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Home , 2019 MLB London Series, Alan Wiggins, Boston Red Sox, Brian Moehler, Chris Berman, Dale Arnold

The Sox Series Clips

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Sean McDonough tops cast of rotating Red Sox announcers

Chad Finn

The Red Sox have the midpoint of their season — 81 games down, 81 to go. That also means we’ve reached the time of year when many writers knock out the requisite but always readable midseason grades column. That old staple is especially tempting to write now with the Sox on a brief hiatus before commencing their season in London Saturday.

Mine would be simple for these talented but underachieving 88-win-pace Red Sox. and each get an A. Just about everyone else gets some variation of a C or worse. My classroom, my rules, pal.

From a media standpoint, there are a few more Red Sox-relevant grades to be issued — specifically in relation to Entercom and WEEI’s decision to have a rotating cast of announcers in the broadcast booth alongside crafty veteran .

In general, the rotating cast — which by my accounting has included eight broadcasters — has worked quite well, though it’s a lot to ask of Castiglione and shouldn’t be considered a long-term solution.

Every voice, for perhaps the most high-profile one, has been up to the task, and there has been a noticeably more conversational tone to the broadcasts, with studio/update hosts Will Flemming and Ken Laird more engaged in the in-game banter than in the past.

And one familiar voice in particular has made the broadcast as entertaining as it has been since . . . I don’t know, maybe the days of and .

Before getting to the grades, let’s make one ground rule. Anyone who already has a prominent local gig that has worked fewer than five games doesn’t get a letter grade. We already know them, know their voices and tendencies, know what to expect. It’s pass/fail for (3 games), (4), and Dave O’Brien (1), and they all pass with ease.

Flemming, who was on that Pawtucket broadcasters pipeline to the majors for a few years as a play-by-play voice, has called three games beyond his hosting duties. I’d like to hear more from him. He’s worthy of a big league play- by-play job.

Josh Lewin: An established and respected veteran — he called Fox national games for more than a decade — he joined Castiglione for the first 11 games of the season, and has had a leading 29 overall. It took some time getting used to his enthusiastic style, and he sometimes seemed overeager early to emphasize a bond with Castiglione. But he’s a pleasant listen, interactive in a positive way with fans, and a hard worker who puts in his time gathering his own information in the locker room. Grade: B

Mario Impemba: Like Lewin, he’s a well-established play-by-play voice, and the Red Sox have been fortunate to have both of them take the brunt of the workload. He called Tigers games on television for 17 years before a scrap with color analyst during a broadcast last season cost both of them their jobs. (I’m in favor of more in- game broadcaster brawls.) Impemba, who has been part of 25 broadcasts so far, is the most conventional play-by- play voice of the group WEEI has used. Sometimes it has been difficult to hear his calls during especially exciting moments, with the sound from the crowd microphones overwhelming his voice, but that may not be his fault. Grade: B

Lou Merloni: He was my top choice to join Castiglione three years ago when Tim Neverett was hired before the 2016 season. The former Red Sox and current talk show host has only improved since — he’s anecdotal, unafraid to be critical, and sees the game like a . He’s been the third man in the booth on several occasions, but also works well when he’s solo with Castiglione. What’s that you say? Why yes, he does get much better ratings here than on his radio show. Grade: B

Sean McDonough: I cannot exaggerate how satisfying it has been to hear McDonough call Red Sox games again. (He’s had 15 so far.) The voice of the Red Sox on television from 1988-2004 (with some overlap with ), he calls the big moments better than anyone, as you’d expect from someone who has broadcasted pretty much every major sport there is in the . But he’s at his best when a game is dragging or out of hand and he activates his effortlessly sarcastic sense of humor. He’s even cracked up the usual straight-laced Castiglione a couple of times. This whole experiment has been worthwhile just to hear this. A-plus

Chris Berman: He’s an original voice in sports broadcasting history, with his fun-loving everyman persona and still- amusing nicknames. I still miss the version of “NFL Primetime” he hosted for 20 years. But baseball play-by-play was never his strongest suit, even in his ESPN heyday, and meandered so much during the three games he called in May with Castiglione that they sometimes had to catch up to the action on the field. It was fun as an idea and a lark, but there was too much rumbling, bumbling and stumbling in the end. Grade: D

Reflections on covering the Red Sox from a first-time, short-time beat writer

Chad Finn

The first Red Sox game I ever covered was Game 3 of the 2003 against the A’s. From what I understand, some relevant plot twists in Red Sox history have occurred since then, but I’ll bet you remember that game well.

I do. ended it with a walkoff home to left-center field off A’s fireballer in the 11th inning, giving the Red Sox their first win in what was an extremely tense and contentious series.

Save for ’s don’t-worry-bout-a-thing in of the 2013 ALCS versus the Tigers, the loudest I have ever heard in person was right around the moment Trot broke into his trot.

I’ve been a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America for four years, which means I’ll have a Hall of Fame vote right around the time Rafael Devers is eligible, I think. He’s already a yes, obviously.

I’ve been covering baseball a long time, and writing about it long before the remaining hairs on my head that decided not to abandon ship turned gray. But this is the first season that I have experienced it from something resembling a beat writer’s perspective.

When our cherished colleague died suddenly in , I was proud to be among a number of Globe sports staffers who were called upon at various points in the first half of this season to join indefatigable Sox writers Peter Abraham and Alex Speier to aid in their coverage.

Nick could not be replaced. But we had to do our best to replace his production. I was called upon to cover roughly a half-dozen series in the first half, including road trips to Chicago and , and important-seeming home series against the Astros and Indians.

Julian McWilliams, who comes here from Oakland backed with rave reviews from his former colleagues at , has arrived as a full-time baseball writer. My contributions to our Sox coverage will return to the previous format, which probably could be classified as snarky but hopefully informative quasi-columns usually produced a safe distance from the clubhouse.

It’s a pretty sweet gig. But I enjoyed — far more than I expected, honestly, but don’t tell my boss — being part of the beat brigade for a while, to watch the interactions behind the scenes, gather intel on the dynamics, and have some perceptions confirmed and others altered.

My general takeaway from my time as a relative outsider on the inside — and keep in mind, these are just my observations — is that the Red Sox have a genuinely good group, one that collectively is legitimately frustrated by their inconsistent season so far.

I think it helps, too, that ’s mood never wavered. He was almost always upbeat and easy to laugh, but never hesitated to criticize or call out , either. My respect for him has grown this season. He’s never going to lose the clubhouse the way tense-manager-turned-chilled-out-lobsterman did.

It’s not the loudest or most charismatic group — the biggest collective roar I heard was after a win in Chicago, when and a few other teammates were watching the end of a Rockets-Warriors playoff game — and there really isn’t anyone who could be called an outsized personality. It just feels . . . professional.

That goes for the relationship between players and media, too. The beat reporters enter the clubhouse every day around 3:30 p.m. for a 7 p.m. game, with an hour-ish to gather information for their early print stories.

The players, many of whom in their hoodie/hat/backpack ensemble could pass for Northeastern undergrads, filter in and out. Sometimes the reporters just end up milling about in clusters for a bit, but if there’s a player who is in the news for one reason or another, he is usually made available. (Affable was a godsend during his hot start.)

One day, a beat writer from another outlet offhandedly complained to me that some of the players don’t talk as much as they should. and J.D. Martinez were mentioned by name. That must have come from a broader set of experiences, because I did not see that.

Sale doesn’t make much small talk, but if he’s around, he’s approachable and generally affable, especially when the topic is praise of someone other than himself. And he’s always available and accountable when things go wrong, as is . Perhaps the Red Sox’ retro jerseys live in fear around him, but Sale seems like a genuinely great teammate.

As for Martinez, I saw him hold up the team bus for a minute, with traveling secretary Jack McCormick counting down the seconds, to offer at least a quick comment after a rough loss in New York. He’s also one of those guys who seem to make the rounds in the clubhouse just to say hello and check in with his teammates.

The channel of choice on the clubhouse TV was MLB Network, and it was Martinez and who always seemed the most interested in watching and commenting on what they saw.

My biggest takeaway? Xander Bogaerts has emerged as a genuine leader, perhaps the leader. It was beyond impressive to see him on multiple occasions navigate through the different groups in the clubhouse, and do so in multiple languages.

He’d be hanging out with the Spanish-speaking players playing cards one moment, then over talking to and the next. He has become an accountable, no-excuses go-to guy after games, even ones that had frustrating outcomes for him personally, such as a loss to the Astros in which he was called out on strikes in a key spot with the bases loaded (and at least two of the strikes were nowhere near the plate).

Let’s put it this way: Bogaerts has become everything he was supposed to be when he came up as one of the best prospects in the game in ’13, and given his amplified leadership skill (Devers is one player he’s taken under his wing), he may even be exceeding it.

Being around, on the outskirts of the scrums, enhanced my positive impression of Bogaerts even more. It also left me believing that these Red Sox, should they avoid serious injuries and repair those glaring holes in the bullpen, will get their act together in the second half.

They may not be demonstrative about it, but they care. I’ve seen it behind the scenes, in the quiet moments and the boisterous ones, too.

Michael Chavis’s cup of coffee in the majors turns into a full-course meal

Julian McWilliams

The story of Red Sox infielder Michael Chavis began just 24 miles northwest of , at Cadenhead Field in Marietta, Ga., home to his Yellow Jackets of .

Beyond the left-field wall sits four-lane Sandy Plains Road. Two lanes go in one direction, the other two the opposite. Just a strip of grass separates them. At one end of the road hangs a stoplight. One that Chavis knew all too well. When he was taking practice, Chavis would see just how many cars he could hit before the light changed.

The answer?

“Countless,” Chavis said.

Translation: bull’s-eye more times than not.

Cobb County paid for any damage to the vehicles, so Chavis never felt too bad about it. It’s just what kids — scratch that — what Chavis did. There aren’t many high school players who can tag a ball across lanes of traffic and place it exactly where they want it.

“The one thing that jumped out right away was his bat speed and strength in his swing,” said Mike Rikard, the Red Sox vice president of amateur scouting. “We were able to scout several batting practices with him and one of the big turn-ons for me is a guy that can hit the ball just as far the other way as they can pulling the ball.”

That was a precursor to what the Red Sox have seen from Chavis since he was called up in April. They expected him to be here at some point, but not this early. They had visions of him being a starter at some point, too, but again, not this early. Things had to happen to make way for his talent to be seen.

During a series against the in April, , Eduardo Nunez, and all were injured, so the Sox shifted Chavis to second base, and he hit. When Holt came back, Mitch Moreland and Steve Pearce hit the , so they moved Chavis to first base, and he continued to hit.

What was supposed to be just a cup of coffee in the big leagues has turned into a full-course meal. Chavis had two more hits in an 8-7 loss to the Wednesday and is now slashing .263/.339/.449 with 12 homers.

“When I was in trouble for something in school, [my parents] would take away hitting,” Chavis said. “That’s not a joke, bro. I had a screen in my backyard and I wasn’t allowed to go hit.

“I didn’t play video games. It wasn’t my thing. In the offseason, when I’m just hanging out with my brother, I’ll just be like, ‘Dude you just want to go hit?’ It’s just something that I need.”

Former big league and current Red Sox Georgia area scout had followed Chavis since his junior year in high school, and had a huge influence on the Red Sox taking Chavis as their first-round pick in 2014. He can attest to Chavis’s love for hitting.

“He would sit out there and hit balls out there all day if you wanted him to,” Moehler said. “I remember walking over to him, maybe the second or third BP session, and I said, ‘Hey, man, if you’re good with 20 swings and that’s all you want to take because you have a game, that’s fine.’ And he’d say, ‘No I’ll hit as many as you want.’ ”

It’s the same way now. Chavis is hard to find on game days because he’s always in the cage or on his way to it. It’s part of what’s unlocked his opportunity as an everyday big leaguer. More importantly, it’s what helped him survive what shouldn’t have happened this soon.

Keeping it real It’s hard for Chavis to pinpoint when he first decided baseball was what he wanted to do, because it’s always been a part of him. There was never really any thinking behind it. He played for arguably the best travel program to ever exist in East Cobb, which has produced a lot of big-league talent. He went to 25 Perfect Game tournaments and showcases playing against the top high school talent in the country.

From the outside, he appears to be a byproduct of the showcase era that’s become a cash cow for the business of youth sports. It’s outpriced many kids who are worthy of participation but can’t afford it. It can sometimes reek of privilege. While many of the players are talented, the attitudes in this travel-ball culture can be toxic.

But Chavis will check you on that assumption if you place it on him. He wasn’t cut from that cloth. He was raised by his mother, Dorothy Nugent, who he said sacrificed everything just so he could afford to be at these events. She shielded him from that culture, from that type of kid she wasn’t trying to raise.

“Looking back at the whole travel-ball scene, you know how crazy the parents are,” Chavis said. “You would get overhyped and you see the kids get too confident and it’s like, ‘Bro, you’re still 12 years old.’

“You see kids walking around like they run the world just because they play for this team or they’re getting recruited by this college, like, ‘Dude, you’re a teenager,’ you haven’t really done much.’ My mom did a good job of keeping me humble and away from that.”

The culture of travel ball has only gotten worse with social media, Chavis said, with players quick to post their workouts or games online just for clicks or likes.

“I think everybody is looking for that hype, man,” Chavis continued. “I think social media has created that false reality for a lot of people.”

On the actual playing side, Chavis wants to make this final point clear: There’s a showcase player and then there’s a real player. A showcase player can impress scouts with, say, his raw power, speed and athleticism. But if you get him in a game, he freezes up. The game becomes too quick for him or he isn’t fundamentally sound.

A real player, however, can do it when there is opposition. Chavis made it known he is the latter.

“That’s kind of the norm down here in the South,” Moehler said. “It’s kind of a showcase mentality. His junior year going into his senior year, what stood out was Chavis’s passion to play the game. Michael always showed up to play.”

One more question There’s a grind mentality to Chavis despite being a first-round pick. He takes pride in his journey, one he described as “a ride.”

Certainly, it’s had its twists and turns. He struggled at times during his minor league career at the plate. He failed a PED test in 2018, coming up positive for Dehydrochlormethyltestosterone, and served an 80-game suspension.

Some Red Sox players, including Rick Porcello and Chris Sale, have made clear their disdain for the use of performance-enhancing supplements. Chavis elected not to comment on the suspension, but did say the Red Sox players have accepted him despite his mistake.

Now there’s one more question to answer: Once the Red Sox are back at full strength, is he still here?

“I’d be lying if I said it didn’t worry me at times,” Chavis said. “There was a time period where I was worried about that every single day. It’s still something that will slip into my mind every now and then.”

Data is out there on Chavis. To paraphrase Red Sox manager Alex Cora, it used to take a year to get information, now it takes a week. That information says Chavis can’t hit the high . He has a lot of swings and misses at that pitch.

Entering Wednesday, he had a 50 percent whiff rate on pitches up in the zone and over the middle of the plate, according to Brooks Baseball. Compare that with a whiff rate of just 11 percent for pitches low and over the middle of the plate.

Nevertheless, you can’t deny his production and, on some level, his ability to adjust.

“He’s a really good player right now,” Cora said. “He can play first and second. That’s the most important thing. And he’ll give you a quality at-bat.”

At his locker Tuesday afternoon, Chavis reminisced on a specific moment during his pre-draft workout with the Red Sox back in 2014. Moehler pitched to each of the players in attendance. But he wasn’t just throwing batting practice, Chavis explained. Moehler has a former big-league arm and was sequencing his pitches, actually trying to get the players out.

But with his bat to guide him, Chavis stepped in the box and did what has led him through his youth days and into the Red Sox everyday lineup: He hit.

In the end, Moehler couldn’t get the better of him.

“I remember hitting a ,” Chavis said.

* The Providence Journal

No masking it this year, Red Sox bullpen needs help

Bill Koch

Dave Dombrowski will never be confused with David Copperfield, but the Red Sox president of baseball operations was able to perform something of a bullpen illusion last October.

Boston masked what was perceived as a limited core of relief options by introducing a roving starter to the mix. was the favorite weapon deployed by manager Alex Cora, freezing opposing bats in the late innings ahead of . Rick Porcello, David Price and Chris Sale also took a turn in the role as the Red Sox brushed aside the Yankees, Astros and Dodgers on their way to a championship.

Perhaps it was there where Boston developed a false sense of security. Perhaps it was the previous season when Houston closer lost his job midway through the and starter Charlie Morton threw the final four innings in the clinching Game 7 of against . Those two most recent experiences for Dombrowski and Cora might have convinced both men the 2019 Red Sox would be able to mix and match their way through the season with fewer concrete options.

What we’ve seen to this point, obviously, hasn’t been very effective. suffered the club’s 16th blown save of the season on Wednesday, as what should have been a sweep of the White Sox went up in smoke in an 8-7 loss. Barnes reached for his hat and threw his arms over his head in disbelief as Jose Abreu’s two-run homer crashed onto Lansdowne Street, souring what was otherwise an ideal afternoon at Fenway Park.

“Everybody is fatigued in the bullpen,” Cora said. “We went through a stretch there where we had to use everybody. We know that.”

With that in mind, Cora sent Barnes out to work on back-to-back days for the 10th time this season. The right- hander’s earned-run average in such situations swelled to 10.38 — he’s at just 2.10 otherwise. You can be certain Cora knows this, and that should also tell you how the manager feels about the depth of his relief options at the moment.

“I know the usage is there, but everybody has been used a lot,” Cora said. “We’ve just got to get the job done.”

Consider that another appeal to Dombrowski, although Cora didn’t specifically name his boss during his remarks. A quick look through last season’s bullpen suggests more capable arms than the radio talk show narrative acknowledged ahead of Craig Kimbrel, who almost exclusively worked in the ninth inning. Five of Boston’s blown saves have occurred in the ninth this year, the exact same number suffered by Kimbrel in 2018.

July 8 was a critical date for Red Sox relievers in 2018. That’s when was promoted from -A Pawtucket, and he went on to post a 1.60 ERA while establishing himself aside Barnes as one of Kimbrel’s chief lieutenants. Brasier’s emergence was able to paper over some cracks down the stretch, as was the club’s 62-29 rampage before his Boston debut.

Barnes, and had blown a combined four saves prior to Brasier’s promotion. Barnes checked in with a strong 2.33 ERA, Kelly had collected two wins and 17 holds and Hembree counted four wins and 10 holds to his credit. Brasier was a bonus to that group and filled in ably when Barnes suffered right hip inflammation and Kelly went south in August.

The addition of another such pitcher in free agency this offseason would have been prudent with Kelly lost to the Dodgers via free agency. It’s risky business, of course — someone like Philadelphia right-hander David Robertson made seven appearances before hitting the injured list. But it does now seem to be a clear area of need that went ignored.

Kimbrel wasn’t the answer to this particular problem, and paying $16 million annually for a pitcher on the wrong side of 30 who gave up runs in five of his nine postseason appearances last year would have been foolish. Kimbrel also allowed what wound up being the deciding run in Game 4 of the 2017 A.L. Division Series, as the Astros eliminated the Red Sox.

Dombrowski is certainly capable of making impact moves prior to the deadline, as his trades for Eovaldi and Steve Pearce last season would attest. He opted to zig where the competition zagged, adding a and a right- handed bat while his fellow contenders opted for bullpen reinforcements. Dombrowski looks to have no choice but to follow the crowd this time, or any hopes of back-to-back Boston championships could disappear.

* MassLive.com

Red Sox’s Betts won’t start in 2019 MLB All-Star Game; Trout, Springer, Brantley win voting

Chris Cotillo

Mookie Betts started in the outfield in the MLB All-Star Game both in 2018 and 2016. But he won’t start the Midsummer Classic this year.

He finished fifth in the fan voting with 9.1% of the vote.

Angels’ Mike Trout led the voting. and Michael Brantley will join Trout as the other two starters in the outfield.

Yankees’ — who has spent most of this season on the injured list and has appeared in only 25 games — even finished ahead of Betts.

Betts won the 2018 AL MVP. But his stats have dropped a bit this year. He’s batting .261 with a .379 on-base percentage, .459 slugging percentage, .838 OPS, 13 homers, 17 doubles, three triples and 39 RBIs in 80 games (377 plate appearances). He leads the AL in runs (64).

No Red Sox players will start in the 2019 All-Star Game.

Voting results:

1. Mike Trout, Angels, 25.5%

2. George Springer, Astros, 15.7%

3. Michael Brantley, Astros, 10.8%

4. Aaron Judge, Yankees, 9.9%

5. Mookie Betts, Red Sox, 9.1%

Red Sox’s Martinez won’t start in 2019 MLB All-Star Game as Rangers’ Pence beats him in fan voting

Christopher Smith

J.D. Martinez will not start in the 2019 MLB All-Star Game.

Martinez — who started the game in his first season with Boston in 2018 — was a finalist to start at again for the American League. But he finished second in the fan voting.

Texas Rangers’ Hunter Pence will receive the start. Pence received 46.7% of the vote. Martinez received 31.2%. Twins’ finished third with 22%.

Martinez is batting .287 with a .364 on-base percentage, .528 slugging percentage, .892 OPS, 17 homers, 16 doubles, one triple and 45 RBIs in 72 games (324 plate appearances).

Pence is batting .294 with a .353 on-base percentage, .608 slugging percentage, .962 OPS, 15 homers, 14 doubles, one triple and 48 RBIs in 55 games (215 plate appearances).

* RedSox.com

Betts, J.D. come up in short in Starters Election

Paul Casella

Though Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez both advanced to the Starters Election, neither player was voted a starter at his respective position for the 2019 All-Star Game.

The All-Star starters were revealed on Thursday night, and for the first time since 2015, no Red Sox players are in line to start the Midsummer Classic.

Betts, who had started each of the previous three All-Star Games in the American League outfield, finished fifth in the voting among AL . Mike Trout was the leading AL vote-getter in the outfield, while Astros teammates George Springer and Michael Brantley were voted to start alongside the Angels' superstar. Yankees slugger Aaron Judge finished fourth at the position.

Martinez, meanwhile, finished as the runner-up at designated hitter, behind the Rangers' Hunter Pence. Martinez made his first career All-Star start last year, though he was also named an All-Star in 2015 with the Tigers.

While neither of the Red Sox finalists were voted in as starters by the fans, both players -- and their teammates -- still have a chance to make this year's All-Star club. and reserves will be named on Sunday at 5:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Those All-Stars will be selected via a group effort between their fellow players and the Commissioner's Office. The player ballots, which will be collected in all 30 clubhouses shortly before the roster announcements, will account for 17 of the remaining AL All-Stars -- eight pitchers (five starters and three relievers), as well as one backup for each position (including the DH in the AL). The Commissioner's Office will then name the remaining six AL players (four pitchers and two position players), while ensuring that all 15 AL teams are represented.

The 2019 All-Star Game presented by Mastercard will be played on Tuesday, July 9, at in . It will be televised nationally by ; in by Rogers Sportsnet and RDS; and worldwide by partners in more than 180 countries. will provide Spanish-language coverage in the United States, while ESPN Radio and ESPN Radio Deportes will provide exclusive national radio coverage. MLB Network, MLB.com and SiriusXM also will provide comprehensive All-Star Week coverage.

* WEEI.com

'Baseball baby!': London's somewhat awkward introduction to America's Pastime

Rob Bradford

Taz was a guy who just wanted to shoot some YouTube videos for his fitness video series. As he pointed out, London doesn't really get a whole lot of weather days like Thursday's glorious sunshine delivered so it seemed important to take advantage of the opportunity.

The 30-something bobbed and weaved around the area just a few feet from Tower Bridge, standing out if only because of the very different kind of hat he wore -- that of the Tigers."I don't know anything about the team, I just liked the hat," Taz explained.

Then, surfacing in the middle of a sea of lounging lunch-breakers, appeared an odd image. A tall, fit man started throwing a ball back and forth with a 26-year-old from Manchester, N.H. named Billy Mullaney. Taz had a feeling he should be filming this, but he wasn't actually sure why.

"I don't know who that is," he said, "but I feel like that should be someone."

It was. As Taz confirmed via a Google search it was Jennifer Lopez's fiance, .

Taz wasn't alone in his confusion. If it wasn't for a growing group of tourists few would have paid any mind to the strapping man in a black jacket and sweatpants. In fact, before the game of catch Rodriguez could be found standing in the middle of a mass of sunbathers swinging a cricket bat without anyone batting an eye.

London, let us introduce you to the great game of baseball.

The Red Sox are playing the Yankees Saturday and Sunday at . It is an event three years in the making, and one that hopes will get its hooks into the European sports community. The good news for the organizers are that the games are sold out, with a reported 70 percent of the tickets going to folks from England. The bad? Well, let's just say it might not ultimately be love at first sight.

"I only knew about it because they were handing out Cracker Jacks over there."

"Don't you mean rounders?"

"Sorry, I don't watch baseball."

"Baseball baby!" (Note: That was the exclamation of a young man clearly a few pints deep.)

The very unscientific poll that was taken while walking along the heavily-populated area between the London Bridge and Tower Bridge revealed a consistent theme. Baseball isn't going to be stripping the attention away from cricket any time soon.

The timing of baseball's get-together with its new European friends clearly isn't coming at a perfect time. That much was evident while coming across a World Cup of Cricket outdoor viewing event at a place along the river called "The Scoop." Hundreds of folks were glued to a big screen showing a cricket match that was two countries that weren't even theirs. When asked about the baseball games ... well, they would rather you not take their attention away from the chucker.

For the locals, this is a novelty. It is appealing to a very small group of baseball followers in this country while offering one of the best mid-summer opportunity for Red Sox and Yankees fans to take a road trip that isn't Camden Yards. That's fine. For now, it is what it is.

The players get a respite from their regular season monotony (along with a cool $60,000 each), with a full day of exploring London with their friends and family. Baseball maybe plants a seed into the psyche of young sports fans, along the lines of what the NFL did here years ago. And, who knows, by the time the Cardinals and Cubs come back next year the level of apathy from the locals is appreciably thinned out.

It might not be love at first sight, but perhaps it can be like at third glance. That's good enough for now.

* NBC Sports Boston

Rafael Devers is being used wrong by Red Sox, but they can get it right by leaving him at this spot in order

John Tomase

Mookie Betts or ? Andrew Benintendi or Mookie Betts? It turns out the answer might actually be, "None of the above."

How about Rafael Devers?

The question is who bats second for the Red Sox. Betts opened the season there and hit very well (.318-8-24-.943), but with Benintendi scuffling atop the order, manager Alex Cora opted to flip them. Since then, they haven't excelled as a pair, with the Red Sox struggling to score in the first inning, in particular.

Enter Devers. There's been a sabermetrically inspired trend over the last five years to bat your best hitter second, which informed the reasoning for putting Betts there. The Brewers utilize reigning NL MVP Christian Yelich there, as do the Angels with God among men Mike Trout. The Yankees bat Aaron Judge second when he's healthy, and the Marlins did the same with Giancarlo Stanton when he blasted 59 home runs in 2017.

Fully half of baseball's top 10 home run hitters bat second, including the top two -- Yelich (29) and Pete Alonso (26) of the Mets.

From to , to Paul Goldschmidt, Alonso to Jorge Polanco, some of baseball's best pure hitters and biggest sluggers now inhabit the two-hole, which used to be the domain of bat-control contact hitters like Marty Barrett and Scott Fletcher, or slap-hitting speedsters such as , Alan Wiggins, and Willie McGee.

Those days are gone. Recognizing the value of the extra 15 to 20 plate appearances a season that accompany each successive rung up the , teams are constructing lineups with the two-hitter now occupying the role we used to associate with the third spot in the order -- the proverbial Best Hitter in the Lineup.

For the 2019 Red Sox, a case can be made that that hitter is Devers. He continued wearing out White Sox pitching on Wednesday by going 3 for 5 with a and three runs. He went 8 for 13 in the series, raising his average to .322, good for second in the American League. Batting second in place of Benintendi for the last two games, Devers went 7 for 9 with four doubles.

After an April that saw him hit the ball with authority but directly into the ground, Devers has redeployed his cannons to aim for the horizon. Since his first homer on May 3, he's hitting .337 with 12 homers, 39 RBIs, and a .977 OPS. He hits virtually everything hard, which makes him the ideal candidate for this current iteration of the two-hole. Forget about moving runners, seeing pitches, and making contact. Devers is an impact hitter, and he's just the bat to pair with Betts atop the order and put maximum pressure on opposing pitching staffs.

"I like the at-bats," noted manager Alex Cora after Wednesday's demoralizing 8-7 loss. "Thank you for making me smile. Yeah. Good at-bats. Under control, too, and it seems there for a while he was swinging at everything when his average went down and now he’s back to controlling the zone, good swings, going the other way, running the bases. We might go that route."

That's in marked contrast to Benintendi, who's posting OK numbers out of the two-hole (.303-1-12-.809), but hasn't really flourished offensively, perhaps because he's playing through injury. The Betts-Benintendi partnership has produced some sleepy first innings -- the Red Sox rank 25th with just 36 runs, vs. eighth last year (98) -- and with the red-hot Devers batting second, he'd be guaranteed at least one at-bat a game with fewer than two outs.

Quick starts mean something because the Red Sox have had to fight tooth and nail for everything they've gotten this year, and putting an opponent in an immediate hole would mitigate that struggle.

Of course, the real problem atop the lineup at the moment is Betts, who's hitting only .185 out of the leadoff spot. But perhaps a more dynamic partnership could ignite him, and there are few more authoritative hitters in baseball at the moment than Devers.

The Red Sox open a two-game series in London against the Yankees this weekend. Might we see Devers batting second, with Benintendi lower in the order?

"We'll see on Saturday," Cora said with a smile.

* BostonSportsJournal.com

An inside look at the numbers that have the Red Sox stuck in third place

Sean McAdam

On Wednesday, the Red Sox suffered their 38th defeat of the season – a hideous 8-7 loss to the Chicago White Sox, a game in which they led by a run with three outs to go.

Of course, even in their magical 2018 season, the Sox lost their 38th game, too.

It came on Aug. 20.

So, roughly translated, the Red Sox are more than seven weeks behind last year’s pace.

It may not have been reasonable to expect that the Sox would duplicate last year’s achievements. After all, the 108- win regular season was the best in franchise history — for a team that has been around for more than a century.

But surely, after retaining better than 90 percent of the same roster, the Red Sox were supposed to be better than this.

How did they get here? Here are five numbers to contemplate while the Red Sox get a few days off in London before resuming their season on Saturday.

20-20.

No, this isn’t about hindsight (‘Should they have added to the bullpen? Was the Eovaldi contract a good idea?’). And it’s not about vision.

It’s the Red Sox’ home record this season. Of the seven other playoff contenders — New York, Tampa Bay, Minnesota, Cleveland, Houston, and Oakland — every single other club has a winning record at home. The worst of this group is Tampa Bay (20-18). And we know that playing in the sparsely attended is no advantage at all.

How much of a drop-off have the Sox experienced at Fenway since last season?

Consider: with 41 remaining home games over the next three months, the Red Sox would have to almost go undefeated (37-4) to match last year’s win total.

At just over the halfway mark of the season, the Red Sox have won all of three home series this season — and only two since May 1. Two of the three have come against teams with losing records. None has come against a division rival.

.789

This is the team’s OPS with runners in scoring position, good for just sixth in the American League. The is only slightly better compared to others in the AL — their .270 figure is fifth in the league.

It’s not difficult at all to think of a handful of games in which the Red Sox failed to deliver with baserunners in scoring position — either early in games, with the chance to put opponents away, or later, with the game on the line.

J.D. Martinez, the team’s best run producer, is hitting a pedestrian .284 in such situations. By way of comparison, he hit .386 in the same spots last season. That better than 100 point drop-off is stunning.

For Mookie Betts, Boston’s other marquee star in the lineup, the slippage is nearly as significant. A year ago, Betts slashed .325/.496/.714 with runners in scoring position for a robust 1.210 OPS with RISP.

This year, Betts’ slash line reads .259/.462/.333 for an OPS of .795.

(The .333 slugging percentage with RISP is not a typo, but it is stunning).

Four.

This represents the number of games the Red Sox have lost when leading after eight innings, topped, of course, by Wednesday’s debacle.

The number is more damning when you examine how they’ve fared when leading after seven innings — they’ve lost seven such games.

But let’s be generous here and note that a lot can happen over the final six outs of a game. You should win most of the games you’re leading after seven, but perhaps not all.

But after eight? With three measly outs to go? Those should be automatic.

Give the Red Sox four more wins and take away four losses and they’d be 48-34. That wouldn’t lift them into first place in the division, but it would vault them over second-place Tampa Bay, put them first in wild-card standings and have them reasonably positioned at five games back rather than the current nine.

47 percent

This is the percentage of games in which the Red Sox have received a from their Big Five (Chris Sale, David Price, Rick Porcello, Eduardo Rodriguez and Nathan Eovaldi).

Note that doesn’t include the games started by others, mostly those who’ve filled in for the injured Eovaldi. In those 15 other games, the Sox have gotten exactly one quality start — that by in last month.

So maybe it’s not reasonable to expect that the spot or depth starters pitch gems, although, say, four or five out of 15 wouldn’t seem like much to ask. But, we digress.

The Sox’ payroll has invested more than $85 million in the starting rotation. It was supposed to be a strength. While every other team was going to rely on its bullpen to succeed, the Sox took the old-school approach of investing in starting pitchers.

But that hasn’t worked.

Quality starts (six or more innings, three earned runs or fewer) shouldn’t be difficult to come by. And yet, in less than half their starts to date, the Red Sox Big Five have either failed to go six innings, or, given up more than four earned runs. Or sometimes both.

34

This is the number of runs the Red Sox have scored in the first inning of games this season.

Obviously, that needs some context.

Is it good? Is it bad? Is it average?

Answer: it’s bad.

The 34 runs in the first represent the lowest number of runs scored in any inning, 1-9, for the Red Sox this season.

And here’s why that number is particularly bad: because the first inning is traditionally the highest-scoring inning in game. (That, in part, explains the phenomenon of the “opener” — teams want an experienced and fresh pitcher in the first to shut down the opponents before turning to a pitcher who’s still developing in the second or third).

The first inning is the only inning in which you’re guaranteed to have your 1-2-3 hitters come to the plate, and given the evolution of thought when it comes to lineup construction, for the vast majority of teams, these three spots are often occupied by a team’s three best hitters.

And that gets us back to the problem. The Sox have gotten next to nothing out of their leadoff spot most of the season. Andrew Benintendi was given the spot for the first two-plus months and failed, especially in the first inning.

While Benintendi’s on-base percentage was better than average overall in the top spot (.362) he managed just three hits in 37 at-bats leading off games for an .081 batting average.

Betts hasn’t been much of an improvement.

Since being reinstalled as the team’s leadoff man three weeks ago, Betts is 5-for-30 leading off the game, without an extra-base hit.

* The Athletic

A rare Friday without baseball? It’s a casualty of the Red Sox trip to London

Jen McCaffrey

A Red Sox game on a Friday night? That’s about as routine as an infield popup on a windless day.

But not today.

Today, the Red Sox have a rarity in their calendar — no scheduled game on a Friday. Instead, they’ll occupy their time with pomp and circumstance London-style as MLB celebrates its first-ever games in Europe on Saturday and Sunday between the Sox and Yankees.

It’s the first time a midseason Friday has not had a scheduled first pitch in at least 20 years, and it marks only the third Friday with a scheduled day off since 1999.

The only two other instances — on April 6, 2012, and April 6, 2018 — came after either or the home opener, when MLB customarily adds in an extra off day to protect against a rainout.

What’s even more unusual: The Red Sox have another scheduled off-day on a Friday later this year before a two- game series in Philadelphia on Sept. 14-15.

Today’s off-day in London makes some sense. MLB wanted to have the marquee series take place on a weekend to garner optimal interest from fans. The league built in a couple of days for travel and time adjustment, hence the consecutive days without games ahead of the Saturday opener.

It’s one of the quirks of compiling a 162-game schedule for 30 teams, but it’s a rarity nevertheless.

So what will the Red Sox do with their coveted off day Friday in London? Not much, to be honest.

Thursday was the real off-day for the club since on Friday players will have a team workout and media obligations. Friday night, MLB is hosting a black-tie welcome gala for the Red Sox and Yankees at the Tower of London.

The Red Sox arrived in London on Thursday morning and had the entire day to adjust to the time difference (London is five hours ahead of Boston) and do a bit of sightseeing.

No one is taking this series lightly, given the fact that it’s two games against the AL East-leading Yankees (who are ahead of Boston by nine games), especially considering these are considered “home” games for the Red Sox. They might not have the benefits of Fenway, but they will bat last.

Saturday’s starter, Rick Porcello, said his mother sent him of touristy recommendations, but he’s trying not to lose focus. “As awesome as it is that we’re going to London and looking forward to the experience, I’m keeping in mind that we’ve got two games we need to win,” Porcello said. “So I’m going to enjoy Thursday and go out sightseeing and then Friday start to get locked in for Saturday.”

Matt Barnes’ younger brother studied in London while at the University of and then moved to the city to pursue an advanced business degree following graduation. He made the trip too to show his older brother around.

“He knows the city really well and knows everything to do,” Barnes said. “So kind of leaving it up to him to take us to what we need to see and everywhere to go in the city.”

Jackie Bradley Jr., meanwhile, served as an ambassador for MLB for the London Series in December and visited the city then for the first time, along with the Yankees’ CC Sabathia. They toured the BBC headquarters and spoke about the series and the rivalry for British fans and toured the John Henry-owned Liverpool soccer facilities at .

This time around, eight members of Bradley’s family are making the trip. He planned to take them on a bus tour around the city and show them some of the things he’d done in December.

It’s a lot crammed into a short trip with two important games at the forefront, but they’re keeping perspective on the uniqueness of it all.

“At the end of the day, I think everyone will appreciate they got to have this experience,” Bradley said.

* The New York Daily News

Challenges facing networks broadcasting Yankees-Red Sox London battle

Justin Terranova

How do you give a regular-season game a World Series feel when the stadium it’s being played in has never seen a baseball game?

That is the challenge facing Fox on Saturday as it broadcasts the first of two games — ESPN has the second — at London Stadium between the Yankees and Red Sox. MLB handled a majority of the heavy lifting when it came to the stadium setup. London Stadium was built for the 2012 Olympics and is now primarily used as the home field for West Ham in soccer’s .

“We were working with them still kind of figuring out the cameras. … We have a basic standard for a big game like this,” said Brad Zager, Fox Sports’ executive vice president and head of production and operations.

“We had to make sure even in a one-off event we don’t lower the quality of what the viewer is expecting to see on a baseball game. That the camera positions look natural and the announcers in the booth can call a game correctly. So, those are really the things early on you wonder about and get smoothed out through the process. Everyone’s going in there thinking we can produce a high-level baseball broadcast in a stadium that has never had a baseball game before.”

The London Series is part of an MLB initiative to help spread baseball more globally. Fox’s primary concern is making it feel remarkable for the millions of fans who are watching from their couches, just as most would if the game was in or Fenway Park.

“For us it was: What makes this special? What makes this unique? How do we bring that to the surface and the viewers?” Zager said. “So, the first thing we did was decide to treat this as a jewel event. So, we went through our playbook of how we get ready for the postseason and All-Star Game to get ready for this game.”

That means the network’s studio show and top announce team — and — are in England for the game. There have been London-themed commercials running for weeks during Fox’s baseball coverage, featuring Yankees manager and Red Sox star J.D. Martinez. There will be coverage of both anthems, the pregame introduction for the players and the other little details that Fox hopes will give more juice to the rivalry.

The Yankees have done their part in bashing their way to the American League’s best record as they near the season’s halfway point. The Red Sox sputtered at the start of their World Series defense, but are in the middle of the AL wild-card race and could use this series as a chance to remind the Yankees the AL East race is not over.

“We were excited about the opportunity to do it, but it went up a level when we saw it was Yankees-Red Sox and baseball’s biggest rivalry,” Zager said. “And getting a chance to expose that to a brand new venue, a brand new atmosphere and fans perhaps being exposed to it for the first time.

“Everyone feels like our job is to sell the game of baseball and the greatness of the game.”

* The New York Post

Challenges facing networks broadcasting Yankees-Red Sox London battle

Justin Terranova

How do you give a regular-season game a World Series feel when the stadium it’s being played in has never seen a baseball game?

That is the challenge facing Fox on Saturday as it broadcasts the first of two games — ESPN has the second — at London Stadium between the Yankees and Red Sox. MLB handled a majority of the heavy lifting when it came to the stadium setup. London Stadium was built for the 2012 Olympics and is now primarily used as the home field for West Ham in soccer’s Premier League.

“We were working with them still kind of figuring out the cameras. … We have a basic standard for a big game like this,” said Brad Zager, Fox Sports’ executive vice president and head of production and operations.

“We had to make sure even in a one-off event we don’t lower the quality of what the viewer is expecting to see on a baseball game. That the camera positions look natural and the announcers in the booth can call a game correctly. So, those are really the things early on you wonder about and get smoothed out through the process. Everyone’s going in there thinking we can produce a high-level baseball broadcast in a stadium that has never had a baseball game before.”

The London Series is part of an MLB initiative to help spread baseball more globally. Fox’s primary concern is making it feel remarkable for the millions of fans who are watching from their couches, just as most would if the game was in Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park.

“For us it was: What makes this special? What makes this unique? How do we bring that to the surface and the viewers?” Zager said. “So, the first thing we did was decide to treat this as a jewel event. So, we went through our playbook of how we get ready for the postseason and All-Star Game to get ready for this game.”

That means the network’s studio show and top announce team — Joe Buck and John Smoltz — are in England for the game. There have been London-themed commercials running for weeks during Fox’s baseball coverage, featuring Yankees manager Aaron Boone and Red Sox star J.D. Martinez. There will be coverage of both anthems, the pregame introduction for the players and the other little details that Fox hopes will give more juice to the rivalry.

The Yankees have done their part in bashing their way to the American League’s best record as they near the season’s halfway point. The Red Sox sputtered at the start of their World Series defense, but are in the middle of the AL wild-card race and could use this series as a chance to remind the Yankees the AL East race is not over.

“We were excited about the opportunity to do it, but it went up a level when we saw it was Yankees-Red Sox and baseball’s biggest rivalry,” Zager said. “And getting a chance to expose that to a brand new venue, a brand new atmosphere and fans perhaps being exposed to it for the first time.

“Everyone feels like our job is to sell the game of baseball and the greatness of the game.”

* The USA Today

Here comes the Yankees and Red Sox, but for now, London doesn’t seem to notice

Bob Nightengale

You can stroll over to Buckingham Palace, go up the 800-foot Shard or travel around town in the Tube but it’s almost impossible to know Major League Baseball is invading London this weekend.

Dodging cars while realizing pedestrians don’t always have the right-of-way in London this week, loving the fact you can miss a subway train and the next one is just two minutes away, or that the escalators operate at the speed of sound, USA TODAY Sports looked feverishly for signs of any interest in baseball in London.

There was little. A few and caps were spotted, and even a Cincinnati T- shirt. But that's it.

Did anyone get the memo baseball's fiercest rivalry between the Yankees and Red Sox would be played this weekend at London Stadium – the first MLB games played in Europe?

The tabloids were filled with ridicule and sarcasm, ripping England for its 64-run loss to Australia in Cricket, praising England’s women’s soccer team for surviving their World Cup victory over Cameroon, and stories advancing the opening of Wimbledon next week.

But there was no sign at all of MLB games taking place, let alone lamenting the Red Sox’s bullpen woes or Giancarlo Stanton’s latest injury.

“It’s a shame really,’’ says Chris Edwards, 54, a London attorney, wearing a Red Sox cap at the Cricket World Cup match that he bought after visiting Fenway Park for the first time two years ago. “It should be great for London, but baseball is just not well-known here. People don’t understand it. Traditionally, the perception is that baseball is a slow game.

“But ironically, so is cricket, and you see how popular it is here.’’

While we may complain in the United States about 3 ½-hour baseball games, England’s Cricket World Cup game against Australia on Tuesday started at 10:30 a.m. and lasted until 6 p.m., with fans taking breaks to eat and wash it down with a pint.

This is why MLB, which started dreaming of this venture nearly 25 years ago when they first put an office in London, is smitten with the idea of officially introducing America’s pastime to Europe.

“We’ve been trying to crack this nut for 20 years, and it’s been a tough nut to crack,’’ said Jim Small, MLB senior vice president of international business, during coffee at his London hotel on Wednesday. “Opening Europe to baseball is really important to us. And having Boston and New York here, with their social connections and cultural connections to London, can be a lightning bolt.

“We know there are a lot of people in Europe that will wear Yankee and Red Sox hats, but they don’t have any idea that Aaron Judge or Mookie Betts wear that same hat. This is the opportunity to make the connection that the same hat you’re wearing is the one a bigger-than-life athlete wears going to work every day.’’

It’s not as if these two games – which will be shown locally in the as well as nationally in the United States on Saturday and Sunday – will provoke a flurry of Europeans to call their travel agents looking for discount flights to Yankee Stadium this summer.

But, hey, you got to start somewhere, right?

“Growing up in the 70’s in Boston,’’ Small said, “if you played soccer, you were either a foreign exchange student or you weren’t good enough to play football, , baseball or hockey. Well, those days are long gone. Look at soccer now.

“We’re trying to make baseball a global sport and to do that, you have to be locally relevant.’’

London Stadium – originally built for the 2012 Olympics and now home to West Ham United of the English Premier League – plays host for the series this weekend.

There are 130,000 people who will attend the two games this weekend, with nearly 400 credentialed reporters, with the games televised in 170 countries. The original allotment sold out within 30 minutes, with 70% of those tickets being sold in the United Kingdom, compared to just 10% in the United States.

It’s hardly as if the tickets were cheap, either. The average ticket price was 250 pounds, which is about $320 in U.S. dollars, with the cheapest going for 30 pounds ($38).

It’s quite possible, Edwards suggests, that many of those tickets sold were simply to Americans who live in Europe. MLB officials don’t know for sure, but are hoping that a large segment of the fanbase are curious sports fans who simply want to see why America makes such a fuss over baseball.

MLB realizes it’s essential to educate the Europeans on the game, with the scoreboard this weekend reading Runs, Hits and Errors instead of R-H-E. There are 700 volunteers with 150 in the stadium that will teach fans how to sing “Take Me Out to The Ballgame." The public address announcer will help inform the fans what constitutes a hit, an out, a double-play grounder, and why some players will stop at first base instead of second or third or simply rounding the bases.

And, yes, they’ll be reminding fans that they can keep all foul balls..

They will do everything possible to assimilate the atmosphere at games in the United States. They will have vendors in the stands for the first time, selling Sam Adams beer for the Red Sox fans, Brooklyn Lager for the Yankee fans, and London Series Pale Ale for the locals. There’ll be peanuts and cracker jacks and hot dogs sold right alongside fish and chips and meat pies.

There’ll be a , just as if you’re at Miller Park watching the Race in or watching the Presidents Race in Washington, with Winston Churchill, , Henry VIII and yes, the Loch Ness Monster. They’ll sing “Y-M-C-A’ like they do at Yankee Stadium and “" as if they’re at Fenway Park.

Really, unless you happen to be a fly-ball pitcher – with the center field fence just 385 feet away – MLB is doing everything humanely possible to make sure this is an experience these players will forever cherish.

If they step about six feet from the pitcher’s mound, this is the historic spot where Usain Bolt set the Olympic record in 2012 with his 9.63 time in the 100-meter dash. They’ll be reminded that they are going where no MLB player has gone before, not even , Aaron, , Joe DiMaggio or played in Europe.

The players, who arrived early in the morning Thursday in London, will have two days off before their first game Saturday and two days off after their return Sunday night. They are staying in five-star hotels in a posh section of London, and get a $60,000 stipend apiece for agreeing to play these games outside the United States.

The clubhouses, four times the size of West Ham’s normal locker room, are the traditional size of a home clubhouse, complete with their own video rooms and two batting cages. The clubhouse food (after taste tests during the winter) will be prepared just as if they were at Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park. And, yes, there will be plenty of bubblegum and sunflower seeds.

In a perfect world, the Yankees and Red Sox return home, tell all of their friends how they enjoyed the experience, and London becomes a permanent summer destination. The and St. Louis Cardinals have agreed to play in London in 2020, and if the next collective bargaining agreement permits it, there may be expansion to even other European countries.

There are 12 European stations now that televise limited games, but if this is a success, who knows, maybe there’ll be an influx of Europeans playing baseball just like the NBA, with players like Germany’s Max Kepler playing for the along with 24 minor-league players from Europe.

“The fact that these guys are the first ones ever to play in Europe for games that counted,’’ Small says, “I think they are going to think this is really cool, creating that emotional connection that hopefully stays with them the rest of their lives.’’

Maybe, the fans attending these games, some seeing baseball for the first time in their lives, will be able to say the same.

Cheerio.

MLB London Series: With hitter-friendly dimensions, expect to see plenty of home runs from Red Sox and Yankees

Bob Nightengale

We have witnessed a historic number of homers this year, with MLB on pace to shatter the all-time record, and this weekend's games in London between the Yankees and Red Sox could further bludgeon pitcher's psyche.

London Stadium's dimensions will be absolute dream for hitters. While there will be more foul territory than at any major-league stadium – 4,000 more square foot than the – the left-field and right-field foul lines are just 330 feet away. Straightaway center is field only 385 feet, the shortest distance of any park in baseball, but it includes a 16-foot-high wall.

The field, home to West Ham United of the English Premier League, now has 141,913 square feet of artificial turf atop the playing surface, 350 tons of clay from Slippery Rock, Pa., and 345 tons of dirt from Chicago and Middleton, Wisc.

Jim Small, MLB senior vice president of international business, isn't too worried about the end result.

“Is it perfect, no?’’ Small told USA TODAY Sports, “but the challenge with baseball is fitting a into a facility. You can’t put it on a soccer field like you can in the NFL. There’s just not enough room, so that limits us where we can go.

“But we are comfortable with the dimensions here. The great thing about baseball is there is no cookie-cutter setup. These are two perfect examples with the [short] right field at Yankee Stadium and the Pesky Pole at Fenway.

“So, having a non-traditional layout shouldn’t affect anybody on these two teams.’’