Tim Wakefield - 49 - RHP
Week 7 - 17-23 May 2004

Most fathers take a little time off after the birth of their first child; Tim Wakefield decided instead to go and win a couple games for the Red Sox. After witnessing the birth of his son, Trevor, the previous Saturday, Wakefield showed up in Tampa Bay last Tuesday and threw seven innings against the Devil Rays, allowing just one run on three hits. At one point, he retired 13 straight batters as he raise his career record against Tampa Bay to 9-1. Then Sunday, despite a few sleepness nights as he adjusts to 3:00 AM feedings and diaper changes, Wakefield helped the Red Sox finish a weekend series sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays, allowing just two runs on six hits while striking out four in another seven innings of work. For the season, Wakefield is 4-2, tied with Pedro Martinez for second in wins for Boston, and has an ERA of 3.21, second only to Curt Schilling among Boston starters. Try to get some sleep, pal….

David Ortiz - 34 - 1B/DH
Week 6 - 10-16 May 2004

2004 has begun in a different fashion for David Ortiz than it did in 2003. Last season, he seemed to plod along until after the All-Star Break, when he suddenly sparked and caught fire, helping the Red Sox make the playoffs for the first time in four years. This year, he has picked up where he left off and this past week was his best this season. In five of the seven games he played, he either hit a home run or drove in an RBI and had at least one hit in six of those contests, batting .300 with three home runs and seven RBI. On Tuesday against the Indians, Ortiz crushed an offering from C.C. Sabathia into the right field grandstand in the fourth inning to help give the Sox an early 2-1 lead, then doubled and scored in the eighth to tie the game at three before the Sox scored two more to win, 5-3. Ortiz leads the team in home runs (10) and RBI (29) and has been worth every penny of the $4.6 million he received from the Red Sox for this season.

Major League Baseball changed its mind very quickly when, after announcing plans to put ads for the upcoming summer movie, Spider-Man 2, on every base in major league parks during a weekend in June, howls of rage from baseball purists helped decide that this was a bad public relations move. The same fans also got their knickers in a twist when ads showed up on the uniforms of players during a season-opening series in Japan between the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the New York Yankees. The victory for these fans, however, may only be short-lived.

Go to any major league ballpark today and you can’t avoid seeing ads everywhere for newspapers, major retailers, cell phone services, and soft drink companies. A blank wall space is nothing more than a potential spot to make a few extra dollars for a club that goes towards the cost of running a major league team, of which a good percentage counts towards player salaries. I can even stand at a stall in the bathroom and read an advertisement for exotic automobiles available at a local dealer. Don’t forget, too, that almost every ballpark now bears a brand name: Tropicana Field, Comerica Park, and Network Associates Coliseum, to name a few.

So where does the line in the sand get drawn between the genuine nature of the game and the chance to squeeze as much revenue out of the fans of baseball? Is it wrong for the playing field to have an ad for Home Depot carved into the outfield grass by the grounds crew? Should baseball players double as walking billboards for Coca-Cola? Have we entangled ourselves in this web of advertising that we have accepted the inevitable, on which Major League Baseball is counting??

In other sports, advertisements have become commonplace in areas that baseball fears to tread. At professional hockey games, you find large ads painted under the ice and possibly even a product name glued to the side of player’s helmets. Uniforms sported by European soccer teams have ads for adidas, Sony, petrol companies, and many other businesses. NASCAR is the best example of product placement gone mad; ads are plastered on every square inch of the cars, painted on the infield grass, and sewn to the jumper suits worn by the drivers. Regardless, the popularity of NASCAR grows every year. Would baseball be able to adopt some of these practices in a manner that does not detract from the game?

Those who favor the tradition and integrity of the game of baseball will eventually lose this battle because Major League Baseball, through no fault of its own, puts the bottom line above all else. At the end of the day, no matter which team ends up on top and who finishes last, the question will be: how much profit did we generate this season? What we, as fans of the game, can hope for is that the game itself does not change. A grand slam by Manny Ramirez scores the same number of runs whether or not an ad for Claritin prominently adorns his pant leg. A diving catch by Johnny Damon in the outfield is recorded as an out whether or not he slides across the Golden Arches painted on the grass.

Still, I want the field and the uniforms to remain untouched. I love the beauty of the green grass in the outfield, the red dirt in the infield, and the white glow from the bases and the foul lines under the sodium lights. I also love the white home uniforms of the Red Sox, with BOSTON boldly printed on the front and the players’ numbers printed square on the back. It would be a shame to have to deface the iconic images of America’s pastime in the name of revenue.

Manny Ramirez - 24 - LF
Week 5 - 03-09 May 2004

It’s hard to imagine that we did not pick sentimental favorite Pokey Reese, who probably had the game of his career on Saturday with two home runs. Yet our pick for this week is someone who came thisclose to playing somewhere else this season. While most of the Red Sox offense, which was a seemingly unstoppable force last season, has had its share of struggles in 2004, Manny Ramirez has been rock-solid at the plate for Boston. It’s hard to overlook his accomplishments to this point in the season; his .369 batting average to end the week was good for third place in the American League and his on-base percentage of .443 was good for fourth. Over the recent week, he hit three home runs and collected five RBI, but he also scored eight runs. One of those runs came Friday night against Kansas City; with two outs and the score knotted at six, he drew a walk and then raced all the way from first base on Jason Varitek’s double to right field to cross home plate ahead of the tag. His contributions the night before also helped give the Sox a win against Cleveland; his solo home run in the sixth tied the score at two and his RBI single in the eighth gave the Red Sox some added cushion in an eventual 5-2 victory.

Jason Varitek - 33 - C
Week 4 - 26 April-02 May 2004

The last few days have not been kind to Red Sox fans everywhere, but Jason Varitek has been one of the few shining stars and is our FenwayFanatics.com Player of the Week. In the first game he played against Tampa Bay last week, he went 2-for-4 with a two-run home run and drove in three runs. The next day, he started the second game of a doubleheader and drove in three runs on another home run that cleared the Green Monster to help lead Boston to its sixth straight victory. For the week, he scored four runs, collected eight RBI, and raised his batting average from .263 to .310 after being in a 1-for-17 slump entering the week. He also ranked ninth in on-base percentage in the American League through Sunday.