Connelly’s Top Ten – All Star Break is here!
1.Red Sox
* Sox on pace for 112 wins
* All Star game the halfway point – I don’t think so - season is 61% over
* Red Sox are 12-2 in July
* 12 pitchers used Sunday
* Newly acquired Steve Pierce hit a home run in his first Fenway at bat – reminded me of Rob Deer who came over from Milwaukee and hit a HR in his first at bat and went 3 for 6 on August 22, 1993.
* The grand slam by Mookie Betts will be shown for the rest of his life – retirement, hall of fame, death….
2. World Cup
* Croatia dominates game and loses 4-2: attempts 15 to 8 / Corners 6 to 2 / Passing attempted 548 to 269 / 61% possession
* Not good for the sport of soccer when the first goal (that changes the complexion of the game) is a free kick because a player dived (use replay in all sports as much as possible but make it fast)
* France gets $38mm / Croatia $28mm / Belgium $24mm / England $22mm
* Got to hand it to Russia a problem free World Cup (granted anyone who misbehaved is now laying train tracks in Siberia)
* 4-2 score if you have had the over – you win
3. Around Baseball
* Pablo Sandoval has hit 8 home runs in San Fran on the Red Sox dime ($18mm for Red Sox $500,000 for Giants) – he hit 14 in three seasons with Sox. By the way you have to pay him $18mm next year as well.
* Madison Bumgarner was the best starter in baseball going 51-28 with an ERA under 2.90 from 2014 to 2016 – after suffering a dirt bike accident he has gone 7-12 with a 3.20 ERA
* Houston Astro Alex Bregman has hit 20 home runs before the All Star game – he hit 21 in his entire college career at LSU – things that make me go hmmm.
4. Dodger second baseman Chase Utley announced retirement at the end of the year – people are asking if he’s a hall of famer –how does he compare to Dustin Pedroia:
Utley – 1,882 hits / .276 average / 259 HR / 6 All Stars
Pedroia-1,803 hits / .300 average / 140 HR / 4 All Stars / 4 Gold Gloves / MVP and Rookie of the Year
5. Position ranks – Who would you like as your color analyst (at their best)
* Dennis Eckersley
* Derek Sanderson
* Gino
* Bob Cousy
* Ken Harrelson
* Jerry Remy when with Sean McDonough
* John Pierson
* Johnny Pesky
6. With what Javier Baez is doing in Chicago – I put him up there with one of the most electric infielders ever - What other infielders would have magical videos:
* Ozzie Smith
* Gary Templeton
* Omar Vizquel
* Brooks Robinson
* Roberto Alomar
* Alex Gonzalez
7. Old School – In a 1946 baseball game between Brookline High School and Arlington High School.
* Brookline pitcher Hal Moffie – first game he ever pitched
* Moffie faced 50 batters
* Walked 20 / Struck out 10
* Arlington won 9-8
* Baseball coach was Brookline hall of famer – Tom Fitzgerald
* If you assume that each walk is 5.5 pitches and each strike out is 4.5 pitches and every other at bat is 3 pitches – then Moffie threw 215 pitches
8. Amazing Stat – Red Sox best two pitchers over the last 30 years Pedro and Sale. Below career win and losses (%) by month – Pedro first column Chris Sale second
Month…Pedro………..Sale
April….35-8 (.813)……19-7 (.730)
May…..43-12 (.781)…22-4 (.846)
June…..35-20 (.636)…19-12 (.612)
July…..36-12 (.750)….16-10 (.615)
Aug…..39-20 (.661)….14-13 (.518)
Sept…..31-28 (.525)….11-16 (.407)
9. Just a Little Bit Outside – Most visited national parks (National Geographic)
1. Great Smokey Mountains…..11,000,000
2. Grand Canyon………………7,200,000
3. Zion………………………..4,500,000
4. Rocky Mountains………….4,200,000
5. Yosemite…………………..4,000,000
10. Randomocity
* Isaiah Thomas goes from potentially making $30,000,000 to $2,000,000
* American John Isner has played in two of the three longest matches in Wimbledon history – a combined 17 hours and 41 minutes
* Remember when people were saying that Pedroia signed a bad contract – Sox owe him $40mm in the three years after this year
* With the crowd standing for Mookie during his great at bat last week – it reminded me of 1977 and the crowd chanting Boomer and George Scott hitting a home run into the center field bleachers
