Sunday, November 24, 2002
"I make a great noise
Of rustling all day"*
The Globe's Edes is reporting that Epstein will be officially named Red Sox GM this week:
Thus, a man who was still in diapers when Carlton Fisk hit his home run off the left-field foul pole in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series will become, less than a month shy of his 29th birthday, the youngest GM to run this team, and the youngest GM in baseball history …
Seems Bill James knew what he was saying when he referred to Epstein as the Red Sox GM in an interview last week.
My gut reaction to this is strongly positive. Sure, he's young. Sure, he doesn't have any GM experience. But it seems he's the real deal. You know in baseball how it's often better to bring up the young rookie and put him on the roster, even if he isn't completely ready, then it is to sign the aging, veteran free agent?
This is especially true when you can surround the rookie with experienced team members. And this is exactly what the Red Sox are doing with Epstein.
And in the same piece, Edes puts another sugar plumb in our stocking hung by the hot stove fire:
Contreras remains the team's top pitching target, but the Sox are also one of four teams believed to have made contact with Japanese outfield star Hideki Matsui, and unless the market gets silly, they believe they have a chance at signing both players.
Can you imagine?
OK. Time to go blow some leaves around the yard. You know the much maligned leaf blower is becoming quite the phallic symbol for suburban America?
The American studies professor at Detroit's Wayne State University dubs bringing in the leaves a "highly significant phenomenon" -- particularly since the advent of the leaf blower.
"It allows men to buy expensive and noisy equipment," he notes, "and then demonstrate their prowess in front of the whole neighborhood" (Washington Post).
Personally, I don't much like the things, and I swore I'd never own one. Then I moved back to the extremely deciduous East Coast and to an especially tree-filled yard. It'd literally take me days to clear the leaves by hand. And, heck, I'm not even talking about bagging them up. I don't do that; instead, I just push the fallen leaves off the portion of the yard that has grass, or rather, moss, as it isn't much of lawn being so shaded from the all the trees.
Vroom vroooooommmmm!
[* From Frost's "Gathering Leaves"]
