Another star no longer shines, and again at much too young an age. Donna Summer succumbed to cancer yesterday. She was only 63, which is the new 42.

I have three Donna Summer tidbits to share.

#1: When her first album came out in 1975 I was working at WGTR in Natick, MA. The station was owned by John Garabedian, who still today, at the age of 70, hosts a weekly Top 40 show called “Open House Party” that is heard on stations coast-to-coast on Saturday night. Side one of the Donna Summer album was one song, “Love to Love You Baby.” 17 minutes of Donna sounding like she’s getting busy like no one ever has before or will in the future and goes out of her mind 8 times. John decides that we should add the song, and asked me if I could edit it down to a reasonable length but leave in enough moaning to make it interesting. I do, and we have a 3:42 version with one set of fireworks. The song becomes a huge hit, and WGTR, as the first station anywhere to add it, is awarded the Gold Record.

#2: When Donna winds up becoming a star, my mother mentions over dinner one night that she had been Donna’s math teacher at the Jeremiah Burke High School in the Dorchester section of Boston. In the same class was a young woman named Valerie Holiday. Valerie wound up as lead singer of the Three Degrees, who had a #1 song in 1974, “When Will I See You Again?” What are the odds of two people in the same math class in high school both having #1 songs?

#3: When my wife Kathy and I started dating, we were both working at a radio station on Cape Cod. She had just been on a trip to California and visited Donner Summit, which sounds like Donna Summer if you have a wicked bad Boston accent. Not that either of us does. Anyway, our song was “On the Radio” by Donna Summer.

The name Carlton Beane sounds like a wild pitcher in the latest John Grisham book, but our friend Carl Beane was the PA voice of Fenway Park.  He died of a heart attack while driving on Wednesday afternoon.  He was only 59.  Last night, upon the Red Sox return to Fenway, the Public Address system was silenced.  (As were the Red Sox bats, but that’s another story.)

Carl worked at a radio station in the central part of the Commonwealth, WARE in Ware.  One of only two radio stations in America where the call letters and the city of license are an exact match.  Naturally you want to know what the other one is:  it’s WACO in Waco, TX.  Since 2003, the year I got my season tickets at Fenway as a Father’s Day present (thanks,  Kathy), Carl has been the Voice of Fenway.

In addition to the gift of a booming voice that echoed off the Monster and the beams supporting the upper deck, Carl knew just how to play it.  When you go to a game in other cities (I’ve been to games at 38 Major League ballparks) you are almost always treated to a PA voice that sounds bored to tears when announcing the visiting players, but when the home team is up the fans are treated to what is known in the radio business as yucking.  If you really go overboard it’s called puking.  “And now, batting for YOOOUUUUR Ariiizzzoooooona Diiiiamondbacks, the shortstop, number 6,STEEEEE-veeeennn DREEEEEWWW!!!!”  Carl never did that.

He did, however, master….the…..pause.  One spring, when Carl was visiting the radio station, he told me a Jeter story. Derek had said to Carl, “I know why you take all those pauses, like ‘Now batting for the Yankees….the shortstop……#2……Derek………..Jeter.’  It’s so that people can boo me four times.”  Carl responded, “Exactly.”

He also recorded an announcement for me that I used to have as a ring tone. “Your attention ladies and gentlemen, now batting for the Red Sox, the left fielder…#13…Don…Kelley.”   I’ve been going through old backup drives the last couple of days trying to find it.  No luck.

Yesterday Brian McGrory wrote a piece in The Boston Globe basically saying that he couldn’t give away his Red Sox Opening Day tickets.  No one cares anymore.

 That’s just not the case.  The place was packed, as always.  With smiling faces of every age.

It’s very family-friendly.  No smoking at Fenway.  Even the outside smoking area is difficult to find.

Second, the Star Spangled Banner done by the Boston Pops with the Tanglewood Festival orchestra is just fabulous.  They get the words right and don’t use five different notes to sing “free” or “brave” like Patti LaBelle.

I went with my older brother.  We hadn’t gone to Opening Day together in a long time.  I won’t say what year it was, but it was ten Presidents ago and the team the Red Sox were playing hasn’t existed for over five decades.  Take a guess.  We walked around to the bleacher area to locate the brick that I got for Christmas from my wife and daughters.

On Opening Day at Fenway they do things that the fans love…like having the first pitches thrown out by 90’s and 00’s favorites Tim Wakefield and Jason Varitek and caught by 70’s and 80’s favorites Dwight Evans and Jim Rice.

Josh Beckett, in the center of last September’s collapse and with one horrible start under his belt, was terrific.  One run in eight innings.  Then it was Sweet Caroline time.

He probably could have pitched the 9th for a complete game victory.  His pitch count was only in the low 90’s, but the Red Sox sent 14 batters to the plate in the 8th and it was a long wait.  Plus he had an 11-run lead.  Not a save situation.  So Mark Melancon came in to close it and gave up a home run to Ben Zobrist.  Way too little, way too late for the Rays.

But the fun part was the entire day.  Just when you’re ready for hope to spring eternal, it does.  A beautiful day, the old ball yard looking great at 100, and a huge win for the Olde Towne Team.   It’s what Opening Day should be.  Brian, you missed a good one.

Think about it. Starting out 0-and-3 is twice as good as last year’s 0-and-6 start. It’s 7 times better than the Orioles’ 0-and-21 start in 1988. They could actually be at .500 for the Home Opener on Friday. So stop worrying.

Your browser does not support iframes.

Notice that there are two #5’s trotting to the dugout.

It’s the annual Tom, Dick and Harry update.  What do you think is the most common first name in the Major Leagues?

HInt:  It’s not Asdrubel.  Like Jeep, there’s only one.  There’s also only one Yuniesky and one Gorkys, but two Melkys.

I checked the 40-man rosters of all 30 teams.  That’s 1200 players.

Initials:  19 use initials. Three AJ’s:  Burnett, Ellis, Pierzinski.  Three DJ’s:  Carrasco, LeMathieu, Mitchell.  Two JC’s:  Ramirez and Romero.  Two JJ’s:  Hardy and Putz.  Two JP’s:  Arencibia and Howell.  Plus BJ Upton, CC Sabathia, CJ Wilson, JA Happ, JB Shuck, JD Martinez and RA Dickey.  (Fortunately, JD Drew retired.)

The five most common first names…

#5:  Zack or Zach:  Braddock, Britton, Cox, Cozart, Grienke, Lutz, McAllister, Phillips, Putnam, Stewart.

#’s 4,3 and 2 all start with J, but none are Jose.

#4:  Justin.  We have DeFratus, Masterson, Miller, Morneau, Sellers, Smoak, Thomas, Turner, Upton, Verlander and Wilson.

#3:  Jason.  There’s Bay, Berken, Bourgeois, Castro, Donald, Giambi, Grilli, Hammel, Heyward, Insrighausen, Kipnis, Kubel, Marquis, Vargas, Werth (okay, he spells it with a y).

#2:  Josh:  Beckett, Bell, Collmeter, Donaldson, Hamilton, Harrison, Johnson, Lindbloom, Lueke, Outman, Reddick, Roenicke, Satin, Spence, Thole, Tomlin, Wall, Willingham.

and the #1 most common name….

Ryan:  Adams, Braun, Cook, Dempster, Doumit, Flaherty, Hanigan, Howard, Kalish, Lavarnway, Ludwick, Madson, Matteus, Perry, Raburn, Roberts, Sweeney, Theriot, Verdugo, Vogelsong, Webb, Zimmerman.

Don:  Only one.  Don Kelley of the Tigers.  Great name, even if he’s missing the second E in Kelley.  

Tom:  Three.  Gorzelanny, Koehler, Wilhelmsen.  Plus three Tommy’s:  Hanson, Hunter and Field.

Still no Dick and no Harry.

It’s one of those names like “Orioles Park at Camden Yards” that looks good on paper, but it’s well-known (at least in radio circles) that people love nicknames and they’ll shorten anything they can. Just like The Fleet center was shortened to “The Fleet” and “TD Garden” is shortened to “The Garden,” the new Red Sox spring training park will be popularly known as either jetBlue Park or Fenway South. My bet is on Fenway South. It’s catchy and it fits. You don’t have to remember that the “j” in jetBlue is lower case, but the B is upper case. Just say, “Fenway South” and everyone knows what you mean.

Here’s the View From Section 29 in Ft. Myers (actually it’s 209 or something like that). The grandstand roof looks like the bleachers at Dodger Stadium, but the field dimensions are almost exactly like Fenway. The Monster is actually 6 feet higher, and three rows of the Monster Seats are halfway up the wall with a screen. There’s another row on top of the Monster South. For some reason that I don’t get at all, the Red Sox dugout is on the third base side.

Why would they take such care to duplicate Fenway and get something that simple backward?  Everything else is identical. The stands jutting out down the third base line, 310′ to the left field wall, the actual scoreboard from Yaz days in the wall, the triangle in center, the bullpens, the Pesky pole, the low fence in right like at Fenway. (In April 1990 Claudell Washington, not being familiar with the quirks of Fenway, tried to non-chalant a Bill Buckner fly ball to right where the fence is only about 4 feet high. Claudell fell into the stands and Bill Buckner got an inside-the-park home run. Buckner, knowing this was funny, laughed his way around the bases.)


Back to spring training 2012. I saw the Red Sox play the Orioles at Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota. It’s a decent ballpark with signs, seats and such that look just like Camden Yards, but the field dimensions are standard. The O’s fans shout out “O” on “Oh, say can you see” in the middle of the National Anthem just like they do in Baltimore. They play “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” by John Denver right after “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” just like in Baltimore. Lots of O’s fans there, but probably outnumbered by Sox fans. Just like in Baltimore.


Back to Fort Myers. Get there an hour early so you can park. Parking is in an adjacent grass field like you’re going to a college football game. The fans are really into it. Sure, there is a heavy dose of guys walking with canes and women riding a Lark, but you also see tons of young families and 20-somethings on dates. I did a head count of 100 people and the gender skew was 51-49. It’s a great-looking park. Every game is sold out, they play “Sweet Caroline” in the middle of the 8th and “Dirty Water” when the Sox win.

Youk was trying a new stance with his feet spread apart a little. It wasn’t helping yet. Josh Beckett started one game with a quick one-pitch out, then proceeded to hit two guys in a row, then walk two guys. New closer Andrew Bailey came on the in the 6th and gave up three straight hits. 


Meanwhile, three regular starters are batting below the Mendoza line (Ellsbury, Youk and Saltalamacchia), one is in the 200’s (Papi), one is in the 300’s (Gonzalez) and one is over .400 (Pedroia). Lavarnway’s batting average is double Saltalamacchia’s. 


What do you do with guys like Lars Anderson, with more AB’s than Gonzo, more hits, more runs, more HR’s, more RBI’s, more walks, higher OBP, slugging and OPS, and a BA that’s 43 points higher? Or what about #77 (not a number that typically goes to someone traveling north with the big team), Pedro Ciriaco? An infielder who’s hitting .643, made a fabulous Pedroia-quality play against the Orioles on Sunday, hit a 10th inning walkoff home run on Monday and scored the winning run on a single and fielding errors by the Yankees on Tuesday. He has much better numbers in everything than Aviles, Iglesias or Punto, the candidates for the starting shortstop job.


It makes you forget about last September.


Hope springs eternal.

Jason Varitek was asked to come to spring training as a non-roster invitee.  The Red Sox already have Jarrod Saltalomacchia (the longest name in professional sports-three letters longer than Ben Roethlesberger) as the #1 receiver.  They also have Ryan Lavarnway, who came up from Pawtucket last fall and showed impressive power – substantially more than Jarrod or Jason over the last couple of years. Plus, the Sox signed former Pawtucket catcher Kelly Shoppach as a third catcher.  Shoppach was part of the trade to get Coco Crisp a few years ago, and wound up in Tampa Bay last year.  So, with three catchers on the roster, where would Tek play?

Jason Varitek was a player, a team leader, and a good guy who would sit in his front yard in Waban and hand out candy to neighborhood kids on Halloween.  I hope the Red Sox hire him as a coach.

Not surprising, but a little disappointing.  Of all the Red Sox pitchers I’ve seen – and it’s a long list – Tim Wakefield is at the top.  I’ve seen him more than anyone.  (Bob Stanley is #2 on that list.)

A knuckleballer is only supposed to win half of his games.  Sometimes the knuckler dances well, sometimes it doesn’t.  Tim easily exceeded the expectation.  He was a starter, a spot starter, a middle reliever, a bullpen guy and a closer.  19 seasons in the majors, 17 with the Red Sox, starting in 1995.   He pitched over 3200 innings.  Struck out twice as many as he walked.

In the 2004 playoffs against the Yankees he came on in relief in the crucial Game 5.  It went 14 innings and lasted until 2AM, and Tim had to face Derek Jeter, Jason Giambi, A-Rod, Hidecki Matsui, Jorge Paada, et al. for three innings.  He gave up only one hit and was the winning pitcher.  He is the only knuckleballer ever to start a World Series game.

How many times did Tim Wakefield go out there and pitch well, but get no support?  Losing 1-0, or leaving with a lead that was subsequently blown by the bullpen?

He wound up with 200 wins, 186 of them with the Red Sox.  Only eight short of breaking the all-time Red Sox record of 194, shared by Roger Clemens and Cy Young.   He struck out well over 2000 for the Red Sox, not that far from the Clemens mark of 2590, and double what Cy Young did.  An amazing record for a knuckleballer.

Cy Young was too along ago to really know, and we know all too much about Roger.  Tim Wakefield, however, was well known as a good guy.  Always said the right thing in an interview.  Did a ton of community work.  Gave us many quality innings.  We’ll miss him.

Thanks, Tim,  for 17 great seasons.