Dryden Is Home

They're BACK!

Baseball is back! A long season of games that start as early as 10am and end as late as 2am. A season of daily changes in division leaders. A season with 162 games for each of the 30 teams. And then there are the playoffs.

I'm looking forward to the season starting (Red Sox / Royals at 4:05pm this afternoon). I have the mlb.com radio broadcast all set up - just $14.95 for the entire season. Last year I used my wireless enabled laptop to broadcast the game into my yard while I worked on the gardens. It isn't quite rollup your sleeves and get dirty garden weather just yet, but the long winter nights will slowly be replaced by nights in the living room listening to baseball - 2430 games from now until September.

Do you have any baseball predictions for the year?

Fenway Faithful Tees

Baseball season is here and now there is a new way for Red Sox fans to show thier Red Sox pride anywhere with localized fenway faithful t-shirts!

http://www.fenwayfaithfultees.com/

I'm having one sent here that says "New York" on it, since I am now in New York, but there's no chance I will become a Yankees fan (Red Sox up 1 game in the standings).

The are planning to eventually roll out t-shirts custom for different cities and states and for different teams. Check them out!

http://www.fenwayfaithfultees.com/

If the Season was only 10 games

Pitching, pitching, pitching. If the season was just 10 games long we would be in the playoffs and by the looks of things, could take on anyone in a three game series. Unfortunately, the season is a mere 1/16 of the way completed and we have five and a half months of baseball left to enjoy. And by enjoy I mean go batshit insanely crazy watching every one of those 19 regular season Yankees games, checking the scoreboard/stats/standings pages every day, staying up until 2 am for those west coast games in late August, sweating nervously through September's final games at Toronto and with Baltimore and then hopefully enjoying the madness of baseball playoffs. Between now and then the weather will warm (it is a breezy 61 here in Ithaca today), swimming and boating will take over some evenings, the garden will rise from the earth and grow to provide a bounty of food for the last months of the year and I'll probably work on so many website projects my head will start to spin.

Today though I will enjoy knowing Wakey will be tossing the knuckleball at home this afternoon, the Sox have the Win, ERA and Saves leaders (and notice Schilling and Becket appear on both ERA and Wins - - see any other teams doing that?), and that even being surrounded by Mets and Yankees fans here in New York I can be happy with the success of my former hometown team.

I hate being a pessimist

I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist.

Well, it was a terrible season, we just barely made it in, thanks to the collapse of the Indians and as we see now - the power of the mighty White Sox. Best of luck to Scott in Chicago on the second round. At this rate maybe the cubs are next to be vanquished.

I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist. I hate being a pessimist.I hate being a pessimist.I hate being a pessimist.I hate being a pessimist.I hate being a pessimist.I hate being a pessimist.

Are we done yet? I can't stand it. See you in about three hours.

Wells, that sucked

Game one goes to the Chicago White Sox. It was brutal. When I figure out where I left my camera I'll take a picture of the green monster chalk board. David Wells goes tonight. I hope I don't have to use the same title for tomorrows post.

Almost everyone in the nation conceded game 1 on Monday, so I guess its not so bad. I do wish we were in the Astros place against the Braves - 10 to 3 bottom of the eighth. Sorry Dustin.

Baseball continues tonight - Sox v. Sox in 10 minutes.

Well, here we go again.

Let's just hope for a long, exciting month of baseball that features between 11 and 19 red sox games! Starting tomorrow everyone has a 0-0 record.

A quick recap of last year and this year:

Day 1 of the 2005 season:

http://ithacaishome.typepad.com/ithaca_is_home/2005/04/pristine_but_no.html

My favorite teams (July 8th, 2005):

http://ithacaishome.typepad.com/ithaca_is_home/2005/07/playing_favorit.html

Recap of 2004's World Series win:

http://www.544productions.com/worldseries/

World Series, Game 3:

http://ithacaishome.typepad.com/ithaca_is_home/2004/10/ws_game_3_play_.html

World Series, Game 2:

http://ithacaishome.typepad.com/ithaca_is_home/2004/10/game_2_1.html

World Series, Game 1:

http://ithacaishome.typepad.com/ithaca_is_home/2004/10/game_1_for_whom.html

ALCS, Game 7:

http://ithacaishome.typepad.com/ithaca_is_home/2004/10/game_7_inevitab.html

All of my Red Sox writings and rantings:

http://ithacaishome.typepad.com/ithaca_is_home/red_sox/index.html

And of course, online pictures from this year in baseball (at Fenway, Shea Stadium and SBC/Giants):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmakar/tags/baseball/

Finally, the big board gets reset on Monday after looking like this for the last 11 months:

(Thanks again to Brian and Jaime for this great gift last year - I hope I use it all month!)

Can we write them off yet?

The Orioles lost again tonight (Well ok, its 12:14am and they are now down 8-1 in the sixth so anything is possible). As I was driving around yesterday I was trying to remember if I knew any orioles fans. Maybe Catherine is a fan. I don't know. She has a blog, but I haven't been allowed to find out what it is yet. She does live near the inner harbor.

I think it is official though, after tonight they will be 51-55. They had a great run, but their run is over. Hopefully by next year they will be able to compete for five months instead of just three. And then...well, let's just let them try to finish at a .500 average and ahead of Toronto.

Winners don't cheat, cheaters don't win. 3000 hits doesn't guarantee a place in the hall. I hope the little blue pill didn't set off the alarms, otherwise my dad might not be able to play for 10 days either.

Ok, enough baseball for tonight.

What a difference a year makes

I just flipped my computer screen over to the ESPN.com gamecast of the Yankees and Angels game. Of course the Yankees are up 3-1, which puts them at just 2 games back with a win behind my favorite team going into my favorite teams game this evening with the Twins. Then I see what I can't believe - Alan Embree coming in to protect a 2 run lead with 1 on and no outs. Joe Torre  - have you watched any of the Red Sox this year? Embree? We LET him go! Doesn't that tell you anything?

Embree is one of the twenty-five, he is untouchable in the eyes of most sox fans. However, Foulke and Ramirez are also part of the twenty-five and their actions (off the field) have damped their own favorability. Embree - I liked what you did back there in 2003 and 2004. You are one of the reasons we made it. This year, something was different. I don't know what. I don't think anyone knows. I guess you are lucky to have completely cleared waivers and were able to get a job working in NYC. Can't they just pay you to sit and recover? I guess now I'd really like to see you get better - just not at our expense. So instead of coming in for a quick tune up you give up a single. That's ok, it happens. Then you give up a sacrafice, these things happen. With the nerves and newness of playing in pinstripes and in "The Stadium" its all understandable. But when I read that there was a throwing error by the pitcher I knew. I just knew. I knew you just threw the NY game away for us. You are still on the payroll. You are the quid pro quo to Ramiro Mendoza. I get it, you are there to help us. Go, do your thing. I just hope your check from Yawkey Way still covertly makes it to Ohio.

Well...

Well, that sucked!

Luckily this year we don't live and die with every single game. It is a long season. We endure. Tomorrow we play again.

Oh yeah, by the way, we won the whole thing last year!

Playing Favorites

I had dinner with a close friend of mine here in Ithaca tonight. His wife and daughter and son and new baby (three and a half months) and I chilled out in the cool evening breeze. We have been lucky these last few days in Ithaca - there has been a lot of rain and the temperatures have become mild - 60s at night, 70s during the day. My friend's son is a huge huge super huge NBA fan. We got to talking about sports and he asked me who my second favorite NFL team was. That was really hard. My guesses would be Seattle and Minnesota - two perennial underdogs. Maybe that’s why I liked them.

A few weeks back I was talking to Dave – who is from Vermont and is also a very big sox fan about teams and favorites within MLB. I had actually been thinking about that a lot, especially with all of the inter-league games going on. So tonight I’ve compiled a list of favorite teams, by league and by division and then from top to bottom. In any head to head meetings the higher on the list the more I favor them.

AL East (Home Division)

• Boston (of course)
• Baltimore (just for a change of pace)
• Toronto (first non-fenway park I visited was skydome)
• Tampa Bay (could care less, just as the ownership)
• New York (of course)

AL Central (Two teams I really like to see compete, another that can't compete, and two that are all talk)

• White Sox (mr. smith, its been too damn long)
• Twinnies (santana, aaron gleeman, hankees, beating the A's)
• Kansas City (ms. richards, first park out of the east I saw at night from I-70)
• Tigers (current home of carlos pena - from NU!)
• Cleveland (Cleveland sux!)

AL West (I hope a Seattle team in any sport can win a championship someday, beyond the WNBA that is - Oop!)

• SEATTLE (Underdogs for life, Pilots, Amy B., MS/Real buddies, Ichiro in the postseason)
• ANAHEIM (Thanks for winning!)
• TEXAS (cursed by a-rod)
• OAKLAND (Moneyball losers)

NL East (3 teams I'd love to see win and 2 I'd hate to see win)

• Philly (my good friend Joe F. was from Philly, do it for Bowa!)
• Washington (The commisioner wanted to fold this team!)
• NY Mets (I can forgive '86, go Mets!)
• Braves (making history, but who cares? - sorry dustin)
• Florida (blah, thanks for beating the yankees, but I didn't watch a single minute of the series)

NL Central (After the cubs and that little team from Wisconsin I could totally care less)

• Cubs (please let them win!)
• Brewers (fan of an underdog)
• Reds (whatever)
• Pirates (whatever)
• Astros (whatever)
• St. Louis (maybe I don't like teams that win so much...)

NL West (So many good teams and that triple A club in denver)

• San Diego (do it for '98!)
• Arizona (thanks for 2001 memories)
• LA (can depodesta do anything?)
• SF (so close to the WS win, no longer a fan on Bonds)
• Colorado (whatever / irrelevant)

My overall rankings (wow this is harder than it looks):

• Boston
• Cubs
• White Sox
• San Diego
• Philly
• Washington
• Twinnies
• SEATTLE
• NY Mets
• ANAHEIM
• Arizona
• Baltimore
• Brewers
• LA
• Kansas City
• Toronto
• SF
• TEXAS
• Tigers
• Cleveland
• Tampa Bay
• OAKLAND
• Reds (whatever)
• Pirates (whatever)
• Astros (whatever)
• St. Louis
• Braves
• Florida
• Colorado (whatever / irrelevant)
• New York