The Red Sox finally score some runs

Will Napoli's 2-homer game
kick-start the offense?

The Red Sox scored eight runs on Saturday night, knocking off the Angels 8-3.  It was easily Boston's highest run total of the month, and only the second time in May the club had scored more than five.

Nothing better sums up the Sox offensive woes this month than the plight of Hanley Ramirez.  Ramirez set a team record for home runs in April, finishing the month with 10 homers and 22 RBI.

He still has 10 homers and 22 RBI--not a single home run or RBI for Hanley through 18 games played in May.

And then there's this (from Friday):

Great stat @davidmgreen @max_lederman for soccer haters. Even @Dan_Shaughnessy enjoyed this #NERevs pic.twitter.com/W0jRH69lGX

— Dalen Cuff (@DalenCuff) May 22, 2015

You know it's bad when a baseball team is putting up soccer scoring numbers...


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Is it possible my computer is listening to my conversations?

I've come to accept the fact that my computer reads my emails, and the ads that pop up on websites I look at are strategically placed accordingly.  But, now I'm worried it's spying on me on a whole other level that I'm pretty sure isn't even possible.

A little while back I had a conversation about a weird restaurant/theater called Medieval Manor that I walk by on my way to work.  The next day, an ad for that very place appeared.  It was a strange coincidence, but I was able to write it off as just that.

This week I was again having a conversation (not through my computer via Skype or Gchat or anything like that, just out loud in its general vicinity while it was on), this time about a new flavor of Oreos--S'mores.

That same night, an ad for s'mores appeared on a website I was viewing.  Should I be scared?

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Should I be flattered or annoyed that somebody rewrote one of my articles?

On May 19 of last year, I wrote an article for Bleacher Report entitled The Top 10 NBA Draft Lottery Steals of All Time.  It was a captivating and unique story idea that to the best of my knowledge hadn't been covered previously.  For that reason, over 100,000 people read it.

Two days ago (also May 19), another B/R writer published a new article with the identical title: "The Top 10 NBA Draft Lottery Steals of All Time."

That's mine on the left, the ripoff on the right.

What does this mean and what should I do?  Has my intellectual property been stolen?  It's not plagiarism or anything--the list is very similar (because I got it right the first time), but the text is completely different.  However, the title and idea are obviously exactly the same.

Should I just be flattered that my article was a concept worthy of somebody rewriting it a year later?  Should I be annoyed that the new one doesn't give me credit for the idea?  Shouldn't somebody have contacted me ahead of time?  I don't feel good about it.  Who knows what the rules are though, the internet is like the Wild West.

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It's weird to me that some hockey people thought the header goal might actually count

I've watched about 10 minutes of hockey all season.  However, while I was working on Tuesday night, the only person in the bar at 12:30 am asked me to put the Blackhawks-Ducks game on.  I obliged, and seconds later was fortunate enough to catch this amazing play live:



Here's the full version (with the goal being disallowed):



Immediately after it happened, the announced said "There's no rule that says you can't head the puck in the net."  All day today I kept hearing on ESPN how people weren't sure if it should count or not.  Many NHL players, including the one who "scored," didn't know either.

That really surprised me.  I'm not a hockey guy, but I was still fairly certain that it wasn't a goal.  As I stated at the time to my one bar guest, "You can't kick the puck into the net and you can't slap it in with you're hand.  I'm sure there's a rule that says you can only intentionally score with your stick."

And sure enough, that's exactly the case.  Here's a screenshot from the NHL rulebook:

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There's no reason why Obama should follow the Cubs on Twitter

Yesterday, Barack Obama joined Twitter.  With his new account, @POTUS, he followed four of his hometown sports teams, the White Sox, Bulls, Bears and Blackhawks.  He did not, however, follow the Chicago Cubs, who chose to respond:

@POTUS We're big fans of America. Just saying. #YouMissedATeam

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) May 18, 2015

This led to an abundance of "news" stories with titles like:

Barack Obama joins Twitter, follows every Chicago sports team except Cubs

Good for him.  The President is a White Sox fan, not a Cubs fan.  He didn't follow all the Chicago teams and forget/omit one, he just picked the teams he likes--which is what a sports fan should do.

In the same manner that actual fans don't root for both the Yankees and the Mets, or the Lakers and the Clippers, Obama picked a side a long time ago.

His fandom maintains a higher level of credibility by not following the Cubs.  This is an instance where it's OK for him to be a human being instead of a politician trying to please everybody.

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It's been a horrifically bad month of May for the Red Sox's offense

I originally titled this blog "I'm assuming the Red Sox will score a few runs at some point," but then I noticed Gordon Edes already used a similar headline this morning.  Edes notes that Boston has 12 home runs this month, only two more than the Nationals' Bryce Harper (10) has in that same span.

Here are some more absurd stats:

- The Sox are hitting just .206 in May, the worst in baseball by a large margin (Houston is second from the bottom at .215).

- Among regular starters, Xander Bogaerts is leading the team with a .240 batting average this month.

- They've scored a total of 38 runs over 16 May games--2.38 per contest.

- Boston has plated more than five runs on only one occasion this month (a 6-3 win in Toronto on 5/10).

- On the other hand, the Red Sox have scored two runs or fewer 11 times (in 16 games).  Their remaining five scoring outputs are 6, 5, 5, 4 and 3.  Pathetic.


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Recycle Sunday No. 15: Blog filler while I'm away at a wedding

In mid October, I suggested the Patriots would be just fine after season-ending injuries to Jerod Mayo and Stevan Ridley.  Things worked out OK.

Steve Nash retired.  He's on a very short list of two-time NBA MVPs, and his first big moment (in college) was called by Celtics' announcer Mike Gorman.

Recounting the greatest sports moment of my lifetime: The 2004 Boston Red Sox.

Asking a bartender to put more booze in your drink is not a reasonable thing to do.

I ran into LeBron James on the street one day.

MLB shouldn't have allowed the Miami Marlins to sign Giancarlo Stanton to an absurd $325 million contract they have no intention of actually paying.

The NFL should install a fantasy app for your TV that displays the name of players with the ball.

Why don't any of the characters on The Walking Dead call the zombies "zombies"?

How to do parlor-trick math like the eight-year-old son of an NFL quarterback who went to Harvard.

If the New England Revolution (soccer) had won the MLS Cup, would the city of Boston have held a parade?

In honor of his 58th birthday, I put together a compilation of some of Larry Bird's best TV commercials.

It's been 14 years since an AFC East team finished with a better record than the Patriots.

As a huge Rajon Rondo fan, I was (correctly) worried Boston might play better without him this year.  Rondo's is the only Celtics jersey I've ever owned.  Here are my top five memories of him in Boston, and his return to the Garden as a member of the Dallas Mavericks was unbelievable.

My sports fan fashion rules for double logo-ing.

The fact that Ray Lewis is on television makes my blood boil, and I don't understand how other people accept it.


Previous "Recycle Sunday" posts


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