Baseball

[smc]

The conventional wisdom in Red Sox Nation regarding Mike Lowell is that since he has passed the "healthy threshold" in the off-season, once he demonstrates in Spring training that he can still move sufficiently well defensively he will be attractive enough for the Red Sox to secure the trade deal the team was unable to complete with the Rangers.

Beltre is a great acquisition, but Lowell will be sorely missed. He is a fan favorite, a genuinely good guy, and a tremendous clutch performer.

[Talvenada]

Thnx.

Will The Sox have to eat any of that $12M or will TEX pay it all?

[smc]

I should have written "a trade deal, which the team was unable to complete with the Rangers." That deal fell apart; there is no deal within which the Red Sox would have to eat part of Lowell's salary on behalf of the Rangers. I would suspect that they will have to do so with some other team, though. I doubt the Rangers will revive the original trade.

[smc]

Everyone has their favorite signs that spring is here, or at least on its way. I like the first robin that shows up in my yard, back from the south. But my favorite one is when pitchers and catchers start reporting for spring training. And today, despite that the official date is next Thursday, Jon Lester and Jonathan Papelbon were throwing the baseball around the field in Fort Meyers. Kevin Youkilis is in town, too, playing catch and having fun.

Go Red Sox!

[shadows]

Originally Posted by smc

Everyone has their favorite signs that spring is here, or at least on its way. I like the first robin that shows up in my yard, back from the south. But my favorite one is when pitchers and catchers start reporting for spring training. And today, despite that the official date is next Thursday, Jon Lester and Jonathan Papelbon were throwing the baseball around the field in Fort Meyers. Kevin Youkilis is in town, too, playing catch and having fun.

Go Red Sox!

*looks out the window and sees the several inches of snow that fell Tuesday and Wednesday*

Darn it. I would rather see the robin.

[Talvenada]

Originally Posted by shadows

*looks out the window and sees the several inches of snow that fell Tuesday and Wednesday*

Darn it. I would rather see the robin.

SHADOW:

Yesterday, they started the local sports show in a snow-covered ballpark here in Philly, while the snow continued to fall. We got 2 2-foot storms in the last week.


TAL

[Talvenada]

Spring arrives when the photos reveal the equipment being loaded onto the truck at the ballpark to be shipped to Florida.

[shadows]

Originally Posted by Talvenada

SHADOW:

Yesterday, they started the local sports show in a snow-covered ballpark here in Philly, while the snow continued to fall. We got 2 2-foot storms in the last week.


TAL

Yuck! That would have been a pain to dig yourself out of I would imagine!

[ila]

Originally Posted by smc

Everyone has their favorite signs that spring is here, or at least on its way. I like the first robin that shows up in my yard, back from the south. But my favorite one is when pitchers and catchers start reporting for spring training. And today, despite that the official date is next Thursday, Jon Lester and Jonathan Papelbon were throwing the baseball around the field in Fort Meyers. Kevin Youkilis is in town, too, playing catch and having fun.

Go Red Sox!

I just read in the paper this morning that the day that the Sox head off for spring training is known as Truck day in Boston (actually the paper said New England, but I find it hard to believe that all of New England supports the BoSox). Is that the real term, smc, or is someone trying to coin a new phrase? Apparently yesterday was Truck day.

[smc]

Originally Posted by ila

I just read in the paper this morning that the day that the Sox head off for spring training is known as Truck day in Boston (actually the paper said New England, but I find it hard to believe that all of New England supports the BoSox). Is that the real term, smc, or is someone trying to coin a new phrase? Apparently yesterday was Truck day.

Yes, it absolutely is known as Truck day -- and it was this morning, not yesterday. It's a tradition that goes back a dozen years or so. I realize how difficult for people in other parts of the world (even cities with MLB teams) to realize just how big a deal baseball is in Boston. With all due respect to our Phillies fans on the board, the only city that comes close is St. Louis. Even Chicago Cubs fans pale in comparison.

Not convinced? When the Red Sox play in Tampa Bay, Baltimore, or Toronto, Red Sox fans consistently outnumber fans of the local team. Those are not transplants; those are people who've traveled from Boston! I myself have arranged work-related travel to see Red Sox games elsewhere, or just flat-out driven, or even flown at my own expense, over the years, and have rooted for the Red Sox in Oakland, Kansas City, Detroit, Toronto, Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Cleveland, and elsewhere. I've even done so in Yankee Stadium, and that takes some seriously steel nerves!

I went to Truck Day last year, but couldn't change my schedule this year. There are usually a lot of people there to see the trucks off. Kids like it because the Sox mascot, Wally the Green Monster, usually "directs traffic" once the trucks are loaded and ready to head out for the highway.

There will surely be up-to-the-minute reports on local Boston TV and radio as the trucks make their way south, too. See what I mean!

Now, regarding New England. First of all, the real borders of New England are not the same as the six states (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont) that officially make up the region. Real New Englanders -- among which I count myself -- know that the western border is not the Connecticut-New York state line but runs down the middle of the Housatonic River. If you look on a map, you will notice that this real border conveniently eliminates the Yankees territory of southwestern Connecticut. Coincidence? I think not.

Sure, there are some people in New England who do not root for the Red Sox. But of those I know, they are either transplants from elsewhere, with very thick skins (because it's hard not to fall into the Red Sox mania if you love baseball and come from a "weak" baseball city), Yankees fans who go around boasting (and who get the shit kicked out of them, at least figuratively, on a regular basis), or people who have been brainwashed as part of keeping their "mixed marriages" from ending in the special divorce court set up on Yawkey Way next to Fenway. (Yes, in Red Sox Nation, we refer to a marriage between a Yankees fan and a Red Sox fan as a "mixed marriage.")

[ila]

^ Thanks for the info, smc.