Small-Time Golf Talks Baseball

by Craig Small

I remember as a kid growing up in New England that I could always count on my beloved Red Sox putting the same lineup on the field night after night, season after season. I knew I was going to see Jerry Remy, Rick Burleson, Jim Rice, Dwight Evans, Carlton Fisk, Carl Yastrzemski, and for a few glorious seasons, Freddie Lynn. Late in the game I could expect to see Bob Stanley make his way in from the bullpen to keep the game from slipping away from the always shaking pitching staff. If the Royals were in town I knew I was going to see George Brett, Willie Wilson, Hal McRae, Frank White, and Dan Quisenberry. I think you know where I’m going with this. It’s a little strange being a fan in the new era of professional baseball.

I got home tonight in time to watch the Dodger game on my Roku box with the MLB package. I got it pretty much so I could watch Dodger games and listen to Vin Scully for however long he has left in the booth. Just his voice brings me back to my childhood watching the Game Of The Week on lazy summer afternoons with Scully and Garagiola calling the game. Listening to Scully call a game (on his own!!) is like getting to spend three hours a night with a loving grandfather regaling me with stories of the glory days of baseball. Tonight I got home in time to catch the first inning and see Adrian Gonzalez drill a three-run homer down the line into the right field bleachers. The camera scanned the Dodger dugout and I saw Josh Beckett, for years the rock of the Sox pitching staff, looking strange in Dodger blue. Look, I know things have changed. Hell, the Red Sox grabbed Gonzalez and Crawford by throwing boatloads of cash at them a couple of years ago and managed to get Beckett (and Mike Lowell) during one of the Florida (Miami) Marlins annual fire sales. Just two seasons after making headlines with the acquisitions of Gonzalez and Crawford, they’re both gone. I should be used to this by now. I’m not.

What brings this up? Well I go to see my parents every weekend and my dad and I usually find the time to get in a game or two of APBA Baseball. Tonight he was Texas and I was the Red Sox. We used the 2011 teams and I decided to give Beckett the start for old times sake. He pitched a hell of a game. Seven innings, two hits, no runs. Bard pitched the eighth, and Papelbon closed it out in the ninth. Ortiz homered in the seventh for a Red Sox 1-0 victory. As we were playing I looked at my lineup and something struck me, hard.

1. Ellsbury CF
2. Pedroia 2B
3. Gonzalez 1B
4. Ortiz DH
5. Youkilis 3B
6. Reddick LF
7. Scutaro SS
8. Drew RF
9. Varitek C

Starting Pitcher: Beckett
Relief: Bard
Closer: Papelbon

Of the twelve players that appeared in the game for me this afternoon only three are still with the major league team. THREE. Eight of them are now either retired or gone and one is in the minors. God, I miss Remy, Burleson, Rice, Evans, Fisk, and Yaz.

Oh, and you damn kids get off of my lawn!