Jay’s Sports Blog™

So everyone is up in arms about James Posey leaving. Now I’m not going to act like his departure doesn’t upset me or try and talk down his contributions but instead try and find a silver lining.

In a thread of emails yesterday some friends and myself all agreed that the fourth year was too much and after reading John Hollinger’s piece I felt even better about not bringing him in given the expected decline. So who’s going to fill the void?

Sure Scal didn’t sniff the floor in the playoffs but this guy gets the biggest pop out of everyone not named Pierce or Garnett anytime he touches the ball. The Garden goes crazy when he drains a three. And does anyone box out better on the rebound?

The thing with Posey was the stats are very deceptive (only 7 points a game?). It seams every time he had an open look at a three he would drain it. The playoffs just let the rest of the NBA see what we’ve been looking at all season. Also, on defense, he was the shut down defender the C’s needed off the bench against the likes of Kobe and LeBron.

So will Scal fill those minutes? Not likely although we can all dream that a great white hope will one day return to the NBA to the likes of Larry Legend. What will the Celtics do to fill the void?

They’ll probably resign Tony Allen as Hollinger suggests, who was a good defender and a decent scoring option, he just needs to lose the fear he got after the injury. Between Tony, Scal and the rookies the Celtics should be able to fill the void in the regular season. What they’ll miss most is having a money guy off the bench come playoff time.

To quote Da Guy, “I’m not worried.” Danny built up his assets and won a Championship, I’m sure he has a plan here as well. In Danny We Trust.

But on to the Red Sox and the West Coast road trip. Let’s play ball!

I know everyone thought I would write a Posey artucle today but that’s not in the cards. Good job James, you found someone to guarantee that fourth year. Danny didn’t want to fuck up the salary cap so my good job is also to Danny. Now find us a sixth man again. If you read this article, you’ll feel much better about Posey not coming back.

On to the mid season report card. Now if you can remember back to March when I gave you the American League and National League previews. Now it’s the All Star break and time to check in on my picks and see how bad I’m doing.

Let’s start with the National League which I know nothing about. I picked Philly in the East followed by NY, Atlanta, Florida and Washington. Thanks to a recent 9 game winning streak by the Mets, the standings are almost exact. The only thing different is a flip flop of the Braves and surprising Marlins. I did pick NY to win the Wild Card and as it stands right now they’d be out thanks to an impressive Central bolstered by recent trades.

I picked Milwaukee to win the Central and if the season ended today I’d be wrong. The Brewers are actually in third behind the Cubbies and surprising St Louis. So I had the top three right, just in the wrong order. I had the rest of the mess dead on Reds, Pirates, and lowly Astros rounding out the cellar.

In the West I picked the Dodgers, in fact in my 2008 prediction column I picked them to win the National League pennant. My huge mistake was liking the Padres so much with no hitting. The West is a two horse race between AZ and L.A. followed by the Giants (holy crap), surprisingly struggling Rockies and the lowly Pads rounding it out.

Overall the NL isn’t too bad on the prediction front. I still could pull out the NY Wild Card depending on how the streak continues after the break. Johan for Cy Young doesn’t look like it’ll happen. Ryan Howard for MVP could happen (he leads the league in HR’s and RBI’s) but he’ll get a run from Chipper Jones. Fukudome as rookie of the year, well he was an All Star. Finally Joe Torre for manager of the year, if the Dodgers pull out the West it could be a lock.

Now onto the AL something which I’m a little more educated.

AL East was picked Sox, Yanks, Jays, Rays, O’s. Who on Earth would have thought the Rays would be in second place? Well my picks could still fall into place especially if the Rays keep dropping road games. They’ve lost their closer and need to make a deal for a bat, if they do that, I’ll be wrong in my predictions.

Now the central which I butchered, so much for “being educated”. I had the Tigers followed by Cleveland, Chicago, KC, and the Twinkies. The White Sox are leading the pack and the Twinkies are only a game and a half out. My pick of the Tigers? They’re floating at .500. KC in fourth I got right, but no one had the Indians in the cellar. So much for Cleveland winning the Wild Card.

In the West I caught a lot of shit from people for not picking Seattle after the Bedard trade. After John Lackey went down for the Angles, I was really worried. Well the Angles have the best record in baseball and the Mariners are in last place. Eat it! The A’s and Texas are both playing above .500. The A’s doing it with pitching, the Rangers with hitting.

With the AL I would really like to see the Rays take the Wild Card. That’s just the baseball fan in me. I think it’d be good for them, but we’ll wait and see. It’d be even better if the Sox win the East and the Wild Card comes from somewhere else.

Now the funny. I picked Beckett for Cy Young (whoops, looks like Cliff Lee), Jacoby for rookie of the year (who would have thought Longoria from Tampa would be that good?), Leyland as Manager of the Year (Rays skip Joe Madden walks away with it even if they don’t make the playoffs) and Vlad Guerrero as the MVP (which I guess could happen considering his team has the best record and he leads his team in every offensive category).

The best news in all this? The Red Sox are back in action but not till tomorrow. The bad news? They’re on the West Coast and you have to stay up till 1AM to watch the games. But it’s the weekend, so enjoy.

Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon blamed the New York media for creating a firestorm that resulted in his pregnant wife being threatened on Tuesday.

“I feel like I needed to be in a bullet-proof car,” Papelbon said, according to the Web site. “My wife is pregnant and she’s getting her life threatened. It’s stupid.”

Thanks to ESPN for the intro. Are you fucking kidding me? Has this rivalry bullshit gotten this bad?

I hate this journalistic fueled bullshit rivalry. I’m sick of ESPN, NESN, the Globe, Herald, NY Times and everyone else forcing this down my throat. NESN showing Yankee highlights right after Sox highlights and showing the standings between the two while still referring to them as the Evil Empire. But most of all I’m sick of the four and a half hour games every time they meet.

I would hope that if this were in Boston that Sox fans would show a little more class than Yankees fans but alas Red Sox Nation really has become a bunch of pink hat knuckle heads. The same fucking idiots that chant “Yankees Suck” in the seventh inning of a Kansas City Royals game are the ones that I’m sure would give Boston a bad name. Retarded, drunk college assholes from Northeastern, BU, BC, you know the fucking idiots that riot when the Sox win and get shot, all can leave “the Nation” as far as I’m concerned.

While we’re on the subject, let’s clarify the pink hat definition. A pink hat doesn’t refer to the hat itself. Who cares if a chick wants a pink hat? Certainly not me.

The pink hat is the fucking asshole waving at the camera from behind home plate while on the cell phone during a crucial moment in the game. A pink hat sees a guy wearing a Freddy Lynn jersey and asks, “Who’s that?”. A pink hat is sitting in a luxury box eating sushi and watching from the inside on a beautiful day. A pink hat shows up in the third and leaves in the eighth. A pink hat sees a triple play and doesn’t realize it, looks up and wants to know everyone else is clapping. Drunk fucking assholes that don’t even see the game because they were too drunk.

So I ask you to leave comments on this one. Tell me which “pink hats” annoy the shit out of you. Is it the shit head college kids? The cell phone wavers? You tell me.

I honestly was going to go with a first half recap, but I’ll save that one for Thursday’s column when there’s no news on Wednesday.

Then Josh Hamilton, star of my fantasy team, drew me into the Home Run Derby.

All I could think of was Spicoli as I watched Hamilton just OWN the first round of the Home Run Derby.

Seriously, the only thing better than watching him dominate with 28 home runs was seeing the NYPD beat up two kids that ran onto the black to get a ball. Of course the camera quickly ducked away and we didn’t see the beat down, but the cop grabbing one kid by the throat was pretty entertaining as the other cop chased a kid down the tunnel.

This guy hit so many home runs in the first round that when he stepped into the box for the second round, he didn’t even need to swing the bat. He had done more than any other guy could do in 20 outs with just 10.

Lots of talk before with many different interviews. One of the best I saw they asked the guy why wasn’t A-Rod participating in the derby. “I think A-Rod has to get his nails done or something.” The best thing is that it wasn’t even a Boston reporter.

So he decided to take a “few cuts” in round two even though he didn’t have to and wound up hitting another four just for shits and giggles.

All the talk of a New Yankee Stadium makes me want a new Fenway even more. Look as a guy taller than 5′2″, if I’m ever fortunate enough to score tickets I can’t sit comfortably in the Grandstand. Yet if I go to Turner Field in Atlanta and sit in the $10 cheap seats in the third deck, I have all the room in the world. I know it’s never going to happen but it’s nice to think about it.

So in the finals it was Justin Morneau taking on Hamilton.

Morneau hit 5, the last of which was a pretty sweet upper deck shot and after a long, Tyler Perry free commercial break, Josh Hamilton stepped in to see if he could top it. On the line was a donation of $50,000 to the Boys and Girls club. Remember 1999 at Fenway? The winner got a house courtesy of Century 21. Way to really go downhill on your prize MLB.

And Josh Hamilton comes out and totally disappoints. With only three home runs he lost in the finals to Justin Morneau. Remember that Morneau is a former MVP, yeah I didn’t remember that either. At least we don’t have to listen to Joe Morgan anymore.

Had Hamilton just skipped the second round, he could have used those four and won 7-5. Oh well. Entertaining to watch all the same. Best part during the check ceremony the corporate jackass calls Justin Morneau Jason. Way to embarrass yourself on National TV. HA!!!

So Friday night I missed the game and kept getting updates, but got the sweetest update when I went in to check the score myself. Boston’s favorite whipping boy, Julio Lugo, was attempting to leg out a single (which he did) and tore his left quadriceps.

On the DL for 15 days. Every angry Boston’s fan wish was granted. Jed Lowrie was called up from Pawtucket and started Saturday. He proceeded to go 0-4 in his first start since May. I’m not worried.

Francona said that he’ll alternate Cora and Lowrie at shortstop till Lugo comes back. Great news on the defensive front for the Sox and honestly the lineup can’t be any worse than with Lugo.

Hopefully (and I emphasize hopefully) Lowrie, or Cora but I’m really pulling for Lowrie, can catch fire in his starts and earn the spot away from Lugo and Cora. Brady took Bledsoe’s job when he got hurt and I think we all like how that worked out, so don’t give me the “you shouldn’t lose your job because your hurt” bullshit.

After the loss Friday the Sox bounced back behind great pitching Saturday and Sunday by Wakefield and Daisuke Matsuzaka (10-1, 2.65 ERA and not an All-Star?) respectively. The bats were alive and well on Saturday in a 12-1 drubbing. And sure Papelbon made us a little nervous in the 9th on Sunday, but the Sox got the win 2-1.

So where does this weekend’s two of three from the O’s leave the Sox? Right where you’d expect them to be, in first place. Sure it’s a half game lead over the surprising Rays and 6 ahead of New York, but this division is decent this year. Even the last place O’s are only 3 games below .500.

Finally there was much rejoicing in Lowell when Da Guy got the news that Ortiz is scheduled to return on 7/25. How great is that? I surmise that it is incredibly great, not for our fantasy league, but for the solidification of the Red Sox lineup.

Back tomorrow with my first half recap. Enjoy the Home Run Derby, anything is better than the WNBA.