I Stopped Caring Months Ago…

About players who test positive for PEDs.

It may seem like I just so happened to decide today of all days to look past steroid usage. The day when Manny Ramirez was suspended 50 games for PED usage. Manny Ramirez formally of the Boston Red Sox. The same Boston Red Sox I have followed my whole life.

But surprisingly it wasn’t today.

I still cared when Bonds was clearly juicing. I still cared about the ridiculousness of Roger Clemens. But then something happened. My blood lust waned.

You would think A-rod’s rampant juicing would cause me nothing but pleasure. He’s of the hated Yankees. He’s a cheater etc.

But when all of the revelations about Alex Rodriguez came out I was mostly just…bored.

After all of the Clemens and Bonds allegations everything else just seemed frivolous.

Of course these guys are all on PEDs. Why wouldn’t they be? If you trained your whole life to be as good as you could possibly be at something and got to your peak and saw there were still people better than you, wouldn’t you do whatever it takes to catch up to them or surpass them?

I would.

Especially when it means more money, adoration and little to no chance of my employer or union giving a rat’s ass about it.

I think Alex Rodriguez is just as laughable and ridiculous as the next person. But I do not enjoy watching someone get ripped apart by the same forces that built them up.

Alex Rodriguez became everything every baseball fan in the World wanted. You wanted a superhuman baseball crushing machine. You wanted a monster capable of things that humans aren’t (or presumably aren’t) capable of.

Well, congratulations. You bought into it with everyone else. Sports entertainment fooled you. It fooled everyone. You looked the other way. I looked the other way. We accepted the unbelievable as true and ultimately all feel like idiots and as a result are anxious to crucify the perpetrators.

Look in the fucking mirror.

Anyone can blame Bud Selig or the players or the players union all they want for everything. But we all thought about it and came to the consensus in the mid 90’s that home runs are the most important thing in baseball (strikeouts are cool too if you can throw 102 mph).

Players adjusted accordingly.

Bud Selig ignored it.

Voila, PED era!

I took no particular pleasure in watching Alex Rodriguez’s name crumble. The guy is a clubhouse cancer anyway (juice aside) but I don’t want to be part of a society where we build people up on a pedestal for being the best at what they are and then tear them down when they aren’t doing things the way we want them to.

I also don’t get why this primarily only happens to this degree in baseball (definitely the most boring of all major sports).

Let me be honest for a second:

Clearly NFL players are ALL on roids. NBA players juice (LeBron James is suddenly the most muscular/fastest guy on the court every night?), NHL players blood dope and juice, soccer players blood dope and juice, cyclists blood dope and juice, horses are all injected with god know what, most writers do speed, 50-75% of Hollywood has a drug or alcohol problem, the Oscars are fixed every year, Biggie’s murder was a cover up by gangs and police working in unison, hardly any young people pay for music anymore and if they did The Shins, Arcade Fire, The Postal Service, Brand New and about 1,000 other bands would all have records that would have gone 5-10 times platinum, SNL has been running on fumes for the last 6 seasons…I could go on for weeks.

Everyone overlooks all of this. In spite of all of the blatant evidence to the contrary people just choose not to give a shit.

Well, I sort of knew Manny and or David Ortiz and or Kevin Millar and or BIll Mueller and or Johnny Damon were on PEDs at some point.

Shit isn’t surprising. Everyone. EVERYONE. EVERYONE is probably on them. Maybe not Michael Bourn since that guy can’t ge ton base to begin with…

But this is what happens when you decide to live in an imaginary happy place and ignore all (circumstantial) evidence to the contrary.

I mentioned my LeBron James PEDs theory on another blog in passing a few weeks back and someone said “That’s an awfully big assumption, what’s your proof?” And I said “I don’t need proof. I’m not getting burned again. Everyone is on PEDs until proven otherwise.” 

I know that’s shitty. I’m not trying to sell a book. It’s just how things are.

If you want to blame someone for it, blame yourself for being so naive.

Coco Crisp Traded For Ramon Ramirez.

The Coco Crisp era in Boston has reportedly come to a close.

Wednesday morning, the Red Sox traded Coco Crisp to the Kansas City Royals in exchange for 26 year old reliever Ramon Ramirez.

Ramirez was 3-2 last year in 71 appearances. He had a very good 2.64 ERA and 1.228 WHIP.

The move likely signals two things:

1. The Red Sox want Jacoby Ellsbury to be their full time every day center fielder.
2. Mike Timlin should be leaving or Justin Masterson will become a starter.

All though the Boston bullpen struggled at times last season, the combination of Papelbon, Masterson, Okajima and Manny Delcarmen served them well for the most part.

Because of the already robust and youthful bullpen in Boston, there is reason to believe that the Red Sox feel Ramirez has great potential to mature into a stopper.

Adding another young arm to a talented bullpen also leads one to believe that this could very well signal the end of Mike Timlin’s tenure in Boston.

Timlin is 42 and in 2008, pitched as if he was 76.

Coco Crisp turned 29 this month and has posted a career .280 batting average while consistently being one of the best defensive outfielders in the AL.

When Crisp was signed by the Red Sox to replace Johnny Damon, you got the feeling it might have been a stop-gap solution.

Crisp was young and easily the best available center-fielder that off-season but his offensive production and utility-like characteristics always made me believe he was better suited to play for a National League team (or one of the National League-esq. teams in the AL).

Crisp is going into his 8th season in the majors. He spent his first four in Cleveland and his last 3 in Boston. He won a World Series with the Red Sox in 2007.

Dustin Pedroia Wins AL MVP.

As nice as it is to have a 5′ 7″ AL MVP. as much as I love that Dustin Pedroia won the award, I would gladly trade it in for another World Series title.

I’m sure Dusty feels the same way.

Pedroia won the AL MVP and yes, he is the type of baseball player that the sports media eats up (gritty, hard-worker, undersized). But I don’t think his playing for the Boston Red Sox had anything to do with him winning the MVP.

Pedroia had one of those rare seasons where he was just on a roll for 162 games.

He constantly got hits, he consistently played above average in the field and he excelled at every possible juncture. Anything that was asked of him, he came through on. He even did a damn fine job batting cleanup and protecting David Ortiz for a couple of games.

But I can see how you could miss it if you didn’t watch him throughout the season.

The numbers don’t lie, and Pedroia did lead baseball in hits and runs, his batting average was 2nd in the AL and when you throw in nearly 20 home runs and steals and 80+ RBI, you get a pretty good picture of an all-around player.

Pedroia isn’t hard to appreciate if you get the chance to watch him routinely. And I’m sure there are probably St. Louis Cardinals fans out there struggling to remember seeing him playing the same way I was with Pujols earlier. But I have a great appreciation for Evan Longoria, for example, because I got see him play 18 games last season. Anyone who watched Pedroia play at least 10 games in 2008 knows that this seemed like a logical conclusion to the award voting.

A-Rod was patchy, Josh Hamilton slowed down substantially, Ian Kinsler got hurt, Milton Bradley slowed down, Morneau played better in one half than the other…Pedroia was the most consistent of the bunch. That’s why he won the award.

Pedroia is a hit machine. It might not make a hell of a lot of sense, but that’s just the way it is.

In looking at the rest of the balloting, I hope the Red Sox get Joe Mauer somehow. And Justin Morneau.

 

Tim Lincecum Wins NL Cy Young. Tomorrow Cliff Lee Picks Up His AL Cy Young.

 

I still am not sure if it is pronounced “Lince-Cum” or “Linkey-Cum” or “Link-EK-Ummm” or “Link-EEEEEK-Ummm”. Everytime I see it in writing I run through the way all four sound in my head and they all sound horrible.

But one thing that wasn’t horrible was Lincecum (and good thing, because he played for an otherwise awful team).

The Giants have been notoriously unintelligent when it comes to signing talented pitchers. Which is why it makes sense for them to trade Lincecum to the Red Sox for Mike Timlin, Bartolo Colon and Coco Crisp. I know that seems like a shitty deal on paper, but think about it, they’d be getting three guys all for less per year than what they pay Barry Zito. Plus, Timlin will retire soon and Bartolo Colon is probably better than Zito on a day to day basis at this point…

Think about it Giants…You can have 2 of the previous 7 AL Cy Young Award Winners in the same rotation and all it will cost you is the reigning NL Cy Young winner!

I thought C.C. Sabathia deserved some strong consideration but apparently voters thought not. Oh well. It’s not like he can’t go out and be God for 3 months next season…

So tomorrow Cliff Lee will win the AL Cy Young and we will have to reflect upon the 2005 Cy Young balloting…

Take a look. Apparently the only fucking thing voters look at is wins because Johan (who came in 3rd, mind you) easily should have destroyed the field that year.

                                      1st           Max        |       Season Results
Rk Name             Team Place Points Points Share|  W-L   IP    ERA       WHIP        SO   SV
+–+—————-+—-+—–+——+——+—–+——+—+—–+—–+—+–+
  1 Bartolo Colon     LAA   17    118    140  0.84 | 21-8  223  3.48       1.16     157  
  2 Mariano Rivera    NYY    8     68    140  0.49 |  7-4   78     1.38        0.87     80     43
  3 Johan Santana     MIN    3     51    140  0.36 | 16-7  232   2.87        0.97     238 

Clearly Johan was better. He was 16-7, but he had a much better ERA than Colon, a better WHIP, an ass-load more K’s. I hate all of the voting systems in Major League Baseball. Clearly, in retrospect, Johan Santana should have won that year (and I don’t even say that based on how Bartolo’s career has gone since then. The raw numbers don’t lie).

Anyway, congrats Lincey. You only have another couple of years left in San Francisco before you’re a Yankee. Enjoy them while they last. One day you’ll look back on these days and say “as much as it sucked at the time, being great on a shitty team was the most fun I ever had playing baseball…”

Red Sox Take Game 1 Of ALCS

In mid-August, I wrote about how Daisuke might have been having one of most inexplicable 14-2 records in baseball. He let a ton of guys on base, had gave up more walks than he did in 2007, had fewer strikeouts and (at that point) had a worse WHIP. But somehow, he had a great record. 

Last night it was very clear why he was successful against the Rays.

Matsuzaka had a no hitter through 6. He only walked 4 and had 9 strikeouts. 

To be honest, I didn’t know that this was the Daisuke we would see in the playoffs. His playoff stats from last season were nothing special (his ERA was over 4). But maybe, he’s adjusted to pitching in America this season. And maybe he’s still that guy who pitched his Japanese team to championships, pitched on 3 days rest nonstop and never wanted to come out of games.

In the eighth, he gave up two hits in a row and Francona made the wise decision of taking him out. Okajima and Masterson looked brilliant in the eighth throwing a combined 9 pitches and getting the outs necessary to bring in Papelbon.

If there was one thing a lot of people were unsure of going into the playoffs, it as the bullpen. And frankly, if the starting pitching is good enough that it doesn’t necessitate using 6 relievers a night, I think the Red Sox will be all right.

Was it a perfect game for the Red Sox? No. They left 18 men on base (the Rays left 17 on base). If they are going to be a Championship caliber team, they need to find some more ways to score runs. 

But a shutout at the metal carpet in game 1 of ALCS?

I’ll take it.

To Love And Feel No Love (To Be A Fan).

It’s a funny thing being a sports fan. 

Every time I try to quantify it or measure why it matters or why I care, I really have a hard time putting it into words.

What does your local team winning a championship mean really, at the end of the day?

When I was a kid I thought that it always meant that the team that won was the best city in the country somehow. That in some way, when the Blue Jays won the World Series back to back when I was young, Toronto was actually a better city than anywhere in America. 

From the outside, I had a lot of envy for the successful cities. 

I hated Dallas. I hated the Cowboys because of how great they were, but more-so because of how arrogant they seemed (and their fans seemed). 

Dallas winning Superbowl after Superbowl only served to further the notion that where I was living was one of the worst places in the country. The Patriots were horrible at best, the Red Sox were one year of futility after another, the Bruins were always good but could never get it done and the Celtics just always seemed like a team that’s glory days were over when I was just a baby. 

“You should have seen them when Larry was playing.” my Dad would always say. 

To put it into perspective, the day Larry Bird announced his retirement, my family was on vacation at a log cabin in New Hampshire. I had wandered into the woods and my Mom was ready to kill me when I came back an hour or so later. Because I was like 7 or 8. When I came back inside, my Dad was listening to the radio. He told me Larry Bird was retired. I had no idea what that really meant. 

I know it might seem like an odd time to reflect on this. The Boston Red Sox are in the ALCS. The Patriots rebounded big against the 49ers. The Bruins might even be strong this season. And the Celtics are coming off their first Championship in two decades.

For me, this is like living a dream.

But a lot of things happen when your city starts winning championships.

It is way harder to get tickets, for starters.

Even if you can still get tickets, the prices go way up. 

Everyone in all of those other cities starts hating your teams. Some of them (the ones who still haven’t figured out as I did as a kid, that winning a championship does not make your city more important or better somehow) hate your city.

But the worst, by far, is that something that was once so personally your own becomes a commodity for everyone.

It is sort of like when your favorite band that you have been following and listening to for 5 years all of the sudden has a crossover hit on the radio. They aren’t yours anymore. They aren’t some secret that only you know about.

Secrets aside, something you spent so much time invested in and so much time thinking about and talking about (and writing about) is instantly accessible by everyone. They don’t have to work to find the band. They don’t get to see them grow gradually. They weren’t there when they were playing to 15 people at TT The Bears or The Met Cafe. 

But now, because they are so clearly not your own anymore, you can’t even see them without going to some arena (where you pay 18 times as much to see something that was yours before that hit single).

Some people get bitter.

I’ve cared about sports my whole life.

Even when I was 16-18 and thought I wasn’t allowed to care about sports and music at the same time (for some reason…) I couldn’t resist watching the Red Sox or Patriots or Celtics. I actively tried not to care that much. But I couldn’t just stop being myself. 

The question is, why do we care?

In Boston right now, there’s nothing unique about being a sports fan. Everyone is a Boston sports fan. Even people who wouldn’t have been caught dead watching a Red Sox game 6 years ago. But I don’t watch sports to be unique.

Being a sports fan is expensive. You are constantly spending money to go to games, for cable (I really probably would not have cable if not for the Celtics, Red Sox, Patriots, Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, HGTV, Food Network, Bruins and ESPN [in that order]) to buy merchandise…etc. 

Buying tickets is never a problem to me. I go to games with my girlfriend or sister or best friends. Really, it isn’t that much more expensive than going to a movie or going out to dinner ($10 Celtics tickets are cheaper in both cases, and also way more fun). 

Cable is nice.

And the merchandise trap is something I generally avoid. Or anyway did a great job avoiding until the 2007-2008 Celtics season.

There was something about that team that changed me as a fan. It wasn’t that they were winning. I’ve experienced a lot of winning teams over the last 8 years. It was something else. 

Maybe it was redemption. Maybe it was that (unlike the Red Sox) I could remember the exact day everything changed for the Celtics. I could remember where I was and what I was doing and all of the nightmares that followed (Reggie Lewis’ death, years of futility, Rick Pitino, Antoine Walker). 

Something about seeing my team. A team that I was raised on. A team I was brought up to love, finally get better or at least have a serious chance, made me feel different.

When I bought a Rondo shirt at the first game I went to in 2007, I felt great about it. I would wear it on game days and it made me feel happy. Just wearing a stupid shirt. I bought more Celtics shirts as I went to more games and I always wore one on a game day all season long. I’m not exaggerating. Just wearing the Celtics colors made me happier. Listening to “Roc Boys” or “Ayo Technology” (two songs the Celtics played during warm-ups at the Garden all season) in the gym gave me more energy and made me run faster and work harder. Knowing I had the pleasure to watch them (on TV or in person) helped me get through even the toughest winter days. 

I tried to explain it in my season ending column after the parade in June. I don’t know if I did.

I love the Celtics. I love this core of players. I love the way they play. I love the way they act together. I love that I am living through some new “good old days” because there was a while, most of my life, that I never thought I would. 

But for all of the love I have for the Boston Celtics, they don’t even know I exist. I don’t say that to be dramatic. It is just a simple fact. I am just a credit card number on some gate receipts to them. 

That is all that fans are to their teams really.

We watch, we buy, we digest, we discuss and we get nothing tangible in return.

It is the most beautiful and horrible unrequited love there is.

How can you love something that doesn’t love you back?

Maybe this is a question better suited for a priest, a rabbi and a philosophy professor but I think I get it now.

Maybe they don’t know who I am, but when I think about them, it can make me feel happier. I can think about some great moments and smile. If I’m having a terrible day at work, I can look at the calendar and say ‘at least the Celtics are on tonight’. They are always there. They were a part of my Grandfather’s life and are a part of my Father’s life and will be a part of my kid’s lives one day as well. They inform the way we meet and interact with the people around us. They link us to complete strangers. They give us something to talk about when there is nothing to talk about.

Being a fan means that you believe in something. Something that can lift you up and something that can crush you. But just like anything else, there is always another chance, another opportunity in the future.

The simplest way to explain why I love sports is that it always gives me something to look forward to.

Like most people, I think I want to believe in something. And believing in the Celtics means a lot. 

Tonight was their first pre-season game. Towards the end of the first half rookie Bill Walker got an alley oop dunk that was outstanding. two possessions later, he followed it by dunking in traffic. On the bench, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo and everyone else went crazy as if it were a playoff game.

It gives me hope. Some people get to do what they love for a living and sometimes we’re lucky enough to watch them or see them or listen to them or hear about them.

Maybe you think I’m just a crazy obsessive fan or that I’m oversimplifying something that is very complex or that I’m making something that is very simple out to be this big important thing…the thing about believing and loving anything is that it is personal. No matter who else loves it or who else has loved it, the way you feel about it and the way it affects and informs you is uniquely your own. 

One of my co-workers told me she was moving to the North End a couple months back and I told her “I wish I lived in the North End. I’d be closer to the Celtics there.” This was probably in August, so she gave me a puzzled look and laughed a little.

For whatever reason it makes me happier that this team exists. They won’t be this great forever but that is like everything else in life. I will enjoy this and never take it for granted for a second. 

It doesn’t matter that they don’t know me or that we don’t have a direct relationship or communication.

I believe in them. I appreciate everything they do. And as a result, even when they lose and I’m disappointed, it is a passing feeling. Because there is always another opportunity in the future. And sometimes just knowing that is enough to carry you through the hard times.

Red Sox Take Game 1 Over Angels.

The Red Sox game started after 10:00 p.m. EST last night. So, suffice it to say, because I have a very very very important sports blog to run, I couldn’t stay up until 2:30 a.m. to watch the whole game.

Of course if it was the ALCS or World Series or even a deciding game, I would have. But game 1, in LA, against John Lackey with the far superior John Lester pitching?

No need.

I wasn’t extremely overconfident in the team as a whole, because, frankly, the Angels are probably a more talented team. They have an outstanding bullpen, a stronger rotation and a lineup that easily rivals the Red Sox.

I sort of just had a feeling that John Lester would be breathing fire.

And I know it is a small sample size, but Jacoby Ellsbury is batting .466 lifetime in the playoffs with 9 runs scored, 5 doubles and 4 stolen bases.

Granted he’s only played in 12 playoff games in his career, but A-Rod would kill to have playoff numbers like that (though 39 playoff games, A-Rod bats .279).

A-Rod is no Jacoby Ellsbury. That’s all I’m trying to say…

You know who else had a great game last night that has never played in the postseason before? Jason Bay.

The Red Sox were down 0-1 and had problems getting hits all night against Lackey and the first pitch Lackey left hanging over the middle of the plate, Jason Bay just clobbered. Red Sox up 2-1, a lead they would not relinquish.

It wasn’t just Bay’s first Red Sox home run in the playoffs, it was his first hoem run int he playoffs period.

I know Jason Bay isn’t Manny Ramirez. I know that. But he’s a guy that plays inspired baseball every night. Truly a pleasure to watch and root for. I’ve always thought very highly of Bay and hopefully he’ll make a great case to play in Boston for a long long time this postseason.

At one point they showed a shot of Vladimir Guerrero in the Angels dugout. He had a look on his face that said ‘I can’t believe it’s happening again…’ and that is one thing the Red Sox have going for them in this series and in the Playoffs in general.

It is very rare that the defending World Champions also get a “Nobody Believed In Us” angle. Which isn’t to say that experts had completely ruled the Red Sox out of World Series or anything, but they are sort of the underdog of the AL (behind only the White Sox who had to play game 163 to get in) when you look at how poorly they played against the Rays and Angels this season and the records of those two teams.

This series is probably far from over and it truly is a shame that it is only 5 games.

But the Red Sox did what the Spurs kind of do a lot. They played hard in the regular season, but didn’t rush anyoneback from injuries and didn’t make winning the division their highest priority (they blew a few winnable games that they could havewon if they were going for the division…but I think Francona had the foresight to see that winning the division is great if it happens, but there is no point in burning out your team trying to win the division only to get bounced early in the playoffs). They played well but didn’t wow the media for a lot of the season and then when the playoffs rolled around, they showed up fresh and ready to play with intensity we have scarcely seen from them all season.

Now they’re here.

And by the way, this was their starting lineup last night:

• Ellsbury
• Pedroia
• Ortiz
• Youkilis
• Drew
• Bay
• Lowell
• Lowrie
• Varitek

Not a lot of dead spots there. No easy outs. And for the first time in a long time, it isn’t a lineup based strictly on the one or two power hitters on the team. There is a lot of versatility in this lineup. You have a lot of speed and a great chance to manufacture runs.

JD Drew had a rough first game back. But he’ll get hot soon.

This could be trouble.

Red Sox Prep For Playoffs. A Reflection On A Long Season.

As long as the baseball season is, it always feels short in retrospect.

It seems like just yesterday people thought the Mariners wouldn’t suck. Or that the Tigers were winning a World Series…

What was I doing the whole time?

Working. Cleaning out a new apartment. Moving. Working. That’s about it. Throw in a couple trips to Rhode Island, a few games I attended in April and a few in September and that’s how it passed.

Don’t get me wrong, I was watching. Even when I wasn’t watching I was constantly reminded when the Red Sox were at home by the stupid amount of people crowding all the trains on my way back from work.

And Red Sox fans are not normal commuters. Oh no. They spit in the face of train etiquette.

I remember opening day in Japan like it was yesterday. Some of the bars around town opened at 5 a.m. to serve eggs. Others stayed open from the night before. At lunch that day my co-worker Crowley and I complained about not being near a sausage and peppers cart. What a great day.

One of my favorite things about the baseball season that really is kind of unique to baseball is how much your mind can change throughout the season.

I was down on Manny. I don’t know if it was his fault or Boras’, but clearly Manny was content to play like shit in Boston around the midpoint. The Red Sox gave up way too much to deal him, but got Jason Bay back and since then, I’ve been a lot more content with this team.

My friend Sloan was convinced it was a bad idea to trade Manny at the time and still thinks so:

My problem with the BoSox trading away Manny Ramirez was that he’s a great hitter who can change the course of a playoff series and help a team win a championship. York, a Red Sox fan, was all about dealing Manny for Jason Bay, and obviously some people more powerful than me agreed with him. My main idea was that the Red Sox were as likely as anyone to win the title this year, and that’s not something you pass up lightly. York disagreed.

Disagree. This team isn’t winning Shit Sloan. You know that, or should know that, and I know that. They are HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE under pressure.

THIS TEAM HAS BEEN SWEPT 6 TIMES SLOAN! 6 TIMES!!!

As much as I’d love to see the Rays beat the Cubs in the series (breaking the Rays’ tragic and historic ten year curse) I still think the BoSox should be feared until they’re beaten. And I still think it’s stupid for the defending World Series champions to deal their best player.

See how I said horrible 4 times there. That’s how you know I was serious.

Today?

If the Red Sox can get by the Angels, I think they have a pretty good shot at getting to the World Series. The Angels have owned them this season. So much hitting,, so much base running, so much pitching…

Obviously the Red Sox have owned the Angels in the playoffs the last few seasons. But that was sort of a different Angels team. I was really sold on this Angels team a few months ago. They probably should have won 110 games in the shitty AL West. But they didn’t.

I’m really not sold on the White Sox. Not without Carlos Quentin. They score a lot, but they also give up a lot.

The Twins might be the surprise of the season. Well aside from the Rays. But can the Twins actually put up the offense they would need to compete with the Rays or Red Sox or Cubs or even White Sox? I don’t think so…

More on tonight’s playoff game later on…

But I like this Red Sox team. I think that if JD Drew is healthy, they are going to be really great offensively. While they are not a team with two legendary post-season power hitters hitting back to back any more, I feel like they have a lot more spark, a lot more fight and a lot more guts than they did before the Manny trade. It seems as clear as day to me as I’m sure it does to anyone else who has watched them evolve since Manny skipped town.

The main thing I was worried about, Manny’s bat aside, was that Ortiz might be depressed or angry at the team and might drop off in an already shaky season.

But to watch this team come together and see Ortiz and Pedroia interact, it is clear that David Ortiz is still happy. He still wants to win. He’s no Mr. October, but in Boston, he’s good as Mr. keeps-coming-back-when-you-thought-they-were-dead.

That alone is enough to scare opposing pitchers.

American League MVP 2008. Josh Hamilton? Cliff Lee? Dustin Pedroia? Ian Kinsler? Carlos Quentin? Aubrey Huff? A-Rod?

Poor Ian Kinsler.

I really do think Kinsler would have won the MVP had he not been injured.

But shit happens.

And Texas sucks. As a team. As a group of hitters, they are exciting and enchanting gentlemen. As a team? Call me when you get a rotation and/or bullpen.

The thing is, this is one MVP Race that isn’t very cut and dry.

You’ve got ARod who sucked for a while, has been terrible in the clutch (more-so than usual even) and who won it last year with numbers far better than the ones he is currently putting up.

You’ve got Josh Hamilton who was on fire for a while but sort of fell to Earth a little bit.

You’ve got Carlos Quentin who has great power numbers…but that’s about it.

And you’ve got Aubrey Huff who one would never figure to be in the MVP race.

Then there’s Dustin Pedroia.

Before I get into how Pedroia is statistically amazing or how much he has carried the Red Sox since the Manny trade, let me state what the term MVP means to me.

Most Valuable Player means the player who has contributed the most to his team thoughout the season. A player who has been statistically amazing, carried his team through tough times and led them to the promised land.

The Most Valuable Player should never be a guy who is on a non-playoff team unless he is having a record setting season.

For example, if Josh Hamilton had 179 RBI right now with the same batting average and home run stats, I would say he should definitely be in the running. After all, he would have a legitimate shot at Hack Wilson’s record, he would clearly appear to be carrying his team by himself and statistics like that are hard to ignore.

But Hamilton only has 121 RBI right now. That’s not groundbreaking. That’s just a great season. He hasn’t carried the Rangers through their pitching struggles. His offense alone has not compensated for his team’s lack of pitching. The Rangers are nowhere near the playoffs. They might be a fun team to watch, but they aren’t going anywhere and would certainly be worse without Hamilton, but they aren’t necessarily better just for having him (if that makes sense).

I don’t see how you could consider Hamilton.

ARod, same thing. Unless ARod were to lead the Yankees back from the dead to a divisional championship or Wild Card playoff spot, against all odds. In which case I would say, yes, he is very very valuable.

Aubrey Huff is on the Orioles who apparently the Playoffs have filed a restraining order against, because it seems like the O’s are not allowed within 500 feet of the Playoffs.

That leaves Carlos Quentin. He might help carry the White Sox to a division championship. But let’s look at his stats:

Quentin has 138 hits. 96 Runs, 26 Doubles, 36 Home Runs, 100 RBI, 7 Steals and 80 Strikeouts. He is batting .287. .394 On Base Percentage. 274 Total Bases.

Certainly Quentin’s 36 Home Runs and 100 RBI are impressive. But I don’t think a guy should ever win MVP if he has a sub-.300 batting average. I’m sure Quentin will pick it up in September (the White Sox will need him to).

But Pedroia?

Dustin Pedroia has 191 hits (MLB Leader), 110 Runs (MLB Leader), 44 Doubles (Tied for 2nd), 17 Home Runs, 76 RBI, 17 Steals and only 47 Strikeouts. He is batting .333 (leads the AL), .378 On base Percentage. 290 Total Bases.

The hits and runs are absurd. Obviously Pedroia’s home run and RBI totals do not appear to be MVP worthy, but when you look deeper at his other stats, it is abundantly clear that his offensive output has been ridiculous.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Pedroia was batting 2nd most of the season and did not have nearly as many RBI opportunities as say Josh Hamilton or Carols Quentin have had. I think Pedroia could still finish with 100 RBI and 20+ Home Runs. But I do feel like those are thresholds he might need to cross in order to win over some voters.

Pedroia has been a monster for the Red Sox since Manny was traded. He has found a way to get them runs without Mike Lowell, without Kevin Youkilis and without a healthy rotation. This Red Sox team has been eviscerated by injuries all season and I doubted their toughness and grit before and after the All Star break.

But something changed after Manny was traded.

The Red Sox seemed to get more injured and when most teams would have folded after losing an icon, this Red Sox team buckled down and played hard.

This is why I was so happy to get Jason Bay. Why Mark Kotsay was a great pick up. Why Jed Lowrie will be the starting shortstop for the Red Sox next season and why Jacoby Ellsbury is not done yet (don’t give up on him).

And to be honest, I really do feel like it all goes back to 5′ 6″ Dustin Pedroia (there is no way in hell he is 5′ 9″).

I say this not just as a Red Sox fan.

I really do think if Pedroia continues to rip the leather off the ball the way he has the last several weeks, there is no one in the AL more valuable to their team than Pedroia.

When you factor in his defense versus ARod or his versus Quentin or Hamilton, it seems like it would be hard to not give him the MVP.

And when you look at Josh Hamilton or Milton Bradley or Ian Kinsler, you have to wonder how anyone could vote for any of the three of them over any of the others. They would probably split votes (Ross Perot Effect).

It is also worth mentioning, that if a team has 3 guys who are putting up offensive numbers that look to be of MVP caliber, how could that team be sub .500? Oh, right, because they have committed over 100 errors (that’s an average of more than 10 a starter people!) and can’t pitch worth a damn. 

Not all that valuable.

Let’s see if Pedroia has enough gas left to take advantage of a vulnerable inexperienced Rays team and lead the Sox to a division title.

If he can, I see no way he could lose.

Cadillac Williams Placed on the PUP List. Michael Strahan Shows Us How Retired Athletes SHOULD Act. The Ravens Have QB Issus Already. The Red Sox Will Trade For Mark Kotsay. Goings On At Chair. All That And Andy Rooney.

Carnell “Cadillac” Williams is looking more like a Cadillac Cimarron these days than the Escalade he once was.

Willimas was great in 2005 and had flashes of quality in 2006 and 2007 before injuries derailed him.

The Bucs have put him on the PUP list, which means he can’t play for weeks 1-6. It also means they do not have to waste a roster spot on him early in the season when he wouldn’t be healthy enough to play anyway.

This is not the kiss of death to Carnell’s career though. He could still even come back this season around week 7 or 8 and give the Bucs a mid-year boost (when they will likely need it due to other offensive players being injured by that point).

The real concern is, whenever a running back who is quick and makes cuts hurts a knee or ACL/MCL, you tend to wonder how that will affect their play in the future. Carnell isn’t exactly big enough to become a bulldozer, and those are usually the guys who have fewer issues recovering from this type of injury.

Hopefully the Bucs will have what they need in Graham and Warrick Dunn to make thing shappen with the running game.

Michael Strahan again makes fools of us all.

He announced earlier this week that he would consider coming back to the Giants who have lost Pro Bowl Defensive End Osi Umenyiora for the season.

Strahan and Umenyiora were sort of the only reason why the Giants won the Superbowl. Miracle catch, Patriots supreme overconfidence and Belichick’s poor coaching aside.

Remember that I predicted a sub-par follow up campaign for the Giants this season on Friday afternoon BEFORE Umenyiora even was injured. Now? Well, they will at least have something to blame it on.

Last year the Giants were sort of like the Colorado Rockies. They were just the team that got hot at exactly the right time. They outplayed the Patriots and rightfully won the Superbowl.

But I think a lot of that magic was sort of lightning in a bottle.

Especially if McNabb stays as focused and locked in as he seems to be and the Cowboys remain the Cowboys. That won’t be an easy division.

Kyle Boller could potentially ALREADY be done for the season. He supposedly is unable to raise his arm over his head. The Ravens did not like the results of the first MRI, so are sending him somewhere else for a second opinion.

By the way, what is up with all this second guessing of medical professionals going on right now? I understand a second opinion for Boller, sure. But I heard on Friday that Shawn Merriman has seen something like 5 doctors in hopes that one of them would tell him its fine to play on a knee with two torn ligaments and that he won’t need the surgery. He needs the surgery. If he wants to be able to walk and not need a knee replacement at 32, he NEEDS surgery. People are abuzz about hwo his career might be over.

Troy Smith is injured right now as well (I think tonsillitis?) and as a result Joe Flacco will be their starter for the last preseason game.

I also expect the Ravens to sort of have a QB controversy all season long. So…This is just sooner than expected.

Mark Kotsay might be headed to the Red Sox.

Anyway, Kotsay could be a decent bat for the Sox. As logn as they don’t have to give up anything to get him, they should do it.

This Red Sox team is so injured it is alarming. Mike Lowell, JD Drew, Bartolo Colon, David Aardsma and Julio Lugo are all on the DL right now. This is trouble.

In Chair news, we are half way through our NFL 2008 Previews. Expect more of them. Full of words and predictions and purdy pictures stolen from the intranets.

We also premiered a new column this morning called “An Open Letter” or “AOL”. “AOL” of course being an acronym that was previosuly unused in common vocabulary. “AOL” will deal with the tough issues. The serious issues. All while being a forum where I can bitch relentlessly about things that are not necessarily related to sports.

Please, say hello to Chair.

-YR