DHL Dan CCI - Theo's Back!

Shank notes the return of former Red Sox GM Theo Epstein as an adviser to the team:

Theo Epstein has been away a while but he knows how the Red Sox work, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while remembering the Bill Belichick/Tom Brady nine Super Bowls from 2002-19 …

▪ Theo Epstein is back with the Red Sox as a part-owner of Fenway Sports Group and a senior adviser to its many holdings.

Too many holdings.

FSG’s insatiable quest to expand its portfolio and take over the world has made the Red Sox the abandoned stepchild of the corporation’s family. The Sox might as well be Connor Roy.

Theo and Sam Kennedy were teammates at Brookline High and did a lot of their learning as very young men under the tutelage of Larry Lucchino with the Padres in the 1990s. When Lucchino came to Boston as part of John Henry’s group, he had to negotiate with the Padres to acquire the services of “The Brookline Two.”

I don't think he's going to impact things much with the Sox, if at all.

DHL Dan CC - Hope Springs Eternal

Shank thinks (or pretends to think) that we're winning two championships this year:

Again we have two shots at championships this spring, but we’d settle for one, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while wondering if the Red Sox can get the Dollar Store to sponsor Truck Day …

▪ This weekend marks the fifth anniversary of New England’s last men’s professional sports championship, when the Bill Belichick/Tom Brady Patriots beat the Rams, 13-3, in Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta.

By the gaudy standards of our 21st century sports high renaissance, five years without a parade is a certified drought.

Which brings us to the spring of 2024, when both the Celtics and Bruins have a chance to get everybody back on the Duck Boats.

I wrote about this one year ago (“Bruins and Celtics may be climbing toward a rare double this spring”) and we all know what happened: The Bruins, after compiling the greatest regular season in NHL history, flamed out in seven games of a first-round series against the Florida Panthers. The Celtics made it to the NBA’s Final Four for the fifth time in seven years, but dropped the first three games of their conference final series against the Heat, then collapsed in Game 7 at home.

And Shank will pick right back up with negative / critical columns about both teams when their seasons end.