Editorial

Connelly’s Top Ten – All Star Break is here!

Published

3 days ago

July 16, 2018

Michael Connelly

Connelly’s Top Ten – All Star Break is here!

1.Red Sox

* Sox on pace for 112 wins
* All Star game the halfway point – I don’t think so - season is 61% over
* Red Sox are 12-2 in July
* 12 pitchers used Sunday
* Newly acquired Steve Pierce hit a home run in his first Fenway at bat – reminded me of Rob Deer who came over from Milwaukee and hit a HR in his first at bat and went 3 for 6 on August 22, 1993.
* The grand slam by Mookie Betts will be shown for the rest of his life – retirement, hall of fame, death….

2. World Cup

* Croatia dominates game and loses 4-2: attempts 15 to 8 / Corners 6 to 2 / Passing attempted 548 to 269 / 61% possession
* Not good for the sport of soccer when the first goal (that changes the complexion of the game) is a free kick because a player dived (use replay in all sports as much as possible but make it fast)
* France gets $38mm / Croatia $28mm / Belgium $24mm / England $22mm
* Got to hand it to Russia a problem free World Cup (granted anyone who misbehaved is now laying train tracks in Siberia)
* 4-2 score if you have had the over – you win

3. Around Baseball

* Pablo Sandoval has hit 8 home runs in San Fran on the Red Sox dime ($18mm for Red Sox $500,000 for Giants) – he hit 14 in three seasons with Sox. By the way you have to pay him $18mm next year as well.
* Madison Bumgarner was the best starter in baseball going 51-28 with an ERA under 2.90 from 2014 to 2016 – after suffering a dirt bike accident he has gone 7-12 with a 3.20 ERA
* Houston Astro Alex Bregman has hit 20 home runs before the All Star game – he hit 21 in his entire college career at LSU – things that make me go hmmm.

4. Dodger second baseman Chase Utley announced retirement at the end of the year – people are asking if he’s a hall of famer –how does he compare to Dustin Pedroia:

Utley – 1,882 hits / .276 average / 259 HR / 6 All Stars
Pedroia-1,803 hits / .300 average / 140 HR / 4 All Stars / 4 Gold Gloves / MVP and Rookie of the Year

5. Position ranks – Who would you like as your color analyst (at their best)

* Dennis Eckersley
* Derek Sanderson
* Gino
* Bob Cousy
* Ken Harrelson
* Jerry Remy when with Sean McDonough
* John Pierson
* Johnny Pesky

6. With what Javier Baez is doing in Chicago – I put him up there with one of the most electric infielders ever - What other infielders would have magical videos:

* Ozzie Smith
* Gary Templeton
* Omar Vizquel
* Brooks Robinson
* Roberto Alomar
* Alex Gonzalez

7. Old School – In a 1946 baseball game between Brookline High School and Arlington High School.

* Brookline pitcher Hal Moffie – first game he ever pitched
* Moffie faced 50 batters
* Walked 20 / Struck out 10
* Arlington won 9-8
* Baseball coach was Brookline hall of famer – Tom Fitzgerald
* If you assume that each walk is 5.5 pitches and each strike out is 4.5 pitches and every other at bat is 3 pitches – then Moffie threw 215 pitches

8. Amazing Stat – Red Sox best two pitchers over the last 30 years Pedro and Sale. Below career win and losses (%) by month – Pedro first column Chris Sale second

Month…Pedro………..Sale
April….35-8 (.813)……19-7 (.730)
May…..43-12 (.781)…22-4 (.846)
June…..35-20 (.636)…19-12 (.612)
July…..36-12 (.750)….16-10 (.615)
Aug…..39-20 (.661)….14-13 (.518)
Sept…..31-28 (.525)….11-16 (.407)

9. Just a Little Bit Outside – Most visited national parks (National Geographic)

1. Great Smokey Mountains…..11,000,000
2. Grand Canyon………………7,200,000
3. Zion………………………..4,500,000
4. Rocky Mountains………….4,200,000
5. Yosemite…………………..4,000,000

10. Randomocity

* Isaiah Thomas goes from potentially making $30,000,000 to $2,000,000
* American John Isner has played in two of the three longest matches in Wimbledon history – a combined 17 hours and 41 minutes
* Remember when people were saying that Pedroia signed a bad contract – Sox owe him $40mm in the three years after this year
* With the crowd standing for Mookie during his great at bat last week – it reminded me of 1977 and the crowd chanting Boomer and George Scott hitting a home run into the center field bleachers

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Editorial

Connelly’s Top Ten – Back up the Armor Truck for Mookie

Published

6 days ago

July 13, 2018

Michael Connelly

Connelly’s Top Ten – Back up the Armor Truck for Mookie

1.Red Sox - Betts grand slam at bat stuff:

* 13 Pitches
* Nine minute at bat
* 32 Minute inning
* Great call by Eck – before the 13th pitch “Time to party right here!”
* No Curtain Call – pink hats – ugh!

2. World Cup - Croatia in the finals and has a population of 4,171,000 (Oregon 4,142,776) / USA 325,700,000 – didn’t even qualify

3. They were talking about this on the radio about some article – how spoiled we are – 2017-2018:

Patriots…..13-3
Bruins …..50-20-12
Celtics……55-27
Red Sox….66-29
Total……..184-71 (local teams won 72% of games this year)

4. Looking ahead to the playoff pitching match ups against Astros - ugh

* Sale vs. Verlander
* Porcello vs. Cole
* Price vs. Kuechel
* E Rod vs. McCullers or Morton

5. Position ranks – Athletes in this town that I would examine their head and heart to capture the right make up for Boston (not Price or Eason or Out of Service Pervous)

• Pedro
• Troy Brown
• Brady
• O’Reilly
• Neely
• Ortiz
• Schilling
• Tim Thomas
• Dave Cowens
• Larry Bird
• Bill Russell
• Rodney Harrison
• Wes Welker / Edelman / Amendola

6. Speaking of Amendola, Edelman, Welker and Brown – what is their average life expectancy – I say 64

7. Old School – Quotes from Globe article related to big Jimmy Fox trade to Red Sox in 1935:

* Most important single trade in history of baseball
* Establishes Yawkey as the most lavish spender in the long line of diamond magnates
* All the clubs are agreed that the Red Sox are the favorites
* Yawkey passed the $1,000,000 mark in cash laid out for players in just three years
* Foxx finished the year 41 HR / 143 RBI / .338 avg (only 11th in MVP voting)
* Team finished 3rd with 74-80 record

8. Amazing Stat – Red Sox Betts and Benintendi are on a combined pace for

* .323 average (348-1,078) 86 doubles / 11 doubles / 62 HR / 172 RBI / 56 SB – 5 caught stealing

9. Just a Little Bit Outside – Cool songs from movies:

* As Time Goes By - Casablanca
* I Love You Baby – Deer Hunter
* You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling – Top Gun
* Old Time Rock and Roll – Risky Business

10. Randomocity

* I hope people are keeping an eye on the Thai coach and potential suicide?
* Red Sox are 36-5 when Martinez drives in a run
* Someone on the radio was saying that American kids wouldn’t have been able to last that long in the cave without a playstation
* Summer drinks – I give the nod to lemonade over ice tea and fruit punch
* Potsie Webber bigger goof ball than Frank Byrnes

Editorial

Connelly’s Top Ten – Not My Best Stuff But Fought Through Ten Points

Published

1 week ago

July 9, 2018

Michael Connelly

Connelly’s Top Ten – Not My Best Stuff But Fought Through Ten Points

1.Red Sox

* One more bad outing for Price and his ERA goes over 4.00
* Red Sox relievers are 18-7
* Red Sox infield is hitting .268 and they are 30+ games over .500
* Devers has 18 errors – the rest of the infield has 10

2. World Cup - Croatia has taken 78 shots / 19 on net (24%) / 10 goals – and they are in the final four

3. Mickey Ward fought nine times in 1986 and was 9-0

4. In 1981, Cedric Maxwell, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish and Rick Robey shot a combined 53.3% from the field – Marcus Smart shot 33% from the field tis year

5. Do you think Danica Patrick can even beat a Prius coming out of a red light?

6. Nick Cafardo talked about these two pitchers in the Sunday Globe

* Jon Lester – 128 starts last four years with Cubs / $97,500,000 / $761,718 a start
* David Price - 64 starts last three years / $90,000,000 salary / $1,406,250 dollars per start

7. Old School – Philadelphia A’s pitcher, Dick Fowler threw a no hitter on September 9, 1945 against the St. Louis Browns

* It was just 20 days after coming home from the war

* 2-0 game
* Game time 1:34

8. Amazing Stat – The 1985 Red Sox put the ball in play: Bill Buckner, Marty Barrett and Wade Boggs struck out a combined 147 times in 2,085 plate appearances. Mark Bellhorn struck out 177 times in 620 plate appearances in 2004.

9. Just a Little Bit Outside – Saw “Will You Be My Neighbor” about Mr. Rogers – I have to say I was greatly impacted by the documentary (recommend everyone to go see it). Other movies that impacted me:

* Deer Hunter
* Schindler’s List
* Jiro Dreams of Sushi
* China Syndrome
* All the President’s Men
* My Left Foot
* Boyz in the Hood
* Platoon
* American History X
* Dead Poet’s Society
* Rocky

10. Randomocity

* Have the New England Revolution ever been so irrelevant?
* Imagine the parents of the kids in Thailand that weren’t picked to go in the first group (wonder – did they pick out of a hat)
* There is a black cloud over the Celtics first round pick – hurt in the first game
* Still can’t believe how under-rated the Odd Couple series is
* Athletes with bad bodies just can last that long – ie. Youkilis, Pedroia
* No coincidence that big right handed hitters JD Martinez and now Nick Castellanos are only getting better and better hitting the ball the other way with Miguel Cabrera as their teammate

Editorial

Connelly’s Top Ten – Mookie, Soccer Players Miss Net, Sammy Baugh and Pot

Published

2 weeks ago

July 6, 2018

Michael Connelly

Connelly’s Top Ten – Mookie, Soccer Players Miss Net, Sammy Baugh and Pot

1.Red Sox

* Red Sox only have to go 41-33 the rest of the way to finish with 100 wins
* Interesting article in ESPN on hitting which included Mookie Betts – on Betts “There is a tremendous value simply on putting a fair ball in play and a tremendous penalty to reaching two strikes”
* Chris Sale last five starts – 3-1 record / 7 innings averaged / 4 runs allowed / 1.02 ERA / 54 K to 8 BB
* Every old crusty scout or baseball guy is furious that Alex Cora is gonna win 100 plus game without every managing a game in his life before this season

2. World Cup

* Combined shots from Tuesday’s two matches: England vs Columbia and Sweden vs Switzerland - 60 shot attempts / 13 on net / 2 in the net (mind you the biggest net in sports)

3. Speaking of Mookie is there any conversation between him and Bryce Harper – last three-year stats:

Harper - .262 average / 74 HR / 223 RBI / 10 SB / 13 Assists / 0 Gold Gloves
Betts — .300 average / 76 HR / 257 RBI / 67 SB / 25 Assists / 2 Gold Gloves

4. Dusty Baker discriminated against – and I don’t think its race I think its age and the stupid tooth pick:

* San Fran last three season (2000-2002) - averaged 93 wins and got fired after losing in the playoffs
* Reds last two seasons (2012-2013) - average 93.5 wins and lost in the playoffs and got fired
* Nationals last two seasons (2016-2017) averaged 96 wins and lost in the playoffs and got fired (Nationals on pace to go 79-83 this year with new manager)

5. Celtic coaches for a 19 year span were all affiliated with the 1980 Celtic team:

Bill Fitch – Head Coach……….1979-1983
KC Jones – Assistant Coach…..1983-1988
Jimmy Rogers – Asst Coach…..1988-1990
Chris Ford – Player……………1990-1995
ML Carr – Player………………1995-1997

6. Poor Luke Walton got Bob McAdoo’d – the Lakers started last year 11-27 but finished 24-20 – now he has to deal with Lebron, Lavar Ball, Rondo and Isaiah (the last two hate each other)

* In 1979 – Dave Cowens took over a team that on January 16 was 16-31 and proceeded to win seven of eight and then John Y Brown and his wife Phyllis George traded three first round picks to the Knicks for Bob McAdoo and the team went 6-21 the rest of the way

7. Old School – Sammy Baugh in 1945:

* Completed 70.3% of his passes
* Punted 33 times for an average of 43.3 yards
* Had four interceptions
* Kicked an extra point

8. Amazing Stat – JD Martinez 2018 pace versus Jim Rick 1978:

* Rice……25 doubles / 15 triples / 46 home runs / 139 RBI / 406 Total bases
* Martinez 37 doubles / 2 triples /// 48 home runs / 131 RBI / 375 Total bases

9. Just a Little Bit Outside – Distance to Hall of Fames from Boston:

Cooperstown……………240 miles / 4 hours and 2 minutes
Basketball Hall of Fame..95.1 miles / 1 hour and 36 minutes
Hockey Hall of Fame…..550 miles / 8 hours and 57 minutes
Football Hall of Fame….648 miles / 10 hours and 28 minutes

10. Randomocity

* I have never been part of a week when I was so thrown off on days – Tuesday felt like a Friday, 4th of July felt like a Saturday and Thursday felt like a Sunday (except you had to go to work)
* When are the Red Sox gonna let Greg Harris throw lefty in a game
* Toasted bun much better on your hot dog or hamburg
* Hanley Ramirez is 10 years younger than Ichiro
* Smelling a lot more pot from cars in front of me recently (I know this is old guy-itis BUT I think the country might rue the day they started legalizing drugs)