It’s been a long season, and more of a roller coaster than the stats would indicate. Sure, the Red Sox grabbed first place in the AL East, never to relinquish it, on April 18th - but this virtual wire to wire dominance was tested by the annual Yankees surge, the annual bullpen implosion, and the semi-annual ALCS comeback.
However, with a handful of returning members from the 04’ World Series team - and a post Babe Ruth World Championship already in our pockets - the desperation that has linked Sox fans for almost a century was noticeably absent.
Now we’ve won 2 World Series in four years, but the difference between this year and 2004 is, "we’ve only just begun." - the song from Happy Gilmore
In 2004 I was, understandably, in the camp that thought we should keep together the “idiots” that brought an end to New England’s perpetual suffering. But, I guess with Theo, foresight is 20/20 now that:
Millar hits .200 with 12 home runs (in the DH spot with an AL East Rival), and hasn’t gone opposite field since 84’
Pedro has had both his legs surgically replaced (he’s still the only pitcher I’ve seen lose 10 mph of velocity and somehow remain above average) and has pitched roughly thirty games in the last 3 years.
Mark Bellhorn was recently spotted whiffing on a breaking ball (down and in) at his son’s Babe Ruth League practice.
Orland Cabrera has…….oh, he hits over .300 every year, is patient at the plate, and is infinitely better than Lugo defensively. Can’t win em all.
Anyway. As we move into 2008, we can finally see the product of Theo’s commitment to the farm system:
Although Pedroia is 5’3” in heels, I don’t know if there’s anyone else I’d rather at the plate with a hit and run on. I’d also take him in a steel cage match versus a combination of any three players in the entire league.
Tacoby Bellsbury: in his first major league at bat he hit a routine ground ball to short…….and beat it out……. In his first major league at bat he hit a routine ground ball to short…….and beat it out. He’s faster down the first base line than Ichiro, could probably play Left and Center at the same time in Fenway, and even showed some power to left at the end of the year. Pencil him in for rookie of the year in 08’.
Clay Butcholz threw a no-hitter in his second major league start. Jon Lester recovered from cancer to win game 4 of the World Series and should still add some velocity to his low 90’s fastball, making him a very, very, tough lefty if he can keep it in the zone. These guys will have to adjust to playing a full season as a Boston starter, but will be as solid of a back end of a rotation as there is in baseball.
Becket is simply the best pitcher in the game, and Diceman will start to show why we paid 100 million next year.
Yeah we have two contracts (Drew and Lugo) which seem to be giving us about .40 cents on the dollar, but I still contend that it takes a full year to adjust to playing in Boston (see Renteria), and expect them both to be serviceable in the immediate future.
And if there’s one thing we learned in this post season (or the last 5 years), it’s this: if the role players produce around ManRam and Papino, you’ll have to score double digits to beat us.
So, I’ll enjoy this for another week before giving Theo my full off season plans, which starts with replacing post season announcer Joe Buck and Tim McCarver with Remy and Wally.
“My favorite part of the party… Obviously, the bike you guys brought.”
Last Thursday, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary art held its annual art auction entitled “Hot Art.” Falling into Hot Art this year was Randall Scott’s own Tommasso Augusta. In order to pay homage to all the support the museum has given us, the Augusta donation was able to raise $650.00 for this local non profit. There is talk that the museum will use the funds for an expansion of their complex in the upcoming year. Not only was the bike a hit amongst the auction attendants, the artisans and Randall discussed the future of art and sport. Through this, a plan was hatched to feature local artists in art/bike collaborations. We will keep you posted with updates of this endeavor and let you know what you can do to participate. Here are a few pictures of Randal and I dressing the nicest we have dressed since our double date with the Olsen twins. (We broke up with them.)
Going once, going twice... SOLD, To the man with the sick sunglasses.
There were soooo many people there.
One of the Olsen twins.
The other Olsen twin. Entry fee: $100; Highest artwork bid: $4,500; Having your best friend come with you to your first art auction: Priceless.
I love the wonderful PR spin the Ad Wizards over at Coors Field put on the brilliant idea to sell ALL their World Series tickets via the internet.
Ticketmaster, the world’s largest dispenser of hope, has a server the size of Oprah in 1993 and they still experience technical difficulties when Warrant announces a Canadian reunion tour.
I know the Rockies have sniffed the World Series only once (and that was over a decade ago), but you’d think – especially after the Red Sox won game 7 – that they’d anticipate a few people might be interested in catching the game. Their foresight was rewarded with 8 million people visiting their website on Monday at noon.
They sold 500 of roughly 60,000 tickets before the site crashed. What happened….Hackers.
That’s what they said.
I talked to my friend who pretends to be a computer genius, and he said he was about 60% sure that was impossible.
Anyways, that’s not what tickled me pink.
After spending 3 hours navigating three computers, “like an octopus who plays the drums (FREE Randall Scott Frisbee and Sunglasses for anyone who knows that reference)”, I came away with nada. My disappointment quickly dissipated as I heard the news that the “hackers” had foiled everyone’s attempt at baseball nirvana.
But today……oh today.
I casually navigated to the Rockies site thoroughly expecting not to get tickets but subconsciously praying that our broadband, Ethernet, high speed, high priced, wireless, HD, internet connection here at Randall Scott would bring home the bacon.
Bring it home? It brought it home, threw it the pan, cooked some eggs, set the table, and……..........fed it to my trigger happy dog Ruby right in front of me.
A play by play:
I miraculously got past the fist stage of page refreshing to where they let me pick what type of seat I would like.
Then – after roughly 30 more refreshes – it said, “yeah, we got some of those…how many do you need?” I fought to keep a smile from spreading across my face and typed in the maximum amount: 4.
30 more refreshes: It asked me to login to my MLB account.....nuts, I didn’t have one yet, and every extra step ran the risk of a total site crash. Saying time was of the essence was like saying, “I wouldn’t mind being Tom Brady.”
A successful login brought me to the next step: entering my Credit Card information. Luckily I had in a word document with that info ready to cut and paste…… bing, bang, boom….submit.
Now I’m planning my celebration route through the office and literally holding my breath.
One more confirmation page………”Is this information correct?”
4 tickets behind home plate for the 07’ Red Sox World Series…Yup, I haven’t seen many things more correct in my life.
This was it:
Submit……..Sorry we cannot connect to the server right now. It might be too busy, it might be this, it might be that, try again later
Submit……..Sorry we cannot connect to the server right now. It might be too busy, it might be this, it might be that, try again later
Submit……..Sorry we cannot connect to the server right now. It might be too busy, it might be this, it might be that, try again later
Submit……..Sorry we cannot connect to the server right now. It might be too busy, it might be this, it might be that, try again later
Submit……..Sorry we cannot connect to the server right now. It might be too busy, it might be this, it might be that, try again later
Then, after an hour and a half it turned to this:
Games 3, 4, and 5, at Coors Field have been SOLD OUT.
Tonight my Powerball numbers will be: 19 86 19 86 19 86
Randall Scott has always placed a premium on - not just bringing its customers great deals on cycling and outdoor products - but using our passion for the outdoors and affinity for community as an impetus to create something greater than a standard consumer/retailer dynamic.
I’ve always enjoyed working here at RS because of the way creativity is embraced and encouraged on all levels, and last weekend was really a culmination of this philosophy.
What was our First Annual Eco Tour? Well. Eco Arts has been around for a while now, and can aptly be described as a, “growing community of artists, scientists, curators, writers, nonprofits and businesses who are developing creative and innovative strategies to address our global environmental issues.”
In conjunction with BMOCA (Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art), Elephant Magazine, and the aforementioned Eco Artists, we threw a 2 wheel party that winded through the city of Boulder on a cloudless fall afternoon. Visiting different exhibits, our tour guides brought us through a myriad of pieces that combined art and science in an effort to raise awareness about the importance of sustainability and the preservation of our planet.
The afternoon tour ended here at Randall Scott Headquarters where we had the World’s best 80’s DJ, complimentary kegs from local brewery Avery (with recycled cups and utensils supplied by Ecocycle), and the grand opening of our in house Gallery, which has yet to be named.
The Gallery features work from local artist, employees, and is another outlet to perpetuate a message of camaraderie, lifestyle and environmental awareness. The turnout was great, and the impact may be felt long into the future, as an Eco Arts head honcho was present and eager to use this event as a model going forward.
Here are some pictures, because Randall always tells me, "people like pictures". (The crew begins to congregate in Boulder Park)
(Our new cash cow: RS GALLERY. Revenue to date: -2,000$)
(Laura Anne, aka:LA, aka: Hollywood, showing why she has so many sexy nicknames)
Come join us as we paint Boulder Green on Saturday. We'll leave BMOCA at 3:30 and take to the streets, visiting various exhibits throughout the city to benefit the environment and generate awareness for sustainability.
The tour will be culminating with the Opening of the Randall Scott Gallery. They'll be free Brewski's, local legend DJ Symmetry will once again be spinning the sultry sounds of the 80’s, and yes, Apache will be there for their much anticipated reunion………(OK, the original music isn't available for copyright reasons, but this is the original video with a Maddona remix, almost as good)
Tommaso Twitter Updates
