Too bad, too bad… New England’s Sebastian Vollmer could have been the third German to win a major US-championship since June 2011. But last Sunday wasn’t the day for the Patriots…
Barton Silverman/The New York Times
40 days… until baseball!
January 23, 2012 By 1 Comment
40 days
40 days until Spring Training begins. 73 days until the season opener against Detroit. 81 days until the home opener against Tampa.
That’s how long it will take until we see how the Red Sox do this season. Red Sox Nation will be excited to see how the team changed, how Ben Cherington and Bobby Valentine do, after Theo Epstein and Terry Francona left the club.
I dunno that much about Ben Cherington but the situation that will come up is comparable to the fate of Michael Rensing after succeeding Oliver Kahn as goalie for the FC Bayern Munich. Oliver Kahn was a goalie legend. People called him “Titan”. He played in 781 matches for Karlsruhe and Munich and played 86 games for Germany. He won the national championship eight times, the national cup six times, the UEFA Cup (Europa League) and the UEFA Champions League. He became the best goalkeeper of almost everything in his career. Then came Michael Rensing. Backup goalie, big prospect, had to wait forever until he moved up. In 2008/09 he became the #1. He played 37 games but at some point he got demoted to #2. In 2009/10 the new coach gave him a chance but he only made seven appearances.
Rensing was without a job for a half year, didn’t play for almost a year and then signed with Cologne where he became a great and #3 on the Goalie of the Year votings.
What I want to show is that it’s hard to fill successful people’s shoes. Rensing never was a bad goalie but couldn’t replace Kahn that suddenly. He got the chance in Cologne and is playing fabulous. Cherington has been with the Red Sox since 1999 and (I hope) had time to learn from Theo.
Bobby Valentine already has a good standing already but I bet once the Sox have a cold streak people will compare him to Tito. Or even now. I’ve heard friends mentioning that Valentine’s managing career hasn’t been that successful, not even close to Francona’s. Well, hold on. First of all it were the Rangers. From 1972 until 1985 they had five winning seasons. From 1986 until 1991 he had three winning seasons. Francona’s time in Philly didn’t include a winning season at all.
After a stop in Japan, where he did an excellent job, “Bobby V” joined the Mets and did good, even making it to the World Series against the Yankees in 2000.
Bobby Valentine and Ben Cherington deserve a chance.
Cherington worked on the roster trying to avoid the luxury tax and making room for a good rotation. Recently they traded SS Marco Scutaro to have some room for Roy Oswalt. I had to look him up as I’m not that much of a MLB expert and can’t keep track of all teams and players and what I saw wasn’t too bad. A career ERA of 3.21 and an average record of 16-10 looks good. His last season didn’t but maybe that was just an exception. He just needs to stay healthy. We also have other options regarding relievers and starters. Daniel Bard and Alfredo Aceves are still options for starters, although I think that Bard should stay as a reliever. Vincente Padilla might have a chance to get in the rotation. Andrew Bailey replaces Jonathan Papelbon and there are still a few more pitchers we can put in.
But who is gonna be on short? Scutaro’s backup, Jed Lowrie, got traded to the Houston Astros. That leaves us to Mike Aviles, Nick Punto and Julio Iglesias are options and should be given a chance.
Well, it’s still time until Spring Training begins… 40 days.
Herrooo 2012!
January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
I’m back from my fantastic leave and I managed to bring my power cord to work! Yay! Last week I forgot it at home and couldn’t write. Actually I could have but I wasn’t in the mood to use the iPhone app.
First of all: Air Canada is a good airline to fly with. I had a great flight! Had enough legroom in the plane and I didn’t need the extra legroom for $130. Not sure if it was that much more than the other airlines I traveled with before but I sat well. My plan to finish my book failed because I watched movies, read a little bit and slept for a little while. Surprisingly the food was excellent. Of course not as good as a restaurant but compared to other airlines this was superb! Not like Continental where I basically ate the desserts and the breakfast snack.
I landed a bit too late in Montreal and had to wait a few hours for the next flight but everything went well and in Boston my girlfriend and I had enough time to grab something to eat and take an express bus up north to spend Christmas with her parents.
2011 was the best Christmas I had in a while. While getting used to spend Christmas with your family at home and maybe forget the importance of being together with them I got reminded that it’s a very important season.
But I enjoyed the “post-Christmas” time as well. Boston is awesome and every time I come to Boston it amazes me. It’s beautiful and I almost feel more comfortable than in Cologne (which means a lot). Especially the historic buildings in the middle of the city, for example the Granary Burying Ground where famous people like Samuel Adams, Paul Revere and John Hancock are buried. Or, as shown below the Old South Meeting House.
Old South Meeting House
Just too bad I didn’t see any sports games this time. It’s Winter so I wasn’t able to see some baseball (last time in July I went to a game but against my expectations they started the game after the rain delay… and we were back in the apartment already…). The Boston Bruins just had an away game and the Celtics… I’m just not that much into basketball. But next trip is planned for July and I’m sure Fenway Park will have an excited visitor again. For some reason I’m really excited for the new season. Really excited to see how the Red Sox will do and I didn’t think I’m gonna be that excited in January already. For the past couple days I’ve been following ESPN and the Red Sox site. By accident I noticed that I finished 5th out of 20 in the past season’s fantasy baseball league that a former co-worker organized. Didn’t really follow it last year so I worked on my team every other week. Thinking about doing that again, especially after watching Season 3 of The League, hrhrhr!
On January 2nd it was time to say goodbye. It’s always sad to leave and it really stinks to know that you won’t see each other, except via Skype on the weekends, for four months. The longest time was when I was in Hamburg for a couple months. Didn’t see each other for almost five months and we didn’t even have Skype on most of the weekends. I’m really glad that both of us are patient people and willing to go through it.
This time it’s Canada!
December 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Friday it’s time again to get on a plane and fly over the Atlantic to visit my girlfriend and spend Christmas and New Years!
It was quite a pain in the ass to get the ticket as I had to check with the company I do my intern at and couldn’t book before but it all went well. Then I did a mistake with the booking but everything is fine and Friday I’ll get on a Air Canada Airbus 330-300 to fly to Boston with a stop in Montreal, Canada. The flight from Montreal to Boston is with a Canadair Regional Jet 200 and I’m quite excited, to be honest.
The flight back to Germany will be with a Boeing 737-700 from Boston to Newark and to Frankfurt with a Boeing 757-200. Both planes operated by Continental. I’m really excited as I used different airlines and airports every time since I visited the States from 2008 on.
1. US Airways: Frankfurt – Philadelphia – Boston – Philadelphia Frankfurt
2. Air Iberia: Frankfurt – Madrid – Boston – Madrid – Frankfurt
3. Iceland Air: Frankfurt - Reykjavík – Boston - Reykjavík – Frankfurt
4. British Airways/American Airlines: Luxembourg – London Heathrow – Boston – London Heathrow – Luxembourg
5. Air Canada/Continental: Frankfurt – Montreal – Boston – Newark – Frankfurt
By the way, this is just the chronological order of my flights from old to latest. Air Iberia was the worst regarding flying, London Heathrow was the worst airport and the best tour was with Iceland Air.
I love flying but when I wanted to reserve the seats I noticed that I need to pay $109-$129 for extra leg room. Now I’m about 6’2” tall and it sucks a little bit. In March, just a week before I left to the States again, a hip pointer incurred during PT made flying very painful and some extra leg room would have been so amazing…
And because I love flying, the amazing things like looking out of a window and see some cool stuff or the annoying things like little screaming children, my Papp of the Week will be TheOatmeal.com
It’s one of the funniest pages I’ve seen in the past couple years. Primarily I use this site for the comics because they are hilarious but the creator, Matthew Inman, does a fine job with quizzes and his blog as well. If you like one of the comics you can buy them as posters or, especially for Christmas, you can buy greeting cards from the shop as well.
Here are some examples, all with flying 
Just click on the image and get directed to the comic!
If I shouldn’t post again for this year I wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah or whatever you celebrate. Plus a Happy New Year! Stay safe and don’t kill yourself with fireworks! Fire and alcohol are dangerous together
Bostonian Fall down
September 30, 2011 By 1 Comment
thestar.com
It took me a day to realize what happened Wednesday night. Because I don’t have the opportunity to watch baseball during the week I wasn’t able to watch that game. I got up Thursday morning at 6:30 and instantly checked the score of the game. The Red Sox lost, Tampa Bay won, the Red Sox are not in the playoffs.
I wasn’t surprised but shocked. Not surprised because until Wednesday the Red Sox were 7-19 for September. Almost every time I checked the standings the last ten games were 2-8. 7-20 when I woke up. It was the worst month for 47 years.
In the beginning of the season I was worried because of the horrible start Boston had with 2-10. I seriously thought that this year is no World Series year, not even a playoff year. Then the team came back, played well, especially in June but then fell in a deep hole in the past four weeks. The numbers were just tragic as an article on ESPN presents:
7.08
Quite simply, the Red Sox’s starting rotation had its worst month — ever. The 7.08 ERA is the highest in franchise history in a month with at least 20 games.
Or…
65
It’s easy to blame a rotation that posted a 7.08 ERA or a bullpen that accounted for seven losses. After all, the offense scored more runs (146) than it did in two more games in August (143), while hitting .280. However, those numbers are skewed from a few offensive outbursts. In their seven wins, the Red Sox scored 81 runs (11.6 per game). In the 20 losses? Just 65 runs (3.3 per game). In eight of those losses, the offense managed two runs or fewer.
Or the following part which leads me to the next point…
89
Even amidst the disheartening April start and the torturous September, the Red Sox could count on maintaining a ninth-inning lead. According to Elias, Boston was 89-0 this season in games in which it led in the ninth inning or later. That is, until Wednesday.
This statistic is the most cruel of it all. It’s a good score, not losing one game while leading in the 9th but then Wednesday one of my favorite players didn’t save the game. It was the third blown save out of 34 opportunities. Jonathan Papelbon is the player I’m talking about. I really hope he won’t be the scapegoat for not qualifying. The one I could blame is Carl Crawford who didn’t catch that slice that caused the game winning run. Read ESPN’s article and you’ll see more reasons. For example:
26
Pitching and injuries are the easiest scapegoats for Boston’s disastrous month. However, the Red Sox also did themselves no favors with their defense, committing an MLB-high 26 errors. Compare that to just 66 errors in their first 135 games. On top of its historically high ERA, the team also allowed 14 unearned runs in September, tied for the fourth most in the majors.
When I started writing this post it wasn’t decided if Terry Francona will be Boston’s manager for 2012 or not. But when I wanted to read the article again I noticed that the Sox the chances aren’t looking to good. It’s just like getting rid of coaches in the German Bundesliga (soccer/football). And I don’t understand why, because he is the greatest manager in Red Sox history. Two sweeps in the World Series says it all. But it seems to no-playoff seasons will be enough although last year was lots of bad luck.
Terry won’t be the only one leaving. I highly doubt Papelbon is gonna sign another contract after this last game and all the photos that connect him with the failure. David Ortiz’ contract is over as well and I dunno if he will resign. After 5099 at-bats I think Jason Varitek might play one more season for the Red Sox. He accepted the back up role. Fact. And Ryan Lavarnway is slowly getting ready to replace him. Maybe he’ll call it a career as well. But who knows? Age doesn’t matter. Wakefield wants to come back next year and he is 45. 35-year-old Marco Scutaro is also in his last year but both sides have an option and I’d like to see him in a Red Sox uniform next year.
Now the Red Sox have to concentrate on next season. I really hope they find a new manager who can replace Tito just a little bit and who can bring the team that was supposed to win the WS back on the field (and at least make it to the playoffs).
Time to replay the season with Out of the Park Baseball and make things better.
-Martin
Back from vacation, back to work!
August 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment
And I’m back from Boston… Back to work… Yippie
I’m sitting in my room watching to TV shows made for the social lower class and enjoying it. Thank you, German TV program. But there are better shows. Better shows on the net which leads us to the Papp of the Week!
If you like food, new creations of food or meals you should check out Epic Meal Time! But it’s not a normal website for cooking – NO! – it’s for epic shit!
Ever dreamed of a meat salad? A meatball deathstar? Maximum mac’n'cheese? Sloppy Ben Roethlisburger? The maximum protein experience? You should check out this website and take a look at their skills? At work we’re dreaming of a meat salad and as crazy as we are I’m sure there will be a meat salad. And for all you women: they have the amount of calories. Harley Morenstein and his crew are legends! Thanks guys!
Man up and watch the videos!
Anyways, another great thing is gonna happen tomorrow and the day after tomorrow! First of all the INTERNATIONAL BEER DAY!
So guess what I’m gonna do tomorrow…
And then the even bigger thing: The start of the 2011/12 season of the German Bundesliga! Damn right it’s time for football! And I’m gonna see the season opener of the FC Cologne against Wolfsburg! Whoop whoop!
Alright, last day of work ahead and I’m off to bed!
Good night!
