9/8-9/10 Red Sox vs. Orioles Series Thread

Lots of good tidbits in this Gammons column.
www.gammonsdaily.com/gammons-notes-under-the-radar-pre-deadline-deals-knuckleballers-mike-yastrzemski-and-more/

Markakis would be a great pickup for RF... if we didn't already have like 12 OFers.

Barnes is at Fenway

Great column and really liked this part:



Gonzo game to town hyped by the media as the next Yaz/Williams and for the most part, produced like it. His fault was getting quoted several times too many by a media that loves to be negative at anything in which it can and add to that? Gonzalez is a talkative guy, still is.

That same media (different faces, same NE types/mindset) were the same ones who beat Williams to death and Yaz as well. Williams over anything/everything and Yaz when his numbers started to temporarily decline.

It's not all medias that act like this, even a large town media types, but it for sure exists in both NY and Boston.

True - I still read Cafardo's Sunday Baseball Notes faithfully, even though it can often be mining through a lot of twaddle just to find a useful nugget or three. Of course, when I repeat the useful stuff, people often look at me and say, 'Carfardo? Really?'

One of the best sports reporters I ever knew was Milton Richman of UPI. I got to know him because I was working for UPI in Baltimore in the late 60s and early 70s when the Orioles were good - and in three straight World Series 69-70-71. Richman always came to cover the Series. When he went to the ballpark he knew what wanted to write about and he would seek out the player, or players, who he would feature that day. I watched him interview Frank Robinson. It was about a particular play the day before and I forget the details.

Richman recounted the play to Robinson, then said, something like "weren't you thinking such and such and that made you do such and such. He said "Yes." He did this repeatedly through about a half dozen questions, or more. Each time Robinson's answers were yesses or nos. When he wrote the story, the phraseology he used in the questions became quotes from Robinson. Players loved to be interviewed by him.

Robinson was one of the most intelligent baseball players I ever met, and he was a very tough interview. But with Richman, he was cool and friendly. And Richman knew that if he had to find something out that players didn't want to talk about, Robinson, or another player, would tell him, and he would protect their confidences. As a result, even though he didn't cover teams regularly, he got many exclusives.

But the beat writers wear down during a season. They travel with the team and soon the good stories are done, and it becomes very hard to generate the words every day - and now all the time because of the Internet. So a lot gets written that has very little substance.

With Barnes, and minus Uehara, the Sox have 9 RPs in the BP.

Nobody's posting here. Interest is waning? Looking at the Oriole lineup tonight, it doesn't look any better than the Sox, yet the Orioles are where they are.

Not sure about the interest level.

As to the line- ups, I think Baltimore has more power, better D. and better pitching.

Management from top bottom should be totally embarrassed how they destroyed and then tried to put together this collection of outs and errors, primarily due to saving a few bucks and some years on contracts based on some smart plan. It wasn't just bad luck or everything going wrong like some kinds  of bad spell. It was primarily due to poor judgement ,questionable polices, and maybe crappy coaching. . 

Tonight we were 1 for 6 with RISP.

I think kelly threw a decent enough game, but the offense was pitiful.