... And the livin' is easy...

Your omniscient author in absentia:
As I mentioned yesterday, I've managed to create another long, summer weekend, so taking the day off today in order to make my way to a secluded, bucolic (soxabucolix?) retreat.

See you back here on Monday, and go easy on the Sriracha.

 

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Comments

[Natalie]

Aw, thanks for the Porgy and Bess Summertime title: my father used to sing that song to us as kids before bed. Sweet memories tripping through my head.


Enjoy the bucolic retreat, hb. I guess this means we don't have to spend our Sunday afternoon at Pete's speculating whether you are incognito in the bar somewhere. :)

[yazbread]

Summertime, and your mother is easy.

[Classic 'Ball Four' line].

[Bob]

I think H.B. will be behind the bar at Pete's on Sunday. After tying-up Linda, putting her in the basement, shaving off her hair, creating a wig from it, stealing her clothes, and swapping-out her vocal cords.

(He watches a lot of Dateline with Keith Morrison.)

Regarding Papi.

At work, and even on this creepy site, I've been called an a-hole, a know-it-all, and a couple of Swedish words I don't understand.

But I've nver been called a hypocrite.

If what's been reported is true, Papi is a cheater. Period.

If I call A-Rod, A-Fraud because of his steroid use, I can't change standards.

The sad thing is, I really love that big buffoon.

I hope and pray it's just a chemical reaction between Domincan shrimp and masa or something, but I suspect it's not.

I'll never boo him, but I don't know if I can ever cheer him again either.

But to all the Yankee fans out there (including the two in this office who read this site), saying that the 2004 ALCS was tainted is a a joke. Look who was on your team.

Sadly, I guess the best I can say about that is, our steroid team beat your steroid team.

[Natalie]

Bob, that's the best anyone can say: our steroid team beat your steroid team. I think we just need to concede the past decade+ was PED-riddled, make the system zero-tolerance going forward, eradicate them, and usher in a new era. My brother is gloating that at least his Yankees' rings aren't tainted because they didn't test positive before they won. The holes in that sentiment are so huge the morbidly obese could walk through them without getting stuck, but they are pervasive. Can we just now release the whole fucking list, and move on?


Um, more importantly, trading deadline today and NOTHING? Come ON Theo!

[louclinton]

in re: juice

fuck 'em

love you, love the show

lc

[Abby]

Oh, Bob!

I'm so excited to meet all of the Soxaholix at Pete's on Sunday!

You'll all get to meet our "Flower Girl" Linda.... although you must call her "Matlida"! And don't worry... she's the first to admit that she's going to be in Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest flower girl in history!

[louclinton]

have fun, kids

[Bob]

Abby uses exclamation points like she eats Skittles.

Love you, Sweetie.

[Abby]

this is true on all counts!!!!!!!!!!

I have no teeth as a result!!!!!!!!!

[louclinton]

oh boy, too easy.

[Bob]

L.C., you seem like a man who probably has some sort of undetectable poison in his garage. I hear the heavy-metals work fastest, but show up in lab tests, so I was looking for something a little more, uh, subtle.

You know my email.

Hi Abby!

[Bob]

Oh, BTW, the Red Sox won yesterday.

[louclinton]

i don't have a garage

[Steve]

Yankees are in first place, and the Red Sox Championship teams of 2004 and 2007 have a big juicy asterisk next to each. Convenient time for this blog to be on vacation.

[Bob]

Steve's the kind of mook who goes to a funeral, drinks too much by 10:07 AM, then pukes into the coffin, laughs, and goes, "whoo! Whoo!"

Read my comment above, a-hole, if you can.

You actualy think the Skanees are clean? They're had more players outed than the gay community.

[Billy Mahty]

I find this whole thing pretty sad. I really like Ortiz, and always respected the Manny-Ortiz duo. It's a shame that these players had to do this, just it's a shame that Clemens and A-Rod did as well.
The championships are tainted -- sure, your steroids team beat our steroids team, but that just shows that maybe another team should have won the WS that year. Or maybe another group of guys should have been playing on the Sox and the Yanks.
Does Bonds' home run record have an asterisk next to it? How can it not?
In fairness to players who weren't doping, not everyone did it. But it was clearly pervasive, and this kind of cheating is probably still going on in a big way.
My view is that in 5-10 years we'll all be taking crazy legal and safe supplements that will augment us in ways we haven't dreamed of. And this whole steroids chapter itself will be an asterisk.

[Nolasox]

....Trolls are thumpin
and the panic is nigh
Our Papi's rich
But now not so clean looking
Hush curly bastard, won't you die.

[Go Sox. Go Heels. Yankees suck. Dook sucks.]

The best part of all this is that Canseco is just sitting back saying "I told you so." It's funny how nobody wanted to believe him, but here we are.

[Natalie]

//"Hush curly bastard, won't you die."//


OMG, I am dying laughing, NolaSox. That is classic.

[Nolasox]

Nat, looking forward to meeting you on Sun. That line took me the longest to come up with but then I thought about who I wanted to shut up the most.

[Sean]

Hey guys,

First post.

LOVE the blog. Sorry about the Steroids mess. Gotta say though - I'm thinking those heavy hitting Rangers were pretty juiced in the late 90's - so ah, what's the theory on juicers who don't win championships?

I'm sure this argument is old, but if I take steroids it ain't gonna turn me into Manny.

Besides, I don't have enough hair for dreadlocks.

Point is - right now the talent of hitting, catching and throwing is so much more subtle than steroids can fully account for. But even if I really believed that steroids imbued users with talent I think the main reason steroids causes a 'taint' is because steroids are dangerous - and MLB players are "role-models".

Forget about "performance enhancement" if caffeine caused man-tits Baseball would make it illegal. (But only after Theo stayed up one too many nights calculating the SLG and OBP of every player in the baseball universe - twice.)

This has nothing to do with performance. It has to do with not alienating an already fragile core-cash-cow: young folks. Who here is younger than (let's be generous) thirty?

I mean, I know some kids who watch baseball, but steroids scare the shiznit out of parents.

Rant over. (thanks for hearing me out)

Again, thanks for the blog - this is a very cool baseball website.

Sean

[louclinton]

welcome aboard, sean. You're too literate for my tastes

[Sean]

uh...

http://www.pegasusnews.com/photos/2007/dec/13/13021/

I'm speechless.

[Harwich Rich]

I thought you were Sean :o

[sonomasox]

if we asterisk all WS rings from '89 on (as mentioned on BBTN) then we need to do the same to all the guys that took amphetamines from '39 - '89.

I ripped Bonds out here because it was fun, but in the same breath would say steroids can't assist some ridiculous eye/hand coordination.

And, who cares, the MFY lost last night and RS won! To the rest - go screw yourself.

And Nola - that was brilliant.

[ponch in jerz]

bob -
'You actualy think the Skanees are clean? They're had more players outed than the gay community'

outstanding. Give yourself a cookie.

[Jeff in NC]

Steve - don't be a dick. If you've something intelligent to post, we (well mostly we) are all eyes. If the best you've got is that shit above, please go over and hang with the dumbass douchebags on something like Foxsports.com - you know where they all sit around their mom's basements waiting for their afternoon snack of twinkies and chocolate milk to be brought down to them typing away.. "you are so stupid". "No you are stupid". "No you are".

Grow a pair and deal with the fact that with/without steroids, the Redsox have been beating the Yankees. Sometimes that happens, sometimes you lose. That's a concept I routinely work on with my 9 yr old.

[Ray in MD]

Is it just me, or does is seem like the mainstream media types have been pretty quick to crucify here? Its like they were waiting to jump on the guy - did Shaughnessy have the article written already? I hope I'm not being overly naive, but isn't there a chance he got some bad suppliments?

Whatever the outcome, I hope Papi never gives the bastards another interview.

BTW, my 10 year old, Big Papi to his teammates, is leaning more towards a uniform number of 20 or 15 next year.

[Jeff in NC]

Following yesterday's news and a late post of mine, I am going with the Hold My Nose approach to the Papi thing. Bob, I am mostly where you are on the integrity thing - what's true for A-roid... I probably can't crucify if he is guilty of a minor infraction, but if its steriods I'd say my cheering days are done. Kind of like I am with Papelbon - I'll take the performance and the help with winning, but I'm not really a fan of the player.

[sonomasox]

steroids, PED's, coke, whatev...

when are we getting V-Mart?

[Jeff in NC]

about 3:59pm?

[Jeff in NC]

wonder what kind of shift Tito has in mind when he places guys in the field - heavily favoring the home plate to first base line pop-up?

[Bob]

Twins got old friend Orlando C., Tigers got Washburn.

[Bob]

What kind of advertising genius schedules a meeting from 4:00-5:00 on the trade deadline? (Ben, I know you'll see this, so again: what the F are you thinking?)

Meetings, meetings, feh. Have a great weekend all.

Hopefully we'll have something fun to talk about on Monday. (Less roid-y, more trade-y.)

[Bob]

H.B. just in case you don't think people are tuned into this site, guess who just rescheduled a meeting to Wednesday.

Thanks Ben. Now stop lurking, you lazy bastard.

[louclinton]

Yeah Ben, you dumb bastard, show some stones.

BTW VMart is reportedly on board. Sadly, tomorrow night is VMart bobblehead night in CLE

[Nolasox]

Bob, it looks like I have to bring the kiddies to Pete's - do you think this is going to be a problem - I was hoping that since it is around lunch time it won't be too bad. I'll order them food, duct tape them to chairs if necessary, and tire them out in the morning with a Fenway tour.

[vasoxfan]

I would have rather lost bucholz than masterson.

[Bob]

I've seen kids in there in the afternoon, depending on who's behind the bar. At the tables at least, (if they're eating; at the burgers and fried crap isn't inedible). Later at night it's a problem. Worst case scenario, we actualy do tie up Linda, cut off her hair, fashion it into a wig, steal her clothes and swap vocal cords.

I'll ask her what her policy is tonight and post back tomorrow.

[Bob]

Bob Nightengale says it's done:

We get Victor Martinez, they get Justin Masterson and Nick Hagadone.

[Nolasox]

Good thing it's an afternoon game. My kids love burgers and fried crap. Thanks, Bob. I can always leave early if they get out of hand. Alas, it means less drinking on my part.

[Devine]

Masterson couldn't get a lefty out to save his life, which is part of why this deal is good if Tito has the balls to sit Tek/Lowell as often as he should.

[Bob]

And LaRoche to Atlanta for Casey Kotchman.

Five minutes left...

[granular_serene]

maris was on reds steve. eat it.

[yazbread]

Enjoy the gathering. Wish I was there. We expect pictures - especially 360 degree panoramics so we can try to spot HB lurking in the background.

[Devine]

Worth noting (stolen from another site): Martinez is in a prolonged slump, but his BABIP in that time has been horrific, so possibly just bad luck.

[Gary in Indiana]

More days off than Santa Claus... enjoy!

[soxdownunder]

Made it. God that's a long, debilitating flight. Santa Monica is nice. See you guys on Sunday at Pete's. Inshallah, there'll be something fun to yak about.

sdu

[buckner was framed]

Of all days I wanted to be here keeping up with my fellow creepy types, my boss decides it's a good day to ride with me and visit some sites (you think Ben's meeting was bad, Bob?) Although he's a good guy, even if he IS a Twinkie fan

Looking forward to seeing y'all on Sunday. At least we'll have plenty to yak about. And Nola, I wouldn't worry- something tells me it wouldn't be the first time duct tape has been used in that way at Pete's

[yazbread]

SDU - it's called aging.

[soxdownunder]

Gee thanks Yaz, but actually I'm a day younger than I was yesterday. Or something.

[Abby]

See you all tomorrow at Pete's/Durty Nelly's.

NolaSox, Linda said it was fine to bring the kids in. No problem.

-Bob, on Abby's computer (and soon to be on Abby. HEH! Week, veal, etc.)

[Abby]

I just figured out what happened to Papi. Really. Watching the Phantom Gourmet. There were talking about some place called Alex's Chimi's in Jamaica Plain. Giant chickens. Nobody knows what or how they prepare them. Ortiz eats there all the time.

Steroided chickens, people.

(Just dropped a straw I was grasping.)

[Harwich Rich]

Just don't drop anything else Bob :D

[bosoxed]

i dont care what the yankee fans say- its not tainted- we beat their guys on the field. its baseball and i love it- ive been a sox fan since 1950-its a period of time, not the dead ball era, the steroid era- and our guys won. they are all clean now(?) post all the names and lets get it over with. move on, bud.

[Jason]

Great sports site man. I look forward to reading some more. I have a sports blog myself and I would like to exchange links with you. Let me know. Take care.

[Jason]

Great sports site man. I look forward to reading some more. I have a sports blog myself and I would like to exchange links with you. Let me know. Take care.