Smearing Manny

Manny's in La-La. Meantime, Theo and John Henry are busy back across the country scuffing Manny's image like a Phil Niekro offering just like the dynamic dupes did with Ramon spelled backwards'.... remember, Pedro got done the same way, too. The pair didn't and won't use the Globe or even the Herald to exact their pound of person meat from Ramirez [read more...]

Man-Ram Gone to LA - Red Sox Postseason Hopes Might Be Gone with Him

Wonder boy and his boss just outdid themselves... Way to go Theo Epstein and John Henry. You just ruined your team's batting order and blew your team's chances at the playoffs. Oh, and the Los Angeles Dodgers got the bat they needed – your player Manny Ramirez - for nothing when you could have allowed him to produce for you and [read more...]

The Brain Leak

The Brain Leak (Week of 7/7/08 - 7/13/08) With my creative fluids replenished, The Leak fine-tunes itself for a mid-summer charge and stands unfazed by the oppressive swelter of the annual Midwest "Humidity Fest." It is truly that wretched time of year when a majority of the country falls victim to brutally high dew points and even the most adamant of [read more...]

The Brain Leak

The Brain Leak (Week of 7/7/08 - 7/13/08) With my creative fluids replenished, The Leak fine-tunes itself for a mid-summer charge and stands unfazed by the oppressive swelter of the annual Midwest "Humidity Fest." It is truly that wretched time of year when a majority of the country falls victim to brutally high dew points and even the most adamant of [read more...]

Country Joe And The (Devilish) Rays

The way I see it, the White House seems to be in charge of baseball and war these days, at least according to my dedicated research. And since these things go hand in hand politically this year, I am making a plea to end the beanball, not only at home, but also on the road -- in places like Boston, [read more...]

MLB Report Cards

The start of June means only one thing to nearly every student in the country: School is almost over and summer is about to begin. But before thousands of kids can enjoy the beach, sleeping late and Fourth of July fireworks, there's that important thing called grades. Have a poor report card, and a student's summer can turn from backyard [read more...]

Roger Clemens is Barry Bonds, except he’s…

As much as it pains me to do this, I am going to have to acknowledge the blatant racial discrimination in the treatment of Barry Bonds during the whole steroids, BALCO, Victor Conte saga. At the time, I thought that Barry was just getting the treatment he deserved as a cheater and an all around poor human being. [read more...]

Americans finally considering GW trade to Baghdad

Politics can be a lot like sports, but not nearly enough -- as far as I'm concerned -- when it comes to hiring and firing of the people who manage the land; your land; my land. When someone isn't getting the job done in baseball -- batting average dropping below .200 -- they usually get benched or traded. [read more...]

If Toby Keith wrote sports clichés …

Greatest Hits Volume I It's a Do or Die Situation (and I'm Drunk) I Love This Game (but not as much as this bar) I'm in a Zone (so gimme' another shot) Favre's a Hard Working Man Can't Buy a Bucket (to piss in) Sox is a Four Letter Word I Bet You're a Cubs Fan (and a Dixie Chicks Fan Too) Bar Clearing Brawl I Only Get Drunk [read more...]

When will NBA Players understand the meaning of shutting up?

Mike Bibby of the Atlanta Hawks is the latest NBA player to open up his fat trap in these playoffs. We've already been mildly entertained the Washington Wizards talking and then subsequently being schooled by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Now we have another yapper to hear stories about on ESPN for the next several days. Bibby had the gall to call Boston [read more...]

Listen, who really cares how old Miguel Tejada is?

We had a nice piece on the site today by D.K. Wilson regarding Tejada-gate, ESPN's "revelation" of sorts that Miggy Tejada is actually two years older than he said he is already. By now you have surely heard the details of the story. This story is now in the second phase of the story, where we react to the way [read more...]

Interview With Voros McCracken

Voros McCracken has consulted with the Boston Red Sox front office, and won a World Series during his time with the team. He revolutionized pitcher evaluation methodology by discovering Defensive Independent Pitching Statistics (DIPS) in 1999. Currently he is writing columns for the fine Baseball Digest Daily. Q. Can you share three things about yourself people probably don't know? A. One, I [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Three Things That Made Me Mad About The World Series

Congratulations to the Red Sox. They beat the Cardinals fair and square, and pretty much manhandled them in every facet of the game during the World Series. As a Cardinals fan, I know I should be gracious in defeat. But really, where is the fun in that? So this week I bring you… Three Things That Made Me Mad About…The World Series 1. The base [read more...]

Boston Nears Sweep With Memories Fresh

In Monty Python's Holy Grail, one memorable scene unfolds as a man drags a cart down the street, as it overflows with those dead from the plague. He cries out, "Bring out your dead," as he drags on. At this point, one seemingly dead old man is placed on the cart, only to lament quietly, "But I'm not dead yet..." "Well, [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Yankee Doodle Devilry

Have you ever wondered if it were possible to script actual sporting events? Like aside from the WWE? If you could, I'm not sure you could do much better than what these baseball playoffs have provided so far. Have you ever watched those animal programs on the Discovery Channel, where a somber British voice describes how a pack of lions or [read more...]

Baseball Still Has Paper Potency

Leave it to baseball to pummel unpredictability. After the dispassionate Boston Red Sox dropped a 3-1 yawner to the business as usual New York Yankees Wednesday night, we sighed. When the St. Louis Cardinals bats had finished plastering the Backe-end of the Houston Astros rotation to take a 1-0 series lead, we basked in the potency of our predictions. Predictability in [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Master Debaters, Part Deux

Following the rousing success of the first debate between me and Tom (and by rousing, I mean my mother liked it), we came back this week for round two. Just like the presidential debate Friday night, this will be in a town hall forum, with each of us responding to questions asked by a panel of sports fans. In this case, [read more...]

Hart Surgery: A September to Remember

Baseball is a long season. At times, it is hard to get excited for any of the 162 games on the schedule. But as September dawns, the excitement of the approaching postseason begins to build as teams bear down for that final push towards the playoffs. There are many intriguing storylines to follow over the last month of this season, [read more...]

Beane’s Babies (Epstein, DePodesta) Stray from Theory

Perhaps it's better to work for a genius than to be one. You can take an ounce of credit for the strokes of brilliance and must merely sit in the audience at the resignation conference if they ever screw it all up. Paul DePodesta (Harvard) and Theo Epstein (merely Yale) used Moneyball whiz Billy Beane, Michael Lewis' anointed baseball new-age genius [read more...]

Cap Cures Pile Up Side Effects

Each year, baseball prophets, pundits, prognosticators and pinheads all agree on a few things:-There are only a handful of teams in clear contention for a World Series title. -There is a clear chasm between the haves and the have-nots. -George Steinbrenner and the Yankees get what they want. Red Sox owner John Henry, a good baseball man with spending habits second only to [read more...]

The Yankees are the Most American Team in History

I wrote a whole column a few months ago that basically said it was "unpatriotic" to root for the Red Sox or the Cubs. I ended up not running the piece because I felt it was too harshly inflammatory. I thought it was sort of written in a muck-raking style and I thought it was not appropriate for the period of [read more...]

Hart Surgery: The postseason, in nine parts

Sitting here watching the World Series, there are so many things I start to wonder about. Maybe it's because it takes like seven minutes for a guy to make one pitch, I'm not sure, but either way, this postseason has raised a ton of questions. So, I thought I would try to answer some of them, one for each inning of a baseball game. [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Playoff Time

Three things that make me mad about the baseball playoffs… 1. Adventures in mediocrity The recently completed baseball season has been lauded for providing incredible excitement in September, what with so many teams challenging for a playoff berth. Pardon me if my yawning gets too loud. What exactly is so exciting about a bunch of barely .500 teams duking it out [read more...]

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