Jackie Robinson Day

Jackie Robinson died 8 years before I was born.

I’ve heard a great deal of praise for the man, some of it regarding the color barrier & his contributions to the civil rights movement, and some of it regarding the type of ballplayer and person that he was. But it wasn’t until today, while browsing baseball-reference.com, that I started to understand how Jackie Robinson played the game.

It’s hard to get a feel for a ballplayer when you’ve never seen him play.

Check out this stat: In 1952, Robinson struck out forty times in 510 at bats. Pretty good number, eh? Now consider that that was the highest strikeout total of his career.

This number means a whole lot more to me than his batting average, RBI, rookie of the year award or MVP trophy, because it’s an indicator of his talent and the way he played the game.

You know who else topped out at 40 strikeouts in a season? Tony Gwynn, who is probably the best hitter I’ll ever see.

In 1949, Jackie Robinson struck out only 27 times in 598 at bats. The following year, he had 24 strikeouts in 518 at bats.

These numbers just absolutely boggle my mind, and for the first time I think I’m starting to understand the type of player that Jackie Robinson was. 

Did buried jersey curse Ortiz?

I’m not the sort of person to buy into curses, but I do have a tendency to be a little superstitious, especially when it comes to clothing.

It started when I was a kid and I went bowling with a friend of mine. His dad (probably screwing with me) told me that it was good luck for a bowler to pull your socks up over your pant legs, and being a stupid little kid, I decided to try it. I got a strike on the first throw. I got a strike on the second throw. I got the first turkey of my life.

I had a lot of luck with the stupid sock trick, but when I got older I was more concerned with the social ramifications of wearing my socks over my pants than I was about my bowling score. I stopped hiking up my socks and my score plummeted, but there was no way that I was going to jack up my socks again.

I tried a number of other things, including wrist bands and lucky coins, but none of them worked. That’s the thing about “curses”—you never know what effect an item will have.

Fast forward to last week, and the fiasco that became of the David Ortiz jersey being buried in the concrete of the new Toilet.

The burying of the jersey happened to coincide with a terrible slump for Ortiz, and I began to wonder if the jersey cursed Ortiz, rather than the Yankees. If you want to curse the Yankees, bury the jersey of Carl Pavano or someone, don’t bury a cheap Ortiz home jersey with his name on the back.

And never. Ever. Try to curse anyone through the use of clothing. The potential for it to backfire is enormous.

Anyway, look for David Ortiz to have a huge game tonight, seeing as it’s his first game in the lineup since the jersey was removed yesterday.

Kielty accepts assignment to Pawtucket

Bobby Kielty accepted his assignment to Pawtucket, rather than enter free agency.

The move isn’t unexpected on the Red Sox’ part. There just isn’t room for Kielty on the current roster, seeing as the outfield is already log jammed with Manny, Ellsbury, Crisp, and Drew all qualified to roam the grass on an everyday basis.

Kielty should be a good call up in the case of injury or a Coco trade.

Red Sox: All your moneys are belong to us

The Red Sox and the Massachusetts Lottery have teamed up once again, this time for a $20 scratch ticket.

Twenty dollars.

I have never in my life walked up to the counter of a store and thought to myself you know, dropping $20 on that lottery ticket sounds like a good idea right now, but I have to admit that I might be tempted to buy one if I happen to be in a good mood at the right time, given the $10 million grand prize.

With that kind of money, you could do something that you would ordinarily consider to be financially irresponsible and out of reach. Like taking your family to see a game at Fenway, for instance.

There are also twenty $1 million prizes and 100 Red Sox road trips.

The new ticket is expected to raise $23 million in profit for the state of Massachusetts. 

Back from my preseason hiatus

I took the last couple weeks off to get ready for the grind of the regular season (Japan doesn’t count, I don’t care what the standings say), but I’ll be back at things in full force come tomorrow.

Our starting pitching has been a bit shaky lately, but real opening day is tomorrow for the Red Sox (even if it is at 10:05 PM), and who can be pessimistic about that?

This is the best time of the year.