Category: Red Sox

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Are Now Just the Los Angeles Angels

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SportsLogos – The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim still the butt of jokes on social media and elsewhere due to their clumsy name have officially changed their name to just “Los Angeles Angels” finally dropping the “of Anaheim” part.

Apparently the Angels quietly made this change awhile ago, but didn’t make any grand announcements about it because, well, its always been a ridiculous name. Los Angeles is a cool 40 mins from Anaheim, which if you’ve ever driven around LA you know is more like 2+ hours.

That would be like Charlie Baker deciding to put a team deep on the South Shore. Might as well be the goddamn Cape League at that point.

This is the FIFTH time the Angels have changed their name and the teams only been around since 1961. Thats fucking bananas. Not to mention they’re going back to a name they already used with LA Angels. They’ve also been the Anaheim Angels and the California Angels, but its hard to top Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

I still hold out hope that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred will get drunk and green light an NL expansion team in Boston. Then we could really get wild with some team names. Lets just say the Minutemen for now. The Boston Minutemen of New England. The Seaport District Minutemen of Boston. My personal favorite? The Allston Minutemen of Brighton.

Hanley Ramirez is Store Brand Manny Ramirez

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ESPN – [Hanley Ramirez] was told he’s 5-for-35 with eight strikeouts in 45 plate appearances against lefties, a far cry from his .346 mark last season or his .300 career average against southpaws. “You’re kidding me,” Ramirez said. “It took you long enough to tell me that. I didn’t know that, for real. So OK, after this conversation, let’s see what’s going to happen now. I’ll say it: Bring it, OK? I didn’t know. I swear. Interesting. Thank you.”

What a shitshow this guy is. I gotta tell you, I’m souring on Hanley Ramirez pretty quickly this season. Ever since David Ortiz retired, without the benefit of someone telling him to get his shit together, Hanley has increasingly become more and more like Manny Ramirez. Just doing Manny Being Manny shit.

Like laughing off how abysmal he’s hitting lefties this year. Or legitimately refusing to play First Base. Or sitting out with sore shoulders, while his much less heralded teammate Mitch Moreland is mashing home runs and playing First Base with a broken fucking foot.

Hanley Ramirez has become store brand Manny Ramirez. He acts like Manny, he gets babied like Manny, he is a general pain in the ass like Manny. Except he doesn’t hit the goddamn ball like Manny. If you wanna be treated like a superstar then you better be hitting moonshots onto Landsdowne. If you wanna sit out games and laugh about how shitty you’re playing, then the Manny treatment is over.

Even for one of the greatest righthanded hitters of my generation, eventually that act wore thin in Boston. And LA. And Tampa Bay. Imagine how much quicker that shit happens if you’re hitting .241/.341/.406 with 10 home runs, 29 RBIs and a WAR of 0.1. Let me repeat that, Hanley Ramirez has a WAR of 0.1, which means he is BARELY better than an average guy out there at first. Thats essentially what Mitch Moreland is and the Red Sox have fared far  better with him playing than Hanley.

The Butthurt Is Strong With Manager John

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I don’t like it any more when Bill Belichick spars with reporters and the media. Tom Brady always finds a way to say nothing without coming off like a prick. It annoys me to no end to see Belichick talk to reporters like they’re children. But at least Belichick has earned it.

Bill Belichick is unquestionably the best head coach in the NFL today. He’s arguably the best head coach of all time. Manager John has managed 1049 games and is 23 games over .500 (536-513, .511). And for whatever reason that includes the 49 games Torey Lovullo managed while John Farrell was out at the end of 2015. Take out those 49 games Louvullo managed (28-21), and Farrell’s managerial record is 508-492 (.508). Suffice to say, Sparky Anderson Manager John is not.

Regardless, I don’t understand what he got so hot and bothered about. In between Dale Arnold softballs, Rich Keefe asked why they (seem to) run into so many outs and why his use of Craig Kimbrel has apparently changed. Easy answers:

“We like to be aggressive, and we think we more than make up for the outs we run into by scoring more runs.”

“It’s a long season. Kimbrel’s been great, but we can’t use him for four outs every time we’re ahead in the eighth.”

BOOM. I should be the Red Sox PR director. Crisis averted.

Instead, Manager John came across as a petty asshole. And if this is how to reacts to Rich Keefe grilling him, imagine how he’d react to Dan Shaughnessy grilling him if John Henry didn’t own the Globe.

And if the Red Sox were really scuffling, I could maybe better understand this episode and his meltdown Saturday night. But this team is in/near first place with all sorts of injuries. This team is not circling the drain. Manager John needs to project an image of success and lead. Instead, he chose to act like David Price and pick a fight with a guy making $32,000 a year. Not a great look.

Red Sox Win, Moreland Homers Again and Farrell Takes a Dig at Hanley

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After topping the Angels with Chris Sale picking up win No. 10, Craig Kimbrel going 1-2-3 in the 9th for the save and Mitch Moreland homering in his 3rd straight game, John Farrell praised his guys for persevering. But mostly he took a pretty subtle (read: blatant) dig at guys like Hanley Ramirez for being soft.

Last night Hanley sat out because he had a sore knee. Before that he had a sore shoulder. Then of course there’s the whole debacle of Hanley not being able (read: willing) to play first base because all the throwing hurts his shoulder. Meanwhile Mitch Moreland is balling out, hitting bombs and playing the field with a broken fucking toe. So it would seem like Farrell’s over it. Especially with bums like Pablo Sandoval in and out of the lineup, its time to start cutting the dead weight.

I like this new Farrell. Blowing up on umpires and calling out guys for being assholes. Lets get more of this Farrell and less of the robot Farrell.

If the Red Sox want to go anywhere come October they’re gonna need guys like Hanley and David Price to get their sit together. Otherwise this is gonna be a reaaally expensive team to get knocked out in the first round. Not to mention, the more the team struggles the more Dave Dombrowski’s collar gets a little tighter. This guy has traded just about all of the Red Sox top prospects in a concerted effort to win now. Except most of the guys he’s traded for have either gotten hurt (Tyler Thornburg, Carson Smith) or just straight up sucked (David Price). Obviously guys like Kimbrel and Sale have been lights out this year, but that was another half dozen prospects to acquire those two. So if this team doesn’t pick it up soon then thats another wasted year for a veteran team with a more narrow win-now mindset.

Tonight the Red Sox Will Retire #34 for David Ortiz

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David Ortiz will be the last Red Sox player to ever wear #34 as it will go up on the right field deck tonight. It’s a weird feeling seeing the players you grew up with, the players who won titles for your favorite team, the guys who became legends in front of your eyes, its a weird feeling seeing their number get retired.

The first one was obviously Pedro Martinez as he got his #45 retired by the Sox in 2015. Now Pedro had one of the greatest runs a pitcher has ever had in the history of the game, but he was only on the team from 98-04 and won one title with the Sox. Even then he was the c0-ace on the team behind Schilling. But, Ortiz was on the Sox for 14 fucking years and was THE guy on 3 World Series winning teams. Walkoff hits became so routine with him that people legit expected it when he stepped to the plate.

Of all the huge home runs David Ortiz hit, the one I’ll never forget was his grand slam against the Tigers in the 2013 ALCS.

The Sox were down 1-0 in the series, were getting smoked in Game 2 and staring down the barrel at Detroit’s daunting starting rotation. It seemed like a Game 2 loss probably would have killed any chance at winning the series. In steps Ortiz, who hits a motherfucking grand slam to tie the game. I was sitting in the bleachers that game and I’ve never heard Fenway louder than it was right then. And it of course made a goddamn celebrity out of bullpen cop Steve Horgan for his famous celebration.

Obviously the Sox went on to win the World Series where David Ortiz batted .688. The guy hit just under fucking .700 in the World Series. That is unbelievable. That is legendary.

2013 was an emotional season after the Boston Marathon bombing in April so that whole season and especially that playoff run was something the city needed. David Ortiz wasn’t just an iconic player, he was the face of the franchise, a folk hero and someone people genuinely liked. So it was particularly fitting when he took the mic on April 20th, 2013 and gave the entire city a rallying cry that will forever be synonymous with Ortiz.

David Ortiz will likely be the first DH to go into the Hall of Fame and rightfully so. He’s already got a bridge and a street named after him. One day the guy will have a statue outside of Fenway and we can tell our kids how we saw him become the most feared hitter in the game, how he became the biggest star in the toughest market in all of sports, how he became Big Papi.

Cavs Players Are Now Telling Jimmy Butler to Stay Away from the Dumpster Fire that is Cleveland

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Chicago Sun Times – No stranger to organizational dysfunction, Jimmy Butler was warned Tuesday night to stay away from the Cavaliers. According to a Cleveland source close to the situation, several of the Cavaliers who had been prodding Butler to push for a trade from the Bulls the last five days were now warning him to stay away from a suddenly volatile situation.

Jesus. Christ. Cleveland, this is why you can’t have nice things. A live look at the state of the Cavaliers right now:

What a goddamn disaster. You guys were literally JUST in the NBA Finals. Sure, you got smacked down by Golden State, but you are without a doubt the second best team in the NBA. Yet somehow, the Cavs are now in complete disarray. They shitcanned the GM the *same day* he was balls deep in trade talks with other teams. Now there are rumblings that LeBron may be bolting town for Los Angeles sooner than later. Bill Simmons, who knows a thing or two about the NBA, is convinced its going to happen.

With that shit storm spiraling around, Cavs players are apparently telling Jimmy Butler to stay the hell away. The GM is out, LeBron could be gone after next year, no one knows what the hell is going on. So Butler reportedly is saying ah nevermind I’ll stay in Chicago. Butler would rather stay on a 41-win team than go to the team that just played in the NBA Finals (and the last 3 years in a row) and has arguably the best player in the world on its roster. Yeesh.

“[Kyrie] Irving has been contacting some of his former Team USA mates, letting them know that he might be willing to push for a trade, especially with the latest drama unfolding in Cleveland..Through back channels, Irving let it be known that he’d be interested in coming to Chicago.”

Oh man it is gonna be FUN watching what happens throughout the NBA today.

Miles Teller Arrested for Being Drunk in Public: Happens to the Best of Us

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Yahoo – Miles Teller had a not-so-fantastic weekend that culminated in his arrest in San Diego. “Fantastic Four” star Teller was arrested and charged with being drunk in public early Sunday morning, a spokesman for the San Diego Police Department told TheWrap on Monday. According to police, an officer made contact with Teller and other males at 12:26 a.m., and noticed that the actor showed signs of being under the influence of alcohol, slurring his speech and swaying from side to side.

Man as much as it must be awesome to be a celebrity (rich, good looking, famous), it must fucking SUCK for stuff like this. Can’t even have a couple daiquiris and then hit the strip. You have a few too many of those sneaky 11% alcohol IPA’s and before you know it you’re fancy walking down the sidewalk.

And now everybody is gonna jump on the guy for being an alcoholic, when he’s just a dude who got wasted one night. While its hard to read too much into a police report because a lot of the subtle details are lost, but lines like this are telling though:

“According to police, an officer made contact with Teller and other males at 12:26 a.m.”

12:26 seems a bit early in the night to be completely fucked up drunk. So either he was disgustingly, horribly hammered or he maybe was mouthing off to a cop which is neverrr a good idea. If you’re a young, white guy — not to mention a young, rich, white guy — I feel like you’re probably going to get the benefit of the doubt. “Move it along guys.” But you start mouthing off and you deserve whatever you get.

I used to work the door at a bar in Boston and the number of 20-something, drunk dickheads walking over from State Street was always the highlight of my night. Dudes in their boat shoes screaming outside the bar about how much more money they made than us, all while coming to a bar that specializes in fucking $3 Coors Lights.  I once had a kid *demand* that I call the police since his dad knew the Chief so I could explain to them why I wouldn’t let him in. Needless to say we told that guy to go eat a bag of dicks. Pretty sure we saved the kid a billy club beating from the cops themselves.

Of all the celebrity boozehounds though, Shia LaBeouf still has the greatest drunken arrest story ever told.

Guerin Austin Could Learn a Thing or Two from this Red Sox Sideline Reporter

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So as is tradition here at The 300s, I enjoy giving Red Sox sideline reporter Guerin Austin shit because every single time there’s a victorious Gatorade bath she gets SOAKED. Every. Single. Time. Smiles right through the pain too.

Last night though this suave new guy stepped in (prob because Guerin has pneumonia from one of those Gatorade waterboardings) and showed everyone how its done.

 

Cue the highlights!