CENTER FIELD :: Journaling With The Sox

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Journaling With The Sox

Yesterday, we learned that Josh Beckett keeps a ~~diary~~ journal, and I took a peek inside. Intrepid Center Field commenters and correspondents fc and mhcranberry pondered what the ~~diaries~~ journals of the rest of the team might look like... and here's what they came up with.

Apparently Mike Lowell does it too---but that doesn't surprise us, since he comes across as being very verbally adept, what with his complete sentences and correct syntax. But seriously, he seems to be a more expressive individual than others on his team.

"Dear Diary, I was so happy to bat in those runs tonight. I could tell the fans were behind me. Tonight's game reminded me of the time when, as a boyscout, I went into that burning building to rescue those puppies. yours, Mike"

Jonathan Papelbon doesn't need to journal, since everything he thinks just comes straight out his mouth anyway. Also, I'm not sure he could pay attention to it long enough. I'll bet he tried to start journaling, but every page just had half a sentence that just trailed off in the middle.

Jacoby Ellsbury: "I don't have a journal of my own yet. I have to earn my journal."

Sean Casey and Big Papi are clearly so at peace with the universe that they have transcended journaling. Seriously, they're imbued with the spirit of the Buddha or something---when I see Papi smile or hear his voice, a wave of calm rolls over me.

Sean Casey:

Dear Diary, I made a new friend today! love, Sean
Dear Diary, I made a new friend today! love, Sean
Dear Diary, I made a new friend today! love, Sean
Dear Diary, I made a new friend today! love, Sean
Dear Diary, I made a new friend today! love, Sean
Dear Diary, I made a new friend today! love, Sean
Dear Diary, I LOVE HUGS! love, Sean
Dear Diary, I made a new friend today! love, Sean
Dear Diary, I made a new friend today! love, Sean

Dustin Pedroia doesn't journal because journals are just a distraction from kicking your ass. Hard. Pedro over his shoulder: "Mandatory journal check!"

Kyle Snyder seems like a quiet sort. Maybe the journal is the only way he communicates at all.

Jason Varitek journals for DATA purposes and also because it sets a good example for kids. He also makes sure the pitchers are keeping up with their journal-writing and ensures they're using them properly.

Dear Diary, Tomorrow I need to speak with Paps about how to best use his journal to his advantage and to create a strategy for future journal entries. He's a great kid, I'm just trying to help him be the best he can be. I've also picked out a great book for tomorrow's story hour in the clubhouse: "The Little Engine That Could". What a great message. Remember: Give all the guys a chance to sit next to me so they can see the pictures. yours, Tek

We've seen what Dougie Mirabelli's journals are like. And Dougie is Tim Wakefield's journal... a walking, talking journal.

Mike Timlin writes his journal using fresh deer blood instead of ink.

Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester journal because Josh journals. They mostly journal about Josh, and since that's also what Beckett is writing about, their journals are almost identical to his.

Manny Ramirez keeps a journal, but never about baseball-- it's really a notebook containing his thoughts on atmospheric physics, designs for experiments on a cure for cancer, his solution to global warming and healthcare policy analyses. But to everyone else, it just looks like a book full of pencil drawings of people playing baseball. It's encoded.

No one wants to see Julian Tavarez's journal. God, how terrifying.

JD Drew: "I was brought up to believe that southern gentlemen don't journal. It wouldn't be seemly."

Curt Schilling? You've read it for a year at 38pitches.com. Movie and book to follow, once he's publicly worked out the deal for publishing rights.

Kevin Youkilis: "And in my first at bat tonight, I thought to myself, This is the pitch. This is the pitch. ^&#&^$!! OK, this is the pitch. This is the pitch. &^#*&^*&$@@!!* Then, in my second at bat,..."
(Mops brow, turns page for dry writing surface.)

Coco Crisp, writing in the margins: "Dear Diary, If they won't let me use the whole page, this is my last entry."

Hideki Okajima keeps his journal locked up under his mattress... he's all about secrecy.

And Dice-K would keep a journal, but has found it unnecessary given the media people taking down his every move anyway.

--fc & mhcranberry

Comments (26)

[ Jolie ] says:
on February 23, 2008 12:50 PM

LOL I don't think I've ever laughed so hard

[ Jaymers ] says:
on February 23, 2008 2:16 PM

hahahahahahahahaha!!

[ mhcranberry ] says:
on February 23, 2008 2:43 PM

Love ya TG!

Methodology: back and forth emails for hours and hours, maybe a few glasses of wine... the ones above are the hand-picked best ones, in my opinion.

Ones we couldn't get, if anyone has ideas: Julio Lugo, MDC, Tito... others?

[ Twinkie ] says:
on February 23, 2008 2:55 PM

That's so great, And so true. Glad I'm not the only one who imagines Tek as a babysitter for the others!

I would love to be a fly on the wall at story time...

[ jules ] says:
on February 23, 2008 3:02 PM

That's hysterical! Brilliant writing--love it.

Jonathan Papelbon doesn't need to journal, since everything he thinks just comes straight out his mouth anyway.
This made me laugh out loud--perfect. Absolutely perfect.

[ fc ] says:
on February 23, 2008 3:06 PM

Geez, this is fun. Does this cut into my requisite 15 minutes of fame? TG, thanks for allowing us to take over for a few!

[ Piney61 ] says:
on February 23, 2008 4:47 PM

The Sean Casey one is pure genius. Also I see Kyle Snyder as having liek a journal full of extremely intelligently introspective thoughts about life and pitching and stuff. It'd be like Bill Lee but the crazy is down to 4

Some ideas I have for the ones you missed:

Delcarmen: He'd talk a lot about Mike Timlin in it and how much he looks up to him. Also a lot of pirate related thoughts. Then he'd use it as a drum!

Lopez: Left side of the page is all messed up and scribbled due to misspellings. The right side of the page would be more coherent

Lugo: His would have a decent beginning of thoughts then his journal would go to hell for like a month which all there is is blank pages, but then it will finish strong. And the thoughts will be completely insane.

Cora: A mix between Lowell and Varitek's journal formats.

Kielty: The journal will be full of numbers and math equations as he tries to find out how he can turn the science of hitting and pitching into nothing but mere numbers...he's still working on it.

[ mhcranberry ] says:
on February 23, 2008 6:30 PM

I was thinking about Gagne's too (I know he left, but what a story anyway)...

In a journal with 200 pages, 197 of them are filled with stunning prose, showing tremendous insight and maturity... and the last 3 pages are covered with greasy fingerprints and smeared with animal feces or something.

[ fc ] says:
on February 23, 2008 7:51 PM

Piney, your Lopez entry is brilliant!

MHC, I thought about Gagne too. I think those last entries would read, "Where am I? What am I doing? Q'est-ce que c'est, this round white object?"

[ mhcranberry ] says:
on February 23, 2008 9:23 PM

I think Lopez didn't realize he could write more than one entry.

Gagne's last entry:

"Cher journal,

J'ai fait une erreur horrible. Ils me detestent. Dieu me deteste.

La vie est sans significance.

J'ai faim. J'ai besoin de la poutine

Affectueusement,
Eric

P.S. Je souhaite que j'aie joue a l'hockey. Vive les Canadiens!

P.P.S. Josh Beckett ne cessera pas de m'appeler "Canuck".

I'll post a translation in a bit... come on, dig out that high school French! (sorry to offend any native speakers with my verb conjugations, I'm sure there's at least one error)

[ mhcranberry ] says:
on February 23, 2008 9:57 PM

Gagne's journal entry in English...

"Dear diary, I've made a horrible mistake. They hate me. God hates me. Life is meaningless. I'm hungry. I need poutine right now. affectionately, Eric

PS I wish I played hockey. Go Canadiens!
PPS Josh Beckett won't stop calling me "Canuck".

[ j ] says:
on February 24, 2008 12:52 AM

Hahaha I love this. I cracked up at Crisp's entry. That's so true. I wanna see what Tito's would be...

[ starr4 ] says:
on February 24, 2008 10:39 AM

Tito:
Dear Diary,
I feel fortunate, this organization is well run, the guys are great. For me, this is a dream, well, what I mean is, where the hell is my big payday contract extension? Two World Series in 4 years. Where's the hold up?
Ah, until then, I'll beat Pedroia at cribbage...again.

[ fc ] says:
on February 24, 2008 11:06 AM

Tito, next entry:
Dear Diary,
If anyone should understand patience, I should. While we were working it out, we kept saying it was just a business deal, but when I signed on the dotted line, it was very, very special.
Now, if only they wouldn't make me change my outfit...

[ Lyndsay ] says:
on February 24, 2008 12:20 PM

these were all brilliant! nobody mentioned the followup to Ellsbury's "I have to earn my journal" - - which is that he creates his own hidden journal by stealing pages from Coco's when Coco isn't looking. and on them is written the mantra: "I will not become Nomar. I am better than him. I will not become Nom - sorry diary, GQ just called and I gotta go do a photo shoot. ok, back now. I am better than Nomar. I am better than Nomar."

[ Rachel O ] says:
on February 24, 2008 1:14 PM

hahaha these are all great! Paps made me laugh so hard and I love Youkilis' because I'm sure that's what mine would sound like if I kept a journal after games

[ mhcranberry ] says:
on February 24, 2008 1:32 PM

Ellsbury, my take:

Dear Diary,
I had a really wonderful yoga session with my mom this morning. I am so glad we can share that. After finding my center, I worked on developing my skills by swimming up to Puget Sound and back, running up Mount Hood (20 minutes--need to work on that time), lifting weights and wrestling black bears.

Then I had lunch and my midday meditation session.

I was really itching to get a real workout so I played 1-on-11 basketball for awhile down at the court--who cares if I won, they really put up a fight down there! Great guys. Then I played some football with the gang--real casual, you know, and since I got to be QB I threw some great passes to myself.

This evening Lester called me up and was kinda stressing about the starter competition going into ST and I told him, man, you just gotta relax, focus on your skills and building a solid foundation and make sure you're healthy and you'll get there. We can learn a lot from the older guys, you know. I also advised him to try yoga.

Plan for tomorrow includes a quick jog to San Diego and back. Must remember sunscreen--safety first.

Peace,
Jacoby

(sidenote: why do he and Lester have southern-ish accents despite being from the Pacific NW? Family history? Over-exposure on the Sox?)

[ starr4 ] says:
on February 24, 2008 2:04 PM

Tito entry, post contract agreement:
Dear Diary,
That's better. Not much to worry about until 2011. Tonight, again, I resolve to give up chew, and to smoke a honkin, big cigar cause frankly, I deserve it. While I wouldn't tell anyone but you, they're all crazy with this baseball fever in B-town.
Tito

[ Rachel O ] says:
on February 24, 2008 3:07 PM

That was amazing, mhcranberry! hahaha a "quick jog to San Diego and back..." he's Forest Gump!

[ Liza ] says:
on February 24, 2008 4:12 PM

mhcranberry: Yes. And I don't think Jacoby has a southern accent, but I've been wondering about Lester's!

[ K. E. ] says:
on February 24, 2008 7:17 PM

Wow, I haven't laughed this hard in forever!!! And I love to laugh, so that's saying a lot! I loved them all, Sean Caseys, Paps, Youk, they were all so great... Being a massive Ellsbury fan anyway, I had to laugh at his, that was real great... BUT the one that REALLY made me crack up and keep on laughing long after reading was Coco's!!!!! Trying to keep up with the whole situation...that really got to me, good thinking!!!!!!!

And the second take on Jacoby by mhcranberry...haha, that's too great!!! This is a girl who's totally, madly, forever in love with him, and I couldn't help but laugh...Great job guys, all of you, you put a huge smile on my face!!

[ mhcranberry ] says:
on February 24, 2008 9:42 PM

Liza-- I dunno. He's got some kind of drawl on his vowels that I find so curious. Maybe because his family is from the Southwest? I'm really sensitive to accents, and he talks out the side of his mouth a bit, pulls out those vowels like in the south, but he speaks at the speed of a northerner. Going back to some interviews from the minor league days, I think it has gotten more pronounced recently. I BLAME THE PITCHERS.

It threw me from the very first interview, though. As I've said, I'm the first generation of my mother's family without a downeast accent---which you may never hear, as it's a bit of a dying dialect, so you can listen here to a story in the accent a tale of that famous Yankee hospitality: http://www.bertandi.net/mp3/notjustyet.mp3

And yes, I say "Ayuh" and "wicked", always have.

Anyway, I'm going to assume that others on this site (like our fair hostess) could probably tell the regional differences between the Southern accents on the team, but it all sounds like the same, slow drawling to my ears.

PS--I am really procrastinating studying for my midterms right now. Last semester of my master's and I've lost all motivation. The entry itself was one effort, this response is another. Sigh...

[ Bottomline Rob ] says:
on February 25, 2008 8:51 AM

This is hilarious! It did crack me up to here that Beckett keeps a journal between guzzling beers, hitting on Texas hotties and riding broncos.

If he keep a journal about that stuff, it should be made into a movie!

[ Anonymous ] says:
on February 25, 2008 11:16 AM

to mhcranberry:

hahahaha I like yours better than mine. good call on doing yoga with his mom and a quick run to San Diego...but you missed his volunteer coaching session of the reservation's Little League team :-).

he also gave Pedroia a dream catcher to hang in his locker and some sage to burn, to calm his inner rage after particularly grueling ping pong tournaments. :-)

[ Lyndsay ] says:
on February 25, 2008 11:22 AM

as for the frightening nature of a Tavarez journal...I believe it probably has a running hit list of all the players/managers/umps that he would like to kill and/or maim. perhaps some elaborate and colorful sketches of the specific ways in which he would kill them - one guy gets macheted with pieces of broken-off bat, one guy gets fastball through eye socket, etc. also, some lovingly-done drawings of Ortiz and Manny, to use on the custom-designed line of Papi and Manny-themed sportswear he's working on in the off-season.

and when he was missing in action, I would suspect he was either training in guerrilla warfare with MS-13 in Central America, or...at Fashion Week.

[ Lyndsay ] says:
on February 25, 2008 1:27 PM

also - back on the Ellsbury track - am i the only person who heard the story that last year he wrote Tito a thank you note every time he got to play? how cute is that? and Tito said something like "Thanks kid, but save your energy - you're gonna get a lot more starts". so Jacoby's journal would also have to include a running to-do list of people he needs to send thank you notes to - coaches, trainers, the mailman, etc...

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