More thoughts on Rays vs Red Sox bean-ball situation Friday night: Time for baseball to eliminate umpire judgement calls

Friday night in Boston, former Cy Young winner David Price hit two Red Sox batters emptying the dugouts once and throwing the game into a tailspin that would spawn the ejection of 3 Red Sox coaches and a replaceable relief pitcher. 

All of this happened less than a week after a scrum between these same two teams erupted at 3rd base in Tampa meaning that going into the game, it would be smart for the umpires to officiate this game with less tolerance for such mischief. They did the very opposite. When David Price plunked Boston's star DH, David Ortiz in the 1st inning he very well should have been tossed from the game but instead he was simply given a warning. Possibly as a result of that, Price tested the system again just 2 innings later when he threw a high fastball in the direction of Mike Carp's neck. Carp was able to get his arm up to block the pitch before it caused major damage to him but nevertheless, there was great anger on the part of the Red Sox when it was seen that Price was still not ejected. Needless to say, with the umpires refusing to keep this a baseball game rather than a dodge-ball game, the Red Sox took the job of enacting justice into their own hands. As the scrum around David Price and Mike Carp grew, furious Sox like David Ortiz and Shane Victorino mashed their way through the pile and came dangerously close to initiating a full out, fists flying brawl. 

Though that possible incident which would have surely been a crisis for the umpires was evidently averted, Brandon Workman came out in the 6th inning and promptly attempted a pitch at Evan Longoria's head. After all that happened with stars and such, it was Workman, a middle reliever with just 16+ innings pitched this season, who served as the only player ejected from Friday's game. 

But none of that sends the kind of message that needed to be sent Friday night. 

When a manager get ejected, the umpires are giving him one of his strongest powers as a manager. That is, coming out and getting his team fired up en route to being ejected. Also, much of what managers do to benefit their team is done before the game when they decide who to bring up and send down and how to arrange their players in the batting order. All and all, ejecting a manager is a pathetic way for an umpire to act like he is assertive and willing to do anything to control the game like he should. After ejecting 2 managers to no avail, ejecting a 3rd manager, as the umpiring crew did Friday night, is just about as helpful in terms of keeping a game in control as ejecting a fan. 

What the umpires needed to do was eject David Price but they did not because baseball is a sport caught up in nostalgia and one that is rapidly showing its inability to create firm rules that would take umpire interpretations out of the game. This is shown most notably by the warning system in baseball. According to the current MLB regulations, if a pitcher throws at a batter the umpire can issue a warning if the beaning was deemed intentional. However, the umpire can also eject the player right away if the beaning is deemed REALLY intentional. 

Now I'm not sure about you but it would probably be for the best of the MLB did not ask its umpires to pinpoint the placement of a particular pitch on the spectrum of intention.  

Anyway, the home plate umpire Friday night issued a warning on the blatant Price pitch to the back of David Ortiz and then when Price hit Carp just a few innings later did not kick Price out of the game. Once again that is another example of a judgment call within the list of what is expected of an umpire. After 1 warning is issued for a hit batter, most umpires eject the next pitcher to hit a batter. But what a surprise, that is not an actual rule. Once a warning is issued, the player warned cannot be ejected until he once again commits a transgression deemed intentional.  

Anyway I have said it once and I will say it again. The umpiring crew of Friday night's game between the Red Sox and Rays let the game get out of control. They should have been obligated by the dictation of the MLB rule-book to eject David Price after at least one of the hit batter situations during the game. They were not and by letting Price stay in the game, they exposed a number of flaws in the rules that bind the game of baseball. Today the Red Sox are displeased with these umpires for letting their players get hit without retribution while baseball's higher ups should be displeased with these umpires for exposing their inability to enact in game justice against a player. 

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Red Sox and Rays start playing dodge-ball at Fenway: Umpires lose control in game where benches clear and 3 batters hit

Last year when Ryan Depster drilled Alex Rodrigiuez with a pitch, it was a bit of a revival of the nasty bench clearing brawls we saw between Boston and New York back in the early 2000's. However, when the Red Sox and Rays brawled on May 25th and then followed it up with an even rougher game 5 days later, that pegging of A-Rod suddenly looked petty.

The game started with fire. With 2 outs in the first inning, David Ortiz walked to the plate and stood in against former Cy Young winner, David Price. Price proceeded to drill a 95MPH fastball right into the Sox slugger's spine. Immediately, home plate umpire Jeff Kellog emphatically warned Price, the Rays bench as well as the Red Sox bench and Ortiz ferociously stared down Price as he began his trot towards first. 

But the fun was not done, even for that inning. As Ortiz finished delivering his death stare to David Price, John Farrell emerged from the dugout and began barking at a crowd of umpired between home plate and the pitcher’s mound. Before Farrell said anything though, he was ejected and we had ourselves yet another vicious baseball game. As the game dragged on though, Price proved that he seemed to be on a mission to turn this baseball game into a dodge-ball game. With 2 outs in the 4th inning, Price pegged Mike Carp with another 90MPH+ fastball and drew both teams out of their dugouts. Immediately, David Ortiz jumped into the scrum and began screaming and shoving Jose Molina in an attempt to get at Price. Also erupting during the fight was Rays bench-warmer Sean Rodriguez who despite being on the other side of the pile than the Red Sox was absolutely fuming. And yet as the umpires convened again, Price was not tossed. Acting manager Torey Lovullo however came out, got ejected after he spiked his cap and then started screaming at the officials of this game. Probably for good reason, the Red Sox got absolutely whacked by the umpires Friday night in Boston and nobody was happy. 

But anyway, with Lovullo gone, the Sox moved on to their 3rd  manager of the night: Brian Butterfeild. Miraculously, we made it to the 6th inning before anything more developed. With 1 out and 1 ball thrown to Evan Longoria in the 6th, Brandon Workman chucked a rising fastball behind and about 2 feet ABOVE Longoria. The pitch was without a doubt at least a bad attempt at a bean-ball and finally, the umpires recognized that. Workman and Butterfeild were both sent packing and suddenly we ended up with hitting coach Greg Coulbern acting as Boston's 4th manager of the night.

Coulbern would manage for all 5 innings between the Workman debacle and AJ Pierzynski's walk off triple in the 10th inning. But after dotting their opponents with baseball sized bruises and screaming copious amounts of profanity, the Sox and Rays took to the microphones after the game to further attack one another. One of the most blatant of this verbal attacks was made against David Price by David Ortiz. 

"It's a war," Ortiz said after the Red Sox victory, "It's on. Next time I see him, he better put his gloves on. I have no respect for him anymore."

Ortiz also eluded to the fact that Price may still be angry about last year’s wild card round when Ortiz shredded him with multiple home runs. He hinted that Price's lingering hatred is a sign of bad sportsmanship.

"I had a lot of respect for the guy, man," he said. "It is over now. I have no more respect for him. Last year, we kicked his butt in the playoffs and he went off talking crap about everyone. We go to talk on the phone after we kind of straightened things out. He was upset, and then I let him know how I felt. Later on he called me and apologized because he knew he was wrong. Everything was cool, so the first at-bat of the season against him, he drills me." 

John Farrell then came to the podium and cast a heavy eye on the umpires for allowing Price to stay in the game after the Ortiz bean-ball. 

"David's a heckuva pitcher," Farrell said regarding Price. "He comes in with two hit batters and eight walks on the year. He's got the lowest walk rate in the American League. And when he throws a ball and hits David Ortiz in the back, there is intent to that. They can dispute that all they want. There is intent to that pitch. As emphatic as Dan Bellino's warning was, it sure seemed like Dan Bellino felt there was intent as well."

He then started talking about how in the world Price survived the Mike Carp hit batter incident 3 innings later. Farrell obviously disagreed with the umpires' handling of the warning system and why a second warning was not issued after Carp was hit. 

"I disagreed with it," Farrell continued. "He took the ball out of our hand, and after [Red Sox first baseman] Mike Carp got hit with a ball up around his neck and they didn't make a move, then the umpires allowed this game to escalate even further. When we have four people ejected and also three players hit by pitches and they have none, that's a hard one to figure out," Farrell said. "He threw at Ortiz and hit him in the back. There's intent to that."

Umpire Dan Bellino defended his decision in the Carp incident while not speaking directly to the Ortiz handling.

"Again, if we feel there was intent to hit the batter, he would have been ejected," Bellino said of Price after the game. "We felt the pitch was certainly inside, but not intentional, so that's why he stayed in the game."

All and all, Friday night was a dark night for the umpiring universe. In a game with bean-balls galore, post-game comments of great foreboding nature, 4 umpires let a game get out of control and possibly set the stage for Ortiz's little feud with David Price to turn into the war he declared against him. 

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Red Sox doing the wrong things in search for wins: Bench clearing dust up Sunday afternoon is culmination of that

This weekend was a hard one for Boston Red Sox fans. On Sunday, former Red Sox star, Josh Beckett hurled the 9th no hitter in Dodgers history while 2 other 2012 Sox, Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez continued through rather successful starts to 2014. On the other side of the country, the Boston Red Sox were angry and not too willing to simply stretch in the 7th inning.

Boston was trailing 8-3 after Craig Breslow lost all control and allowed the Tampa Bay Rays to score 7 runs in the 7th inning and suddenly, Yuneal Escobar of the Rays decided to try for 3rd base. He made it there without contest and the play was ruled defensive indifference. As the Boston Globe's Nick Kafardo wrote after the brawl, "the Red Sox thought the Rays were piling on". Now is not the time to discuss the sportsmanship of base stealing in the late innings of a lopsided game but regardless, the Escobar and Sox backup catcher David Ross began barking at each other with Escobar removing his helmet and pointing at the Sox bench.

To put things simply, before anything more transpired between Escobar and the bench, he was distracted. Johnny Gomes came barreling in from his position in left field to shove and throw punches as Escobar and 3rd base coach Tom Foley. Both benches then emptied and more punches were thrown by Mike Carp, Jose Molina and Sean Rodriguez. In the end, Gomes, Escobar and Rodriguez were all ejected from the game as a result of the brawl and the Red Sox would eventually lose the game by a score of 8-5 less than a half hour later. So what is the outcome of all of this?

Well once again, Johnny Gomes proved to the world how committed he is to his teammates. Gomes said after the game that he had no problem with the stolen base but once Escobar started fighting his away around his 3rd base coach and screaming at Ross and the Red Sox bench Gomes felt like he had to get involved.

He said of Escobar, "He was yelling at our dugout. He kept yelling, took his helmet off, and continued to yell. I don't know, I don't have much patience, don't have much time right now to be in an arguing match. He can take the bag all he wants, you know, but yell in my dugout, point in my dugout, take your helmet off and basically challenge our whole dugout, I'll have a problem with that."

Gomes also saw that yelling at Escobar was not working. He employed a different media to get his message across.

“I figured the hands-on approach was a little more appropriate,” Gomes added.

There you have that fact to answer some of your questions about the outcome of this brawl but on top of that there are questions as to how this brawl might have united the rest of the team.

"Everybody enjoys a little dustup once in a while,” said Red Sox bench coach Torey Lovullo. “I think our guys came together. We stuck up for each other. Personally, I think it could be what we needed.

“We showed some emotion. Our guys got their point across.”

But in a way, this fight seemed like an easy way out. The Boston Red Sox are currently in the midst of their longest losing streak in 20 years and are surely frustrated about the abysmal appearance of their win loss record. While fighting may temporarily reverse that anger and/or infuse the fan base with a bit of excitement, it is so much easier to run out and fight than it is to buckle down and win a ball game and in truth, it has been this mantra of taking the easy way out that has pinned the Sox in this undesirable position.

What the Red Sox need to do now is realize that this little shoving match is not the WWE smack-down that many have portrayed it as and that they need to focus on the aspects of baseball that matter. Those aspects include actually putting the bat on the ball, throwing strikes and making plays in the field when they matter. And beyond that, they need to just shut up and grind through the rest of this losing streak. This is a case where throwing punches or plunking an opponent with a fastball will do nothing to boost the morale of this stumbling baseball team.

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Sox spinning out of control: With the roster pretty much identical to that of 2013, this years Red Sox are a team obliterated by inexcusable deficiencies

After the Boston Red Sox went 69 and 93 in 2012, a reworked coaching staff and front office gave up on many of the younger players it was trying to develop and replaced them with a cast of characters who at best had 5 years left in the league.

Their desperate reinvention of the Boston Red Sox job description earned the team a historic turnaround that spawned an AL East division title, a tie for the best record in baseball and in the end, a 3rd World Series in the past 10 years. After such excellence, the Sox locked down stars like Shane Victorino, Mike Napoli and Johnny Gomes and penciled that cast of 2013 Sox in as a team that could earn them additional championships in the coming years. In fact, the only actual major loss the Sox suffered during the summer was that of Jacoby Ellsbury but even that was not to huge a loss because unlike years before, the combination of Shane Victorino and Xander Bogaerts meant that Ellsbury was not the only Boston base runner capable of reaching incendiary speeds.

But if someone was not familiar with last years Red Sox watched the first 2 months of this season, the expected impression of the team would not be an accurate representation of this team. Simply speaking, the Red Sox do not look like defending champions. With a win/loss record of 20-26, the Sox are playing like a team that has either been bad for a decade or has just lost all of their star players in the most catastrophic of ways.

But that is not the case. So as we examine, the 26 losses the Sox have suffered this year and even more so the 7 straight they have lost since May 15th, what do we see? Well first of all, we see a Boston defense that has been downright pathetic in comparison to last years immaculate, error less play. One of the biggest problems on the defense has been the Boston pitching. After a bizarre off-season of bargaining and taking huge salary cuts, Boston's ace, Jon Lester, has been nothing like he was post all-star game last year. Beyond him, the shaky invalid that is Clay Buchholz has played straight up horrible in 2014 earning just 2 wins out of 9 games. In those 9 games Buchholz has allowed 71 hits. By comparison, in 16 games the year before, he allowed 75. The average of close to 8 hits per game has translated to a ERA of 6.32 for Clay Buchholz and in turn one of the worst seasons by a Red Sox pitcher in years.

Beyond the lack of pitching prowus, the Sox bats have been in hibernation all year long. They have whacked just 185 runs in 46 games which translates out to a pathetic runs-per-game average of just over 4.0. Furthermore, players like David Ortiz and Mike Napoli have lacked power and clutch hitting. Ortiz has drove in just 25 runs while Mike Napoli has driven in just 22. With strikeouts running rampant throughout the Sox lineup and the absolute meat of the batting order failing to produce in the most clutch situations games have been lost when they should have been won and runners have been left on base in 8th or 9th inning situations where they absolutely had to score.

"We're in a stretch of games here where we're giving up too many runs early and we're scuffling to score runs," John Farrell said. "That's a dangerous combination right now."

As for the pitching, after Jon Lester allowed 7 runs in the first two innings of the team's most recent game, Lester was highly critical of his season and his style. 

"I've got to do a better job in the second inning minimizing damage," Lester said. "A ball that gets chopped off the plate, if it's hit a little harder, we get an out, maybe two, but that's neither here nor there. I've got to flat do a better job in that second inning of minimizing damage and do a better job of getting these guys back in the dugout, especially after that first inning when we put up one and we're trying to keep a little bit of momentum on our side, and I flat-out didn't do it."

No matter how you look at it, this years Red Sox team is playing terrible. After flopping in every majior category in the first quarter of the season, questions have begun to appear in regards to the true identity of this team. Are its players, namely Mike Napoli and Shane Victorino superstars or spotlight hungry has-been's? Is this team capable of winning again? And finally, was 2013 a fluke?

It is not my job to answer these questions. It is the job of the Red Sox and they better get started on answering these questions. 

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Whats ahead for Zdeno Chara: With the second round loss partly on the shoulders of the B's captain questions about his longevity in the league must be asked

Wednesday's Game Seven loss in Montreal was the 1273rd game of Zdeno Chara's career. It was the final game in a season 15 years removed from the one that contained his debut. In those 15 years Big Z has been a huge role player on every team he has played for and yet, as the 37 year old defencemen recovers from a finger fracture suffered in Game Seven it is time to ask the question: it is time that the Bruins move on from their monster captain.  

Since he was signed to the Bruins back in the summer of 2006, Chara has lived out his behemoth 37 million dollar 5 year contract with the team and signed an even larger 7 year 45 million dollar contract with Boston. As of now he has played 8 seasons with Boston and if the Bruins choose to honor the contract or at least keep him on the team he will be in Beantown for 4 more years at the very least. But is that for the best?

Chara provides a huge presence on the back end especially when games turn physical. He is a game manager as well who can orchestrate the movements of everyone on the ice and put the puck exactly where he wants to. Furthermore, Chara can play a key role on the power play or in any offensive situation for that matter whenever he is asked to. To understand the brutal extent of Chara's offensive perfection from the blue line, one must look only to the statistics he has accumulated. In 8 seasons with Boston, Chara has ripped 104 shots past opposing goaltenders the large majority of which were scored using his world best 108 mile per hour slap shot. On top of the goals he scored that were untouched, countless Chara shots were shot on goal and either tipped or rebounded off of a goaltender and then punched home. His 239 assists since 2006-2007 are the best among Bruins blue liners during that time period. Also what cannot be overlooked is the fact that the mighty Zdeno Chara has been one of the most important Bruins in terms of ice time in almost 2 decades routinely shouldering close to 30 minutes of ice time per regular season game and closer to 40 during the playoffs. 

But as he has aged, Chara's production in terms of statistics and defensive presence has declined greatly. After logging back to back seasons involving 15 or more goals from 2007 to 2009, Chara had, before this season seen 3 of 4 seasons end with less than 12 goals to his name. But even though this 2013-2014 season re-upped Chara's goal scoring reputation with its 17 scores by the big man, 10 of those goals came on the power play where Chara would often score from positions mere feet from the net. In the past few years Chara has drifted ever so slightly away from the slap shot that made him great relying more on a more accurate but less powerful wrist shot to get his lessening pile of goals.

So why this decline? 

I think the answer is apparent to all who are familiar with Zdeno Chara's history. In just 3 years he will turn 40; that is very old for hockey players. But even at his age, Chara's ice time has not declined at all and so, it has become widely apparent that he is beginning to feel the effects of fatigue. 

Chara however, insists that he is as vibrant as ever and it a-okay with his workload.

"I felt fine, physically and mentally," Chara said. "Obviously, losing Dennis and Adam throughout the regular season maybe put more of a load on certain guys, and for sure maybe even on me. But it's not something that we were not handling, or we were getting caught off guard. It's just the way it happens sometimes. You lose guys throughout the season, and you have to pick up more minutes. It was a great chance for our guys to step up and play well, and they did play very well."

Claude Jullian had similar words proclaiming that we are not to underestimate the veteran. He was asked about whether or not he thought Chara was tired at the end of Game Seven and quickly responded with words that solidified his opinion.

"Anybody who thinks he was tired at the end, you're wrong," Julien said. "He wasn't tired and he was fresh and we shouldn't underestimate Zdeno because of his age, because he's a real fine-tuned athlete and he's capable of taking a lot. He takes good care of himself." 

Tuukka Rask however was more cautious with his words about Chara's ice time. He hinted that the time has come for the Bruins organization to take a step back with the frequency to which they are deploying Chara.

"Well, he's not going to get younger, but he works so hard to stay in shape that I don't think the conditioning is going to be an issue," Rask said. "But when your body gets older, he can't be logging 30 minutes a night five years from now, obviously. Maybe he has to realize that playing less minutes might be [to] his advantage at some point. That's going to be tough for him because, knowing the person he is, he wants to be out there the whole time, but I think it's good to have these young D and them learning from him and growing into a role that Z doesn't have to play half an hour, 35 minutes every night. He can trust five other guys out there."

No matter how well you take care of yourself, Zdeno Chara's body is 40 years old and at 40 years old things begin to break down. If the Bruins want to make their star captain last much longer, they have to recognize the need to rest him. If they do not feel that they can tell him to take a seat, if Chara is unwilling to do so, it is time to move on.

It is as simple as that.

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Bruins lose, season wasted

Are we in Boston spoiled by our divinity in the sports world? Yes. But at the same time are we wrong to when we see a Bruins team with a Vesnia Trophy favorite (Tuukka Rask), a Selkie Trophy finalist (Patrice Bergeron), two 30 goal scorers as well as one of the most balanced attacks in the hockey universe, look at them and expect more than a second round loss? No. 

In truth, we expected a championship. But the Bruins failed to give that to us when they lost to the Montreal Canadians in Game Seven of the semifinals Wednesday night and so, for the sake of complete simplicity, the season has been wasted. 

You see from day one of the season, the Bruins seemed to have had the makeup of a Stanley Cup winning team from top to bottom. As listed earlier, the team has all the right players positioned in all the right places. Their goalie Tuukka Rask dominated the league with 36 wins in just 58 starts. In a season where he started more than 10 more games than he had ever in his career, Rask was consistently amazing.  His GAA held fast at or around 2.00 all season long and not once did his season save percentage dip below .910. From his first few starts of the season, Rask's play was eerily reminiscent of the shutdown hockey played by Tim Thomas in his second Vesna Trophy winning season back in 2011.

But as we turned towards these playoffs, watching the Bruins demolish their March and April opponents with 12 game winning streaks and 14 game point streaks, Tuukka Rask was not the only player on the team whose game was whispering of postseason dominance. 

The entire Bruins top line of Milan Lucic, David Krejci and Jarome Iginla had taken changes in personal makeup from the season before to the present one in stride. Aside from a few rough weeks as the beginning of the year, Lucic found his regular season scoreing touch coupled with his rediscovery of the body-check as a prime method of intimidation and puck possession and became a huge role player in every Bruins win  this season. At the face off dot, David Krejci actually climbed out of the shadow of Patrice Bergeron this season and gave the Bruins as huge one-two punch at center on each of their top two lines. Also, though he did not score in bunches (aside from his March hat trick against Florida), Krejci's proved his talent cannot be defined by the number in his goals column. After playing in 80 out of 82 games this season, Krejci was a +39 with a team leading 50 assists and an average ice time per game of almost 20 minutes. 

Finally perhaps the best part of the Bruins top line this season was their gifted right winger, Jarome Iginla. After finally signing with Boston during the off-season, Jarome played with a youthful drive that could only be attributed to his lack of a Stanley Cup ring on his finger after over a decade and a half in the NHL. With 78 starts this year, Iginla crafted 2013-2014 into a season involving 61 points, 8 game winning goals and his 13th 30 goal season which just so happened to be the first 30 goal season by a Bruin since 2010-2011. 

In addition to Iginla, Patrice Bergeron also scored 30 goals in 2014.  

All and all, the Bruins were filling the mold of all gritty Cup winners in past few years perfectly and many experts picked them to earn the same finish to their season that the teams who made that mold enjoyed. And in their first round series with Detroit they solidified the expert's reasons for picking them to win it all. 

After losing Game One, the Bruins came back with a vengeance over the course of the next 4 games, winning them all and bouncing the Wings from the playoffs in swift fashion. In that series it was the predicted stars like Rask, Iginla, Lucic, and Krejci that played like the stars they were. 

After winning that series however, off we went to Montreal where it quickly became evident that the Bruins would not breeze though this series. The Canadians snagged game one in double overtime and would have stolen Game Two from Boston if it were not for a historic 4 goal 3rd period by the Bruins that erased a 2 goal lead for Montreal and replaced it with a 5-3 win for Boston. After dropping Game Three, the Bruins found a spark in games four and five delivering crushing hits and relentless shooting en route to back to back wins that gave them an opportunity to win the series in Game Six. 

They gave it their best shot, no, that's not true. In a pivotal Game Six, the Bruins got blasted 4-0. And then came Game Seven which was a disaster from the start. The Canadians came out blazing with 2 goals in the first 30 minutes of the game. Though Jarome Iginla would answer with his 5th goal of the postseason, Danial Briere would seal the game in the 3rd with a power play goal with just about 3 minutes to go. 

When the clock ran out, the Bruins were done. Their season of dominance overshadowed  by a final two games of patheticness and failure. 

"It's going to be tough to swallow this one," Milan Lucic said. 

Yeah, real deep there.

Peter Charelli had a little more thought behind his remarks about the loss. 

"We have a young back line right now and I'm partially to blame if you want to assign blame," Chiarelli said during his annual season-ending news conference. "Maybe we didn't get enough at the deadline, maybe we overestimated the youth and where they were."

Maybe, what if, it does not matter because the Bruin lost one game they had to win. 

Their Presidents trophy no longer matters when all it is followed by is a second round loss, just like any individual accolades awarded to Bruins players do not matter after the team lost when they did. 

After a regular season for the ages, the Bruins could not make things work in the playoffs. So I have two words for you Boston: season wasted.

 

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Michael Sam has arrived: Michael Sam drafted 249th by Rams...time for the bigots who think he has no place in the leauge to move on

Drafts are no fun unless there is something or someone you are watching, waiting, praying gets drafted. Even then, it takes a pretty important person to get you to sit through 7 hours of tedious draft coverage. But Michael Sam IS important and for 7 hours Saturday afternoon into Saturday evening, millions of people watched a portion of the NFL Draft that they never do with great intensity and vigilance. Why? Because Michael Sam is important. They watched as each new pick passed keeping in mind some key teams that were labeled as possible destinations for this NFL hopeful.

They watched with intensity as each representative from teams like the Jets, Patriots, Ravens, Cardinals and eventually the Rams made their picks. But each time, the name Michael Sam was not called and the questions began to float around. How could this young man, a SEC Defensive Player of the Year, fall to the 7th round without being drafted?  Was the reason homophobia or was it a judgment of Michael Sam's skill as a football player? Analysts trounced the calls of homophobia and yet he still remained undrafted. But then Rams coach Jeff Fischer went to the podium soliciting rumbling cheers and a sense that finally the wait was over. 

And then he made his announcement that with the 249th pick in the 2014 NFL draft, the St Louis Rams would select Michael Sam. The wait was over. Football had drafted a gay man. Michael Sam had arrived.

His first action as the perfect blend of activist and prospect: being himself.

Before Sam could say anything, before his agents could talk to media, before the Rams coaches could make any statements, ESPN showed Sam lovingly kissing his boyfriend on live TV as he was delivered the news of his being drafted. Those few seconds of genuine love between two men showcases via one of the biggest cultural platforms in the world right now that no matter who it involves, love is love. Within seconds of his being drafted, the football world had been forced to make the decisions to either shun Michael Sam for who he is or accept that. They chose acceptance. Michael Sam had arrived.

But as we talk about the magnitude of this moment, as we look back on the 3 months that have passed since Michael Sam publicly came out to ESPN you cannot bypass a quote made by Sam above any other.

During February's NFL combine, Michael Sam conducted himself very well in the face of reporters who were pressing him for deeply personal information. He said, "I wish you guys would see me as Michael Sam the football player rather than Michael Sam the gay football player."  

So that is what we shall do. Michael Sam has arrived, but he is here to play football.

Over the next few months, Michael Sam will go to the Rams training camp and will get all the support he needs. All in all, St Louis really is a great destination for him not only because it is close to his home for the past 4 years in Mizzo but because it is a forward thinking team staff where people will respect him for what he is and what he wants to be. But that also means they will not cut him any breaks. During training camp, Michael Sam will be given the same chance to make the team or get cut as any other player. 

However do not let his 7th round draft status fool you. Michael Sam is the kind of player who could have and maybe should have been snagged in the 4th round or higher and fell because of other team's beliefs that they were incapable of dealing with the media attention because of bringing him in. In St Louis though, he fits their mold and unless something catastrophic happens to dismantle Jeff Fischer's mantra of breeding clubhouse camaraderie and success, Michael Sam could be the kind of guy who soon becomes a staple on the team one way or another. 

As of now, probably the best fit on the roster for Sam would be as a 4th down pass rusher you can rely on to snag a sack when necessary. Or he could serve as a special teams linebacker charged with the job of getting to a kicker or punter before he got the ball down field. Also, Michael Sam has the benefit of playing a kind of game the Rams coach Jeff Fischer absolutely loves. 

Michael is a big man with a vital balance of brute force and strategy that he uses to get through an offence line. His reach stretches a whopping 42 inches from shoulder to fingertip and he uses every bit of that to haul down fleeing quarterbacks. His tackling form is impeccable and though he gives up at least 10 pounds and a few inches to most other DL's in this year's draft class, he employs nearly scientific swings of momentum and muscular power to slam his targets into the turf with brutal ferocity. 

Unlike most other linebackers his size, Michael Sam is a purely pass rushing player who, unfortunately did not see his skills properly assessed at the speed oriented NFL Combine. That's why his 5.22 grade must be taken like a grain of salt. 

The Rams were smart enough to understand that and showed right off the bat that they liked Sam quite a bit. Do not get me wrong, this was a calculated move by the Rams made knowing what they would have to do and say as a result of Michael's sexuality but at the same time, they genuinely understand that the premier tackling skills of Michael Sam can help them win. 

In the wake of the pick, Jeff Fischer put all of those thoughts into words assuring that there would be no problems in the clubhouse and that Michael would be treated like any other player on the team. 

"We were very fortunate to have the supplemental choices. We felt you use those for players that you want to give an opportunity to that you want to draft. I haven't said a whole lot to anybody over the last week or so but after doing the studies, he's a good football player. And we got a good football player right after him. I'm excited about our draft, excited about the production and excited about possibly adding him to our defensive front.

I don't have any concern whatsoever. I think you've known me long enough. We drafted a good football player. I'm excited to get him on the practice field and get him going. Yeah, there's going to be a little extra attention for a couple days but Michael is the co-SEC defensive player of the year, so that's important to us. We're looking forward to this opportunity. We have a young, we have a very mature team and we're certainly not going to let any distraction affect this football team." 

As that long statement is analyzed, the last sentence stands out especially when you put it into the broader context of the entire Michael Sam story. Long before he told the world he was gay, Michael Sam told his teammates, the large majority of whom were still teenagers, those same words and they dealt with it with professionalism and maturity. When he trusted them, those kids at Mizzo kept his secret and refrained from the kind of hazing or general bulling that can demolish even the strongest of teams. If they could do it, surely millionaires who are much older than them can do the same. 

They better because Michael Sam is important. They better because Michael Sam is testing them, their league and their integrity as compassionate beings. The world is changing and even if the few bigoted men who are a part of the NFL experience right now do not agree with those changes, Michael Sam will now stand alongside them in that experience. No longer is there room for these people to run. Michael Sam has arrived. 

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Thoughts on error call that preserves Yu Darvish no hitter against Red Sox: Official scorer is only partially at fault

Yu Darvish has played in the MLB for 3 seasons. In those 3 seasons he has now twice carried a no hitter right down to the final out of the 9th inning and lost it. The most recent of those 2 almost no hitters occurred Friday night against the Red Sox. But this one was different. 

As good as Darvish was striking out 12 batters and maintaining control through a gargantuan workload of 126 pitches, many believe that the no hit bid should not have lasted to the 9th inning. In the court of public opinion, the no hit bid should have ended with Darvish's perfect game bid; in the 7th inning when a botched play on an Ortiz fly ball  was ruled an error rather than a hit.  

At that point, Darvish was on fire as he had mowed down each of the first 20 Red Sox who came to the plate. To that point he had kept his pitch count low and had logged 10 strikeouts and was pitching one of the best games of his career. To those watching this game, the play of Darvish did not look like some lucky fluke. This was a guy who knew what he was doing. He was playing the right mind games, making the right pitches and simply harnessing that little bit intangible magic that a pitcher needs to be as close to perfect as it takes to hurl a perfect game or no hitter. But then David Ortiz came to the plate and reminded the baseball world that he is ALWAYS ready to hit the baseball. 

With 2 outs and a favorable 3-1 count to the Red Sox DH, Darvish left a 93 MPH fastball over the middle of the plate. Though Ortiz did not hit the ball perfectly, he got some serious air under it and lofted a high fly ball out into shallow right centerfield. After right feilder, Alex Rios, called off 2nd basemen, Rougned Odor, he failed to actually pursue the ball. Odor noticed this at the last moment and upon doing so launched himself towards the falling ball. He failed to catch it though meaning that right then and there the perfect game was gone. But what was still up in the air was a debate as to whether or not the play would be ruled an error or a hit. If it was ruled an error than Darvish would still have a no hitter going. If it was not ruled an error than David Ortiz would be given a hit and Darvish would likely have left the game with a far less prestigious 7 to 8 inning 1 hit outing. 

So who was to make this weighted decision? According to MLB regulations that role would be filled by the official scorer of the game. In this case that was Steve Weller who was watching the play from the scorers booth behind home plate. In his time of confusion he went to the MLB rule book where he reread rule 10.12a1. It states that "a fly ball that lands -- that's allowed to hit the ground, that in the judgment of the official scorer under normal effort could be caught -- you're to award an error on the play."

Weller decided that either Rios or Odor should have made the catch and so he ruled an error on the play. But it took a while. For over a minute, fans watched the scoreboard while Weller said he actually called the Elias Sports Bureau to get their opinion on the call. He said they concurred with his judgment and so he punched the play in as an error. 

"My feeling was Rios called him off and he made a last-ditch effort. I felt Rios had an easier play coming in,'' 

Even Rios did not necessarily agree with the call. He said that he had once experienced a very similar play that had been ruled a hit and fully expected this one to be no different. 

David Ortiz was more decisive in his judgment of the call. 

"I know I hit a ball that was supposed to be caught," Ortiz said. "The guy is throwing a no-hitter. We all understand, but when it comes down to the rules of the game, that's a hit. That's the rule that we all know and that's the rules that the game had for more than 100 years."

He also said he did not care that the play could have broken up the no hitter. He just wanted to be credited with a hit. 

"They have to [overturn the ruling], otherwise they are going to have to fix some s--- up. I wouldn't have minded if the guy was throwing a no-hitter. I wouldn't have minded, to be honest with you."

You see David Ortiz has something going with that comment. It should not matter that the play broke up a no hitter. Furthermore, there is even a case to be made that a team should not supply the official scorer simply because of the fact that in baseball you "root, root, root for the home team". I would not go so far to accuse Steve Weller of giving into home town bias but I definitely think that he allowed the magnitude of the play to influence his decision. 

Lucky for Weller though, the no hitter was eventually broken up by Ortiz with 2 outs in the 9th and he is not facing nearly as much scrutiny as he would be if Darvish was able to finish off the no-no. 

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Fraser's fairytale: Call-up scores OT winner for Bruins...ties series with Montreal

The goal itself was simple. It was scored Carl Soderberg dug the puck loose from the right pad of Carey Price, as big bodied Matt Fraser pushed past a pair of Canadians and as he fell to the ice, blindly whacked the puck through Price's five hole. But in all its grit and lack of finesse, the goal served as a whacky, cheesy, Hollywood ending to a game described by those same adjectives. 

Since the Bruins started their death-match second round series with Montreal back on the first day of May, they had made a habit of starting slow as through those 3 games, 8 of the team's 10 goals had been scored in the 3rd period of later. While that sure makes for some exciting 3rd period hockey, it also evolved into 2 losses in the first 3 games of the series with the only victory for Boston coming out of a game that held a one in a million 4 goal 3rd period.

A game like that was not going to happen again and so, as the Bruins went into the Bell Centre for Game Four, they did so knowing that they could not fall behind early in this game. If Game Four was a game to be won by the Bruins it was one that had to be won with decisiveness and execution. Among the biggest factors that had prevented that from happening in the first 3 games and would try to do the same in Game Four was PK Subban. 

Subban, a 4 year veteran of the league came into the series already known as a Bruins killer. He only solidified his reputation for dominating Bruins defenders in the first games of this 2014 series. After logging a goal in regulation as well as the double OT winner against the Bruins in Game One, PK would assist on 3 more goals and score another in games two and three playing a near reckless offensive minded defense. However, the Bruins were soft and never exploited the many times in the first 3 games where Subban was caught momentarily out of position after a reckless pinch or hard shot.

To stop him from getting into the offensive side of the game, Boston would have to send their forwards right at him as well as simply sky the puck out of their zone whenever Subban was able to get into a shooting position. Much of the Bruins game plan was tailored to the threat of PK Subban's shot.  

Their tailoring paid off. The Bruins limited Subban to just 2 shots in the game one of which was a lackluster roller Subban bounced in on Tuukka Rask from the half line. However in their obsession with eliminating Subban's role in the Canadians attack, the Bruins stymied their own attack. Though the game was very fluid in its gradual shifts in momentum as well as highly tactical moves made by the coaches on both teams, both teams focused on defense and body contact. Not many of the 68 shots taken in the game were taken from anywhere but the blue line or the boards. 

                                                                                       

However, what did happen almost constantly in this game was body contact...big body contact. In 61 minutes and 19 seconds of game play, the Bruins and Canadians launched 72 hits or an average of 1.2 hits per minute. From the first puck drop to the end of the game, every time a player whering any sweater of any sort crossed the blue line a player of the opposite team was there to cave in his rib cage. At one point in the 3rd period even, Canadians defender Douglass Murray delivered 3 hits in under 7 seconds of game play decking Carl Soderberg, Reily Smith and then Soderberg again in the Canadians corner. 

"We're working tough enough to get that next goal," Daniel Paille had told 98.5 The Sports Hub after the end of regulation. "What it's going to take is someone outbattling the other, so that has to be us." 

In the end it was the battle that won out. In the most magical of finishes, Matt Fraser poked in the OT winner that also served as his first goal as a Bruin and his first career playoff goal.

For the newest Bruin to step up, Thursday was one of the greatest days of his life.

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That's more like it: After a so-so month of April the Red Sox are finally at .500 gain...and they are only getting better

For the first time in almost a month, the Boston Red Sox have the same number of wins as they have losses. After an April of shortcomings where lack of run production coupled with inaccuracy and lack of stamina on the part of the team's pitching, the past week or so of games have whispered that May would not follow the same template. 

In their first 7 games of April, the Sox have gone 4 and 3, twice dragging games out past the end of the 9th inning and on three occasions did they amass more than 5 runs in a game. Perhaps the most stunning display of offensive power at least came in the team's series with Oakland.  In the 3rd game of the month back on May 3rd, the Sox sent a shaky Clay Buchholz to the mound against an equally shaky Oakland team devoid of any bullpen talent.   

After Buchholz retired the first 6 of 7 batters he faced, the former Sox stud ran into trouble in the 3rd and 4th innings but did not completely loose it as the Sox were able to not only stay in the game but, through 3 innings hold onto a 2-1 lead. Over the course of the next 3 innings, the Red Sox sank, all be it briefly, back into their pattern of leaving runners in scoring position. Between the 3rd and 6th innings, 4 Red Sox reached base. None of them scored.  But all was made better in the 6th inning when, with the bases loaded, Sox 2nd basemen, Dustin Pedroia, smacked his first home run of the year effectively putting the game out of reach for the Athletics. In true irony, the homer was Pedey's 100th of his career and it lofted him up into an esteemed club of Sox players with 100 homes runs and 100 stolen bases. 

"That's a moment I'll always remember -- being on base as he hit his 100th, and it also being his 500th RBI," said Sox centerfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. "That was special. After a tough day yesterday, to come back out the way we did today, play the ball we were capable of, it feels good." 

The game was immediately hailed as a revival of the Red Sox ideals and the mantra of play that they have won with such proficiency and dominance. Little did those who were labeling the game as such know but less than 24 hours later, the Red Sox would duplicate their feat once again. In the middle game of the 3 game set with the A's, home runs by David Ortiz and David Ross coupled with a first inning grand slam by Johnny Gomes helped seal the series victory while almost overshadowing one of the greatest games in Jon Lester's career. The Sox southpaw pitched 8 innings of 1 his baseball walking 2 batters and shutting out A's for the entity of his time in the game. But all of those stats are rendered mute by the historic number sitting in the strikeout column. Out of the 26 batters Jon Lester faced, he struck out 15 of them. To put that in perspective that is a whopping strikeout percentage of 57%. 

Sox manager John Farrell was impressed.

"Just the combination of power and command was impressive," said Farrell. "He was locked in seemingly from the first pitch of the game. He maintained his stuff throughout -- four pitches for strikes, and three of those on both sides of the plate. So he was in command from the start." 

Though the home field dominance would end momentarily in the rubber match of the series with Oakland, the Sox got things back together in dramatic fashion against the Reds at the midpoint of this past week. In the team’s longest game of the year, the Sox and Reds battled it out for 12 innings. The length of the game was mainly prolonged by stunning defensive work by Dustin Pedroia and Shane Victorino who were constantly diving around for balls that seemed like sure base hits fresh off the bat. 

Perhaps the most stunning of these plays was made by Victorino in the top of the 9th inning. With the game tied Tucker Banhart got behind a fastball from Koji Uehara and lifted it high and deep to right field. In true loyalty to his nickname, the Flyin Hawiian tracked the ball down and hauled it in before it left the yard.

"If there's anything that's going to stay in the ballpark, there's always confidence that Vic is going to get under it," said manager John Farrell. "Barnhart puts a good swing on a ball off of Koji [Uehara], but Vic seemingly is all over the field on defense."

Unfortunately for Boston, the Reds matched them when they were on defense and the game remained tied.

However the stalemate was finally ended in the final minutes of May 6th when Sox newcomer Grady Seizemore crushed a hard line drive off the left-center-field wall, scoring Dustin Pedroia from 3rd and ending the game on a high note. 

                                                                      

I was pretty psyched," said Sizemore. "It was a good feeling. I try not to get too emotional out there, try to keep it on the same level, but right there, I let it out a little bit." Seizemore in particular has been one of the most impressive bright spots in Boston sports right now. After he was signed as an afterthought during the off season, the former all-star made his first appearance since 2011 as the opening day starter for the defending World Series Champions back in April for the Sox. Since then he has exhibited truly magical drive for victory and statistical success. The walk off single was just a culmination of that. 

"He has been doing great," said David Ortiz. "He's not out there every day, but every time he is, he does something special. I think as the season goes, you start getting more confident and more comfortable and things start getting better, especially in a player like him."

It seemed the only bad part of the late game on Tuesday was the fact that the Sox had to play again the next day in the rubber match of the series on Wednesday. Though they started slow however, all would end well in that game as Boston rallied in the 8th inning to grind out yet another 1 run victory. 

As bad as April was for this team that is expected to challenge for the AL East crown come September, May has shown the true identity of the Boston Red Sox. Once again they are a gritty team with an omnipresent obsession with professionalism and camaraderie.

The only thing different between the 2013 Sox and the May 2014 Red Sox is the fact that there are a few less beards on the bench. 

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Bruins wreck Canadians with 4 goal 3rd period comeback: Recap of Game Two

Grandma and Grandpa, in your day, you cheered for Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito. But in ours, we get to cheer for players just as good. In our day, we get to watch Patrice Bergeron, Milan Lucic and Zdeno Chara shred the hockey world and prove that Boston might finally be the greatest town in hockey. 

After falling down in Game One of their second round, semifinals series with Montreal, the Bruins were a little lost. Though they out-hit the Canadians 56-45 and out-shot them 51-33, the Bruins were undisciplined taking 4 penalties one of which would cost the Bruins the game when PK Subban scored the overtime winner on the power play. Also during the game, the Bruins struggled to actually notch quality shots on goal and for that reason they scored just 3 goals. Finally, they started slow and though 3 goals may have been okay, they were down 2-0 after one period and had to work through an unfathomably exhausting 3rd period comeback to even get the game to overtime. 

After the game ended Tuukka Rask stated with harsh reality "when you suck, you suck". He was of course speaking of his own play in the lackluster game. Furthermore, players like David Krejci tried to address more finite aspects of the loss. "I thought we had so many chances, we could have scored like 10 goals [in Game 1]," Krejci said. "But we didn't and hopefully we're saving it for the next game."

Milan Lucic also talked about how to capitalize on the goal scoring opportunities the Bruins were generating "Going into next game, I guess the main focus is you don't want to grip your stick too tight and bury those opportunities when you get them, it sucks losing the way that we did, it was a tough loss to swallow, but you've got to have short-term memory and forget about it as quick as you can and focus on the next one because it's coming soon with a 12:30 game tomorrow. We're excited about it." 

But once again, things did not go as planned as Game Two kicked off. Though they got through the first period with a 1-0 lead that came off of a Danial Pallie snapshot 13 minutes into the game, the Canadians pulled their Bostonian rivals back with two goals in the second period scored by Mike Weaver and Thomas Vanak respectively. 

Down by a goal after 40 minutes, the Bruins were once again showing signs of collapse that were prevalent in Game One. They had allowed uncontested shots from all over the ice and were failing to clear bodies away from their net. They skated with neither force nor direction and were caught out of play far to many times for fans to be happy with the game at that point and above all they simply were not breaking out of their own zone with nearly enough efficacy. After the Canadians extended their lead to two goals at the start of the 3rd period, the Bruins finally got their heads on straight and got to work. 10 minutes and 56 into the period, Patrice Bergeron finally launched a clean cross ice pass over to Brad Marchand who then dug his skates into the ice and pulled off an ankle breaking pivot turn that shock off any defender who tried to cover him. With nobody in sight, Dougie Hamilton skated into the offensive zone and took the pass from Marchand with not a single Canadian within 20 feet of him. Hamilton then skated with the puck for a second thus drawing those defenders whom Marchand had lost into a blinding crossing pattern in front of their own net. With ease, he then pushed his wrist shot into the net. But the game was not tied yet. No way. 

But less than 4 minutes after the Hamilton goal, the game was tied. Brad Marchand dug the puck out of the corner and Patrice Bergeron skated with his back turned towards the net over to the hash marks. Once the pass did come however, Bergeron had turned towards the net and proceeded to rip a wrist shot towards the goal that skipped ridiculously off the ice over the shoulder of Carey Price. 

It was that goal that not only tied the game but ignited a fire in the team and the fans that gave you a feel that the Bruins were not done scoring. After a furious attack that spanned several shifts, Reiley Smith shot a long pass up to Zdeno Chara at the point. As Chara moved the puck down to the opposite side of the offensive zone, Brad Marchand got taken down in front of the net but in doing so got tangled up with Alex Galchenyuk dragging him awkwardly into the crease thus obstructing Cary Price's view of Reily Smith as he was once again delivered the puck. When he shot a top corner stab at the open part of the net, Carey Price had no chance. The puck beat him by a mile and the Boston Bruins had once again harnessed their playoff magic by obliterating a team that was so sure they had the game won. 

"It was a fun last part of the third period," said Torey Krug, who set up Smith's goal. "We're very excited with how things turned out, but we've got to move along from it pretty soon." 

That last part his brutally true. The Bruins will fly out to Montreal for games 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Thursday where they will try to win both games and get home with a chance to keep this a short series. But in all likelihood, that will not happen because we all know how these stories go. When the Bruins and Canadians meet 7 is a number fans know they will have to befriend. 

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