Hey, look at that! A handsome man who also plays well. (And, apparently, can dance too!) Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission.
I wrote almost an entire entry about how sick and tired I am of trolls coming here just to get personal digs in that have nothing to do with baseball or anything I write about and then I thought “Why? Why bother validating anything those schmucks write?”. So, instead, I’ll write about how damn happy I am that JD Drew went 4 for 4 with 3 RBI and two home runs on Thursday night. Does that show the “Nancy Drew” asses that he has “heart” or “passion” or whatever the hell it is they’re looking for him to have? Probably not. But I enjoy JD giving a giant middle finger to all the jerks who want to point to him as the reason this team struggles.
Sweeping the Blue Jays wasn’t totally unexpected (although many had written off the Buchholz/Halladay game, I’m sure) but it was exactly what they needed to do. Just keep winning games and everything else will fall into place.
So Friday begins the Yanks series. I’m not overjoyed with the pitching match-ups but, then again, I’m a big believer in “anything can happen” so I’m not worrying about any of the games this weekend. (Also a tip of the hat and thanks to Jon Lester for going 8 innings, thus saving the bullpen for the Yankees.) Brad Penny might be the first on the mound but the main focus for me during the first game is the return of Jerry Remy. I know a lot of people are fans of Dennis Eckersley (and in the context of baseball, I am as well) but he got to the point where if I heard him say “cheese” or “salad” one more time I was going to poke out my eardrums with an ice pick. So I’m pleased to be getting the Rem Dawg back. And it’ll be sweet to be live blogging not only the game but Jerry’s return. It’s just a good thing you all won’t be able to see how dusty it gets at my place when the game starts. Welcome back, Jerry!
Based on some comments I received this week, I think there are a few things I need to make clear about posting comments just so there are no surprises for first-time commenters. Now is as good a time as any to cover them.
*  The comments aren’t moderated – at least not most of them. If you post a comment it should automatically publish. If it doesn’t, most likely it’s some fluky issue with the program (for instance, the spam blocker hates when you use // to mark off quotes. I’m trying to find other bugs and will let folks know as I do) and as soon as I see your comment sitting in limbo, I’ll publish it.
* There is no delete key. If you write it, it’s up there. If you really regret a comment and would like it deleted I’ll be happy to do so – just shoot me an email. (This might result in other comments getting deleted as well because without one comment the others probably won’t make sense.)
* Some people are turned off by having to put an email address in when commenting. Feel free to use your real email if you like because I’m the only one who will see it. But you can just make up an address as well (the program wants any address and doesn’t care if it’s real or not).
* I have some people set up so their comments automatically go to the spam folder and never see the light of day here. If you’re one of the folks I picked up at WEEI.com who likes to use derogatory, sexist words to describe me or any commenters here then there is a good chance this is where your comments are going. Suddenly deciding to join the conversation without being insulting won’t get your comments published – and if they happen to sneak through I’ll be sure to delete them when I see them. This isn’t America, this is my personal space on the Internet so the only person with any kind of freedom of speech is me. (And if you’re reading a blog called “Toeing the Rubber” and don’t understand why I spend a lot of time writing about pitchers, well I really don’t know what to tell you except you should probably find another blog to read.)
I suppose I do want to address one aspect of the trolling that’s been going on lately. I’m not sure how much more clearly I can make this point – I am a woman who writes about baseball and the events and people surrounding baseball.  I have favorite players. Some because of the way they play, just like any penised fan, and some for other reasons (hello Bronson). The former actually outweighs the latter. As long as there are male bloggers out there devoting thousands of characters to posts about the likes of Heidi Watney, I don’t see how anyone can berate me for writing about a player I might mention I find attractive.  Occasionally I’m going to devote a post to a player I like for more than his playing skills (although, if you go through the archives, those posts are few and far between). Again, though, if this bothers you there are hundreds if not thousands of Red Sox blogs out there. Go find one that has the content you desire and stop emailing me to complain about the time I spend writing about Kyle Snyder.
Enough of that.
The Sox roll into the weekend series having won 7 out of their last 10 games since the Yankees swept them. It sure won’t be a cakewalk this weekend but I’m not counting the Sox out just yet!
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