Cyberlibrarian
03-29-2005, 10:15 AM
Here (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/29/sports/baseball/29millar.html).
If you aren't registered, go to www.bugmenot.com for a password.
But here are highlights:
Attention please, ladies and gentlemen. I am here to announce that Doug Mirabelli, No. 28, took Curt Schilling deep in the just-concluded simulated ballgame." The speaker, in the Boston Red Sox clubhouse earlier this month at City of Palms Park in Fort Myers, Fla., was Kevin Millar, the vocal first baseman, orating in a loud and scratchy voice, his eyes sparkling with mischief.
He had just entered the clubhouse, with Schilling, the all-star pitcher, and Mirabelli, the second-string catcher, trooping through the door behind him.
"Yeah, but did you hear the weather reports?" Schilling responded. "There were record gusts of wind. No way Mirabelli goes deep on me otherwise."
Millar said: "Too late. Mirabelli was already circling the bases."
All this drew laughs from the other players, who were at their lockers or simply milling about, players like pitcher Bronson Arroyo, who, Millar says, "is so skinny he looks like a fungo bat with clothes thrown on him."
...During an at-bat one time last season, Ramirez heard Millar screaming from the dugout at the umpire (Millar often screams at umpires, and they often laugh, too). In this instance, the inscrutable Ramirez had taken a ball on the first pitch, and the unrestrained Millar protested from the dugout: "It was a strike! It was a strike!"
...Millar is too noisy to be Boston's secret weapon, but his value clearly goes beyond his ability on the field.
"Whatever he says is disarming, and never personal," Red Sox Manager Terry Francona said. "And in the context, it's not important what he says. What's important is the effect he has. There's a lot of pressure in this game, and he helps alleviate it. But he can play. If he couldn't, none of that other stuff would work."
..."But it's true that he's not the greatest fielder at first base," Francona said. "He's good, but when we bring in a substitute in the late innings, a Gold Glove guy on the bench, he gets mad. And I sat him down for one game, and he was steaming. But that night my phone rang about six times. I knew it was Kevin, calling to apologize, but I didn't answer it.
...Fittingly enough, Millar began Boston's historic comeback against the Yankees in last season's American League Championship Series. The Yankees were ahead in the series, three games to none, and took a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth in Game 4, with Mariano Rivera on the mound. The Red Sox were three outs from being swept, from adding one more bleak chapter to an anguished rivalry with the Yankees. The 34,826 somber fans in Fenway Park had seen it all before.
...Millar, 33, a lifetime .292 hitter, understands that when the odds are against you, it doesn't mean it's curtains.
Matt Clement, who joined the Red Sox this year after pitching for the Cubs, pitched for the Marlins in 2001 and was a teammate of Millar's.
"He's the same guy, full of fun, but when you don't get into a World Series, nobody recognizes it," Clement said. "But he's always been great to have around. He brings you down to earth, that you're still just playing a game."
Millar said: "I look at some of the guys I grew up with, and they're coaching here and there and hitting fungoes and making $34,000 a year. And I have to laugh when some of the guys up here complain that the clubhouse boy didn't shine their shoes right, or someone didn't bring up their luggage to their room. They forget how good we have it. I try not to."
...The raucous atmosphere on the Red Sox has been contrasted to the more refined and perhaps more professional atmosphere of the Yankees. The Red Sox, with Millar as the ringmaster, have the dirtiest batting helmets, the scraggliest beards, the droopiest uniforms. "And the ugliest bodies," Millar offered.
In spring training, some of the Red Sox, including Millar, even agreed to makeovers for the television series "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." From clubhouse to batting cage, it seems the Red Sox, loose and loud, are back where they left off last October. With Millar in the middle.
"Kevin's great," Francona said. "But I wouldn't want 12 of him."
I love this guy.
If you aren't registered, go to www.bugmenot.com for a password.
But here are highlights:
Attention please, ladies and gentlemen. I am here to announce that Doug Mirabelli, No. 28, took Curt Schilling deep in the just-concluded simulated ballgame." The speaker, in the Boston Red Sox clubhouse earlier this month at City of Palms Park in Fort Myers, Fla., was Kevin Millar, the vocal first baseman, orating in a loud and scratchy voice, his eyes sparkling with mischief.
He had just entered the clubhouse, with Schilling, the all-star pitcher, and Mirabelli, the second-string catcher, trooping through the door behind him.
"Yeah, but did you hear the weather reports?" Schilling responded. "There were record gusts of wind. No way Mirabelli goes deep on me otherwise."
Millar said: "Too late. Mirabelli was already circling the bases."
All this drew laughs from the other players, who were at their lockers or simply milling about, players like pitcher Bronson Arroyo, who, Millar says, "is so skinny he looks like a fungo bat with clothes thrown on him."
...During an at-bat one time last season, Ramirez heard Millar screaming from the dugout at the umpire (Millar often screams at umpires, and they often laugh, too). In this instance, the inscrutable Ramirez had taken a ball on the first pitch, and the unrestrained Millar protested from the dugout: "It was a strike! It was a strike!"
...Millar is too noisy to be Boston's secret weapon, but his value clearly goes beyond his ability on the field.
"Whatever he says is disarming, and never personal," Red Sox Manager Terry Francona said. "And in the context, it's not important what he says. What's important is the effect he has. There's a lot of pressure in this game, and he helps alleviate it. But he can play. If he couldn't, none of that other stuff would work."
..."But it's true that he's not the greatest fielder at first base," Francona said. "He's good, but when we bring in a substitute in the late innings, a Gold Glove guy on the bench, he gets mad. And I sat him down for one game, and he was steaming. But that night my phone rang about six times. I knew it was Kevin, calling to apologize, but I didn't answer it.
...Fittingly enough, Millar began Boston's historic comeback against the Yankees in last season's American League Championship Series. The Yankees were ahead in the series, three games to none, and took a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth in Game 4, with Mariano Rivera on the mound. The Red Sox were three outs from being swept, from adding one more bleak chapter to an anguished rivalry with the Yankees. The 34,826 somber fans in Fenway Park had seen it all before.
...Millar, 33, a lifetime .292 hitter, understands that when the odds are against you, it doesn't mean it's curtains.
Matt Clement, who joined the Red Sox this year after pitching for the Cubs, pitched for the Marlins in 2001 and was a teammate of Millar's.
"He's the same guy, full of fun, but when you don't get into a World Series, nobody recognizes it," Clement said. "But he's always been great to have around. He brings you down to earth, that you're still just playing a game."
Millar said: "I look at some of the guys I grew up with, and they're coaching here and there and hitting fungoes and making $34,000 a year. And I have to laugh when some of the guys up here complain that the clubhouse boy didn't shine their shoes right, or someone didn't bring up their luggage to their room. They forget how good we have it. I try not to."
...The raucous atmosphere on the Red Sox has been contrasted to the more refined and perhaps more professional atmosphere of the Yankees. The Red Sox, with Millar as the ringmaster, have the dirtiest batting helmets, the scraggliest beards, the droopiest uniforms. "And the ugliest bodies," Millar offered.
In spring training, some of the Red Sox, including Millar, even agreed to makeovers for the television series "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." From clubhouse to batting cage, it seems the Red Sox, loose and loud, are back where they left off last October. With Millar in the middle.
"Kevin's great," Francona said. "But I wouldn't want 12 of him."
I love this guy.