NY Yankee fans and others who wish the Red Sox ill must be in full "schadenfreude" mode today....Their wishes have come true as the Red Sox have run one of the most storied and successful baseball operations right up on the rocks.
Theo - Gone. Tito - Gone. The Clubhouse - in full mutiny mode. Ownership - looking as ineffective as the lunkheads in Washington, DC.
This is NOT where we were supposed to be as we had the "best & the brightest" in place, fully funded and capable of ensuring success. Obviously, the big priced help on and off the field were all about themselves and not devoted to the team, the fans or the game.
Sad to say, but these choppy seas that the Red Sox are on show no sign of easing. The winter of our discontent is in place and it will take more than PR to get things back to even close to where they need to be. Red Sox Nation are a tough bunch but no one likes being treated this way by a club that has been given undying devotion by the fans. The RED SOX need to earn back our respect as what they have shown us is not the signs of the team we deserve.
2012 was supposed to be a celebration but right now, it looks like it will be a year of lowered expectations and a tarnished team. I can only hope that something will change under a new GM & Coach. Time to clean house and get back on track.
Wind of change
By Dan Shaughnessy
Boston Globe Columnist / October 13, 2011
It’s back to the bad old days over on Yawkey Way. The Red Sox of 2011 are the Red Sox of Buddy LeRoux and Haywood Sullivan - doofus co-owners wrestling on the carpet of their Fenway Park offices back in 1983. They are the Red Sox of Tom Yawkey and his chorus line of drunken employees finishing out of the money from the 1930s through the ’60s.
There are so many things wrong with the Sox at this hour, it’s difficult to know where to start. The manager is gone, the general manager is gone, the owners are in hiding, and the players are a loathsome lot totally unworthy of the money and adulation they receive.
Theo Epstein’s gone. It was a seismic event when he quit in 2005. This time, his departure is lost in the mix as the Sox go from freefall to nuclear fallout. The Fenway lawn is scorched earth.
Did we ever think the vaunted “new’’ owners would make Frank McCourt look good?
Apologies are in order, all around. John Henry, Tom Werner, and Larry Lucchino need to come out of hiding and say they are sorry for this embarrassment.
Ditto for the cowardly ballplayers. Instead of blasting a reporter (“where’d you get this number?’’), phony captain Jason Varitek needs to explain how the ballplayers in the clubhouse abandoned their professionalism on his watch. Jon Lester, Josh Beckett, and John Lackey need to drop the bad-ass act (none of them returned calls from Bob Hohler before his explosive story in Wednesday’s Globe) and apologize to fans for their disrespect of the manager and the franchise. Put down the long-necks and the Double Down sandwiches and tell the fans you are sorry.
But why would they? They are joyless and enabled. We learn from Hohler’s story that when players complained about having to play a day-night doubleheader, out-of-touch Sox owners gave them $300 headphones and a night on Henry’s yacht.
Pathetic.
The worst collapse in the history of baseball wasn’t enough shame for this crew. They had to take on the persona of entitled rock stars who flip off the fans and demand only red M&Ms in their dressing room.
John Henry and friends have lived a charmed existence since buying the ball club in December of 2001. They have won a couple of World Series and made Fenway Park a tourist destination on a par with the Bunker Hill Monument and Old Ironsides. They sold their baseball souls to sell a few Fenway bricks and boost the ratings of their hideous network.
Now we’ve all had enough with Roush Racing and Liverpool soccer. Yankee fans never had to worry about George Steinbrenner taking his eyes off the prize in the interest of building ships.
Try this on with your pink hat: On the final night of the regular season, while the Sox were playing in Baltimore, fighting for their playoff lives, virtual ads during the baseball broadcast reminded you to watch Liverpool-Wolverhampton the next day at 4 p.m. That’s the same time that the Sox would have been playing their one-game playoff against Tampa Bay on TBS.
Got that? On Thursday, Sept. 29, at 4 p.m., the geniuses at NESN wanted you to watch soccer - instead of a one-game playoff involving the Red Sox.
Consistent with this insult, NESN the next day cut away from analysis of a postmortem press conference featuring Terry Francona and Theo Epstein (remember them?) at Fenway. While NESN rival Comcast went knee-deep into analysis, the Sox flagship TV station went to soccer.
Wow.
And now we have nothing from the owners since the night Francona was fired - unless you count the Baghdad Bob hour they granted to their flagship radio station that was simulcast on their own television network. There was plenty of talk about “shelf life’’ that day. Lucchino finished a lot of Henry’s sentences.
Can anyone blame Epstein for wanting to get away from this? Any chance he was encouraged to look elsewhere? I know one thing: Sox fans won’t be happy to see the ball club lose the still-under-contract-Theo in exchange for more cash for Henry. What happened to getting Matt Garza? Or couldn’t the Sox have at least made the Cubs take Lackey in a package deal with the beleaguered GM?
When Epstein quit in 2005, there was much anguish in Red Sox Nation. This time the departure gets lost in the avalanche of negativity that washes over the franchise. It’s, “Thanks for playing, Theo. We’ll think of you every time Carl Crawford strikes out for the next six years.’’
The rebuilding of the brand can begin only when Epstein is officially gone. The Sox need to name Ben Cherington GM, then go about the business of regaining the fans’ trust. It would be nice if they’d hire a strong-willed field manager, but we fear they’re going to go with a no-name who’ll carry out the orders of Carmine the Computer, Tom Tippett, and Bill James.
The Sox expected to spend this winter preparing for the glorious 100th celebration of Fenway Park. Instead they are picking up pieces of their broken brand as they prepare to raise the third-place banner and celebrate Fenway’s centennial on April 20, 2012.
Maybe it’s time to show real fans that you are back in the business of baseball and junk “Sweet Caroline’’ in the middle of the eighth.
Bad times never seemed so bad.
" Humpty Dumpty was pushed..."
Well Tito isn't Humpty Dumpty but you get the picture. As a proud member of RED SOX NATION, I have restrained myself from the "blame game" and the finger pointing after the Red Sox fell from their lofty perch. I don't believe in a lot of back biting and such.
Yesterday, the issue got ratched up when the Red Sox and Terry Francona announced a mutual parting of the ways...Take it from a savvy HR professional, there was nothing "mutual" about it.
The RED SOX have made some mistakes and this ranks right up there with one of their biggest. I am unsure what the future holds for RED SOX NATION but at this point, the fans are akin to a guy standing by the side of the road watching a car wreck....you can only hope that no one else gets hurt and that things will be OK later....In this case, there is much concern that we will not again see the class, dedication, professionalism and all around likeability like we saw from Tito.
Tito will be missed. The Boston Globe's Dan Shaughnessy sums it up for the fans. To John Henry, Theo and Larry, I say that while you guys have made some good choices, this one ranks up as number one on the list of wrong decisions made by the Red Sox.
Ignore that spin from the brass - he was fired
By Dan Shaughnessy
Globe Columnist / October 1, 2011
Terry Francona was fired yesterday. The longtime manager and the Red Sox brass used a lot of polite words and tried to make it sound mutual, but Francona turns out to be the first victim of the greatest collapse in baseball history.
On a bizarre and historic Friday at Fenway, the Sox and Francona generated more spin than the Harlem Globetrotters.
Francona blamed himself, worked hard to stay on message, but late in his goodbye press session, he veered off the rails and threw John Henry under the team charter.
“To be honest with you, I’m not sure how much support there was from ownership,’’ Francona offered. “You’ve got to be all-in on this job. It’s got to be everybody together, and I was questioning that a little bit.’’
Bingo. Henry has had Francona in his crosshairs for a couple of years. Ultimately, Francona was not enough of a numbers guy to satisfy Boston’s Moneyball boss.
All summer long, even when the Sox were rolling, the ball club steadfastly refused to trigger Francona’s contract extension. The 7-20 finish made Francona a perfect scapegoat.
There were plenty of real issues that led to Francona’s demise. With a $161 million payroll (third highest in baseball) and 15 former All-Stars, the Sox finished third for a second straight season. Francona lost the clubhouse. He loved his players, covered for them, and they turned Fenway Park into Delta House. It was Pete Carroll Redux. Treat them like men, they run all over you, then say, “You messed up. You trusted us.’’
Based on Francona’s non-denial, it’s apparently true that some of the Sox’ starting pitchers were drinking in the clubhouse during games they were not scheduled to start. A report in yesterday’s Herald broke the story and Francona rejected an opportunity to say that it was untrue.
Still, the Sox will want you to believe that Francona was not fired. They’re going with a fairy tale that the front office and the manager of eight years simply decided to part ways. It was the theme of the 5:30 p.m. press release announcing the change, and team chairman Tom Werner and general manager Theo Epstein kept the charade going last night - less than an hour after Francona effectively acknowledged he was not invited back.
It was ridiculous. Like the cataclysmic end of the season, this whole day was ridiculous.
“It’s my decision,’’ Francona said. “I think it was time for a new voice here . . . I wanted our guys to care about each other on the field and I didn’t think we were doing that.’’
Epstein said Francona “decided that there were certain things that needed to be done that he couldn’t do . . . and this team would benefit from hearing a new voice.’’
But ultimately it was a disconnect between Henry and Francona that prompted this change.
Henry did not appear at last night’s press conference. Lucchino and Werner said Henry “wanted to be here,’’ but reported that Henry had sustained a minor injury during the day.
Like everything else in Henrytown, Francona’s dismissal was rooted in the numbers. Eight years is a long time for anyone to manage the same baseball team. A 162-game season provides thousands of potential second-guesses for a stat-crazed owner. The longer Francona managed here, the more decisions Henry questioned.
Certainly there were some head-scratchers at the end. Maybe letting Tim Wakefield make nine tries for win No. 200 was a mistake. Pinch running Lars Anderson for Adrian Gonzalez last Sunday was interesting. Francona’s decision to bat Ryan Lavarnway (second big-league start at catcher) in the No. 5 spot behind Gonzalez Wednesday played right into the hands of Orioles manager Buck Showalter. Showalter intentionally walked Gonzalez three times and Lavarnway made the final out three times, stranding six runners. This was not God’s will. This was a blunder by the Boston manager.
Francona represented a nice blend of old school and Moneyball. He always had a computer on his desk, but had reverence and respect for the baseball lifers who played when his dad played in the 1950s and ’60s. But it was hard to deal with daily lineup suggestions delivered by everyone from Bill James to new stat guru Tom Tippett. Epstein and the minions were relentless.
Francona knew this day was coming. So he forced the issue, then spoke from his heart . . . just once.
“I was actually puzzled by that comment,’’ said Lucchino. “I must confess to being a little puzzled by what was different than in previous years.’’
Too bad Henry was not there to answer the charge.
Francona might go down as the best manager in the 111-year history of the franchise. Only Joe Cronin managed longer. Only Don Zimmer had a higher winning percentage (among those who managed here for at least five years). And when you break an 86-year-old championship drought, win two World Series titles in four seasons, you don’t have to worry about your legacy.
It’ll be interesting to see who the Sox can hire. Henry and Co. like big-name talent, but they also like someone who’ll go by their book. Bobby Valentine is not going to let sunshine-starved stat geeks dictate the lineup.
Maybe Philip Seymour Hoffman is available.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist.
It is about as UGLY as it can get for the RED SOX right now....a dismal start of the season was followed by a robust summer, which in turn was followed up by the worst September slump in club history.....
There are two games left and the RED SOX will live or die by their own abilities or lack thereof....no matter what the outcome, this is NOT how we in Boston expected to finish a year that held so much promise.....
Red Sox Fall to the Back of the Pack With 6-3 Loss to Orioles
Published September 27, 2011
Associated Press
BALTIMORE – The Boston Red Sox have finally fallen all the way back to pack, and now they've got only two games left to make it right.
The Red Sox found another way to lose, this time on a broken-bat single and an inside-the-park homer, and their 6-3 defeat against the Baltimore Orioles on Monday night dropped them into a tie in the AL wild-card race.
Boston's 17th loss in 22 games enabled Tampa Bay to pull even in the duel for the league's final playoff spot. The Rays, who beat the New York Yankees 5-2, trailed by nine games after play on Sept. 3.
The Red Sox had either stood atop the AL East or led the wild-card race every day since before play on May 24.
In spite of the epic collapse, Boston can squeeze into the playoffs by winning its last two games. Then, at worst, the Red Sox will face the Rays in a one-game playoff.
"We win every game, we're in the playoffs," right fielder Adrian Gonzalez said. "It's definitely in our hands."
Problem is, the Red Sox haven't won two in a row since August.
"We've backed ourselves about as far as we can go," manager Terry Francona said.
With the score 2-all in the sixth inning, Boston starter Josh Beckett (13-7) allowed four runs in an uprising that began with Vladimir Guerrero becoming the career hits leader among Dominican-born players.
Guerrero broke a tie with Julio Franco by bouncing a single up the middle, his 2,587th career hit. The 36-year-old Guerrero then stole second base, and after a two-out walk to Mark Reynolds, Chris Davis broke his bat hitting a soft liner to right that brought home the go-ahead run.
"I didn't make pitches when I needed to," Beckett said. "I tried to bounce a changeup to Davis there and I leave it up and he serves it to right field."
Robert Andino followed with a deep fly to center that Jacoby Ellsbury had in his glove before crashing into the wall. Andino sprinted around the bases and made it home as the relay throw bounced past catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia.
Boston loaded the bases with one out in the eighth, but Pedro Strop struck out Saltalamacchia and retired Marco Scutaro on a grounder.
Although Dustin Pedroia hit an RBI single in the ninth, the Red Sox stranded two runners and fell to 6-19 in September, the second-worst record in the majors behind the Minnesota Twins. It's also Boston's second worst September, behind a 4-18 mark in 1926, according to STATS LLC.
Jed Lowrie homered for the Red Sox, whose September swoon includes four losses in five games against Baltimore.
Beckett allowed six runs and seven hits in six innings. The right-hander won four straight decisions before losing to the Orioles twice in six days.
"We've got to win games, and we're not going to do it when your starting pitcher gives up six runs," Beckett said.
Troy Patton (2-1) retired all five batters he faced after entering for starter Tommy Hunter, who gave up one earned run in five innings.
"It's a relentless lineup, and that's why I'm so proud of our pitchers," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. "Tommy gave us what he had today. He was barking pretty good there the last inning or so with the groin (injury)."
Boston placed runners on second and third with two outs in the first before Hunter issued an intentional walk to Gonzalez and retired Lowrie on a fly ball. The Red Sox bounced back with an unearned run in the second on a two-out throwing error by rookie left fielder Matt Angle.
Matt Wieters tied it in the bottom half with an opposite-field drive into the left-field seats. Wieters has 21 homers this year after totaling 20 in his first two big league seasons.
Lowrie led off the fourth with his sixth home run, the third against Baltimore. Boston then got runners on the corners with two outs before Nick Markakis made a sliding catch of Carl Crawford's sinking liner to right.
The Orioles drew even at 2 in the fifth on an RBI single by Davis. But with the bases loaded and one out, Beckett retired J.J. Hardy on a popup and struck out Markakis.
NOTES: Boston C Jason Varitek was a late scratch. He took a ball off his left knee in Sunday's second game against New York. He was replaced by Saltalamacchia, who left in the eighth when struck near the throat by a foul ball. ... Showalter received in-house treatment for an ankle injury early in the game but was back by the second inning. ... Ellsbury's second-inning double extended his hitting streak against Baltimore to 34 games, longest by a Red Sox player against another team in the history of the franchise. ... Francona said he hasn't decided who will start Wednesday's game. It could be 15-game winner Jon Lester on three days rest. ... Former Oriole Erik Bedard (5-9) will pitch for the Red Sox on Tuesday against rookie Zach Britton (11-10).
NY Yankee fans and others who wish the Red Sox ill must be in full "schadenfreude" mode today....Their wishes have come true as the Red Sox have run one of the most storied and successful baseball operations right up on the rocks.
