On the eve of the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park, The Red Sox are in a sad state.....

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.

It's about as UGLY as it can get for the Red Sox

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).

A Day at Fenway Park with the Missus & coworkers

Humphrey Bogart was famous for saying, " A hot dog at the ball park is better than steak at the Ritz.." - Not only was he a great actor, he was "spot on" about a day at the old Ballpark.

The Missus & I got to spend a day at Fenway courtesy of the employer....in the Corporate box....nice.....very very nice. Coworkers one & all had a good time and I got to meet Theo Epstein, GM of the Red Sox. He was handing out " thank yous" & Red Sox Fridge magnets to a bunch of us on Yawkey Way....very cool.

A day at Fenway Park where we watched the RED SOX beat up the NY Yanks 8-4, ensuring that the dreaded "Evil Empire" got only the wildcard instead of the division title....yeah, I know the Sox were outta it but based on the injuries we faced, it is amazing that we were in contention until the end of the season - Most teams in our situation would have been 20 games back.... and we got to ruin the Yankees day....sweet.

Here's to a great day at FENWAY PARK, the jewel of American Ballparks and one of my favorite places.....just awesome.