Junk food, booze, video games, and porn... is it too late to learn to thow a curveball?

The reasons behind the Boston Red Sox's historic September collapse are becoming clearer as the Boston Globe published an article describing a clubhouse devoid of leadership, motivation, or accountability. The most egregious offenders appear to be starting pitchers Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, and John Lackey, who as the days and losses and pounds piled on, appeared more like they were rushing a fraternity than pitching for an AL pennant:

Instead, Boston’s three elite starters went soft, their pitching as anemic as their work ethic. The indifference of Beckett, Lester, and Lackey in a time of crisis can be seen in what team sources say became their habit of drinking beer, eating fast-food fried chicken, and playing video games in the clubhouse during games while their teammates tried to salvage a once-promising season.

Sources said Beckett, Lester, and Lackey, who were joined at times by Buchholz, began the practice late in 2010. The pitchers not only continued the routine this year, sources said, but they joined a number of teammates in cutting back on their exercise regimens despite appeals from the team’s strength and conditioning coach Dave Page.

Now I'm no expert, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express once, and I'm guessing it's pretty tough to strikeout a major league hitter if all you can think about are miniature hamburgers when your catcher is calling for a slider.

Whatever someone wants to do in their free time is their own business, but if you're getting paid $17 million a year to play once every five days, you probably should be present in the dugout and cheering for your teammates during the game. Last time I checked it's kind of hard to clap when you've got an XBOX 360 controller in one hand, and a piece of the colonel's extra tasty crispy in the other. Then again, if the Red Sox are playing the Yankees, and Papelbon is pitching, the game is likely to last 5 days until your next start, so I guess there are exceptions to every rule.

Not to be outdone, former major league pitcher and current MLB Network analyst Al Leiter appeared on the Dan Patrick show today, and practically admitted to the existence of a dedicated porn room at the Mets' old Shea Stadium:

Gives new meaning to the saying, "If you build it, they will come."

Technology in baseball and the legacy of Steve Jobs

I should preface this post by saying I'm a pretty avid PC guy, but I'm also a Warriors fan, so that makes two inferior products I've had no problem supporting for the better part of the last two decades. That being said, the passing of technological visionary and Apple founder Steve Jobs has given people around the nation and around the world great pause. By the time the iPod hit the market back in 2001 it was clear that Steve Jobs' reach would extend far beyond Mac fanboys and their computers, and into a wide breadth of areas such as the realm of sports.

Baseball is one sport in particular that has embraced all that Apple has had to offer over the past few years. The advent of the iPad in early 2010 was every Sabermetrician's wet dream, allowing countless hours of viewing every player's  DIPS, VORP, and WAR till the cows come home (or ten hours of battery life, whichever happens first).

Jayson Stark of ESPN.com wrote a great piece at the end of August on how the information age is changing the way baseball is played, and of course Apple had a prominent role:

AN APPLE A DAY

In the beginning, there were tapes. Big, clunky VHS tapes that had to be loaded into bigger, clunkier VCRs. And that's how players watched video once upon a time.

Michael Zagaris/Getty Images 



Eventually, a few of the more advanced teams started editing those tapes to produce custom DVDs for a few technologically savvy players. And as the years rolled along, more and more players started lugging around laptops so they could crank up that video from airplane seats and hotel rooms.

Then came the iPod, an invention that made it possible for players to watch every episode of "Lost" and every pitch against the Blue Jays with just about the same ease. But the screens were smaller than Joe West's strike zone. And loading that video onto each iPod presented major, time-consuming technological challenges. So even the iPod had its limits.

So for years now, teams have been using video in some form or other. But it was just 16 months ago -- drum roll, please -- that life in the video room, as we used to know it, changed forever.

All because of the iPad.

So clearly the collapse of the 2011 Giants, and more specifically the anemic offense that couldn't hit their way out of a wet paper bag can be attributed to Steve Jobs and Apple. While opposing pitchers were watching video of every swing of every at-bat the Giants took, Aubrey Huff was playing Angry Birds.