Boston Red Sox

Dear Roger Clemens:

I've had enough: I'm leaving you behind. It's time to say goodbye. You chose to go the route you did and drag everyone that loved watching you compete down with you.

In the words of Fleetwood Mac, "You can go your own way." 

You were once a paragon of athleticism and hard work. You symbolized what ability, hard work and arrogance could accomplish not only in baseball, but also in life. You were an artist on the mound that mixed perfect mechanics, a blazing fastball, splitter, fear and location into 300-plus wins.

Curt Schilling announced his retirement today after a 20 seasons in the Major Leagues spent with the Orioles, Astros, Phillies, Diamondbacks, and Red Sox.

Almost immediately, ESPN and sports-talk radio was flooded with analysis of Schilling's career. It was a day-long debate about Schilling's worthiness of future Hall of Fame enshrinement.

Curt Schilling announced today he was retiring from Major League Baseball. A 200-game winner, three-time World Series Champion, six-time all-star and three time 20-game winner has a great resume, but it it enough to gain enshrinement Cooperstown?

Like most modern day players, longevity of time versus overall dominance plays a huge role in how one examines the career of the former Phillie, Oriole, Diamondback and Red Sox.

After sitting out for the 2008 season, Curt Schilling decided it was best to hang up the spikes.

Schilling will forever be remembered as one the most clutch pitchers of his generation.

Although as recently as a few weeks ago he said he would like to pitch for the Cubs or Rays in 2009, to help them win a championship, he decided it was time for him to take a bow after an emotional 20-year ride in the show.

Curt Schilling, the man who returned to Boston and brought home a World Series in 2004, has officially announced his retirement.

Here's a portion of Schilling's retirement post at 38Pitches.com:

There is a Red Sox blog called Boston Dirt Dogs that is complaining that the World Baseball Classic is doing quite the number on their players, and thinks that Derek Jeter may have had something to do with Kevin Youkilis’s ankle injury.

They don’t say a whole lot, but they did have this nugget.

I suspect I'm not a whole lot different than you are in many ways. 

When 'Old Time Rock And Roll' blasts from the radio, I grab my wife's hair brush and slide across the hardwood floor wearing nothing but a white Hathaway button down and a pair of Fruit of the Looms.

George Kottaras has won the backup catching job for Boston.

Bard's second stint with the Red Sox is over before it began.

In Spring Training, Bard has shown more of what got him traded the first time around: inability to catch Tim Wakefield's knuckleball.

On a side note, George Kottaras has proven to be able to catch the knuckler from Ol' Reliable.

CAPTION: Every Yankee fan remembers this picture. So does Tim Wakefield.

March 18, 2009

Before the New York Yankees and Houston Astros started their preseason matchup today, one of the Astros announced his semi-retirement from baseball.

Aaron Boone is set to have open-heart surgery later this month to repair a congenital heart defect—a bicuspid aortic valve—and has likely played his last game.

Extra Bases is reporting that the Red Sox have cut catcher Josh Bard.

Bard signed a one-year deal with the Red Sox worth $1.7 million in late December, with a team option for a second year. But his contract was not guaranteed, and by releasing him now the Red Sox are obligated to pay only one-sixth ($283,333) of his 2009 salary.