Disrespected

Some analyst dweeb gave Red Sox legend Jim Rice a hard time at spring training last week:

Red Sox staffer’s disrespect of Hall of Famer Jim Rice is unacceptable … yet accepted in today’s MLB

... I was reminded of all this when I read Sunday’s Globe and learned that one of the Sox army corps of baseball engineers interrupted a casual batting cage conversation between Jim Rice and a prospect, who’d solicited some batting tips from the former American League MVP. The Sox staffer asked Rice to back away from the kid hitter.

According to Rice, the spreadsheet staffer’s message to the Hall of Famer was something to the effect of, Mi>“Please leave our young hitter alone. That’s not the way we teach hitting here. We know better. We want to hit the ball in the air and hit it hard.”

Rice said he asked the uniformed staffer if he’d played and was told no.

His Column on Who's 'Best' is Like a Pile of No. 2

Years ago, I offered up my hypothesis of how The CHB prepares a column: He listens to talk radio for four or five hours, writes down the best lines, then builds a piece around that, with the central position to be 1) whatever is opposite of what the group-think is or 2) to hone in on (and attempt to bully) anyone who might possibly know more about sports than he does (which, of course, could be just about everyone).

And in today's piece, Shank confirms my observation. He writes: "If you were driving your car and somebody flipped on the radio and you heard people debating the merits of Carl Yastrzemski and David Ortiz, regarding their relative contributions to the Red Sox, how would you feel?"

Now, understand that the question was posed to Yaz himself. But also understand that this is exactly the conversation (if we can call the perpetually hyperventilating Tony Massarotti capable of such a thing) that took place on Felger and Mazz last week. So thank you, CHB, for being so transparent and predictable.

As for the answer, The CHB just as predictably gets it all wrong. Yaz had a lifetime OPS+ of 130 and a lifetime WAR of 78.2. A terrific leftfielder the earlier part of his career, he was actually five games worse than replacement level from 1969 on. Big Papi's career OPS+ is 139. But as to who is/was the better player? There's no question. Ortiz's career offensive WAR (47.2) is one-third offset by a negative defensive WAR of -18.6. Papi is roughly the same player as Jim Rice. This if it's a race between Papi and Yaz, it's Yaz, hands down. But if we are to include all previous Red Sox players, Jimmie Foxx and Manny Ramirez would come take the No. 2 and 3 slots, with the stunningly underrated Wade Boggs in the mix for the top five as well. A wiser columnist would have known this.

Foot Fault

Let's pretend, shall we?

Let's pretend The CHB cared about something more than a paycheck, free drinks at The Fours and alienating sports fans for being sports fans.

Let's pretend Shank isn't mocking when he says the "good scenario is [Jacoby Ellsbury] leads the Sox to a World Series title, then sign[s] a long-term contract extension and gets his No. 2 on the right-field facade ...."

Let's pretend Shank didn't compare the loss of Ellsbury to the loss of Jim Rice late in the '75 season, and that he didn't write the Sox lost "firepower" when Rice went down. Let's pretend The CHB had looked up the research and learned that in his place Bernie Carbo hit .429, slugged 1.429 and hit 2 homers in Rice's place, and had Dick Williams played him more, the World Series that year might have had a very different outcome.

Let's pretend a Sox player could have an injury without The CHB, in describing it, dredging up every single negative thing that ever happened to said player.

Let's pretend Shank is a real human being.

Then let's get back to reality, because pretending is for kids, not for adult sports fans, and certainly not for over-the-hill sportswriters who so clearly hate sports.