best of

2021



2020

January 2
No Evidence Exists Showing "Three-Batter Minimum" Rule Will Lead To Quicker Games

January 31
Tracking A Claim: Did The 2019 Yankees Have "The Best Bullpen Ever"? (Spoiler: No.)

March 27
Death Works 24 Hours A Day

May 6
Donald Trump's Baseball Career: Slate Examines The Historical Record Very Closely


October 3


2019

May 27
After Observing "Armed Forces Weekend" And "Honoring" Memorial Day, How Can Anyone Claim That Sports And Politics Are Not Already Mixed?

June 5
NESN Misses Several Pitches, Including Devers's Home Run, Extending Its Record Of Not Showing A Complete Red Sox Game To . . . The Network's Entire Existence

June 14
Anti-NESN Limericks

October 22-30
World Series: Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, Game 4, Game 5, Game 6, Game 7

October 22-28 (Astros/Taubman)
October 22: Astros Assistant GM Brandon Taubman's "Offensive And Frightening" Outburst At Three Female Reporters . . .
October 22: Astros' Blatant Lies Expose Organization's Casual Misogyny . . .
October 23: Stick To Sports? . . .
October 24: Astros Fire Brandon Taubman, But Team Statement Is Still Full Of Distortion And Lies . . .
October 25: Astros' Default Mode Of Operation: Defiantly Clueless, Proudly Ignorant, And Lacking All Sincerity
October 28: Six Days Late, Astros' Owner Apologizes To Apstein . . .

October 28: Joe Buck Constructs - And Then Attacks - A Strawman; MLB Ignores A Perfect Opportunity (Naturally) To Showcase Baseball's Greatness

November 4
Demand For Robot Umps Is Getting Louder, After Dozens Of Wrong Calls In World Series
(Also: Even With Robot Umps, Baseball Will Never Lose "The Human Element" (The Players))

November 15
Astros' System Of Stealing And Relaying Signs In 2017 Is Confirmed By Four People, Including Pitcher Mike Fiers; Numerous Videos Of Astros Home Games With Tell-Tale Banging Before Off-Speed Pitches Have Surfaced; Alex Cora, After Being Questioned In MLB's Investigation, Declined To Comment


2018

January 21
A Pitch Clock Is Not The Answer (& Ortiz Forgets His Past)

April 4
O'Brien and Remy Get Simple Information Wrong, Present Nonsense As Insight, Remain Blind To Changes In Baseball, And Ignorant About The Red Sox's Core Philosophies (Also)

April 9
Brad Brach's Ways Are Higher Than Our Ways And His Thoughts Than Our Thoughts (Also)

April 26
Everyone Says Mookie Betts Has 14 Leadoff Home Runs. Everyone Is Wrong.

May 3
NESN: Providing You With The Best Replays In Baseball. . . . Just Kidding! . . . Its Chronic Habit Of Tight Close-ups Is Annoying And Often Doesn't Show Anything Useful

May 5
MLB's Between-Innings Highlights Are Ruining The Enjoyment Of Watching A Game

July 19
Why Does The Boston Sports Media Want Us To Think A Successful Red Sox Team Is Boring?

August 3
My Scorecard From The Red Sox's 15-7 Rout Of the Yankees

August 8
NESN: Does Dave O'Brien Ever Listen To What He Says? More Importantly, Do His Bosses?

September 25
Dave O'Brien Claims The Dodgers Won "A Lot" Of 1-0 Games With Davey Lopes Stealing Second Base And Scoring The Only Run. . . . The Actual Number Of Times This Happened In 10 Years? Zero.

October 5-28
ALDS: Game 1 (by FenFan), Game 2 (by FenFan), Game 3, Game 4
ALCS: Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, Game 4, Game 5
World Series: Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, Game 4, Game 5

October 29
2018 Newsstand - World Series Edition

November 16
Schadenfreude 244 (A Continuing Series) - 2018: The Year In Schadenfreude


2017

June 9
Draining A Little More Out Of The Pool: NESN Sinks To A New Low

June 15
NESN: O'Brien And Remy Display An Ignorance Of The Rule Book

June 23
David Ortiz In Walkoff Situations IV (Career)

June 28
NESN: Dave O'Brien Thinks Ty Cobb Played Against The Twins (Whose First Game Occurred Three Months Before Cobb Died At Age 74)

July 12
No.

August 10
Boggs's Anecdote Reveals Umpire Joe West Is A Power-Abusing Asshole

August 18
Box Score Of The Week: Mets, August 16

September 14
The 1916 Giants: Questions About "Winning Streak" vs "Unbeaten Streak"

September 23
NESN: The Mindlessness And Ignorance Of O'Brien & Gomes Makes My Brain Hurt

September 28
A Rant About Joe Castiglione And Announcers In General

October 24 - November 1
World Series: Game 1, Game 2 (with bonus), Game 3, Game 4, Game 5, Game 6, Game 7

December 14
The Most Prolific Slugging Teammates In History (The List Ain't Changing Any Time Soon)


2016

July 13
Dave O'Brien Announcer Bingo!


2015

April 25
Pointless: A Pitcher's Career Stats Against A Team

June 8
Red Sox Playoff Games On YouTube


2013

December 14
Book Review: The Kid: The Immortal Life Of Ted Williams, By Ben Bradlee, Jr.


2012

January 18
Martin Luther King & Derek Jeter: Look To The Cookie

August 13
The Many Problems With NESN

October 5
Book Review: A People's History Of Baseball, By Mitchell Nathanson


2011

February 16
John Keats and David Ortiz

February 17
JOS Goes FJM on CHB (with Maybe 7% (At Best) of the Humour and Wit)

March 23
Padres Fan Protesting "Dog Tags For Kids" Promotion On "Military Opening Day"

March 31
Don Orsillo Catch Phrase Bingo


April 29
NESN, Intent On Cramming Extra Commercials In Between Innings, Misses Pitches Throughout Red Sox-Orioles Game

May 4
The National Anthem And The Idea Of Respect

May 21
1918 World Series - Questions Of A Fix

May 22
A Call For Quiet

July 12
Arizona, The All-Star Game, And Speaking Up For Human Rights

July 25
Tony Massarotti Takes Credit For Ellsbury's Fantastic Season

December 30
David Ortiz In Walkoff Situations (v.3)


2010

March 12
How Offensive Will The Red Sox Be?

March 22
Rolling Stones Releasing Remastered Exile With Never-Even-Bootlegged Outtakes (!), So Why Am I Pissed Off?

March 30
Exile On Main Street - The Outtakes & The Price

May 1
Dave O'Brien Has A Thing For J.D. Drew

May 18
G40: Red Sox 7, Yankees 6

May 27
J.D. Drew Is A First-Pitch Hacker

May 28
Massarotti Questioning Ellsbury's Desire To Play

June 8
Thoughts Prompted By The Red Sox Foundation's Association With "Run To Home Base"

June 10
The Mighty Wolf

August 13
L'Affaire Jacoby, Cont.

August 24
Buffalo 12, Pawtucket 4
Cody



September 26
Schadenfreude 100 (A Look Back)

September 27
Umpire Phil Cuzzi: Wrong On 42% Of Papelbon's Pitches

October 3
John Lackey Hates Making Excuses

October 25
Book Review: The Red Sox And Philosophy

November 15
Do Leadoff Walks Lead To More Runs?


2009

February 5
Happy 114th Birthday, Babe Ruth!

February 25
Sports Illustrated Exposed Rampant Drug Use In All Sports 40 Years Ago

April 21
Making Three Outs In An Inning

May 15
Facing The Unknown

July 27
Bill Madden, Bill James & Dinosaurs

August 18
Blogger Roundtable: Game Threads

August 19
JoSapalooza 1



August 22
Jim Rice Embarrasses Himself

September 10
I Caught A Foul Ball!

September 12
DFW And The Pale King

September 27
Howl

November 10
"Pay Attention Jack-ass!" Or, A Few Thoughts On Canadian (Non-)Confrontation And An Admission Of My Own Paranoia

December 9
E-Cafardo (5)


2008

May 5
21 Ball Parks

August 1
Thank You Manny Ramirez!

September 17
DFW & IJ



October 9
The Origins Of "Manny Forgot Which Knee Hurt"


2007

April 5
A Potential Huge Problem With MLB's Digital Download Service
And follow-ups

July 10
Joy of Sox Nickname Glossary



September 13
Ortiz In Walk-Off Situations


2006

August 22
My First Game At Fenway




2005

June 7 & 10
Beat Writer Roundtable I
Beat Writer Roundtable II

July 19
Thank You, Dave Roberts!



July 28
Manny

July 30
Once Upon A Time...

August 17
Father Of Base Ball

August 18
More Manufactured Manny Madness?

September 19
G150: Devil Rays 8, Red Sox 7

September 20
On

October 2
Fox Hates Baseball; I Hate Fox

October 8
ALDS 3: White Sox 5, Red Sox 3

November 13
AL: Most Valuable Player [David Ortiz or Alex Rodriguez?]


2004

January 22
Deadball Stars Of The National League - John Titus

October (!)




2003

August 31
(The Truth About The Twilight)

October 17
Numb

October 18
What's In A Name?

October 19
Gump Talks

October 23
It Sure Helped Sell A Lot Of Papers

October 27
It's Official

December 9
What Do I Want?


&

Don't Let Us Win Tonight

1918

My Old Pedro Martinez Website