Saturday, November 20, 2004

ESPN Outdoors

ESPN Outdoors

click on this link to see Ted William's angling prowess...some people consider him to be the best flyfisherman of all time.

Jay

Friday, November 19, 2004

Boston Red Sox

Baseball is not really that popular here in the Philippines (Filipinos are basketball CRAZY!). You may be wondering why someone like me, who hasn't even been anywhere near the US, can be so crazy about baseball.
My grade school back in the early 80's had an above average library. When I was ten, I was extremely interested in sports. I was such a big fan of U-TEX, a professional basketball team in the PBA (Philippine Basketball Association), one of the underdogs of the league. Anyway, I'll write about U-Tex another time. So while browsing for books about basketball, I would skim other books about other sports. One of the first books that I brought out was about six guys who won the Triple Crown of Baseball. Let me see if I got them right...
Lou Gehrig 1927
Joe Medwick 1936
Ted Williams 1941
Micky Mantle 1952
Frank Robinson 1966
Carl Yastrzemski 1967
I'm sure I made a mistake with a couple of the dates but I'll make sure to correct them after checking the net.
Lou Gehrig and Ted Williams are two of my favorite players of all time. I'll tell you about Lou Gehrig another time. Why? Because Ted Williams is the greatest Red Sox of all time!
Batting left handed (like me), Ted was a left fielder. That he meant he patrolled Fenway Park's fabled Green Monster...which isn't much really. It's just a high wall merely 310 ft away from home plate that converts home runs to doubles...and singles (if it were in other parks) into doubles! It's on of a kind. You won't find anything like it in the other baseball parks. Ted was not just a great baseball player, he was also a war pilot who made a lot of kills (50 if I'm not mistaken ) while serving in two wars! World War 2 and the Korean War. this meant that he missed seven years in his career at his peak (or when at an age when he was most productive). I read somewhere once that he had the best swing among all baseball players ever and he had the sharpest eye...which probably explains his skill as a pilot and his hitting prowess on the diamond. The most impressive stat about Ted Williams is that he is the last player to ever hit .400 with a .402 average in 1941 (along with 37 home runs and 145 RBI). For those who are not in the know, .400 is a mean feat. Much like averaging 40 points in a season in the NBA (Jordan averaged 32 at his best). Hitting a lot of home runs while doing this is even more impressive! Another thing that I admire about Ted Williams is the recognition that he has received as one of the greatest anglers in the US. In short, he has made a name for himself in three entirely different fields! amazing!
Well have to go on now...I can blab on and on about Ted Williams but I it's time to sleep!
Go Sox!
Jay

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Welcome to the Taytay Bulls

You might be wondering why I use the name Taytay Bulls. Well I got that from my barkada Oliver Briola or "Obeng" who is a basketball nut like me. The Chicago Bulls were just beginning to build their dynasty in 1992 and one of their popular players then was BJ Armstrong (excellent shooter from the outside). I'm not a Chicago fan (I always root for the underdogs) but Obeng got around to calling me "BJ Araullo from the Taytay Bulls!". Taytay is my hometown in the province of Rizal, Philippines.

I really wanted to name this site the Manila Red Sox Nation because I'm a huge fan of the Boston Red Sox(though I haven't set foot on Fenway Park yet!) since 1986 and Roger "the rocket" Clemens but the website won't accept it...must be a yankee fan hehehe

Anyways, welcome to my blog and I hope people can get around to reading it. I hope that I won't bore people too much and I hope to meet others who might have the same interests as I.

Jay