Monday, July 24, 2006

Sawx Weekend Pilgrimage: 1-2. Worse, No Papelbon

A few more or less random observations from the Seattle-BoSox weekend.

1. Ichiro is absolutely unique as a baseball player. I'm not sure the sheer oddness of his hitting style comes through on TV, but it is unquestionably effective. It seems like he went about 17 for 13 over the weekend. I know that's not possible, but like Chuck Norris or Jack Bauer he bends reality to his whims.

2. Speaking of the Norris/Bauer debate, the new Roadhouse DVD is worth renting just for the Kevin Smith/Scott Mosier commentary track, where they gleefully praise the awfulness of the film, mixing in similar observations: "Dalton doesn't go hunting because 'hunting' implies the possibility of failure. Dalton goes killing." This is a trend I heartily support - commentary tracks devoted to carving the movie to pieces, almost MST3K style.

3. Downtown Seattle has a distinct urine smell when the temperature rises abouve 90. Yech. There are also a lot of hills. It's not fun to walk up hills in 95+ degree heat after drinking beers at an Englishman's pace for the entirety of a ball game. (During the second game, I was seated next to a Briton, wearing a canary yellow Arsenal jersey no less and we chatted about sports, European and American for the whole game while buying each other massively overpriced MGD's. Good times. Except...)

4. Julian Tavarez and Rudy Seanez are awful. Tavarez came in and immediately a pretty decent debut outing from Young Kason Gabbard on Saturday.

5. I may have found the coolest store ever, near Safeco field: Ebbets Field Flannels, authentic throwbacks to all kinds of long forgotten teams - the '65 Alakska Goldpanners, the 1892 Lebanon Pretzel Eaters(!) and, the truly awsome 1939 New York Knights, check the right sleeve...



Some pretty sweet stuff, I must say. (Minnesotans, perhaps the Minneapolis Millers might catch your fancy.)

6. Varitek's homerun of J.J. Putz with 2 out in the 9th might be the farthest I've ever seen a ball hit in person. They said 398, but hogwash, it hit the facing above the cafe in right field, having just stopped rising.

7. Getting beat by the awful Adrian Beltre and Richie Sexson sucks - I've never seen a walkoff homerun in person, and it's not a lot of fun as an opposing fan. (Speaking of, I'd wager that the support was 60-40 or 65-35 in favor of the Mariners all three games. Red Sox Nation was in force)

8. Worst part about the middle relief sucking in every game was no Papelbon. I even got asked by confused Mariner fans "who the hell is Papelbon" as I trudged out of Safeco with #58 on my back.

4 comments:

Mr Furious said...

I believe the Sox gave up runs in the 7th, 8th and 9th innings and never got Papelbon up. And he hadn't pitched since Wednesday.

It's worse than losing with your best hitter on the bench and not pinch-hitting.

Indefensible.

--

I read today somewhere that the Rockies are interested in Seanez and/or Taverez. I make that trade for a can of eyeblack for Trot.

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San diego nabbed Scott Williamson from the Cubs. I really wanted to bring him back. Rotoworld mentioned a possiblre package of Mike Lowell to SD for Williamson and Woody Williams. The cold GM killer in me might pull that trigger. The part of me loving the rejuvenation of Mike Lowell and the thrill of watching the best Red Sox infield of my life hesitates. If this were my fantasy team, I'd trade high on Lowell for that package.

Anonymous said...

Ahem...

Who, might I ask, was the individual who told you about Ebbetts Field Flannels in the first place?

BTW, I wore my Monarchs jersey to work today. It is tres cool.

Otto Man said...

If you like the stuff at EFF, check out Distant Replays:

http://www.distantreplays.com/

It's a great store in Atlanta that became famous for being the place where Big Boi, Ludacris, and other hiphop stars were going to get their throwback jerseys.

They don't just have baseball jerseys, but also every other sport. I grabbed a USFL shirt the last time I was in town, and just yesterday went running in my Kansas City Kings throwback T.

Hops said...

I wouldn't worry too much...(I don't want to hear about) Papelbon pitched last night, and you still have this guy.