Today Dan's tone is somber, as the Red Sox face elimination. A marked difference from the man who wrote the Red Sox are "favorites to win the World Series" and that there's "a sense of inevitability" about the team.
Dan also turns on Manny Ramirez calling him "classless as well as clueless" a week after submitting a glowing profile.
He cannot leave it alone department
- Just about twenty words in "a front office of stat geeks." Dan is sure that somehow it is all their fault.
Not to mention, CHB manages to reference the fact that the game took place on the 3rd anniversary of the 19-8 game vs. the Yanks and the 4th anniversary of Aaron Boone's HR. While those two events are completely irrelevant, Tim Wakefield was involved in both so obviously CHB must make a convoluted connection. The cherry on top was his statement following his stupid comment about the two meaningless anniversaries:
ReplyDelete"Despite all of the above, Wakefield was brilliant for four innings."
So, let me get this straight, Shank. Despite those two pointless facts that have nothing to do with Game 4 of the 2007 ALCS, Wakefield pitched well for 4 innings. Good thing he wasn't aware that the game also fell on the 214th Anniversary of Marie Antoinette's beheading in France, because between that, Aaron Boone, and 19-8 in 2004, it is a wonder Wakefield even made it to the mound last night.
Another use of the "Franconamen". Why doesn't he use "Wedgemen" to refer to the Indians? And what would he do if in 15 years if Manny Delcarmen becomes the manager of the Red Sox? Would they be the "Delcarmenmen"?
ReplyDeleteShank, please retire the "coach/manager's last name-men" devise. It's hackneyed and kinda dumb.
Yeah Dan has a good point with the stat geek comment. Seriously, the FO is filled with a bunch of stat geeks (ignore that they have the highest number of scouts in the mlb) which is bad because that means people running the Red Sox go on data, results, and scientific analysis rather than their guts. Which is terrible because what we think we see is much much more important than what a objective data shows.
ReplyDeleteit is good to see someone pointing out that Ramirez acted like a puerile jerk by showboating with his team on the verge of going down 3-1.
ReplyDeleteIt is also good to see someone pointing out that Duquette laid the groundwork for the 2004 team and that the current ownership is big on stat geeks (who have not yet found a measure for the ability to win 11 games in October), and marketing geniuses (who have turned Fenway Park into P.T. Barnum Stadium).
I thought the column was devastatingly on-target, identifying some pretty serious flaws with the club and the way it has been handled, complete with -- horrors! -- a Weaverian call for pitching and three-run homers. Get the stat geeks their nitro pills.
It always amazes me how the geniuses who rush to post on this page somehow think that opinions on sports personalities or events ought to be cast in iron. It is the very nature of sport that one can be a hero one day, a goat the next, and a hero again before week is over. Take it from someone who alternately booed and cheered Yaz, here is nothing wrong with changing opinions, most normal people who follows sports do it; that's why we watch the games, because every event and every outcome is different. Watch the games for what they are, not because you're in love, love, love with overgrown adolescent millionaires and the profiteers who employ them.
It wouldn't amaze you, Bruce, if you didn't base your life on the teachings of The CHB.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of us are -- how do I put it? -- normal.
OB,
ReplyDeleteWhere you been, man?
I am still awaiting your apology/admission of error regarding the videotaping of defensive playcalls. Don't think going away for a fortnight will make everybody forget about your huge mistake.
OB you do realize that"Weaverian" philosophy is very very similar to the philosophies of these "stat geeks."
ReplyDeleteGet on base all as much as you can, have power to clear them out, and don't give away outs. I'm fairly certain that only Joe Morgan would argue against that type of thinking.
And the current FO has yet to field a team that wins 11 October games? Right because David Ortiz, Bill Mueller, Keith Foulke, Gape Kapler, Mark Bellhorn, Mike Timlin, OC, Millar ,and Schill were all Duke guys.
Ob are you saying you liked going to Fenway Park when it was run by the Yawkey's?
ReplyDeleteWhat is so wrong with allowing ownership to improve the park to the point where it can actually compete with others in MLB for entertainment. I mean seriously, man what more do you want from an ownership that has improved the fan base, improved the park, improved the team (playoffs almost every year and a World Series title... who doesn't want one of those?) and just about everything else about Boston baseball?
Seriously man what is your problem?