Winter Meeting Minutes
Sox Go Back to the OC; Will Theo Take Cab?
Dan Roche: Sox Talking to Orlando Agent in Anaheim
ESPN's Tim Bonds*-Kurkjian: Cards Now Have Upper Hand for ER
Edes/Hohler: Mets Suggest Manny/Piazza Blockbuster
Sox Backup Plan: Kaz Matsui for Mink
Theo Refutes ESPN Report on Renteria.
Sox Still Shopping for Shortstops, Might Address Through Trade
Cardinals, Tigers Still in Edgar Hunt, Sox Offered $38M/4Y
Gammons: Sox Couldn't Afford Pedro and Pavano,
May Not Be Able to Afford Pedro and Renteria Either
Wells' Signing Put Sox Between the Sheets in 2006
Dan Roche: Theo Meets with D-Lowe; And Bora$ on 'Tek
Sox Add Perks to Pedro Deal, Cuza Back Up to Theo's Room at 11:00pm
Tim Hudson in Play; Roberts/BK, Payton/Vazquez (Infielder) Deals Still Alive
Henry on Hanley. Is He the Starter?
12.11.04: "Henry asked me where I saw myself playing next year, and I told him in Pawtucket. But he told me to go to spring training with the idea that I would be able to be the regular shortstop at Fenway. I smiled nervously and was moved by those words." -- Red Sox SS Hanley Ramires to ESPN Deportes
Christmas at Fenway, Bah! Humbug!
Scalpers, Some Fans Score Big Ticket
Majority of Unofficial and Offline Nation Gets Scrod
Expect Sox to Blame State, Season Ticket Holders, But Not Selves
Lucchino Continues to Disappoint His Biggest Lapdog :-(
Sox Fail to Put Security on the Street Again
Bitter Yawkey Way Waiter Describes Chaos
Scalpers Intimidate and Muscle In On Ice-Rain Campers
Crooks Cut Lines with No Problem, No Red Sox Repercussions
Some Fans Camp for 3 Days, While Online Savvy Crowd Got All Tix/Pax in 3 Seconds Flat
"Magic Links" Take a Carpet Ride All Over the Internet, Sold on Craigslist
While Virtual Waiting Room is Dead Fan Walking, Other Idiots in Phone Purgatory
Tickets on sale for up to 8 Times Face on eBay in Seconds
Same Old Song and Dance for Cardless, Computerless Members of Nation
MLB.com Investigates and Breaks it All Down for the Fans
No Poke Bluffs
Welcome to Edgartown
Sox on Verge of Signing Renteria
(Theo met with Edgar agents Meister and Lane at 5:30 PST)
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Edgargantuan
Rent a Shortstop? No Renteria.
Renteria Would Replace OC, 4 Years, $40M
Carl Pavanoverrated Signs with Yanks
NY overpays for .500 pitcher with 4 year deal
Did Carl's mother or girlfriend make the NY decision?
Brian Rose is next on Yankees radar screen
Gammons: Sox sign lefty John Halama
(WEEI news reader Pete Sheppard chokes on his cannoli)
Modern Day Mythology
Be careful what you pretend to be because
you are what you pretend to be
– Kurt Vonnegut
Most of us, Red Sox Nation, card-carrying
or not, have spent our lives either envying or despising our American League
rivals, the New York Yankees. So many years they either outhit, out pitched,
or out-defended the locals. In our youth Mantle, Maris, and Ford played our
antagonists. As we grew, they morphed into Reggie Jackson, Gregg Nettles,
and Goose Gossage, and later the likes of Paul O’Neill, Ramiro Mendoza, and
Bernie Williams became the villains.
Free agency became a
contradiction, as salaries and ticket prices escalated. Franchise prices
became astronomical. While owners decried outrageous payrolls, they
continued to play the fool, bidding up not just the stars, but the price of
mediocrity.
Amidst the folly, pockets of
sanity existed. The Twins won a few championships living within a budget,
and the Marlins and Angels both overcame Yankeebucks to capture the World
Series.
Meanwhile, our Red Sox emulated
what we detested. New ownership came with the determination and the capital
to compete. They understood the need to increase revenue and have developed
NESN into a regional cash cow. Professionally, the organization brought not
only the dollars but the dynamic, quantitative analysis through the eyes of
GM Theo Epstein and Senior Baseball Advisor Bill James to identify the
missing ingredients for championship recipe.
The Sox had never been cursed by
the sale of Babe Ruth or the trade of Sparky Lyle but by the failure to
develop and maintain pitching excellence. While other teams sought or
cultivated power arms, the Sox relied primarily on pitching craft, with guys
like Bill Lee, Rick Wise, and Reggie Cleveland. Strategy and pitch selection
can take you so far in baseball. As Al Capone said in ‘The Untouchables’,
“you can get more with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind
word.” The same applies to baseball, which is why they call it ‘hardball’.
The Cardinals tried to get by
with Woody Williams and Jeff Suppan. Tony LaRussa’s
genius
evaporated the way it always had since losing baseball’s real genius,
talent.
Theo Epstein recognized the twin
objects of the game are not only run creation, but also
run prevention. Opening up the
franchise checkbook, Epstein fought the arm’s race for solutions to both the
front end of the rotation (Schilling) and the back end of the game (Foulke).
With the imminent departure of Derek Lowe, he found a possible solution in
David Wells, while patiently awaiting the development of prospects Alvarez,
Papelbon, and Lester.
The gap between baseball’s haves
and have-nots (small markets) widens continually. Kansas City and Milwaukee
have become the Ethiopia and Somalia of baseball.
Win at any price remains our
mandate. We have tasted the fruits of victory, and we are not satiated.
Celebrate the first baseball championship of Red Sox Nation and spend
megabucks to resign our and other’s baseball mercenaries. A simple truth
emerges. For most of baseball, we too have become what we pretended not to
be -- the Yankees.
-- Ron Sen, Boston Dirt Dogs
