A few things as we slowly wend our way to a World Series ring ceremony on Tuesday afternoon that I’m very curious to take in – given the glaring absence of PR Maestro Dr. Charles Steinberg after his departure for a similar post with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
My biggest question: will this finally be the year that Neil Diamond shows up in sequins to serenade the “Sweet Caroline” Fenway fanatics that have turned his little ditty into an eighth inning anthem?

*First I give you a look back at an interview with Jonathan Papelbonthat you might have missed with Gary Tanguay and Mike Felger on Mohegan Sun Sports Tonight from last week. The Sox are saying all the right things in the hope that the inevitable-slow-start-after-the-Japan-trip talk doesn’t become a self-fulfilling prophecy despite evidence to the contrary.
The Sox closer is refreshingly candid – shocking, I know – about the team’s trip to Japan and he seems to have a lot of company among his tacit teammates about the lack of glowing adjectives for the excursion prompted by Major League Baseball.
These three sentences from the Sox closer sum up the Boston Red Sox experience over the 19-day road trip to Japan and back: “It was pretty bad to be totally honest. I am going to be blatantly honest. It was a bad trip. For the most part, everybody on the team was not wanting to go.”
Keep in mind this interview was taped while the Sox were still in Oakland.

*Also here was an interesting fun fact I came across in the Red Sox Media Guide while doing some research on an unrelated topic. Jason Varitek needs only 13 home runs to surpass Carlton Fisk as the all-time home run hitting catcher in Sox franchise history.

‘Tek isn’t really thought of as a home run hitter in the style of Pudge, but that speaks to what he’s quietly been able to put together offensively for the Olde Towne team over his 11 seasons in Boston.
BTW, another interesting Varitek fun fact. I love going to www.baseball-reference.com and checking comparables for MLB players, and here are the comparable catchers for Varitek: Mike Lieberthal, Darren Daulton, Mike Macfarlane, Charles Johnson, Darrin Fletcher, Ed Bailey and Earl Battey.

Whitt was the only one of the seven players that was still active and catching when they were the same age (36) as Varitek will be this season. Most of the other backstops flamed out around 34 or 35 years-old. Something to think about…although Varitek could certainly a major exception to the rule. By the way, Carlton Fisk at 36 hit .231 with 21 home runs and 43 RBIs in 103 games played for the Chicago White Sox.

*Here are a few snippets from Gammons on 890 ESPN’s Mike Felger show last week.

What’s your final opinion about the trip to Japan, and its residual effect on the team?
PG: “Those games were not like real games, it was like the Twilight Zone. I think it will take about a month because the schedule is difficult early and it will probably take a month to get everyone in synch. I think May 15 or so we have some good idea of how good this team is.

Once again Peter you think that both Lester and Matsuzaka are closer to what we saw in Oakland than what we saw in Japan?
PG: “There’s question in my mind that we saw it this spring, and we saw [Lester] mature. He was so good. Next to Beckett he was their best pitcher against Cleveland and Colorado. I just never thought he had his legs. His ball would keep going up and away to right-handed hitters in Japan, which is exactly what would happen when he wasn’t strong enough to pitch at the end of 2006 and most of 2007. But once he gets his leg and he drives through the strike zone then I think he’ll be fine.

His command of both sides of the plate with his fastball, away from right-handed hitters using his cutter and his curveball and changing speeds, I thought he was outstanding [last week]. It still comes down to that they have to have Beckett be really good, they need Matsuzaka to be pretty good, they need Lester to be very good and I think their bullpen…Delcarmen is going to be a huge difference because he’s going to be that third power guy in the bullpen this year. They didn’t have that last year. Timlin is very good, but he’s not that power guy that Delcarmen can be.

They have a very, very tough month of April. They and the Yankees have the toughest schedules, and the way I look at it is just don’t get buried. Start to get your lineup intact and get Manny and Ortiz and Lowell and Drew and so forth hitting. Get the guys at the top of the order going and I think it’s encouraging that Youkilis has been off to such a good start. I think that’s the main thing.”

Question: What were some things that stuck out to after the first week of baseball?
PG: The two things that have stuck out to me after the first week: injuries and the incredible implosion of closers. Closers around baseball have had a really rough first week.

The sad thing [with Eric Gagne] is that I watched that and kept emailing friends of mine around baseball and his stuff was nowhere near as good as it was when he was imploding with the Red Sox last summer. That’s really scary. He was throwing 87 and 88 [with the Brewers] and he was throwing 93 and 94 here last year, but he just for some reason couldn’t pitch. That’s a disturbing element for them, and it’s something to worry about.

Just like Detroit where you’ve got Todd Jones alone in the bullpen, and you don’t have Zumaya or Fernando Rodney. I just saw a lot of guys around baseball that really struggled in the first week of the season as closers, and I just wondered what it’s going to be like if about four or five of these guys go south on contending teams.

I know the Red Sox got called out for talking about steroid use in scouting reports, but don’t you have to when you’ve available players that might have used performance enhancers?
PG: I think you have to. I think you have to go [with the assumption] that he was off last year and that his stuff was good enough to close in August and September. And the Brewers go, ‘Oh Ok.’ But maybe two years off [steroids] then maybe that’s the difference. I don’t know. I don’t think anyone really knows, but now there’s been three years. Maybe that’s a lot of time and he couldn’t build up arm strength during spring training. I don’t know.

But he did not look like the same guy and it’s going to be very interesting to watch. He was really good in Texas and his stuff was very good in Boston. The results were not good, but his stuff the other day for the Brewers was just dreadful. I really felt badly for him in a lot of ways because he just really looked uncomfortable.”

Are the Blue Jays for real?
PG: I like Toronto a lot. I think they’ll be close, and I’ll tell you why. It requires AJ Burnett and BJ Ryan being healthy and that’s a chance to take. They say BJ will be fine by the 13th or 14th of April and we’ll see. He’s still coming off Tommy John surgery and as you know guys coming off Tommy John surgery a lot of times think they’re at a point where they’re fine, but sometimes it takes 15 to 18 months. Most guys will tell you it’s 15 months, but we’ll see. I really like their two young guys. I saw Ian Kennedy face Shawn Marcum and I thought they were identical twins. The difference is that Shawn Marcum has already won 12 games in the big leagues and he’s already pitched for five months pitching in the big leagues and Kennedy has had like five starts.

I think [Dustin] McGowan is more advanced than any of the Red Sox or Yankees young pitchers ‘cause he’s had a full year and shown that he can be a dominant guy. I like Toronto but I just don’t know that they have enough to win it. Losing Rolen right off the bat was a bad injury for them because he’s such an important player. I still think Vernon Wells will come back and have a big year and I love Aaron Hill, but I’m not sure that they have quite enough. I like Tampa Bay a lot better, but I don’t know that the Blue Jays are quite enough to match the Red Sox.

I don’t know where Frank Thomas is going to be in his career, and I know that he’s had other bad springs so I’ll accept that. I agree with you. I can see them making a run, but I think the Yankees and Red Sox have to come back to that 90 win level for it to happen.

Be back from the Fens...