I'm stupid, but not the only one

I've enjoyed having the son of a former major leaguer as a touted prospect for the Red Sox. It has given me several opportunities to reminisce about the time in high school that I was fully decked out in Red Sox garb to interview then-Yankees second baseman Pat Kelly during a mall autograph signing.

Unfortunately, the Boston Herald's Jom Tomase says the guy I interviewed is not the father of Red Sox prospect Casey Kelly. Don't get your inner Maury Povich in a tizzy - it just happens that there were two, actually three, former major leaguers named Pat Kelly. Tomase implies the mix-up happens often:

First off, Casey Kelly’s dad is not that Pat Kelly.

While the Red Sox farmhand is the son of a big leaguer, it’s not the one who spent most of his nine-year career playing second base for the Yankees.

It’s the Pat Kelly who spent nearly eight years in the minors before finally earning the call to the big leagues for a career that lasted all of five days. The elder Kelly debuted in Fenway Park for the Blue Jays on May 28, 1980 and recorded a pair of singles off Bob Stanley that went down as the only two hits of his career. Two games later, the catcher was done, leaving the game after seven at-bats and with a career .286 average.

Oops. That's probably the biggest mistake I've made on this blog. Well, at least the worst since I told Christine that Pablo Sandoval qualified as a rookie in 2009 when she was making her preseason predictions. I think the Kelly screw-up is worse. Christine would agree except my mistake with Pablo made her look bad.

I apologize to all involved. For the record, here's the baseball-reference pages for the Kellys - both related and not related:

Casey Kelly, the son.

Pat Kelly, the father.

Pat Kelly, not the father.

Pat Kelly, an unrelated All-Star outfielder who played from 1967 to 1981. He was born in Philadelphia and is a brother-in-law to Andre Thornton.

Casey Kelley, some unknown minor leaguer who played in the Angels system a decade ago.

Former Phillies backup outfielders: SoxandPhils Matt Stairs signed a minor league deal with the Padres and appears to have a shot to make the team. ... So Taguchi, who "won the World Series with both the Cardinals and the Philadelphia Phillies," is going back to Japan.

Off day

Although the playoffs ended with joy in our house for the second straight year, they make for a pretty tiring month if you closely follow five of the seven playoff rounds, as we did this year.

So today was largely a baseball-free day - except for when I played a few minutes of a game I recorded on the DVR and bought the special Phillies championship edition of Sports Illustrated.

Things haven't been so quiet for the squads. The Red Sox brought back one of their legends for 2009, while the Phillies said goodbye to four of theirs.

The Red Sox picked up Tim Wakefield's 2009 option, bringing him back for a 15th season. Although he was shelled in the playoffs, he remains one of the better pitchers in the league, and if age suddenly catches up with him, he only cost $4 million.

The Phillies, meanwhile, sadly dumped two of their all-time greats. They declined options on Tom Gordon and So Taguchi. We didn't mention it, but did anyone find it odd how Flash was in the middle of the screen every time the cameras showed the clubhouse celebration on Wednesday? And where was Adam Eaton?

Two other guys who actually played major roles in making the Phillies World Champions are leaving. Pat Gillick, who seemed to hint at a return on the podium Friday, will be replaced by Ruben Amaro Jr. Mike Arbuckle, apparently tired of getting passed over, will leave the organization.

Don't forget to set your clocks back.

A perfect ending to the regular season

Today was our last Sunday regularly scheduled home game of the year - Fan Appreciation Day at Citizens Bank Park.

It was a hybrid of Appreciation Days years ago when the Phillies were long eliminated and last year when it was a thrilling all-or-nothing gambit for the division.

With the Phillies minted as repeat division champs, they trotted out the likes of So Taguchi, Greg Golson and Les Walrond. Jayson Werth and Ryan Howard got pinch-hit at-bats, but other than that, the closest any regular got to the field was an opening greeting to the fans before the game to toast their title, thank the fans and pump them up for the playoffs.

Jimmy Rollins might have been a little too pumped up. He wants to win the division series, which begins Wednesday against the Brewers, and the World Series, but forgot all about the league championship series he needs to win in between. One game at a time, J-Roll.

Most of the drama came from watching the scoreboard to see whom the 2008 National League Eastern Champion Phillies would open against - the Dodgers if the Mets won the Wild Card or the Brewers if the Mets collapsed.

The Brewers trailed 1-0 for most of the game, but came away with a 3-1 win with a complete game from CC Sabathia - no word whether his arm has fallen off yet. The Mets, of course, did finish their collapse. I wish we could have seen the post-game festivities when they closed Shea Stadium today.

Despite a lineup that resembled an Independent League team, the Phillies game, an 8-3 win over the Nationals, did warrant the post-game fireworks that these guys worked so hard to set up - especially two home runs in the 8th to put the game away.

Kyle Kendrick started strong, retiring the first six, but was removed after giving up three runs in four innings. So Taguchi tried to make the playoff roster by going 3-5 with a triple and three RBIs. Pinch-hitting in the 6th, Ryan Howard poked a soft little grounder to the opposite field to beat the shift for a single. Walrond was the deserving winner - striking out four in two innings with two hits and no runs. But the player of the game, judging from the fact he was being interviewed in the dugout afterwards, was catcher Lou Marson, who made his big-league debut.

The 22-year-old went 2-4 with a two-run homer in the 8th. It took me a moment to figure out why fans were booing. (They're not booing, they're saying Boo-urns.) One day we'll tell the kids how we were at the big-league debut of the great Lou Marson. Unimpressive was Golson, 0-4 with three strikeouts and a run on a fielder's choice. He also looked a bit lost in center field, often taking a wrong first step on fly balls.

Observations from the stands: Van Halen's Standing on Top of the World has become the Phillies playoff celebration song - they played it after clinching last year, clinching this year and again today when the team took the field. ... The Central Bucks High School Chorus, directed by Joseph Ohrt, sang the anthem. ... Not only was Marson the star of the game, he resurrected Pat Burrell's old intro song, Holy Diver by Dio. We were psyched and so were the guys behind us. We wondered whether Pat the Bat was pranking the rook. ... A healthy dose of boos sounded whenever someone in a suite or a prime seat in the lower level won a prize. (The Phillies give out prizes throughout the game to random ticket holders.)

A sign in the stands endorsed Jamie Moyer for president with convincing arguments: He's smart, a proven leader, experienced and wins battles. ... Terry Pier, a Phillies hostess, sang God Bless America in the 7th. Then, for some reason, the park didn't go to Take Me Out to the Ballgame. Kudos to the fans in the 400 level who started singing it among themselves unprompted. ... Walking out of the stadium, the Phanatic shot a T-shirt right over my head - not close enough to touch, but close enough to get my heart pumping. ... We had a mostly dry game; although there was some lighting and thunder in the 9th inning, the rains held up until we were walking to the car. The heavy stuff didn't hit until we were under cover.


When we left the stadium, the Mets were in the 8th inning while CC was still finishing off the Cubs in the 9th. When we got in the car, the Brewers had won and the Mets, who just finished the bottom of the 8th, were trailing 4-2 thanks to a homer by former forgettable Phil Wes Helms, who is also a former Brewer. Judging by the picture above, the Mets knew they were done. Even the announcer said the Mets fans couldn't will themselves to believe there would be a miracle in Shea's final moments. The crowd sounded dead on the radio broadcast. Early in the day, I predicted one of the New York tabloids would use "Shea it ain't so" if the Mets lost. Both did.

We won't go too hard on our friends from Flushing today. They had to endure the loss of a season and their stadium and whatever pride they had left after last year. So we'll conclude the last day of the 2008 regular season with a photo of their proudest moment of 2008 - the celebration Saturday after Johan Santana saved their season. I wonder how his former team is doing.


Red Sox: They lost to the Yankees, who are going for the sweep tonight. I'm more bummed that I'm going to lose my last fantasy league to a welcher.

[Photo credits: Associated Press]

Lidge tried, but couldn't blow his first save as a Phil

After Shane Victorino's three-run homer in the 8th gave the Phillies a 5-2 lead over the Cardinals, it seemed like a safe lead for the usually dependable bullpen.

But Chad Durbin, J.C. Romero, Ryan Madson and Brad Lidge weren't at their best in the 8th and 9th, allowing the Cardinals to load the bases in each inning before Lidge got out of his own jam: Phillies 5, Cardinals 4.

Because of the ugliness of the pen and the offense's late arrival to the party, Brett Myers' second good start in a row may be overshadowed: two earned, four hits, no walks and three strikeouts in six innings.

Since there has been talk that J.A. Happ is in Philadelphia because brass might want him to replace Myers or Joe Blanton in the rotation, each of the young veterans has pitched well. I'm willing to waste Happ's developmental time if it's the push these two starters need.

The competitors both lost, so the Phils have some breathing room heading into their series against the second-place Marlins, who trail by 2.5 games. The Astros, led today by former Phillie Randy Wolf, completed a sweep of the Mets for the first time since 1993, leaving the Mets three games out.

So what: I can understand a player getting one, I repeat one, standing ovation from the crowd if he used to play in a city. But I don't get the St. Louis fans going nuts every time So Taguchi pinch hits against the Cardinals. Tonight was especially inexcusable because he came up in the 7th with two men on and the Cardinals up by a run. Christine and I rooted for him to turn those cheers into jeers, but he didn't come through.

Red Sox: Three in a row for the new-look Red Sox as they completed a sweep of the A's with a 5-2 win. Another good game for Jason Bay (2-4 with two runs). Jed Lowrie is getting plenty of RBI opportunities hitting behind the new guy.

I'm probably overly critical of Daisuke Matsuzaka. He pitched well today: two earned, four hits, two walks, eight strikeouts in six innings. He wasn't terribly inefficient at 105 pitches. He didn't come out for the 7th after a rain delay.

The competitors both had dramatic comeback wins, so the Sox didn't improve their standings. (I incorrectly read the standings yesterday - I've had a lot on my mind.) They trail the Rays by three and lead the Wild Card by two over the White Sox and 2.5 over the Yankees.

Back to Bay-seball

Now that the Red Sox are a team again, it's time to refocus the blog back on the field, especially since new left fielder Jason Bay had a memorable debut tonight - scoring both runs in a 2-1, 12 inning win over the Athletics.

{Yes, Greg has been glossing over the fact that before tonight, the Phillies were playing good baseball on the field as a team. It matters only when Boston plays well.}

In the 12th, Bay came up with two outs and tripled. After J.D. Drew was intentionally walked, Jed Lowrie hit an infield single to end the game.

Before the game, Theo Epstein said the players felt like a team again. I'm sure a win like this will only solidify those feelings and let them forget the cloud that has been over them.

The Sox remain three games behind the Rays, but expanded their Wild Card lead to 1.5 over the Twins and 3.5 over the Yankees.

Phillies: Not so good tonight. They couldn't gain ground on the Mets and Marlins, who both lost. They still lead the Mets by one game and the Marlins by 1.5, but on a night when Cole Hamels matched up against Kyle Lohse, the young ace should have been able to beat the guy who is having a fluky good year.

Lohse wasn't dominant but kept his Cardinals in the game while young Cole got knocked around for the second straight start. Cardinals 6, Phillies 3.

We couldn't believe the ovation the Cardinals fans gave So Taguchi. Man, if they love him that much, I'm sure the Phils could have dealt him back.

[Photo credit: Associated Press]

That's more like it

If you were in a coma and missed the Phillies-Mets rivalry in 2007, tonight's game was a pretty good replica.

After Johan Santana gave the Mets fans the kind of "signature" performance they'd been clamoring for all day on WFAN and Joe Blanton was officially inducted into the realm of sucky Phillies pitchers, the Mets led 5-2 in the 9th.

The Phillies were at a disadvantage because Billy Wagner was unavailable because of a muscle spasm. Despite the absence of their favorite whipping boy, the Phillies rallied. Jayson Werth, Greg Dobbs and Shane Victorino all singled to load the bases for Carlos Ruiz. Chooch hit a slow roller in front of second base. Jose Reyes picked it up, but Victorino beat him to the base and everyone was safe, 5-3 Mets.

Up next, pinch-hitter So Taguchi - the league's best pinch hitter last year, 0-16 in such situations this year. He doubled, tying the game. Jimmy Rollins, a fan favorite at Shea, doubled in two more runs and moved to third on a Chase Utley groundout. After Pat Burrell was intentionally walked, Ryan Howard hit one that bounced off the pitcher, allowing J-Roll to score, Phils up 8-5.

Brad Lidge allowed a run in the 9th, but nailed down the win. First-place Phils 8, second-place (tied with the Marlins) Mets 6.

Red Sox: Behind a good performance by ace Jon Lester, the Sox won last night in Seattle and can pull to a half game of the Rays tonight. They're up 1-0 in the 4th. Daisuke Matsuzaka made it through three innings with only 36 pitches.

[Photo credit: Associated Press]

Ugly win for Phils; hideous loss for the Sox

"I'm tired of the Phillies being stuck in jams and sucking," Christine said before Brad Lidge struck out Josh Hamilton and Milton Bradley to end the game with the potential tying run on base.

And that quote summed up tonight's game - a rare win for the Phillies, 8-6 over the Rangers.

Cole Hamels didn't have his best stuff but labored for seven innings, giving up four runs. Fortunately, he was matched up against Vicente Padilla, who pitched like he did when he was a Phillie. And we may have a legitimate sighting of the offense - every starter except Pat Burrell had a hit. Chase Utley had three, including a homer, and Ryan Howard also hit one out. Jimmy Rollins tried to stretch a triple into a homer in the 6th, but ran through a stop sign and was thrown out at home. Wonder if he's due for another benching.

Funny moments in the broadcast: Chris Wheeler on Hamels' pitch count at the start of the 7th: "He's thrown 193 pitches." I think he forgot to clarify that it was actually only 93 pitches. Not even Dusty Baker would leave a young ace out there for 193 pitches. ... In the dugout, Brett Myers put on a catchers mask (hmm, with the way he's pitching, maybe not such a terrible idea). He then gave it to So Taguchi, who also put it on. We'd love to hear the conversation between those two.

Stinky Sox: Ugly, ugly, ugly game for what may be the second-place Red Sox. Jon Lester entered with 11 straight starts of three earned runs or less - the longest for a Sox starter since Pedro Martinez in 2002-03. Lester gave up six in five innings tonight in a wild back and forth 11-10 loss to the Astros.

The offense, paced by four hits each by Dustin Pedroia and Mike Lowell, more than did its job. Lester gets a pass - he's entitled to a bad start every couple of months. But the bullpen? Two runs, one earned, for David Aardsma in the 7th, and three for Manny Delcarmen in the 8th.

The Rays are tied with the Pirates in the 13th inning. If they win, the Red Sox are once again the hunters.

A night to miss

We had a party to attend this evening, so we missed the Red Sox playing the Cardinals on Fox. We didn't miss much. Daisuke Matsuzaka, returning from the DL, lost for the first time this year, 9-3. He didn't make it out of the 2nd, giving up seven runs in 1+ inning.

The lead over the Rays is now a half game, which is amazing because the Sox have been on a tear despite a rash of injuries. Today's loss snaps a streak in which the Sox have won six straight series - in the last four, they've lost the first game and then won the next two. Also making a move is the Yankees - just 4.5 games behind the Rays for the Wild Card.

The slumping Phillies (three wins in their last 11 games and four straight series losses) still lead the division by one game. Although the disastrous Mets, who I'm sure would love revenge for last year, lurk only four games out.

So in case you couldn't guess it already, the Phils lost again. Brett Myers wasn't awful, but why send a pitcher struggling with his psyche out in the 8th inning of a tie game? Did you expect different results?

After the 8th inning ended, I was hoping the Phillies would make a comeback in the 9th against Francisco Rodriguez, which would be a double treat for us. First, a Phillies win. Second, good news for my suddenly beleaguered fantasy team, which is playing a team with K-Rod on it. But So Taguichi blew it with an error in the top of the inning, and the Angels took a 6-2 lead. After the Phillies pretended to pose a threat against Jose Arredondo, K-Rod came in and ended the game on four pitches.

Cole Hamels goes tomorrow. We're confident they'll win, but the next four...

What a day

From South Jersey to North Jersey for a noon Communion, to Philadelphia for the finale of the Mets-Phillies series, and back home for a few hours sleep before work. We had a long Sunday. Here are the details:

5:24 a.m. - I wake. I want to get up and go for a walk, but I had promised Christine I wouldn't. I roll over and accidentally kick her. It's not going to be a good day.

5:57 - I wake up again, relieved because I didn't think I'd fall back asleep. My mind doesn't properly compute the time and I think it's 7, not 6. Back to bed for another hour.

6:57 - I finally wake up for real. Do my morning sit-ups. Christine wakes up. We have bagels, pack up in case we don't have time to come home and change, and are out the door at 10:04.



11:37 - We arrive at the church; mass starts at noon.

12:15 p.m. - Christine remembers why we worship at the church of baseball. Services drag more than a Red Sox-Yankees game.

12:29 - During the part of mass where we're supposed to pray for specific dead or sick people, I pray for Adam Eaton. Immediately, I realize I should have prayed for Jimmy Rollins.

1:13 - Church ends. Picture-taking ends at 1:35, and we arrive at the restaurant 15 minutes later after getting some bad directions.

4:00 - We leave the party so we can stop at home to get changed before the game.

4:47 - While listening to the Yankees game, the announcers mention Alex Rodriguez's injury - another victim of the 2007 MVP jinx. And we don't even know yet that J-Roll was DL'd.

5:57 - We get home, change and are out the door at 6:18. Three minutes later, Christine says we're going to switch our ballpark seats because of last week's beer incident. We park at 6:44.

7:01 - Inside the stadium, a squirrel runs in front of us and under a sausage stand. We've never seen a squirrel in Citizens Bank Park before. Three minutes later, while buying a scorecard, I notice they sell Red Sox yearbooks. I buy one to match the 2005 championship edition.

7:58 - Mets fans boo a Richie Ashburn tribute; I don't think even Yankee fans are that classless. Minutes later, they refrain from booing during a moment of silence for John Marzano.

8:15 - Drunk guy from last week feigns an apology; turns out he dropped something again (his ticket) and needs me to get it from under my seat.

8:26 - Chase Utley homers, giving hope that we may actually see a win.

8:46 - Big cheer when they display the score from the 76ers surprise comeback win against the Pistons. (I don't understand why they don't post running scores in the park when baseball games coincide with playoff hockey and basketball.)

8:50 - Mets fans do the Jose soccer chant for Jose Reyes; Phillies fans tauntingly sing it back after he flies out.

9:25 - Kyle Kendrick appears on the big board wishing a happy birthday to all.

9:45 - Utley homers again, giving the Phillies a 4-0 lead, which seems like it may be enough.



9:53 - Mets fans do the Jose chant again; Phils fans can only boo in response after he triples.

9:55 - A cute little kid who spent the game looking through a pack of baseball cards taps me on the shoulder. "Are you a Mets fan?" he asks. "No," I reply to his satisfaction.

10:00 - The prayer didn't work. Eaton is removed without retiring a batter in the sixth. Game is tied by inning's end.

10:13 - We don't know J-Roll or Chris Snelling was DL'd before the game. We add to the chorus of "Who?" when T.J. Bohn is announced as a pinch hitter.

10:37 - Pedro Feliz hits a pinch-hit homer, seconds after Christine cringes that he's in the game. She apologizes.



10:47 - Charlie Manuel does his usual move of pinch-running So Taguchi for Pat Burrell in the 7th inning. Only problem, he waits a whole at-bat before making the move. It's like he's teasing us that he may actually leave Burrell in.

10:59 - So Taguchi misplays a single into a double for Raul Casanova. And Burrell would have botched it worse, how?

11:23 - After a little scare, Brad Lidge ends the game with a great (lucky) play by Eric Bruntlett. The ump hesitates, almost teasing the crowd before calling Carlos Beltran out. Guy in my row starts yelling at me that Bruntlett's the MVP. The play is the Web gem of the night, we later learn.

12:57 - In bed and lights out.

Random notes from the stands: Eaton led off the bottom of the 3rd with a walk. Werth grounded into a fielder's choice that could have been a double play if not for Eaton's hard slide into second. It didn't lead to any runs, but it was good, hard base running by a pitcher. ... Ryan Howard actually made some nice plays in the field. ... A kid in front of us had a sign - the back said "Mets suck," but we never got to see the front. He also wore a mask and gloves to look like a skeleton. He kept putting them on and off all night. We called him Skeletor. ... It was painfully cold and windy again.

Day's stats:
-235 miles driven
-5 hours in the car
-1.5 hours in church
-4 hours in the ballpark
-2 wins, 1 each from Red Sox and Phillies
-2 tired SoxandPhils contributors

Nomo-mania II

I forgot yesterday to mention the small-print news of the week, Hideo Nomo, the last Red Sox since Derek Lowe, err Clay Buchholz, to pitch a no-hitter, is going to try a comeback with the Kansas City Royals.

In honor of this, and the champs opening the title defense in Asia, here's my ranking of the Sox/Phils Japanese players:

1) Hideki Okajima. According to public opinion, he was signed to ease Dice-K's transition, but he turned into a shut-down reliever, an All-Star, and the #2 guy in the pen for the World Champions.

2) Dice-K. I was thinking about giving Nomo the nod here, but Nomo was just about league average during his year in Boston. Though, maybe he should get bonus points for also being a Phillie for a day in 1999. Nonetheless, Dice did pitch well, though a little disappointing, especially in the playoffs when he averaged less than 5 innings per start. We expect more this year.

3) Nomo. Like I said, about league average, but threw a no-hitter in his first start for Boston.

4) Tadahito Iguchi. Solid contributor for his 45 games with the Phils last year. Filled in admirably after Chase Utley broke his hand.

5) Tomokazu Ohka/So Taguchi. This list has a couple of stars, but then it's slim pickings. I can't decide between these two. One had 6 wins for the Sox before being traded to the Expos for a pre-felonious Ugueth Urbina. The other is a scrubby backup outfielder who's coming to the Phils this season after six years in St. Louis.

Honorable mention: If I knew this, I had forgotten that Dave Roberts -- he of the most important stolen base in history -- was born in Japan. I won't count him, but if I did he would rank 2 or 3 and I would entertain arguments for #1.

In other sports: Got three of four of the football games. Darn Redskins.

Baseball Mogul update: Didn't do that trade with Seattle. But made a couple swaps [Gordon, Burrell, Lieber, and four scrubs for Manny Corpas, Ubaldo Jimenez and Garrett Atkins] and then [Eaton, Coste and Geary] for Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Christine wasn't thrilled with the first one, but she's couldn't get me to hit "accept" fast enough with the prospect of getting rid of Adam Eaton, even in a computer game. She didn't even consider her usual objections to trading with a division rival.

So far, the verdict's out... Phils have gotten off to their real-life slow start... at .500 on May 3, but only 2 games behind the Braves. I'm a little concerned that Cole Hamels would prefer a higher rotation slot on the Royals. I don't get it either.