"That's great for us," he said. "That's like hearing my brother is back."
"You develop through experience," Manuel said before the game. "You develop relaxation, concentration, confidence ... all that comes together."
"Thank God I wasn't hitting righthanded because that would have hit me in the ribs," (David Ortiz) said.
Suffice it to say, the strike zone was expanded all game. Replays and Pitchf/x showed the pitch to Ortiz was well was outside.
We'll leave the final word to Dustin Pedroia:
"[The umpires] must have had a flight. I'm actually going to check on that," he said. "If they had a flight, we're going to make sure it was delayed. Because I can do that. I have that kind of pull."
At the game on Saturday, we noticed that the Phillies have a new screenshot for players.
The Philadelphia Zoo isn't new to the scoreboard, but it usually it features a frog (one of Christine's favorite critters), not a polar bear (one of mine).I've gotten the sense recently that the Phillies think they can sign Jayson Werth to a contract extension. It might be because they realize they have to have at least one right-handed bat in the middle of their lineup. But I don't think today's deal means Werth is gone. Now, if Werth wants a five-year, $100 million deal, yeah, the Phillies probably won't sign him to something like that. But if it's a fair deal -- the Roy Halladay, Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins contract extensions seemed to work out for both parties -- then I see a chance at Werth sticking around. They could use him, too.
Ryan Howard's new contract is a testament the enduring power of the Are-Bee-Eye. It's also a testament to old-school ignorance: ignorance of aging patterns, ignorance of position scarcity, ignorance of opportunity costs ... hey, take your pick. The Phillies have done a lot of things right over the last few years. But this is a big bowl of wrong.
Earlier this week, I mentioned the huge flag that was on the field during the Opening Day pregame ceremonies. Tonight, we present our little photo essay of how the flag was 1) unfurled; 2) displayed in all its glory; and 3) refurled.
With this, I conclude our leftover pictures from Opening Day.
It didn't matter because his teammates had his back - including a three-RBI game for Juan Castro and home runs by Placido Polanco and Chase Utley, who has gone deep in four consecutive games.
I covered Pedro when he was with the Mets. After his first season was over, he handed out business cards to the beat writers with his cell phone number in case we needed to contact him. They said "Pedro J. Martinez, Right-handed pitcher." What a character.
On an otherwise slow news day, two surprising stories broke late in the afternoon involving two of the longest-tenured members of the SoxandPhils:"Just seeing it in a different role and seeing how my body adapts to maybe the less pounding, the less physical grind, that might be a good time for me to transition," Varitek said. "I'm preparing as I always do, to be able to handle as much as i can. So I'll prepare for a full-time role even though it's dictated in another way. That way if something happens, I'm ready to go.
"I don't think I'll change my pride in my work. I don't think that's going to change, just maybe the playing time is going to change. It's also some dynamics of flexibility. We have a pretty dynamic lineup [with] a lot of moving parts. Don't know exactly how that's all going to play out. Know that going into it that Vic's going to play the majority of the time. For me, I kind of got in that role last year, so I had two months to kind of get used to it."
This year, the voters returned to Hudson, once again spurning Utley, who still doesn't have a Gold Glove despite being arguably the league's top defensive second baseman for five seasons running. And not over the last five seasons; I mean in each of the last five seasons.
Who cares, right? Well, someday Utley's going to be on a Hall of Fame ballot, and at least a few voters will say, "Gosh, I love the guy's hitting stats, but why didn't he win any Gold Gloves?"
The answer isn't that Utley wasn't a great fielder; the answer is that the Gold Glove voters just weren't paying attention.
Speaking of which, I'm not sure what to say about Matt Kemp and Shane Victorino. Kemp gets bonus points because he's a good hitter and he's fast and he's got a good arm, with the only problem being that Kemp doesn't make a particularly large number of plays, which is sort of the point of the thing.
Victorino didn't make a great number of plays this season, either. But one can almost forgive the voters, because Victorino was solid last season (when he won his first Gold Glove) and even better in 2007 as a right fielder. Players typically peak early as fielders, but Victorino's (apparent) decline has been precipitous, and I have a hard time holding the voters responsible for tracking Victorino.
Shockingly, the voters selected MVP candidates Joe Mauer, Mark Teixeira, and Derek Jeter, all of whom were probably solid defensively but might not have been the best fielders in the league (my choices at those positions were Gerald Laird, Kevin Youkilis, and Elvis Andrus). At second base, the voters chose Placido Polanco because he made only two errors all season. Polanco is a pretty good second baseman, but nowhere near as good as Dustin Pedroia, who won the award last year (and, coincidentally enough, was also the American League's MVP).
They actually came to me with a two-year. We were wondering they were going to pick up the option again and this kind of negates that. I think this is a fair deal. If I’m healthy, I’ll be able to make about as much as I did the other years. In essence, they gave me a two-year deal and that’s a huge plus for me.
"We're going to really look for Victor to be the everyday catcher next year," Epstein said. "What puts us in the best position to win is for Victor catching as much as he can. The spot we'll have available is for more of a traditional backup. We'll see what Tek's (Jason Varitek) decision is before we move forward. He's got five days to exercise his player option. You can always negotiate but in this case it's his decision to make."
I've always thought [calling a game] was a little bit overrated. (Martinez is) an All-Star catcher. I believe there's value in guys who call a good game, but I think now that Victor has caught a few guys a few times he's calling good games. Sometimes that's made a little bit more of than it should be, again, not because it's not important, but I believe an All-Star-type catcher can learn his staff. He caught the Indians and they had a pretty damn good pitching staff. It's not like he's doing something for the first time.
The big thing is, you can have the ability to hit, but if you don't relax, it's tough. If you're a player, man, you want to do good. When you don't, it's tough. Now, I'm hitting the ball gap-to-gap, and it has been good again.
He's got 35 RBIs. I think he could do better than that.
It didn't surprise me they let me go. After four years, they never recognized that I was actually a way-above-average defensive catcher. When my role became righthanded pinch-hitter off the bench, and I wasn't doing well in that role, it made sense. But what I never did understand was that I lost my job as a backup catcher, because in my mind I didn't do anything to lose it.
"Don't want to get too far ahead of myself, but that would be an honor to be mentioned in the same way as Tony C," said the Haverhill native. "He's a Boston hero and I heard a lot about him growing up in the Boston area."
Question: As a veteran pitcher, did Penny ever think about this on his own while he was getting drilled over his last 10 starts with Boston?
White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen loves Floyd, and while he's placed the ace label on Buehrle, he said Floyd has pitched "tough games" for him the last two years. "When we most need him, he shows up," said Guillen. "This kid is so consistent. When he's out there in those situations, you're going to see who's tough. He goes out and dominates."
"I was coming in to some circus music," Lidge said. "That's about right."
Gary Matthews' hat collection is available at the Majestic Clubhouse Store, but I told him yesterday that I could not pull off the Sarge hat look. I just don't think I have the cool factor to do it. Sarge assured me that I did, which I thought was nice of him to say.
But then I remembered he's trying to sell hats. Why I oughta (shaking my fist in the air) ...
Mike Schmidt topped a recent David Ortiz-inspired list of great ball players who suddenly lost it. Christine and I were discussing this yesterday, wondering whether Big Papi could follow Michael Jack's path and abruptly retire amid early season struggles."I was about to hit righthanded," he admitted.
"I feel like I got my confidence back," Ortiz said after the game. "I feel like a real hitter, not like the punch and judy hitter I've been the first 40 games ... swing like a man."
Mike Schmidt was 39 years old, in a slump, playing for a Phillies team destined for another last-place finish.
Nobody had a clue that within a week he would stun even those closest to him by abruptly announcing his retirement.
Six days later, standing near third base at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, he was about to make one of the biggest decisions of his baseball life. It was a sun-splashed Memorial Day weekend Sunday. All he needed was an omen.
[...]
Then, just like in the movies, it happened.
The score was tied at three in the bottom of the fourth. The Giants had runners on first and second with two outs when Robby Thompson hit a grounder right at third, the kind of play Schmidt had made countless times on his way to winning 10 Gold Gloves.
Except this time, the ball went through his legs for an error to load the bases. Mike Maddux relieved starter Ken Howell. And the next batter, Will Clark, hit a grand slam.
"And I'm thinking, 'I'm really getting nothing out of this. We're not a very good team. I'm not playing near to the level that I'm comfortable with. What do I do now?'" Schmidt said.
