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Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Dan's Mea Culpa

With Dustin Pedroia winning the AL MVP yesterday, Dan uses his space to eat some crow. Dan has to admit that he missed it, dismissing Pedroia before giving him much of a chance. But the second baseman has proven most everybody wrong (not me or, more importantly, Theo Epstein and Jason McLeod).


"Dustin Pedroia, MVP.

Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, does it? It's sort of like the first time you heard "Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger" or "Academy Award winner Marisa Tomei.""


Or the first time I read "Dan Shaughnessy, award winning sports columnist."

10 comments:

Chris said...

Yeah, I laugh at all the media types with their 'Award-Winning' monikers. Everyone knows these awards in TV, radio, and print are simply from pals backslapping each other. Never have their been a collection of more impotent 'awards' than those handed out in media and journalism. 'Newspaper of the Year,' indeed. It's all a joke.

Anonymous said...

OK Dan, we get it. Pedroia is short, he's tiny, he looks like a lawn jockey. Enough already! I can't take it any more!

mike_b1 said...

Now if the CHB would only apologize for all the other mistakes he's made, like being a sports-hating racist.

And breathing.

Anonymous said...

Randomness

What a great concept. It allows the powers that be to really not be accountable.

The Shank should be held answerable for the crap he dishes out. Pedroia and Ortiz (in the early days) are a few examples of the Shanks “holier than thou” insights that we had to swallow. Has the Shank ever predicted the arrival of a great player? I don’t read his column often so can someone answer that please.

Theo should be accountable for the trades/drafts that that do not come to fruition. Remember the hype behind David Murphy, Abe Alverez, Craig Hansen, Matt Clement, Hugo Lugo, etc. For Theo to prove himself he needs to go to a small market team and see what he can produce.

Otherwise “money talks and bullshits walks.” Don’t feed me the line about what a great organization the Red Sox have ….. “money talks” – just ask Boras.

Rather pathetic that for Red Sox entertainment we get random blather from the Shank and rolling the dice by Theo.

g

Anonymous said...

OB - is this a good thing?

Chris said...

LOL @ The NYT asking Obama for bailout money. It could happen; the Times would be well within its right to look Obama in the eye and say, 'You owe us!' Goodness knows he didn't win 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue because of his big ears.

JJS37 said...

What's up with the "anonymous guy?" Does he think the Red Sox (and any other organization for that matter) are going to hit on every single player? They hit on Lester, Pap, Youk, and Pedroia.

I don't think that Masterson is that bad either. High 90's, power sinker, relieves, closes, and starts. Not too bad.

Ellsbury and Lowrie are still TBD, but Ellsbury helped them win the WS in '07, so I think he's okay, and Lowrie was injured for a lot of '08 but was still serviceable.

Delcarmen is up and down, but if he can figure out control, he'll be a plus pitcher.

That's 9 guys on the roster, at the major league level, earning chump change (relative to the rest of the league).

Sox drafted them and the Sox coached them. That's a gold glove MVP (Pedroia); another Gold Glove MVP candidate (Youk); two Cy young candidates (Lester & Pap) and a guy who led the league is stolen bases (Ellsbury).

Not to mention Bowden. And, if Buccholz could just figure it out mentally, they'd have so much pitching they'd have to trade people. Starters: Boweden, Buccholz; Lester; Dice-K; Beckett; Masterson; Wakefield.

Ummmm....what organization has done better than that and won a WS in the last few years?

Anonymous said...

I was thinking Obama got elected because we just dealt with the worst Presidency since Hoover, Chris, but if it helps you sleep at night thinking it's the New York Times' doing, more power to you.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous @ 9:13 p.m., please do not let Jimmy Carter off the hook that easily.

Anonymous said...

JJS37,

My point regarding "randomness" and "roll the dice" is that the Sox have more cash than other small market teams in building a foundation for a "team". This is common sense, no?

That is how Dan Duquette plucked Manny Ramirez in free agency and laid the foundation for Theo's two WS.

That is how the Sox are now using their "cash' muscle to catch Texeira free agency for a foundation for the next 5 years.

In business, money talks and that is the focus of Boras and how he capitalizes for his clients.

You can talk all you want about the support players but without a big bat you can't get to and win the WS. It's a long season and usually the teams that produce the most runs (i.e. Papi & Manny) and have a consistent pitching staff are the most dangerous. The “hot” pitchers usually dominate a short series, but would you dedicate most of your cash to “part-time” players?

Don’t feed me the line about “pitching” wins the WS since my opinion is that you need the “big bats” to get you to the Series. Then the timely hitting is what wins the Series.

Just my opinion, but I think Boras seems to think the same way.

So Theo gets to roll the dice with John Henry's cash and the Shank gets to feed us his random thoughts .... and they get paid handsomely for it. They aren't special or talented, they're just lucky or maybe willing to do some "licking"

g