Show Yourselves!
22 March 2007 @ 10:00 pm
Well, Red Sox Nation was pleasantly surprised to learn today that Jonathan Papelbon will return to his role as the team’s closer. Last season, Papelbon had saved 35 games and looked like a potential lock for Cy Young considerations and even Rookie of the Year accolades but ended up on the disabled list in early September. That was enough to concern the Red Sox at the time to consider moving him into the starting rotation, where they had intended to place him for the 2006 season. However, with none of the candidates for the role impressing the coaching staff this spring, Papelbon apparently went to manager Terry Francona looking for his old job back. In Papelbon’s own words:
For me, it’s been a thing that I’ve been thinking about all spring. I hadn’t been sleeping well since [it] started. I felt that there was always that feeling deep down in my heart that I wanted to close…. Finally I went to our captain [Jason Varitek] one day and I said, “Tek, I’m not sleeping good at night. I’ve got to do something about it.” Basically, I told him: “Man, I think I want to close — that’s what I want to do.”
Tito happened to be walking by. We came in and I told Tito, “If you want to give me the ball in the ninth inning, I want it,” and that’s basically it.
Right now, the only question mark that remains might be the strength of the rest of the bullpen but knowing that the team has a legitimate closer ready to make the walk to the mound in the ninth with the game on the line ready to close the door will make all of us sleep better at night.
Well, the original reason for this post was actually to recommend a great movie that we just finished watching the other night: The Seven Samurai. It’s a Japanese film from 1954 that ranks as one of the best foreign films, if not one of the best films, of all time. The storyline goes that a farming village has been plagued by bandits and, with knowledge that they will return once the wheat is soon harvested, the village elder sends a few select men to find a half-dozen or so samurai swordsmen to help defend the village. In seeking out such men, they witness an elder samurai save the life of a child being held captive by a bandit, and the farmers plead with him to take on the noble task of saving their village. With the offer of three square meals a day, he in turn goes and recruits six others to join his small army; together, they return with the farmers to the village to start assembling a strategy against the bandits.
When we first looked at the jacket from Netflix and saw that the movie was over 200 minutes in length, we were a little unsure whether it would hold our interest; surprisingly, those three-plus hours seem to go by in an instant as the story moves along quickly and the action sequences keep you pinned to the screen. The dialogue is somewhat crude and often times it seems like some of the extras are overacting, but the central characters are well-developed and we found it to be a great film. Next to The Usual Suspects, this has to be one of the best surprises that we’ve enjoyed since we started our Netflix subscription. Seriously, watch it over two nights (there is a force five-minute intermission) and you will be anxious to return to the story the second night.
Oh, and a belated Happy Vernal Equinox to everyone!
Welcome Home
16 March 2007 @ 10:30 pm
Actually, the title is about five days later than it should be but we returned Sunday from a trip to South Carolina last week. It was our first extended vacation in forever and it went very well, thank you! The kids were great and, overall, it was a fantastic experience. The weather was spectacular, too; sunny every day with temperatures hovering between the mid-60s and low 70s. So it wasn’t exactly ideal “spring break” weather but it was warm enough to go to the beach nearly every day and walk around in shorts. The kids especially loved going to the beach; even though the water temperature was probably nowhere near 60 degrees, they weren’t at all phased by the sharp sensation from even just dipping your toes in the surf.
From what people told us, we picked a good week to head south. Apparently, the temperatures last week around the Boston area hovered in the single digits, with winds making it feel less than zero. We had an idea that it was bitterly cold from some video we saw down there while checking the Weather Channel. It showed some Quincy (MA) firefighters battling an early-morning blaze and there was ice on their helmets from the backspray. Brrrrrrr!
Actually, the weather had been quite remarkable around here this week, too. On Tuesday, the temperature got into the sixties; Wednesday, temperatures actually got above 70. Today; however, temperatures were back down around 20 and it began snowing around midday! As I sit here typing, I can see the snow whipping around outside our window and there has to be a good half-foot of coverage on the ground. What’s that they say about New England weather?
Well, what would be one of our posts without some Red Sox news? The boys of summer are now two-plus weeks into spring training and so far it had been as expected. It’s win a few, lose of few, and then talk about the prospects of another season. Tomorrow is the annual St. Patrick’s Day game when the club will trot out its green uniforms and caps, though I have no idea if the visiting Cincinnati Reds will also don the green in kind. Believe it or not, Boston has just two weeks left and, soon enough, it will be Opening Day in Kansas City on 02 April. Spring can’t get here soon enough!
Programming Alert
28 February 2007 @ 6:00 am
Need we remind you that the Red Sox and the Twins will play tonight to open Grapefruit League action? If you can, tune into NESN at 7:00 PM to watch Curt Schilling and his boyz take on Johan Santana and mighty Minnesota as the annual battle for the Mayor’s Cup begins between the two teams that call Fort Myers “home away from home.” Plus, at the moment, NESN and ESPN plan to broadcast 12 more games this spring, so no matter what the weather is outside your window, there’s plenty of pre-season baseball action to get you looking forward to 02 April and the opener in Kansas City against the Royals.
Stop Me If You’ve Heard This Before…
26 February 2007 @ 9:00 pm
Our apologies to those of you who expect us to frequent the pages of this blog more often. Jeff’s been trying to keep up with everything at FenwayFanatics.com, with spring training finally in full swing and the first Grapefruit League action taking place Wednesday night against Minnesota. Curt Schilling will get the start that night and Daisuke Matsuzaka will take the hill on Friday night against Boston College, though none of the starters for the first few weeks are expected to pitch more than a couple of innings as the club takes a closer look at the minor leaguers and the possible future in Boston.
Of course, the family has been the real center of attention, with Jakob, who will be four in April, going to school now five days a week and Lea, just shy of 18 months, getting smarter by the second (yesterday, she pointed at the sky and clearly spoke the word: “airplane!”). Mom and Dad just try to take it all in and remember that the kids will only be young once. One note of interest lately is that Jakob is finally getting toilet-trained; he’s been able to use the potty for a long time but it’s only recently that he’s finally decided that he’s a big boy now. Of course, as parents usually do, we try to make a big deal out of it every time that he successfully keeps his pants clean and uses the toilet; we even have a potty song that seems to help enforce the idea since he loves to sing songs all day.
Weekends have been all about the family, too, as we’ve decided to save a few bucks on work around the house in favor of getting out of the house more when Dad’s home for the weekend. The weather has been pretty cold as of late, so we might make a trip to the local playspace or walk around the mall. We had a nice snowfall a couple of weeks ago and have had a few additional snow storms since then so, as the weather warmed late last week and into the weekend, we had some fun in the backyard making a snowman and pulling the kids around on their sleds. Lea’s still not sure that she is a fan of the white stuff yet, but Jakob would play all day out there if Mom and Dad had that kind of energy to keep up with him!
That’s about all from here; the truth is, the weather isn’t going to get much warmer for another month, so we’re doing everything that we can to avoid cabin fever. It won’t be long now, though, before the tulips and the daffodils make their annual appearance, the lawn mower comes out of the shed, and Red Sox baseball returns to the television every night for six months.
No Love From Google
28 January 2007 @ 8:30 pm
I don’t know what we did to deserve a demotion but our Google PageRank just dropped the other day to 4 after holding at 5 for what seemed like forever. Of course, this was at one point our web page design business site, which then morphed into the Moon Family homepage. Either we don’t have enough incoming links from other sites, we don’t update the site often enough to satisfy the ranking algorithm, or… wait! Does it even matter? Really, this is more for fits and giggles so… what-EVER!!!
It seems like the holidays are but a distant memory as January nears to an end and we are less than two months from the official start of spring. We’ve actually had some snowfall in recent days and the weather was terribly cold this past week but it really hasn’t been that bad here. Of course, we’ve been using the new basement room quite a lot - the kids really enjoy having their own space and the adults have been able to reclaim the living room for themselves - well, almost.
Actually, we have a few movie recommendations to pass along to those of you who love to curl up with a good DVD on those cold winter nights. Thanks to the wonder of Netflix, here are some recent films we’ve watched that you should add to your movie queue:
- The Usual Suspects
- Marathon Man
- Vertigo
- The Producers (1968)
- Sideways
- Bend It Like Beckham
- Man On Fire (2004)
- Rocky Balboa
The last one actually is still in theaters but only for another week or two at best. If you only rent one of these in the next six months, our top recommendation is The Usual Suspects. It has to be one of the top films ever made in motion picture history.
…oh, and Grapefruit League action starts for the Red Sox in exactly one month against Minnesota. I can smell the pine tar!
Thus Spake Zarathustra
20 January 2007 @ 8:01 pm
For those of you that are unaware of the meaning of this post’s title, go rent 2001: A Space Odyssey today…
Like the movie, the news has been sparse in these parts lately but that doesn’t mean that we have not been busy. Jakob started at a new pre-kindergarten school this past week and he really enjoys being with all new friends. Lea is actively running around the house, literally, and has started to parrot everything that we say. Plus, with the cold weather finally here, we’ve managed to tackle some projects around the house that we’ve been meaning to do, including some of the finish work in the basement. We were fortunate not to get hit with the ice storm that parts north of us received that caused considerable damange.
In Red Sox news, the biggest story today is that one of Boston’s original Dirt Dogs, Trot Nixon, signed a free agent deal with Cleveland yesterday. Though it wasn’t much of a surprise, with the Red Sox failing to offer him arbitration at the deadline in December, Nixon had been with Boston since signing out of high school in 1993 and was the longest-active member of the club (Tim Wakefield now holds that distinction). Trot, we thank you for your years of service and wish you nothing but the best with the Indians.
Oh, and the Patriots are just one win away from the Super Bowl, if they can get by old friend Adam Vinateri and old foe Peyton Manning tomorrow night in Indianapolis. Stay tuned!
Here Comes 2007!
31 December 2006 @ 4:00 pm
Another year is in the books and, just as it ends, we get our first significant snowfall - we had an inch fall yesterday afternoon! Good thing for us that we had already returned from another visit to New York so all we had to deal with was shoveling the driveway. The kids also had a great time playing in the white stuff out in the backyard and we burned off some Christmas calories pulling them around in their sleds.
Our best to everyone in the new year!!!
‘Tis The Season
21 December 2006 @ 1:00 pm
Happy Winter Solstice, everyone! Of course, no one here truly believes that winter is here, judging by the fact that we have had only one “snow day,” and even that was a laugh because we barely had enough to define as a dusting. Jeff hasn’t even bothered to put the usual sand bags in the bed of the pickup since the roads are bone dry and traction is a non-issue these days. However, we know from past experience that the weather around here can change pretty suddenly, so it might be a whole ‘nother story in a week or two.
Yesterday, we had a nice visit from Jeff’s brother and his family here at our home in Massachusetts and, with his parents also in attendance, we enjoyed a nice, early Christmas dinner of lasagna, salad, and Texas toast! The cousins really enjoyed each other’s company and had a great time opening presents later in the evening that Santa brought us the other day (you know, to get a head start on his deliveries). Next week, we plan to make a trip out to New York for a visit with Tiffany’s family for a few days since Jeff will have the week off; otherwise, we plan to keep things low-key while we enjoy the waning moments of 2006!
Back on the Red Sox front, Boston finally got its man last week - Daisuke Matsuzaka, the Japanese pitching phenom whom Red Sox Nation has already dubbed “Dice-K” and whom expect to continue in the tradition of Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez before him. Six years, $52 million with options that might bring the final value of the contract up to $60 million. Boston also picked up a few other players in recent weeks - shortstop Julio Lugo, reliever Brendan Donnelly, and outfielder J.D. Drew, though Drew’s contract has still not been finalized to this point. Two years after bringing a championship to Boston, the look of the Red Sox is getting to be less and less like it did in 2004. Still, Matsuzaka’s signing has got the hot stove fired up once again, even with the Patriots one win away from another division title and a playoff spot. Spring training officially begins on 16 February when pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report to Fort Myers, so mark your calendars!
Well, we wish everyone a Merry Christmas and, to our Jewish friends, a belated Happy Hanukkah! May the spirit of the season keep your warm and merry!
