Neighborhood Play

Dave and Vivian met me at the train station after work and we headed to the park. Unfortunately, not to Fenway Park where gametime temp was 87 degrees. We did, however, enjoy the warm weather while the baby laughed in the swing, had her first taste of sand, and reveled in the general vicinity of a dozen toddlers being chased by their parents.

What a pleasant day in our neighborhood!

Everything wasn't so hunky-dory in Red Sox Nation. Ortiz was 0 for 7 coming into tonight's game. Most sports analysts had him packing his bags, or at least spending some time on the bench. Ortiz didn't take well to this and responded with a string of expletives, plus a few "a"s and "the"s that I guess qualify it as an official statement.

I'm on Ortiz's side though; the awkwardness of the Mike Lowell situation (traded, almost) seems to have put everyone on edge. But do we really think Terry Francona, who gave Big Papi 49 games to get his groove back in 2009, would mess with his headcase of a DH* this early in the season?

Perhaps everyone will be a little more neighborly now. Ortiz got an RBI (run batted in) single with two outs in the fourth. Let's pretend he didn't strike out in the sixth... and the ninth.

And while we're on the subject of neighbors (aka, while I'm trying to find some common element between three completely unrelated events), wtf?**

Here's the situation. Top of the second. Victor Martinez grounds into a double play. Yankee second basemen Robinson Cano comes way off the bag to avoid being slid into by Pedroia before throwing the ball to Mark Teixera at first base.

Cue the replay. Cano catches the ball after stepping off the base and then throws it to Teixera. But the scoreboard registered two outs. Daaaavvvvvvvve?

Apparently there is something called neighborhood play. This is not in the rulebook, and is only valid in some levels of baseball. The second baseman receives the ball in an attempt to force out the runner and then throw the ball to first for a double play. Safety geeks (joking) thought it was too dangerous for the second basemen to tag the base and then take the necessary step, possibly into a sliding runner, to make the throw to first. So the umps are happy as long as the player covering second is in the vicinity of the base.

Sort of like Vivi and those neighborhood kids.

*Some pinkhats might think DH refers to Dear Husband as this is a common acronym on the interweb. My DH is also a headcase, but in this post I am referring to the designated hitter David Ortiz.

**You'll notice I haven't used any curses in the blog. WTF is the closest I'll come, and I reserve that for especially screwy baseball rules. Okay, all baseball rules are screwy, but I'm talking about the rules that make me wonder why people even like this sport.