Bob Lobel: Remembering a Season Like No Other

By Bob Lobel (@boblobel)

It's a lock for me: Sandy Leon should be the starting All-Star catcher. Done like dinner. 

More on slammin’ Sandy later, but there are other fish to fry. Most, if not all of you reading this, were not born 75 years ago. Close, but not me either.

75 years ago this year, two baseball records, that probably will never be broken, were put into the books. Joe DiMaggio hit safely in 56-straight games, and Ted Williams hit .401. That’s a pretty amazing year, 1941. 

And yes, the Red Sox will recognize that remarkable year at some point this season. The press spent more time on the Ted number than Joe's, but both are constantly brought up as the standard of greatness.

Now that the Red Sox have become the subject, it's probably a good idea not to have them load the bases. Nothing good seems to come out of loading the bases.

Clay Buchholz is an enigma. Starter? Reliever? Change of scenery? Capable of eliciting boos as early as possible, and once they are silenced, capable of bringing them back. 

You probably ask the obvious question: Why? Why is he still here? 

No clue. A case of hope against hope? The mystery continues. 

The two drafts this week seem to be of minor interest to the sports landscape at best. There seems to be no turnaround for either the Celtics or the Bruins on the horizon. The NBA did gain some attention from the 7th game heroics of the Cavaliers. There was the issue of the league doing what it could to allow it to go seven, but that kinda goes with the product.

The product is out of whack, flawed. 

The players are too big, too fast, too talented, while the confines of the court and the height of the basket are too small and two close. The game is bigger than the space it's played on. Everything has gotten bigger, stronger and faster, except the court.  

I have no clue how to fix that, even if it is possible. Also, like ball and strike calls of home plate umpires, pass interference calls of NFL referees, and red cards given in flop-happy soccer players, the NBA is impossible to officiate. 

Replay in basketball is ridiculous. It's ok in baseball and football, but obviously it’s still a work in progress. 

Again, to the Olympics. Don’t go. It's just not worth it, and golfers risk being tested for performance enhancing drugs. Why would they want to risk that indignity when they have it all without Olympic medals? But that’s not the real issue, and we know it. 

One other note: Dave O'Brien and Dennis Eckersley make a terrific team. Not that Remy isn’t great, but the play-by-play guy makes the color guy even better than we realize. It’s a quiet connection, relaxed and honest. It works. 

And remember, stuff that ballot box with Sandy Leon!