Dropkick Murphy's bassist and lead singer Ken Casey is traveling to Clearwater, Fla., to meet with his pal
and new Philadelphia Phillies closer Jonathan Papelbon. And he's going there with a message.
"He can't use 'Shipping Up To Boston,'" Casey said. "That's a Boston song. One of the Philadelphia radio guys
suggested 'Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya.'"
"And I have to get with the new Sox closer [Andrew Bailey] to let him know he can use 'Shipping Up To Boston,'"
Casey adds. "That's not Pap's song. That's the closer's song."
Mel Parnell, famous Boston Red Sox lefty, dies at 89
Mel Parnell, 89, a left-handed pitcher who spent his entire 10-year career with the Boston Red Sox and was one of the best pitchers in franchise history, died March 20 at his home in his native New Orleans. He had cancer, said his son, Mel Parnell Jr.
Mr. Parnell had a career record of 123-75, but he was 71-30 at Boston’s Fenway Park, where he learned to master the short left-field fence and the imposing wall known as the Green Monster.
“The Green Monster never bothered me,” Mr. Parnell said in an April 2005 interview with the Associated Press. “It was the lack of foul room that bothered me. A foul ball would go into the stands, letting the batter stay alive. I always thought I could manage the Monster; I couldn’t manage the lack of foul territory.”
Mr. Parnell still holds the club record for left-handed pitchers in games started, innings and victories. His 123 victories rank fourth in team history, behind Cy Young and Roger Clemens, who each had 192 victories, and Tim Wakefield’s 188.
Mr. Parnell’s best season was 1949, when he went 25-7, leading the American League in victories, ERA (2.77), complete games (27) and innings (295.1). He was the starting pitcher in the 1949 All-Star Game, but his Red Sox lost the pennant to the New York Yankees on the final day of the season.
Melvin Lloyd Parnell was born June 13, 1922, in New Orleans and began his career in Boston’s minor league system in 1941. He joined the major league club in 1947, and his Red Sox teammates included Hall of Famers Ted Williams and Bobby Doerr.
In later years, Mr. Parnell disparaged the modern system of pitching, with multiple relievers and with starting pitchers seldom finishing their games.
“In 1949,” he said, “I started 35 games and completed 27 of them. In the minors I pitched an 18-inning game and was thrown out at the plate in the 17th inning.”
He pitched a no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox in 1956, his final season.
Mr. Parnell later managed and scouted in the Red Sox system. As a color commentator on Red Sox radio and TV broadcasts from 1965 to 1968, Mr. Parnell was credited with popularizing the term “Pesky’s Pole’’ — after his former teammate Johnny Pesky — to describe Fenway Park’s right-field foul pole.
He later owned a pest-control business in New Orleans. Besides his son, survivors include his wife, Velma Buras Parnell, and three daughters.
Saw a great show on PBS last night: Inside Fenway Park: An Icon at 100
I can see why the stadium is so beloved.
I didn't know that the Sox were the last to integrate their team; in 1959 12 years after Jackie Robinson entered the game.
It sure cost them some miserable years
Red Sox pitcher Chris Carpenter, who came to Boston from the Chicago Cubs as compensation for Theo Epstein,
wrote on his Twitter account Tuesday afternoon that he will have surgery to remove a bone spur from his throwing elbow.
The surgery, Carpenter tweeted, will be performed in Brimingham, Ala., by noted orthopedic surgeon James Andrews.
Carpenter has thrown just two innings this spring.
