Thanks to an early season collision with teammate and human freight train Adrian Beltre, a controversial diagnosis by team doctors of the five broken ribs suffered from it, and a re-injured or newly fractured rib suffered in last Friday night's game in Texas, speedy outfielder and Red Sox leadoff hitter Jacoby Ellsbury is back on the DL for a third time. Now, sources say his 2010 season is in doubt.
Between Ellsbury's (probably valid) claim of being misdiagnosed, and some restless Sox fans and members of the media (like Tony Massarotti) questioning his toughness, it's been a nightmare season for him, which has spanned only 18 games so far, the highlight of which was his four steals in Yankee Stadium during Boston's last road trip.
I'm not a doctor so I can't say how Ellsbury should've been treated had doctors spotted the complete severity of his fractured ribs to begin with. But Ells has done all he can to play this year, and what I can't stand are fans and Boston media who question an athlete's toughness behind a phone, computer, newspaper or mic when there is no real history of a player like him being soft. This isn't J.D. ("Nancy" or "DL") Drew we're talking about here. The only warranted criticism of Ells is him rehabbing in Arizona for a whole month, with the Red Sox's permission, of course, but without doing much to support his teammates during that time.
But Ellsbury has twice tried to come back from these injuries now, and didn't even want to come out of Friday night's game in Arlington, Texas. That was manager Terry Francona's call.
Ask any teammate or even ex-teammate like the Rangers' David Murphy, and they'll tell you Ellsbury is a "gamer" who's played hurt and always plays hard and fearlessly in the outfield. Even in May, he played ball knowing his soreness wouldn't go away until the offseason.
But questioning whether he wants to play or play hurt like Massarotti did in May, Dan Shaughnessy did a couple of weeks ago and some supposed Sox fans on talk radio have done lately is wrong. There is just no basis for it. Period.
Jacoby Ellsbury tried to play hurt and re-injured himself now twice in the process. He should be commended for his efforts, not criticized by an impatient Boston media looking for something to scream about during what has been a very frustrating Red Sox season. This isn't it, folks. Find something else to whine about.
Note: This article was first published at Blogcritics Magazine
Showing posts with label Dan Shaughnessy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dan Shaughnessy. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Nomar Comes Home To Boston & Other Sox News & Notes
The following post appeared at Blogcritics Magazine yesterday, May 10, 2010. It's title has been changed for this post The following is an excerpt.
The Return of Nomar Garciaparra
On Cinco de Mayo, the Red Sox brought forever Sox fan favorite Nomar Garciaparra (who is of Mexican descent) back to Fenway to throw out the ceremonial first pitch to former Sox and Georgia Tech teammate Jason Varitek before the third Sox-Angels game of the week. With wife and superstar athlete Mia Hamm on the field watching, along with good friends and ex-teammates Trot Nixon, Lou Merloni, Tim Wakefield and Brian Daubach, it was a pretty cool and nostalgic pregame celebration much like Pedro Martinez’s (surprise) pregame first pitch on Opening Night.
Good for the organization for doing that for Nomar. Now let me say this.
The Boston sports media types (Dan Shaughnessy, Steve Buckley) still think they know better than the rest of us fans, but the fact is that Nomar never wanted to stop playing baseball in Boston, no matter how frustrated and bitter at the organization he was (for trying to trade him for A-Rod and others after the 2003 season and other reasons). He was eventually traded to the Cubs in July 2004 because at the time, the Sox were playing .500 baseball and the infield needed a major makeover defensively to help out the pitching staff (enter: Orlando Cabrera, Dave Roberts and Doug Mientkiewicz). It’s as simple as that.
Though no Sox fans were comfortable seeing Nomar forced out of town at the time, they accepted the new faces that came via Sox general manager Theo Epstein’s mid-2004 trades, and watched as they helped the Sox win a historic and long overdue Red Sox championship that fall. From then on, Sox fans and the baseball world altogether saw Nomar become the Ken Griffey Jr. of the infield — in that he had Hall of Fame talent but was always getting hurt — right until the end of his career in 2009 in Oakland.
At least Griffey did enough (in the 1990s) before his string of injuries in the 2000s to get into Cooperstown. The shortstop-turned-corner-infielder, on the other hand, with his career .313 BA, 229 HR, 936 RBI and 1747 hits in not even nine relatively full seasons in 14 years of play will unfortunately not get there. But in the Red Sox Hall of Fame, he will. And that will be even more of a cause for celebration for him than throwing out a first pitch.
Recent Red Sox News
When the Red Sox, behind Daisuke Matsuzaka (1-1) beat the Angels Thursday 11-6, it was the first time since the “Impossible Dream” team of 1967 that the Sox achieved a four-game sweep against them at Fenway Park. Also a first: the whole Angels lineup taking the first 14 pitches Dice-K threw before scoring four runs in the first inning of the game.
Read more here
The Return of Nomar Garciaparra
On Cinco de Mayo, the Red Sox brought forever Sox fan favorite Nomar Garciaparra (who is of Mexican descent) back to Fenway to throw out the ceremonial first pitch to former Sox and Georgia Tech teammate Jason Varitek before the third Sox-Angels game of the week. With wife and superstar athlete Mia Hamm on the field watching, along with good friends and ex-teammates Trot Nixon, Lou Merloni, Tim Wakefield and Brian Daubach, it was a pretty cool and nostalgic pregame celebration much like Pedro Martinez’s (surprise) pregame first pitch on Opening Night.
Good for the organization for doing that for Nomar. Now let me say this.
The Boston sports media types (Dan Shaughnessy, Steve Buckley) still think they know better than the rest of us fans, but the fact is that Nomar never wanted to stop playing baseball in Boston, no matter how frustrated and bitter at the organization he was (for trying to trade him for A-Rod and others after the 2003 season and other reasons). He was eventually traded to the Cubs in July 2004 because at the time, the Sox were playing .500 baseball and the infield needed a major makeover defensively to help out the pitching staff (enter: Orlando Cabrera, Dave Roberts and Doug Mientkiewicz). It’s as simple as that.
Though no Sox fans were comfortable seeing Nomar forced out of town at the time, they accepted the new faces that came via Sox general manager Theo Epstein’s mid-2004 trades, and watched as they helped the Sox win a historic and long overdue Red Sox championship that fall. From then on, Sox fans and the baseball world altogether saw Nomar become the Ken Griffey Jr. of the infield — in that he had Hall of Fame talent but was always getting hurt — right until the end of his career in 2009 in Oakland.
At least Griffey did enough (in the 1990s) before his string of injuries in the 2000s to get into Cooperstown. The shortstop-turned-corner-infielder, on the other hand, with his career .313 BA, 229 HR, 936 RBI and 1747 hits in not even nine relatively full seasons in 14 years of play will unfortunately not get there. But in the Red Sox Hall of Fame, he will. And that will be even more of a cause for celebration for him than throwing out a first pitch.
Recent Red Sox News
When the Red Sox, behind Daisuke Matsuzaka (1-1) beat the Angels Thursday 11-6, it was the first time since the “Impossible Dream” team of 1967 that the Sox achieved a four-game sweep against them at Fenway Park. Also a first: the whole Angels lineup taking the first 14 pitches Dice-K threw before scoring four runs in the first inning of the game.
Read more here
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)