Saturday, May 06, 2006
When Jerry Remy starts giggling and saying, "Here comes Doubles!" when you march up to bat, you know you've done a good thing.
Three doubles in one night. Plus the stolen base. Plus the defense. Plus OH MY GOD MY HEAD EXPLODED WHO THE HELL IS THIS IS THIS MIKE LOWELL WHAT?
And while we're on head-asplodey topics, what is up with Youks and the power, huh? That homerun the other night cleared the damn Monster, and tonight he jacked another one into the coveted green seats. Does he draw his power from his bald head? Is it perhaps like a solar panel?
Please tell me I'm not the only one who saw him sit down on the bench after his homer next to some coach or other, I wasn't paying very close attention, and then he bit the coach on the shoulder. Please tell me that someone else saw this or I'll think I've gone entirely mad, because to my eyes it appeared that Youks was momentarily mouthing the shoulder of one of his coaches and I don't think my brain can handle that.
After his homerun my dad and I were talking about Moneyball and how it worked out that only a couple of the players featured in it have played up to the expectations, Youks being one of them (Nick Swisher, damn his black little buckeye heart, being the other). Now, my copy of Moneyball is currently still packed away in a box that came back from Michigan with me, so I can't check all the names, but I remember Brant Colamarino, who was cited in the book as causing his coaches to say, "Colamarino has titties."
Now he's still buried in the A's farm system, but at least he's still a decent prospect... apparently he got himself in shape in '04 and had a great season, then got moved up to AAA in '05 and freaked out, so he's at that stage where his physical ability is there but his mental ability to harness it is in doubt. So he's OK, but he didn't turn out to be Nick Swisher. And the other name I mostly remember, Jeremy Brown... whatever happened to him? I don't even know if he's still with the A's. He could be dead. Anyways, I just thought it was interesting, in a "why the fuck do I know anything about Brant Colamarino" kind of way.
The ovation for Millar was a nice touch, and a gloriously marked contrast from the Damon 'greeting'. No one should be surprised by this. Johnny Damon declared he would never go to New York, then packed his cash bags and cut his hair and put on the pinstripes. Kevin Millar would've given his left nut to stay on the Sox, and you get the feeling if someone offered right now, he might very well still whip 'em out and welcome the scissors. One gets warmly cheered, one gets money jeeringly thrown at him like an inept dancer in a strip bar. All very clear and proper.
And of course Papelbon, with the save. It figures that the one game I went to was the one game where Papelbon didn't do his usual Papelbon thing, the one game where he didn't, if we were to make him into a verb, papelbon. Pissnuggets and all that. But what can you do?
It's also heartening that all this came off of Rodrigo Lopez, who's never been all that great but aways seems to be good when he faces the Sox, and seems to be awful when he faces the Yankees. A little fair is fair for later in the season, where he will no doubt revert to form.Labels: baseball, Kevin Youkilis, Mike Lowell, MLB, Red Sox
3:23 AM
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