See this face?

This is the face, I promise you, of a player we will absolutely adore all season long.

I've always liked Sean Casey and I was thrilled when the Sox signed him. Here's a guy who could have signed somewhere else and been a starter. Instead, he chooses to sign with the Sox as a bench player. There hasn't been a photo taken of him yet where he isn't smiling. He hasn't given an interview yet where he doesn't mention how willing he is to do "whatever Tito tells me".

He's a team player who all the players love. Voted nicest in MLB by his peers, we now have him and Papi in the same clubhouse. Watching players running sprints and taking batting practice on NESN isn't doing it for me. I really just can't wait to see Sean and the rest of the guys take the field.

Mark your calenders, those of you not making the trek to Ft Myers this week, for Friday, February 29th. That's the first Spring Training game NESN will be airing. If you're looking for a baseball fix, it'll definitely be worth your time!

(Photo by Matt Stone)

Good luck, Gabe!

I haven't met many players in person, but I had the chance to meet Gabe in December of 2005 (the picture above is from that meeting). He was well-(and soft) spoken and so obviously happy to be there. That season ended poorly for him. He ruptured his Achilles' tendon and some of us were sure he wouldn't play in 2006.

I asked him that day how he felt and he told me he felt great. He also told me he'd be back playing soon. He thanked me and my friend for coming out and he signed a dvd and a photo for me. I always liked Gabe but I was never taken with him the way many women in Red Sox Nation seem to be taken.

That changed after I met him. :-)

Gabe Kapler will never be a Hall of Famer. He'll probably only be remembered by fans of the 2004 Red Sox (as one of "The 25"). But he was so much more to the team.

He started the 2005 season in Japan and I remember watching him on "Extra Innings" when he came back to the team. Tom Caron told him that everyone in the clubhouse talked constantly about how much they missed him. This seemed to truly surprise Gabe.
When the Red Sox clinched the Wild Card in 2005, Gabe already had his surgery. He wasn't playing with the team, but showed up that day to celebrate in the clubhouse with his teammates. Many players remarked on how much it meant to them that he was there. It meant a lot to the fans too. Remember, Gabe is the guy who took less money to come back to the team in 2004, because he wanted to play in Boston.

Gabe Kapler is one of those rare people who seems to be a genuinely good guy. Even though he was never quite a superstar, he took his success and began his own foundation - dedicated to promoting awareness about domestic violence. In a field where powerful men who dominate all those around them are revered, Gabe chooses to be the man who admits that you don't have to flaunt your strength to be a real man.

I had great hopes for this post. But the truth is, writing about Gabe made me a little more emotional than I expected. When I read about his retirement, I immediately decided to write this brilliant account of his career. Something to convey how special he is to Red Sox Nation, because there are many fans outside the Nation who just won't get it. Instead, I find myself very sad and it's difficult for me to find the proper words to write a brilliant farewell for Gabe.

Luckily for us, Gabe is not going far. He's staying on with the team as the manager for the Greenville Drive, in South Carolina. Gabe's feelings on his new assignment? Predictably humble:

"A place where I'm going to be rewarded emotionally and spiritually to have an extreme impact on somebody's life can be much more powerful than hitting a home run in a clutch situation. "It feels right inside of my body."

It feels right inside of his body.

Reading those words gives me chills.

It isn't often you can say you're proud of someone like a professional athlete. Gabe Kapler is the type of person who makes that possible.

I'm so proud he continues on with the team and I'm proud that we in "The Nation" will always be able to say he's ours.

My apologies for the rambling post...but Gabe deserves more than just a brief mention.

Thanks for it all, Gabe!

I Like Mike

But do I really want him in the bullpen for another season?

That is the question on many Red Sox fans' lips following the announcement that the Red Sox have signed Mike Timlin to a one-year contract for 2007. To understand the reluctance, consider that Timlin's 2006 ERA was 4.36, significantly higher than his 3.55 career ERA; his strikeouts-to-walks ratio was down to 1.88 compared to 3.75 for his previous three years in a Red Sox uniform; and he blew almost half (8 of 17) of his save opportunities. It's hard to know if his sub-par season was more a function of his age (40) or the fact that he began the season not tuning up in spring training but rather playing full bore in the World Baseball Classic.

On the up side, Timlin is evidently a positive veteran influence on the younger pitchers coming up (and there are so very many of those young pitchers who need shepherding). He forever endeared himself to many fans back in 2003, when he was part of the postseason lights-out bullpen combo of Embree, Timlin, and Williamson.

Besides, I like his entrance music. I happen to know that Beazer harbors certain, um, thoughts about him from time to time. And he's a Texan, as our newest posting sistah, Tex, will tell you as often as she can.

So maybe it will work out after all.

For Jon

On September 1st, Red Sox Nation received terrible news. Our rookie pitcher, Jon Lester, was diagnosed with a rare form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of blood cancer, and will have to begin treatment almost immediately.

Along with being one of the best young arms the Red Sox have in their system, Jon is a good guy and only 22 years old. The news came as a shock to his family, friends and fans, and as one of those fans I decided I needed to show my support for young Mr. Lester.

So on September 2nd, my friend Kay and I went to the Souvenir Store on Yawkey Way and purchased Jon Lester t-shirts. As I wore my shirt, people asked me about Jon. I then received an email from someone who knows Jon who suggested it would be "awesome" if we "could designate one day for all of Red Sox Nation to wear Lester T-shirts at one of the games at Fenway."

So I got to thinking, 'why not?". Why can't we at least try something like this? So here I am.
This coming Sunday is September 10th. It is the last game in a 10-day homestand for the Red Sox, that started with this news about Jon. I think it would be the perfect day for this kind of show of support.

So here I am, asking you all to wear your Jon Lester shirts or jerseys (which you can get at many places, but you can probably get them the quickest from the Souvenir Store in Boston)...and if you can't get a shirt, make a sign for Jon and bring it to Fenway on September 10th. Show Jon the love and support he deserves.

They say that Jon's cancer is treatable, and that is a blessing. So, with that in mind, in the upcoming days, I will be creating links here to make donating to the cause easy. I don't know where Jon will be treated yet, but Dana-Farber does wonderful work (including having the Jimmy Fund as part of their institute) and they are a deserving recipient, and will be my charity of choice. Any donation, no matter how small, will be greatly appreciated. I won't have them in time for next Sunday, but if we get a big enough response, there will be t-shirts available for purchase soon (with all that money going to Dana-Farber as well) to mark next Sunday and your support for Jon. If you plan on being part of the "Support Jon Lester Day", please email me at supportjon@gmail.com. I'm hoping to arrange it so we can all meet before the game. The Triumphant Red Sox fan will be there with me. We'd love to meet you!

Please pass the word along about next Sunday! Let's show Jon how much Red Sox Nation is behind him!

Suddenly, wins and losses don't seem all that important.

The thoughts and prayers of all the sistahs are with David Ortiz. Here's hoping all he needs is a little rest!

Get well and come back soon, Papi!

Nomar, Mr. Nice Guy

In the Boston Globe story linked in the subject line, Nomar talks about being comfortable playing in L.A. and playing for his former manager, Grady Little. It's a nice piece, bound to make any of Nomar's Boston fans feel happy that the former All Star finally seems to have some peace.

It's no secret that the Boston media hounded Nomar relentlessly while he was in Boston. And when he wouldn't give them that pound of flesh they demanded, many of them turned on him. They wrote stories about his attitude and about how he didn't want to play in Boston any more. None of which ever proved to be factual - not that the media in Boston cares about being factual.

Early in 2004, or maybe late in 2003, I had a discussion with one of my 'sistahs' about Nomar and the Boston sports media. We were both convinced that if Nomar left Boston, it would be because the press pushed him out.

Little did we know what Theo had planned for the 2004 trade deadline.

I often wonder if Nomar really knows how the fans were affected by that trade. In 2004, the trade deadline was on a Saturday. There had been rumblings about Derek Lowe being traded for Matt Clement...a few people speculated that Nomar would be traded, but no one really believed it. I spent that morning and afternoon online at the Red Sox Fan Forum message board, discussing possible trades while watching ESPN News.

When the news came that Nomar was traded, no one could believe it. And then the tears flowed and people were angry. My mother, my sister and I pretty much cried all weekend long. We didn't care about the guys we were getting and we didn't buy Theo's explanation of 'improving the defense'. We felt like Nomar was the scapegoat for a struggling team.

Eventually we got over it to the extent that we embraced the guys who came to the team. Orlando Cabrera and Doug Mientkiewicz ended up making sizeable contributions to the team. (Dave Roberts, although acquired at the trade deadline, is usually, incorrectly connected with this trade. Dave's acquisition was totally unrelated to 'The Trade' as it's still known in Red Sox Nation.) What a lot of us never got over was losing Nomar.

Contrary to what you might hear from the likes of Johnny Damon, Nomar was the last true face of the Red Sox. He was active in the community, he was in commercials, his one word name was a household word. You'd be hard-pressed to find a home in Boston that didn't have something Nomar-related in it.

SO what makes me so happy about this article in the Boston Globe today? This paragraph:

One of Garciaparra's ex-teammates in Boston said the Dodgers and Yankees made the same offer, but Garciaparra chose LA because, ''He always considers himself a Red Sox. That's one thing people don't understand about Nomar. He would have never signed with the Yankees because he always thought of himself as a Red Sox player."

That last line says it all. At least for me it does. I follow many ex-Red Sox players, but never Nomar. Some people think it's because I didn't like him, but it is quite the opposite. Nomar was such a huge part of my life, I can't imagine him anywhere else. I couldn't watch him as a Cub and I have a difficult time watching him as a Dodger. I'll always believe that "The Trade" was a major reason that the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series, but I'll also always be sad that Nomar, although he has a ring, wasn't a bigger part of that season.

And now I know that Nomar feels the same way. I can't wait until he comes back to Fenway (whether with a visiting team or, by some stroke of luck, as a Red Sox player once again!).

Johnny Damon could learn a lesson or two.