November 28, 2011

Baseball is AWESOME! - The Jeff Stone game

This is my next entry in my series of Baseball is Awesome off-season posts.  If you've read the introductory post and the first one I wrote on Mike Gardiner you know that this is a series of posts focusing on great Red Sox related moments with some Canadian content.  Today's post is on a game that came to be known simply as "The Jeff Stone game".

Ok, there were no Canadians involved in this game, and it took place at Fenway.  So where's the Canadian connection?

First, a brief (or not so) history lesson.  Believe it or not, the Yankees were not always our most hated rivals.

November 24, 2011

Baseball is AWESOME! - Canadian hurler wins Red Sox debut

This is the first in my series of Baseball is Awesome off-season posts. Something to read and keep you looking forward to those first days of spring when baseball season starts and anything can happen.  Most of these stories will not show up on The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told.  But they will be interesting to any baseball fan, and as this series focuses on Red Sox related moments with some Canadian content, I hope in particular Red Sox and/or Canadian fans enjoy them.

On September 8th, 1990 Mike Gardiner made his MLB debut, at Fenway.   He had languished in the Mariners farm system for a while, never getting above AA, but was rewarded with a September call up.  In a blowout game he came in to pitch with 2 outs in the bottom of the 8th with his team losing 9-2. He gave up a hit allowing an inherited runner to score, but then struck out Randy Kutcher to end the inning.  It was a fairly unremarkable appearance, not noted by many, except me.  You see, Mike Gardiner was not only one of the handful of Canadians in the MLB, he was from my hometown of Sarnia.  I did everything I could to follow his career path (which was difficult in those pre-internet days).  Once he made that first appearance in the show, I told everyone how great he was going to be, and how proud I was that someone from my little hometown was going to make it big.   It mainly fell on deaf ears.   And this post is not about this first appearance anyways....

November 22, 2011

BBWAA vs. BBA Awards - who chose better?

Now that all major awards have been handed out by the BBWAA (and the Baseball Blogger's Alliance (BBA) had already announced their awards ahead of time), it's time to compare and see how well they matched, and where they differed who had the better selection.  I previously posted the BBA selections, and links to the Boston Chapter's vote as well as my personal input into that vote on the awards tracker post.  Feel free to look through the links there for reasonings behind my picks.   Here, without further commentary, are the final results for each award.  For the most part, the Bloggers' awards match the real ones with a few slight differences.  I would be interested in readers' opinions of whether the BBA totally missed the boat, or if they replaced the BBWAA membership votes and gave it to a bunch of guys (and gals) blogging from their mom's basement, if the real awards would be more meaningful.   Please comment below and/or shoot me a line on twitter @rsn_alberta.

November 19, 2011

Baseball is AWESOME!

and the the sky is blueand Kate Upton is hot.

Now that we have the obvious out of the way...  I've finally gotten over the painful end of the Sox season, and  am ready to start writing again.  I am going to start a series called "Baseball is Awesome" where every week, (or every few days or whenever I feel like writing) I will post a new article recapping a particular game, moment or event, in Red Sox history that shows why Baseball IS awesome.  Now, the greatest moments in Sox history has already been done... probably multiple times, in blogs, books and even video form, if you want to get it below,


but this will have a slight twist to it.

I am restricting this list to great Canadian moments in Red Sox history. May be by a Canadian player or it happened in Canada or otherwise has some significance for Canadians.   But it should be an entertaining read for any fan of our Old-Towne Team.  I look forward to writing it, hope you are looking forward to reading it.

I will update this post to serve as a link to the Series:
Baseball is Awesome - Canadian Hurler wins Red Sox debut
Baseball is Awesome - The Jeff Stone game
Baseball is Awesome - Monster Home Run highlights sweep
Baseball is Awesome - Jason Bay: Canadian hero
Baseball is Awesome - Maligned Canadian Pitcher closes out Series Win
Basebal is Awesome - Gives You Perspective
Baseball is Awesome - Youkilis First Home Run