Whoops! My Hideki Okajima farewell tribute was premature!

You know that awkward feeling you get when you give someone a long and heartfelt good bye, maybe even shed a tear or two, only to find out they are going to stick around for a few more days.

It kind of makes whatever good bye you say later look kind of silly.

That happened with me here on Sully Baseball.

On December 5th, Hideki Okajima was nontendered by the Red Sox. I made sure on the blog that his time with the Sox did not end without a fitting tribute for a playoff and World Series hero.

Well, on New Year's Eve, Oke-Dokey resigned with the Red Sox. He's coming back.
I knew he'd find another job. He's left handed and has a pulse. I just didn't think it would be the Sox.

OK, Hideki... next time you leave, I am giving you a VERY SHORT post.

Bobby jenks and his bond with Josh Beckett and Jonathan Papelbon

Today the Red Sox took a flier on former White Sox pitcher Bobby Jenks for some bullpen depth. How could it hurt?

But as Jenks changes the color of his Sox, he has a unique bond with current Boston pitchers Josh Beckett and Jonathan Papelbon:

All three were the pitchers on the mound when their team won the World Series.

Beckett tagged out Jorge Posada on a little dribbler to end the 2003 World Series for the Marlins.

Jenks got Orlando Palmeiro to ground out to end the 2005 World Series for the White Sox.

And Papelbon struck out Seth Smith to end the 2007 World Seris for the Red Sox.

Personally, I can't think of anything cooler in all of sports than being the pitcher to end the World Series. More than a game winning home run. I used to reenact clinching a World Series as a pitcher on our front lawn... jumping up and being mobbed on the mound.

And I've written a few posts like this one and this one about my fascination with the pitcher who got the final out.

I can't help but wonder if they will talk about it amongst each other in spring training.

They MUST talk about it. Heck, that's how I would preface every sentence. "As a man who clinched the World Series... I will order the chicken salad."

Maybe that's just me.

Thank you Hideki Okajima

The Red Sox non tendered Hideki Okajima the other day, thus ending his 4 year run in Boston. It was probably time. He had a mediocre 2010 and pitchers in their mid 30s tend to not improve over the years.

But before he goes off (and as a left handed reliever will inevitably find work) I ask my fellow Red Sox fans to tip their hats to him.

Remember this was the guy who was basically supposed to be Daisuke Matsusaka's caddy. A fellow countryman to keep the new ace company.

When he let up a homer to John Buck on the first pitch he ever threw, it looked like Okajima was Japanese for "Bust."

He didn't let up a run the rest of his outing... nor his next outing... nor the next one.
In fact he didn't let up a run in his next 20 outings.

And he had that bad ass delivery where he literally wasn't looking at the batter as he pitched. I have no clue how that worked... but it did.

His ERA was 0.42 in late May.
By the All Star break it was 0.82 and he was voted in by the fans (presumably by Red Sox Nation and the Nation of Japan) to the All Star Game.

As late as August 8th, his ERA remained sub 1.
Then his arm started to tire and the league caught up with him.

Theo and Tito rested him for a few weeks so he would be fresh for the playoffs... and he delivered.

He was unscored upon in the Division Series and ALCS, pitching 2 key innings in Game 7 against Cleveland.

Then, in the second game of the World Series, in a tense 2-1 victory, he pitched 2 1/3 perfect innings striking out 4.

He looked like a potential MVP candidate before letting up a homer in Denver. But he was a key player for the 2007 World Champs.

So off he goes to begin the journeyman part of his career. But thanks Oke-Doke. You combined with Papelbon in 2007 to give the Sox one of the best 1-2 bullpen punches in Red Sox history.

Something I DON'T want to hear from Giants fans

I do NOT want to hear Giant fans before this game saying crap like “I’d rather see the Giants clinch at home.”

You can’t be picky about how you want your franchise’s defining moment.

When the Red Sox were closing in on the 2004 World Series title, I had a couple of people who were RED SOX FANS say “I wouldn’t mind seeing them drop a few games and clinch in Fenway Park.”

I of course beat those people with ski poles.

We had been waiting 86 years for a World Series title after every sort of cruel near miss imaginable and these lunatics were thinking “Let’s tempt fate.”

It was the equivalent of having food air lifted into a starving country and one of the recipients saying “I’m going to wait. I hear the next airlift has better food.”

EAT THE FOOD! YOU ARE STARVING!

I heard more of this nonsense in 2007. “Oh it would be better to win it at home.”

So which games was I supposed to be rooting AGAINST the Red Sox? And remember in 2007 they had played a tough game against the Rockies in Game 2 and a back and forth Game 3… beating a team that had rattled off an incredible winning streak. Yeah, better let THEM refind their mojo so you can have your wittle party at home.

I will not have any tolerance of such insanity.

You root for your team to win.
When the Red Sox celebrated in St. Louis and in Denver… guess what? IT WAS AWESOME!

The only thing that compared to it emotionally was when the Red Sox won the 2004 ALCS and celebrated… in New York.

If the Giants win tonight, and I hope they do, you will be remembering this moment forever and reliving it in your head over and over.

And you won’t be thinking “Ah… it wasn’t that great.”

Haven’t you earned this, Giants fans?

I remember when my Red Sox won the 2004 and 2007 World Series, I got flack from a few of my Giant fan friends.

One of them, let’s call him Greg Lee… because that is his name… said “You couldn’t have been excited by those World Series. They were blow outs.”

I responded “Don’t blame the Red Sox for making those World Series boring. Blame the Cardinals and Rockies for not winning a game.”

The person we will call Greg Lee responded “Wouldn’t you rather have the games be dramatic?”

And I replied “I had enough drama as a Red Sox fan. Between 1986 and 2003 I had enough drama to last a lifetime. In 2004 I had to live through the 3-0 hole and facing elimination with Mariano Rivera on the mound. In 2007, the Sox came back from another 3-1 hole. I HAD DRAMA! I wanted a title.”

Then the hypothetical person I have dubbed Greg Lee asked “Wouldn’t you rather win the series at HOME?”

I responded “That would mean I would have to root AGAINST the Red Sox in a few games. I root for the Sox in every game. The celebration was sweet on the road.”

So now let me turn the question around.

If the Giants win big tonight… would you be excited? Wouldn’t you rather have a close series? Don’t you want the games to be dramatic? Wouldn’t you want to clinch the series at home?

Or have you earned a blow out?
Have you seen enough close calls that you just want to win it as fast as possible?

The brand of baseball the Giants have played has been called torture.

If the Giants win the next two games with ease, I have a feeling Giant fans will be quite happy… just like I was in 2004 and 2007.

The Red Sox said good bye to a beloved player properly

The World Series MVP became an official award in 1955 and only two Red Sox players have ever received it.

Manny Ramirez and Mike Lowell.

One had his Red Sox career end so badly that he couldn't be more hated in Boston if he took a crap on Paul Revere's statue.

And the other got to have a dignified day in his honor to celebrate all he meant to the club.

Not bad for a guy who was the expensive potential deal killing toss in for the Josh Beckett trade.

I am glad to see Mike not enter my "All Ungraceful Exit From The Red Sox" roster.

Oh the Red Sox TRIED to make it awkward... the aborted trade in the off season and Mike wanting to be released this season.

But instead we have a salute to a World Series hero.

Alas, Carlton Fisk, Luis Tiant, Fred Lynn, Wade Boggs, Dwight Evans, Johnny Damon and Roger Clemens never got this sort of farewell.

Maybe management is just better now.

Farewell Mike.
Thanks for the big hits.

Welcome to Colorado, Manny Delcarmen

It's a cruel place, Coors Field.
Old friend Manny Delcarmen, whom I paid tribute to the other day, let up a game tying homer to Jayson Werth in his first appearance as a Colorado Rockie.

The thin air stinks sometimes.

Bear down Manny... you still have a friend in Sully.

Good Luck Manny Delcarmen

Another member of a World Champion Red Sox team is gone.
And if I could salute Julio Lugo then I can damn sure salute Manny Delcarmen, who got traded to the Colorado Rockies (ironically the team he helped beat in the 2007 World Series.)

It may not have ended well in Boston, let's not forget what a wonderful Red Sox story his is.
He is a native Bostonian and "The Pride of Hyde Park" pitched at West Roxbury High School, dreaming of pitching for the Red Sox.

The Sox drafted him in the second round and in 2005 was called up to pitch for the Defending World Champs.

In 2007 he was up for good and contributing. With Papelbon and Okajima anchoring an All Star Bullpen, Delcarmen posted a 2.05 ERA over 44 relief innings. He kept the Angels off the board with 1 1/3 perfect innings in Game 2 of the Division Series that year (which ended on Manny Ramirez's walk off homer.)

He pitched in the clinching Game 4 of the World Series where he got to accomplish what so many kids in Boston had dreamed of and so few ACTUALLY have achieved:

He won a World Series ring as a player for the Red Sox.

He did it.
All of us who grew up in New England all wanted what he actually got done.

So while this year has been rocky and his season will end AS a Rockie, let me just say, from one life long Red Sox fan to another, thank you Manny Delcarmen for living out all of our dreams.

It was fun for us. I assume it was even more fun for you.