Growing up in the 70's and 80's, Jim was always my favorite Red Sox and now he will properly join other before him in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Rice led the AL in home runs three times (1977, 1978, 1983), in RBI twice (1978, 1983), in slugging average twice (1977, 1978), and in total bases four times (1977-1979, 1983). He also picked up Silver Slugger awards in 1983 and 1984 (the award was created in 1980). Rice hit at least 39 home runs in a season four times, had eight 100-RBI seasons and four seasons with 200+ hits, and batted over .300 seven times. He finished his 16-year career with a .298 batting average, 382 home runs, 1,451 RBIs, 1,249 runs scored, 2,452 hits, and 4,129 total bases. He was an American League All-Star eight times (1977-1980, 1983-1986). In addition to winning the American League MVP award in 1978, he finished in the top five in MVP voting five other times (1975, 1977, 1979, 1983, 1986).
I [now] know that Rice was not a media guy when he was playing and that certainly didn't help get him elected by baseball writers but now after much time has passed and we have witnessed how artifical the steriod-ear stastistcs are, Jim [and his number 14 jersey] are home.
Chelsea City Council front man Bart Steele is suing because he claims Bon Jovi's song I Love This Town infringes on his copy written song (Man I Really) Love This Team. Steele's song, which is an ode to the Boston Red Sox written in 2004, contains the flowing lyrics:
Now, get up off your seats, Everybody scream, Man I really love this team
Steele claims that Jon Bon Jovi had to have heard his song while campaigning in Boston for John Kerry in 2004. Ok. While on the other hand, Bon Jovi's song has this line:
That's why I, love this town
Named in the 400 billion dollar lawsuit are Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. and Time Warner Corporation. Other defendants include Jon Bongiovi, Richard Sambora, William Falcone, The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, Fox Television Networks, Major League Baseball & MLB Productions, A&E/AETV, Bon Jovi, AEG Live, Mark Shimmel Music, Vector Management, Island Records & Island Def Jam Records, Aggressive Music & Sony ATV Tunes, Bon Jovi Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, Universal Polygram, Pretty Blue Songs, and The Bigger Picture Cinema Co, as well as the owners of every ballpark that the ad at issue was played in, and all of Time Warner's Networks that played the ad in more than 74 countries around the world promoting defendants MLB and Bon Jovi. I guess when your going swing for the fences, you should really swing for the fences.
Back in august, Steele has "restated" his issue and now it is not a stolen lyric but rather that MLB and TBS stolen the idea of his song and used his lyrics to create this promotion:
I can see some of his logic but I'm not sure I can make the leap from his song and his reported shopping of it to the Red Sox and MLB to Bon Jovi recording a song that happens to get used for playoff baseball. I suppose, like most larege scare lawsuits, scatter the blame around enough and some of the companies will pay him, I mean settle this matter out of court.
Recently there has been grumblings about the Pink Hat in and around fenway. Some die hard "fans" believe you should only wear the true colors of the team [for the Sox that's Red, White and Blue] and not hats or shirts made from colors which are not on the team pallet. I guess I'm going to have to return my Black Throw Back Patriots Hat because it is not the current team logo or my Kelly Green St. Patrick's Day Dustin Pedroia Jersey because it is not an official color of the team.
[I won't even mention how the San Diego Padres wear camouflage uniforms on Memorial Day or how the New York Yankees played a game against the Virgina Tech team this spring or how mlb teams go pink on Mother's Day]
For me, I'm going to trade in my Silver and Red cars for two black ones, after all Henry Ford only made black Model T's back in the day any why would we want a world with selection, stlye, personality or choice?
227 immigrants raised their right hand today and took the Oath of Citizenship at the John F. Kennedy Library in Dorchester. One man literally stood out among them - Boston Red Sox, and former Dominican Republic native, star designated hitter David Ortiz is now an American Citizen.
Manny steps to the plate in to the top of the 7th to face submariner Chad Bradford. On Chad's first pitch to #24, well just take a look below:
Manny Ramirez becomes just the 24th player to hit 500 home runs and he joins a list of players that includes the likes of Reggie Jackson, Mickey Mantle, and Ted Williams. If he can hit 100 more he will probably become just the 8th player to accomplish that feat.
For anyone who wants to revisit every single home run for Manny, The Boston Globe has put together a nice interactive site for this very purpose. Sorry Jamie Moyer, I now know you have given up the most to Manny - 10 - in his career.
Another day, another Boston sports figure rises up and give the local sports fan a real treat. Last night Jon Lester threw his first career Major League no-hitter, and the 18th in Red Sox history, in a 7-0 win against the Kansas City Royals.
The 130-pitch game was also Lester's first complete game in the major leagues. It was the first no-hitter thrown by a Red Sox left-handed pitcher since Mel Parnell in 1956. This was the first no-hitter in MLB since Clay Buchholz's, fellow Red Sox, September 2007 no-no and the game was caught by Jason Varitek, who now has a MLB-record fourth no-hitter catching.
Congratulations Jon on beating cancer, winning game 4 of the world series and now joining a very special group of pitchers with your first [and hopefully not your last] no-hitter.
Today marks opening day for your Boston Red Sox where Curt Schilling gets the call to lead the hometown heroes into the 2007 season. [We will have to wait until April 10th for the Sox home opening day game against the Seattle Mariners where, ironically, Schill should get the start again.]
This week we will also get our first Dice-K start of the year and this is probably the most anticipated game of this April for Sox Nation. Will he be the start we all hope he will be? In 3 days we will get our first look.
With a rotation that also includes Josh Beckett, Tim Wakefeild - not to mention Jon Lester and Matt Clement who on injured reserve - and Jonathan Papelbon closing dare I say "This could be the year - again"? Go Sox!
It's actually his neighbor's and it was listed on ebay but unfortunately it looks like it is no longer availalbe. I think it was taken down because the the last bid [210th] was set at $99,999,999.00, which of course was a joke [maybe by a Red Sox teammate? or even better a Yankee player, wouldn't that be funny]. If you really want the grill, I guess you could just offer Manny $100 Million and it's yours.
Even though he said running for the Senate was not on his 2008 agenda, could you imagine what an interesting race it would be between Curt Schilling and John Kerry? I can't imagine any of those members of Sox Nation voting against the guy who gave us all he had [and one now famous bloody sox, I mean sock] and brought a world series championship back to Boston after an 86 year drought and one wicked long curse. WRKO-AM was the first to discuss the idea of Schilling going political and it was further fueled by an article in today's Boston Herald. Both have polls asking the people if he is someone you would vote for. Right now he has a 96% to 4% margin over Kerry in the WRKO poll while the Herald pool shows him as nearly 30 points ahead of other possible candidates for the job. And what does the man himself say about this grassroots support he is getting:
“I couldn’t rule it out because it’s not something I ever thought about in a serious capacity.”
“I envision that I will probably be pretty busy in 2008, But I’m flattered as hell to even make this phone call.”
“While I am a registered voter, I have too many problems with the political scene, and I don’t think I’d fit into it”
His first task would be to “fire everybody and anybody who had anything to do with the Big Dig."
While I'm no political analyst, I would say those are the comments from a man who understands how to speak to the public and could very well have his eyes on Washington DC someday. Maybe just not in 2008. In the meantime, Big Schill will be quite busy over the next year working on his second World Series ring with the Red Sox, running his charitable foundation for ALS research - Curt's Pitch for ALS - and heading up his new video game business, Green Monster Games. Good luck with all 3 Curt!
Growing up in the 70's and 80's, Jim was always my favorite Red Sox and now he will properly join other before him in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Rice led the AL in home runs three times (1977, 1978, 1983), in RBI twice (1978, 1983), in slugging average twice (1977, 1978), and in total bases four times (1977-1979, 1983). He also picked up Silver Slugger awards in 1983 and 1984 (the award was created in 1980). Rice hit at least 39 home runs in a season four times, had eight 100-RBI seasons and four seasons with 200+ hits, and batted over .300 seven times. He finished his 16-year career with a .298 batting average, 382 home runs, 1,451 RBIs, 1,249 runs scored, 2,452 hits, and 4,129 total bases. He was an American League All-Star eight times (1977-1980, 1983-1986). In addition to winning the American League MVP award in 1978, he finished in the top five in MVP voting five other times (1975, 1977, 1979, 1983, 1986).
Recently there has been grumblings about the Pink Hat in and around fenway. Some die hard "fans" believe you should only wear the true colors of the team [for the Sox that's Red, White and Blue] and not hats or shirts made from colors which are not on the team pallet. I guess I'm going to have to return my Black Throw Back 
