The Red Sox are now in Los Angeles. Their charter flight left after Game 2 -- 1:30 AM on Thursday -- and landed in LA at 6:30 PM Wednesday. Flight time: Negative 7 hours.
Bartolo Colon should throw somewhere between 60-75 pitches against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Friday's exhibition. Joining the red Sox for the weekend series will be several players from their Lancaster (A) farm team, including Lars Anderson and Joe Thurston.
Josh Beckett will be eligible to come off the DL before the Toronto series, which begins April 4. He'll pitch against minor leaguers this weekend.
Manny Ramirez's 4 RBI was the most for a Boston player on Opening Day since Jack Clark had four on April 8, 1991. Manny was also one of four Sox players (Cora, Drew, MDC) who met with a group of fans who had travelled to Japan for the series.
Jason Varitek went 0-for-8 in Japan, with six strikeouts and two groundouts (one a double play). ... Brandon Moss was optioned to Pawtucket.
Negative 7 hours - that's one thing.
ReplyDeleteBut think about this: it was a nine hour flight. 1:30am - 10:30am Tokyo time on Thursday.
So, they started off 4 hours before sunrise, and landed 40 minutes before sunset... in 9 hours.
Was Tek the only one who went 0-8, or are you just picking on him? :)
ReplyDeleteWas Tek the only one who went 0-8, or are you just picking on him? :)
ReplyDeleteBoth.
Tiz was 0-for-7 (with 3 pop-ups), but he walked twice and scored a run. Plus, he hit two balls out of the infield -- versus Varitek's zero.
I predict that Tek's batting average will not stay at .000 for very long.
ReplyDelete(Big risk taker that I am, I am not putting any money on how long.)
What is the longest 0-for ? streak any player has had before getting traded, canned, sent to the minors, or put on the DL? (Good to start the season with one of my crazy trivia questions.)
Finding the longest hitless streak to start a season might be easier:
ReplyDeleteIn 2006, Oakland's Dan Johnson started off 0-for-27.
1975 Mets pitcher Randy Tate's career: 0-for-41.
Ron Herbel -- another pitcher -- started his career 0-for-55 before getting his first hit. He then went another 53 ABs before his 2nd hit so at one time his batting average was .009 (1-for-108). He finsihed with a .029 average (6-for-206) and a -70 OPS+!
The record for the longest hitless streak in a season belongs to Bob Buhl, who went 0-for-70 (85 PA) in 1962 while pitching for the Cubs and Milwaukee.
Hideo Nomo started his career 0-for-35.
Bill Bergen's 0-for-46 is the longest hitless streak by a non-pitcher.
In 1997, Todd Zeile went 0-for-44. Robin Ventura had an 0-for-41 streak in 1990.
Jeter went 0-for-32 in 2004 -- and was booed at Yankee Stadium. It was the longest streak for a MFY since Jimmy Wynn went 0-for-32 in 1977.
Joe McEwing went 0-for-33 for the 2002 Mets.
Pitcher Kris Benson went 0-for-44 in 2004 and Kazuhisa Ishii went 0-for-45 in 2004.
Ichiro started spring training this year 0-for-21.
Lugo was 0-for-29 last year.
"Jason Varitek went 0-for-8 in Japan, with six strikeouts and two groundouts (one a double play)."
ReplyDeleteI noticed, I noticed. At least he should have hit Embrey and Foulke, for obvious reasons.
Finding the longest hitless streak to start a season might be easier
ReplyDeleteAnd who said I was trying to make it easy?? :)
Thanks for the information. Looks like Tek has quite a way to go to break any records.
Discounting the pitchers since we don't really expect them to hit, it looks like Bill Bergen wins the prize at 0 for 46. Who was he? When did he play? (I realize I could look this up, but that would really make it too easy for you.)
Thanks again. I remain in awe of your ability to dig this stuff up. I really thought this was a tough one!
I remain in awe of your ability to dig this stuff up. I really thought this was a tough one!
ReplyDeleteNo secret. I Googled "longest hitless streak to begin season" and poked around. Found a discussion board where I got some of the bits, then did a search for CI's streak and there were more in an ESPN story from 2004.
I still don't know what the record is to begin a season, though.
William Aloysius Bergen
Born: June 13, 1878, North Brookfield, MA
Died:December 19, 1943, Worcester, MA
Debut: May 6, 1901
Final Game: September 20, 1911
He was a catcher with the Reds and Dodgers. At that time, catchers were not expected to hit very much. In fact, they almost always batted 8th -- for every single team -- just ahead of the pitcher.
His best season was 1903 when he hit .227/.252/.266. It was his only season with a batting average above .190.
He played for 11 years -- 947 games, 3,228 PA -- and had a career OBP of .194.
In other words, he made Doug Mirabelli look like Rogers Hornsby.
I should have figured that Bergen was a catcher! And from Massachusetts, to boot. I probably would have loved him and rooted for him through that whole bad string.
ReplyDeleteWell, the most painful hitless streak (and longest) for a Sox player was Luis Aparicio's 0-44 in his first year with the Sox, in 1971. From May 20-May 31 he got nada, and hit into a lot of bad luck---he wasn't striking out much. And because he was such a class act, nobody at Fenway booed him. (I hope that nobody boos JV this year either. I suspect that there will be many opportunities.) The humiliating part for Little Luis was that Richard Nixon called him up for moral support, saying that he had been through adversity too,and had always come out OK in the end.
ReplyDeleteGood thing Luis didn't have his slump in '74.
(I hope that nobody boos JV this year either. I suspect that there will be many opportunities.)
ReplyDeleteThey'd better not when I am around. It's bad enough having to listen to people pick on him here. :)
(Jack, since you and I didn't post at the same time last season, you probably don't know that I am Tek's biggest fan around JOS. Catchers have always been my thing, and Jason is one of my favorites, along with Fisk, of course.)
Jayson Stark used to have (maybe still does, but I don't read him anymore) a "Last Man To Get A Hit" award each season. He would use it as an excuse to riff on all kind of oh-fors. If his column is archived (or if you feel like emailing hiim) he could probably answer any hitless-streak question.
ReplyDelete