Lie To Me, A-Fraud

NYTimes: Reading Microexpressions During a 2007 interview with Katie Couric, Alex Rodriguez demonstrated what Dr. Paul Ekman calls, from left, gestural slips, unilateral contempt and microfear.

The psychologist who inspired the new TV show "Lie to Me" reviews A-Fraud's 2007 interview with Katie Couric and finds lies aplenty. Shocking!

NYTimes: The Voice Was Lying. The Face May Have Told the Truth.

A-Fraud A Complete Fraud

ESPN: Report: A-Rod tested positive in 2003

According to a report by Sports Illustrated, Alex Rodriguez tested positive for anabolic steroids in 2003, when he was with the Texas Rangers and won the AL home run title and MVP award.

According to the report, which was posted Saturday morning on SI.com, sources told the publication that Rodriguez was on a list of 104 players who tested positive that year, when Major League Baseball conducted tests to see if mandatory random drug testing was needed.

In 2003, there were no penalties for a positive result.

Put the tiny hypodermic next to his stats in the Baseball Encyclopedia, because he's just another Juice King. Fraud.

Happy birthday to Hank Aaron, BTW, he just turned 75 this week. Hank Aaron is the Home Run King of baseball and all these modern blow-up players are frauds. Liars, chest and thieves the lot of them.

Red Sox - Yankees Series Begins Tonight

Tonight I get to watch it on NESN, with the divine Remy & Orsillo as announcers. Unfortunately the rest of the series has been spirited away by Fox and ESPN who will give us their terrible announcing crews, bitching about Manny's hair and waxing eloquent about Derek so-so Jeter. And we'll miss moments like this from the Giggle Brothers:

NESN Final
by bsap11

Red Sox Notes

flickr: citadelgrad's photostream
July 2008 Red Sox at Angels
hat tip to Red Sox Monster

Wouldn't I like to be wearing this "My Other Shirt Is Buried Under Yankee Stadium" shirt to Yankee Stadium on August 28th when Coach Mom & I go to see the last Yankees-Red Sox game at Yankee Stadium? Tee hee. I'm planning to wear my Ellsbury t.

Did you see Peter Gammons piece on Dustin Pedroia before the Sunday night game of the week on ESPN? He started it out by saying "Dustin Pedroia looks like a little stuffed toy at FAO Schwartz". It's linked here on Centerfield; also check out Centerfield's collection of baby/youth pictures of the Red Sox.

Jonathan Papelbon was all out of shape over being heckled in the All-Star parade in New York City, but maybe, maybe, showing off his World Series ring to the crowd wasn't the best decision.

MBM in Seattle: Manny gets lectured by a traffic cop for crossing the street the cop was blocking. The cop apparently had no idea who he was.

A-Rod! The Musical

Act 1
July 24, 2004
NewYorker.com: Fragments from A-Rod! The Musical

hat tip to Art Martone at ProJoSoxBlog

Big Papi to Play "The Babe" at Yankee Stadium

Left, National Baseball Archives via Associated Press; Jim McIsaac/Getty Images
In a nod to Babe Ruth’s famed called home run, the All-Star home run derby at Yankee Stadium is planning a contest in which a fan will try to call a shot for David Ortiz.
NYTimes: Who’s Calling the Shots, the Yankees or Ortiz?

The Yankees were upset when they found out about a promotion that would cast David Ortiz of the Red Sox as a modern-day Babe Ruth at Yankee Stadium during the All-Star Game festivities.

Who better to play the rotund home run hitter with a giant personality? Who would the Yankees have play the Babe? Jason Giambi, the juicer? (Maybe before he calls his shot, he could reenact his grand jury testimony and show the boys and girls how he shot his testosterone "in the ass". That would be heart-warming.) A-Rod, the pretty loser? (A-Rod's unfortunate habit of caving under pressure might affect the TV schedule; it could take him days to hit a home run on command).

No, Ortiz as the Babe is perfect. Babe did start off as a Red Sock, after all. And like Ortiz, Babe was renowned for his larger-than-life personality. While Babe did not own a Bedazzler and is not known for rhinestine-studded sportcoats, you can imagine him wearing one with Ortiz in some Red Sox-Yankees promotion for MLB.

A-Rod: Stay Out of Our House

Alexa Rodriguez was in the upper deck behind home plate, where the tour was being seated. The hawk swooped down as the student was getting ready to leave.
(John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)

A middle school teenage girl on a tour of Fenway Park -- whose nickname is A-Rod -- was attacked by a red-tail hawk in the stands behind home plate. The hawk had a nest in front of the press box overhead, with one egg in it. The hawk scratched the girl's head, and she was taken to the hospital, treated and released. After the attack the hawk's nest was removed:

This spring the raptor used a brown-knit cap and twigs from trees on Yawkee Way to build a nest on a green overhang near the press booth above home plate. She laid a brown-speckled egg last week, but it rolled off the nest, wasn't properly incubated, and was no longer viable, French said.

Wildlife officials removed the egg and the nest yesterday after the hawk lashed out at Alexa.

Obviously the hawk struck out because the girl's name was A-Rod. For all we know, she was in the park on July 24, 2004, during the famous fight where Varitek took A-Rod by the throat.

The hawk wasn't just protecting her nest. She was protecting our house.

The Boston Globe article used above contains a hilarious typo. "Yawkee Way" is actually "Yawkey Way". The writer must have been thinking about the Yankees, not the Yawkeys. Just like the hawk; a little confused, but heart in the right place.

Boston Globe: Teen finds fowl territory at Fenway

Boston Globe Photo Gallery: Hawk attack at Fenway Park

Boston Globe: An omen? Hawk attacks girl with a familiar-sounding name at Fenway

July 24, 2004

Baseball Notes, Mostly Sawx

Boston Red Sox' Jacoby Ellsbury hoists the World Series trophy prior to the Boston Celtics basketball game against the Washington Wizards in Boston Friday, Nov. 2, 2007, as teammates Manny Delcarmen, left, and Tim Wakefield, right, look on. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

- Curt Schilling takes the hometown discount to sign with the Sox; he inserted a weight clause that pays him:

$2 million in bonuses for 6 seperate [sic] weigh ins.

I inserted the weigh in clause in the 2nd round of offers, counter offers. Given the mistakes I made last winter and into Spring Training I needed to show them I recognized that, and understood the importance of it. Being overweight and out of shape are two different things. I also was completely broad sided by the fact that your body doesn’t act/react the same way as you get older. Even after being told that for the first 39 years of my life. Now I can’t get on Dougie anymore, which sucks, and I am sure the clause will add 15-100 more jokes to Tito’s Schilling joke book.

Maybe that's what I need to lose weight, a $2,000,000 incentive? I'll just declare free agency and see how that works out for me. I feel the pounds dropping already.

- Kevin Youkilis wins his first Gold Glove; only George "Boomer" Scott ever won the award playing first base for the Sawx. Too bad the Sawx didn't keep Orlando Cabrera after the 2004 World Series; he won the Gold Glove at SS in the National League.

- Charlie Pierce (the man who gave us "C+ Augustus") on the Sawx winning the Series: Slate: The Red Sox Win Again
And it feels great, thanks for asking.

- Alex Beam, dyspeptic columnist but true Red Sox fan, gloating about the Yankees in the Globe: The sorrow and the pity: a Bronx tale

- And my non-Sawx note, just another reason why the Sawx MUST NOT SIGN Me-Fraud: A-Rod's recent post-season performance (hat tip to Red Sox Stats Guy):

Since Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS — the night Boston began its epic comeback from three games down against the Yankees — (Alex) Rodriguez has come to the plate with 38 runners on base, over the span of 59 at-bats. He left every single one on base, going 0-for-27, right through the Yanks’ Division Series loss to Cleveland this month.

Red Sox - Yankees Series Begins Tonight

8 games up on August 28th. Nice way to start the last month of the season. The Red Sox feasted on Chicago White Sox pitching over the weekend, and are primed for the Bronx bombers. Who gave up more than 16 runs twice last week. Ouch.

NYTimes: Tigers 16, Yankees 0
Ugly Outing by Mussina Casts Cloud on Future

Schadenfreude

New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens looks at the ball after giving up the eighth run against the Chicago White Sox in the second inning as catcher Jorge Posada (L) walks to the mound during their MLB American League baseball game at Yankee Stadium in New York, August 2, 2007. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton (UNITED STATES)

Boston Globe: Clemens booed off mound after giving up eight runs
Yankees rally for eight runs in second after Clemens gets rocked

Steinbrenner Has Dementia

MSNBC: Yankees owner George Steinbrenner has faded from public view.
Chris O'meara / AP
Have you been wondering all season, where is George? As the Yankees sank into irrelevance, playing like crap across America, where were the Steinbrenner ultimatums? The tantrums? The threats to fire everyone?

Apparently Phil Mushnick of the New York Post spilled the beans on July 2nd in an article entitled "Who's the Boss?".

All reasonable signs indicate that his [Steinbrenner's] dementia--he turned 77 on July 4--is now so profound that he is being carefully hidden from public view, appearing in only occasional, circumspect quotes issued by his longtime personal public relations man, Howard Rubenstein.

Sad. Now he probably doesn't even remember that he once called Dave Winfield "Mr. May", or that Billy Martin called him a convicted liar, or that Ronald Reagan pardoned away his conviction for illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon. (wikipedia)

It's not as much fun to kick around Brian Cashman or Joe Torre with our 10-game lead in the American League East. Steinbrenner made such a perfect villain and clown at the same time. Who could forget the supposed fight in the elevator at the 1981 World Series? Or these other lowlights?

Forbes Media: A Steinbrenner Dilemma

MSNBC: Steinbrenner no longer Boss of Bronx zoo
Barely a peep out of Yankees owner as his team continues to struggle

recordonline.com: Shaky Boss deserves a break

We Love Lists

Coach Mom & Sis went to all three of the women's gold medal games in Atlanta (soccer, basketball softball).

Jim Caple, ESPN Page 2: 101 things all sports fans must experience before they die

I can check off the following from his list:

1 (1984 Summer Olympics, Los Angeles, women's basketball gold medal game, men's volleyball, boxing, four days of track and field including Carl Lewis's four gold medals, Joan Benoit Samuelson winning the first women's marathon and the Zola Budd/Mary Decker Slaney pratfall),

2 (1999 and 2003 women's World Cup games in Boston and Washington DC, four games at 2006 men's World Cup),

5 (women's basketball NCAA subregional, this year, plus women's Final Fours in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996 and 2006),

11 (four English Premier League games in 2005 and six last year),

15 (many Red Sox-Yankee hatefests starting when I moved to Boston in the fall of 1975),

16 (Stan Musial's 1969 Baseball Hall of Fame induction (Coach Mom's favorite player of all time) along with Roy Campanella),

23 (at Notre Dame 1984, win over Penn State, 44-7, Allen Pinkett romped, I was miserable in the student section with my brother -- those morons stood for the entire game, I couldn't believe it),

35 (Opening Day, several at Fenway Park in the 1980s, the one I recall best was sitting the bleachers freezing. When Lee Smith made his debut as the Red Sox reliever, we all stood up and bowed in awe. And to get warm.)

36 (Marathon Monday is a tradition, I've attended most every year since 1976 when I've been in town. Most memorable was 1983 when Joan Benoit Samuelson smashed the women's world record by minutes, not seconds),

42 (NBA game courtside, well almost courtside. I sat in the third row for a Lakers-Celtics game at Boston Garden, right behind the Lakers bench, in 1983. Wow.),

73 (The Beanpot! 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, and a few other years. Most memorable has to be the night of the Blizzard of '78 when we stayed to the end of the 12-5 pasting by BU and had to stay overnight in the scuzzy Garden as the subways shut down because of the storm. Walked home through two feet of snow from Kenmore Station the next day. Where have you gone, Joe Mullen?),

84 (Bay to Breakers race: 1981, the year I live San Francisco),

91 (Little League games: started watching my brother, then my sister who was the first girl allowed to play Little League in my town (other parents heckled her); and many of my friend's kids.).

The list omits the NCAA Women's Basketball Final Four. The final is sometimes a letdown, but you go to both the semis and the final and there's always at least one barn-burner in there. I'll never forget UConn-Tennessee (1995, the first of UConn's undefeated seasons) and Maryland-Duke (2006).

Actually, this list is pretty devoid of women's events. I'd certainly include the women's World Cup on my list.

Would you add any must-see events?

2057* Came Early This Century

New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens adjusts his hat during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles Wednesday, June 27, 2007 in Baltimore. Clemens allowed four runs in the inning. (AP Photo/Gail Burton)
NYTimes: Orioles 4, Yankees 0
A New Low for Clemens and the Yankees

Or, as the New York Daily News put it: Money for Nothing: $28M Rocket fizzles as Yanks' skid hits four

*2057: watch the film

Schadenfreude, baby.

Too Hot to Blog

Yankees captain Derek Jeter meets C. Vivian Stringer, head coach of the Rutgers women's basketball team, before Friday night's game. (Julie Jacobson/AP)
I know I've used this a post title before, but really, 94 degrees in June? It's like living in a swamp.

Here are some updates on stories we've covered previously:

Anucha Browne Sanders has finally landed another job, as the senior Associate Athletic Director for marketing and senior women's administrator for the University at Buffalo (what in the old days we would have called SUNY Buffalo, I guess UB sounds trendier.)

A New York investor and ten other business leaders have offered to put up Genarlow Wilson's $1 million bond so that he can be free pending appeal. Even Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker's pastor thinks Genarlow Wilson should be released, but still he rots in jail. What a waste.

Rutgers women's basketball team and coach Vivian Stringer have been awarded the 2007 Irv Grossman Award of Merit by the Collegiate Women Sports Awards Program at Columbia University, for their play as well as their dignity and grace under pressure during the Imus imbroglio. They've also been nominated for an ESPY. They were also honored by the Yankees at Yankee Stadium two weeks ago. Turns out Derek Jeter is a big supporter and wrote a letter to the team after l'affaire Imus.

Pokey Chatman settled her lawsuit against LSU.

Clemens in 2057

Today Boston Dirt Dogs has a hilarious film about Roger Clemens, and George Steinbrenner, and the New York Yankees in 2057.

Talk about the twilight of a career. Don't be eating or drinking while you watch this film. Funny stuff.

'How's Your Summer Going?'

Matt Damon on David Letterman this week:

Sawx Fans Mawk A-Rawd

Fans at Fenway Park in Boston wear blonde masks as New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez goes to bat in the first inning of their baseball game against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park in Boston Friday, June 1, 2007. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

A-Rod getting caught with a stripper (not his wife) by the tabloids brought out the blonde ambitious at Fenway for their three-game series this weekend. A-Rod had the last laugh when he hit a home run off Papelbon to win the third game Sunday night, but the Yankees are still 12 1/2 games back and going nowhere.

NYPost:
A-ROD'S A YANKEE DOODLE RANDY
HITS A STRIP JOINT WITH TORONTO BABE

For more photos of the blonde bombshells at Fenway, check out this Boston.com photo gallery.

The Sultan of Smack

One of the Juice Boys is back in the headlines:



















On the left is Jason Giambi in 2006; to the right is his rookie card.

Boston Globe: Report: Giambi failed amphetamines test

NYDailyNews: Exclusive
Giambi meets with MLB officials

Red Sox Nation will never forget Game 7 of the 2003 American League Championship Series, (aka the Bronx Robbery) where long before Grady left Pedro in too long, long before Aaron Boone put himself into history with his walkoff homer against Tim Wakefield in the 11th inning, juiced Jason Giambi hit two solo homeruns. No juice, no comeback, no win. I repeat my call for the tiny hypodermic needle to be placed next to the stats of every one of these cheaters.

Oh Happy Day

Boston Red Sox closer Hideki Okajima delivers during the ninth inning of their baseball game against the Detroit Tigers at Fenway Park in Boston, Thursday, May 17, 2007. Okajima earned the save in the 4-2 win over the Tigers. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
It may be cold and raining, but we've got our Sox on so we're never cold:

NYTimes: Red Sox Sweep Tigers in Doubleheader

The sweep increased Boston's lead in the AL East over the second-place New York Yankees to 9 1/2 games. The last time the Yankees, who lost to Chicago 4-1, were that far back was after games of Sept. 6, 1997.

A Red Sox Fan in Pinstripe Territory

9.5 games is our biggest division lead since 1995, when we topped out at around a 16-game lead. In 1912, we finished the season 55 games ahead of the Yanks (then Highlanders). That must've been a fun September.

We do have our little worries. It's only May. Julian Tavarez? And then there's Beckett's avulsion:

Joy of Sox: Beckett's Finger

Redsox.com reports that Josh Beckett left the game after four innings with

an avulsion on the right middle finger, leading to "irritation of the skin." ...

It was not a blister, he said, referring to the problem that plagued him earlier in his career. Francona said it would be a couple of days before the team would decide on Beckett's next start.

From Beckett's DL history:

5/1/02: Placed on the 15-day DL retroactive to April 29 with a blister on the middle finger of his right hand. (Activated 5/14)

6/5/02: Placed on the 15-day disabled list (right middle finger blister). (Activated ???)

8/24/02: Placed on the 15-day DL with a blister to his right middle finger. (Activated 9/11)

5/31/04: Placed on the 15-day disabled list with a blister to his right middle finger. (Activated 6/16)

7/6/04: Placed on the 15-day DL with a skin tear to his right middle finger. (Activated 7/30)

6/17/05: Placed on the 15-day disabled list with a blister to his right middle finger. (Activated 6/30)

But the Red Sox have the best record in baseball, and the Yankees are in the crapper. Oh happy day.

RIP David Halberstam

Horst Faas/Associated Press

His reporting for The New York Times from Vietnam left little doubt that a corrupt South Vietnamese government supported by the United States was no match for Communist guerrillas and their North Vietnamese allies. For that work, Mr. Halberstam shared a Pulitzer Prize in 1964.

David Halberstam wrote three of my favorite books: The Best and the Brightest, The Breaks of the Game, and The Teammates, about my favorite topies: politics and sports. He died yesterday in a car accident in California, on his way to interview Y.A. Tittle, the former quarterback of the New York Giants. I would have liked to read that book. When I was a kid I had the famous picture of Y.A. Tittle's last game, bloodied and bowed, on the door of my closet:


David Halberstam books are books I passed around, or bought to give as gifts. In my mind, reading The Breaks of the Game is inextricably tied with the 1980s Larry Bird Celtics. All my Celtics fan friends read the book, and we marveled at the writing and at the insider's view. I listened to The Teammates a few years ago as a book-on-tape and was brought to tears several times (always dangerous while driving!) as he described the life-long devoted friendship between Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, Bobby Doerr, and Dom DiMaggio. I will miss his writing. Here's a piece he wrote for the Boston Globe about Red Sox Nation (hat tip, A Red Sox Fan in Pinstripe Territory):

David Halberstam, Boston Globe, 8/29/03: Facing the Nation
Up-close look at the Red Sox fan base finds it is as passionate as ever

For a Citizen of the Nation, beating the Mariners or A's is merely winning a baseball game, while beating the Yankees is the very essence of life itself....

[]

It's a condition, being a Red Sox fan, not a cult, nor a religious affiliation, although there are on occasion certain religious experiences. (Think Yaz in '67, and Fisk in the World Series in '75.) Most Americans are relatively indifferent to the past, believing that America is so powerful that history does not matter, that our nation is so strong and energetic, that we can mold the present to our needs, despite the burdens of the past. Not Red Sox fans: They know the past matters, and they know as well that you are, more than you realize, a prisoner of it. In a country where there has been an amazing run of material affluence for almost 60 years with the expectation built into the larger culture that things are supposed to get better every year, citizens of RSN know better. They know that things do not always get better. They know that the guys in the white hats do not always win in the last five minutes of the movie. They know the guys in the black hats have plenty of last-minute tricks, and that they can pick up just the right player off the waiver list in the waning days of a season (think Johnny Mize, 1949).

The Red Sox fan knows that the fates can be cruel. Never mind the Babe. Just think a mere 31 years ago -- why it was like yesterday: Sparky Lyle for Danny Cater. A 27-year-old lefthanded reliever, who had pitched in 184 games in the previous three years, and had saved 16 that year (and would save a league-leading 35 the next year) for a 32-year-old first baseman with up to then 52 career home runs. Oh dear.

David Halberstam, ESPN Page 2: One Splendid day [with Ted Williams]

David Halberstam, ESPN Page 2: Sports can distract, but they don't heal

David Halberstam, ESPN Page 2: Thanks, soccer, see you in four years

salon.com: David Halberstam, 1934-2007
In a host of Salon interviews, the great journalist talks about the depths of his work and passions, from Vietnam to Michael Jordan.

WaPo: David Halberstam, 1934-2007
Author Uncloaked Vietnam Blunders

NYTimes: David Halberstam, 73, Reporter and Author, Dies

San Francisco Chronicle: DAVID HALBERSTAM: 1934-2007
Author was on his way to an interview
He was to meet with Y.A. Tittle to talk about football

San Francisco Chronicle: DAVID HALBERSTAM: 1934-2007
Car crash ends award-winning writer's life

SFGate.com: Friends and former colleagues remember David Halberstam

Academy of Achievement: The David Halberstam Interview

wikipedia: David Halberstam