tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-178228742009-02-20T21:21:41.890-05:00Observations and opinions about the grand game of baseball, with a particular emphasis on the Cape Cod Baseball League and other New England regional gems (including the independent Brockton Rox and, of course, the Boston Red Sox). From the mind of author and radio personality Steve Weissman!Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.comBlogger107125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17822874.post-1161349342731136902006-10-20T09:02:00.000-04:002007-01-08T22:52:34.126-05:00

If I heard it once, I heard it three dozen times as I went inside the Cape Cod Baseball League while researching my recent book about the league: something unusual, or unusually dramatic, would occur, and the players would explain it by saying, “That’s baseball!”I mention this because there may be no better way than that to sum up the just-concluded National League Championship Series, the

Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17822874.post-1160052608174810602006-10-05T08:50:00.000-04:002006-10-05T08:57:02.533-04:00

Completing the thoughts for this week are the first musings as to whom of the possible departees the Red Sox should keep, and whom the club should allow to go. In alphabetical order, I give you the following:• Alex Cora, Utility: A smart, steady player who can play multiple positions well and might teach Dustin Pedroia a thing or two while sitting in the dugout. He’d be great to have around if

Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17822874.post-1159883074102019932006-10-03T09:44:00.000-04:002006-10-03T10:00:15.733-04:00

It’s Day Two of the Boston Red Sox’s 2007 season, and already the speculation has begun as to who from the ’06 squad will return in ’07. While it’s too early to travel terribly far down this path, it is interesting to see which players on the current roster have contractual ‘outs’ (either via free agency or buyout clauses) that make it easy to move them down the road. Here’s a preliminary stab at

Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17822874.post-1159802193773686942006-10-02T11:15:00.000-04:002006-10-02T11:45:39.956-04:00

The 2006 Boston Red Sox season mercifully is now behind us, and thanks to injury and what GM Theo Epstein described as “some weaknesses” in the team, the Sox finished in third place (behind New York and Toronto) and missed the post-season for the first time since 2002.For all the frustrations and medical bills, though, the end was more satisfying than it could have been. So while the talkradio

Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17822874.post-1158933082689793922006-09-22T09:51:00.000-04:002006-09-22T10:26:11.986-04:00

David Ortiz last night hit his 51st and 52nd home runs in a win against his former Minnesota Twins, and in so doing, he broke the 68-year-old Red Sox club record for home runs for a season. While certainly statistically significant – at least for members of Red Sox Nation, if not for baseball fans as a whole – Big Papi’s achievement was equally notable for the sidebars it suggested. For instance:

Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17822874.post-1158326123922540872006-09-15T09:14:00.000-04:002006-09-15T09:15:23.923-04:00

As Red Sox Nation turns its lonely eyes to next year, an interesting question arises: how might Gary Sheffield look in Boston’s home whites?The current Yankee slugger apparently is ready to come off the disabled list, but there’s no obvious place for him to play in the Bronx, and it says here that the Bombers won’t pick up his contract option for next year this being the case.Sheffield’s usual

Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17822874.post-1158265836306588162006-09-14T16:26:00.000-04:002006-09-14T16:30:36.340-04:00

– One Baseball Fan Wants to Know –Is it me, or have more players than usual actually been put on the shelf this baseball season with various sorts of muscle injuries? Maybe the reporting is better, or maybe I’m just paying more attention than I have in the past. But it seems to me that the ‘dog days’ of the 2006 season have been especially hard on players – and this, in turn, has me wondering if

Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17822874.post-1157666821752272162006-09-07T18:07:00.000-04:002006-09-07T18:11:11.043-04:00

– Four Arms, a Catcher, and a Shortstop Who Might Have Made a Difference –Consider the accomplishments this season of the following players, who either were Red Sox farmhands at the end of last season or were with the club when it broke camp back in March:- Anibal Sanchez, now with the Florida Marlins, last night threw the major league’s first no-hitter in more than two years.- Hanley Ramirez,

Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17822874.post-1156795853959293352006-08-28T16:09:00.002-04:002006-08-28T16:15:41.703-04:00

The Boston Red Sox lost another winnable game last night in Seattle, and after nearly two months of such nonsense, it’s clear that the team just can’t continue to contend. The recent rash of injuries has been just too costly to overcome in terms of player performance and player replacement. But what’s particularly frustrating is that the Yankees were similarly decimated earlier in the year, but

Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17822874.post-1156273747109112362006-08-22T15:05:00.000-04:002006-08-22T15:21:09.236-04:00

OK, so the Yankees just embarrassed the Red Sox by sweeping five games at Fenway Park, and now stand 6½ games in front of the Olde Towne Team. But that’s all right, you console yourself; they’re only 4 games behind the White Sox for the wild card, and once NixWakeItek gets back, they’ll make up that little ground for sure. Heck, if they get really hot, they could even still pass the Yankees

Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17822874.post-1156165295488874442006-08-21T09:01:00.000-04:002006-08-23T11:45:29.566-04:00

As the news from Fenway continues to disappoint (“Can’t anybody here play this game?” – Casey Stengel), let’s continue to celebrate this year’s Cape League season and stay in our “happy place” for just a little while longer …Nice to Meet You!- Mike Bordick, one-time member of the Y-D Red Sox who played 14 years in the big leagues and has given back to his Cape League team to the point where a

Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17822874.post-1155826758625928792006-08-17T10:56:00.000-04:002006-08-18T09:41:46.183-04:00

That the Boston Red Sox have been struggling lately has been well documented, and by my observation, their circumstances are unlikely to improve any time soon. The hand they are now playing was dealt to them some six weeks ago, when they began losing key hitters and pitchers to injury (e.g., Trot Nixon, Jason Varitek, Keith Foulke, Tim Wakefield, David Wells). The result was a series of chain

Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17822874.post-1155677294034612102006-08-15T17:28:00.000-04:002006-08-15T17:32:49.460-04:00

The Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox this weekend won their second Cape Cod Baseball League championship in three years, and they did it in the spectacular fashion that is so typical of the Cape League. Consider the following:- The team lost one of its pitching stars right away when lefty Matt Meyer (Boston College) signed with Cleveland and began his pro career.- It started the season 8-11 and seemed to

Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17822874.post-1153260655964913712006-07-18T18:10:00.000-04:002006-07-18T18:14:06.753-04:00

Couldn’t let another day go by without applauding the streaking Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox of the Cape Cod Baseball League … these Sox have won nine games in a row, and they’ve now stormed their way into first place in the league’s Eastern Division. They’ve won slugfests (11-8 against Falmouth on Friday) and pitching gems (a no-hitter tossed by Boston College’s Terry Doyle against Chatham on Sunday)

Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17822874.post-1152800096642158612006-07-13T10:14:00.000-04:002006-07-13T10:18:15.613-04:00

The 44-game Cape Cod Baseball League season is now half played, and it’s now safe to turn early indications into fully-fledged trends.At this juncture, it appears the teams to beat in the East are Orleans and Brewster, who are separated by a single point in the standings. However, a recent surge by Yarmouth-Dennis (7-3 over the last 10 games) has put the Red Sox just three points behind the

Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17822874.post-1152727812498181842006-07-12T14:10:00.000-04:002006-07-12T21:34:32.153-04:00

Back from vacation, and I can’t help but wonder …… why MLB All Stars wear their league uniforms when participating in the home run derby, which is a contest among individuals, and their individual team uniforms when playing in the actual Game, which is a contest between the leagues.… why MLB Commissioner Bud Selig thinks it’s a good idea for All Star pitchers to be held out of games so they can

Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17822874.post-1150893503513052502006-06-21T08:38:00.000-04:002006-06-21T08:39:09.543-04:00

• It took 10 weeks, but the Boston Red Sox last night finally provided some run support for their beleaguered knuckleballer, Tim Wakefield, who coming into the game had an ERA of 3.82 ERA but had only 3.1 runs per game scored on his behalf. Now, if they could only spread their runs across several games instead of batching them into a single contest: THEN we’d be getting somewhere!• It’s nice to

Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17822874.post-1150463317124816172006-06-16T09:08:00.000-04:002006-06-16T09:09:44.373-04:00

• Another day, another disheartening Boston Red Sox loss. But then, what do you expect when the club scores only six runs, leaves 26 runners on base, and bats only .208 with runners in scoring position in three games at a place once called the Homer Dome? Sure, the pitching has been thin lately, but if the bats had shown even the slightest signs of life, the club’s showing in Minnesota would have

Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17822874.post-1150381392469619502006-06-15T10:23:00.000-04:002006-06-15T10:23:54.426-04:00

The Boston Red Sox today are wrestling with a player development conundrum that every successful team faces at one time or another: should their most talented young hurlers be left in the minor leagues to gain experience and to make mistakes in relative anonymity? Or should they be brought up to help the big club contend for a playoff spot? It’s not an easy decision, for a few bad outings at the

Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17822874.post-1149857344934889912006-06-09T08:49:00.000-04:002006-06-09T08:51:17.966-04:00

• Who was that out there on the mound for the Red Sox last night, Catfish Hunter? No, it was Curt Schilling, who gave up three solo homers to the New York Yankees on his way to a 9-3 victory. Hunter, of course, was known for giving up bunches of bases-empty dingers himself, and it didn’t keep him from being inducted into the Hall of Fame. So this observer isn’t really worried: as long as the Sox

Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17822874.post-1149690196371047232006-06-07T10:20:00.000-04:002006-06-07T12:43:30.523-04:00

The Boston Red Sox yesterday selected five former Cape League players on what was the first day of this year’s MLB First-Year Player Draft. Perhaps the most notable is right-hand pitcher Daniel Bard, who was taken in the first round at number 28 and who toiled successfully (3-3, 1.25, 82 Ks in 65 innings) for the Wareham Gatemen last summer. Bard was the pick the Sox received as compensation for

Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17822874.post-1149618939195441192006-06-06T14:25:00.000-04:002006-06-06T14:52:08.220-04:00

• Today marks the beginning of MLB’s annual First-Year Player Draft, which will end after either 50 rounds or a round in which no team selects a player (whichever comes first). A big day in the lives of hundreds of aspiring ballplayers – given today’s date, it might not be inappropriate to think of it as D-Day – it resonates loudly in the minds of Cape League supporters as well, for the list of

Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17822874.post-1149171358999285612006-06-01T10:15:00.000-04:002006-06-06T12:18:38.623-04:00

How Can I Miss You if You Won't Leave? To no one’s real surprise, Roger Clemens yesterday announced he will return to the major leagues later this summer, and will do so in the uniform of his hometown Houston Astros. There are lots of reasons for him to return to the club with which he went to the World Series last year (many outlined in my post of February 9), but the clincher no doubt is the

Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17822874.post-1148994282819818832006-05-30T09:04:00.000-04:002006-05-30T09:07:04.686-04:00

Been on the road a bit lately and have had lots of travel time to contemplate the ’06 Red Sox season to date. Here are just a few thoughts to catch you up:• I’ve changed my mind: Jonathan Papelbon is and should remain the Red Sox closer. Originally, I agreed with Curt Schilling’s assessment that the club would be better served by receiving 200+ innings per year from the big right-hander. But it’s

Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17822874.post-1147266527159160272006-05-10T09:08:00.000-04:002006-05-10T09:11:08.316-04:00

For those who believe there isn’t enough good news in sports today, here are just a few of the good ideas on the baseball scene this morning:- Red Sox manager Terry Francona giving Mark Loretta the green light on 3-0 last night against a struggling Randy Johnson. Loretta responded by hitting a 2-run single.- The Sox taking on and sticking with both Mike Lowell and Alex Gonzalez. The latter has

Steve Weissmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07971117333158669986noreply@blogger.com0