LATEST STORIES FROM RED SOX REALITY CHECK
Sox On Their Game?
It's never just about the Red Sox, because there's an equal concern about perception. This weekend, the New York Yankees went nuclear, acquiring Pineda and Kuroda to solidify their rotation.The Red Sox have responded recently with the "ten dimes equals a dollar" approach, going to the dime store for the Cook, Germano, Padilla (?) bargain basement rotation builder...
Via Red Sox Reality Check
|
28 days ago
Discuss
Chain of Command
Most people answer to somebody. Evidently, if rumors are to be believed, that doesn't apply to certain professional baseball players.The Red Sox will announce hiring Bobby Valentine tomorrow, and the ink isn't even dry on his contract, and ostensibly some 'stars' already have their nose out of joint. Did Bobby Valentine say that Joe Blosox wasn't the greatest...
Via Red Sox Reality Check
|
November 30, 2011
Called Out
The Red Sox haven't called (formally) to eliminate me from their managerial search. Okay, so I have no experience playing Major League Baseball. From a medical standpoint, I might be considered underqualified, too, because I am not a Pediatrician, and the childish narcissism in the clubhouse needs constant attention.Alright, then, my continued monitoring of copper probably hasn...
Via Red Sox Reality Check
|
November 29, 2011
Hearts on Fire
The Red Sox hire a new manager, but behind the scenes, the battle rages. We have Rocky Lucchino training hard with Scrabble, Brain Trainer, and free weights. In the other corner, Ivan (Ben) Cherington trains with caffeine, an iPad, and Carmine in his corner. Rocky knows that he has the upper hand, while the "GM in Name Only" Cherington, sharpens his knives pencils to do...
Via Red Sox Reality Check
|
November 28, 2011
Free Falling
If there's anything worse than bad publicity in professional sports, it's no publicity. The NBA will be coming online, the Patriots challenge for the top spot in local hearts and minds, and the Bruins have won 10 of 11. Meanwhile the Red Sox continue to baste in the hangover of "the Collapse".But the Sox have a chance to turn it around next week, with a triple play...
Via Red Sox Reality Check
|
November 26, 2011
The Masters of Disguise
Never confuse misdirection with lack of direction. The Red Sox have a plan, in fact a "master plan" with many key elements. They could tell us what it is, but they'd have to kill us, which won't do, especially with overpriced tickets and concessions.First, what you see is NOT what really is. Anyone with half a brain (or less if you've been drinking), knows that...
Via Red Sox Reality Check
|
November 24, 2011
On the Apotheosis of Larry Lucchino
The Red Sox have remade Fenway Park and won a pair of championships in the past eight years. And as they say, "victory has a thousand fathers and defeat is an orphan." Today, Dan Shaughnessy wrote about CEO Larry Lucchino "Controversial, brilliant, combative, and ever-lawyerly, Lucchino represents the past, present, and future of the 21st century Red Sox."I'...
Via Red Sox Reality Check
|
October 30, 2011
Let's Go to Work, The Theme for 2012
Soon the Red Sox will have a new manager, a new face tasked with infusing leadership and a change of organizational culture. What will he say to the team during the transition? Let's face it, this isn't the Gettysburg Address."Welcome to the 2012 Boston Red Sox. Some of you were here last season and others are new faces. Some of you have played on World Series winners...
Via Red Sox Reality Check
|
October 23, 2011
Public Enemy Number One
We're making progress, with 'wink-wink' management transition to the Ben Cherington Era (let's hope it's anything approaching the Epstein reign). Sad to say, the Sox scuffle and the official title "The Collapse" have equal play with a highly competitive World Series.Meanwhile, the Sox have yet to go into PR mode to repair the damages to the Good Ship...
Via Red Sox Reality Check
|
October 22, 2011
Thank Goodness
My faith in the Red Sox is restored. All is forgiven. Let bygones be bygones. Bury the hatchet. Kiss and makeup. No harm, no foul. It's all good. Boys will be boys. No problemo.Why the change of heart? The Red Sox adamantly deny that they were drinking during the game, in the dugout!Enough said. Mother Teresa would be proud. Pour me a double.
Via Red Sox Reality Check
|
October 19, 2011
Prodigal Sox
What do the Red Sox 'owe' the fans...and themselves? There's not a fine line between reasonable and unreasonable. Fans expect maximum effort, physically and mentally, from THEIR team. Every member of the organization has to ask himself or herself, did I give it up or just give up?I doubt you could find five people (of sound mind) who would question Dustin Pedroia'...
Via Red Sox Reality Check
|
October 15, 2011
Focus on Goodwill: It's a Matter of Trust
Goodwill is a surplus of value that an organization or company holds above purchased value. Goodwill is "franchise value". We have to remember that as John Wooden said, "character is what you really are and reputation is what people say you are."The Red Sox, currently of questionable character, despite all the good things that they've done for the community...
Via Red Sox Reality Check
|
October 14, 2011
Nothing But the Truth: Clubhouse Drinking, Back to the Future
Drinking before or during a game isn't against the law for adults, but is it conducive to optimal performance? We know that alcohol impairs higher order brain function, and one would think that would apply to doing "the hardest thing in sports, hitting a round ball with a round bat."Years ago, a Red Sox writer (not employed by Red Sox) spotted a Red Sox player drinking...
Via Red Sox Reality Check
|
October 14, 2011
TPTB
They've taken your money. They've stolen your soul. They don't care about you. Your interest has gone to almost nothing. They have no principle? No, it's not Wall Street and the American banking community. It's the disorganization of the Boston Red Sox...the collective Sergeant Schultz of MLB. Occupy Fenway...or maybe it should mean a grand shunning?Will the Sox...
Via Red Sox Reality Check
|
October 13, 2011
Occupy Fenway
A movement spreads across the United States, without leadership, without remorse, and without specific demands. Ordinary Americans protest the squandering of our future by "The Powers That Be".What could be more fitting than the epicenter at Fenway Park? The Henry, Dean Werner, and Lucchino money printers have globalized away Red Sox Nation with NASCAR and the other football...
Via Red Sox Reality Check
|
October 09, 2011
Cliches, Mean Reversion, and a New Sheriff in Town
Nobody reading this column is in the Red Sox clubhouse. We don't know what really goes on amid the 'sanctity' of the locker room, where stale beer and frayed nerves are all that remains from the 2011 season. Every season begets outliers, overachievement and underperformance. For every Jacoby Ellsbury leading the league in total bases, there's a sad story of injury...
Via Red Sox Reality Check
|
October 07, 2011
How Moneyball Ruined Baseball
The wanting comes from not having. Red Sox fans suffered almost a century without a championship, and then got two within four seasons. They had some luck and pluck, and of course, the 'run prevention' before it became a design, with outstanding pitching from Schilling, Martinez, Lowe, and Lester, and more.Baseball started to retreat into oblivion in America with the LaRussan...
Via Red Sox Reality Check
|
October 04, 2011
The Big Shot
Jackie McMullen did a great job of laying out the warts on the 2011 Red Sox. Can you really die from a thousand paper cuts?The Red Sox fired Terry Francona (don't reinvent history) because the players tuned him out. Replacing one man is easier than twenty-five. And understanding the complex personalities in twenty-first century baseball won't be solved by a whiz kid.If you...
Via Red Sox Reality Check
|
October 02, 2011
Arms Race
You hear a lot of talk about Tampa making the playoffs as though it were some incredible statistical aberration. The substantial part of the problem follows the in-house development of the Rays' rotation, compared to the outhouse performance of the Red Sox rotation. The Sox allowed 123 more runs than the Rays this year. We used to hear about run prevention, now the Sox lead the...
Via Red Sox Reality Check
|
October 01, 2011
Fran-goner
I don't feel bad for Terry Francona. I feel relieved for him. Francona helped to deliver a pair of championships to Boston fans, and he treated athletes like men, like professionals, and got stabbed in the back by them. I'm happy that he can leave the asylum on the 'task oriented' (hard guys) and 'player-oriented' roller coaster.This town has always been about...
Via Red Sox Reality Check
|
September 30, 2011
Bear Market Action in Boston Baseball
The Red Sox might have been a championship team at some point during the season, but when it mattered most, they lacked the horses, the heart, and the smarts to get it done.Their "playoffs" were a best of three at Camden Yards against the Woes. And when asked to rise to the challenge against the least of the east, the Sox couldn't execute well enough.The Sox had some...
Via Red Sox Reality Check
|
September 29, 2011
Why I Should Be the Next Red Sox Manager
I've pretty much heard it all lately, but I should add this to the ever-growing cacophony of calls for Terry Francona's head. "Why I should be the next Red Sox manager."The Big Picture - Health. Trust me, I'm a doctor, not an Orthopedic surgeon, but better yet a multi-specialty trained physician. I deal with not only physical ailments, but mental health problems...
Via Red Sox Reality Check
|
September 24, 2011
Condiments
The Red Sox are a billion dollar business, an international media empire, and a franchise that parlays relationships into dollars. I have NO PROBLEM with that. Envy? Heck, I'm greener than the Incredible Hulk.Signs on every centimeter of "America's Most Beloved Ballpark" won't bother me. Dunkin Donuts? Love 'em. VOLVO. Why not parent company GEELY, too?...
Via Red Sox Reality Check
|
August 28, 2011
"It's Tough"
Peter Gammons appeared on NESN during a rain delay and declared "it's tough", concerning the issues surrounding rain delays and baseball. Gammons has Hall of Fame credentials and proved his toughness recovering from a stroke. All that being said, let's put this in perspective...realizing that the first game is in the hands of the umpires.Yes, Sox management has...
Via Red Sox Reality Check
|
August 27, 2011
Surprise, Surprise
Certain parts of the baseball season truly do surprise us; others not so much. Naturally, we have both positive and negative surprises.First, the positive.Jonathan Papelbon. It wasn't as though Papelbon forgot how to pitch, but he had negative trends in both ERA and the underpinning, K/9 IP and K/BB ratio. At times he became a one-pitch pitcher; he knew it and they knew. In his...
Via Red Sox Reality Check
|
August 26, 2011
Related Yards
|
|
|
|
|
Today's Best Stuff |
For BloggersJoin the Yardbarker Network (YBN) for more promotion, traffic, and money. |
Company Info |
Help |
What is Yardbarker?Yardbarker is the largest network of sports blogs and pro athlete blogs on the web. This site is the hub of the Yardbarker Network, where our editors and algorithms curate the best sports content from our network and beyond. |
