SZ664

BY JIM DAWSON

JUNE 12, 2017

THE RED SOX AND THEIR MISSING LINK

No, I don’t mean Manager John Farrell is related to the missing link. Though if I wanted a Red Sox link that needs to be missing, it would be John Farrell. No, there is some missing link to this year’s Red Sox team. Their starting pitching has been, with the exceptions of Chris Sale and Eduardo Rodriguez, inconsistent. If they want to make the playoffs, that starting pitching has to be much more consistent and injury-free.

No, it has to do with the positional players. While Dustin Pedroia is a veteran spark plug, he can’t do it alone. The team looks flat as a pancake at times. They win two games in a row against the Tigers, and can’t finish them off for the sweep. Of course, Pomeranz’ poor performance plays into that.

Dave Dombrowski will assess and make moves. Given the troubles at 3B with Pablo Sandoval looking poor at the plate and in the field, Devin Marrero, who can field but not hit, Josh Rutledge, who can hit but is less than adequate defensively and Brock Holt, who even when healthy (still has dizziness issues) is just adequate at third base, this is one place where Dombrowski will start. Look for 3B Rafael Devers to be promoted to Pawtucket soon and after a month there to join Boston. Devers can hit but also is considered raw at 3B. He’s hitting .307 with 10 HRs and 38 RBI, but 8 errors. So you replace him late with Marrero.

The Red Sox are very young and have veteran leadership among positional players in only Dustin Pedroia, Mitch Moreland, Hanley Ramirez and Chris Young (who is not an every day player). I still think that Hanley is the key, but he needs to stop swinging at bad pitches. Hitting coach Chili Davis may be the only one who can get through to him. The team needs Ramirez to return to last year’s form - .286, 30 HRs and 111 RBI.

Or find someone else who can provide the Missing Link.

JAKE ‘THE QUAKE’ SALPIETRO

At a recent PawSox game, I gave a fan named Roger Salpietro a copy of Sportzine. Roger said he couldn’t understand why his nephew Jake Salpietro wasn’t drafted by any major league team last year. Jake had led the Fairfield Stags into the NCAA Regionals and was MAAC tourney MVP. On the season, he hit .344, had 10 HRs and 42 RBI. So I promised to check into it.

So I did, and at last week’s Wednesday PawSox day game, Roger was there. So I told him what I had found. That 6’1” 185 lb. Jake was originally an infielder (SS/3B), but made too many errors and had been moved to the outfield. He had a down junior year hitting .203. Roger said Jake was injured that year. Most importantly, in 224 at bats in the 2016 season, Jake had 62 strikeouts. Plus 10 homers is good for an infielder, but not so much for an outfielder. I told Roger that the strikeouts and positional play were big factors in Jake’s not getting drafted. Roger said that this year Jake was a volunteer assistant baseball coach at Fairfield. (Sources- thebaseballcube.com, the Fall River Herald News/Greg Sullivan – 6/1/16 and the Fairfield University web site)

So I had a couple questions for Roger. His last name ‘Salpietro’. Sal means salt, right? Yes. And Pietro is Peter, right? Yes. And that comes out to salt peter, right? Yep!

BULLETS

• The Boston Herald’s Chad Jennings (6/11) noted that the Red Sox have 19 players currently on the active roster who were taken in the MLB draft. Of those, 8 of the 19 are players that the Red Sox drafted: Pedroia, Vazquez, Bradley, Jr., Betts, Benintendi, Marrero, Barnes and Brian Johnson. Xander Bogaerts was signed as an amateur free agent. The MLB draft starts tonight. Boston has the 24^th pick in the 1^st round.

• So David Price is unhappy with the Boston media. The Herald’s Michael Silverman (6/11) had an excellent column re past feuds by players and press. It also included Silverman’s admission that he sometimes found himself in Terry Francona’s doghouse.

• Congrats to the US Soccer team for the 1-1 tie vs Mexico, inching them closer to a berth in the next World Cup (2018 in Russia).

EMAIL

Hey Jim, 
How about I go for 2 trivias in a row. Sonny Geraci- The Outsiders-Time Won't Let Me. Climax- Precious and Few.
Jim Dwyer

Yes two in a row for you as it's Sonny Gerarci doing lead vocals on the Outsider's Time Won't Let Me and then Climax's Precious and Few. That's some fine sleuthing. - Z

After a little research, I believe the answer is Sonny Geraci. He sang lead for the Outsiders in Time Won't Let Me in 1966 and then in 1972 sang Precious and Few for Climax.

Terry Canann

Right you are, Terry - it's Sonny Gerarci with the Outsiders and Climax. An up tempo Time Won't Let Me and a ballad in Precious and Few. Good job researching it. - Z

And why do Red Wings fans throw octopi on the ice?  It started back in the ’50s when it took winning 2 seven game series to win the Stanley Cup. An octopus has 8 legs each representing a win.  Nashville is also supposedly populated with a lot of former midwesterners (Red Wings Fans) who relocated to Nashville from Detroit to work at the auto plants there and wanted to start their own similar tradition.

Andrew Wright

Andrew, thanks for emailing. I don't quite understand how the 8 legged octopus figures into the Stanley Cup back then. Oh wait - 4 wins in each of the two Stanley Cup series adds up to 8. Is that it? Pardon my obtuseness. - Z

That's it. 8 wins. 8 legs. While I was at it, I looked up "hat trick" as I never really understood that one. It came from cricket when the bowler (pitcher) would strike out 3 consecutive batters with one pitch each. The bowler was rewarded with a hat. Apparently (according to the NHL, in the 1940s), a Toronto haberdasher used to give free hats to players with the Toronto Maple Leafs when they scored three goals in a game, which introduced the "Hat Trick" expression into the world of hockey. I don't know when or how soccer adopted the term hat trick, but they also have a "perfect hat trick" when a player scores one right-footed goal, one left-footed goal and one headed goal within one match. Probably about as common as a perfect game in baseball.

Andrew Andrew, Thanks for the informative explanations for a 'hat trick'  and why the Red Wings' fans throw octopi on the ice. - Z

I meant to reply about your latest Zine before this. Thanks for printing my entire response about the Celts' draft scenario. I did not even mention though, that they could also keep IT (Isaiah Thomas) and trade the pick for an established big man. https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-celtics/2017/06/11/5-players-worth-trading-the-celtics-no-1-pick-for

It just doesn't seem like they would keep both IT and Fultz, if they drafted him. They do not need another PG if they are to keep Thomas. They also have Marcus Smart and Rozier. They do need to get bigger and more physical (to defend around the hoop).

Brad Dawson

Sportzine is available at jimdawsonsports.com thanks to Buffalo Steve Lenz

THE HOT CLUB

Making his Mark visited with his co-worker, who was sporting a Yankees cap. Mark introduced us to Mr. Three. So I asked Mr. Three if he was from the area. ‘No’, he said,

‘the Bronx’. So what had led him to a job in Rhode Island? Well when he read the job advertisement, he misread it and thought the job was on Long Island, not in Rhode Island. Welcome to the Ocean State, Mr. Three.

The Regal Eagle and I were talking about Rhode Island politics and how some things (e.g. the people behind 38 Studios, general assembly members who’ve gone to jail and others that should have) never seems to change. It never seems to get any better. I said, “Plus ça change, plus c’est même chose.”

Talked to Sarah Bates about continuing improvements to the Hot Club. New overhead fans have been installed. Sarah said the HC will soon be adding solarized glass as well.

FootJoy said he was asked by a person who shall remain nameless “How do you pronounce the capital of Maryland – Balt-i-more or Ball-more?” FootJoy replied “I pronounce it An-nap-olis.”

LAST ISSUE’S QUIZ ANSWER

So who was the lead singer who had one Top 10 hit with two different bands, both songs Gold Records, one in 1966 with a Cleveland band and the other in 1972 with a band that had Santa Barbara as its base? Well, that tough music question was answered by first Jim Dwyer and then Terry Canann: it’s Sonny Gerarci who sang lead on the Outsiders’ Time Won’t Let Me and then Climax’s Precious and Few. Time Won’t Let Me made it to #5 on Billboard’s Hot 100. Precious and Few made it to #3 on the same chart. Emmett Peter Gerarci was born in Cleveland and died there on 2/5/17. Gerarci subbed for Rob Grill as lead singer for the Grass Roots in 2002 and was considered an honorary band member. Climax came out of the ashes of The Outsiders. A few singles were released under the Outsiders name, but when Tom King (co-writer of Time Won’t Let Me) of the original band threatened legal action, the name of the band was changed to Climax. (Source – Wikipedia). Thanks to Matt Dawson for this challenging trivia question.

THIS ISSUE’S QUIZ QUESTION

Thanks to Buffalo Steve for this trivia: What ’60’s band was once backed by one of the greatest guitarists ever, an academy award winning actor (not an original but played guitar in the band), and assisted by a well known group that danced and sang backup?