Enough about the pine tar

Source

I don't want to hear anything else about the pine tar that was (almost definitely) on Michael Pineda's hand last night. John Farrell wasn't concerned enough to alert the umpires, the umpires didn't see anything worth investigating, and that's good enough for me.

Pine tar didn't give up four runs to the Yankees last night. Pine tar didn't stop the Red Sox from hitting once Pineda had left the game. Could the pine tar have helped Pineda's grip, and thus his location? Probably. Is using a foreign substance against the rules? Yes. But let's not pretend Pineda is the only guy who does it.

Our very own Clay Buchholz withstood a media firestorm of his own last year when he dominated with some alleged help from Bullfrog sunscreen. Most managers are loathe to alert the umpires when an opposing pitcher is using some sort of topical assistance, because they know it's likely their guys are doing something similar - and as a former pitching coach, John Farrell has to know the hands of his staff are probably sticky, too.

Pineda's use of pine tar seemed to be particularly blatant - NESN analyst and former Red Sox pitcher Dennis Eckersley called it "outrageous." But everyone seems to agree that the substance on Pineda's throwing hand was gone after the fourth inning - and he didn't start falling apart until the seventh, when he was coming up on 100 pitches.

So maybe the pine tar (or whatever it was) helped Pineda when it was on his hand - but it wasn't the reason the Red Sox lost the game.

Remy and Eck: a match made in heaven

Let me first start by stating the obvious: like any true Red Sox fan, I have endless love for Jerry Remy, and I wish him the speediest of recoveries as he fights his most recent health issues.

I love the dynamic duo of RemDawg and Don Orsillo, and their voices have been the soundtrack to my summers for a long time (along with the dulcet tones of Joe Castiglione, on occasions when I am away from the TV). But I have a confession to make.

I LOVE the games when Dennis Eckersley ends up in the booth with Don. Eck is full of hilarious slang to go along with his pitching know-how and awesome mustache that's been unchanged since the mid-1970s.

There are some interesting parallels between Remy and Eckersley, the most obvious being that they were Red Sox teammates for about six seasons. Though their styles are somewhat different in the booth, they both have tons of baseball knowledge and anecdotes (albeit their specialties differ), and they're both prone to fits of silliness.

I guess what I'm saying is that I want to see a three-man booth. I know NESN likes to have Eck doing pre- and post-game content, but all I want out of life is to watch a Red Sox game and hear the inevitable hilarity of Don, Remy, and Eck describing the action. I want to hear the best clubhouse antics from their days sharing a clubhouse, and most of all I want to know the details of the time that they both modeled for Playgirl.

Make it happen, NESN.

Jerry Remy: Playgirl model

If any of you are regulars over at Baseball Prospectus, you've probably seen today's Baseball ProGUESTus feature, Michael Clair's "Dollar Sign on the Glistening Muscle: Scouting Ballplayers in 1980s Playgirl."

That's right, in the golden decade of the 1980s, Playgirl magazine did a spread of Major Leaguers, and two of Red Sox Nation's favorite NESN personalities were part of it.

None other than Jerry Remy posed in a bathing suit for Playgirl, in all of his 80s glory. You're welcome. If you feel the need to own this piece of history (and see Dennis Eckersley in a similar pose) the July 1984 issue can be yours for under $18, and in addition to Remy and Eckersley, you'll get to see George Brett, Rickey Henderson, Steve Sax, Joel Youngblood, Mike Heath, Tom O'Malley, and more.