Results tagged ‘ Felix Doubront ’
Searching for Baseball’s Best Hamburger
Although I typically only eat burgers grilled by Bobby Flay (man crush), today I'll make an exception. (Getty Images)
It’s not quite the 80 degrees of Ft. Myers, but the mercury is pushing 50 today here at McCoy Stadium. The big event happening at the ballpark this afternoon is a hamburger taste test. In hopes of serving our fans better, all PawSox employees will be taste-tasting bite-sized pieces of various hamburgers that could possibly be served in our concession stands this season. We’ll be rating them 1-10 on taste, appearance, and texture. Today I will get paid to eat a hamburger.
- The Red Sox play a pair of split squad games today featuring a B-game versus the Twins in Ft. Myers that started at 10:00 a.m. with Jon Lester getting the start. At 1:00 p.m. Justin Germano will start for the Red Sox in Grapefruit League action in Dunedin against Toronto.
- I haven’t heard a lot of buzz about Felix Doubront heading into Spring Training. He’s someone who was hampered by injuries last season and, if in shape and healthy this year, could be the Red Sox No. 5 starter. Here’s an interesting video I found this morning on OverTheMonster.com by Marc Normandin (@Marc_Normandin) talking about Doubront’s new mechanics:
- I was just minutes away from arriving at McCoy Stadium this morning when listening to the local NPR affiliate, 90.9 WBUR. Every Wednesday morning one of my favorite sports journalists, Frank Deford, is on NPR with a dignified sports narrative of one kind or another. This morning it was entitled, What Baseball Really Needs: Mr. Personality, and it was all about our very own Bobby Valentine:
“But all praise and glory go to the Boston Red Sox for bringing Bobby Valentine back to provide some antic charm and irritation. The irony is, too, that the faceless new Boston general manager was determined to bring in another bland button-pusher. But club president Larry Lucchino … pushed for articulation and pizazz, for a man smart enough to have learned Japanese when he was managing in exile over there.”
The entire piece is only a few minutes long and is well worth a listen.
- Since yesterday’s post, there have been two new subscribers to the blog: davezibelli was No. 49 and kvnp12 was No. 50. As promised yesterday, I’ll get a hold of kvnp12 and will do a brief email interview (which will be published here) about all things PawSox and how he’s preparing for international fame since getting a shout-out on 45 Miles From Fenway.
Enjoy the rest of your day. I hope your lunch is as good as mine.
-AG
@aaronmgoldsmith
agoldsmith@pawsox.com
The Countdown to Spring Training Games
4 big league Spring Training games will be played today.
3 of them are exhibitions versus college opponents.
2 days until the Red Sox Grapefruit League home opener.
1 day until the Sox first exhibition games.
The Red Sox will break in the new JetBlue Park tomorrow afternoon with a pair of exhibition games. The club’s first opponent will be the Northeastern Huskies at 2:35 p.m., followed by the Boston College Eagles at 7:05 pm. Approximately 24 hours away from first pitch, the Red Sox have released their lineup for both games. Thanks to the photo skills of ESPNBoston.com’s Gordon Edes, we know that Jon Lester will start game one, followed by Felix Doubront in game two. The second game will be televised on NESN and aired on WEEI. Here is the complete Red Sox Spring Training broadcast schedule.
The big event to take place on the new playing surface in Fort Myers prior to tomorrow’s games was of course yesterday’s retirement speech by Red Sox great Jason Varitek. He’s obviously a lock for the Red Sox Hall of Fame and will always be remembered as one of the club’s all-time greats. In case you missed his speech, or just want to watch it again, here you go.
Here’s the latest from everything else:
- According to Cleveland Indians’ manager Manny Acta, former PawSox and Red Sox pitcher Justin Masterson will make his first career opening day start on April 5 vs. Toronto in Progressive Field. Although I’ve never met Justin, everyone I’ve talked with says he’s a terrific guy.
Catcher Ryan Lavarnway mashed a two-out solo home run to left field in the first inning off Minnesota’s Scott Baker in yesterday’s B-Game. Early reports are that Lavarway is making a strong case to break camp with the big league club. He was “a little nervous [it was] going to be downhill from there,” Lavarnway told NESN.com. ”It’s good to get the first couple at-bats out of the way and have him throw it in my happy zone.”
- happy zone: noun
- As mentioned here earlier this week, FanGraphs.com has recently ranked all 30 major league television broadcast crews. The Red Sox duo of Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy were ranked fifth overall – very, very good. Below is my favorite Orsillo/Remy moment.
- No one knows the housing market is down better than IKEA. Yes, that IKEA. The Swedish furniture manufacturer has introduced their $86,500 flat-pack home. Here’s the best part: they’ll assemble it for you.
- 50 years ago today Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points against the New York Knicks. The Hall of Famer was 25-year-old at the time and was playing for the Philadelphia Warriors. The closest anyone has come to Wilt’s century mark was Kobe Bryant in 2006 when he scored 81 points against Toronto.
- Thank you to my three recent subscribers: brian.boesch, wef1944, and yaz452. I even received an email from brian.boesch who said he is a huge Red Sox fan who recently moved from Gipsy, Alabama to North Carolina. No matter where you live, you can subscribe by entering your email address in the top-right corner of this page and clicking “Subscribe.”
Enjoy your weekend and the start of Red Sox games.
-AG
@aaronmgoldsmith
agoldsmith@pawsox.com
