FRS

Weekend Edition

Friday we did the usual tandem commute to work and back. For the afternoon ride home there was a stiff headwind for most of the way and the temperature was in triple digits, so we really appreciated the A/C in the house once inside. About an hour after arrival it didn’t seem as cool as it should be, so I checked the thermostat. It read 79°. It was set to 74 and the fan was running, but because it was so hot outside we didn’t notice that the air coming out the vents wasn’t properly chilled. I called up the Air Conditioning & Heating place and they said they had a technician finishing up a job and we would be next in line. It was a little before 5:00 PM when I called and we had actual cold air blowing again by 6.

Saturday morning we woke up the A/C was still running to catch up and get the house down to normal, but shut off soon afterwards. We walked to a local Waffle House for a breakfast of a waffle and hash browns. Trust me when I say the only time to try crossing busy Pine Log Road and not risk death is 6:30 AM on a Saturday morning. In the afternoon I changed the Emperor’s oil and rotated the tires. I re-hooked up the wires to the oil control valve and cleared the P0010 code. I’ve decided to try Option III, another round of the Rotella T-6 high detergent oil because the folks on the forum have said that sometimes it takes multiple tries to clean out all the “gunk” out of the VVT system. We had lunch at home and then dinner out at Sonic with a friend (Hi Jackie)!

Sunday we had our usual bike ride to Ridgecrest Coffee Bar for their delicious breakfast panini and once we got home it was pretty much TV viewing for the rest of the day. Three and a half hours of the 9th Stage of the Tour de France followed by 1-1/2 hours of the Season 2 finale of Outlander which was immediately followed by 3.5 hours of the FRS – Tampa Bay Rays game. For dessert we caught a couple random and wildly varying shows on PBS.

Neither Friday nor Sunday we used a car. The Purple Whale went to North Augusta and back, while Miata never left the driveway on Saturday.

Essence of 57,000 Dust Mites

The Emperor rolled by the 57,000 mile mark on Donna’s trip to get her allergy shot this morning.

I can’t help myself, I’m watching the Sox on MLB.tv right now. The good thing is they only gave up two runs in the first, scored one of their own in the bottom of the first. And it is still 2-1 after 4-1/2 innings. Bad news is it has been raining on and off at Fenway and now the game is official, so if it starts pouring real bad and they have to call it the FRS would be the losers.

Fenway Faithful Lose Faith

Run Over SocksMonday the FRS gave up 4 runs in the top of the first inning, AKA before they even got going, to what the Red Sox radio broadcaster Joe Castiglione called the light hitting Chicago White Sox. They wound up losing 10 to 8. Last night they gave up 5 runs in the top of the first to those same light hitters on their way to losing 9 to 4. Tonight was an improvement, Chicago only scored 2 runs in the first. The Sox went down in order and the White Sox scored two more runs in the top of the second.

That’s when I turned off the game.1

Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 28

Right now it is 8 to 1 Chicago winning in the 7th inning. Ended up 9 to 2

Lucky Thirteen

The Red Sox snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in a see-saw battle with the Chicago White losing 10 to 8. They are now 13 games under .500, while the MFY are 13 games over meaning they are 13 games out of 1st place in the division, solidly in last place.

To make matters worse, NESN is highlighting the 40th anniversary of the fabulous 1975 team that went all the way to the World Series only to lose in 7 games to the Cincinnati Reds. At this point in the season, 100 games, those Red Sox were 20 games above .500 at 60 wins and 40 loses.

I think the announcers would like to not have to mention these 40-year old game capsules, especially Jerry Remy who played for the Sox for 7 years between 1977 and 1984.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 24

Baseball All-Star Voting

All-Star Ballot

Anytime I go to the Red Sox home page there is always a banner or a rotating slide show that basically pleads with you to vote for the FRS players to be elected to the All-Star game. Frankly the only Red Sox player who even remotely deserves consideration is Brock Holt. Trouble is Mr. Holt is nowhere to be found on the ballot as a position player, probably because he has played at least one game at every position except for Catcher and Pitcher.

I usually avoid voting for the All-Star players because it is really not too much more than a popularity contest. As evident by the fact that when you click on a link to the ballot from your favorite team’s home page it automatically highlights that team’s players and dulls out the rest.

I was going to ignore it again this year until I spotted this post on Deadspin – Screw It, Vote Every Kansas City Royal Into The All-Star Game.

So that is what I tried to do. Couldn’t help but poke a stick the eye of the FRS and vote for Álex Rodríguez over Big Papi (or even the KC representative) for the Designated Hitter.

Hard Being A Fan

The 2015 baseball season is nearly 40% over for the Red Sox and they are now 10 games below .500 a full 8 games behind the MFY. They’ve lost 6 games in a row and so far for the month of June they are 4 & 8. In spite of this Baseball Prospectus still gives them a 14.1% chance of making the playoffs (this was before today’s loss.)

Today’s game was a fine example of the way things are going, in the bottom of the 5th the FRS scored 5 runs, which would have been great, but at the time Toronto was leading 10-zip. Yesterday they were down 4 to 0 before they got on the scoreboard, they did manage to tie it, only to lose in the 11th inning. Friday’s game was almost as bad as today’s game as they lost 13-10 after leading at one point 8 to 1.

Yet still I watch. Part of it is I can’t help it, it is nurture, my mom made me this way. The other is I’m going to get my money’s worth, I paid $130 for the MLB.TV package, so if I don’t tune in I’m throwing away 80¢ a game.

They Still Love Me

2015 Red Sox NationLast year I didn’t join the Red Sox Nation because I opted to just do the MLB.tv package instead. That turned out to be me spending a lot a money for six months of frustrating TV viewing as the FRS won 71 games, but lost 91.

This year I was going to have none of that, I was going back to just listening to the radio, so I re-joined the Nation. As you can see they were OK about me missing last year and welcomed me back with open arms. They even cut me some slack in the Member Since column and instead of listing me as a 2015 rookie, they let me keep my date joined as 2004.

Well, I did kind of miss the TV, but wasn’t going to do anything about it until Donna said she missed taking an evening nap on the couch while I watched the game. So right now I’m watching the Red Sox play the Texas Rangers on the TV in the living room and peeking away on the laptop. So far this year the Sox have a better record than they did last year, but not by much as they are struggling to stay near the .500 mark. Considering the FRS were mediocre during most of my fandom history, it is amazing how expectations have shifted after 3 World Series wins in the past decade.