There is a Red Sox shirt at new Yankee Stadium

April 11th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanR

We’ve mentioned it before: superstitions are silly. But Chicago, and namely the Cubs, are chalk full of them. Bartman, the billy goat, you know the deal by now. Stupid. Silly. A waste of time. The Windy City isn’t the only place where sports and the um, supernatural (?) come into play. Curse of the Bambino anyone? Or how about a Red Sox shirt buried in the concrete at new Yankee Stadium?

Via the New York Post:

In August, a Red Sox T-shirt was poured in a slab in the visitor’s clubhouse. It’s the curse of the Yankees,” one worker said. “Nobody knows about it. It’s in the floors, it’s buried.”

The workers say they now fear that they unwittingly helped hex their beloved Bronx Bombers.

“I don’t want to be responsible for sinking the franchise,” said a second worker, who witnessed the sabotage. “I respect the stadium.”

The Post has withheld their identities because they are not authorized to speak to media.

This latest hex is above and beyond any typical ritual - like wearing a lucky shirt or hat - that fans typically do to boost their luck.

“It sounds a little unprecedented to me,” said Tim Wiles, director of research at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown.

“I guess if the Yankees go 86 years in the new ballpark without a win we’ll know if we are on to something,” he said, referring to Boston’s previous infamous losing streak after they sold Babe Ruth.

While this is undeniably a good gag, a commenter over at Foul Balls today claims it’s not possible to pull off a stunt like it. Oh, who to believe in a time of such peril? I’m sticking with the construction guys. Have you seen new Yankee Stadium? Pretty outstanding.

115,000 Dodger fans just as blue as you’d think

March 31st, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

Dodger Thoughts (great Dodgers blog, btw) has this pretty incredible photo from the from the Dodgers-Red Sox game in the L.A. Coliseum Saturday. It’s hard to imagine the Chicago version of this — maybe 70,000 people crammed into Soldier Field for Sox-Cubs — but even that would fall short of this Coliseum game. That’s just … beautiful.

Thank God baseball is back.

Shock: Jonathan Papelbon doesn’t read books

March 20th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

Remember in high school, when, on the first day, a teacher would do those ice-breaker exercises, even if you went to a school with 480 kids and everyone knew everyone (intimately) anyway? And inevitably, you’d have to name something interesting you did over the summer, and the best book you read? The really proud-to-be-smart nerds would drop Faulkner or Hemingway. The eager dummies would say The Da Vinci Code. And, without fail, a jock or two would proudly blurt “ESPN the Magazine.” Everyone would laugh, the teacher would get pissed, and the jock would look around and be like, “Yo, what? I don’t read books, teach!” And the kid currently composing this way-too-long paragraph would have such hazy memories of high school he could only recall people according to the nonexistent cliques in his brain? Remember that?

Well guess what: Jonathan Papelbon is that jock:

The approximately 19-hour trip to Japan that the Red Sox embarked upon last night was going to feature an array of time-killing devices but the No. 1 diversionary tactic is going to be poker, the Texas Hold ’Em variety.

“I’m going to play the whole trip,” closer Jonathan Papelbon said. “My plan is to slow play the (expletive) out of them and take all their money.”

He had no other plans. Reading is out.

“I don’t read books,” he said.

Willful ignorance usually makes E an angry boy, but I don’t even mind this. It’s widely known that Papelbon is a big dumb goof anyway — just look at that picture, for god’s sake — so what, we expect him to whittle his 19-hour flight down by diving into Pynchon? Please. There’s enough room in this world for another dumbass. As long as he has that unhittable splitter, anyway.

Plus, books are ruining baseball. Or was that computers? I can never get the two straight. Ah, that’s right: books written by computers are ruining baseball. Fixed.

Curt Schilling has a better, blowhardier way

March 6th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

Curt Schilling has made no secret of his affection for video games. One of the most entertaining things I’ve ever posted at FanHouse — besides this photo of Ryan Braun fielding pop flies — was the story that revealed Schilling as Scythehands Voxslayer, Everquest junkie. Even in a jock-ridden, macho culture like baseball, it’s kind of cool that Schilling is so proudly nerdy. Because if one thing bloggers like about their athletes, it’s everymanishness. (Not Brett Farve everymanishness, though. Especially not from Plaschke.)

After he finishes collecting free money from the Red Sox this year, Schilling’s next adventure is his video game company, 38 Studios. In an interview with Venture Beat, Schilling talked about why his company will be different from EA Sports (hint: they won’t force you to work 70 hours a week) and revealed the inner blowhard he can repress for only so long:

Q: What is your World of Warcraft character?
A: A 70 Hunter and a 68 Shaman.Q: How many hours of playing have you put into it?
A: I will not publicly admit that.

[…]

Q: So it’s not out until 2010?
A: It will be interesting after this season is over and it becomes a full-year thing. I think the hard stuff of getting it up and running is done. There is a leadership aspect. We have a Monday morning all hands every week for 15 minutes. We say where we are at and boom, let’s go. Don’t come in at 9 and then get charged up by noon. Let’s go. Remember, I stitched up my frigging ankle and kept playing. So let’s go.

The lessons: If you want to have a 70 Hunter and a 68 Shaman in the World … of Warcraft, you’ve got to be tough like Baseball Legend Curt Schilling. You can’t just walk into any old game like Bioshock and start hunting Big Daddies without dedication. You can’t waltz onto XBOX Live and expect to be a 35 Halo 3 player. It takes work! You’ve got to stitch up those thumbs and dab some fake blood on them so people really know you’re giving it everything you’ve got. That’s the only way, junior.

Slumpbusters everywhere, rejoice

January 3rd, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

Kevin Youkilis is a baseball player. He has a beard, OK? And it’s not just any beard — it’s the beard of baseball player who chews tobacco and waves his bat at the plate with the force of ten thousand Spartans. Actually, come to think of it, that beard looks more like a meth head’s beard after many years of combing and meth. He looks like a Hell’s Angel that decided that doing meth was more fun than breaking hippie skulls. Kevin Youkilis looks weird.

Anyway, what was I saying? I’ve got meth on the brain! Ha .. ha ha … ahem. Right, Kevin Youkilis. He looks weird, right? Did I already say that? I did? When?

Anyway, what was I saying? Oh, Kevin Youkilis. Looks weird. Right. And has a sport. He’s starting a drink. A drink company. Here, just read this:

Corona, CA - January 2, 2008 - Red Sox Gold Glove first baseman Kevin Youkilis has teamed up with California based MBSB Holdings, LLC to produce a new energy drink geared towards sports fans and athletes. SlumpBuster, a term widely recognized by athletes and fans, will be launched in the 1st quarter of ‘08 with hopes of being the official energy drink of locker rooms and stadium concession stands worldwide.

Under the terms of the partnership, Youkilis will serve as lead spokesperson for the product . In addition, MBSB is currently working with Youk in developing “Youk’s Signature” SlumpBuster. The special edition can will be rolled out in the Northeast and Midwest., with a portion of the proceeds from “Youk’s Signature” being donated to Kevin Youkilis Hits for Kids, Kevin’s charity.

Get involved and be the first in your area to “Take Down a SlumpBuster”.

Ugly women of the world, rejoice! Instead of just being degraded in back bar conversations and locker rooms, you can now be degraded — by a dude with a meth beard, no less! — in the aisles of every supermarket in the greater Massachusetts area! And people say feminism is dead.

{HT: Red Sox Monster}

The Rockies ran out of star power

October 31st, 2007 | Posted by PostmanR

I have never seen a more clear visual representation of a team getting hot only to get swept when it matters most. This is brilliant. And Mario is in it. Rawk.

{HT: RSM.}

How to punish the youth of Red Sox Nation

October 23rd, 2007 | Posted by PostmanR

As the Red Sox get more and more used to October triumph instead of soul-crushing and horrible failure, the Boston police task force is all the more on it. Apparently, things got a bit of control around Fenway Park back in 2004 and the team and Boston’s cops aren’t looking for that to happen again. So, what did they do with seven teenagers who were arrested for disorderly conduct after Boston’s Game 7 win Sunday night? They made them write essays. (Via Fark.)

Seventeen teenagers, most of them college students, were arraigned in front of Judge Edward Redd on disorderly conduct charges after they allegedly refused to obey orders from Boston police officers. Police wanted to clear the crowd to avoid a repeat of the melee that broke out after the Red Sox clinched the ALCS title in 2004, a tragedy that left 21-year-old Emerson College student Victoria Snelgrove dead, accidentally killed by a pepper pellet fired by a cop.

Seven of yesterday’s suspects were ordered by Redd to write a “five-page essay detailing what they have each learned from the experience of getting arrested and that they provide the court with written verification that their parents are aware that they have been arrested and charged in connection with this incident,” said Suffolk District Attorney’s Office spokesman Jake Wark.

Redd also ordered that they stay away from Fenway Park for the duration of the World Series and told them their parents had to sign the essays for his approval at their next court date in November.

OK, if some of these kids are in college, is making them write an essay really the best course of action here? I mean, after all, I’m sure they are in the thick of it with their classwork now and probably just polished off their mid-term papers on industrial socialism (did I just make that up?) or something. And five pages? I hope they get to double space this sucker and use 20 point font, because really, what did they learn here?

Sorry officer, we won’t cheer for our team after a game anymore. Really, it was terrible judgment. For this, we are sorry.

Young Theo was a stud

September 13th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanR

It’s not often men of such genius and pure good looks are laid before us in a more mortal state, but thanks to Surviving Grady, here is Red Sox GM Theo Epstein in third grade.

Funny, he looks like your neighborhood emo kid; except, you know, he’s not actually trying so hard to be different and rebellious.

Stay classy, New York

May 13th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanE

While searching for more Red Sox footage like this, I came across this genius Youtube footage of a stranded Red Sox fan waddling his way through Yankee Stadium … and the subsequent abuse he receives as a result for his outlying team loyalties.

This is yet more proof that New York fans, well, they’re everything you’ve heard and more. There’s plenty more where this came from, I’m sure.

Manny Ramirez and Julian Tavarez got rather cuddly

May 8th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanR

Here’s Manny Ramirez giving Julian Tavarez a nice little massage on the top of his dome. Cute, really.

These NESN Red Sox announcers sound like a good duo. If you remember, they also had quite a hilarious take on the whole pizza-throwing incident at Fenway earlier this year. I wish I had the opportunity to hear them more often, or that they announced for the White Sox instead of these oftentimes aloof fellows I’m subjected to on a regular basis.

(Via Sox and Dogs, Ballhype and FanHouse. Oh, and if you’re looking for more words penned by PostmanR today, head over to the FanHouse for this, this, this and this. I could get used to this blogging thing, I tell ya.)