Big Papi not a big zero

By Jorge Bannister
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

Fanatics tend to blow things out of proportion sometimes. Like, hitting numbers.

The time to worry about a hitter, or their numbers, isn’t May, like many fans have with one David Ortiz. I’d like to think the end of June is when you start to panic.

True to my thinking, Ortiz went 3 for 9 in his series with the New York Yankees. Two of his hits were solo homers — one to center field, the other to left over the Green Monster. Because of these two homers, many in Red Sox Nation (and believe me when I say I almost vomit when I write and/or say that phrase) are posing the question: Is Big Papi back?

I hate to admit it, but it’s the right question to pose. After all, he is 9 for 29 (.310 average) in the month of June with 3 homers and 7 RBIs. He’s finally above the Mendoza line with a batting average of .203, but still isn’t hitting his weight (Ortiz is listed as 230 pounds).

This is a slugger who’s getting paid $13 million dollars, so I can see where the urge in urgency lies — especially to this fan base.

Ortiz’s at-bats in this series have been positive. He went 0 for 2 with two walks in the middle game of the series, including a ball crushed just short of the warning track in center field for a fly ball out. Was it just a long flyout? Yes. Is it going to show up as a normal F8 in the scorebook? You bet ya. But, the ball was crushed.

It’s probably the weirdest things in sports: When ballplayers are breaking out of a slump they start mashing the ball but it’s usually right at someone. Then the opposite-field hits start piling up. Then a pitcher gets brave enough to try to sneak one past the player on the inner-half of the strike zone and the player pulls the ball, crushing it. Viola, you’re out of the slump.

When he isn’t being walked, he’s in “phase two” of breaking out of a slump, hitting the ball hard the other way and with power — as evidence by his opposite-field home run into the Monster seats last night.

If the Red Sox continue to get support from everyone else in the lineup, I don’t see why Terry Francona would move Ortiz back up to the 3-hole. He’s very productive in the 6-hole, and brings more balance to the lineup there.

Big Daddy Vince does the right thing!

By Jim Ingram

Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

Vince Wilfork showed up for Mandatory OTA's yesterday and did the right thing by the New England Patriots organization by not holding out. Granted, he didn't want to chance losing a cool $500,000, more than enough incentive to show up on time. Vince Wilfork has turned into one of the best nose tackles in the NFL and has certainly outplayed the rookie contract that expires after this season. The Patriots rarely, if ever, rip up a contract in the final year and sign a player to a big money deal. That's just not how the Patriots operate.

Unfortunately for Wilfork, he signed that contract. I am a firm believer that you sign a contract, play as hard as you can, and sign for big money when the contract EXPIRES! To professional athletes that sounds like a stupid idea, I know. Idealistic, right? Wrong. I am sick and tired of professional athletes holding out, whining and moaning when they outperform a contract and want more money. Most professional sports organizations can't lock out a player who's underperformed and try to have them rework a deal that's better suited to the players real performance.

Luckily for NFL teams, most contract aren't guaranteed, so you can cut the under performing player. Even with this out, teams are still hit for cap penalties. I sincerely hope big Vince continues to show up, practice and play out his rookie contract. When the deal is up, let the Patriots present him with a fair market offer and hope he comes back. He's one of the most valuable players on the defense. He's a great, run stuffer who takes on two blockers. It's more important the Patriots resign him instead of Richard Seymour. The 3-4 defense is reliant on someone of his large stature in the middle of that defense.

For now, I'll be singing the praises of Vince Wilfork because he showed loyalty to Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft and the Patriots. Most players, all agents and many fans would say he made a mistake by showing up and not holding out. If I'm the Pats, I'd be more willing to deal with a player who did the right thing. God I can't wait for football season.

Afraid of the Yankees? No way!

By Chad Garner

Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

It's one thing to beat up on the weak links of Major League Baseball, but it's another to elevate your game against the cream of the crop.

You'd be stupid to not take notice of what the Red Sox are and have been doing to the archrival Yankees -- 7 straight wins against the Bronx Bombers. 

Now that's impressive. 

While the Yankees have beaten up on the lesser teams (Orioles, Indians), they can't get it done versus playoff-caliber teams.

The Red Sox are just owning their rivals. Didn't it used to be the other way around? Not any more, obviously. During this head-shaking 7-0 record vs. the Yanks this season, Boston has scored 51 runs to only 28 for the Yanks, while outhitting them, .295 to .269.

The numbers don't lie. Granted, A-Rod or A-Fraud or A-Roid or A-Hole --whatever you want to call him -- was out of the lineup with his injury for the first five so the Yanks' lineup wasn't as powerful, but that's no excuse because the Sox are proving they can beat New York with A-Hole (0 for 7 in first 2 games in this series vs. Sox) hitting in the cleanup spot.

It almost seems like the Red Sox hitters know what pitch is coming next, well, it's not hard when facing Chien-Ming Wang, who can't get Little League hitters out right now. Let's see, putting youngster Phil Hughes in the bullpen for Wang? Yes, another great move by manager Joe Girardi. I still say Don Mattingly should be the manager of this team.

But anyway, credit the Red Sox scouting staff for knowing how to hit, position defensively and attack the New York Yankees hitters with their hurlers. Many factors go into owning your opponent, but scouting has to be a big part of this. 

But maybe the biggest thing right now is confidence. The Red Sox BELIEVE they can win every time they play the Yanks -- home or away -- and it doesn't seem like the Yankees are confident at all. I guess when you get lackluster pitching performances like A.J. Burnett and Wang in this series, then you don't have much a shot, do you?

The Yankees are down to their final hope of beating the Red Sox -- CC Sabathia. If he can't beat the Red Sox and starting pitcher Brad Penny tonight, then this Red Sox streak could get a lot uglier before it gets better for New York.

Can the Yankees finally take a stand, or will the Red Sox continue to pound on their rivals?

It's no contest right now!

Courtney Lee is not a bum... Rafer Alston waxes "beautiful"

By Brendan Hall
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

Here's why I don't watch television news.

Moments after game two of the NBA Finals, the airwaves frenzied up a storm of hot air quicker than the Red Spot of Jupiter. Courtney Lee this, Courtney Lee that. If you listened to some of the "experts" on radio and television (ESPN and KCAL in particular) and took what they say at face value, right now you'd be wondering just how the heck Lee wakes up in the morning knowing that he just sealed the fate of humankind.

For those of you fortunate enough to have followed Anthony Kiedis' advice and throw away your television, here's what you missed: the Magic, with nine seconds left and the chance to win, drew up an alley oop-like play to Lee. Lee never got a grip on the ball, gave it a tap, and the ball clanked off the back iron.

Apparently, because he didn't put the game away, and the Magic had no answer for Pau Gasol in the extra frame, it's now Lee's fault that the Magic are “doomed”. Keep in mind this is game two. He is now a goat, a loser and the Antichrist, all wrapped into one.

One question: have any of you knuckleheads ever played basketball?

Look, Vin Baker sucks, and he might be one of the 10 worst basketball players to ever put on a Celtics uniform. But if he misses a finger roll, I'm not going to hound the dude and tell him his career is a complete waste. Why? Because that's an incredibly hard thing to do. I'm 5-foot-10, 215 pounds, with absolutely no handle, no post moves and no stamina; when I make four turnarounds in a row, I feel like I’m on cloud nine. But I’d never go up to the 6-foot-4 ex-Charlestown High baller guarding me and grunt, "you’re mine, punk."

Stan Van Gundy has been above-average in this series. Every other team so far has played the Lakers conventionally, straight no chaser, and failed. He knows he has to give them something unorthodox, something they haven’t seen before, which is why he called for such a unique inbound play.

But we forget how hard it is for these guys to make those kind of shots. We set the bar high, and when people hit it on their way down we want to scold them like the Class Derelict.

Let’s set the record straight, please. What he did Sunday night is not a "career-defining moment".

Courtney Lee is a late first-round rookie out of Western Kentucky. He is a 6-foot-5 combo guard who was drafted on the pretense that he could supplement Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis and Jameer Nelson with some great off-the-ball activity (i.e., defense, setting screens, creating space). He averages eight points; wasn’t supposed to set anybody’s world on fire; wasn’t meant to be a three-point specialist. He was meant to be a nice role player.

In other words, he does all the little things that go unnoticed.

So with all that said, how happy were you to see Courtney Lee have an OK game last night, a 108-104 win that cut the Lakers lead to 2-1? He did exactly what he was told, and the Magic grinded out a gutsy win.

Courtney Lee’s career will be defined by his old-school mentality. Not by missing some freaking alley oop.

For those of you who missed Dan Wetzel’s column on Rafer Alston yesterday, you missed some great scene-setting. The meat and potatoes:

He doesn't question the route he took to get to the present, he just focuses on finding one that will take him to the future. In a sports world filled with guys consumed with intensity, especially after losses, his attitude can drive people crazy.

After this victory, Alston sat in front of a locker filled with And1 sneakers and tried to get teammate Marcin Gortat to teach him some Polish.

Gortat is a bald 7-footer from an old textile town in central Poland. These two couldn't be less alike, an only-in-the-NBA pairing. Naturally, they are great friends. So Gortat complied, teaching him "how are you" in Polish.

The NBA public relations people were waiting to whisk Alston off for a waiting pack in the interview room, but this seemed important to him.

"See, I don’t want to talk to you," Alston laughed to Gortat. "I want to talk to Polish women."

This is what runs through Rafer Alston’s head minutes after the biggest game of his life.

If you don't find beauty in that passage, you have no soul, and you should leave.

Now.

Ish.

In a world gone mad, it's just absolutely beautiful to see that, at the end of the day, at least one man still sees the game of basketball as just a game. Nothing more.

Objects, not subjects.

Now THAT is cool.

And beautiful.