Like I posted earlier this week, Fenway Park has really changed over the years.  There is a ton of new seating, the advertising on the outfield walls, the .406 club and even the padded walls are fairly recent.  The issue is that the demand for tickets is so high that the ownership knows they could fill a larger ballpark.  With the cost to build in Boston so high and the mystique that surrounds Fenway, the Red Sox ownership has done a good job of improving the existing facility.

If you go to a modern ballpark, it is likely to be more of a stadium than a ballpark. A lot of these stadiums have a big problem filling these seats: Tampa Bay holds 40,000 but they can’t get enough people in stadium. If you go to Toronto, how many times is Sky Dome empty? I hear the Florida Marlins average about 8,000 fans at a home game during the week.

In the long run, as salaries get higher and the demand for tickets remains, Red Sox ownership may feel the need to get more people into the ballpark.  I am sure they are well aware that nothing looks worse than an empty stadium.

Jim, could you take us through the day in Yankee Stadium when you attempted a diving catch in foul territory, only to have someone grab your hat from the stands. I remember you jumping into the crowd and Don Baylor making the run out there too. What was the fans reaction when you jumped in the stands? How was Don Baylor as a teammate?
Brian,
Springfield, MA

There’s not much to take you through.  It was a September game against the Yankees in Yankee Stadium, 1986.  I went for the foul ball and the guy took my hat.

It wasn’t Don Baylor that ran out there, it was Roger Clemens who was the first one on the scene.  Roger pretty much parted the sea.  Even though it was Yankee Country, we had a lot of Red Sox Fans at that game, and the Yankee fans who were sitting in that area were mostly reasonable people (save for the one who was trying to steal my cap).  The fans pointed out which person had my hat and as he was trying to stuff it down his pants.

Lowrie hit a home run for the Paw Sox last night and, more importantly, performed well in his brief call up to the major leagues. Some people have questioned whether Lowrie projects to be a shortstop long term or whether he will eventually switch to second or third base. It was tough to tell how Lowrie’s skill set will translate in the Major Leagues because his spot starting made it difficult to tell how he was adjusting to top talent.  We really need to see him play everyday against major league caliber pitching

I am not sure where the Red Sox will play Lowrie long term but his versatility works in his favor. What he needs to concentrate on is just getting in the big leagues. His willingness to play whatever position is asked of him will be what makes him catch on with this team - or any other. I remember Jeff Bagwell back when he was in the Red Sox organization as a young third baseman. We had Wade Boggs firmly entrenched at third in those days so Bagwell started taking work at first before he started his career in Houston.

With the millions of dollars committed to Lugo, Pedroia at 2nd base, and two potential third basemen in Lowell and Youkilis, would anyone be suprised to see if the Red Sox shop their prized prospect to other teams?

Manny said in an article in the Boston Herald today that he is the greatest left fielder ever to play Fenway.  Actually, you like to see this type of attitude in a player, because to be a successful professional athlete, you have to be confident in your abilities.  It’s this type of attitude that leads to the success that Manny has had in the game of baseball.

I don’t take this to be a personal insult on my play as a leftfielder; I like and respect Manny and we talk regularly at the ballpark.  I do disagree with him though.  Manny is a great hitter (one of the best of his era) but it is unfair to compare him to Me or Yaz or Williams because we all played in different eras.  As a fielder, someone needs to let Manny know that this is a new wall that he’s playing.  We used to have a different wall in left field when I played and it was much more difficult to play.

Earlier this season I listed what I consider to be the best outfielders to play Fenway Park.

You played with so many guys over the years, are there many of them that you still keep in close touch with?  I seem to remember you being close with Cecil Cooper, but surely there must have been others.  Have you kept in touch with Freddy Lynn, Dewey Evans, or maybe even Yaz? 

I am still close with Cecil.  He is god parent to my kids and I’m god father of his kids.

One thing that the Red Sox are really good about is keeping players in touch and associated with the team through the Alumni Association.

We see a lot of players that I still see at events like: Pudge Fisk, Rico, Tommy Harper, Dewey, Freddy Lynn, Jim Lonborg, Mike Andrews, Yaz, Louis Tiant, and a lot of other guys.  Once you affiliate with the Jimmy Fund you get to participate in the golf tournaments and see a lot of former players.  The Red Sox are great at using the former players as team ambassadors.  I see guys that I didn’t play with but knew of like Johnny Pesky, Frank Malzone, and Dom DiMaggio every year down spring training.

As former players, we are lucky to have this ownership group who finds ways to keep the former players in touch with each other and with the fans in Red Sox Nation.

On Sunday, I had the best of both worlds while I watched the Red Sox play at the ballpark and watched the Celtics play the Hawks on TV.  I had plenty of time to watch both because an hour and 45 minutes into the game, we were only in the top of the third inning.

I played in, and have seen a number of 7 game series’, similar to the one the Celtics just finished. Some people get concerned about teams being beat up going into the next series after playing 7 games, but facing that adversity motivates a team more than anything else. You really recover pretty quick going into the next series and your confident because you know that other teams have gone home but you are still playing.

I think it is more of a concern to try to keep a team motivated after they win the previous series quickly and have too much time before the next series. For an example, look at last year’s Colorado Rockies in the World Series (or the ‘06 Detroit Tigers).

I don’t think the Hawks series will have any negative impact on the Celtics, provided everyone is healthy.

There have been a lot of questions surrounding the health of David Ortiz. I didn’t talk to him yesterday, but he played Saturday which leads me to think that he is pretty healthy. His rest yesterday probably had more to do with the fact that left handed pitcher Scott Kazmir was starting the game for Tampa Bay (and throwing 94 mph).  I expect Papi to be in the lineup tonight, even though he has had trouble with Bonderman in the past.

Sparky Anderson managed the Tigers for most of my playing career and would tailor the field to suit the opposition. If you were a fast team with good bunters Sparky would harden the dirt at the front of batters box so that you couldn’t deaden a ball in no mans land. The ball would move too fast on the hard infield dirt. Against teams that had good fundamental hitters who would keep the ball on the ground, Sparky would keep the grass long in the infield. This would slow the ball down enough to let the Tiger infielders get to it before they could get into the outfield for base hits. If he was fielding outfielders who were slow or had weak arms, he would keep the outfield grass long to slow any hits out there to keep his players from chasing the ball to the wall. Sometimes those hits in the outfield would come to a complete stop.

There is good golf in the area in Detroit. You have Detroit Country Club out on 6 mile. Also, where the team stayed, in Dearborn, you have the TPC course.  Going to the big city of Detroit at 22 years old was great. Downtown Detroit was huge, it had great nightlife, and coming from a small town, everything just seemed better.

I remember watching you when I was in high school and how they always talked about the strength of your forearms and your bat speed. I also remember an “urban legend” that you could break a bat at the handle just by swinging and flicking your wrists. Any truth to that?
Tom F.
Tyngsboro, MA

I did it twice in games. On two separate occasions I broke bats without ever making contact with the pitch and both were check swings. I think one was in Oakland and a curveball started out high and I committed to swing, but when it broke downward on me and I tried to stop my swing I was left just holding the bat handle in my hands. Tony Armas also did it once when he was with the Red Sox.

Any strength I had was probably hereditary because my dad was a strong guy. I never lifted weights when I was growing up, nor was I encouraged or allowed to. I built strength just by playing a lot of sports. In high school I played football, baseball, basketball, and ran track. Back then, we didn’t have weights in high school. Come to thing of it, they didn’t have them in the minors or majors either.

To prepare for games, the team would perform calisthenics and wind sprints before we started throwing the ball and trying to get loose. We had one trainer, not the team of strength, conditioning, and nutrition experts that teams have today. Our trainer had some workouts for us but most of it was related to baseball. The guys who had power that I played with, like Yaz and Rico, didn’t lift weights.

You look around the baseball locker room these days, and these guys aren’t in baseball shape. You’re playing with a 5 oz ball and a 32 ounce bat. There’s no need to lift 350 lbs. That’s not baseball muscle, that’s muscle so that the players can fill out their jerseys.

Because of this obsession with strength training, you see more injuries in the last 10 years than you saw in 10-15 years prior to that. Could you see Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb jumping hurdles in spring training? They didn’t get hurt back then and they were some pretty good ball players.

Last week a story came out in which Torii Hunter remarked that he heard racist taunts while playing as a visitor at Fenway. Other people have made remarks to the media about racism at Fenway over the years and, though I can’t speak for what another player has experienced, in my 15+ years of playing in Boston, I never encountered this type of behavior directed at me, a teammate, or opposing player.

Actually, I never really heard of this type of behavior at any of the opposing ballparks that I played at. We always thought Yankee fans would be the worst but they’re just like any place else. Fans are gonna say “you suck” because you hurt their ball club. If you are just making outs and errors in the field, they won’t say a word. But when you do something to hurt their team such as hitting a home run, stealing a base, or throwing out a runner the fans will get on your case.

But as for racism, I NEVER had any experience like that. I think for a situation to escalate to that level, you have to do something to incite that type of behavior. If you talk about the fans or acknowledge their taunts by responding to them, that is when the situation can deteriorate into the type of behavior Torii alluded to. Again, I can’t say for certain what Torii experienced or what led up to it, you would have to ask him about that.