Though perhaps this should really say “Umpires Blow the Game.” There were 2 particular calls/no-calls that really infuriated me last night and in my opinion, swung the outcome of this game in the favor of the Yankees.

First, in the third inning, Manny Ramirez thought he had walked even though the pitch looked good, and started running down to first. The umpire waited until he was at least 3 or 4 steps down the line before making the call, and I’m pretty sure this is what upset Manny much more than the call itself. It was a borderline pitch, but probably good enough to be a strike. It seemed to me that the ump initially thought ball, but realized he’d be wrong and decided and made the call late. Fine, at least he got the call right. This isn’t so much a questionable call as it is an umpire struggling a bit.

But then, during the 4th inning, the bad calls started. Moeller was up with 2 outs and men at the corners. Buchholtz was throwing him junk pitch after junk pitch, setting up the hitter beautifully. He threw pretty much all curves and changeups until the count was 2-2. Then, he threw an inside fastball, placed perfectly over the inside corner which froze Moeller in his shoes. Inning over, I thought, way to pitch your way out. But no, with yet another borderline pitch coming over the plate, the umpire doesn’t correct himself and make a late call. After all, this kid is a rookie so he isn’t getting any calls even though a guy with no friends in America (according to SI) does.

But the Red Sox recovered from that inning to take a 9-7 lead. Amazing! And here comes Tavarez, fresh (or tired) off a bail out win in Cleveland a couple days earlier to try to do it again. Things got a little dicey and the bases were loaded after the Yankees had tied the game, but Tavarez was kept in the game to try to induce the gound ball. And he did just that. Grounder to Casey, and he makes a perfect throw to Lugo, taking him well off the bag to avoid the runner and turn the DP, but then Chad Moeller slid nearly into centerfield, staying about 4 feet away from second base, to take Lugo out. He wasn’t expecting it and threw the ball away and the inning continued with the Yankees ending up back on top.

Notice how you can’t even see second base in this Globe picture:

Now I’m not necessarily saying they should have won, but the game would have been much different if the runs following the bad calls didn’t ever happen. The Yankees got 5 bonus runs as far as I can tell and we did still lose by 6. But nonetheless, this really shows how baseball is indeed a game of inches, luck, and calls going one way or the other.

But all that being said, the umpires have to treat each team equally, stay consistent with balls and strikes, and when a guy slides into centerfield, call him out.

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Oh, what a debut for the kid. Jed Lowrie got his first 3 RBI as a pro, and of course, the all important first hit (and no errors). Playing outside of his natural shortstop position, Lowrie look somewhat over matched at the plate, but was still able to put the ball in play to get the runs in when it counted.

Yes, Varitek coming in on his day off and hitting a home run with 2 strikes was an amazing moment during this game, but the real story has to be Lowrie, the rookie. Watch out Julio Lugo! Though it seems like playing next to his eventual replacement served as somewhat of a wake up call with Lugo getting 3 hits (though the bunt hit was pretty weak and more just luck) and helping the team win.

Read more about Lowrie on SoxProspects.com He’s actually a player very much like Dustin Pedroia in that he is on the small side (6′ 0″ - 185, aka my size), doesn’t hit many home runs, but still has quite a bit of line drive power in his bat. Watching Lowrie swing made it clear he does still have a ways to go and needs to avoid committing too early to swinging (a couple swings were downright awful). But he can run a bit and is just the right age to start playing. Once this guy is starting at SS in ‘09 or ‘10, he’ll be right in the prime of his hitting career.

How would you like to have Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury and Jed Lowrie all win consecutive Rookie of the Year Awards? It could happen…

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If only every game was this great. Jon Lester looked mediocre as always, throwing 97 pitches without getting out of the 5th inning. He walked 5 while striking out only 3 and was saved by the Sox bullpen and timely hitting, and of course, Joe Borowski sucking.

(Thanks to the Globe for this picture)

Julian Tavarez once again proved he is an invaluable piece of this Red Sox team, coming in in the 5th and getting 8 outs to keep the Sox in the game and bridge the gap between the starting pitcher and the bullpen outstandingly. His ERA on the year is still high at 4.26, but he did strike out 3 guys last night which is a good sign. Add in the fact that Kyle Snyder was waived and I think its safe to say that Tavarez is here for the year. Remember, he was a big question mark coming in to this year with Buchholtz making the rotation and a fairly full bullpen. Everyone was pointing to last year when he was left off the post-season roster, expecting him to be traded or otherwise released, but once again, Julian has showed that he is an important part of this team.

Yes, I along with everyone else who tried to run him out of town in 2006 am now eating my words. He stepped up at the end of that year making starts down the stretch after struggling in relief through much of the season, and was impressive last year starting 23 games and even though he did tire down the stretch, still gave 134 innings (his most since Florida in 2002 when he made 27 starts). All is mostly forgivable when you are getting this many starts out of a guy who was supposed to be nothing more than a 50 inning bullpen guy.

The rest we all know - Manny is awesome, especially against the Indians (who have apparently stopped throwing quarters at him after he left for more money in 2001), Ortiz hit .400 in this game showing that his slump is hopefully over (in spite of striking by missing 3 straight Betancourt pitches) and Papelbon mowed them down like we’ve all come to take for granted.

Yes, that is all true but the real hero of last night was Julian Tavarez. In a game that was looking like it could be a blow out, the Sox end up winning rather convincingly. Now for the 2 game sweep tonight!

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Richard Bradley, author of The Greatest Game - The Yankees, the Red Sox and hte Playoff of ‘78, was kind enough to chat with me, regarding his work, his new book, and the rivalry of the Red Sox and Yankees in general. As the 2008 installment of this commences this weekend, the greatest game provides an in depth look of what happened 30 years ago. It’s a great read, especially for anyone who lived through it (according to my Uncle at least since I’m just 27). No matter who you are rooting for, the stories presented here are insightful enough so that every baseball fan can relate.

Can you start by giving us some background info on why you’re writing this book and some of the other work you’ve done in the past.

Sure. This is my third book, but my first about baseball. My first book was called “American Son”; it was a memoir of the time I spent working with John F. Kennedy, Jr., at George magazine. The second was called “Harvard Rules,” and it was about the controversial university presidency of Lawrence Summers at Harvard.

Having written about Harvard and the Kennedys, I wanted to write about another great American icon: baseball. And there’s no more compelling part of baseball to me than its greatest rivalry, that of the Yankees and the Red Sox.

So you live in New York and you wrote a book about the Yankees beating the Red Sox. Does that mean you are a Yankees fan? And either way, what does the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry mean to you today?

It’s true: In my personal life, I am a Yankees fan. I was born in New York and grew up in southern Connecticut, and we were a Yankees household. But I don’t think you can tell that from the book. Both the Yankees and the Red Sox of 1978 were fantastic teams. One of them edged out the other, but was either one really better than the other? After 163 games, it came down to one pitch. Things could easily have been different.

As to the rivalry…well, here’s the truth about it: Yankees and Red Sox fans spend a lot of time dissing each other. Which is actually pretty fun. But at the end of the day, we really need each other. For fans of either team, would baseball be nearly as fun without the other?

Did the rivalry peak in 1978, 2003, today, or some other time?

I think if you look at the history of the rivalry, it goes in cycles. 1978 was definitely one peak, the culmination of the intense competition of the 1970s. 2004 was clearly another peak. Or a valley, depending on your point of view.

Based on when you think it peaked, what then is the most important factor in fueling this competition?

Both teams being good at the same time. When one team has lagged, or when both teams have been mediocre–as in much of the 1960s, for example—the intensity of the rivalry has waned.

What are the two greatest moments, in your opinion, from the Sox-Yankees rivalry (One for Sox fans and one for Yankees)?

Oh, that’s an easy one. Bucky Dent’s home run in the seventh inning of the 1978 playoff, for the Yankees. And for the Sox, games 4-7 of the 2004 ALCS. I know that’s not really a moment, but still….

Do you have a blog we can read?

I do. It’s called “Shots in the Dark,” and you can find it at www.richardbradley.net.

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Last night I was lucky enough to score a field box seat to the Red Sox. If you are wondering how I managed this, well, it wasn’t hard. I called the box office the day they went on sale and bought it (A single seat, but who cares when you’re in the 5th row).

This was the first pitch of the night. Click through to see the full photo album.

And quite the game it was. Watching Tim Wakefield pitch from up close is amazing. You can really see his knuckleball move around and to be honest, I don’t know how any human being is able to hit that thing when its moving the right way. Of course, he walked 5 guys in 5 innings last night, so I guess it was moving the wrong way as much as the right. I think the highlight was striking out Carlos Guillen with a 55 MPH curve ball to end the 5th.

Scratch that, the highlight was the bomb that Manny hit. It wasn’t quite a home run, but it did the trick. Somehow, I could just tell he was going to hit it hard. Manny isn’t a very excitable guy, but during that at-bat, you could see he was really working the pitcher and was incredibly focused.

Overall it was a great night in the park. You don’t often get to see the Sox score 12 runs and see Okajima and Papelbon pitch as well. Now bring on the Yankees!

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I had a pretty good seat at the sox game last night and thought this video came out good enough to post. Too bad I didn’t catch him hitting his long double, but then again, it was a much longer at bat to get video of as well.

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Are you looking for last minute Red Sox tickets? Do you want to buy them from the Red Sox at face value, or do you way to pay some scalper like “Ace” or “Higgs” for it? Fear not Red Sox fan, there are always last minute tickets.

Lets take tonight for example. Its the second game of the year and only the 2nd game the Sox have lost in this country. Perhaps you would want to go tomorrow? Well it just so happens that right now, at about 1:00 you can grab up to 8 tickets all together. Pretty much every section and price level is available - look at what I have in my shopping cart right now.

In case you can’t quite see it, it says that right now, 18 hours before game time, I could buy the following tickets (Or you could!)

• Loge Box, Box 138, Row HH ($90 each)
• Bleachers, Section 42, Row 11 ($26 each)
• Right Field Grandstand, Section 3, Row 7 ($30 each)
• Left Field Pavilion Box, Section 16, Row 7 ($75 each)

Yes, you can get Last Minute Red Sox Tickets whenever you need them. Don’t pay scalpers!

Just go online the night before! See you at the game tomorrow.

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The first pictures of the rings are out on the Boston Globe web site (Thanks George Rizer). Mayor Mumbles Menino wore the same Red Sox jacket he always has on while wandering aimlessley around left field with a Red Sox World Series ring on today.

This means, of course, that the real season starts today. The first road trip always seems like extended Spring Training, especially this year when it included some random games in Japan during Spring Training that all of a sudden count.

Yes, its baseball time again in Boston, and word is, people have been lined up for tickets since early this morning and even late last night. The Sox didn’t drop many (or any?) tickets for opening day to the public throughout the week even though plenty of Yankees tickets were made available over the weekend, so the people hanging out on Landsdowne Street today should be in luck.

The Sox announced they’ll be releasing hundreds of tickets, though I’m sure that with the amount of people in line now, they are probably already spoken for.

You can still buy tickets from scalpers, but I’m sure many of you are in the same boat that you don’t have a $1,000 bill lying around to fork over.

I won’t be at the game today, but I’ll see you there tomorrow, Thursday and Friday instead!

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The First Ever New York vs. Boston Fantasy Baseball Rivalry League is Going On Today!

I think this is a pretty cool concept - check it out at the link below.

The RotoHog Rivalry League is free to play, and participants are also automatically entered into the 2008 RotoHog.com Fantasy Baseball Championship with prizes to the Top 100 players at season’s end, including a new 2008 Ford Mustang, Vizio LCD and plasma HDTVs, Nintendo Wiis, Sony PSPs, Sony Blu-ray Entertainment Systems and more. There are also free monthly contests with prizes like Sony PS3s, Slingbox AVs, TomTom GPS Systems or an Apple iTouch. Pretty cool if I do say so myself!

The RotoHog.com Fantasy Baseball game features an innovative Trading Floor where Major League Baseball players are bought and sold at fluctuating prices in stock market-like conditions. Pre-season trading’s biggest movers include: Daisuke Matsuzaka (BOS-P, IPO $20.50, Trading at $26.01), Jacoby Ellsbury (BOS-OF, IPO $4.50, Trading at $10.33), Joba Chamberlain (NYY-P, IPO $11.75, Trading at $15.39) and David Ortiz (BOS-DH, IPO $42, Trading at $37.60).

To play in the Rivalry League, go to http://rivalry.rotohog.com/rivalry and sign up. Players can also create additional private leagues to play against friends, or compete in a Jackpot League for a chance at $1,000 at www.RotoHog.com.

RotoHog.com is a product of Sports Composite DE. RotoHog is the next generation in fantasy sports. They are currently partnered with NBA.com to power the popular NBA Stock Exchange game.

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As if the virtual waiting room wasn’t bad enough, Tickets.com often presents its users with an even more frustrating user experience after we get connected to the server. Once you are in, you are often given an error when selecting tickets which says

We’re sorry, we were unable to process your request due to high transaction volumes. Please try to submit your request again by clicking the CONTINUE button. (23-13)

This is especially frustrating when you are on the ticket site on a day like today, when you’ve found that they finally released single tickets to the public for the Yankees games! Often times, you’ll get this error when there are no tickets left that meet your criteria (none in a section or maybe no more pairs available, etc.) but you don’t know this becuase you just keep getting an error while everyone else is plucking the best tickets!

But fear not - there is an easy way around this! The way their system works, you will only get this high transaction volume error when your shopping cart is empty. Of course, its always empty when you start looking, so how do we really get around this? Well, believe it or not, there are plenty of games during the season that tickets are still available. Yes, the Sox sell out every game, but that doesn’t mean that every $90 obstructed view/walkway advisory ticket to see the Sox play the Blue Jays late in the season is taken. You can almost always find a game somewhere that has single tickets available. So here is what you do:

1. If it is a ticket drop that is popular enough, you’ll be in the virtual waiting room. There is no way around this aside from opening multiple windows/browsers, but once you are in, you should be all set.
2. Find the crappiest game possible. My favorite is the September series against Tampa, but there are plenty of Orioles and Royals games too. Select 1 ticket, best available. You may still get the transaction volume error a couple times, but you’ll get an actual ticket much faster going after this game instead of the game you really want to see.
3. Enter the number sequence to ensure the computer that you are a human and settle for whatever ticket they give you. Hit continue to be taken to your shopping cart. Don’t worry, you don’t have to buy it. Instead of checking out, click “Add another game” at the bottom of the screen.
4. Now, go to the game you actually want tickets to. If you choose tickets based on a criteria that is available, you’ll get them in the first try. If there are no tickets, instead of the high transaction error, it will say
   

   Tickets are not available in the quantity selected. Please try fewer tickets or an alternate seating category. (23-6)

5. Keep selecting until you get what you want. Then, make sure you remove your single ticket before checking out and you should be all set!

Just remember, you only have about 90 seconds to pick your tickets until they are removed from your cart. Keep adding and removing tickets to keep resetting the clock. If you don’t get what you want on the first try, keep trying becuase tickets are taken in and out of shopping carts all day and you should eventually get at least something.

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