Being a fan of the 26-time world champion NY Yankees, but living in the champion-starved city of Boston, I thought I would keep a running tab of what?s going on with the Red Sox. Things in NY have been surprisingly goofy so far this year (three weeks into spring training), but I am sure it will get much worse in Boston before long. So here is my running total of events. You can access this log by using the right column link, I will keep the log posted there. It will contain the facts and my interpretation of the facts.
<u><b>Feb 15.</b></u>
<i>Facts</i>: Pedro Martinez speaks to the media and says that he wants next year?s contract extension of $17.5 million by the end of spring training, even though the Sox contractually have until November, or else he will leave Boston after this season.
<i>My Interpretation</i>: Pedro Martinez knows he?s the best picture in baseball and wants the Sox to admit it by giving him a crazy amount of money for someone with a small frame and propensity for injury. He is a spoiled brat that is telling the Sox that if they don?t give him what he wants, he will prostitute himself out to the highest bidder and come back to haunt them.
<u><b>Feb. 18. </b></u>
<i>Facts</i>: Nomar keeps motoring away that he doesn?t like to talk to the media.
<i>My Interpretation</i>: Who freaking cares if he doesn?t talk to anyone ever again. Keep hitting, keep circling the ball when fielding, keep playing hard and don?t let the fact that you are gay bother you.
<u><b>Feb. 22. </b></u>
<i>Facts</i>: The Sox players attend a class on how to deal with the media.
<i>My Interpretation</i>: The Red Sox organization does not have the leadership or class outside the clubhouse to manage a critical part of being a professional athlete ? managing the media. They need some remedial class to tell them to answer tough questions with a smile because there just ain?t no way to avoid it.
<u><b>March 2. </b></u>
<i>Facts</i>: Kevin Millar doesn?t run to first after hitting a fly ball.
<i>My Interpretation</i>: This guy thought the ball was going foul, high winds blew it back into fair territory, it was the second game of spring training, and only in Boston do they make this out to be a big deal.
<u><b>April 1. </b></u>
<i>Facts</i>: The Red Sox lost their season opener in Tampa Bay when, after Pedro Martinez pitched a great game, two relievers in the 9th inning gave up 5 runs. You see, the Sox are not using a traditional closer to finish out games, instead opting with a committee of pitchers who will pitch based on the situation, how they are doing and a spin of the wheel.
From the Boston Globe.
<i>Call it what you will, but the concept of the Red Sox succeeding without an established closer went completely kaput last night in one of the worst possible scenarios - against the lowly Tampa Bay Devil Rays on the grand stage of Opening Day.
Giving rise to the darkest fears of the scheme's architects, two key members of the crew assigned to fill the closer's role - Alan Embree and Chad Fox - conspired to ruin a sensational start by Pedro Martinez by blowing a 4-1 lead in the ninth inning in a stunning 6-4 loss to the Rays before 34,391 at Tropicana Field.</i>
Also from a well known columnist with the Globe.
<i> ''There's a tendency for baseball fans to magnify things, but you grow out of it,'' Epstein said.
Easy for him to say. Unfortunately, most members of the Nation have not grown out of it. That's what makes them Red Sox fans. All they know at this hour is that the Sox are 0-1, the closer-by-committee system is a bust, and the sky is falling inside the Teflon roof of Tropicana Field.</i>
.
<i>My Interpretation</i>: I could not have penned a better opening day story. As we all know, one game is .6 of one percent of the baseball season, so in the grand scheme of things, this means very little. But not being a fan of using middle relievers to close games, and absolutely hating the Red Sox, I was skeptical about this approach. At the end of the season we might be saying that it worked great, but for now, Red Sox nation is recovering from a pretty bad closer hang-over.
<u><b>April 25. </b></u>
<i>Facts</i>: Relations between the Red Sox and the reporters who cover them grew so frayed yesterday that manager Grady Little convened a team meeting before the Rangers ran roughshod over his club. The outcome of the closed-door session, according to communications director Glenn Geffner, was the Sox agreed to continue speaking to reporters but planned to restrict their comments to baseball-related matters.
<i>My Interpretation</i>: The Sox beat up on JV squads Toronto, Baltimore and Tampa. Now they are entering a stretch with some good teams and start by fighting with the local media. Pedro saying he will never talk to the media as long as he is in Boston. Derek Lowe, right before he got lit up, complained that a Boston reporter looked at a bumper sticker in a teammate's locker. Maybe this team should take ?Media Relations 101?, let the reporters work in their favor, and play freakin? baseball.
<a href="http://www.dobrindts.com/movabletype/main/archives/000140.html">Click here for an update [Sept 26, 2003]. </a>
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