It all started with the blog below 4 years ago......

Farewell Johnny D.

• Posted on December 23, 2005 at 11:42 AM
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 It was five years ago tonight  the Boston Red Sox had a sloppy make out session with "the curse".....after it was over...we kissed the curse good-bye...and partied like it was 1999.........

  For most of Red Sox Nation it had been a long wait....for some it had been 86 years long years....either way....it was good to be a Sox fan on that night....and no matter how sweet 2007 was...or the next one will be.....nothing will top the 2004 Boston Red Sox ride to the top of the baseball world.............

It was 34 years ago on this day that Red Sox legend Carlton Fisk...hit his iconic walk off homerun in the World Series.....the homer sent the Sox to a game seven against the Big Red Machine....a game that they lead....but ultimately lost....oh well...most people forget that part of the story....and the images of Fisk"s body language willing the ball to stay fair...are unforgetable........

 It was five years and 2 billion dollars in Yankee payroll .....on this night....that Curt ( Wyatt Earp) Schilling quieted the old Yankee Stadium patrons....and shut down the Yankee bats...basically on one leg.  Schillings performance propeled the Red Sox to a game seven showdown with the Yanks they would win...on thier way to thier first World Series title in 86 years........

Keep that in mind Angels fans....as your team seems to be looking @ a three games to none series deficit........

Well what can you say really....I guess thank goodness the Texas Rangers spit the bit in September....for if not for that...the Red Sox and closer Jonathan Papelbon would not have had the opportunity to spit the bit as well.....and so it goes...another what might have been season....down the drain....

  From the start of this season, the 2009 Red Sox were a pretty flawed bunch.  They didn't pitch that well...they hit like ****...they played like ****...and their bullpen was pretty mediocre....in the end...the sins that haunted the Sox all year...all boiled up in this short three game post-season series.  I find it interesting that Papelbon who had criticized the Sox acquisition of Wagner...turned out to be correct...that the move would not really help...and it didn't.....and in the end...Wagner..along with Papelbon were the final nails in the Red Sox season.

  The long and the short of this series will be that this off-season, Theo and company may have to finally open their check-books, because very rarely do bargin basement baseball players ever pan out....and they sure didn't this season.  The Angels spent 5 million on Bobby Abreu....the Sox spent 3 million on Mark Kotsay..and Rocco Baldelli....I think we all know how that turned out...especially after today. 

  It is certainly a disappointing end to a very frustrating season, to be certain.  Hopefully thats where the frustration will end, and maybe the front-office will make some moves that will actually help the Sox for an ENTIRE season. There will certainly be many questions about the Sox in the coming days and weeks...and all I can say is....Theo can't build a time machine....go 88 miles an hour...go back and fix the 2009 season....however.."what's past is prologue"...and hopefully the boy wonder jackass learned a thing or two from the GM's for Dummies book I sent him.....Either way.....good luck to the Angels.....and Go Twins................

 Today Red Sox Nation Daily begins the playoff stretch run, and the playoff's with a series of guest bloggers.  Hopefully we will provide many different angles and perspectives.

  It had been 87 days since we last saw the train wreck that is Dice K, and for the most part, we did not hear much from him either.  Sure there was the drama between him and the Sox, the he said, he said, but overall most of Red Sox Nation assumed that Dice was on the shelf for the rest of the season.  Last night, we found out otherwise, and it was about a shocking performance as the shutout that Paul Byrd hurled at the Jays a few weeks back.

  Dice was brilliant last night, holding what was a potent Angel offense for six complete innings.  Instead of his normal array of breaking balls, Dice dazzled the Angels with hard fastballs and cutters that kept them off balance for six innings.  There were few wasted pitches, and even fewer walks, for the night he had five k's and only three walks.  It was a quality start, for a guy who has precious few on his resume, and none this season.  Time will tell if this was a mirage from Dice, or maybe just maybe, this may be what we can expect from him during the stretch drive.

  Thanks to an ill-timed throw by John Lackey, the Sox were able to take advantage of a rare sloppy inning, and put some runs on the board.  Lackey is a tough pitcher, and has had the Sox number recently.  Also the Sox were without the Youk-ster, and mega clutch hitter Victor Martinez.  On paper it seemed like it would be a long night, however the remaining Sox hitters had other idea's as they posted three runs against John Lackey, and one run against the Angels bullpen.

The Sox win was perfectly timed, as the Rangers dropped thier third game in a row.  It may be a tad early, but with 19 games remaining, the Sox magic number is now 13 games. 

                                                       GHOST WRITER

 It is rare that pop culture finds it's way onto the pages of Red Sox Nation Daily....but the passing of an 80's icon...is always my exception to the rule.  If you are a gen-xer like myself...then you will remember Swayze from such great 80's movie's as The Outsiders....Red Dawn... and of course Road House....the always self reflecting Point Break.  Swayze was all over the 80's and early 90's like a swatch watch and a rubic's cube.  Swayze was only 57, and had battled cancer for nearly two years, when he was orginally given less than six months to live.

  In the words of Pony Boy Curtis....."Stay gold Patrick"....................

 Okay does this guy get too much credit or what....how bout some blame....in his tenure as the Red Sox pitching coach, ....he has given up on JC Romero...set up man for the current World Champs.....Joel Pienero....starter on the St Louis Cardinals....David Aardsma....Seattle Closer...and John Smotlz-currently 2-0 with his new team....and now Brad Penny...first start all year of 8 inning or more....worse yet he never seems to have clue with fixxing the guys he keeps....ie Dice K and Josh Beckett

 Despite what you have read in the globe....Big Papi...is indeed...not back....in his last 35 plate appearances...he has seven hits...for a ******** .200 average...you are what your average says you are....so Papi is a .227 hitter....

 The last time this 14 million dollar enigma hit .300 in back-to-back months for the Red Sox....was Never....so look for more of the same from Drew....Drew is the anti-clutch white meat...he has a .200 average with runners in scoring position...and a .229 average in later innings....to make matters worse...in "BIG" games versus the Yanks and Rays this year he has hit....231 and .239....

 Though he may be Mr. October...he has to be consistant on helping his teams get there....in four seasons with the Sox....Beckett has only been part of the solution once in September...the other three seasons...he has been the problem....if Beckett does not right the ship asap...the Sox dreams of an ALCS match-up versus the Yanks will disappear ..

For a team built on pitching....they seem to be woefully short in this the last month of the season....but I guess Theo has not gotten the memo...as the Dodgers and Angels both picked up good starters off the waiver wire for basically nothing.....both guys (Kazmir & Garland) have playoff and World Series experience....I guess we will have keep our fingers crossed and our eyes closed when watching these games in september...you know...the ones that really count....

So this is the 4th year I have posted about the curse of August 15th....I am hoping this year I can reverse this losing trend the Sox have had on this date for the last 12 season.  Last season....I came close....the Sox were rained out...but lost the make up game that was supposed to have been played on August 15th.  For the record...the Sox have lost every game they have played on August 15th since 1997.  August 15th also happens to be my birthday....as well as one Ben Affleck...also a fellow Red Sox fan...and also the only reason why anyone but me knows that they always lose today.

  Keep your fingers crossed Ben....maybe this is the year...that we can celebrate our birthdays with a Sox victory.......

Me and Ben Affleck and The Red Sox

What do me and Ben Affleck have in common, if you guessed today being our birthday you would have guessed right. Affleck was born August 15, 1972, and I was born August 15, 1971, and we are both Red Sox fans, but we share one more thing in common.  The Boston Red Sox give us the same thing for our birthday every year, a stinking defeat.  A strange but true stat, the Red Sox have now lost nine games straight on August 15th.  This of course further proves that I am indeed cheering for the right team.  With Curt Schilling on the mound tonight I thought my birthday curse would end.  Curt did his best, and pitched pretty well thru six, had a small hiccup in the seventh, but overall looked like vintage Schilling.  Wily Mo Pena booted a ball in the 9th, leading to a run that might have scored anyway.  One-Two-Three 9th inning, and the curse of August 15th lives on!!!!

• Posted on August 15, 2006 at 7:23 PM
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 Sometimes...in sports...it seems the story is already written...but then along the way...the players re-write it...wrecking the by-lines that ESPN may have had in store.  Last night was one of the nights....the Sox were down to one out....two strikes in the 9th....and getting ready to fall behind in the wild-card standings.  To make matters worse they had blown several opportunities in the 9th...one was with newly cut Chris Woodward failing to move the runners over, and the other was a blunder by Terry Francona.  Franconca lifted Jason Vartitek for a pinch runner.....Clay Buchholtz.  It appeared from the replays that Buchholtz has NEVER run the bases in his life.

  None of those things however are factors this morning as the Sox rallied from two runs down in the 9th to score 6 runs against the Texas Rangers.  All of the runs came with two outs....and the Sox flair for the dramatic still seems to be in order.  Credit V-Mart for his ten pitch at bat.....where he saw 8 pitches with strike two hung on him.  Martinez crushed a Frankie Francisco fastball to right field and gave the Sox the lead, one they would not give back in the bottom of the 9th.

  For most of the night...it seemed like the song remained the same, as the Sox hapless offense was once again kept in check.  It did not help matters that they were trailing from the get go...thanks to a horrific inning by Jon Lester where he threw over 30 pitches and yielded two runs before the game was only a few minutes old.  Of course there were alot of the same old frustrations, as the Sox left alot of guys on base early, letting the Rangers and Kevin Millwood of the hook.

Once again the back story in the game was the continued failure of rookie Daniel Bard...once again...this un-tested ....un-proven pitcher found himself in the middle of a critical game...throwing critical pitches...and once again failing at the task at hand.  I wonder how many chances this kid is going to get at failing the Sox in bigtime games.  If you are scoring at home...this is the third in about a week that Bard has failed the Sox....luckily....this time the Sox dormant offense was able to bail him out.