Reunited And It Feels So Good

It's just that time of the year. That time of the year when cabin fever begins to set in. That first warm, sunny, breeze swept day where you want to tie up your spikes, throw your hat on, dust off your glove and start throwing, preparing for the season that should prove to better than the last.

I’m Ryan Thomas and I live for this time of the year. The Red Sox are in full swing and my team, the McKay Club Beacons are just starting to get in to the routine of showing up to the field most worthy of practice (no offense Ronan Park) and getting the feel for the grass, the lips of the infield and the faux clay that we’ll be playing on more days than not come summer.

This blog will be dedicated to the Yawkey League and all of it’s teams. More importantly though, I will be concentrating on what my team, the McKay Club Beacons have going on. With a team like this, there’s always something to talk about. Eat your heart out Laura Raposa, your gossip column in The Boston Herald has nothing on what the likes of Chris Deane, Rob Linn, Josh McDonnell and Co. have to say on a regular basis. I know, keep it on the field. But some of the things these guys say are just pure gold. Reading this blog for Chris Deane commentary alone is worth while.

Coming off a disappointing season in 2006, Coach Dave McKay and club captain and ball-busting connoisseur Chris Deane have helped to add depth to both our offense and pitching staff. To bolster an already formidable pitching staff that includes bulldog Danny Ciocca, token red-head and short fuse Sean Sullivan, hit-the-corners-in-my-sleep Adam Kulis and yours truly, Ryan Thomas, Dave McKay and the rest of “upper management” have added a good mix of young and old. Perennial Yawkey Leaguer Dana Levensaler will bring his experience and knowledge to the team, new-comer Geoff Wiech will bring his hot fastball and Harvard education to the table, Kevin Jackson will give the McKay Club a much needed left-hander and youngster Joe Cuervels will give the Beacons more depth and versatility this year.

Pitching aside, the McKay Club endured offensive struggles at times last year. Chris Deane has admitted on more than one occasion that in an attempt to carry the team on his back offensively, he tried to do too much at times. Instead of burdening Chris once again, the McKay Club has brought back, in Coach Dave McKay’s words, one of the best hitters the Yawkey League has seen in the last 15 years, Rob Linn. After a falling out between Linn and Chris Deane before last season began, the two have reconciled their differences and are now reunited once again, ready to torment Yawkey League pitching staffs.

Looking back on 2006, the season was deemed an underachievement by all the members of the McKay Club. This year is looking up, and with good reason. Key additions to the offense and pitching coinciding with the core players that are returning, hungry to get back to the playoffs is a recipe for success.

All throughout the 2007 season, I will be writing on a regular basis, talking about McKay Club news, Yawkey League news, Chris Deane’s and Sean Sullivan’s short fuses, Dave McKay’s quest for weight loss (almost 90 pounds so far, keep up the good work) and the good times had with our new sponsor Tom English. Tom English’s Pub is located in South Boston on East Broadway and members of the McKay Club will be a constant there during the season throwing back wobbly-pops, laughing it up and having a great time. Come by, share some laughs, share some brews, talk about baseball with us and most importantly, just have fun. And watch out for drunken Irish people. They can get pretty feisty.

McKay Club Looking Good Early On

The inaugural posting for The Yawkey Baseball League and The McKay Club Beacons will be arriving shortly. Don’t go Alec Baldwin on me, calling and leaving threatening messages, you’ll get to read about all the going-ons of my dysfunctional, yet well-balanced team soon enough. But until then, please make it to practice, the games aren’t won in front of the TV or computer reading my blog.

Back in the Saddle

Mariano Rivera. Joe Nathan. Francisco Rodriguez. Jonathan Papelbon. What do all of these men have in common? If you guessed that they all drive expensive cars, you are incorrect.

The four pitchers identified will be their team’s Most Valuable Players at the end of the season. (Sorry A-Rod, Justin Morneau, Vlad Guererro and Big Papi). The glitz and glamour of the Big Leagues is in the long ball. Chicks dig it, we all know by now. But for all the walk-off homers and batting titles, there’s only one thing that will bring a team to the Promised Land: A damn good closer. Ask the Atlanta Braves teams of the 90’s about not having a good one. It brought them one World Championship. 14 division titles, one World Series Title.

Papelbon, Rivera, Nathan and Rodriguez all have that make-up. That screw-you-I’m-better-than-you-any-given-day-of-the-week mentality gives them the ability to finish games like Jack Bauer mowing down terrorists like it’s his job. Well it is his job, but you get the point.

Ice water in the veins they say. Anyone who watched the Sunday night game between the Texas Rangers and Boston Red Sox on ESPN knows what I’m talking about. Watching Jonathan Papelbon enter that game with one out in the eight inning, I knew that the game was over. There was really no question about in my mind.

The look that comes over his face is just stunning to see. It’s the type of expression you would expect a sniper to have when he is about to take out Osama Bin Laden from one and one half miles away unseen. Eyes focused. Breaths tight and steady. Pulse almost zero. Ice water in the veins. Last night, those Rangers hitters were Bin Laden in the crosshairs: Done like burnt toast.

This is how it all went down. Joel Pinero starts off the eight inning by walking light-hitting number eight hitter Gerald Laird and second-year-second-baseman Ian Kinsler to start the inning. First and second, nobody out.

Kenny Lofton comes to the plate 0 for his last 17 and lays down a sac bunt on the second pitch he sees. Mike Lowell fields but there are three people (Youkilis, Cora and Lofton) crowding first base like it’s going out of style. No play, bases loaded no one out. Enter lefty specialist Javier Lopez.

Nelson Cruz pinch hits and smokes a laser of a liner to first base which Kevin Youkilis can’t handle cleanly. He gets a force at second base and it’s now first and third with one out and the Ranger’s best offensive player, Michael Young is coming to the plate. Enter Mr. Ice Water himself, Joanthan Papelbon.

The exchange happens like this. Swinging through a 93 mile per hour fastball, strike one. Swinging through a 96 mile per hour fastball, strike two. Frozen look from a 97 mile per hour fastball painted on the outside corner, strike three. (Picasso was jealous for about half an hour afterwards).

Next up was Mark Teixeira. He only saw one pitch and he popped it up to Mike Lowell to end the imminent threat of a tie-game. A collective sigh of relief from Red Sox Nation as the pop-up hits Lowell’s mit.

The bottom of the ninth wasn’t nearly as interesting as the eighth. Papelbon started off slammin’ Sammy Sosa with a fastball for strike one, followed by a high fastball in which he popped up in the infield. One out.

Next in the cross hairs was Hank Blalock, whom Papelbon and Jason Varitek decided would be looking dead-red because he saw four consecutive splitters to bring the count to 2-2 before Pap set him down swinging at a 96 mile per hour heater. Just for the record, Papelbon 4, Texas’ heart of the line-up 0.

Who better to finish the game off than free-swingin’ Brad Wilkerson who waved at two chest high fastballs before looking totally lost as Papelbon hit the corner with 97 mile per hour cheese that was followed by a Papelbon fist pump, a finger point to Varitek and some words of encouragement to his battery mate.

How intimidating did he look out there? Peering below his curved brim with a slightly oval shaped open mouth ready to throw mid to high 90’s heat with late movement, Papelbon has more mound presence than any of the aforementioned closers right now. What team in their right mind enters their half of the ninth inning down a run with Papelbon on the mound saying ‘we got this guy’? None of them. Jonathan Papelbon is THE most intimidating relief pitcher out there right now. Joel Zumaya is a close second, but he doesn’t have the same level of pin point accuracy or command of his off-speed pitch to be mentioned in the same breath as Mr. Papelbon.

Call me a homer, I’d agree. Call me a liar, I disagree. Red Sox fan or not, with Jonathan Papelbon closing out games again, the pressure’s on the other team because it’s certainly not on the closer that’s for sure.