyon days where you could get a few more starts, even if it meant you had to roll down a hill to do it. Oh how I yearn for the 20th century.