Notes on a season
This was one of the harder seasons to stomach in my baseball-loving life. It was difficult to see the team go out the way they did, and it was trying to watch them plug along throughout the season with all of their injuries and struggles and losses.
It's even harder when you go into a season with such high hopes and then have to watch the team go along without your favorite anymore.
This season started out for me at Spring Training with
soprano_no_eiji. Jed ended the 2008 season by making the last out of Game 7 of the ALCS, so it was only fitting that my 2009 Red Sox season began with him. We arrived at the stadium and ran inside to check out batting practice, and he was the first person I saw when I got to the top of the stairs. My heart skipped a beat. Literally. I was maybe 20 feet from him at most - possibly even closer. I'm sure he had no idea I was there, but the experience was wonderful even though he didn't wave at me or anything.
To this day, that is my profile picture on Facebook.
Naturally, after this I couldn't wait for shortstops much longer and I really wanted the season to begin, but I had about a month or so to wait for that, and in the meantime Julio Lugo got hurt and Jed essentially won the starting shortstop job. He was looking absolutely fantastic at that point, even hitting the first home run in Citi Field's non-official game history when he crushed a grand slam off of much-maligned starter Oliver Perez in an exhibition game, and I was giddy. This was going to be the year he proved his worth.
Then, right around the anniversary of his Major League debut on April 15th, he went down. His wrist problems hadn't been resolved, and I began worrying. When I found out that he was going to need surgery, my heart sank. I knew he'd worked hard for that starting job, and now he might not be able to get it after all. Fortunately, he was given a fairly speedy timetable with which to recover, but it ended up meaning that he was bounced around from one Minor League affiliate to another as he rehabbed the wrist because of weather issues over the summer - this was perhaps the rainiest summer I can remember.
It turns out our paths crossed again in Pawtucket in early July:
I was afraid I wouldn't see him rehabbing at all during my trip to Rhode Island because it was that week that he was moved from Pawtucket to Lowell to Portland back to Pawtucket, but he arrived in Pawtucket on a Thursday and played that night, conveniently in front of my family and myself. Although he went 0-4, he was defensively fantastic - he made a beautiful stab of a line drive at short - and was his happy, giggly self. He was also very supportive of the kids, waiting for Bubba Bell halfway back to the dugout to personally congratulate him on a fine catch out in left field. It was just too sweet, and I think I fell in love all over again that night.
He made his return when I was at Otakon in early August, and I screamed with delight on a concourse in Baltimore when I found out he homered in his first game back. It all started to go downhill from there, though, and I remember watching him reinjure the wrist on a check swing from the left side on my TV when the Sox were in the process of being swept in New York. I knew it wasn't over yet, and I soon found out he had been diagnosed with ulnar neuritis, which is vaguely like carpal tunnel syndrome in the elbow.
He went back to Pawtucket for a second time, and this period was likely better for him due to a reunion with John Mayberry Jr., his college roommate and best friend. They even homered in the same game at one point! The wrist seemed like it was finally coming around, and sure enough, he made it back up when rosters expanded in September. He didn't play much, but he had one extremely clutch hit early on and then did mostly defensive work, including when I saw him in Baltimore (
soprano_no_eiji gives the BEST birthday presents!).
Oh, and he hit a grand slam, so he started and ended the season with one. Not bad, eh?
The grand slam is probably what got him on the playoff roster. Unfortunately, that was very short-lived time, too, because the Sox were swept and Jed only appeared a few times overall, not doing anything of major consequence. That was it. It was quick and ruthless, and then it was over.
Now we both have to wait until February again.
I am so, so proud of him for sticking it out in a situation in which so many other people would have given up. He worked incredibly hard to get himself into good enough condition for the playoff roster, and although it took him the entire season and two Minor League rehab stints he pulled it off. He really needs more recognition for this - it takes a lot of mental strength to survive what he went through. Instead of just tossing him aside, he deserves to be given at least a little attention and praise.
So let's not forget about Jed Lowrie right away, Theo, okay?
It's even harder when you go into a season with such high hopes and then have to watch the team go along without your favorite anymore.
This season started out for me at Spring Training with
soprano_no_eiji. Jed ended the 2008 season by making the last out of Game 7 of the ALCS, so it was only fitting that my 2009 Red Sox season began with him. We arrived at the stadium and ran inside to check out batting practice, and he was the first person I saw when I got to the top of the stairs. My heart skipped a beat. Literally. I was maybe 20 feet from him at most - possibly even closer. I'm sure he had no idea I was there, but the experience was wonderful even though he didn't wave at me or anything.
To this day, that is my profile picture on Facebook.
Naturally, after this I couldn't wait for shortstops much longer and I really wanted the season to begin, but I had about a month or so to wait for that, and in the meantime Julio Lugo got hurt and Jed essentially won the starting shortstop job. He was looking absolutely fantastic at that point, even hitting the first home run in Citi Field's non-official game history when he crushed a grand slam off of much-maligned starter Oliver Perez in an exhibition game, and I was giddy. This was going to be the year he proved his worth.
Then, right around the anniversary of his Major League debut on April 15th, he went down. His wrist problems hadn't been resolved, and I began worrying. When I found out that he was going to need surgery, my heart sank. I knew he'd worked hard for that starting job, and now he might not be able to get it after all. Fortunately, he was given a fairly speedy timetable with which to recover, but it ended up meaning that he was bounced around from one Minor League affiliate to another as he rehabbed the wrist because of weather issues over the summer - this was perhaps the rainiest summer I can remember.
It turns out our paths crossed again in Pawtucket in early July:
I was afraid I wouldn't see him rehabbing at all during my trip to Rhode Island because it was that week that he was moved from Pawtucket to Lowell to Portland back to Pawtucket, but he arrived in Pawtucket on a Thursday and played that night, conveniently in front of my family and myself. Although he went 0-4, he was defensively fantastic - he made a beautiful stab of a line drive at short - and was his happy, giggly self. He was also very supportive of the kids, waiting for Bubba Bell halfway back to the dugout to personally congratulate him on a fine catch out in left field. It was just too sweet, and I think I fell in love all over again that night.
He made his return when I was at Otakon in early August, and I screamed with delight on a concourse in Baltimore when I found out he homered in his first game back. It all started to go downhill from there, though, and I remember watching him reinjure the wrist on a check swing from the left side on my TV when the Sox were in the process of being swept in New York. I knew it wasn't over yet, and I soon found out he had been diagnosed with ulnar neuritis, which is vaguely like carpal tunnel syndrome in the elbow.
He went back to Pawtucket for a second time, and this period was likely better for him due to a reunion with John Mayberry Jr., his college roommate and best friend. They even homered in the same game at one point! The wrist seemed like it was finally coming around, and sure enough, he made it back up when rosters expanded in September. He didn't play much, but he had one extremely clutch hit early on and then did mostly defensive work, including when I saw him in Baltimore (
soprano_no_eiji gives the BEST birthday presents!).
Oh, and he hit a grand slam, so he started and ended the season with one. Not bad, eh?
The grand slam is probably what got him on the playoff roster. Unfortunately, that was very short-lived time, too, because the Sox were swept and Jed only appeared a few times overall, not doing anything of major consequence. That was it. It was quick and ruthless, and then it was over.
Now we both have to wait until February again.
I am so, so proud of him for sticking it out in a situation in which so many other people would have given up. He worked incredibly hard to get himself into good enough condition for the playoff roster, and although it took him the entire season and two Minor League rehab stints he pulled it off. He really needs more recognition for this - it takes a lot of mental strength to survive what he went through. Instead of just tossing him aside, he deserves to be given at least a little attention and praise.
So let's not forget about Jed Lowrie right away, Theo, okay?