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And Thank You for visiting Sonoma Dave's Giant Red Sox Blog! This blog is an archive of most of my posts on Fenway West. Effective immediately, I will be be including posts about the San Francisco Giants, MLB, and on occasion, stuff that has nothing to do with baseball at all.

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Saturday, April 17, 2010

Meanwhile, on the west coast...

Growing up 60 miles south of Fenway Park, of course I became a Red Sox fan. My father growing up here became a Yankee fan (gasp!) as the Sox in the 1920's were sucking swampwater, and everything was Babe Ruth this! and Lou Gehrig that! While I recall watching Tony C. getting beaned and watching Carlton Fisk wave 8 years later, for some strange reason that I do not recall the reason why, the Giants were my NL favorite team. Fast forward to 2010 and I find myself living about 60 miles north of ATnT Park. I have tickets to a Sox game here in June, but you know I will be there in full Red Sox regalia rooting for the Sox, of course.

But speaking of the Giants, while thay may have been a doormat in the NL West, (not an easy thing to do), they seemed to have turned a corner this season in the post-Bonds* era. The Giants are off to a hot start. They are in 1st place in their division with an 8-3 W-L record. Today, Tim Lincecum threw 6 innings of shutout ball against the Dodgers. He struck out 7, and watched his ERA drop to 0.90. Not only did he shut down the Dodgers, he aided his own cause by going 3 for 4 and driving in 3 of his team's 9 runs. Manny was not in the Dodger's line-up today, his 2nd missed game of this very young season. He left yesterday's game after three innings with a tight right calf muscle. (Yeah, right.) Even Barry Zito has a winning record and a respectable ERA this year (2-0, 2.25), something he has not been able to accomplish in his first 3 seasons as a Giant.










While on the topic of young seasons, Tom Caron and Peter Gammons discuss the Sox slow start out of the gate this season, noting that on April 17th of last year, the Sox record was 4 wins and 6 losses.





Fenway West 04.17.10

Sunday, April 11, 2010

How not to get Red Sox tickets

Driving into the box office is not a very good way to get Red Sox tickets, whether at Boston, Pawtucket, Portland, or Salem. The Roanoke, Virginia police told WSLS TV-10 that "the 1998 Toyota Avalon was driving around the parking lot of the ballpark," (hmmmm... I didn't know a Toyota Avalon could drive itself), "when the driver lost control and slammed into the brick building," the brick building being the Salem Red Sox box office. The driver was charges with reckless driving.



Fenway West 04.11.10

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Offense a problem you say?

This post will be limited in scope to offensive statistics.

The pundits have made much of the direction that the Sox took in the off season- the focus has been moved away from hitting to pitching and defense. Many have suggested that the Sox will not score enough runs this year with 2-1 and 3-2 scores being the norm. Granted, we have a very small sample so far, but the early indications are that the Sox will have no problem scoring runs this year. In two games against the reigning world championship pitching staff the Sox have accumulated a nice set of offensive numbers:

21 hits, 9 of which were for extra bases
13 runs
.304 BA
.351 OBP
.454 SLG
.858 OPS

Not too shabby, so far.








Fenway West 04.07.10

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Whirly Buehrle's Opening Day Web Gem

Mark Buehrle pitched another great Opening Day game for the White Sox yesterday. He went 7 innings allowing only 3 hits and 1 walk, while striking out 3 Cleveland Indians. His counterpart on the mound, Jake Westbrook did not fare nearly as well. If you think Beckett had a rough day, take a look at Westbrook's line: 4 IP, 5 R's, 4 BB's, 1 HR, 4 WP's and 2 HBP. Ouch.






The highlight of the day and probably for the year, though, is Buehrle's amazing play on a come-backer off the bat of Cleveland's Lou Marson that was reminiscent of the old Larry Bird 'Nothing But Net' TV commercial from several years ago. The ball was hit off Marson's bat, off Buehrle's foot, into foul territory, into Buehrle's glove, through his legs as he's tumbling ass end over band box, and into first baseman Konerko's bare hand for the out. Amazing! Simply amazing!








Fenway West 04.06.10

Monday, April 5, 2010

Obama's First Pitch

Kevin Kaduk, aka 'Duk of the Big League Stew blog made a funny today about Obama's first pitch at the Nationals season opener against the Phillies. After noting that Obama was wearing a White Sox jacket while throwing the first pitch at last year's All Star Game (Chicago is Obama's home town), he then let us know that the President broke proper baseball protocol by pulling out a Chicago White Sox cap just before throwing out the first pitch. 'Duk duly noted that the ball sailed wide to the left of Ryan Zimmerman.

If you click on the link above, you will be directed to the post. That post also includes video footage of Obama's pitch. Also in the post is a link to the five worst first pitches of all time, including one by pop diva Mariah Carey, which barely qualified as a pitch.


Fenway West 04.06.10