forks off the moment: Paul Sullivan

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Wait... They Make Lego Baseball Players?

When I was a kid I obsessed over Star Wars, Batman, Lego and baseball.
My brother and I played all 4 constantly, but there wasn't any cross over.

Chewbacca never showed up in Gotham City. There was no Lego baseball stadium.

And we had space advantures in Lego, but they were always the cool Lego spacemen with the helmet, airtank and the spaceship zooming around the moon logo on their chest and spaceships.

We played with them whenever we weren't also playing Star Wars, Batman or baseball.

There was an order to the universe.

Well this Christmas something changed in the fabric of the universe.

A friend of the family gave my boys these Lego figures of baseball players.

Specifically Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz. They came with a Red Sox cap, the correct facial hair, a bat and also a glove. (Very interesting to see Big Papi with a glove.)

But consider the fact that there is Lego Batman now... and Lego Star Wars is everywhere, I wonder if I would have been able to deal with all of this childhood fun overlapping.

Oh who am I kidding? It would have been awesome.

The First Grade

My sons started the first grade this year... and that makes me feel older than my 39 years.

First grade was a significant grade for me and it led directly to this blog you are currently reading and everything Sully Baseball.

Let me explain.

When I was in nursery school and kindergarten, I watched baseball with my parents and my grandfather and our wonderful neighbor/baby sitter/member of the family Mrs. Bianchi.

And I also liked baseball cards. But all I was interested in was seeing all the different teams a player played on. I called it the "Year Club." (That's what it said on top of the card. Year. Club. So naturally it was the Year Club.)

But I didn't know who was a good player (unless they were a Kellogg's 3D Super Star!)

All of that changed in the first grade.

I went to the Country School in Weston Massachusetts for First Grade. My teacher was Mrs. Bresciani.

The first day of school in September of 1978 I was blissfully unaware of the massacre that the Yankees were giving the Red Sox. I hadn't understood how the playoffs worked and I wasn't following the day to day events of a baseball team.

Instead I was sitting in a classroom where Mrs. Bresciani asked us to draw something we did during our summer vacation.

My aunt Mary and uncle Marty had taken my brother and me to Yankee Stadium that year and it made quite an impression on me.

So a 6 year old Sully drew Yankee Stadium as best as I could.

Mrs. Bresciani saw the drawing and asked me if I liked baseball. I said I did.

I also liked Star Wars, Batman and Sid and Marty Kroftt shows.

Mrs. Bresciani told me that her husband worked for the Red Sox. I wondered if he was a player.

Instead I found out he was the statistician for the Red Sox.

So all throughout first grade, I learned how to spell, add, subtract and reading comprehension

But I also learned what all of those numbers on the back of the baseball card meant.

I would ask what an RBI was. What a save was. Why some pitchers get a win and others don't. Why do some pitchers start and some don't.

I even learned what batting average and ERA were (even if the division was a little over my head.)

I knew if you batted .300 or more you were really good.

I know if your ERA was under 3.50 you were really good.

So all of those baseball cards stopped being pictures of players and the key to understanding their value to a team.

Mrs. Bresciani taught me how to keep score and I would sometimes bring a piece of paper and a pencil out to recess and keep score of a kick ball game.

At Halloween, she brought in Jerry Remy's uniform for us to see. It was like seeing the Shroud of Turin.

And when the 1979 season began, I REALLY followed baseball. Day in and day out I read the box scores and checked the standings. The Red Sox were good that year but no match for the Baltimore Orioles.

I knew all the players. I knew who was doing well. Who was hurt. And in 1979 there was Carl Yastrzemski's chase for 3,000 hits and 400 homers.

My favorite player was Butch Hobson. But I crowned him my favorite player before Mrs. Bresciani taught me about stats. I made Butch my favorite because I liked the name Butch.

In 1979 I understood that Jim Rice and Fred Lynn were better players.

The seed was planted in the first grade. And from that seed did an obsessive compulsive tree grow!

So as MY boys start their first grade voyage, I am continuing mine to this day.

Dick Bresciani is now the Vice President of Publications and Archives with the Red Sox and often appears on TV talking about Sox history.

If you are still out there, Mrs. Bresciani, thanks for teaching me what an RBI is.

And be thankful I wasn't asking "What is the difference between OPS+, VORP and WAR?"

New Sully Baseball Video "I Miss The Astros"

The latest Sully Baseball video is up.

This time I talk about the Houston Astros and why I feel like, in terms of their identity, they are rudderless and should embrace their past which was the future. Trust me, that makes sense.

And as always, you can check out the previous Sully Baseball videos by clicking HERE.

And subscribe to my YouTube page.

New Sully Baseball Video "New Baseball Math"

In the latest Sully Baseball Video I talk about how confusing the world of stats can be. I understand why there are new ways of looking at games, but can we stick to one set of stats for a while?

At least long enough for me to understand them!

You can see all of the Sully Baseball videos here on my ShortForm TV Channel.

As always my wife Lisa wrote the script with me, shot it, directed and contributed to the editing.

New Sully Baseball Video - "Instant Replay"

I've talked about Instant Replay on the blog many times, but now I cover it in the latest Sully Baseball Video.

I am expecting some people to disagree with me on this one. They tend to on this topic.

Well, I'll let the video do the talking. As always the video was made with my amazing wife Lisa Zambetti. This one was shot in San Diego a.

To see the previous Sully Baseball Videos, click here.

The franchise moves that almost happened - My latest for The Hardball Times

Can you imagine the Senators moving not to Minnesota but to Los Angeles?
What about the Milwaukee White Sox?
Or the Tampa Bay Giants?
Or the North Carolina Twins?
Or the A's playing in just about any American city save for Walla Walla Washington?

Well they almost happened, and I wrote about them in my latest for The Hardball Times.

These are the franchise moves that ALMOST happened. And some were real close to being finalized. The Padres move from San Diego to Washington looked like such a done deal in the mid 1970s that Topps actually printed cards with the Padres players but the team name was "Washington National League."

You want to read more of these strange "What if?" scenarios?

Check out the article HERE.

New Sully Baseball Video "Babying Pitchers"

In the latest Sully Baseball Video, I talk a little bit about the insanity of babying pitchers. The practice doesn't make sense and frankly the numbers show a pitcher needs to be worked rather than pampered.

Well, I'll let the video do the talking. As always the video was made with my amazing wife Lisa Zambetti. This one was shot in San Diego last weekend.

To see the previous Sully Baseball Videos, click here.

New Sully Baseball Video - "A Message for Cleveland Fans"

In the latest Sully Baseball video, I borderline beg Cleveland fans to avoid watching the NBA playoffs and pay attention to the young Indians team that just happens to be in first playoffs...

As always, the video is shot, co written and directed by my wonderful wife, Lisa Zambetti.

Enjoy the video.

Discussing the baseball schedule with my wife over toast

(Sully and his wife are sitting at their table for breakfast. Sully’s wife is eating a piece of toast.)

SULLY’S WIFE:
How late did you stay up watching that game last night?

SULLY:
11:45. Remember it was 2:45 AM in Boston and raining when the game ended. And they are playing another game in just a few hours!

SULLY’S WIFE:
What do you mean they are playing another game? With who?

SULLY:
With the Angels.

SULLY’S WIFE:
I thought they just played the Angels.

SULLY:
They play 3 game series.

SULLY’S WIFE:
How is it in basketball?

SULLY:
Basketball you play one game. Then there’s usually an off day and they play another team.

SULLY’S WIFE:
Why can’t baseball do that?

SULLY:
But in baseball, sometimes they play 6 games a week. The travel costs alone would be prohibitive.

SULLY’S WIFE:
Why can’t they have a travel day in baseball?

SULLY:
They play 162 games! They’d have to start the season in January. That’s the schedule!

SULLY’S WIFE:
What do you mean? That doesn’t have to be the schedule. The other sports seem to get along just fine. And by the way, when I am done eating this piece of toast, I am done having this conversation.

SULLY:
I think the physical toll of a basketball game or hockey game is much greater. I mean in a football game, you can risk your career every play.

SULLY’S WIFE:
So basically you are saying baseball is such a lazy sport that they can play more games because they are out of shape idiots.

SULLY:
No. It’s not that they are out of shape idiots. Baseball is more cerebral.

SULLY’S WIFE:
What is this, chess? What do chess players do? How many travel days do THEY need?

SULLY:
You’re not being fair.

SULLY’S WIFE:
What about spelling bees? Do they need an extra travel day?

SULLY:
A pitcher can’t throw every day. His arm will snap off.

SULLY’S WIFE:
Doesn’t he only throw a few rounds before the next guy comes in?

SULLY:
Innings.

SULLY’S WIFE:
Whatever.

SULLY:
Ideally your starting pitcher will go 7 or 8 innings.

SULLY’S WIFE:
They should do it evenly. 3-3-3.

SULLY:
I’ve actually thought that’s what they should do.

SULLY’S WIFE:
See? I don’t even know what I am talking about and already I have a good idea.

SULLY:
I know everything about baseball and you’ve thought of it and you know…

SULLY’S WIFE:
Nothing.

SULLY:
Very little.

SULLY’S WIFE:
I know as little as I possibly can by choice.

SULLY:
Yet we’ve both thought of the same thing and that is if you have a bunch of pitchers who can only go 2 or 3 innings before they need help, why not have one pitcher throw the first 3, the next one throw the next 3 and a third one throw the last 3? You’d have to have like 40 pitchers on the roster. You are only allowed 25 players all together on your roster.

SULLY’S WIFE:
The more the merrier.

SULLY:
Back on topic.

SULLY’S WIFE:
Here’s my thing. The less I actually pay attention to what you are saying, the better I do.

SULLY:
That seems to be the case in life. You’re only half listening to me.

SULLY’S WIFE:
When I pay attention, things fall apart,

(Another bite of toast.)

SULLY’S WIFE:
How many games do they play in football?

SULLY:
It’s once a week. They play 16 games.

SULLY’S WIFE:
Perfect! That’s what baseball should do.

SULLY:
If they only play 16 games, it would be better for you because instead of me watching a baseball game a night, then I would only be watching it one night.

SULLY’S WIFE:
Right.

SULLY:
What you are not taking into account is this. If I am only watching one game, then I would be more intense. And that day of playing tends to be Sunday when we try to do things as a family. And all that week I’d be building up for the one game

SULLY’S WIFE:
But there would be less for you to talk about.

SULLY:
You have no idea how much people yap about that one football game a week. In baseball it is BOOM! Here’s a game. BOOM! Here’s another game. But in football, the talk on Monday is “Can’t wait for the Miami game.” Tuesday is “Get ready for the Miami game” and by Wednesday I’m thinking “Enough! Just play the Miami game!” but it is still 4 days away.

SULLY’S WIFE:
But it could be like The Good Wife. I look forward to watching it every week. But if it was on every night, it would be The Boring Wife. It’s perfect. Once a week on the DVR. And YOU can DVR the games. You don’t even have to watch the game live.

SULLY:
But if I am watching the game on DVR I’m missing the next game.

SULLY’S WIFE:
What next game?

SULLY:
The other game.

SULLY’S WIFE:
There’s another game?

SULLY:
The game that’s going on while I’m watching the game from the night before!

SULLY’S WIFE:
You only need to play one game a week!

SULLY:
Then you’d only need one pitcher.

SULLY’S WIFE:
Didn’t we establish you needed 3 pitchers now?

SULLY:
But if you are playing one game a week, you can just throw your best

pitcher out for every game.

SULLY’S WIFE:
So you are agreeing with me now.

SULLY:
Wait-

SULLY’S WIFE:
You see, I’ve turned the tables. By the end of this toast, you will be on my side

SULLY:
The great thing about the baseball-

SULLY’S WIFE:
I’m nibbling. I only have a few bites left.

SULLY:
In baseball you lose one game, the very next day you have another shot to win.

SULLY’S WIFE:
That cheapens it! That cheapens the whole thing. That’s what I am saying. I don’t need Juliana Marguiles on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I just need her Tuesday. Just try it. And if doesn’t work then we go back to your way. And we’re done.

(She eats the last bite.)

Happy Birthday to two guys close to starting their sports memories

I have a theory about sports fandom.

For the first 6 to 8 years of a sports fans' life, they sort of watch sports without understanding it. They may have a "favorite team" because their parents watch a team or kids in their class wear a hat or jacket, but they don't really follow the team.

Then somewhere between 8 and 10 years old, the fans start to truly follow a team. The ins and outs of the team... which players are good and which aren't. And this is around the time that a young sports fan develops their first favorite player. And whichever players they root for then will have a giant impact on their future perspective.

No matter what other players excel over the years, they won't compare to the players of their youth.

Think about it in your own life. When do you remember following a team and each player? When did you start really understanding a sports season and which are the first players you really rooted for?

I bet those memories were started roughly between your 8th and 10th birthdays.
For me it was my 7th birthday, but I was a freak.

So my kids turn 6 years old today. One son has declared himself a Giants fan. But when the Giants won the World Series, he was more interested in watching Toy Story.

He may regret not watching them win the World Series.

My other son claims to be a Dodger fan. But he has yet to sit and watch a Dodger game yet.

In a couple of years, their long term memories will be starting to form. And as a baseball nut, I can't wait to someday sit down with my buddies and watch ball games the way I did with my mom and dad.

But don't grow up TOO fast. I can't believe it has already been 6 years since I mentioned you two at the end of Reverse the Curse of The Bambino.

Happy birthday, buddies.

Buy the USA Today 2011 Baseball Complete MLB Preview.

The USA Today 2011 Baseball Complete MLB Preview is available at fine bookstores and probably some not so fine ones as well.

If you turn to page 30, there is an article called "NO GIANT STREAK."

Guess who wrote it?

No guess!

Yup, yours truly has an article in the magazine.

Essentially I wrote about why I don't think the Giants are going to repeat as champs. (Sorry dad.)

I like to think that baseball fans across the country are reading an article that I wrote while sitting on the john.

I can think of no bigger honor for my writing as this blog is hard to bring into the bathroom.

So pick up a copy and help me out with another little potential obsession.

That's me holding up my copy with the cover for Southern California.

The cover highlights the Dodgers and Angels, 2 teams that went 80-82. And oh yeah, there are pictures of the 97 loss Arizona Diamondbacks and the rebuilding Padres.

Clearly this is the Southern California cover.

So do me a favor, dear friends of Sully Baseball:

Buy a copy of the magazine. I don't get a penny of residuals, so I am not doing this to send my kids to Cal Tech.

I want to see what the different regional covers are.

Send me a picture of you with the regional cover and I'll post it on the blog.

And if you have a blog, I'll link the blog.

So let's see how many different covers I can post before opening day!

My video has passed Tris Speaker on the hit list

Thanks to a bunch of very cool links (including this one from Off the Bench at NBCSports.com) my video The Giant Alternative now has 3,574 hits.

That's more hits than Tris Speaker.
Next on the list?

Stan Musial with 3,630.

I wonder if it will pass Stan the Man!

Either way, here's the video in case you haven't seen it.
And if you liked it, pass it around.

I am making a new one tomorrow.

These guys have done the hard part for the Hall of Fame resume…now don’t get hurt: My Latest for the Hardball Times

Is it too early to be talking about Tim Lincecum, Dustin Pedroia or Adam Wainwright for the Hall of Fame? Of course it is. But they've all done the hard part of having great individual seasons and post season heroics already. If they can stay healthy and pile up some numbers, they should have quite a Hall of Fame argument.

In my latest for The Hardball Times, I go through the players who just need to reach a few milestones to pad an already glamorous resume.

Read the article here.

Tampa Bay—a place to move a team to, and from - My Latest for The Hardball Times

In my latest article for The Hardball Times, I take a look at the two different perceptions of Tampa Bay as a baseball location:

An ideal untapped revenue producer that was destined to lure an existing franchise...
And a misguided Major League location that just isn't going to work.

There seems to be no middle ground on the Sun Coast.

To read the article, click HERE.

Tampa Bay fans fans can send hate mail to info@sullybaseball.com

What did YOU do at age 21?

When I was 21 I was finishing up my junior year at NYU, eating too much Chinese food, renting movies at Kim's Video on Bleecker street and sharing a tiny apartment with a guy whose name escapes me right now.

When Madison Bumgarner was 21, he pitched 8 shutout innings in the World Series on the road against an amazing offensive team to put the Giants to within one game of their first World Series title since moving to California.

I am going to make a judgment call and say Madison's 21st year was better than mine.

Can YOU top Madison?

Off sync with the Giants and my parents

I called my parents the second Juan Uribe won the game for the Giants last night to get their thoughts on the Giants somehow taking a 3-1 lead.

SULLY:
Some game! Up 3-1!

SULLY'S DAD:
I love it.

SULLY'S MOM:
It's great but watching it out of sync is driving me crazy.

SULLY:
(As confused as you)
Wait. Are you watching it live or on DVR? Do you not know how it ends?

SULLY'S MOM:
Oh we watched the ending. But it's all out of sync because Poppy has the radio on.

SULLY'S DAD:
I have to hear Kruk and Kuip.

(Kruk and Kuip refer to Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper, the wonderful Giants announcers on KNBR.)

SULLY:
But dad... if you are listening to the radio, you are hearing it before you are seeing it.

SULLY'S DAD:
The delay isn't bad.

SULLY'S MOM:
It's AWFUL. It's 30 seconds.

SULLY'S DAD:
It's NOT 30 seconds. It's about 11 seconds.

SULLY:
11 seconds? It might as well be a minute! You could be hearing "Long drive and it is GONE!" while the visual is the pitcher picking up the rosin bag.

SULLY'S MOM:
It drives me crazy.

SULLY'S DAD:
I just can't take Joe Buck and Tim McCarver.

SULLY:
I know it is rough. I had to hear them call two Red Sox World Series titles. But you've got to bite the bullet on this and watch it live.

SULLY'S MOM:
Thank you!

SULLY'S DAD:
But baseball is basically a lot of talk and a highlight here and there. So most of the time it is fine to be out of sync. It only affects it on the big plays.

SULLY'S MOM:
Yeah, it only is annoying at the most exciting moments of the game.

SULLY:
Dad. Why don't you go into the living room and listen to KNBR and let mom watch the game without her feeling like she is watching a Godzilla movie?

SULLY'S DAD:
Maybe I will.

Today I found out that my dad "figured out how to get the radio in sync with the TV." I am sure it will work fine.

So Poppy... if you want to see the end of the game with the KNBR guys in SYNC... CLICK HERE.

And if you want to share my mom's experience, watch this movie:

How did we do with our picks? (And how did the fish do?)

Before the playoffs began, I made my post season picks… and compared them to the picks of my wife Lisa, my sister in law Debbie, my sons Matty and Aidan, a coin toss and which direction my fish Red swam.

With the Division Series over, let’s see how we all did.

SULLY’S PICKS

PHILLIES over REDS
GIANTS over BRAVES
YANKEES over TWINS
RAYS over RANGERS

3 out of 4

SULLY’S WIFE LISA’S PICKS

REDS over PHILLIES
GIANTS over BRAVES
YANKEES over TWINS
RANGERS over RAYS

3 out of 4

SULLY’S SISTER IN LAW DEBBIE’S PICKS

PHILLIES over REDS
GIANTS over BRAVES
TWINS over YANKEES
RAYS over RANGERS

2 out of 4

SULLY’S 5 YEAR OLD SON AIDAN’S PICKS

REDS over PHILLIES
GIANTS over BRAVES
YANKEES over TWINS
RAYS over RANGERS

2 out of 4

SULLY’S 5 YEAR OLD SON MATTEO’S PICKS

PHILLIES over REDS
GIANTS over BRAVES
TWINS over YANKEES
RANGERS over TWINS

3 out of 4

COIN TOSS RESULTS

PHILLIES over REDS
GIANTS over BRAVES
TWINS over YANKEES
RANGERS over RAYS

3 out of 4

So no perfect ones… except for one…

SULLY’S FISH RED’S PICKS

PHILLIES over REDS
GIANTS over BRAVES
YANKEES over TWINS
RANGERS over RAYS

4 out of 4

That’s right folks… my FISH beat us all!
My FISH made all the right picks.

Do you know how humiliating it is to have your picks beaten by a fish?

To remind you, I held a logo for each team on either side of the tank… and which ever direction he went is where I recorded his pick.

He usually swam this way or that… but when I put the Rays and the Rangers logos up, he paused… then looked up at me and asked “Wait, how many starts is Cliff Lee getting?”

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