My Favorite Red Sox Players 15-11

 

15. Bill Mueller

It’s difficult to say that anyone on the 2004 Boston Red Sox is underrated—hell, little used reliever Curtis Leskanic receives hosannas when he comes back to town. This is all deserved, that team fucking rules.

But one of the more under appreciated, anonymous players was third baseman Bill Mueller. Yes, everyone knows about the glorious hit through the box against Mariano Rivera driving in Dave Roberts in the ninth inning of Game Four of the ALCS. That’s the hit that exposed a chink in the armor of the great beast. That's the hit that showed the Sox that the Russian can bleed. That’s the hit that began the greatest comeback in all of sports history.

But while absolutely amazing, that hit shouldn't have been a surprise. Mueller was a professional hitter. All he did was hit He hit at home. He hit on the road. Day games, he hit. Night games too. He pounded out hits against the American League. When it was time for interleague games, he hammered National League pitching. He hit in Spring Training, during the regular season and the post season.

During the ARod glove to the face game, who won that game with a ninth inning ding dong johnson off Rivera? Bill fucking Mueller did, that’s who.

Mueller came to the Sox in the 2002-03 offseason with David Ortiz, Kevin Millar and Jeremy Giambi. The Sox already had the immortal Shea Hillenbrand at third. Epstein wanted to improve production at first, third and DH. He figured that three of those five guys would solve those problems.

And he was right.

The first year Mueller was in Boston, the switch hitter lead the league in batting average. The second year he became the first hitter ever to hit two grand slams from each side of the plate in one game.

On a team full of extra large personalities, Mueller went about his work and perfected his craft. Hit after hit, game after game, season after season. He was a metronome. Not only could he hit for average and power but he was a damn fine third baseman. Did Mueller ever make an error? I’m sure he did. Do I remember any? No I don’t.

You may have heard of a comedian’s comedian or a writer’s writer, Bill Mueller was a ball player’s ball player. Everything he did was just right.

I loved watching him play.

14. Jon Lester

Lester is the best left handed that the Sox drafted and developed since Bruce Hurst and is probably the overall best pitcher to come out of their system since Roger Clemens.

It always sucks when the Sox (or any pro team) low balls a player, but it especially sucked with Lester. It was just weird for them to do that. He’s a home grown player that was beloved by the fans. Due to his battle with lymphoma, he was a tireless worker for the Jimmy Fund. Both his illness and charity work have increased his standing with the Boston fans and the Sox were like, “nah, we’ll move on”.

I get that pro sports is a business but I think that there are players you make an exception for. Jon Lester was one of those guys.

Lester came up in 2005 and had a pretty good year, he was 7-2 with a high ERA but there was enough there to think that he’d be a player. His sophomore season was interrupted when he was diagnosed with lymphoma.

After treatments he came back in the middle of 2007 season and provided a shot in the arm for the Sox pitching staff. He started—and won—Game 4 of the World Series, which happened to be the day my eldest daughter was born. It was a remarkable comeback and Lester kept rolling.

2008 saw him throw a no-hitter, and after two very solid seasons, he was named an All-Star in 2010. 2011 was a mixed bag for both the Sox and Lester as the team gagged a big lead and Lester was implicated in the “chicken and beer” fiasco that vilified 3/5s of the starting pitching staff.

The other two “culprits” Josh Beckett and John Lackey got far more scrutiny than Lester did but he got a bit. This was sort of a strange era for Lester. He was born and lived most of his life in Washington state but for some reason he began speaking with a Texas accent around this time. It was kinda like when Madonna married Guy Ritchie and she thought she was English. I don’t know whether it was because he wanted to impress the Texas born Beckett but it was annoying. I think he dropped it after Beckett was sent to LA as part of the Punto trade.

Dumb voice choices aside, in 2013 he was part of another World Series championship and the following year he was sent to the Oakland Athletics when he couldn’t come to terms with Boston on a contract extension.

Seeing Lester as an A was just strange, seeing him as a Cub wasn’t as strange but it didn’t look right either. Seeing him as a National or a Cardinal was not as jarring because I don’t recall these stops very much.

The Red Sox are like any other franchise, they make good moves and bad ones. Not signing Jon Lester was a particularly dumb one that took the Sox a few years to repair. There’s a cliche that says, “if the front office listens to the fans, they’ll soon be sitting with the fans” and that’s probably correct more times than it’s not.

This time, it wasn’t.

13. Dustin Pedroia

Baseball is the most democratic (small d) of all sports. What I mean by this is that it doesn’t matter how big you are, how fast you are, how tall you are; if you have great hand-eye coordination you will play. Chances are, you'll play well.

Dustin Pedroia is about a foot shorter than current star Aaron Judge. Despite their height differences both are former MVPs and both are Hall of Fame candidates. I think that many fans gravitate towards the Pedroia types because they see themselves in him.

It’s hard to see yourself as a football player, you have to be the size of a fridge and run faster than a Ferrari. Basketball? Only if you’re freakishly tall. Hockey player. Do you have world class hand-eye coordination? Cool. Can you do it on a millimeter thick piece of metal on ice?

Even someone like Judge is tough to relate to because he’s incredibly athletic for his height. But Pedroia? He’s 5’7”, I’m taller than 5’7”. Not only that but Pedroia played the game the way we think we’d play: all-out hustle, dirty uniform, getting your nose in everything.

Pedroia was more than that, of course. He could flat out rake and he was nails at second base. A leader on the team, he was acerbic and funny and he seemed like a genuinely cool guy. Everyone loved him from Terry Francona to David Ortiz to Alex Cora. The only person who didn’t seem to love him was Bobby Valentine, who was about as popular as rug burn in Boston.

He won an MVP award, Rookie of the Year, was a multiple All-Star and was part of three World Championship teams. So Pedroia was a mirage, right? Due to his height you may think you’re as good as him but you’re not. You’re nowhere near his level.

That’s okay. The world has use for mirages, it does the opposite of grounding us, it gives us hope. Without ballplayers like Dustin Pedroia, how are we to dream that we can do anything? Pedroia is essential to the MLB fan experience.

12. Jim Rice

Whenever you started following sports, you always had a first favorite player. Someone who was larger than life and could do no wrong. For me, that was Jim Rice. He was the first player that I can remember seeing on TV. In my mind’s eye, I can picture him at bat: 12 feet tall, weighing about 500 pounds gripping his bat like a toothpick just daring a pitcher to make a mistake.

By the time I started following the Sox, he was settling into a part of his career when the Fenway Faithful sorta took him for granted. This is an era that happens with all Boston greats where if they don’t deliver every. Single. Time. They’re overpaid bums. People used to joke that Rice’s license plate was 6-4-3, for his seeming propensity to bounce into double-plays “when the team needed him the most”. Of course, that’s not true, Rice delivered more times than not.

In 1986 Rice had his last really great year, leading (with Roger Clemens) the Sox to the World Series against the Mets. I think the Sox won that year but I also passed out for two weeks after the top of the tenth of Game 6, so who knows?

Speaking of World Series, in late 1975 Rice broke a bone when he was hit with a pitch by Angels pitcher Vern Ruhle. Considering how close that Series was without the slugger, could history have been different if a healthy Rice was in the lineup?

From all accounts Rice was considered “the most feared slugger in the American League” and he rode that perception into the Hall of Fame on his last year on the ballot. Should Jim Rice be in Cooperstown? I don't know. If you’re a small hall person who didn’t grow up with him, no. But I’m a big hall guy whose first favorite player was Jim Rice, so I definitely think he deserves it.

Rice has settled into a role with the Sox where he shows up at Spring Training (gets yelled at by shithead front office types) and is on NESN during the regular season. For a guy who was notoriously prickly to the media, I’m glad that Rice never faded away.

To me he’s a great reminder of my childhood and why I loved baseball.

11. Ellis Burks

Like I’ve said a million times, I began seriously watching baseball in 1986 which, the way 99.8% of the season went, was a pretty awesome introduction to the sport.

Aside from one night in October, the one thing that sucked was that it impacted how I thought roster construction should be. That year the Sox’ philosophy was to get a bunch of big dudes and try to hit the ball out of the park. Speed was not part of the equation at all. It would taker an on-base machine like Wade Boggs three singles to score if he walked.

But pretty much everywhere aside from Boston, teams were promoting athletes—players who could hit and run as well as field. Eric Davis in Cincinnati. Rickey in New York. Darryl Strawberry also in New York. Kirby Puckett in Minnesota Jose Canseco in Oakland. Tim Raines in Montreal. And there was also a push towards dudes who could run and catch: Willie Wilson in Kansas City, practically everyone in St. Louis.

The point is, baseball was moving towards athletes. Boston was firm in not doing that. Over 30, old guys was what they were going to build around. Flipping from a Sox game to a Cardinals game was like going from Earth to Neptune.

When Ellis Burks was promoted from Pawtucket, Red Sox nation collective exclaimed, “finally, we have our athlete!” Burks showed up and he was fast, he had power, he could hit for average and he could field. He was a four-tool player (I don’t think his arm was that great) but it didn’t matter, we finally had our Willie Mays!

Burks had several solid seasons with Boston but the problem was, he was always getting hurt. That tends to happen when Mike Greenwell is playing on your right, but there were still plenty of non-Gator injuries.

I remember being bummed out when Burks was elected to the 1990 All-Star but he couldn’t play because he was hurt. I recall Burks jogging out to the first base line in Wrigley and thinking, “so close, man. This sucks for him.” After a few more injury plagued seasons, the Sox let him go. This is when Burks flipped the switch and became a star. First in Chicago, then Colorado, then San Francisco and Cleveland before coming back to Boston in 2004. Every stop aside from his last never ended in a Championship.

But, I’m not sure if you heard this before, the Boston Red Sox won it all in 2004. Did Ellis Burks play? Of course not. But the coolest thing was when the plane landed in Boston after their flight from home from St. Louis, who was the person walking out the door with the trophy? Burks.

Burks always represented the future. From the time he showed up at Fenway, Boston is taking part in the modern game! To his injuries, just wait until Burks comes back, then we’ll be clicking. Until he didn’t.

And ironically, that's when he had his most success, when he wasn't in Boston. However when he joined the team in 2004 it was a link to the past. Burks seemed to represent all of the players who were on those close-but-no-cigar teams, the teams that were out of it by Memorial Day, the teams that were good but never great.

Ellis was our avatar. I can’t prove this but for a lot of people my age, Ellis Burks was their favorite player because he was the future and at that time, we were too. Over his 17 seasons we grew, changed, had families, excelled, failed, reached some of our potential and fell short in other places. Just like Gen-X hero Burks. So when Ellis walked off that plane, brother that was all of us. That’s how we want to go out, a champion!

How can you not relate to that?

My favorite stadiums 19-14

 19.

 

We are 19 days away from The Real National Hot Dog Day and we're counting down the stadiums I've been to in order from worst to best. 

 

We're in our nation's capital as today's stadium is Nationals Park in Washington, DC home of the Washington Nationals.

 

This is the third home park of the Expos/Nationals franchise that I've been to and it's the best one. That might be damning with faint praise, the other places were 29 and 28 on the big board, but Nationals Park is really nice.

 

Unfortunately, that's about all I remember about National's Park. I remember who I went to the game with, Giuliana, my friend Brian and his son. I sorta remember where I sat; second level on the third base side, I think. But other than that, the park is a bit of a blur.

 

I recall it being roomy and modern, but with some interesting quirks. I don't even remember who the Nats played (I'll find out in a second when I go to retrosheet.org) other than Bryce Harper played. Like I mentioned yesterday, I thought that it was really cool that Giuliana and I got to see the two best players (Harper and Mike Trout) play at their home parks in one year.

 

I will say that it wasn't the stadium where I got amnesia--this was a rough summer vacation week with the kids. It all began on Saturday when we drove to Aly's cousins' place in New Jersey. They're awesome, cooked up a bunch of food, gave us a ton of beers, they couldn't have been cooler.

 

The problem was the traffic. It took forever to get from Burlington to the Jerz. But we assumed that was going to be the worst of it and it was smooth sailing (errr driving) from there.

 

It was not. The next morning we got started on the last leg of our trip that was supposed to take roughly four hours. It took eight. Eight hours in a car with a nine-year-old and a six-year-old. It was hell. Especially since Mady demanded that we listen to Disney pop starlet du jour Sabrina Carpenter try her best to warble her way through "Genie in a Bottle". Again. Hell.

 

By the time we got to DC we were frazzled, fried and annoyed. Aly and I were angry about the traffic while the girls were pissed that we weren't in Los Angeles (like we were in April) or on the Cape (like we were last year). They let us know this piece of information, which made both of even angrier.

 

As the week went by, things settled down. Giuliana was okay and made the best of her situation as we dragged the kids from museum to museum to museum. Mady was not--truthfully, we undershot this learning vacation by a couple years--she completely lost her shit in one of the Smithsonians and I had to carry her out of the museum like a piece of luggage.

 

After four days of this, by Thursday, I was completely zonked. I was fried and just remember getting to the game, buying a cap (that I rarely ever wear any more -- red hats aren't awesome for some reason) getting a few beers, zoning out and talking to my friend. It was a real respite from what was happening.

 

I guess that's what baseball is all about as I did feel better when I got home.

 

Here's the game that we saw: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2016/B08240WAS2016.htm The Nats made it close in the end, but we were long gone by then. We were in the car listening to the game and the Nats were really making a run at scoring eight runs in the ninth and Brian and I were like, "Holy shit, should we go back?" But the National's rally fell short and we went home.

 

No current Hall of Famers, but I bet that Harper and (then) Oriole third baseman Manny Machado are elected. Machado is a world-class dink, so good for him.

 

18.

 

 

We are 18 days away from The Real National Hot Dog Day and we're counting down the stadiums I've been to in order from worst to best.

 

We're in the Show Me State as today's stadium is Busch Stadium II in St. Louis, MO home of the St. Louis Cardinals.

 

Pretty much every stadium that I've listed from Shea onward is a beautiful place to watch a game--though to be fair Olympic, RFK and Oakland had their moments too. If you ever played even an inning of baseball when you were a kid, you'd kill to get on any of these fields and run over the most beautifully manicured grass that you've ever seen.

 

Busch Stadium II keeps that tradition going. It's such a wonderful place to watch a game and see the vivid greens against a bright blue sky as players wear panic red hats and crisp white uniforms. It's a painting come to life.

 

But every park is bright and electric that now. Gone are the days when you shuffle into a dingy, dark stadium with grass (or turf) that's full of tobacco stains and spots of crab grass. There was a time when a fresh coat of paint was considered "sprucing up the place" and there wasn't much in terms of game presentation.

 

At some point in the last 40ish years, owners realized that fans want these places to be cathedrals. Not to just the game, but cathedrals of the mind too. They want to be transported back to when they were kids and there was nothing but sunshine, green grass and hours to play baseball. You go into a baseball park now and it's a visual sensory overload--and that's not a bad thing.

 

At any other time in the history of baseball, Busch Stadium II would be the ultimate baseball Taj Mahal. People would come from miles to stare at the field, admire the architecture and be floored that grown men stage athletic competitions in this urban oasis. However, we live when we do and Busch Stadium II is a really nice stadium. There's nothing particularly memorable about it, it's just a cool place where I saw a baseball game once.

 

While Busch Stadium I, with it's multipurpose oval and tough as nails turf, was the more memorable stadium. Was it better? Hell no. But it was more memorable because of the way that it played.

 

Growing up in the 80s, Busch Stadium seemed like it was the grand canyon. Barely anyone, aside from Jack Clark, could hit home runs in the place though that didn't matter. The Cards ran. And ran. And ran. And ran. They'd slap the ball on that hard turf, get on first base and then run around the bases until they got home.

 

Vince Coleman. Ozzie Smith. Willie McGee. Tom Herr. Lonnie Smith. Terry Pendleton. These dudes could run all day and their manager Whitey Herzog instructed them to do so. It would drive pitchers nuts and that resulted in three World Series appearances in that decade.

 

It was so foreign to the way the Red Sox played, that it was scary. But the ballpark dictated how the Cards played (just like Kaufman dictated how the Herzog-led Royals played--which was the speed game too--it must be something about Missouri). There aren't a lot of parks like the original Busch Stadium that dictate style any more. Most parks are built for the long ball (the original Busch ripped out the turf in the mid 90s and the Cards imported Mark McGwire and suddenly they were all power, all the time) but baseball is fun when it's played in different styles.

 

I never thought that I'd get to St. Louis. This isn't some sort of boyhood wish, it's just that I never thought that I'd ever want to go there. But I did get there and it was for a work event which is when I experienced Busch II.

 

Ever have a job where you just hated going to? Most of the people I worked with was nice, but my boss wasn't great and the whole vibe of the place was like a frat house. What I did for my job was dull, meaningless and I got paid nothing. About the only thing that I liked about that particular job was that I got to travel in the summer--I saw three new stadia in 2006 alone. Other than that, it sucked and soul sucking. Probably one of the worst, dumbest jobs I ever had. I felt gross every evening that I left that place.

 

But for one night, I got to sit in centerfield behind one of my generation's greats, eat a giant turkey leg (they deep fry it in the park and it was tremendous), watch the Cards play the Reds and forget all about that stupid job that I had which brought me to St. Louis.

 

Here's the box score of the game that I saw: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2006/B06050SLN2006.htm

 

Hall of Famers include Ken Griffey Jr. of the Reds and Scott Rolen of the Cards. Yadi Molina also played and he might get in too. Cinci won with three in the ninth and I'm sure that sent the St. Louisans home unhappy. Oh well, the Cards won the Series that year. I'm sure that made them feel a little better.

 

17.

 

 

We are 17 days away from The Real National Hot Dog Day and we're counting down the stadiums I've been to in order from worst to best.

 

We're in the Big Apple as today's stadium is Yankee Stadium II in New York, NY home of the New York Yankees.

 

You guys have to believe me: I'm not ranking Yankee Stadium II (some people call it YS III because they count the refurbishing of the original place as the second version. I'm not one of those people) low because I dislike the team. I'm ranking it low (and TBH, it should be lower) because it's not that great of a stadium.

 

Oh, I'm sure it's fine if you're buying the ultra expensive seats with all of the perks. But I'm not doing that. I'm just a guy who brought his two kids to a game with his friend and his two kids on a random Saturday in July. We sat in the second tier behind home plate, which gave us a pretty good view of the game. A view that my kids were uninterested in in--to be fair they were pretty young. They ate hot dogs and cotton candy and a bunch of other crap and paid more attention their iPads then the game.

 

Am I going to spend $500 a ticket for three seats for that experience? No. Would I spend that much money for just myself? Also no. The cool part about baseball is that there is 162 games a year, 81 of which are home contests. Not every game matters and that's a selling point for me. I know in this NFLian sports world that we find ourselves in where EVERY GAME FUCKING MATTERS MORE THAN LIFE AND DEATH ITSELF!!!!! my thinking runs counter to what many sports fans believe.

 

With a game against the Royals in May being just a game against the Royals in May, not some cosmic, do or die quest to ground the Royals and everyone that they've ever met into dust--maybe it's not worth it to pay that much for such an expensive seat. All games don't matter.

 

The problem with Yankee Stadium II that I had/have is that it's too big, too imposing, too gargantuan. I get what the architects are trying to convey, that this is the home of the Yankees, they home of the most popular sports franchise on the planet, big things are going to happen here and they're all going to be legend. I understand the plan but, so far, it hasn't really turned out that way, has it?

 

The Yankees are good, but they've only won one title since they opened this place up. There are definitely some great players (Judge, Cole, etc) but are they on par with Ruth and Gehrig and DiMaggio and Mantle and Reggie and (ugh) Jeter? Maybe they will be, but right now, no.

 

It just seemed like the Yankees were like, design the biggest stadium that you can and we'll grow into it. Only it's been 15 years and the team still looks like it's wearing its Dad's suit.

 

Not only that but with the "moat" that separates the cheap(er) seats from the super expensive ones, Yankee Stadium II looks like an overgrown spring training park.

 

Other than that, it was an enjoyable take. The park was brand new and there were some really impressive stuff in the concourse. The food was good, the famous friezes were there and the Yankees lost to the Red Sox. All-in-all a good day at the park for this guy (everyone I went to the game with were either Yankee fans or completely indifferent).

 

Here's the box score of the game that I saw: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2016/B07160NYA2016.htm

 

Only one current HoFer was in either lineup: David Oritz, but some guys with chances to make Cooperstown showed up: Mookie Betts, Dustin Pedroia (long shot), Carlos Beltran and CC Sabathia pitched. He didn't have a great game, striking out two while giving up nine hits and five runs (four earned).

 

The Sox had Aaron Hill play third base and although this was seven years ago (2016 was a great year for me in seeing new parks) I had absolutely no memory of this guy. At all. They also ran out Bryce Brentz who I barely remember.

 

Getting old is a trip, dudes.

 

16.

 

 

We are 16 days away from The Real National Hot Dog Day and we're counting down the stadiums I've been to in order from worst to best.

 

We're in the Queen CIty as today's stadium is The Great American Ballpark (TGAB) in Cincinnati, OH home of the Cincinnati Reds.

 

The day I went to this game with my friend Ryan, had to be one of the warmest days I was ever at a ballpark. No one told me that Cincinnati would be so hot in June. But it was a hot one, like seven inches from the mid day sun. We were in the left field bleachers, in no shade with direct sun light on us and we were sweating and dying and kvetching.

 

But it was still a great day.

 

TGAB may not have the pedigree of its predecessors Crosley Field and Riverfront Stadium, but it's a terrific place to watch a game. Situated right on the Ohio River, it has the vistas and views that you want when you're watching a game. I mean, there's a legit river boat--the ones with a giant paddlewheel--right on the river. I think it's a casino, but it's still cool as hell.

 

TGAB really digs into that whole river life with two smoke stacks in right center field that go off when a Red hits a dinger. Not only that but there's a lot of Reds history to mine and TGAB does that. There are statues of great Reds all over the place, replicas (some giant) of past World Series trophies around the park, pictures and just a ton of memorabilia. The food is decent too and there are even giant statues of Mr. and Mrs. Red where you can grab a selfie if you want.

 

It's a fun ass park and I can't think of any real downside.

 

The only real reason why I have it so low on this totem pole is because Cincinnati is kind of boring. Ryan and I blew into town on a sunny Saturday from Detroit and we had to hustle to get to the afternoon game. Once the game was over, we wanted to wet our whistles a bit but it seemed like every restaurant and bar in the area was closed.

 

Even the SkyLine Chili joints were closed--and god help us--that was the thing we really wanted to try. I know people say its garbage on spaghetti, but I wanted to be the judge of that.

 

Cincinnati felt like Hartford or Phoenix, major cities in name but dead every where. We ended up finding a place to grab something to eat (I can't remember what it was, but it filled us up), we had a few beers and returned back to our hotel--which was right across the street from the fountain that was shown at the beginning of every episode of "WKRP in Cincinnati". That was cool as hell.

 

What we didn't find out until after we returned to Massachusetts was that all of the Cincinnati night life happens in Kentucky. I know that might seem like kinda far away if you don't know Cincinnati, but it's literally over the bridge of the Ohio River. The exact same Ohio River whose banks that the Great American Ballpark sits on!

 

Had I known that Kentucky--Kentucky??--was the place to be, mayhaps this ballpark would have ranked higher. If you're going to TGAB you'll have a terrific time at the park (especially with the team that the Reds have assembled) but if you're looking to whoop it up, get thee to Kentucky.

 

Here's the box score of the game that we saw: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2021/B06120CIN2021.htm

 

This was an absolutely unremarkable game, no one on either roster will ever sniff the Hall of Fame. This was one of those games where I was thinking to myself, "The Reds aren't too bad, the Rockies are a garbage fire. Maybe Wade Miley (the Reds' starter) might throw a no-hitter."

 

It didn't happen and I'm still searching for my first, in-person no-no. Will it happen? IDK. Maybe? I hope so. I'm not even asking for a perfect game, just a garden-variety no hitter.

 

15.

 

We are 15 days away from The Real National Hot Dog Day and we're counting down the stadiums I've been to in order from worst to best.

 

We're headed back to the ATL (I heard Atlantans don't like Hot-lanta very much, so I won't write it) as today's stadium is Truist Park in Atlanta, GA home of the Atlanta Braves.

 

We're not going to talk too much about stadia and where they're situated in a city and why. We discussed that in my entry on Turner Field and nothing much has changed. TL;DR owners aren't just satisfied with a lot of people coming into their parks and spending money. They want the white--er right (Freudian slip, I swear)--type of people, so they're moving to for whiter--damn, sorry I mean the greener pastures of the suburbs.

 

It sucks and it really fucks with the fabric of the game and it's hard to make new fans when you disenfranchise a large portion of your constituent's population. But you know, I'm sure trying to get every single dollar right now is not going to bite them in the ass later. The death spiral of capitalism continues unabated!

 

No. We're here today to talk about a really cool park called Truist Field. Yes, the Braves didn't have to move from Turner Field, but they did and the results are pretty good. Everything is brand new and it's a great marriage of the modern with little touches of the old school. Would I want this place in Boston? Yes I would. It's a lovely place to catch a game. And speaking of catch we sat in left field last year to watch a tilt between the Bravos and the Dodgers.

 

Around the fourth inning my wife, my brother-in-law and I got a bit antsy so we decided to walk around the park. Two minutes after we leave our seat former Red Sox financial flexibility casualty Mookie Betts dumped a ball a row or two from where we were sitting. I'm not saying that I would have got that ball, but there would have been more than a couple injured children and elderlies in Cobb County that night.

 

As we walked around the park, it was fascinating; it felt like I was in a museum. Tons of memorabilia, from statues to pictures to old uniforms spanning the time the Braves franchise was in Boston and Milwaukee and Atlanta. Like if you knew nothing about the Braves and spent two innings milling around the concourse, you'd be a Braves expert by the time you were done.

 

Fittingly there was a ton of stuff dedicated to the Hammer, Hank Aaron. There was a huge statue sitting on top of an indoor waterfall that was impressive as hell. Larger than life images of him displayed everywhere. If Yankee Stadium I was the House that Ruth Built, Truist is the House that Aaron Owns. 

 

Such a brilliant tribute to a great, great man.

 

This got me thinking a little bit. When it comes to our ball parks and stadiums here in America, what do we expect? Do we want, what is essentially, a museum built around the field? Do we want a place that is haunted by the ghosts of the past, even though there are heroes on the field, not more than 100 feet from the place you're walking around? In entertainment that is literally all about THE NOW, why do we need to be awash in nostalgia and the past? Who does it serve?

 

A few years ago I went to see FC Barcelona play at fabled Camp Nou. Barcelona is one of the most famous football clubs in the world and they play in a stadium that reminded me of RFK. The pitch was beautiful, Augusta National would be lucky to have such manicured grass, but the stadium itself was fine. You could even call it a bit run down.

 

There were no frills. Nothing to eat except sausages and chips. No drinks except water, Coke and Diet Coke. No souvenir stands. No museums. The scoreboard was small and it just showed the game. It didn't beg people to clap or kiss or buy a ticket for the 50/50 raffle. Messi didn't ask fans to be a Barcelona Booster.

 

It was just the game. And people were into it because there wasn't a million distractions. It was an awesome experience due to the entire crowd all watching the same action at the same time. Praying for crosses to be met with hard strikes. Dying with every opponent's march down the field. Jubilation and awe when Messi and Suarez scored to put the home team up by one.

 

I'll never forget it. And if I acted in Atlanta the way I did in Spain, maybe I'd have a Mookie Betts home run ball in possession.

 

Could that work in the US? I think so. But is it advantageous for a club to do that, remove the distractions, remind the people that you are at the stadium for one thing: a ball game. I'm not sure. We're so used to going to a game and having it be an EXPERIENCE. I talked about this when I wrote about Yankee Stadium II, MLB (and all leagues really) are desperately trying to NFLize their games--EVERY GAME MATTERS! But it doesn't, so you have to entertain the masses other ways.

 

Distraction works.

 

I'm going to talk a little more about The Battery (the area surrounding Truist Park) when I talk about Fenway Park. The long short of it is: it's cool. Good restaurants, fun little shops, tons of bars. It's a quality hang. But at the same time, it's a little insidious (might be a strong word) but I'll get into that later.

Here's the box score of the game that I went to: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2023/B05240ATL2023.htm 

 

Obviously no current Hall of Famers, but maybe some future ones? Mookie (of course), Freddie Freeman, Ronald Acuna, maybe JD Martinez (probably not). Atlanta won it in the ninth and we all went home happy--not me, because I like the Dodgers, but most people did, I suppose.

14.

 

 

We are 14 days away from The Real National Hot Dog Day and we're counting down the stadiums I've been to in order from worst to best.

 

We're on our way back to the city so nice they named it twice as today's stadium is Citi Field in New York, NY home of the New York Mets.

 

For a team that was put together as an amalgam of the two beloved teams that left the city four years prior, it makes sense for the Mets to play in Citi Field. As everyone knows Giants and the Dodgers both left Gotham to play in the west coast in 1958 and the National League didn't come back until 1962.

 

When the Mets first started they played in the Giants' old park, the Polo Grounds and their uniforms were a combination of the Yankees (the pin stripes), the Giants (the orange) and the Dodgers (the blue). The Mets' history was really the city's baseball history. So it's not surprising that Citi Field is reminiscent of the Dodgers' Ebbets Field.

 

Former Mets owner Fred Wilpon was a huge Dodgers fan and said that while Citi Field isn't a copy of Ebbets, it certainly is an homage to the old park. I never went to Ebbets, so I'll have to take Wilpon's word for it and from every picture or movie I've seen of the old park it looks awesome, but I think that an opportunity was missed here.

 

Why would you constantly want to be in the shadow of two teams that left the city 70 years ago, not to mention the 800 pound gorilla that lives in the next borough? When Citi Field opened, the Mets should have taken that opportunity to do some thing really wild, something unpredictable, something that would separate the Mets from the ghosts of the past.

 

But they decided to play it safe and stick with nostalgia and build a park that honors another team's legacy. For everything that they did, the Dodgers are an important team in the annals of baseball history, but you know, they're still around. The Mets have their own history and should have either leaned into that more or stated something new.

 

That's not to say that Citi Field is a dump or a bad stadium, it's not. When Ryan and I went a few years ago, we had a terrific time. It's not located in the most fan-friendly neighborhood but the park itself is pretty awesome.

 

The rotunda, which does copy the Ebbets Field rotunda almost exactly, is massive and awe inspiring. It's one of the coolest parts of the park, I can see why Wilbon felt that it was important to replicate it. We sat on the third base side and the sight lines were terrific, we felt close enough to the action and just had a legitimate blast there. They also had the apple that pops up when the Mets hit a homer. Who doesn't enjoy that?

 

I'd love for a modern park with nods to the past to be built here in Boston. But for the Mets, I don't know, they've always been the little brother and any time they pull up their pants and try to play with the older kids, they usually get embarrassed--except for 1969 and 1986. Perhaps playing in a stadium that longs for the Dodgers to return to the city of their birth isn't the best vibe to be pedaling 81 games a year. It's like subliminally reminding everyone that, "we love you guys, but we'd trade your asses for the Dodgers (or Giants) in a second."

 

Here's the box score of the game we saw that day: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2022/B08062NYN2022.htm

 

No official Hall of Famers but Max Scherzer pitched and dominated the Braves, striking out 11 and allowing four hits over seven. For the Braves Max Fried wasn't as good (in the battle of Maxes he was the minimum--HO, HO, HO, HO!) and Ronald Acuna had a hit. 

 

Fun game, the home crowd left happy and we had a good time in Queens.