"I'm Shutting Down the Studio" - ITM Edition

The time has come.  It's time to make official something I've known for well over a year.  It's time to bring ITM to a close.

Simply put; between work, work related travel, living across the Atlantic, and a number of other endeavors I'm currently pursuing, there are not enough hours in the day to give this blog the kind of dedication it deserves.

At its peak, ITM had two additional writers and hundreds of readers, unfortunately we simply fell victim to the real world...."the working man is a sucka!".

However, ITM has been strung along by random posts of videos, nonsensical banter, and Spaceball quotes for the past twelve months. 

While I'm not ruling out an eventual return to Red Sox blogging (this site will remain up and open, with perhaps an occasional rant), it shouldn't be half-assed. 

...not going to lie, a contributing factor to this decision is that without recent blogging, the Sox have seemingly found their stride a bit.  Here's hoping reaching .500 last night is the take off point.

.....and for those of you not in the David Chappelle loop, here is how the title of this post relates.

ITM World Series Prediction

(According to T Murph: Ryan Howard is the new big sexy.....plus he hangs out with Snoop, how could the Phillies possibly lose with that combination?)

GChat is an amazing thing. It allows for all sorts of random conversation and constant sports chatter among friends while you should be doing work at your desk (yes, the same can be said for ITM).

With the doldrums of Monday morning in full effect, myself, Joe Murphy and T Murph all GChatted on our World Series expectations.....

Interestingly enough, we all agreed on two things:

1- We're praying to the sweet Baby Jesus that the Yanks fall flat on their face to the Twins - especially after losing out on the division thanks to their end of the season loss to the Sox yesterday afternoon.

2- Pitching wins championships; as a result, we expect the Rays and the Phillies to be battling it out in the big show in a few weeks. That said, the stupidest rule in baseball will play a significant role in the series. The fact that the NL finally got over their inferiority complex to win an otherwise meaningless All-Star game gives them the edge in the series.

Also, according to T Murph, "Ryan Howard is the new Big Sexy....and he came to drop bombs."

Take from that whatever you'd like.

Am I A Bad Bostonian?

A funny thing happened last night. Without even realizing it, I watched the majority of the Yanks/Rays game over Clay Buchholz and the Sox facing off against the AL equivalent of the Pittsburgh Pirates (only if the Pirates had the most talented pitcher in the game).

ITM Gal even called me out for it, walking into the room and saying "why are you watching these clowns?". I swear my stock as a Bostonian went down a bit last night.

But let's be honest. The Yanks/Rays series has a ton of playoff implications (both real, and fantasy for me), and the game was just more entertaining. I know I should have watched the Sox as Clay Buchholz continued to make noise in consideration for the CY Young. But I just didn't.....I coudln't....... in addition to being an irrational and crazed Sox fan, I'm a fan of the game, and I hate that sometimes.

Regardless of my attempt at rationalizing this TV watching decision, I feel officially defeated as a Bostonian and as red sox fan.

ITM Note: Buchholz indeed deserves Cy Young consideration, but let's be honest, he's not going to win it. Maybe if the Sox were headed to the playoffs he'd have a chance, or a few more wins under his belt, but CC mostly has it locked up, despite King Felix (who's on my fantasy team, studly) best attempts at dominance while on the worst team in the AL.

A Weekend First: No Sox Talk

All three "writers" for ITM were together this weekend for a great wedding celebration.....and something funny happened: While I can't say I have a clear recollection of absolutely every second from the open bar, I mean, weekend, I don't think we talked about the Sox once.

Not only did I not talk Red Sox with the two other clowns who contribute to ITM whenever they feel like it, but never too often, but I also didn't discuss the local 9 with anyone at all for the weekend.

Instead, topics included (but were certainly not limited to):

-The Pats season opener

-Erin Andrew's amazing "coverage" on College Gameday

-How Rex Ryan continues to get fatter, but barks ridiculous quotes - it's a love/hate thing

-We agreed Don Draper shouldn't cheat on Betty, she's just too damn good looking for that

-T Murph's eventual wedding entrance music will be Gunz N' Roses - Welcome to the Jungle

-After 5 years, Joe Murph finally got new glasses and can actually see things - he just guessed before

-How is it possible that MetroPCS gets away with the blatantly racist commericals? Do Indians just not care about their culture? - We had no real answer for this one.

-How ITM's last post (see below) was indeed its worst of all time


Most Septembers, we would maybe get to one or two of the topics listed above. We'd be too busy bitching about JD Drew's contract and arguing over potential playoff match ups.

Nope. Not this year. This time the Sox weren't even mentioned, and it's September....something I'm still very much coming to grips with.


PS: If the last Post was ITM's worst, this one has got to be second in line. Terrible and I know it. If I wasn't worried about losing my job, I'd spice things up with pictures from this debauchery of a weekend....but I value my real income.

If the Sox Win, But No One Cares, Does It Count?

If this game had occurred two weeks ago, I'd be genuinely excited. However, despite Lester's mediocre but gutty performance, Beltre's timely tater, and Papelbon's 34th save of the year, I can't find the true emotion to sincerely care.

Lester got the win, the Sox snapped their three game losing streak, but the question is, does anyone actually notice anymore.

I was sinking a few Octoberfests with some buddies of mine tonight at Clery's, and the majority of people in the bar were far more interested in the Wednesday night trivia contest than the 18 TVs on the wall showing the game.

Sure, it shouldn't take 9 runs to beat a terrible O's team, but then again, a team with a payroll of 170 gabillion dollars shouldn't be essentially eliminated from playoff contention with a month of baseball to go.

I guess such is life when you've had an insane amount of injuries, a lack of deadline/waiver wire movement, and teams with talent levels like the Rays and Yanks (and maybe even the Jays?) in your division.

Which leads me to question what the TV and attendance ratings will actually look like down the stretch in 2010....

Pedroia: "I can't read or write good, but I'll hit more homeruns"

I'm pretty sure Dustin Pedroia could walk across the street and I'd find it hilarious, but still, love him or hate him, you've gotta respect his confidence and desire to win. In an interview with WEEI this morning, Pedey defended the Red Sox offense:

"We'll see," Pedroia said on Sunday morning. "We haven't even had a spring training practice but guys are going to have to step up. I'm going to have to step up, everyone is. That's how it goes during the season. Everyone is going to have to have good at-bats and put them together in a row to score a lot of runs. We'll do that. We'll be better than a lot of people think." Reminded that the lineup has lost Jason Bay and likely will see the departure of Mike Lowell, Pedroia quipped, "I'll hit more home runs, then."

Pedroia downplayed the significance the team has placed on new age terms like run-prevention and UZR [Ultimate Zone Rating] to value players.

“I don’t even buy into that stuff,” Pedroia said. “We have great pitching, we have great defense and we have good offensive players. I don’t even know what run prevention is. I’m kind of a baseball players. I don’t know how to read very good. I don’t know how to write very good. We just go play. We’ll be fine."

“I’m excited, I think everyone is. I think we’ve got a lot of good players. Obviously, we’ve got a great pitching staff. We just have to find a way to go out there and score runs for them and I think we’re going to be fine.”

With Pedroia, you can't help but laugh at him, but at the same time, you take everything he says serious. He'll do everything he can to put this team on his tiny back, but he'll need a lot of help from the guys around him for this lineup to win ballgames like years past. As a result, his message to the rest of the lineup is apparently to "Man up".

A few weeks from now I'm going to try to track him down in Ft. Myers, and see what kind of ridiculous quotes I can get out of him.

ITM Breaks Down, Punches Ticket to Ft Myers

If you've been following ITM at all over the off season you know two things.

1-We've been pretty lazy in updating the site

and

2-We swore off going to Spring Training this year. From the leftover feeling of disgust as a result of October 2009, to the general disapproval of this off season's moves, we weren't going. No way. Not this year. Not after what the Red Sox have done to us.

Well you now know this, we're complete suckers.

A week ago I got an email from Joe Murph saying "come on man, I needs this" (in regards to going to Ft Myers). We talked it over, I was an amazingly easy sell....and when Boston got another 6 inches of snow last night, we pulled the trigger and bought the tickets.

We'll be spending four days in Ft Myers in an attempt to soak up as much sun, baseball, and adult beverages as possible. I'd like to think we'll capitalize on lessons learned from last year (i.e., not getting lost in the ghetto during the middle of the night and continuing to walk around half in the bag), but let's be honest, we won't. With any luck, one of us won't get licked in the face by a drunken cougar this year.....however I offer no promises.

Honestly though, we hope to check out the minor league facility/players, travel with the team to a few road games, and ultimately take in around four spring training games.

Suckers or not...Go Sox.

The BBA...Taking Over the World One Day at a Time

Since ITM is a part of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance (BBA), we're somewhat forced to share the information below. I gave some thought to submitting a request for some ITM airtime, but odds are we would just quote lines from Spaceballs and Tommy Boy the entire time. We'd also blow up anyone who attempted to argue against us. That's just how we roll.



ITM would have had this attempt at BBA publicity shut down in two days.....


The writers of the Baseball BloggersAlliance (http://www.baseballbloggersalliance.com) would like toannounce that they are taking to the airwaves. Beginning Tuesday, February 16th at 11 pm Eastern, BBA BaseballTalk (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/baseball-bloggers-alliance/2010/02/17/bba-baseball-talk)be found at BlogTalk Radio http://www.blogtalkradio.com.

This one-hour show will discuss the big stories of the day in major league baseball and other baseball-related topics. Callers are welcome to chime in at 347-884-8690.


Your hosts for the first edition will be BBA founder Daniel Shoptaw, who writes at C70 At The Bat (http://www.cardinal70.com), and Ron Kaplan of Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf (http://rksbaseballbookshelf.wordpress.com/)


Hosts will rotate on a weekly basis and the time and date of the show may move depending on the requirements of that week's hosts.


The Baseball Bloggers Alliance is a confederation of 132 blogs working together for collaboration and discussion possibilities.

Offer on the Table

According to multiple outlets, the Red Sox have made a formal offer to Varitek. The Sox are waiting to hear, but if, as reports indicate, the deal includes a guaranteed second year, or even incentives that could yield a guaranteed second year, then it's difficult to imagine 'Tek turning them down again.

News is expected soon. This appears to be a firm offer, not a jumping off point for negotiations. Frankly, the Sox are in a very good negotiating position and 'Tek is probably just hoping for an offer that allows him to save some face out of this debacle. Pitchers and catchers is right around the corner, and both sides are eager to have this behind them.

Much more from ITM on the Sox catcher situation as the story develops.