Just in case you haven't heard, the now clean shaven Mark Bellhorn joined Alan Embree and officially joined the Yankees yesterday. It's almost embarrassing the way that the "Bronx Bombers" are scooping up the Sox' castaways, but why do I have the uneasy feeling that this is going to come back and haunt the Sox? I can see it now: 2005 ALCS Game 7, 9th inning, Mark Bellhorn at the plate....should I worry? Maybe not.
As a side note, what happens to a Yankee that refuses to be clean shaven? I suppose that a non-vital player would be benched, but what if say Alex Rodriguez decided that he wanted to grow a beard? Would he be allowed to play?
It appears that the Mark Bellhorn era has ended with the Red Sox. I guess I could harp on his 2005 stats (.216 avg, 109 strikeouts - oh those swings and misses!) but instead let's get sentimental for a moment. From the Boston Globe's 2004 ALCS Game 6 archives:
"...after delivering the biggest hit in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series last night -- a three-run homer in the fourth inning of Boston's 4-2 victory -- Bellhorn was on top of the world...Bellhorn delivered the hit the Nation had been waiting for. With the count 1-and-2, Jason Varitek on second and Orlando Cabrera on first, and one run already in, Bellhorn, batting lefthanded, planted a low fastball from Yankees starter Jon Lieber just over the left-field fence."
We all know exactly where we were at that moment and I can't forget the eighth inning of Game 1 of the World Series when we heard the sound of your spectacular *clank* off the Pesky Pole. Thanks for the memories Mark. We will miss you. I swear.
"I hope Mark Bellhorn will shrug off this abuse and one day return to Fenway as a graying geezer for an Oldtimers' Game. And when he shuffles to the plate I hope he's given the standing ovation he so permanently deserves. Even though he probably will strike out." Read the full article: Red Sox Fans Should Remember Bellhorn's Past
There is a great article about the Red Sox in today's Los Angeles Times:
"It's another typical Red Sox season, a clubhouse full of comedy and drama and a lineup full of thunderous bats that has the defending World Series champions in first place. On a luminous Sunday morning at the end of July, the Back Bay stirs as the first black and gray luxury sedans glide over the pitted pavement, between the stores with jerseys on racks and the bars with jerseys in frames. Fathers hold the hands of their little girls, whose pigtails are threaded through the backs of their Red Sox caps, a look that is altogether Boston. Young men bend at the neck and fold pizza slices in half, and orangy grease streams from the pinched ends and pools on paper plates, which are set atop the foulest of garbage cans...There is nothing quite like the perimeter of Fenway Park on game day, the Red Sox in first place, the New York Yankees looking quite fragile, smoke pushing barbecue aromas through the crowds, the shadows shortening toward the first pitch..."
"Just as Derek Jeter laid down a bunt, a man plunged from the sky.Scott Harper, 18, of Armonk, Westchester County, jumped or fell 40 feet from the upper deck of Yankee Stadium last night, landing feet-first on the safety net behind home plate. He sat motionless for a few minutes, then crawled up the net to the upper suites, where police and Yankee security pulled him to safety.
Click here to read the full article by Lisa Olson.
