Meeting Trot Nixon

PawSox had Trot Nixon throw out the first pitch and sign autographs on Saturday. Here he is signing my Cracker Jack baseball card. I thanked him for 2004 and he said thank you back.

The game was really fun, too. Sox were down 3-1 going into the 9th and came back to tie. Lost in the 14th but got to see Rusney Castillo and Allen Craig hit. Deven Marrero made some killer plays in the field as well.

Memories of a Brooklyn Dodger fan

The letters from Brooklyn Dodgers prompted a reminiscence from a fan who grew up in Brooklyn:

My golden moments were in the 1952-1957 years when the Dodgers were an outstanding team, winning pennants in '52, '53 and '55. Unfortunately they played against the Yankees those years, losing the first two world series, but finally beating them in the memorable seven game series in 1955. I still can visualize Johnny Podres getting the last out. After so may frustrating years "the Bums" had beaten the mighty Yankees!

 

I probably attended fifty or more games during that era, Living in Park Slope, I walked to Ebbitts [sic] Field, admission was 75 cents for bleacher seats, hot dogs were 10 cents, Coke 10 cents, candy bars were 5 cents. So you could have a wonderful afternoon or evening for one dollar.

 

I remember the night we played the Boston Braves!  before they moved South! Gil Hodges hit 4 home runs, and we won 18-2 or something. Another night Duke Snider hit 3 home runs, come up to bat in the 9th inning, everyone was up yelling for him to hit another, he made contact, the ball missed going over the right field fence by maybe 2 or 3 feet, so he had to settle for a double.

 

They were a special team, most players lived in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn.

 

When it was announced that they were leaving Brooklyn after the '57 season, grown men were seen crying in the streets. Most blamed club owner Walter O'Malley, but he tried to get the city to build a new stadium at Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues, where the new Barclays Center now stands. Robert Moses, who wielded too much power in those days, refused, he wanted it built in Flushing Meadows where the 1939 World Fair was held. Moses "stone walled" the deal, then a city official from Los Angles saw an article in the newspaper, flew to Brooklyn and offered O'Malley Chevas [sic] Revine for practically nothing. It made O'Malley a very rich man, and denied Brooklyn from keeping their baseball team.

 

In 1962, Moses got his wish when the New York Mets located to Flushing. Undoubtedly, Moses had financial interest in that property...

 

I'm so pleased that Brooklyn has transitioned to being a fine place to live. When I left for th Navy in the fall of 1960, Park Slope was going down hill. Its revival is amazing.

 

Didn't mean to get so long winded, but I have very fond memories of growing up in Brooklyn.

More letters back from Brooklyn Dodgers (including a '55 champ!)

In response to letters from me, Ben, and Will asking what it was like to be a Brooklyn Dodger...

Letter from Carl Erskine!!! (click on the image for a bigger version)

 Letter from Mike Sandlock

On an eventful trading day

Thoughts and questions on a shocker of a day:

+ I like the Cespedes acquisition because of his power and defense (remember: defense is the new Moneyball skill) but his low OBP worries me. It's clear he can be beaten with good pitching. He and Napoli are going to strike out back-to-back a lot.
+ We really won't know what the 2015 team will look like until... 2015. I will say that if James Shields is their solution, I will not be impressed, but give Ben a chance to acquire some pitching in the off-season before we judge all of these moves.
+ Where does this leave Victorino? It's well known on the blog that I'm a big Nava fan and am hopeful that he stays on in platoon with Craig. Victorino or Nava would be the odd man out in the outfield that would seem to be: Craig in left, Bradley in center, Cespedes in right.
+ Who is Joe Kelly? Expert reaction on the Lackey trade varies from great for us (USA Today, Fox Sports, CBS) to poor (ESPN, Grantland) with some in between or undecided (talk radio, Providence Journal) and it seems to be based on the question of what Kelly's ceiling is. There's a long-standing axiom about ex-Cardinals pitchers not doing well after they leave St. Louis that makes this trade dangerous.
+ Great trade with the Yankees to free up space for Bogaerts to move back to his comfortable position of SS. Middlebrooks is apparently back to continue to waste our time at 3B (sorry, Mr. Jenny Dell). I love the idea of Holt as the new Zobrist and it appears he'll continue to be a man without a position.
+ Miller to the Orioles for yet another pitching prospect with mid-rotation potential? Don't we have enough of those already? I am a Miller fan. Always loved watching him throw the ball and in fact, I thought he should've been the closer last year when Hanrahan and Bailey both got hurt (I was wrong on that one!). Also, the beard is great.
+ Are the Sox stockpiling pitching prospects in part in order to flip some of them for an established player in the off-season?
+ They have two months to answer a lot of questions both about the new guys but also about their younger players. 2015 can't be spend answering question. It has to be spent winning. Can Bradley hit? Does Workman have stuff for the pen or rotation? Can Webster can anyone out? Is Craig a platoon player or a full-time player? Will Holt hit enough to win 3B over Middlebrooks? Can Ranaudo help (he's pitching tomorrow against the Yanks)? Is Dan Butler ready for the majors? Where do Victorino and Nava fit? Is there a role for Carp, who I quite like (and not just because he's the most stylist player on the team, seriously)? It's true that there've been some recent teams with lots of kid pitchers in the rotation, including last year's NL Champs, led by Wacha. We could be next on that or we could be watching some kids slog it out in the AL East for a while. There are going to be more auditions in Boston this summer than if Ben Affleck were filming another movie... starring himself... unnecessarily shirtless in a shower scene at some point.
+ I hope gives the players who are playing hurt a chance to hop on the DL and get right for next year. This may already be happening with Victorino aggravating his injuries on Wednesday night. For that matter, I want Pedroia resting a lot. Dude's beat himself up pretty well and he could better use his time in 2014 learning not to swing at pitches outside the strike zone than in diving for every ball and sliding into bases and bruising himself.
+ I am not a John Lackey fan. I think he's personally kind of a scumbag. But he proved in the past year and a half that he's a hell of a pitcher. I think that in some ways he should've been thought of not as 35, but as having a low mileage elbow. They definitely don't win the World Series last year without him. I thought trading him was a mistake since they had him under control for next year at $500k. However, his cryptic comments about that contract clause make me question if there's something we didn't know: was he planning some underhanded move to get out of the contract? Was he demanding a trade? Overall, I hope to be proven wrong, but I have a bad feeling about the Lackey trade.
+ Relieved that my buddy Craig Breslow wasn't traded.
+ Koji stays. High five.
+ As of typing this blog entry, an Over The Monster poll sees 75% giving Cherington an A or B for deadline day trades, far higher than I would've thought. ESPN poll has 66% giving Ben an A or B grade.
+ Don't forget that the A's gave the Sox a draft pick, and, almost as important, upped the money allotment the Sox can pay for their drafts next year. That keep the fresh talent coming in the farm system.
+ Great reporting by a number of journalists today reminds us that this isn't just a great baseball town but it's a great newspaper town, too (and I'm counting Providence in that mix).
+ What you think of these trades also comes down to what you think matters more: that the Sox won the World Series in 2013 or that they had only made the playoffs once in what will be five years by the time October comes around. The game has changes since the mid-2000s but the amount of turnover the Sox have seen in the past five years and the ups and downs have brought a certain amount of whiplash.
+ Go A's, aka Red Sox West, aka 2008 Red Sox. Always been a Jed Lowrie fan.
+ The bottom line is that I am a big Jon Lester fan. I bought an autographed ball from his cancer charity. He really has "got it" the last few years about Boston, about pitching rather than throwing, about being an example in the clubhouse, about helping those who share his experience of surviving cancer, and it's clear that he and his family love it here. (I got to meet Farah a while back and she was really sweet.) I love that he favorited Tweets about coming back here in 2015 and I hope he's excited to sublet for a few months in Oakland as it's a great town. I have to root for the A's to go all the way, for him and for my friends in the Bay. That said, these trade are unfinished business. I want him back. He favorited three Tweets from fans asking him to come back this afternoon. I may be sentimental about him but I also think that we need veterans on the starting pitching staff. The Lackey contract taught me that he might've been overpaid but he also came through in 2013. The Sox have the money and they can afford to overpay a guy, especially when other players are cheap the next few years. I haven't been this emo about a trade since Nomar. I think his struggles in 2012 and working with Ross taught him a new way to pitch and I suspect that he'll carry those lessons forward. This is a guy who deserves to spend the vast majority of his career in Boston. Will he be overpaid? Yes. Will he struggle at some point during the contract? Yes. Do #1 pitchers grow on trees? No. Will he also deliver a lot of pitching moving forward? Yes. Would it be great to see him starting on Opening Day 2015? Yes. please, Ben, John, Larry, bring Lester back. (Over)pay the man. (If he ends up a Yankee, I will be pissed.)

Jon Lester

I don't consider myself sentimental when it comes to big moves. Hell, the Sox had to trade Nomar in 2004 to win the Series, and I LOVED (and still love) him, but in this case, they are wrong. Lester has had rocky stretches; his 2012 was rough. But he is a proven AL East pitcher who loves Boston and who has made strides with his control of late and he is our ace. It's worth an overpay to keep him. Would the last few years of the contract be tough? Do you think the Yankees regret their long-term contracts that got them a World Series win in 2009? NO. THEY DO NOT. I'm getting a feeling of whiplash here. Winning is the goal here, not getting undervalued players. We are not the A's. A few years ago, the Sox threw dollars around they were in "The Wolf of Wall Street" and now they seem to hoard like they're in "It's a Wonderful Life." Can't they find a happy medium? Jon Lester is a winner. Pay the man.

Fenway Food Drive This Weekend

At Strike 3 Foundation Event

Meeting our ace at Sip Happens!

Earlier in the evening, he showed off his snakeskin cowboy boots embossed with "2013 World Champions" and the B logo. He's a Texan alright.

(Thanks to mom for the Photoshop touch ups to get rid of demon eyes!)