Al Reyes, may you rot in the fiery tortures that will be conjured for you throughout eternity.
That is the general sentiment of Boston sports fans towards the pitcher who two Septembers past felled the mighty Nomar. Yes, he of the first back-to-back batting titles in the American League by a right-hander since Joe Dimaggio is truly felled, and Red Sox Nation is crying more profusely than Joey Lauren Adams in "Chasing Amy" over it.
Yesterday was Opening Day for the Sox who are entering the 83rd incarnation of their quest to reverse the Curse of Ruth. The event was supposed to be a beautiful opening curtain for one of the strongest teams the Hub has ever fielded.
Instead it produced a horrifying feeling of dj vu as Pedro pitched outstanding baseball and yet the Sox lost 2-1 in 11 innings. This comes on the heels of last year when Pedro lost a mere six times, with the Sox scoring only 10 runs combined in the losses.
Though Pedro didn't receive a loss for this one, the Dominican Magician must be starting to wonder how this once vaunted hitter's park can stand the likes of a one-run, five-hit performance against the less-than-enigmatic Pat Hentgen.
The absence of Nomar is the glaring reason behind the anemic offense. Whilst Nomar remains sidelined for 8-10 weeks minimum having had surgery on his longitudinally split wrist tendon yesterday, Craig Grebeck patrolled the shortstop position in his absence.
Grebeck is as pure an opposite for Garciaparra as ever the Sox could find. Grebeck has fewer home runs (19) than Nomar did his rookie season, and has a lower career on base percentage than Nomar has had a batting average either of the last two years.
That's just pathetic. The diminutive former White Sox's utility infielder is about as solid a defensive replacement for Garciaparra as the Red Sox have, but he leaves a glaring hole in the middle of the lineup that cannot be filled.
On top of Nomar's impending stint on the DL, the 160 million dollar man has a 'tweaked' hamstring that keeps him from doing anything but a light jog down the first base line. Ramirez might be a huge hitter, but given the towering wall in left and the deep gaps in center and right-center where Ramirez's power alley is, he better be able to leg out some doubles soon, or he will have the worst mileage per total bases statistic in the history of baseball.
Oh yeah, we also have a cranky center fielder named Carl who seems to have more in common with angry postal workers than his manager. Jimy Williams is a brilliant man as far as baseball goes, and his only fault as far as most of us can see is that he doesn't utilize the minimal speed in his lineup and on his bench.
Yet the mercurial Everett seems to think that he's the most tyrannical manager since John McGraw and the least capable of utilizing talent since Mike Hargrove (who beat the Red Sox today). Frankly Everett should shut the hell up and play like he's capable of and not strand three runners every game, like yesterday, which is the surest way to shut up his critics, delight his fan and make him Williams' favorite player.
As if this wasn't enough to doom the Boston season before it even starts, just this week Williams made the stunning announcement that veterans Dante Bichette and Jose Offerman, who were being looked on to shoulder the offensive load, were benched in favor of Shea Hillenbrand.
The Bichette benching is eased by Ramirez's inability to play the field as it means that Bichette's replacement is, for all intensive purposes, Trot Nixon. Nixon made good on it by hitting a solo home run off of Hentgen which will only make him more of a fan favorite and hopefully guarantee him 500 at-bats this year.
Offerman being benched was a surprise as Hillenbrand is a rookie with no speed. Offerman was hoped to have regained some of his 1999 form that saw him stay above .300 into August and lead the team in stolen bases.
Batting behind the moderately fast and steady Chris Stynes and ahead of Garciaparra, or at worst Jason Varitek, Jose was expected to be rejuvenated into an integral part of a Red Sox World Series run. Instead the veteran rode the pine as Hillenbrand collected his first major league hit and made a couple of nice plays at first base, while Stynes and Brian Daubach, the two men Offerman could also have been playing instead of, went a combined 1-9.
All of this being said, Boston should have been able to win yesterday in Baltimore. Thankfully they have the day off today to fix whatever is broken and start anew down the path to redemption.
If they can right the ship, Nomar's return might be the spark that kindles a Morgan's Magic type of run, instead of a shot in the arm of an also-ran whose only hope for the fall is to spoil the Yankees' fun. And, in a perfect world, the Red Sox would meet the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series and Nomar and the Nation could take their vengeance on Reyes and Ruth in one fell swoop.
