Monthly Archives: June 2011

Yooouuuuu-ouch

  By Chris Speziale | 06/22/2011 - 12:50 pm | Musings
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Kevin Youkilis is too important to the Boston Red Sox to be playing through pain in June.

Maybe I’m crazy.  Maybe I’m completely and totally out of my gourd.  Maybe I’m so wrong that it makes “The Decision” look like a good idea, but isn’t Kevin Youkilis important to the Boston Red Sox?  This seems like an almost redundant question, doesn’t it?  But if that’s truly the case, why is he being handled this way?

 

Youk has been playing through some pretty severe pain over the last ten days, as he contends with an ankle sprain of unknown severity.  For some unclear reason, Terry Francona and the Sox bigwigs have been trotting him out to play third base in meaningless early June games.  It was most evident in a game against the Milwaukee Brewers last week.  The Red Sox All-Star hit a chopper up the first base line and as he started toward the base, he clearly pulled up and grimaced in pain.  The following half inning, and every inning since, Youk has been out in the field playing a very difficult position that requires agility and a quickness on your feet that he clearly doesn’t have at the moment.

 

To his credit, and in form with his true competitive nature, he hasn’t let the ankle get the better of him. And perhaps that’s the reason that Francona has left him in games.  But it just doesn’t make sense to have your clean-up hitter playing through pain in June!  Let Youk sit for a couple games, and give one of the two Sox corner infield prospects a shot.  Better yet, let BOTH of them have a chance.

 

Drew Sutton has performed more than admirably in his time with the big club, hitting .314 while slugging .514 and committing only a single error in 17 games.  Then there’s Yamaico Navarro, who’s currently sitting on a .925 OPS in Pawtucket while playing the hot corner for the Sox.

 

Here’s my thought: Put Youk on the 15-day DL and call up Navarro.  Insert Navarro against lefties, and Sutton against righties.  The minor leaguer is hitting over .320 against southpaws this season, while Sutton is over .340 against righties.  Hello!  This thing on?  Why risk further injury to one of your most important players, when you have two completely capable backups who could clearly benefit from playing time on the big league level?

 

I understand the argument that Youk is an integral part of the Red Sox lineup, and that he’s finally catching his stride after an excruciatingly slow start, but let me leave you with a couple more numbers to make my case.  The 2010 Red Sox were 60-44 with Kevin Youkilis in the lineup, and 29-29 without him.  The 2011 version will need to play better than .500 ball if they hope to stay ahead of a very talented Yankee team and a very resilient Tampa team.  Can Theo and Tito really risk losing this guy?  I say no, hot hitter or not.

Zen and the Art of Becoming a Sports Broadcaster

  By Chris Speziale | 06/14/2011 - 3:45 pm | Musings
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Mascoting for the Hyannis Harbor Hawks

My story is a strange one.  Growing up in Massachusetts, and having a sports obsessed family led me to my great love of all things Boston sports.  I’ve rooted for the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots and Red Sox my entire life.  But growing up, I never imagined I’d be where I am today…in the heart of New York City.  Our most loathed rivals across all four of the major professional American sports.  And while sports were a huge part of my upbringing, I didn’t set out to do what I’m doing today.

While in high school I was coaxed into auditioning for the school play in the fall of my freshman year.  I got a small part and fell in love with the idea of theater.  I would go on to audition for and be cast in all eight of the school’s productions during my four high school years.  I loved it.  I loved being on stage, making people laugh, and think, and cry.  I loved the adrenaline rush I would get walking onstage for the first time each night.  All of this led me to audition for acting programs at the collegiate level.  And this is where we get to New York.

I ended up at a small branch of Long Island University (C.W. Post) in Brookville, New York.  They aren’t kidding when they say that your college years are the best of your life.  I made amazing, lifelong friends, learned a ton, and performed in some pretty incredible pieces of theater.  But the one thing that I never took away from college was what to do when I graduated.  My school did a tremendous job of building my talent and confidence both on and off stage, but when it came time to go out into the mean streets of New York City (the artistic haven of thousands of wannabe actors), I was lost.

I bounced around the Off-Off-Off Broadway scene for five years before I decided that enough was enough.  I did a lot of work that I was very proud of in that time, but it was never enough to get me to that next level, or pocket a decent paycheck.  I decided that it was time that I go back to the thing that I loved most as a kid.  Sports.

The Molloy Days

The first step was education.  Having an acting background certainly helped when the microphone turned on and the camera’s started rolling, but I knew that there was so much more that I would need to know, so I turned to Hofstra’s Summer Sportcasting Institute.  I enrolled in a week-long intensive training course, taught by the legendary Ed Ingles and co-facilitated by a number of broadcasters close to my own age.  I would come to learn that, aside from your voice and viewpoint, networking is the best tool that a broadcaster has.  I used the connections that I made at the Institute to get jobs at Molloy College, St. Johns University, Fios 1 Sports, and CUNY TV, among others.  But why podcasting?  Why now?  The answer is quite simple really.  Exposure.

The media market is over-saturated with sports coverage, but in order to make it in this business, you need to find a way to get your voice out into the world.  A lot of companies will pass you over if you don’t have experience, but without those same companies, you can’t get the experience that they require.  So you put in the time, the hard work, and dedication, to make it happen for yourself.  That’s where The Rebel Podcast comes in.

"The Hawk's Nest"

I know Boston sports, but I don’t get the same media that a Boston fan living in Massachusetts would get.  Being in New York I get an interesting viewpoint into the world of “The Nation,” and it’s my goal to share what’s being said about our favorite teams outside of the bubble that we call New England.  I hope that if you listen or read, you’ll enjoy.  I hope that I can stir up some things that perhaps you hadn’t thought about before, and most of all, I hope that you come away feeling more confident about your knowledge of our teams and the rivals you love to hate.

Thanks for your time,

Chris Speziale

Loathing Luongo’s Linguistics

  By Chris Speziale | 06/13/2011 - 4:43 pm | Musings, Predictions
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Roberto Luongo may have just disturbed the sleeping bear....

Roberto Luongo may have made the gravest mistake of his career on Friday.  After Vancouver’s 1-0 victory at the Rogers Centre, the Canuck goalie made comments in his post-game press conference criticizing his Bruins counterpart.  Tim Thomas played his usual aggressive style in Game 5, and it cost him dearly in the final period of play.  With over 13 minutes remaining, a hard shot off the end boards from the right point deflected right to the waiting stick of Maxim Lapierre, who had all day to bury the puck in the back of the net.  Thomas had been out of the paint, trying to cut down the angle on the shot from the point, and it led to the game’s only goal.

 

The issue at hand isn’t at all about Thomas being out of position, but rather how are Thomas’ teammates going to take to the Vancouver goalie calling him out?  On a scale of “One to Rex Ryan”, Luongo’s comments probably rank right around a six.  In reference to making the save that Thomas couldn’t, “an easy save for me, but if you’re wandering out and aggressive like [Thomas] is, that’s going to happen.”  It wasn’t the grandest of shots, but the media heard it.  The players heard it.  And the fans heard it.

 

If you think this physical Bruins team is going to stand by and let another team take shots at the heart and soul of their team, you’ve got another think coming.  The B’s have played well at home (as Luongo could certainly tell you) and will need to force the Canucks to play their style when the puck drops at TD Garden tonight.  Boston has continuously started off on the wrong foot when hitting the road for Vancouver in this series, and they know it.

 

If the Stanley Cup is going to come back to Boston for the first time since 1972, the Bruins will need to establish their aggressive style early and hope that they can carry it through six more periods of play.  The bad news for Vancouver?  They may have just given the Bruins that extra little fire to carry them through.  Remember what happened after Nathan Horton went down with his concussion; the Bruins played inspired hockey for the rest of that Game 3 and into Game 4.  Now you’re messing with Papa bear, and Papa bear and his teammates won’t take it lying down.