Happy 38th Birthday Mike Lowell!

Tomorrow, February 24, is Mike Lowell's birthday and although he has been out of baseball for over a year, I refuse to stop celebrating what should be a national holiday. Why do I love Mikey so much?  His story can warm the heart of even the most cold-blooded Yankees fan. He is a cancer survivor who hit rock bottom with the Marlins, rebounded in Boston, became a World Series MVP and won over the hearts of baseball’s most critical fans. Not to mention he is just a stand up guy. After the 2007 season, in which he won the World Series MVP award, he took less money to stay, and eventually finish his career, with the Red Sox. And let's not forget that he was a leader and positive influence in the clubhouse.  I mean, look what happened to the Red Sox the season after he left (I really need to stop bringing this up). I could go on, but I’d rather let Mike do the talking (and dancing). So feel free to take off work, sit back, relax and watch Mike Lowell at his best.

Let’s start with a recent video:  Mike Lowell was looking good on Dan LeBatard is Highly Questionable about a month ago and although I find Dan LeBatard slightly annoying, his father is hilarious and Mike Lowell makes anything worth watching. 

He is bilingual (his parents are Cuban and he was born in Puerto Rico)

He can dance!

Plus: Matt Damon’s nephews think Mike Lowell is George Clooney 

Please, George Clooney wishes...

Humor(dor) the Skeptics, Bring in a Third Party

I have to apologize for the amount of time that has passed since my last post.  I went on vacation, I have been looking for a job, and quite frankly, I did not have that much to talk about.  Things were pretty uneventful in the world of Major League Baseball and everything was running smoothly.  However, while watching both the Red Sox vs Yankees and Giants vs Rockies on Friday night, two incidents occurred that gave me incentive to start blogging again. 

I will start with the near heart attack I suffered as Mike Lowell got hit in the face, and subsequently hit the dirt, while trying to field a ground ball that took a terrible hop.  The baseball gods need to give Lowell a break. The poor guy fought to get playing time the entire first half of the season, is only playing now because half the Red Sox starting lineup is on the DL, is retiring at the end of the year and is playing the last few games of his career.  Now he is sitting on the bench indefinitely along with the rest of the 2010 Red Sox, but hopefully he will be back in the starting lineup tonight or tomorrow.  Mike Lowell brings a lot to the table for the Red Sox.  He is definitely a better than average hitter and although his range in the field is not what it used to be, he gets the job done at first base.  The Red Sox need him right now.  Although it is unlikely that the Sox will be making the playoffs this year, they are not yet mathematically eliminated from securing the Wild Card, and I'm an optimist.  If this series with the Yankees is any indication, there is a slight pulse in the injury-ridden body that is the 2010 Boston Red Sox.  As the great (Yankee) catcher Yogi Berra once said, "It ain't over till its over."

Moving on.  All season there has been an interesting rumor circulating throughout the Major Leagues concerning the Colorado Rockies.  A rumor started by Giant's broadcaster Jon Miller in this interview: http://www.knbr.com/portals/3/podcasts/murphmac/0708jonmiller.MP3.  Due to the high altitude and thin, dry air in Denver, baseballs dry up and shrink, allowing them to travel greater distances, which in turn increases the home run frequency at the Rockies' home park, Coors Field.  To combat this, the Rockies began storing baseballs in a humidor in 2002 to moisten them up and weigh them down.  According to USA Today, the number of home runs and runs scored at Coors Field has greatly decreased since the beginning of the humidor era.  However, a rumor that the Rockies are using non-humidor balls in opportune moments is now being disseminated by many in baseball, including the San Francisco Giants.  The rumor states that the Rockies will mix non-humidor or "juiced" baseballs in with the mandated humidor balls and then use those "juiced" baseballs when they need to score runs in the later innings of a game.  At first I thought the rumor to be completely ridiculous, but I did some research nonetheless.  While I do not believe this rumor to be 100% true, this is what I have discovered: There is no third party responsible for putting all the baseball's in the humidor and then making sure only those baseballs are used in the game.  It is up to the Rockies organization to be honest and only use humidor balls, meaning it is only too easy for them to cheat.  Furthermore, according to the Rockies official web site, the team has hit 167 home runs this season and 103 of them have been hit at Coors Field.  While home field advantage could be one explanation for why the Rockies have hit 103 home runs at home and only 64 on the road, hitting almost twice as many home runs at home is quite an advantage.
What really makes this rumor worth talking about after an entire season is Friday night's Giants vs. Rockies game, which took place at Coors Field.  Tim Lincecum was pitching a perfect game into the 6th inning, when he gave up a bloop double to Seth Smith.  The Rockies knew that this lead-off double was probably going to be their one scoring opportunity, and according to the Giants, the Rockies attempted to score that run from second by giving Lincecum a "juiced" ball.  When Lincecum was thrown the new ball, he could tell something was wrong with it right away.  Take a look at this video where he throws the new ball back to the umpire and makes a comment about juiced baseballs.  Unfortunately I cannot embed the video, but you can check it out at this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StY_mGM-lU4

Lincecum is one of the most laid back guys in the game.  I have watched almost every single game he has ever pitched and, even on bad days, I have never seen him get visibly angry.  This is what convinced me, not that the Rockies are definitely cheating, but that Major League Baseball has to do something.  According to sportingnews.com, MLB umpires will be keeping a close eye on the all the balls that come in and out of the humidor, but is this solution enough?  To really eliminate the doubts people are having about the Rockies, a third party needs to take over the task of placing balls in the humidor and giving them to the umpires.  Until the Rockies have no control over the balls being used in their home park, speculation about whether or not they are cheating will continue.

Mike Lowell's Home Run and A-Rod's Lack Thereof

Hi, I'm the Baseball Girl, or Lori as some people like to call me.  Tonight, as I was watching the Red Sox / Indians game and yelling at my TV, I realized I have no one to talk to and no outlet to express my frustration, jubilation or any of the other myriad feelings I encounter on a daily basis while watching baseball.  So, I decided to start a blog.  Let's see what happens...

The subjects of this blog entry are Mike Lowell and Alex Rodriguez.  First, Mike Lowell made his return to the Red Sox lineup today, which made me a very happy camper.  Lowell is my favorite player in all of Major League Baseball (with Tim Lincecum a close second), if not for his playing ability, for his great personality and sportsmanship.  An injury to Kevin Youkilis, as well as injuries to the Sox entire Major League starting lineup (who are they, the 2009 Mets?), left Terry Francona with no choice but to start Lowell at first base only 2 days after Lowell's future with the Red Sox organization seemed unlikely (again).  As Mike approached home plate for his first at bat, the crowd gave him a standing ovation and what did Mikey do?  He hit the first pitch he saw over the Green Monster for a home run. 
This is what frustrates me.  Why is Lowell constantly on the chopping block?  Yes, I understand he has been injured and cannot really be an every day player, but he is still an above average hitter and not too bad in the field, so platoon him.  The Red Sox have so many injuries that they need someone like Lowell right now, and yet, they are still trying to get rid of him.  Hopefully that changed tonight.  He not only drove in what would turn out to be the game winning RBI, but he made some great defensive plays at first base.  Theo Epstein needs to keep this guy.  This is the last season of his contract and he already said he will most likely retire this year, so just let him play where he loves to play and where the fans clearly love to watch him play. 

Also, speaking of Epstein...really Theo?  Jarrod Saltalamacchia is the best you could do at the trade deadline?  The Red Sox needed a bullpen pitcher, not an injury plagued catcher...the team already has enough of those.  But I digress...

On to Alex Rodriguez.  He hit home run number 599 twelve days ago and now holds the record for the most time between home runs 599 and 600 (although the fact that he is even qualified to hold that record is impressive as only 6 other players in baseball history have hit more than 600 home runs).  So you know what I say?  Leave A-Rod alone.  Stop with this whole "Road to 600" BS and just let the guy play baseball.  Switching out balls before his at-bats and bringing up home run 599 over and over again is just distracting, not only for A-Rod, but for the entire Yankee team.  Now I am no Yankee fan, but I do like A-Rod and I have liked him since his days with Seattle.  I even have a theory about him that involves Star Wars, Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker, redemption, Scott Boras, and the Evil Emperor, but that's for another blog entry.  The point is, we have to let the guy play baseball.  He will eventually hit home run number 600.  Whether he does it tomorrow, 20 days from now or Sunday night when I am at the Yankees / Red Sox game (hint, hint...A-Rod, if you're reading this, hit it Sunday) he will hit number 600, so everyone should just back off. 

Last, but not least, I was reading Bill Simmons' article on ESPN.com's Page 2 today and he was explaining why the New England Sports Network's (NESN) ratings for Red Sox games have gone down this season.  One reason he gave was the large number of injured Red Sox, which goes without saying.  Unless you are a really die-hard fan, you are not going to watch a bunch of minor leaguers lose to the Kansas City Royals when you could be watching some other fabulous TV show like, oh, I don't know, America's Got Talent (that was sarcasm by the way.  I feel like I need to explain sarcasm for a while, until we get to know each other better).  Two other reasons Simmons listed for the decline were:

1) games have grown way too long over the past few years (almost every game is over 3 hours)
and 2) you never see a good old-fashioned fight anymore. 

Well, I think Simmon's should list the reasons why there is world hunger, violence in the Middle East, and global warming, because tonight, the night after I read his column, the Red Sox won a game in under 3 hours (it was 2:31 or so) and had a benches clearing brawl...so exciting! 

Until next time,

The Baseball Girl