Premiere League Football at the Garden
In the past we’ve had some passing interest from customers wanting to come in on Saturday or Sunday morning for European football(soccer) matches. But we’ve never done it on a regular basis or formally announced that we will be open early for matches. This year we’re going to give it a go, largely based on the fact that we have a bartender who actually likes soccer and is also capable of not being too, too, hungover on Saturday mornings to function properly.
What we really need though is to hear from you this week if you’re interested or if you know people who would be interested in coming down. We won’t be opening downstairs early, this will be upstairs only as we have employees downstairs from 9:30-11am getting ready to open for the day. If you do decide to come down we kindly ask you brave the fire escape at the back of the Garden and come up and knock on the backdoor to the upstairs bar. Tom(me) will be in around 9-9:30 so you’ll be able to come in a little before match time.
At least for the first week we’ll have both coffee and breakfast sandwiches(and beer) available. And again this all really comes down to the interest level, if it’s there we more than happy to open up early. We pride ourselves on being Nashua’s best sports bar and for us this is another opportunity to continue to provide Nashua sports fans with the best place in the city to watch sports, and eat sandwiches, and drink and so on. So please let us know on Facebook, ideally through a message, if you would like to come down. If not this Saturday, then the next one and we’ll see how it goes.
This week on Saturday the EPL kicks off with three ten o’clock matches, Everton vs Tottenham, Liverpool vs Sunderland and Queens Park Rangers vs Bolton. We have at least a couple people planning on coming for the Everton match against Spurs and again, the more the merrier. Be sure to let us know if you want to come down and we’ll see you when you knock on the upstairs backdoor this Saturday morning!
Meet Erik Bedard, The Red Sox Savior, Maybe
A mere hour or so after the Garden’s Facebook page demanded that Theo Epstein and the Red Sox deliver us a new pitcher to add to the starting rotation our request was granted. The pitcher they brought in is the oft injured, talented, left hander, Erik Bedard from the hapless Seattle Mariners. It was a three way deal that saw the Sox send out four minor leaguers in return for Bedard and minor league, right handed reliever, Josh Fields. None of the four players sent out was considered to be one of the Sox top ten or even top twenty organizational prospects and three of them would have been eligible for the rule v draft this fall and likely lost to other clubs anyways.
The immediate concern with Bedard is his health. After a four year run in Baltimore from 2004 to 2007 in which he made at least twenty-four starts and pitched at least 137 innings, Bedard took to the mound a mere fifteen times in both 2008 and 2009 and then missed 2010 completely. That all came as a member of the Mariners where he found himself pitching once again this season and has already made sixteen starts on the year and worked 91 1/3 innings. The cynical among us would assume then he’s bound to have his arm give out on him at any moment given his recent track record and is pitching on borrowed timed from here on out.
Bedard also just camed off the disbled list on Friday night but he was out with a leg injury this time and not arm trouble, for once. You could hope his arm is fine then and maybe his injured past won’t haunt him this season. But how many more innings can he be expected to throw? He threw eleven innings in the minors last season, can he really be expected to go from eleven to, say, 130-140 and then pitch deep into October? The Sox best bet might be to skip him and keep his innings total in check as much as possible in the regular season. After all, the Red Sox seem destined to make the playoffs this year considering they’d have to cough up not only their slim lead to the Yankees but a massive 8.5 game lead over the Angels, who currently sit second in the wild card race.
The need for Bedard as the Sox potential number three starter in the playoffs was heightened today when it was revealed that Clay Buchholz is likely done for the season. No Buchholz and no Bedard would leave the Sox looking for someone out of Andrew Miller, John Lackey and Tim Wakefield to emerge as the third man and the second best of that trio to be the fourth starter in the ALCS and World Series. The Angels version of John Lackey would suite everyone just fine but no one knows where he went. Andrew Miller has walked as many batters as he’s struckout and how similar Wakefield’s current form is to how he might pitch in October is anyone’s guess and about as predictable as the path of his knuckleballs to the plate.
Miller almost has to be the man to lose his spot to Bedard, Wakefield is more comfortable in the rotation and the Sox should be content to let him go out every five days and soak up some innings so long as he maintains any semblance of effectiveness as he has so far this season(and the last decade and a half). Lackey has been good too recently and is too expensive to banish to the ‘pen where as Miller can be sent down to Pawtucket and try to get himself into better form without costing the team at the big league level.
As hideous as Lackey’s 6.20 ERA is, worse than that of both Miller and Wake, he’s struckout more batters than both Miller and Wake and has walked less than both too. All three have yielded more home runs per nine innings than the league average but Lackey is closer to the league average than either of the other two. That leaves some hope for his ERA to comedown closer to his FIP which sits at 4.67. FIP stands for fielding independent pitching and evaluates a pitcher based only on his strikeout, walk and home run rates. Essentially, Lackey’s been bad but not as bad as his ERA suggests and is the Sox best bet going forward if Bedard gets hurt. This isn’t to say Lackey should be let off the hook for his horrible pitching completely, but there’s a glimmer of hope in his other numbers beyond his ERA.
Getting back to Bedard, the Sox took the risk of bringing him in because when he has pitched he’s been quite good throughout his career. In 160 career appearances, Bedard has a 3.66 ERA and an equally impressive 3.69 FIP. This season he’s struckout 8.57 batters per nine innings while only walking 2.96. That stacks up well to the league average strikeout rate of 7.04 batters per nine and the league average 3.14 walks per nine innings. There’s a some concern with his longball issues as he too possesses an above average rate of home runs allowed. Still, his 3.45 ERA this year slots in nicely behind Beckett’s 2.17 and Lester’s 3.17 and his 3.67 FIP falls in between Josh’s 3.14 and Lester’s 3.93.
The reality of the trade is the Red Sox had to do something, they knew about Buchholz’ condition before anyone else did and were able to keep it a secret until after the deadline had passed. Theo didn’t give up anything substantial long term and got an arm that could be deadly in the playoffs, if the Red Sox can find a way to keep it attached to Bedard until then.
What to Watch This Week at the Garden
Turned out to be a hell of a week for Boston sports fans didn’t it? The Bruins won the Cup in convincing fashion, staged the biggest championship parade the city of Boston has ever seen and the Red Sox cooled off a bit with a 4-3 record since last Thursday but are still holding onto first place in the AL East. With the Stanley Cup playoffs now concluded only the Sox and Revs are currently in season. There’s still a decent amount of sports related goings on taking place this week though. We’d also like to mention we do have MLB’s television package and can screen just about any Major League game, so if you’re a fan of an out of town team(except the Yankees) and want to catch a game or two we can help you with that.
Boston Bruins
Enjoying the spoils, fame and exploits of being the reigning Stanley Cup Champions. Also, the NHL draft is tomorrow night at seven and the Bruins will have the ninth pick, thanks to the gift that keeps on giving know as the Phil Kessel trade. The B’s are unlikely to pickup another Tyler Seguin like phenom in this year’s draft but they could definitely wind up adding an important piece with their early selection. ESPN has the B’s pegged to select eighteen year old, six-foot-two, defenseman, Nathan Beaulieu with the ninth pick. He’s noted for good hockey sense, first pass skills and physical play but is lacking with his point play on the power play. Sounds like the kid will fit right in.
Boston Red Sox
The Sox have slipped a bit going just 6-4 in their last ten games but as mentioned above are still clinging to first place and like last week they still have the league’s most potent offense having been the first team to push 400 runs across the plate this season. The Sox are dealing with a host of injuries at the moment with Jed Lowrie, Carl Crawford and Clay Bucholz all hitting the disabled list recently and Josh Beckett is out of action at the moment with the flu. The injuries to the rotation have opened an extended stay for Tim Wakefield in a starting role and had the Sox call up Andrew Miller from Pawtucket to join the staff as well.
The Sox are off today and will spend the weekend in Pittsburgh taking on the Pirates and will have to do without a DH for the weekend. Jon Lester will kickoff the series on Friday night at 7:05pm against Paul Maholm. Saturday’s game is also at 7:05pm and the Pirates will be sending former Yankees prospect, Jeff Karstens, to the mound but who will oppose him on the mound for the Sox isn’t clear. If Beckett is feeling better it is his spot but if not they’ll send Andrew Miller out to make his second start on the season. Wake will go on Sunday in the series finale against James McDonald with a typical Sunday afternoon start time of 1:35pm.
The Red Sox will happily take another day off on Monday and then head on for another DH-less series in Philadelphia against the Phillies that runs Tuesday through Thursday. Both Tuesday and Wednesday’s games will start at 7:05pm and they’ll wrap things up with a 1:05pm start on Thursday.
Boston Celtics
The NBA draft is tonight and Celtics fans don’t have all that much to look forward to as the C’s don’t pick until deep in the first round at number 25(the C’s somewhat surprisingly weren’t able to get a pick from Toronto in the Kessel trade). Celtics’ GM Danny Ainge hasn’t expressed much enthusiasm for trying to move up the board either as this draft is regarded as a relatively weak one. Chad Ford has the C’s taking Jimmy Butler from Marquette with the 25th pick but also suggested they could grab Reggie Jackson from Jeff Lyons’ alma mater, Boston College.
Despite picking so late in the draft it’s still worth taking note of whomever they select. Ainge has a pretty good track record with turning late selections into useful players including Glenn Davis and Ryan Gomes, both selected in the second round, as well as Delonte West(24th overall, 2004), Tony Allen(25th overall, 2004) and he also swung a draft deal in 2003 that saw Dahntay Jones and Troy Bell(the all-time leading scorer at Jeff Lyon’s alma mater) head to Memphis for that year’s 28th overall pick, Kendrick Perkins. The draft gets going at seven tonight on ESPN.
New England Revolution
The Revs continued their ongoing quest to sour the bulk of Monty’s summer by only taking away a pair of draws in last week’s two home games against struggling opponents. The Revs played Toronto FC to a goalless draw last Wednesday and needed a second half goal from Rajko Lekic to salvage a 1-1 draw against the Chicago Fire this past Saturday. Only getting two points from a possible six at home leaves New England in seventh place in the Eastern Conference table with 15 points from 16 matches. Still, they are just three points off fourth place Houston.
The Revs are out in Seattle this weekend with a Sunday afternoon match against the Sounders at 4:00pm. Seattle is in third place in the Western Conference having taken 25 points from 17 matches on the year and have only lost twice at home in eight matches there.
Non-New England Sports
The US men’s soccer team moved on in the Gold Cup last night with a 1-0 victory over Panama. The US’ loan goal was sparked on by an excellent long-ball pass from none other than Freddy Adu, yes the same Freddy Adu who made his MLS debut at age 14 and is still now just 22 years old. Adu’s pass found Landon Donovan on the right flank who sent in a perfect cross for Clint Dempsey to tap into the back of the net. The US’ victory moves them into the final match of the Cup against Mexico. The finale will be played this Saturday night at 8:30pm.
Wimbledon, the men’s and women’s tennis tournament, started on June 20th and runs through July 3rd.
Five Beers Just in This Week
While the weather continues to fluctuate summer is indeed right around the corner. And a new season means new beers coming into the Garden, some you’ve probably had before and some you haven’t. We got five new ones in this week including three summer ales. So don’t just stick to Sam Summer all season tryout Sierra Nevada’s Summer Fest, Brooklyn Brewery’s Summer Ale and Leinenhugel’s Summer Shandy.
We brought in another excellent selection from Sierra Nevada as well, their delicious Bigfoot Ale and also brought in some of Samuel Smith’s Pure Brewed Lager, which if you haven’t had, is fantastic. Also, this week we got Sam Smith’s Oatmeal Stout back in stock and don’t forget about last week’s new additions, Magic Hat’s Summer Wacko, Brooklyn Brewery’s Brown Ale and Jeff Lyons’ new favorite, Boddington’s Pub Ale.
Next time you’re in we’d love you to try something different and let us know what you think!
What to Watch This Week at the Garden
As we mentioned yesterday one of the things we’ll definitely be doing here is a weekly post with a quick rundown of New England sports teams schedules and any other important sporting events that week that we plan on showing. As this is being written the Red Sox have already jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the top of the first inning against the Indians. A win today would give the Sox two wins in the three game set against the Indians who came into the series as owners of the best record in baseball. A win would push the Sox into a virtual tie in first place in the AL East with the Yankees with a 27-22 record.
Boston Bruins
The B’s are in action tonight in game six against the Tampa Bay Lightning. A win tonight would send the Bruins to their first Stanley Cup Finals since 1990 and give them a shot at their first Cup since 1972. The Bruins pushed ahead in the series three games to two on Monday night with a 3-1 victory. If the Bruins can’t pull out the victory down in Tampa tonight, they’ll get a second chance to advance on Friday night at eight back home. Checkout ESPN and the Bruin’s blog for a couple of previews of tonight’s game. The end of this series will also mark the return of the Esposito up on our sandwich board.
Boston Red Sox
After the Red Sox finish up their series against the Indians today they’ll head out to Detroit to face the Tigers in a four game series that starts tomorrow with another afternoon game at 1:05. Alfredo Aceves is slated to start that game and will be making his second start of the season as he and Tim Wakefield, who starts Friday night’s game with a 7:05pm start, continue to fill in for the injured John Lackey and Dice-K. Aceves managed to last five innings in his first start on May 21st against the Cubbies and only allowed one run on three hits.
Wakefield was also effective in his last outing on the 22nd, also against the Cubs, when he went six and two-thirds innings, allowed one run, struckout three batters and didn’t walk anybody. When Wake made his first start of the season on May 1st it marked the seventeenth consecutive season in which he made at least one start for the Sox. Clay Buchholz will toe the rubber on Saturday which has a 7:10pm start time. Clay has allowed two or fewer runs in five straight starts while striking out 26 batters, against only seven walks, in 33 innings of work over that stretch.
Sunday’s matchup is too good to miss with Josh Beckett going up against the Tigers’ ace, Justin Verlander. Becket has been outstanding this season with a minuscule 1.69 ERA through ten starts and he’s getting hitters to swing and miss more often than he has in any full season since 2005 when he was still a Marlin. He’ll be opposed by Verlander who has a nice 3.42 ERA of his own and a May 7th no-hitter against the Blue Jays to go with it. The series finale gets underway Sunday afternoon at 1:05pm.
New England Revolution
The Revs are at home this Saturday night and will be taking on Landon Donovan, David Beckham and the L.A. Galaxy at Gillette Stadium. To borrow a line from Major League, if you haven’t noticed, and judging by the attendance you haven’t, the Revs have been playing well at home this year with just one loss in six matches. The Revs opened the season in L.A. and played the Galaxy, typically one of MLS’ better sides each season, to a 1-1 draw. If nothing else it’s a good excuse to break out the “Beat L.A.” chant for a night and you can also look for our friend Monty in the Fort as he leads all the singing and chanting during the match.
Non-New England Sports
One of the most watched and anticipated sporting events in the world each year takes place this Saturday at 2:45pm. It’s the final match of the UEFA European Champions League, the biggest soccer match in the world in any non-World Cup year. This year’s final is being held at England’s famed Wembley Stadium which will be packed with close to 90,000 fans for a match with two of Europe’s best and most popular teams, Manchester United and Barcelona. Both clubs managed to advance to the final of this competition while also finishing at the top of the table of their respective leagues, Man U won the English Premiere League and Barcelona, rather easily, won the Spanish La Liga.
The match will feature the consensus best player in the world, Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, as well as several other of the sports best players including United striker Wayne Rooney and their goalkeeper, Edwin van der Sar. If your not too familiar with soccer but want to see how it’s played at it’s highest level, this is the match to watch.
Tennis’ French Open also continues this weekend and is set to continue through June 5th.
The NBA Playoffs could have a game every night from tonight through Monday, depending on how each series progresses. Tonight the Dallas Mavericks will try to close out their series against Kendrick Perkins and the Oklahoma City Thunder as they lead that series three games to one. Should they fail to do so, game six will be Friday and a potential game seven would be Sunday with each of them tapped for 9:00pm starts.
Thursday night will have the Heat looking to close out the Chicago Bulls as they’re ahead in that series three games to one. If they don’t pull it off, games six and seven will be on Saturday and Monday.
Every effort will be made to screen all these games but Bruins playoffs games do take precedence over everything else. The Champions League Final on Saturday afternoon will be on and the bar upstairs is now open each Saturday and Sunday afternoon at noon.
The Garden Needs a Blog?
In all likelihood, no, the Nashua Garden probably doesn’t need a blog. But we would like to have a website as another potential way for people who don’t already know about the Garden to find us. How this blog will evolve we don’t know just yet. Initially, it’ll mostly just be filled with all the basic information about the Garden, the sandwiches, our location, hours, pricing and so on. We’ll also have links to our other pages on Facebook and Twitter, a feed of our twitter updates(yes, it’s also debatable whether or not we need a twitter too), and our now semi-famous ESPN commercial.
Recently we’ve had a few things that we posted on our Facebook page that were a little on the long side for a status update, notably our post about looking for a few new employees and the letter we received from our favorite Italian-American, left handed pitcher, Lenny DiNardo. Stuff like that will probably find it’s way on here in the future in an effort to cut down on us bombarding your news feed. No need to worry though, our “Yooooooouuuukkkkss!!!” and other short, more to the point status updates will keep popping up in your feed. And we’ll let you know on Twitter and Facebook whenever something does end up here.
When we get new beers in we might use this space to introduce them to you. We’ll also have a weekly rundown of New England sport’s teams schedules for the week and any other special sporting events that we plan on showing that week as well. Beyond that, we’ll see how it goes and try to have some fun with it. If you have anything you’d like to see here just let us know and we’ll see what we can get going.
