Thursday 7/11/24
In football, the name of the game is one game at a time. Basketball is a game of runs. In hockey, the name of the game is one shift at a time (which is a good way to live your life). In baseball, the name of the game is winning series. Win series, and you're all set.
The Red Sox dropped the second game of their series against the Athletics last night after winning the first. The A's aren't good. Doesn't really matter. You don't need sweeps--though sweeps are nice--you need to win series. You're not going to sweep bad teams every time out. Everyone gets to win in the sport of baseball. It's the percentage at which you win that matters.
The Sox have Tanner Houck on the mound tonight. He struggled with his command during his last start, which featured a rain delay. That can throw you off. Would like to see him rebound tonight in his last start before the All-Star break, with the Sox taking the series before their big weekend match-up with the Kansas City Royals, with whom they're battling for the final Wild Card Spot at present. Win tonight, take that Royals series, All-Star break, then have at it in what should be an exciting "second half."
People who are really into baseball history have a guy or two who isn't in the Hall of Fame whom they'd go to the wall for in terms of voicing Hall of Fame support. Today I saw one of these people making his case for Jimmy Wynn. I like Jimmy Wynn, but he wasn't a Hall of Famer. Not enough hits for someone who played his position. Among other things.
I'll tell you who my main two guys are that I support in this fashion: Bill Freehan and Ken Boyer. I don't think they're borderline either but rather clear-cut Hall of Famers. There are other players I think should be enshrined, of course. A long time ago I mentioned that I'd write an entry on here about the best player not to even make the Hall of Fame ballot. I haven't forgotten. He should be in, too. Hint: He was a shortstop.
Speaking of shortstops (and Red Sox' shortstops, to provide a second hint as to the above): Has any Red Sox player ever had such a fall from fame as Nomar Garciaparra? He was as popular a figure as the Red Sox had over a good stretch of years from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, and Pedro Martinez was on a bunch of those teams, too. You never hear anyone bring up Garciaparra. On the street, in sports conversations, on the NESN broadcast. I think people see him now as a blight on the team that had to be gotten rid of in order for the 2004 squad to win the franchise's first championship in eighty-six years. That tanked Garciaparra's Boston legacy.
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