Friday, April 27, 2007

Get Back To Me In A Week. . .


MMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmm. . . . I can hardly wait. . . .


TomC

Sock Controversy Update

(Mirabelli deserves better than this crap.)
(Francona should not talk to that tool, Gary Thorne.)

Mountains out of molehills. In Baltimore today, Gary Thorne said he misunderstood what Doug Mirabelli said, in context of clubhouse sarcastic jokes. Also he said he never meant to disparaged Schilling's name. So this was a whole bunch of nothing, just as I figured.

The Boston Globe's Take

Thorne Says It Was All A Misunderstanding.
By Jimmy Golen, AP Sports Writer

BOSTON --No paint, no ink, no ketchup.

Nothing but Curt Schilling's blood was seeping through his socks in the 2004 postseason, current and former Red Sox said Thursday after a rumor resurfaced that the pitcher milked his injury for drama while helping Boston end its 86-year title drought.

On Wednesday, Baltimore announcer Gary Thorne said during his broadcast of the Red Sox-Orioles game that Boston backup catcher Doug Mirabelli admitted it was a hoax.

"It was painted," Thorne said. "Doug Mirabelli confessed up to it after. It was all for PR."

Thorne backed off Thursday after talking to Mirabelli before the Red Sox played the Orioles. Thorne said Mirabelli had been joking.

"He said one thing, and I heard something else. I reported what I heard and what I honestly felt was said," Thorne said. "Having talked with him today, there's no doubt in my mind that's not what he said, that's not what he meant. He explained that it was in the context of the sarcasm and the jabbing that goes on in the clubhouse.

"I took it as something serious, and it wasn't," Thorne said.

Mirabelli confirmed the story, saying, "He knows that I believe 100 percent that I thought the sock had blood on it. It never crossed my mind that there wasn't blood on that sock. If he misinterpreted something said inside the clubhouse, it's unfortunate."

Mirabelli said he spoke with Thorne in the Boston clubhouse about six months after the 2004 playoffs.

"As he was walking away he asked, 'How about the bloody sock?' I said, 'Yeah, we got a lot of publicity out of that, and that was all he can recall me saying," Mirabelli said. "He said he assumed what I meant was that the sock was fake and that it was just a publicity stunt. That by no means is what I meant. There was never a doubt in mind there was blood on the sock."

After an ankle injury hampered Schilling in Game 1 of the '04 AL championship series against New York, team doctors jury-rigged a tendon in his right ankle to keep it from flopping around. With blood seeping through his sock, the pitcher came back to beat the Yankees in Game 6.

The Red Sox completed an unprecedented comeback from an 0-3 deficit to reach the World Series, and team doctor Bill Morgan repeated the procedure before Schilling's Game 2 start against St. Louis. Boston beat the Cardinals en route to a four-game sweep and its first championship since 1918.

The bloody sock has become symbolic of Boston's comeback, and the Red Sox don't take kindly to those who question its authenticity.

Red Sox president Larry Lucchino said the team "would not dignify (Thorne's) insinuations with extensive comment ... other than to remind everyone that we remain steadfastly proud of the courageous efforts by a seriously injured Curt Schilling -- efforts that helped lead the Red Sox to the 2004 World Series championship."

No stranger to the spotlight, Schilling is not afraid to say or do things that court controversy. The suggestion that he faked the injury to get attention has cropped up before, including a GQ magazine article that cited an anonymous Red Sox player as its source.

Schilling tried to settle things in his own blog this spring when a reader asked him to respond to claims by Yankee fans that the red stains were ketchup.

"Needless to say it was blood, my blood, and it was coming from the sutures in my ankle," Schilling wrote in a March 17 Q&A. "You're either stupid or bitter if you think otherwise."

Morgan, the doctor who performed the experimental procedure, said the accusation was "hard to fathom."

"Obviously, we put sutures in Curt Schilling's ankle right before he went out to pitch in a professional-level baseball game," Morgan said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press. "Sutures will pull with movement, and we completely expected a certain amount of blood to ooze from the wound. Socks are like sponges, and even a small amount of blood can soak a sock."

Baltimore's Kevin Millar, who played for the 2004 Red Sox, said, "It was 100 percent blood, no doubt about it. Why are we even talking about this?"

Los Angeles Angels shortstop Orlando Cabrera, who played on Boston's World Series team, also came to Schilling's defense.

"I was actually in the training room when he was getting the sutures, so I don't see no reason why he would have to paint blood on his sock," Cabrera said Thursday. "I don't know why people want to believe that it wasn't blood."

Schilling has said the sock from the Yankees game got tossed in the laundry. The one from the World Series is at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

"We have no reason to doubt Curt, who has a profound respect for the history of the game and is cognizant of his role as a history maker," Hall spokesman Jeff Idelson said. "The stain on the sock is now brown, which is what happens to blood over time."


For anyone who is interested, you can read CURT SCHILLING'S personal take, from his blog.

"
It was blood. You can choose to believe whatever you need to, but facts are facts. The 25 guys that were in that locker room, the coaches, they all know it. In the end nothing else really matters. The people that need to believe otherwise are people with their own insecurities and issues.

The only problem I have is this. If you look back, from the day of game six in the ALCS, through today, you won’t find a newspaper article, radio or TV interview in which I offered the blood, the sock, the game, any of it, as a topic. I haven’t talked about it since the post game interview room that night.

People have asked and I have answered, but the mileage the media got from the incident is all of their own making. When I walked into the room for the post game interviews and offered up my first response to the questions about the game I basically said that the night was a revelation for me. That my faith in God that evening showed me things I’d never believed.

As I uttered those words I could see pretty much every person in that room roll their eyes and smirk. That’s not what any of them wanted to hear, truth or not. That was not good copy. They needed more and what I didn’t give them, they got themselves."

I know, as a blogger, I might look a bit hypocritical for agreeing, but Schill's right. Doesn't anyone take people at their word anymore?


TomC

Beckett Improves To 5-0.

(Beckett is Pitching Like a Stud.)(Don't Throw Fastballs To Wily Mo Pena)(Papelbon Gets His 7th Save.)

On the back of another stellar performance by pitcher Josh Beckett, and some late heroics by reserve outfielder Wily Mo Pena (side note: who ever throws Pena a fastball? Ever? Are you daft??), the Red Sox came from behind to sweep the short, two game series against the Orioles in Baltimore last night, Winning 5-2. Beckett put up stellar numbers yet again:

8IP 8H 2ER oBB 3K

Also, he pitched efficiently (100 pitches, 73 strikes, no walks), something he had trouble with last year. He finally seems to be learning to pitch and not just throw through batters. His fifth win in April is the best start he has ever had. Wily Mo Pena crushed a Chris Ray fastball in the eighth 430+ feet for a grand slam, and all the offense the Red Sox would need. Jonathan Papelbon relieved Beckett, (now 5-0 with a 2.48 ERA on the young season), to slam the door in the ninth for his seventh save. He has yet to give up a run so far this season. What a great way to build momentum going into Yankee Stadium this weekend, against the Yankees, who have not won since last Thursday.

Fridays game features Daisuke Matsuzaka facing off against Andy Pettite.


Go Sox!

TomC

AVO 80th Belicoso

6" X 52

Country: Dominican Republic
Wrapper: Ecuadorian
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Piloto, San Vicente
Strength: Medium to Full Flavor, on the Full Side of Medium Strength

Appearance: What a pretty looking cigar! With a nice, rich, oily, milk chocolate colored wrapper with nary a vein or a blemish to be seen. This cigar had a beautiful sheen to it, and was just begging to be smoked.

Pre-Light: I took a little more time than usual with this one, and it really paid off. The first thing that struck me about this cigar was how fragrant it was. Giving it a slight whiff before clipping yielded a great earthiness. This cigar smelled like an open grassy field after a spring rain. I know this sounds ridiculously ornate, but it really did! Wet earth and damp grass, and for lack of a better term, "warmth" exuded from this cigar. Quite the little experience, I almost considered putting it back in the humidor so it imbue the whole box with this lovely aroma. But this stick was meant to burn! Clip was easy and smooth, ideal. The prelight draws were more of that great earthiness, and woodiness, and notes of leather and tobacco. I came away from this part expecting a superlative experience.

Burn/Draw: The draw on this cigar was free and easy, languid and producing lots of fragrant and beautiful smoke. Was as good as one could expect. Lighting was a breeze and a total non-issue. The burn was slow and straight and never deviating. The hallmark of a well made cigar, which this one obviously was. Another thing of note, this cigar burned SLOWLY! I smoked this cigar for well over an hour and a half, and probably could have gone on longer, if I wasn't a bit of the power smoking type.

Flavors: This cigar was just incredible. After an initial burst of spicy black pepper upon lighting, this cigar settled in fabulously. The dominant notes during the first third of this cigar were that amazing earthy notes that I detected pre light, along with a nice tangy/sweet undertone keeping the cigar for being too harsh. At the halfway mark or so, it took on some more traditional "cigar" notes: Old Leather, a tangy tobacco note, and some cedary woodiness. The earthiness was still there though, lurking not too far beneath. Over the last third the sweetness kind of faded away and the cigar became spicy and stronger, with notes of pepper, clove, and sage. Overall this was a command performance of a cigar, and even though I was smoking it for almost two hours, I was disappointed to have to put it down. If you get a chance to try one of these cigars, do so, you will not be let down.

TomC

Sublime!

Sublime was an American band from Long Beach, California. The band's music combined a mix of dub, punk, funk, reggae and hip hop. Sublime consisted of three members: Brad Nowell (vocals and guitar), Bud Gaugh (drums), and Eric Wilson (bass guitar). The band achieved major mainstream success with their self-titled third album; however, Nowell died of a heroin overdose shortly before it was released and the band broke up soon after. The band is still considered quite influential today. Worldwide, Sublime has sold 8 million albums.

Sublime began in 1988 in Long Beach, California as a Reggae/Rock/Punk band, Sublime grew to fame in the mid-'90s. They combined such genres as reggae, punk, and rap. The band released just two albums during its first seven years. Lead singer Brad Nowell died in May 1996, just two months before the release of their self-titled third record, which became a hugely successful release based on the single 'What I Got'.

Vocalist/guitarist Bradley Nowell, R.I.P, bassist Eric Wilson, and drummer Bud Gaugh played their first gig on the 4th of July 1988 at a small Long Beach club. The group began aggressively touring around the area with an increasingly substantial following, especially among the surf/skate beach crowd. After four years of concentrating strictly on live shows, Sublime's first album 40 Oz. to Freedom was recorded in 1992. The LP was released on Skunk Records -- the label formed by Nowell and Sublime manager Miguel -- and sold at shows, but it really started to break when KROQ began playing the single "Date Rape" two years after its initial release.

Mostly due to this radio exposure, Sublime signed to MCA for 1994's Robbin' the Hood, which revealed an experimental ethic more in keeping with cut-and-paste dub than the well-tuned rage of the Cali punk revival. The album performed well on college radio and set the stage for the breakout success of their third album, "Sublime". On May 25, 1996, however, Nowell was found in a San Francisco hotel room, dead of a heroin overdose. This came seven days after his wedding to Troy Denkker, who'd given birth to their son, Jakob. The band collapsed, but the album was still slated for a July release, so the obviously inappropriate "Killin' It" title was dropped and it was released as a self-titled album. On the strength of the alternative radio hit "What I Got," the album was certified gold by the end of 1996. A number of posthumous releases followed, among them 1997's Second-Hand Smoke, 1998's Stand by Your Van, and Sublime Acoustic: Bradley Nowell & Friends. A 3-CD/1-DVD box set of demos, rarities, and live recording, called Everything Under the Sun, was released on November 14, 2006. The music of Sublime is still being carried on by tribute bands such as "Wrong Way", "Sublemon" and "Badfish".

Following Sublime's demise, its surviving members, Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh, began a new band under the name "Long Beach Dub Allstars." This new band also included many frequent contributors to Sublime, including Michael "Miguel" Happoldt, Todd Foreman, and "Field" Marshall Goodman.

Discography:














RIP Bradley. . .

TomC