Dan Shaughnessy
Sucks –
Ol’ Danny Boy’s back for a
double dip! Hopefully he didn’t get his fingers in it..
This is Dan’s first Red Sox
Notebook of the year; which is kinda like a Larry
King column, but less coherent.
(Shaughnessy’s
Larry Kinging in bold,
my Larry Daviding in plain.)
RED SOX NOTEBOOK
Aw man, I thought that said
‘Cookbook.’ I was all ready for Papi’s Quesadillas.
He’s Going The
Extra Miles
He’s going for speed..
Jacobyyy, the Indian boy..
With several Red Sox off to the
World Baseball Classic, he was the only
certified starter to make the 140-mile bus trip across Alligator
Alley for yesterday's 5-3 loss to the ever-terrible Orioles.
Ain’t no Injun team, that’s for dang
sure!
"I make all the
trips," said Ellsbury, who went 1 for 3 against
the Birds. "It's fun, getting some ABs and getting your timing. That's what spring training is about."
It’s also about practicing as much
as humanly possible so I don’t suck as hard as I did last year.
In his first at-bat, Ellsbury took a third strike
on a 3-and-2 pitch. He singled up the middle in the third, and grounded to
second in the fourth before hopping on the early van back to
The early van catches the Indian.
Seriously, this one’s gonna be all Indian jokes, so you might wanna
stop reading now if you’re a Penobscot..
"I definitely want to see
a lot of pitches," he said. "The biggest thing is getting my timing
and getting the feel of the strike zone again."
Pitchers got Ellsbury out last year by pounding him inside.
Jeez Louise..
Manager
Terry Francona was asked if he thought Ellsbury
has solved the problem.
"You won't find that out
here," he said. "That's something you find out in the grind of the
season when things are not going well. He has the legs to stay out of slumps.
When he puts the bat on the ball and uses the whole field, he will never go
through a dry spell.
Maybe he just likes getting
pounded inside.
"When he was struggling
last year everybody was saying, 'Why didn't he bunt?' Well, the corners were
taking the bunt away from him so much that if he bunts, he's out. When they
play that aggressively in, it opens up the hole, but he just wasn't hitting the
ball past anybody.
So, in other words, he sucked.
"I hate to say, 'Hit the
ball on the ground,' that's not what we're looking for. But if he uses the
whole field, he's probably going to be in good shape."
A real Indian uses every
part of the field.
Ellsbury came to camp at 190 pounds, 10 more than last year. He worked out at the Athletes Performance Institute in
Wipe the drool, Dan.
"The main thing was to get
my body ready to go through all the diving in the outfield and sliding on the
bases," said the center fielder. "I didn't do this to hit more home
runs. I just want to be as strong as I can without losing any speed. You don't
want to get too big."
Don’t I know it!
Ready to compete
Jed Lowrie
played third base and went 0 for 3. Lowrie on the
battle between him and Julio Lugo for the starting shortstop job: "It's a
competition that's going to make this team better
When Jed wins the job &
and it's going to make me better as a player. There's things I know I can improve on. Staying healthy,
obviously, is a big thing for me and I want to continue to refine my swing and
work on situational hitting." Said Francona,
"It looks like the ball is coming off his bat a lot better. He looks
more confident in his path to the ball." . . . The Sox watched Will
Ferrell's "Step Brothers" to pass the time on the bus ride . . .
Now that’s something I need to be kept up to speed on!
Info like that’s why the Globe pays Dan the big bucks.
Lars Anderson was the designated hitter and went 1 for 3 (single,
walk, lineout to right, ground out to short) . . .
Lars? Is Metallica off-tour?
Shortstop Ivan Ochoa hit the Sox' third homer of the
spring, a wind-blown fly to right . . . Flamethrower Daniel
Bard pitched a 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout . . . Rocco Baldelli was not on the trip, but he expects to get more DH
action with David Ortiz playing in the WBC . . .
Hmm, do you think Baldelli
plays for the Italian team?
Italians!
Francona keeps reminding everyone that seven weeks of spring
training is too long. "With our regular players, you're going to see a
lull in the interest level," said the manager. "Guys are going to be
ready to play the regular season way before the regular season."
Wahhhhh!
Well-grounded
He is the Ultimate Prospect! No
one has more upside than Matt Wieters!!
pinch hit in the fifth and grounded into a force play against Sox lefty Billy Traber. Wieters grounded out again in the seventh . . .
Yeah, but it was a mega-groundout..
Ex-Sox coach Dave Jauss is Baltimore's bench coach,
and the great Richie Hebner
is the O's A ball manager at
All Hail Hebner!
The Sox are back in
Beat those dirty Russkies! For
Tomorrow is a rare off day,
with no workout scheduled.
But I’ll probably still think up
some inane bullshit to write about..
The Sox play
The players plan to park their
cars in
Brad
Penny was scheduled to make
his Sox debut in that game, but Francona indicated
Penny may be pushed back after an abbreviated side session in Sunday's cold.
Cold…?
~~~
Dan Shaughnessy’s Professional Sportswriter Writing Tip Of The
Day!
When there’s nothing to write about, just write anyway!