Love, Ax

SO GOOD. Here is the note John Axford left for the media, snapped by @JordanSchelling, after his streak came to an end, and he had to dash off to the hospital. If only Fisher Cats manager Sal Fasano would take a similar approach instead of shutting his office door when the team loses.

Chris Carpenter talking about his neck/shoulder/nerve issues

Chris Carpenter has spent the past few weeks strengthening his shoulder and preparing for a throwing program. He said his neck and shoulder feel great, but the true test will come when he picks up a baseball.  In 2004, Carpenter was sidelined with a similar nerve-related injury late in the season and didn’t pitch against the Red Sox in the World Series. 

“Just a lot of rehab right now. We’re taking our time,” he said. “There was a neck issue that affected the nerves in my arm. With my past history, we’re slowing everything down and getting everything working properly ... To be honest with you, with everything that’s gone on in my career, I’m playing with fire all the time. I’m OK with it. You deal with injuries in this business. You never want an injury to end your career, but you deal with it all the time in this business. Fortunately, we have great trainers and doctors that get you back on the field.”

Asked if he’ll be ready to pitch in the 2012 postseason, he said, “I think I’ll be back before that, to be honest with you. I just can’t answer that question until I start throwing again.”

Just telling it like it is ...

TIME TO FLIP a food spread. Time to send somebody packing. The Fisher Cats are playing uninspired, sloppy baseball right now. Tonight they opened a four-game series against Binghamton and lost, 9-2, dropping their fourth in a row. New Hampshire (13-19) struck out 15 times and committed three errors. (Mark Sobolewski, throw; John Tolisano, catch; A.J. Jimenez, throw). We expected a drop-off in production from last year's championship team, but nothing quite like this. Grumpy Sal Fasano shut his office door after the game. I talk with the Fisher Cats manager after most every game I cover. It was time to get some reaction on this losing streak, but after Fasano saw me in the hallway, he immediately shut his door. Jonathan Diaz and Brad Glenn did speak about the current state of the Fisher Cats.


"You want to win. When you're in a skid like this, it's tough," Diaz said. "All we can do is keep grinding and focusing and giving it all we've got."

AFTER HOURS: No, that is not the Millennium Falcon parked in left field. It's the new LED board at the Fisher Cats ballpark.  

Adam Lind Bonus DVD

Oh, nothing, just some postgame sound bites from Adam Lind in 2009 that crack me up. I also posted this because one of the questioners is Carl Beane, a long-time reporter and voice of the Boston Red Sox, who died today from an apparent heart attack and car crash. Carl was the manager in our annual Media Game. RIP, Skip.

Today's Fisher Cats fix

Can Ryan Goins muster another three hits at Portland tonight? The first-year Fisher Cat enters the series opener with three consecutive 3-hit games. Goins (.327) has 17 hits in his last 10 games. During the same stretch, Mark Sobolewski has five homers and 13 RBIs while batting .350. Here are recent podcasts (that's code for rambling, talk-show-like interviews) with Sobo and Justin Jackson ... RHP Randy Boone was called up from Dunedin and is scheduled to start tonight at Portland ... I voted for Trevor May for Eastern League Pitcher of the Month after the Reading Phillies righty went 5-0 with a teeny tiny ERA in April -- and then lost his first outing of May ... On this beautiful Monday, I'll leave you with this brilliance from the Harvard baseball team: