Tag: Joe Torre

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

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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.

Joe Torre is Looking to Take Some Fun Out of Major League Baseball

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NY Post – There never has been more information available when it comes to arguments with umpires, players and managers — and Joe Torre isn’t thrilled with that fact in his role as MLB disciplinarian.

“That’s a little concerning,’’ said Torre, the former Yankees manager and now the league’s chief baseball officer, a job which includes overseeing on-field discipline and umpiring. “You take what you can get, but it wasn’t supposed to be that clear. It shouldn’t happen.”

The preponderance of that information has become more common lately, as microphones have picked up what’s said on the field, leaving little to the imagination. Torre will take the information, but he’d rather it wasn’t available to anyone with a Twitter account.

“That’s not the way I want to hear it, for everybody else to hear it,’’ Torre said Tuesday at Yankee Stadium. “I wish I could hear it, only. It makes it easy to make my decision.”

Typical, typical baseball. God forbid we let the managers and players have any type of personality. Between the Aaron Boone “savages” rant this year and the epic confrontation between Terry Collins and umpire Tom Hallion that resurfaced last year, we’ve got two viral clips that had everyone on social media actually talking about baseball in a positive way.

What’s the harm in letting these clips go public? The umpires’ reputation? Do a better job and you won’t get berated. They already are shielded enough, as only a select pool reporter from the media can even talk to an umpire after the game.

I’d even argue that in the Hallion/Collins confrontation, I gained a better respect for why Hallion and the umpires did what they did (we also of course got the famous “ass in the jackpot line.) Hallion seemed composed and calmly explained that they were directed 

So while ratings are down and games routinely go past the four-hour mark, perhaps Joe Torre and the rest of Major League Baseball should lighten up and just embrace little moments like these. 

P.S. I’m sure Joe is glad the mics weren’t hot for this confrontation.

Last Night the Umpires Had a Moment of Silence for Angel Hernandez (Who is Very Much Alive)

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So this was the scene right before the Red Sox Blue Jays game last night. All the umpires getting together for a brief moment of silence for their boy Angel Hernandez….who is very much alive.

I was wondering what that whole gathering was about and even Red Sox broadcaster Dave O’Brien said on NESN that this showing was for Hernandez. So this all stemmed from the Ian Kinsler Angel Hernandez showdown last week.

“Last Saturday, MLB umpires banded together to wear white wristbands in protest of players’ treatment of them, and a perceived lack of enforcement on the part of the league. The protest was in response to the MLB fining Ian Kinsler $10,000 for declaring that controversial umpire Angel Hernandez should pursue a different occupation, as well as a more general concern with “escalating verbal attacks” levied on them by players and managers.“

Cry me a river dude. I will gladly take Ian Kinsler being mean to me if it means I get to make SIX FIGURES to work 6 months a year and watch baseball every day. Hernandez also filed a lawsuit this summer against MLB for racial discrimination and alleges that a grudge from Joe Torre is holding him back from any promotions.

As I’ve always said about umpires and refs, if the fans know you’re name, you’re not doing your job. 99/100 times the only reason a fan knows an ump’s name is because he is doing a shit job or inserting himself into the game like our old friend Cowboy Joe West.

So maybe stop getting into public pissing contests with players on a routine basis and you’ll get a promotion. Just a thought.

Again, he is still alive. So pump the breaks on your umpire Livestrong bracelets out there.

 

PS – The one official who’s name I know for any other reason is Ed Hochuli and thats because of those goddamn bazookas he carries onto the field each week.