Go West, Young Man

Shank weighs in on yesterday's Rafael Devers trade to the San Francisco Giants:

In dealing Rafael Devers, the Red Sox cash in their good vibes and once again trade their present for the future

This is not going to play well in Red Sox Nation.

It’s shocking.

And demoralizing.

The suddenly surging Red Sox swept the Yankees at Fenway on Sunday afternoon for their fifth straight win, got on a plane to Seattle for a nine-game West Coast trip, then traded franchise face Rafael Devers to the Giants for mediocre pitchers Kyle Harrison (1-1, 4.56 ERA) and Jordan Hicks (1-5, 6.47), plus two far-away prospects.

It’s a big bowl of bad for Boston baseball. The Red Sox are once again saving money and asking their paying population to tolerate a mediocre present in hopes of a better future.

Back then, No thanks.

My only rejoinder - didn't the Red Sox win in 2004 after they traded Nomar Garciaparra in a similar midseason trade? The only difference here - Shank led the bandwagon to run Nomar out of town.

DHL Dan CCLVII - Happy Father's Day

In this week's Picked Up Pieces column, Shank highlights the Red Sox's most recent call-up to the big leagues:

After Roman Anthony’s debut, it’s an especially happy Father’s Day for dad Tony, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while applauding NBC Sports Boston’s Tom E. Curran for asking Stefon Diggs, “What was in the bag?” . . .

Happy Father’s Day, Tony Anthony, father of Red Sox rookie Roman Anthony.

Along with Roman’s older siblings, Anthony and Lia, Tony and Lori Anthony have been enjoying our town since they arrived from Florida just in time for their son’s first big league hit, a two-run double against the Rays Tuesday night at Fenway Park. They’ve enjoyed Roman’s first week at Fenway with family and friends.

It must be interesting when Tony makes North End dinner reservations for Anthony Anthony.

Roman Anthony’s great-grandfather, father, and brother are all Anthony Anthony.

“Everybody jokes about it,” said Tony Anthony, a 61-year-old money manager from West Palm Beach. “That was my dad’s dad’s name and he died before I was born. I went to Catholic schools and was always teased about it, but I was a big kid and could handle myself. When my wife got pregnant with our first, we had no plans on naming him Anthony, but we couldn’t agree on another name, and ultimately my wife wanted to name him Anthony so we did. That’s the story.”

DHL Dan CCLVI - It Was A Bad Call, Ripley

In this week's Picked Up Pieces column, Shank gives us a little mea culpa:

Eight years later it’s clear he made the wrong call on Benintendi vs. Judge, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while wondering why Boston’s DOGE Driveline nerds don’t teach Red Sox players any fundamentals . . .

⋅ Eight years ago, Yankee Aaron Judge and Red Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi were the two best rookies in the American League. Judge was on his way to Rookie of the Year, but the Red Sox had the better team — remember those days? — and I couldn’t help but notice that Benintendi played better than Judge in the first 15 games between the Sox and Bombers that season.

And so in the Aug. 21, 2017, Globe, I wrote a column on the two rookies, citing other Red Sox-Yankees individual rivalries such as Ted Williams vs. Joe DiMaggio, Carlton Fisk vs. Thurman Munson, Wade Boggs vs. Don Mattingly, and Nomar Garciaparra vs. Derek Jeter.

Which guy would you rather have on your team for the next 15 seasons?“

DHL Dan CCLV - No Urgency

With the Boston Red Sox hitting the skids in recent games, Shank wonders if manager Alex Cora's lost his sense of urgency:

Has manager Alex Cora lost a sense of urgency despite the struggles of his Red Sox, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while watching the Red Sox circle the drain . . .

⋅ Did the reeling Red Sox “ruin our summer” before we even got to June?

With the Celtics, Bruins, and Patriots out of season, the Red Sox are all we have left, and they’ve been a tough watch since the Celtics were bounced from the playoffs. Boston’s starting pitching has been abysmal and the sub-.500 Sox were in fourth place after breaking a five-game losing streak on Friday, just 6-15 in one-run games.

“I know, I know, I know,” manager Alex Cora said with a sigh when we spoke over the telephone during Thursday’s off day. “I’ve been here since 2018. I know how it works. We’ve been inconsistent for years . . . We haven’t been good the last four years. I understand it’s still early, but it’s not early. I get that.

“Honestly, you look at our season, close games and one-run games. In my career I’ve never been in a season like this. So close, but so far. I keep saying, ‘When are we going to get our ass kicked or kick somebody’s ass?’ Every game is a one-run game and then it gets to the bullpen and [expletive] happens.”

Sounds like he's identified one problem area...

DHL Dan CCLIV - Loserville?

In this week's Picked Up Pieces column, Shank compares two eras in Boston sports history, with the current era somehat lacking by comparison:

Does the Celtics’ sudden downward spiral mean Boston will soon go from Titletown to Loserville, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while wondering if we’re witnessing The Curse of Steve Pagliuca . . .

⋅ Life happens fast when you invest energy and emotion in the fortunes of local sports teams. You go to bed one night in Titletown, USA, then wake up in Loserville.

Remember those dark days of no championships from 1987-2000? It got so bad we actually hosted a Stanley Cup celebration for Ray Bourque at City Hall Plaza in June 2001 because Bourque finally won the Cup after the Bruins traded him to Colorado!

Hello darkness, my old friend. I’ve come to talk with you again.

It looks like we can send out the duck boats for servicing. Replace all parts. It doesn’t matter if materials get held up in the supply chain. There’ll be no parade down the Champs de Boylston next month. It looks like Copley’s Canyon of Heroes will be quiet for many years to come.

DHL Dan CCLIII - Reinstatement

Shank weighs in on the bullshit decision of the current MLB commissioner to undo a determination by another commissioner:

Reinstatement of Pete Rose, others has this Hall of Fame voter wondering why worry about ‘character,’ and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while welcoming Chris Sale back to Fenway . . . and Alex Verdugo, too . . .

⋅ The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball was established in 1920 in the aftermath of discovery that eight members of the Chicago White Sox had taken gamblers’ money in exchange for throwing the 1919 World Series. There was concern that betting would kill the game. In 1921, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was installed as the first commissioner, hired to clean up the sport forever.

One of Landis’s first acts was to banish the White Sox players from the game, making it clear that betting on baseball was something you could not do if you intended to be part of the sport. It was a permanent banishment.

On Tuesday of this past week, commissioner Rob Manfred, at the request of President Trump, made a mockery of the office, reinstating known gambling violators Pete Rose, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and 15 others deceased individuals. Buffered with soft semantics (“permanent ineligibility” ends when you die), Manfred’s message to uniformed baseball personnel seems to be: Don’t worry too much about that rule you were always told was so sacred. It may not happen until after your death, but if you gamble on baseball you will eventually be reinstated by MLB. The commissioner will leave it up to others to decide if you are Hall of Fame worthy.

That's 100 percent right - character is supposed to matter for Hall of Fame eligibility and with respect to gambling on games youre involved with (either for or against your team), they broke written or moral rules, as the 1919 White Sox did. The moral rule, of course, is this - if you tank games and take money to do it, you're a piece of shit and have fully earned your banishment.

Staying Alive, For Now

Yeah, I've been slacking with the timeliness of recent posts, but here's Shank's column from when the Celtics were still sort of, kind of in the 2025 NBA playoffs:

The Celtics heard the rumblings that their season was as good as over and responded loudly in Game 5. Anybody have a bloody sock?

They heard the rumblings about the end of their championship window, and new ownership coming in to break up the band, and the odious prospect of losing a conference semifinal series to the Knicks in five frustrating games.

They knew they’d have to play without their heartbeat franchise forward, Jayson Tatum, who suffered a season-ending ruptured Achilles’ tendon Monday night in New York.

So what did they do?

The defending world champion Boston Celtics came home to their Causeway Street Gym and told the hoop world that they are not dead yet. Summoning their 3-point weaponry (22 for 49), they overcame a 9-point first-half deficit and thrashed the Knicks, 127-102, in Game 5 to move a suddenly scintillating series back to Madison Square Garden on Friday night.

...where they got destroyed because they rely on the three point shot to win games and that style of play finally bit them in the ass.

DHL Dan CCLII - Dark Day Ahead?

That's what the son of a former MLB commissioner thinks about the possibility of Pete Rose's posthumous reinstatement to baseball:

Son of commissioner who banned Pete Rose says reinstatement would be ‘a dark day for baseball,’ and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while waiting for the NFL schedule to come out on Wednesday . . .

▪ Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred met with President Trump last month regarding a petition to have Pete Rose posthumously removed from MLB’s permanently ineligible list. Manfred is expected to issue a ruling soon.

If the commissioner reinstates baseball’s all-time hits leader, Rose would be eligible for Hall of Fame consideration in future voting by a 16-member Classic Baseball Era committee.

Pete Rose’s daughter, Fawn, is among those who’ve met with Manfred to lobby for her father’s reinstatement.

Marcus Giamatti, the son of late baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti — who in 1989 famously struck the deal with Rose after MLB confirmed his baseball gambling while managing and playing for the Reds — does not want to see Rose reinstated.