Here it is mid-September, and it's an odd time of year for the Red Sox fans.
They are following the National Football League instead of the baseball scores.
When's the last time that happened? I guess the 2001 season has that feeling. That was the year when Jimy Williams was fired and replaced by Joe Kerrigan, who went 17-26 and seemed to destroy a good reputation built up over the years as a pitching coach. (Although, you too can be a good pitching coach with Pedro Martinez running out there every five days.)
But perhaps that isn't bad enough. Perhaps we have to go back to the 1994 Red Sox, who went 54-61 in a short season under Butch Hobson. Even Roger Clemens went 9-7 on that team.
The Red Sox problems have been well documented. They started last September, when the team forgot how to pitch for a month and missed out on a playoff spot. The collapse received a little more attention than the Braves' fold, in part because of market size. Then the stories started to leak out about chicken snacks among the starting pitchers who weren't playing on a particular day.
Theo Epstein fled to the Cubs, where he soon discovered what a rebuilding job really looks like. Terry Francona fled to ESPN, following the tradition of Bill Parcells and Doug Collins of keeping your name out there until the next good coaching job comes along.
From there, life in Fenway Park seemed to spiral downward. New general manager Ben Cherington wasn't allowed to pick his own manager, as Bobby Valentine got the job. And Valentine wasn't allowed to pick all of his own coaching staff, which is never a good sign. Valentine knows his baseball inside out, and I still can't believe he got THAT Mets' team in 2000 into the World Series (go look at the roster sometime). But I wouldn't prescribe him as the anecdote for a potentially tense situation.
Valentine didn't help himself by making some curious remarks about Kevin Youkilis, who might be in decline physically but certainly always gave 100 percent on the field and was popular. He also got hamstrung by injuries to players like Carl Crawford, Jacoby Ellsbury and David Ortiz, and events such as Daniel Bard's complete loss of effectiveness. Jon Lester and Josh Beckett were pretty bad in the first half of the season as well.
Then came the reboot. You'd probably heard a little about the trade that sent a quarter of a billion dollars in contracts to the Dodgers for mostly prospects. It was the smart thing to do under the circumstances, since the season was going nowhere. Still, I wouldn't want to be in charge of selling tickets and sponsorships next season. And since the move, the current Red Sox team seems to be saying that if the front office has given up on us, we'll give up on them. They are in last place in the American League East.
Someone will pay for all of this, and certainly Valentine will have to be sacrificed. Bobby V. had me somewhat emotionally when he took Tony Conigliaro's number (they were roommates with the Angels), and I don't think he had a fair chance. Still, he didn't help himself at times.
But there's one big question that hangs over the franchise. It was asked a few years ago by a reporter, and it still remains valid today. Why don't star players on the Red Sox ever leave on good terms?
Ponder the list, which obviously includes Youkilis and Beckett. Pedro Martinez departed as a free agent after a squabble over contract length. Nomar Garciaparra had turned sullen by the time of his trade. Manny Ramirez's own teammates didn't want him around. Heck, we could go back to Mo Vaughn about this. Well, Carl Yastrzemski wasn't run out of town.
Boston baseball is followed as closely as it is anywhere in the country. The media can have an unyielding appetite, and the pressure is intense. It takes a certain type of personality to thrive there. The catch is that it takes a certain type of personality to stay there. When the rebuilding process begins this year, Red Sox management will have to ponder those factors in addition to mere baseball skills.
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Showing posts with label Boston Red Sox. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boston Red Sox. Show all posts
Monday, September 10, 2012
Monday, October 20, 2008
Summer's over
There is something sad about the end of your favorite baseball team's season.
Spring training marks the annual renewal of life, summer features warm days and good times, and fall seems compressed as we try to get everything done before the first snow, at least in the Northeast.
So it goes for the Red Sox fans, whose season ended Sunday night with a loss in Game Seven to the Tampa Bay Rays, those 1969 Mets impersonators. Fittingly, the high temperature Tuesday in Buffalo is scheduled to be in the low 40's, which isn't exactly baseball weather. Ever hit a baseball in cold weather? It's like a swarm of bees attacking your hands; it left me close to tears once, and it was warmer than that.
Boston's season raises an interesting question. In an age when you only hear chants of "we're number one," can you have a satisfying sports season when your team doesn't win it all? I'd like to think so, but it's tough ... and that's particularly true after a couple of instances of ultimate success, like the Red Sox have had lately.
It wasn't a great year in Red Sox Nation, but it was a pretty good one. The team's young talent continued to develop, ensuring a good future. Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis and Jon Lester look like stars. Boston made the playoffs despite a sideshow involving Manny Ramirez, who might have been useful in a Game Seven but the team probably wouldn't have gotten there with the distraction he represents. The Red Sox gave it all they had, beating a good Angels team and avoiding elimination for as long as possible in spite of a lineup that looked spent at time because of injuries. Mike Lowell would have been helpful in the playoffs, while Josh Beckett and David Ortiz were obviously hurting.
But the offseason brings time for contemplation, and it's easy to wonder about how some old friends will fare. Tim Wakefield, Jason Varitek and Mike Timlin were all big parts of the 2004 team, and all are facing serious questions about their baseball futures. If they all depart for one reason or another (not to say that they will, but they might), that would leave Ortiz as the only full-time player left from the magical 2004 season. Time waits for no one, particularly in baseball.
The offseason is also a time for action, as the team tries to readjust and get better for 2009. Trades? Free agents? Who knows? We only know that the Red Sox have resources and are willing to use them creatively. It's easy to feel much better about next year's baseball in Boston than in, say, Pittsburgh.
In the meantime, the New York Yankees haven't played baseball in three weeks. This was better.
Spring training marks the annual renewal of life, summer features warm days and good times, and fall seems compressed as we try to get everything done before the first snow, at least in the Northeast.
So it goes for the Red Sox fans, whose season ended Sunday night with a loss in Game Seven to the Tampa Bay Rays, those 1969 Mets impersonators. Fittingly, the high temperature Tuesday in Buffalo is scheduled to be in the low 40's, which isn't exactly baseball weather. Ever hit a baseball in cold weather? It's like a swarm of bees attacking your hands; it left me close to tears once, and it was warmer than that.
Boston's season raises an interesting question. In an age when you only hear chants of "we're number one," can you have a satisfying sports season when your team doesn't win it all? I'd like to think so, but it's tough ... and that's particularly true after a couple of instances of ultimate success, like the Red Sox have had lately.
It wasn't a great year in Red Sox Nation, but it was a pretty good one. The team's young talent continued to develop, ensuring a good future. Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis and Jon Lester look like stars. Boston made the playoffs despite a sideshow involving Manny Ramirez, who might have been useful in a Game Seven but the team probably wouldn't have gotten there with the distraction he represents. The Red Sox gave it all they had, beating a good Angels team and avoiding elimination for as long as possible in spite of a lineup that looked spent at time because of injuries. Mike Lowell would have been helpful in the playoffs, while Josh Beckett and David Ortiz were obviously hurting.
But the offseason brings time for contemplation, and it's easy to wonder about how some old friends will fare. Tim Wakefield, Jason Varitek and Mike Timlin were all big parts of the 2004 team, and all are facing serious questions about their baseball futures. If they all depart for one reason or another (not to say that they will, but they might), that would leave Ortiz as the only full-time player left from the magical 2004 season. Time waits for no one, particularly in baseball.
The offseason is also a time for action, as the team tries to readjust and get better for 2009. Trades? Free agents? Who knows? We only know that the Red Sox have resources and are willing to use them creatively. It's easy to feel much better about next year's baseball in Boston than in, say, Pittsburgh.
In the meantime, the New York Yankees haven't played baseball in three weeks. This was better.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Impossible Dream
The name Jess Cain doesn't mean a great deal outside the Boston area. Cain was a popular morning radio host on WHDH for decades (1957-1991), one of those people who become a shared part of the community. Practically everyone used to wake up to him.
But he was something else to certain members of "Red Sox Nation."
After the 1967 baseball season, the "Impossible Dream" year that rejuvenated baseball in New England, Fleetword Records issued a record album (remember those?) with highlights of the season. I'll bet it sold thousands and thousands of copies. The first side went through the season day-by-day, the second side went through player-by-player.
On side two was a tribute to Carl Yastrzemski, who had one of the great clutch years in sports history. There are plenty of audio clips of Yaz hitting a big homer or making a great catch on the record.
The capper, though, was a three-minute song that was a tribute to Yaz. I don't think it had a title -- maybe "The Yastrzemski Song" -- but it started, "Carl Yastrzemski, Carl Yastrzemski, Carl Yastrzemski, the man we call Yaz, we love him. Carl Yastrzemski, Carl Yastrzemski, Carl Yastrzemki, what power he has. Our Boston team, it's always on the beam, cause we got Yaz..."
Lots of horns along the way, and pretty catchy as these things go. (Here's how it sounds.) Take it from the 12-year-old who listened to that album as only a 12-year-old living 300 miles from Boston could -- it was good stuff. I still remember the words, and I'll bet my co-worker at The Buffalo News, Jerry Sullivan, another 12-year-old living in Rhode Island at the time, could too.
Yup, the song was written and sung by Jess Cain.
The tune came up in the public eye when the movie "Fever Pitch" was released almost three years ago, and it was part of the soundtrack. I sat right up in my seat when I saw the album cover in the movie.
I dubbed the album to cassette tape (I know, I should have it on my iPod by now), and I'll have to listen to the song soon. Jesse would have liked that, I think.
But he was something else to certain members of "Red Sox Nation."
After the 1967 baseball season, the "Impossible Dream" year that rejuvenated baseball in New England, Fleetword Records issued a record album (remember those?) with highlights of the season. I'll bet it sold thousands and thousands of copies. The first side went through the season day-by-day, the second side went through player-by-player.
On side two was a tribute to Carl Yastrzemski, who had one of the great clutch years in sports history. There are plenty of audio clips of Yaz hitting a big homer or making a great catch on the record.
The capper, though, was a three-minute song that was a tribute to Yaz. I don't think it had a title -- maybe "The Yastrzemski Song" -- but it started, "Carl Yastrzemski, Carl Yastrzemski, Carl Yastrzemski, the man we call Yaz, we love him. Carl Yastrzemski, Carl Yastrzemski, Carl Yastrzemki, what power he has. Our Boston team, it's always on the beam, cause we got Yaz..."
Lots of horns along the way, and pretty catchy as these things go. (Here's how it sounds.) Take it from the 12-year-old who listened to that album as only a 12-year-old living 300 miles from Boston could -- it was good stuff. I still remember the words, and I'll bet my co-worker at The Buffalo News, Jerry Sullivan, another 12-year-old living in Rhode Island at the time, could too.
Yup, the song was written and sung by Jess Cain.
The tune came up in the public eye when the movie "Fever Pitch" was released almost three years ago, and it was part of the soundtrack. I sat right up in my seat when I saw the album cover in the movie.
I dubbed the album to cassette tape (I know, I should have it on my iPod by now), and I'll have to listen to the song soon. Jesse would have liked that, I think.
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