April Showers Bring Red Sox Updates

Yesterday was quite the sports-filled Saturday—it was the perfect storm of sports, if you will, with just about every single professional sport active in some way. A virtual buffet of sporting events to choose from on the boob tube, it made my head spin—from MLB action to the NFL Draft, NBA and NHL playoffs, WGC-Cadillac Match Play, the Kentucky Derby and, of course, the over-priced boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. Spoiler alert: Mayweather and American Pharoah were winners!

But I'm not going to talk about any of those contests. I'm not even going to talk about the Red Sox series against the Yankees (and if you're a Sox fan, you know why!) I feel the need to recap the first month of the Red Sox season. Yeah... I know it's only April, but no matter how newborn the season may be, it's still important to have some success in these early days so as not to fall too far behind. Playing catch up is hard.

There are so many new faces on this Boston team, I still don't really know everyone—especially the pitchers (take away my fan card if you must.) I'm getting there, but I'm not going to lie, I need a cheat sheet. With new faces come new growing pains while these players get accustomed to Fenway Park and the big Boston stage. And as with every year, some will flourish, and some will flounder.

Let's take a gander at some of what's been happening with our beloved BoSox in the early days of the 2015 season:

The GOOD...

• Brock Holt "The Brock Star" is such a blast to watch. He only appeared in 14 games in April, but he hit .386. 
• Newcomer Pablo Sandoval has been a consistent bat. In 20 games, he has 24 hits, 12 runs scored and 11 RBI with a respectable .312 average.
• Welcome back to Boston, Hanley Ramirez! Hanley smashed 10 homers and drove in 22 in the month of April, tying him for the major league lead in both categories. If that stupid hairdo has anything to do with the home runs, keep it... even if it does make your helmet fall off every...damn...time.
• It appears that the Dustin Pedroia of pre-2014 is back. His average is just a few ticks under .300 and he has four home runs—so he's definitely on pace to beat his 2014 total of seven.
• Relievers Craig Breslow and Junichi Tazawa seem to be the only real bright spots in the bullpen, both posting ERAs of 1.38 and 1.69 respectively.

The BAD...

• Clay Buchholz, Rick Porcello, Justin Masterson and Joe Kelly. This team is so blatantly missing an ace—it makes me feel a little stabby. Kelly is the only starter to have a sub-5.00 ERA and even then, just barely. 
• Big Papi's .236 average is disappointing. Even though he's notoriously bad in April, I still think he needs to spend less time on his hairstyle and beard grooming and more time in the batting cages.
• After destroying the ball in spring training with a .429 average, Mookie Betts has gotten off to a slow start, batting only .230 in April. Maybe he has Big Papi's disease.
• Pablo Sandoval isn't going to win any Gold Gloves at third base with three errors this past month.

The UGLY...

• Wade Miley. Need I say more? This guy pitches like a champ one start and then gives up a hundred runs in his next. His ERA in April was 8.62 and in four starts, he only pitched 15.2 innings. I'll save you from having to do the math... that's not even four innings per start. Geez...
• The pitching staff as a whole. They are currently LAST in the major leagues in ERA. That's slightly embarrassing.
• Mike Napoli and Daniel Nava. Batting .162 and .154 respectively with a combined one home run and 10 RBIs. 
• Shane Victorino is injured again so I won't piss on his stats too much. Even though in 12 starts, he IS hitting only .143. Come on.

So overall April was just meh. The Red Sox went 12-10 while scoring the most runs (119) in the majors which speaks volumes for how bad their pitching is (113 earned runs allowed, also leads majors!) That's a lot of close, high scoring games! They really have some work to do—I'm giving you the side eye, pitching staff—if they're going to make my World Series prediction come true. I don't like to be wrong.

Day 48: No Triple Crown This Year... Again.

The Triple Crown drought is now at 35 years as Orb failed to win or even place or show in the 138th Preakness Stakes this afternoon. All eyes were on the three year old Kentucky Derby winner looking for him to grab the second leg of the ever elusive Triple Crown.

Instead, Oxbow took Pimlico under formerly retired and Hall of Fame jockey, Gary Stevens. Stevens, who has been on the back of three Preakness winners, had spent the last seven years in retirement and part of NBC Sports as their lead horse racing analyst. If it couldn't have been Orb to win this race, I'm glad it was Stevens.

Although it is a total bummer we have to wait another year for that special horse. It's not like we haven't seen special horses in the past, just not one who was durable enough to last all three races. The closest horse to do it in the last decade was Smarty Jones, who won the first two races, but came in second in the Belmont. GAH! And the most recent tease was 2012's Derby and Preakness winner, I'll Have Another. Unfortunately, tendonitis forced his team to scratch him from the Belmont and he never even got a chance to race.

If you were a horse racing fan in the '70s, Triple Crown winners were a dime a dozen and you thought it was no big whoop. Let's review: Secretariat won it in 1973 (after a 25 year dry spell), Seattle Slew in 1977 and Affirmed just a year later in 1978. And not one since. It's becoming almost as hard as winning the Triple Crown in baseball—an accomplishment that recently just ended a 45 year drought.

Will we ever see another Secretariat?

Day 36: Tom Brady's Wearing White and Going Nuts

Tom Brady has won three Super Bowls. Tom Brady makes millions and millions of dollars playing football. Tom Brady has a supermodel wife. Tom Brady's supermodel wife makes millions and millions. Basically, between the two of them, they could wallpaper their entire mansion (all of them) with Ben Franklins and never even feel the impact.

So why all the hooting and whooping and hugging and tackling over $25,000? Because it's the Kentucky Derby, that's why! There's no two minutes in sports more exciting than this. Then there's the suspense of having a big wad of cash on one of the ponies—and if you're Tom Brady, you've got a $4,700 bet on the favorite. And when your mount crosses the finish line first, you'll hoot and holler no matter what your bet was. Heck, I hooted and hollered and I didn't even place a bet!

When Orb came from behind to win the Derby, the white suit-clad quarterback when absolutely insane, embracing the son of the horse's owner for what looked to me like an uncomfortably long time. As if hot and bothered by the prolonged hug, former teammate Tedy Bruschi, all dressed in pink, came barreling to join the party.

Brady's connection to Orb's owners is unclear, but it's assumed he didn't just meet them on Saturday. If he hugs people he just meets like that all the time... someone needs to introduce me. Stat.

Day 35: A Horse Named Orb Wins the Derby

The first Saturday in May... one of my most favorite days of the year. Most of you know me for my love of baseball and football, but the Triple Crown races make me ridiculously happy. I don't watch horse racing any other day of the year so when May rolls around, I park my butt on the couch to watch some good 'ol thoroughbreds run.

Churchill Downs is on the list of places I must visit before I die—and hopefully I'll get there on May's first Saturday one of these years. I've always said if I ever was lucky enough to win the lottery, I would buy race horses and the prettiest hat you could possibly imagine!

The 139th Kentucky Derby thrilled the crowd. I couldn't decide who to root for. Would it be Gary Stevens, who at 50 came out of retirement to ride longshot, Oxbow? Would it be Rosie Napravnik on Mylute to become the first female jockey to win the Derby? Would it be Kevin Krigger on Goldencents to be the first African American to win in over 100 years? Or would it be trainer Shug McGaughey looking for his first win in a horse named Orb?

When the mud stopped flying and the horses crossed the finish line after the sloppy 1 1/4 mile, it was Orb who stormed through the field under the careful driving of jockey Joel Rosario to win. A first for Rosario, a first for Orb and a first for McGaughey, who hasn't even saddled a horse in the Derby since 2002 when he trained 10th-place finisher, Saarland. I wondered if Orb was the shortest name of any Derby winner. It's tied for the shortest with Zev, who won in 1923.

Golden Soul was second at odds of 34-1, Revolutionary, piloted by 3-time Derby winner Calvin Borel, was third and Normandy Invasion, who had the lead for a brief moment before Orb shot past him, ended up fourth.

Now on to Maryland for the second leg of the Triple Crown, the Preakness, on May 18th. Go Orb!!