Tag: Jersey Street

I’m So Starved for Red Sox Content That I Watched Fever Pitch Last Night

By on • ( Leave a comment )

The movie we’ve all mocked for the past 15 years and cringe whenever it comes on TV is actually surprisingly delightful right now. This movie just hits different when sports are banned.

I openly admit that this is a sign of Quarantine SZN starting to take its toll on my sanity more so than this movie actually aging gracefully. But when nobody has been able to drink a beer on Jersey Street in nearly eight months you take what you can get.

Watching this last night I legitimately started to feel like I had moved out of Boston and hadn’t seen Fenway, Cask n Flagon, Landsdowne Street etc. in YEARS.

You do start to notice little things though when you rewatch old movies, especially ones filmed in your backyard. Lets forget for a second that Jimmy Fallon is supposed to be some broke ass school teacher that has a sweet apartment in the North End and season tickets to the Red Sox. The thing that really stuck out to me was the bar that Jason Varitek, Johnny Damon, and Trot Nixon are having dinner at after the game just a few feet away from Fallon and his buddies.

Really? Had anyone involved in the writing, filming, or production of this movie ever actually been on Landsdowne Street?

Hey don’t get me wrong it’s a fine establishment to knock back a few Bud Lattes, but it’s not exactly the lap of luxury that the players would be having dinner at. But, I digress.

Fever Pitch is loosely based on an old Nick Hornby story about his obsession with an English soccer team. Rejiggered to focus on the Red Sox, the original script just kind of assumed the Sox would lose yet again in some brutal fashion, which really sticks out like a sore thumb when the movie peaks just before Dave Roberts’ steal in Game 4 of the 04 ALCS. Then they slap on a 30 second ending explaining the greatest comeback in baseball history and the Sox actually winning the World Series capped off with the most cringeworthy memory of the entire thing; Fallon and Drew Barrymore celebrating on the field with the players.

But hey I’ll take whatever Red Sox content I can get at this point, which is why one of the principals of marketing is that nostalgia is a powerful weapon. I haven’t been to a Sox game in slightly longer than usual and my body is already starting to go through withdrawals. And the team wasn’t even going to be good this year!

John Henry has us by the balls and he knows it. Now I’m not going to be the first guy there when the quarantine is lifted, but when the dust settles on all this I will be more than happy to buy a few a dozen $11 beers at 4 Jersey Street.

Man, do I miss sports.

These Are the Best Red Sox World Series Videos (So Far)

By on • ( Leave a comment )

These videos will be rolling in for awhile, and thats before we even get to Wednesday’s Duckboats parade, but as of right now these are the best Red Sox World Series videos (so far).

Red Sox Looking to Temper Red Hot Yankees in the Bronx Tonight

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Starting tonight the Red Sox head into the Bronx to take on the Yankees while currently holding a 1 game lead in the AL East. After taking 2 of 3 from the Yankees in the first series of the year the Yanks have gone on an absolute heater winning 15 of 16…. all while leaning on rookies. So the Yankees lineup that was absolutely stacked with power hitters now has a rookie in Gleyber Torres who is hitting a cool .327/.357/.857 ?? Cool. I look forward to hating you soon enough Mr. Torres.

Thankfully the Sox have been taking care of business on their end as well with Mookie Betts merely becoming the best player in baseball. No big deal. And before you try and shut me down hear me out. Mookie is leading the MLB in Batting Average, Slugging Percentage, OPS, Runs Scored, Home Runs, Total Bases, and Extra Base Hits.

These two teams are FINALLY both great at the same time. We’ve said it ad nauseam but over the past decade these two teams kept missing each other, which is why they haven’t faced off in the playoffs in years. Now both are a legitimate threat to win 100 games this year. The last time I could find two teams in the same division that won 100 games was the 2001 AL West when the Mariners won 116 games and the Athletics won 102 so this division race has the potential to be historic.

JD Martinez has actually been playing great as well hitting .349/.396/1.015 with 8 Home Runs and 27 RBIs on the year. The surprise in my voice in response to how well JD is playing is a sad reflection of how badly the Sox have botched big money free agent signings in recent years. David Price (too soon?), Pablo Sandoval, Rusney Castillo, Carl Crawford etc.  So Just Dingers Martinez actually living up to the hype thus far has been a pleasant surprise on Yawkey Way Jersey Street.

There’s 16 more rounds of this left and after a benches clearing brawl in the 2nd game of the year between them this is the earliest I’ve been jacked up for a Sox Yanks game. The rivalry is back, the two teams legitimately don’t like each other, and most importantly we are each other’s biggest threat and direct competition on the path to a World Series. Hey, ESPN might even finally benefit from having them on national TV every other week.

Tonight we have Drew Pomeranz (1-1) 6.14 ERA vs Luis Severino (5-1) 2.11 ERA so that is mismatch city. The Sox beat the hell out of Severino for 5 runs in 5 innings last time around, but since then he’s sporting a 1.24 ERA with 32 Ks and 5 walks in 29 IP. This will be Pomeranz’s 4th start back from the DL so I’m not super confident, but he does have a 3-2 record and a 3.12 ERA in his career at Yankee Stadium. All things considered I’ve gotta go with Severino tonight as the guy is on a roll and is unlikely to lay an egg against the Sox twice in a row. With that being said if you gamble on individual baseball games you are a sick degenerate and I cannot help you.

Red Sox Push to Rename Yawkey Way – Does Anyone Actually Care?

By on • ( Leave a comment )

I’ve never typed “4 Yawkey Way” into my phone for directions to Fenway Park. I’ve never texted a friend or tweeted “Heading to Yawkey Way!” before going to a Red Sox game. The Red Sox desire to change the name of Yawkey Way back to Jersey Street has zero impact on my life, and it will not affect how many Red Sox games I buy tickets to or watch on NESN.

I generally don’t get too worked up over people, places or things getting renamed, and this situation is no different. I think that the free market usually does a pretty good job of figuring these things out on its own. If the Red Sox believe this change will allow them to sell more tickets, more NESN subscriptions and more hats, more power to them. It feels a bit like virtue signaling from John Henry and Tom Werner, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad move.

Debates over Tom Yawkey’s racist image aside, from just a pure baseball standpoint he doesn’t deserve to have the street named after him. Yawkey owned the Red Sox for 43 years, from 1933 until his death in 1976. In that time the Red Sox won three pennants but not one World Series. His Hall of Fame plaque mentions the pennants his teams “narrowly missed” in 1948, 1949 and 1972. If the Hall of Fame has to mention your “narrow misses” on your plaque, it’s a good indication that you probably don’t deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. Wayne Huizenga won more rings than Tom Yawkey.

The Yawkey Foundation is not taking this news well and issued its own scathing response. They point to the foundation’s philanthropic endeavors across the region over the last 40 years. Perhaps a compromise could have been to rededicate Yawkey Way to the Yawkey Foundation, as opposed to Tom. Nuance doesn’t do well, though, in the age of the internet.

I think my response to this whole situation can be summed up in one word. Deep down, I think most Red Sox fans will agree.

Image result for simpsons meh gif