Also, I see my curtains gently blowing in the breeze, yet it's at least 15 degrees warmer in my apartment than it is outside my window (a mere two feet from my right arm). What the hell?
Anyway, when last I wrote, Manny Ramirez was still the starting left fielder for the Red Sox and was to be traded to the Marlins. Now he's in LA instead, but the sentiment remains: see ya, Manny. Thanks for the memories. No hard feelings. See you around someday. Thanks, but it's time to go. Clearly, you were half-assing it in your final weeks in Boston, and that will not be forgotten next time you visit. You crossed the line between shenanigans and bullshit. The punchline at the end of the whole ordeal is that you’ll be immortalized in Cooperstown wearing a Red Sox hat. Ha ha! Joke’s on … well, all of us, apparently.
I love Jason Bay playing left now, though (although Matt Holliday would look even better). I had Bay on my keeper-league Fantasy team for a couple of years, and the only reason I gave him up was because I didn't think his numbers would stay as consistent as they've been on a Pirates team that continues to go nowhere fast.
Theo once again made a very nice pickup, especially since Bay is under contract through 2009.Did the Sox give up too much? Yeah, probably. Granted, I think a change of pace for Craig Hansen will be beneficial to his career (he seemed to Schiraldi himself in Boston and had difficulties with the pressure of pitching in a big-time baseball city), and Brandon Moss was a fifth outfielder at best for this team (though given the way Coco Crisp has played this season ... but that's another story). Giving up either of those two guys is no big deal.
But trading three players and picking up the rest of Ramirez's contract for the season for one player? Holy cow - the Sox and Ramirez's ex-teammates really had to want that guy gone in a bad, bad way.
I think it might have made more sense for the Dodgers to give up three prospects for Ramirez, or for the Sox to give up Ramirez and one prospect or Ramirez and the contract payment, or for the Pirates to have given up a reliever or low-minor-league pitcher to the Red Sox also. Giving up three players, one of whom is among the elite hitters in the game (when he wants to be) and two months' worth of ridiculous salary is a helluva lot.
Whatever the case, everyone's happy (I'm assuming Pittsburgh is happy - who really knows how people feel about the Pirates anymore, especially with the Steelers back in pre-season training).
Happy for now, at least. Bay and the Sox are going to be happy, because I fully expect the Rays' magical season to come screeching to a halt anytime now. The Sox should, barring a magnificent collapse, head into the playoffs (I believe as AL East Champions). Manny and the Dodgers will lose the west to Arizona, because the D-Backs pitching will prove to be too strong. The Pirates ... um, yeah. Anyway.
A sidebar about the Rays:
I love Carl Crawford. My old boss in Portland knows that I considered myself the President of the Carl Crawford fan club. I just love watching the guy play. Huge loss for the Rays, with Crawford being out 6-8 weeks toward the end of the season. This is a very, very young team, and Crawford was the "veteran leadership". Yeah, guys like Cliff Floyd and Troy Percival have been in the league forever, but Crawford's been the guy who's anchored that team since day one, and who knows all too well what it's like to play on a team that - pardon my tackiness - completely sucked for so many years.
The Rays' other key loss, that of Evan Longoria, is even more significant.
Three notes about Longoria:
1. Not only is he the sure-thing AL Rookie of the Year, I honestly think he should be the AL MVP. I know Josh Hamilton is putting up incredible numbers on a less-than-incredible team, but take Longoria away from the Rays this season and they're a .500 team at best. I'm convinced of it.
2. He reminds me of another very young player from Florida who led his team into the playoffs at a very young age: Miguel Cabrera. He doesn't remind me of Cabrera in a physical way, obviously (Cabrera's chunky these days, to be polite), or in terms of how hard he hits the ball. He reminds me of Cabrera in that Cabrera, at age 20, put the Marlins on the map as a legit competitive team. Longoria now does that for the Rays. Longoria gives the Rays a certain degree of respect that I'm not sure they'd get without him. Put it this way, nobody ever feared Rocco Baldelli coming to the plate with one on and two out in the eight inning in a close game. Longoria? If first base is open, he's getting walked.
3. I drafted Longoria in both of my Fantasy leagues this season, and in each case was subjected to at least slight taunts about what's-her-face on Desperate Housewives. I am vindicated!
Don't get me wrong - what the Rays have done this season is incredible. They're young and only going to get better. But the Sox are battle-tested and understand what it takes to get the job done once crunch time rolls around with the end of the summer. The White Sox and Twins have been so remarkably consistent all season, and I don't think either has a big losing streak left in them. The Yankees ... well, anyway. So the Rays are down two key players, have a lot of road games left to play, and haven't been in this position before. Additionally, with the exception of their swoon right before the All-Star break, they haven't had a big losing streak - they're due to stumble and lose some confidence. The Sox will swoop in and take the lead for the rest of the season.
In fact, I think the Rays miss the playoffs this season altogether. I hate to say it, because I love to see new blood in the post-season (I love my Sox, but I realize that many fans are sick of seeing them, the Yankees, and the Angels in the post-season every October). But I honestly just don't think this is their year.
Could anyone have predicted at the end of the 2004 season that Nomar Garciaparra, Derek Lowe, and Manny Ramirez would all be playing for Joe Torre? In Los Angeles? The fun's only starting in LA, too. And I don't mean the playoff run. Manny's pulling the "I want to end my career here" stuff already (he only said that EVERY YEAR in Boston), and he won't cut his hair despite promising Torre he'd do so.
I had no intention of this post being so baseball-heavy, with all of the other thoughts I want to jot down before I forget. Yet I still won't get to my review of the Dark Knight (though it will be glowing, I assure you) or my thoughts on various Facebook applications that are designed, apparently, to make me feel inadequate. Ahem.
Two weekends ago, Nicole and I headed into Manhattan to catch up with some of my old college friends, whom I hadn't seen in ages – in fact, I hadn’t seen them since Manny was a Cleveland Indian, if I remember correctly.
Dave was my roommate in Cambridge for a couple of years post-B.U., and he's in Japan now teaching English. His big announcement was that he's now engaged. We joked about it at the reunion, but since he's marrying a Japanese girl, his career choice is officially a success! :) His visit spurred the get-together. (His visit, and the fact that I’ve re-connected to so many of my old friends via Facebook.)
Cari is a firecracker, still. It's reassuring to know that the years haven't changed her. After graduation, I stuck around BU as a dorm director for a summer program and she was on my staff. I was completely apprehensive at the time, and in retrospect I realize I was probably in a little over my head, but having her on my staff made my life so much easier, because I knew I had people I could count on around me. I hadn’t seen her in I think 11 years or so. She’s now, I shit you not, an F.B.I. agent. How cool is that? My little Cari’s packing heat! Sadly, I think I'd forgotten just how much I missed her. I'm so glad we've reconnected.
Jorge looks exactly the same, with a little off the top. He’s got me beat, though, because a decade-plus later, I’ve got a lot off the top. There aren’t many people in this life that I’m jealous of, but Jorge’s one of them. Of all the amazing people I’ve met over the years, few have had their shit better together than him. Now he works for a non-profit company that tries to curb smoking in foreign countries. A great cause, and one that I fully support. I hadn’t seen him in probably 11 years, either.
And Kelly … ahh, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly. If there was any potential for awkwardness, it was here. Those who’ve known us since those BU days understand why, but for the rest, a very quick note: Kelly was my first real girlfriend, and blah blah blah. The point being, we hadn’t seen each other in a long time, and now we’re both married, and I was seeing everyone again for the first time in ages, and I suppose it’s probably a little strange to have your wife meet your ex-girlfriend. Don’t know. Never happened to me before.
Long story short, it was, as the cliché goes, like riding a bike. It seems like a lifetime ago, yet it also seems like we were just hanging out not too long ago. I hope she feels the same way … it was, to me, not like seeing an ex. It was like seeing an old friend and catching up the way old friends do, minus any lingering baggage, which is exactly what I was hoping would happen. We’re both older, wiser, and, to an extent, different people than we were back then.
Looking back, in general – not just in terms of seeing these particular people again, but overall – I am a different person than I was ten years ago. And the person I was ten years ago was a very different person than the one I was five years before that. And, through it all, I’m still very much the same person – stubborn at times, subject to long bouts of procrastination, and alternatively overly-pragmatic and, per Dave, quixotic.
The current me has reconciled much of what the ten-years-ago-me would have probably dwelled upon. Despite all of those changes, and the non-changes, I still love all four of those people. It was such a treat, just kicking back and drinking a few beers with old friends. Instead of the Dugout, we were at a bar in Manhattan, looking decidedly tanner and healthier
than we ever did as undergrads.
It was easily one of the best feelings I’ve had since moving to New Jersey, and I can’t wait to do it again someday soon. As in, not 11 more years. And next time, maybe we can bring some more old friends along for the ride.
Three sad deaths of note: Isaac Hayes, Bernie Mac, and John Edwards' political career.
I knew of Hayes' Shaft theme song long ago, but like so many others, his impact of note in my life came with his performance on South Park. Despite his falling out with Trey and Matt over his ridiculous religious views, I'll fondly remember him and that amazing voice. I'm interested to see if and how a show as wonderfully offensive as South Park will treat his passing.
I didn't know Bernie Mac's standup too well, but I was a fan of his TV show, which I thought was underrated and under-watched. When I found out about his death (via pneumonia, at age 50), I could only think about how horribly young he was. And who dies of pneumonia anymore? At that age, at least. Such a shame. Actually, my first thought was, "Bernie Mac? Really? Aww, man." It's one of those deaths that doesn't strike me on a personal level, because I was a fan in passing at best, but still ... it just hardly seems fair. He was a funny dude, and he seemed genuinely likable.
John Edwards. Gigantic douchebag of Gingrichian proportions. Unreal. I honestly thought, for a good long while, that he was going to be Barack Obama's VP choice. I liked that he was young and energetic (like Obama), and that he seemed to be determined to make the best of a bad situation (regarding his wife's ill-health).
And then he had to go and let me down like that ... very disappointing. Granted, my disappointment in him is a mere grain of sand in the desert compared to the disappointment his family must feel, but still. I just want to grab him by the collar, shake him around, and yell "what the hell was THAT?" over and over until he starts crying an authentic apology.Can he redeem himself? I hope so, but I'm not going to hold my breath on it.
More later!
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