Thursday, December 27, 2001

All Quiet

It's very quiet on the Red Sox news front. After all of the excitement that occurred just prior to Christmas, it's a real emotional let down to not have any hot stove action. It's exactly the same feeling I'd get as kid a few hours after opening all my Christmas presents. That's it, then? I'd ask to myself. It's over? No more anticipation. No more expectation. Done.

At least here though, it's just a temporary lull. We won't have to wait another 11 months to feel the excitement. Spring Training is only 53 days away. Meanwhile, the Dirtdogs site is alleging that Duquette is indeed done and that the new owners wills be interviewing GM candidates next week. If true, that will be very interesting development.

I wonder about Kerrigan. Along with ten thousand other fans, I don't think he's the right choice to manage the Red Sox. But I do think he's one heck of a pitching coach. Would he be willing to step back into that role? Would the new owners even want him to? Yeah, he's obsessed with pitch counts, but he did some amazing things with pitchers that had been written off by other clubs. I'd like to see what Kerrigan can do with Darren Oliver among others.

Tuesday, December 25, 2001

Merry Christmas

All my oh so subtle hints the past month paid off: This morning I opened a present from my mom containing the Boston Red Sox: 100 Years of Baseball History DVD. At 210 minutes running time, this should keep my pleasantly occupied here and there during my holiday break.

I hope all of you have a great holiday.

Monday, December 24, 2001

Better days ahead

The days are now getting longer, albeit imperceptibly so, and we are closer to Spring Training than we are to the end of the 2001 season.

And Peter Gammons has an nice feel good article about the new owners of the Red Sox, especially regarding the negative press the Henry-Werner-Lucchino group have been getting for being outsiders:

The entire outsiders notion, of course, is silly . . .

If a guy from Cleveland who lives in Tampa hadn't bought the Yankees in 1973 from the CBS New Yorkers, the Yankees would not be sports' premier franchise. Look around at ownership through baseball, and if one were to fairly ask for the two best owners, vis a vis their fans, in the game, they likely would be Peter Magowan in San Francisco and Bill DeWitt in St. Louis; Magowan is a lifelong Giants fan who moved to the Bay Area the same year Horace Stoneham moved the Giants, while DeWitt is from Cincinnati. Absolutes, there are not (Gammons, The Boston Globe).

Plus we haven't won in 83 years with local ownership, so why not open it up a bit? I like tradition. I really do, but sometimes it can be a real hindrance to progress. The Red Sox have a tradition of being a slow-footed team, a tradition of not being able to manufacture runs, a tradition of over-reliance on the big inning/home run game, a tradition for bad trades . . . I could go on.