THE exception to the Steroid Era

Old news, David Ortiz came "clean" on being "dirty" a few weeks back. Since then things have been going fairly well. He now has 22 dingers and 77 RBI's a very nice line since he started out the season so terrible.

David Ortiz smoked 8 bombs since his announced "careless supplement" use. He's played in the most hostile of environments, New York, Baltimore, Toronto, Tampa Bay, and Texas.

My big question here is: Why aren't fans booing Big Papi? The guy admitted to using steroids (kinda), but its assumed that he was. I mean the same thing happened with Alex Rodriguez and he can barely step into the box at Fenway the steroid chants are so loud. It appears to me that the Yankees fans and fans of baseball have dropped the ball on this one. If Yankees fans want to declare themselves the best fans in sports, you can't be whispering when David Ortiz comes to bat at Yankee Stadium. This is your time to shine.

Maybe you guys can take some pointers from the Fenway Faithful (see video 1)

Video 1:




Video 2: (keep in mind this is IN the balcony of Yankee Stadium so it might appear to be louder, the first video was ESPN mics which are typically quieter and pick up less crowd noise)



Also other than two days of Yankees fans knocking on Ortiz for "tainting world series" I think they kind of dropped the ball on the internet as well. I'm still shitting on A-roid for the things he did, why are the Yankees fans so quiet on the Ortiz front(it can't possibly be cause they secretly love him, could it?).. YANKEES FANS THIS WAS YOUR TIME TO SHINE!... YOU BLEW IT!

AL Wild Card Update

I was lucky enough to be featured on Firebrand AL check it out. http://firebrandal.com/2009/08/21/al-wild-card-update.html

The longer the Rangers stick around the more I feel like they’re here to stay. With the way Ian Kinsler is swinging the bat he throw the team on his back and carry them into October. With a 27-28 record on the road, the Rangers really need to pull things together down the stretch. The Rangers have 26 road games left, including three games at the New Yankee Stadium, four games in Anaheim, and a big three game series against the Rays in Tampa. It doesn’t get any easier at home either with three games series versus the Mariners, the Angels and the Rays.

You know how I know the Tampa Bay Rays aren’t here to stay ? They can’t beat the O’s. Last year if Tampa had been down 5-1 and then Ben Zobrist hits that same home run the Rays will come back and win this game in extras. This year, it’s not shaping up that way as the Rays have fallen back in the AL Wild Card to four games behind the Red Sox. Be careful counting these Rays out with Scott Kazmir heating up in his last four starts going 3-0 with a 3.26. They are also hitting .312 with a pitching E.R.A of 3.00. This upcoming series against Texas is going to be huge, Tampa has a dominating 40-20 record at the Trop, either way, a Rays sweep, Rangers sweep, any mix in between this race is far from over.

The Red Sox are looking at the month of September with inconsistant pitching, the Red Sox bats have finally come around with 14 HR’s in 7 days. Ortiz is on fire bombing 3 HRs in his last 4 games, Drew with two dingers last night and V-Mart showing Sox fans how great of a leader he can be. Varitek has been sitting more and more, which means he’ll be fully rested when/if we need him in October. Pitching is a whole different ball game, the Sox have a combined 4.50 ERA over the last 7 days tying them for 18th in the MLB. The good news for the Red Sox is that their competition will hopefully be beating each other up in September and early October, the Rays start a series with the Rangers tonight. Then the Rays have six games left with the Bronx Bombers, six games with the Rangers, and six games against the Red Sox. The Red Sox will have their hands more than full tonight with the Bombers in town. It appears that Penny has lost his swag and Pettite is turning things up a notch. It’ll be interesting to see if the Red Sox can take the first game of this series against a red hot Yankees team.

One thing is for certain, the team that wins the wild card this year will have most definately earned it.