At around 11:00 PM tonight, I fly back east to visit my Dad. More than enough time to stick to the original plan to be at New Old Lompoc to watch opening day in Boston, all the more proper since he’s the entire reason I am part of Red Sox Nation. Wonder of wonders, Bill Buckner threw out the ceremonial first pitch to cheers and a standing ovation.
Archive for the 'Baseball' Category
Idea Whiplash points us to an Associated Press story on that exhibition game tomorrow at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum — with a picture of how the field will be laid out. I really do wish that I could watch this game somewhere.
Before the Boston Red Sox go to Oakland to finish up their season-opening series against the Athletics (they split the first two, played in Japan), they travel to Los Angeles to play three exhibition games against the Dodgers.
So what? They will be playing one of the games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, under most peculiar circumstances, as explained by The New York Times.
The foul pole stands only 201 feet down the left-field line. A 60-foot-high net snickers beside it, ready to entice hitters and tickle the necks of two laughably cramped left fielders.
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“This is what they’re going to see,” Charles Steinberg, the Dodgers’ executive vice president for marketing and public relations, said last weekend as he surveyed the ridiculously tall net in left and the misshapen field’s other goofiness. “They’re going to walk in and be like, ‘Are you kidding me?’”
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But the Red Sox may feel more at home than the Dodgers — even if Red Sox Nation does not outnumber Dodgers fans, which some have predicted given the reigning champions’ booming popularity. The Coliseum is in many ways an exaggerated version of Fenway Park, with a tall-but-close left-field fence and far deeper dimensions in right.
“We pulled the left-field netting as tight as possible so that balls will bounce off it kind of like the Green Monster,” Rosenberg of the Dodgers said. “But we didn’t want to pull it too tight and be like a vertical trampoline.”
For those who have access to it, NESN will be broadcasting Saturday’s game. Unless you get to be there, that will be your opportunity to witness this particular baseball spectacle.
Yes. It’s true. I stayed up to listen to the beginning of baseball season. But, not to worry. I’m only staying up to listen to the first inning of the game. Then I’m going to bed and leaving the audio playing in the background while I sleep.
Addendum: So I managed to hear the first two innings (one before going to bed and one after, but before falling asleep), and then wake up briefly during the tenth to hear the end. In other words, I got to hear the always-lingering disaster that can be Daisuke Matzusaka, and I got to hear us win in extra innings.
Overnight tonight, baseball witnesses opening day — or, as Major League Baseball is calling it since the Red Sox take on the Athletics at 6:00 AM for the east coast, Opening Dawn. In honor of the long and dark Winter finally coming to an end, see this EPSN article. “You’ve never lived in a world where a baseball season was about to begin and the Boston Red Sox could be described with a word millions of New Englanders were once completely unfamiliar with,” writes Jayson Stark. “Favorites.”
And spring training games get underway, with the 24-0 final score of today’s split squad game against Boston College. Coming up later: The other split-squad game, against Northeastern University. And come tomorrow, the first real spring training game of the year, against the Minnesota Twins. It’s on NESN, so it had better be playing at New Old Lompoc.
The annual preparations for baseball season continue. And as we head towards next week and the first Boston Red Sox games of Spring Training (hopefully I will be at New Old Lompoc for next Friday’s game against the Minnesota Twins), one more milestone has been reached: This season’s subscription to Gameday Audio has been purchased.
Maybe it’s just my imagination, but Manny Ramirez seems to be a little less doughy than he did last season. He also reported to Spring Training on time and talked to the press, saying that he’d like to finish his career as a Red Sox. I wonder if the potential for a prepared, focused, and motivated Manny Ramirez is making anyone on opposing teams a little nervous.
Pitchers and catchers already have reported. Position players have started to arrive, although they aren’t due until tomorrow. But spring training, at long last, is underway. And with Portland being the Almost Boston of Red Sox Nation, I point you to the profile of Madras native Jacoby Ellsbury in (of all places) Men’s Vogue.
Today, indeed, is truck day. Don’t know what that means? Go see this Extra Bases post to learn. Oh, and: Pitchers and catchers report to spring training in six days. Baseball season is on its way.