Tag: Terry Francona

Dustin Pedroia Announces His Retirement

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NESN – Dustin Pedroia is calling it a career. The Boston Red Sox second baseman announced his retirement from Major League Baseball on Monday. Pedroia, who dealt with knee injuries over the latter part of his career, played in just nine games over the last three seasons. He did not play in 2020.

“Dustin is so much more than his American League Most Valuable Player award, his All-Star Game selections, and the Gold Gloves he amassed throughout his impressive 17-year career in our organization,” Red Sox owner John Henry said in a press release.

“Dustin came to represent the kind of grit, passion, and competitive drive that resonates with baseball fans everywhere and especially with Red Sox fans. He played the game he loves in service to our club, its principles and in pursuit of championships. Most of all we are forever grateful to him for what he brought to our club and to our region as an important role model showing all of us how much one can accomplish with determination and hard work.”

We all knew this day was coming and is something that had been discussed more openly in the last couple of years as Pedroia battled debilitating knee injuries. Once I heard Jerry Remy during a game tell the story of Pedroia asking him what kind of flooring he had in his house because the hardwood was killing his knees I knew his playing days were likely over. He is one of the greatest players in Red Sox history and will almost certainly have his number 15 retired as a 4x All-Star, 4x Gold Glove winner, 1x Silver Slugger, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, an MVP award, and three World Series rings.

As a career .299 career hitter with all the aforementioned hardware, Pedroia’s retirement is bittersweet because it’s another Nomar “what could’ve been” story. Like Nomar a decade before him, if Pedroia didn’t get hurt and have his career derailed by constant injuries he could’ve been a legitimate Hall of Famer. If you ask me I will forever say fuck Manny Machado for the dirty slide that basically ended Pedroia’s career, but Pedey has never (publicly) faulted Machado and has even been quite open about how he’d rather play his ass off and risk his body than half ass it just to add a few years to his career.

It all started with the Machado dirtbag slide in Pedroia’s already surgically repaired left knee in April 2017, but there was also the Jose Abreu collision in May 2017 that sent him to the DL, when he went back on the DL in August 2017 I was spooked, then he had another knee surgery in October 2017, he returned in 2018 but was back on the DL by June, in July 2018 we asked Is This the End for Dustin Pedroia, he then returned for Opening Day in 2019, and then by September 2019 it was pretty clear Pedroia was done.

But I don’t want you to leave this blog pissed off lamenting the past because I want to celebrate not only his greatness on the field, but how genuinely awesome a dude Dustin Pedroia is so here are a few of my favorite stories.

The Brady Quinn Ping Pong Story

“Yeah, he’s one of a kind,” Roberts says. “He and I work out at the same place in Arizona in the off-season, and I’ve seen him call out NFL players during Ping-Pong games, asking them when they’re starting Jenny Craig. He told Brady Quinn, who is a monster, a physical specimen, ‘I’m going to rip this ball right off your throat.’ He’s a piece of work.”

“Ask Jeff Fucking Francis who I am!”

But clearly he is a player that is not only beloved by fans, but he is revered by teammates including the all-time greats like Big Papi.

And in a statement from former Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon comes a quote that I may just have to slap on a t-shirt: “Diamonds are forever and so is Dustin Pedroia.”

Above all Dustin Pedroia was a hilarious, hard working, regular ass dude which is why he was beloved in the city of Boston. In a career full of A+ soundbites, I leave you with just a few of his classic stories.

I’m So Starved for Red Sox Content That I Watched Fever Pitch Last Night

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The movie we’ve all mocked for the past 15 years and cringe whenever it comes on TV is actually surprisingly delightful right now. This movie just hits different when sports are banned.

I openly admit that this is a sign of Quarantine SZN starting to take its toll on my sanity more so than this movie actually aging gracefully. But when nobody has been able to drink a beer on Jersey Street in nearly eight months you take what you can get.

Watching this last night I legitimately started to feel like I had moved out of Boston and hadn’t seen Fenway, Cask n Flagon, Landsdowne Street etc. in YEARS.

You do start to notice little things though when you rewatch old movies, especially ones filmed in your backyard. Lets forget for a second that Jimmy Fallon is supposed to be some broke ass school teacher that has a sweet apartment in the North End and season tickets to the Red Sox. The thing that really stuck out to me was the bar that Jason Varitek, Johnny Damon, and Trot Nixon are having dinner at after the game just a few feet away from Fallon and his buddies.

Really? Had anyone involved in the writing, filming, or production of this movie ever actually been on Landsdowne Street?

Hey don’t get me wrong it’s a fine establishment to knock back a few Bud Lattes, but it’s not exactly the lap of luxury that the players would be having dinner at. But, I digress.

Fever Pitch is loosely based on an old Nick Hornby story about his obsession with an English soccer team. Rejiggered to focus on the Red Sox, the original script just kind of assumed the Sox would lose yet again in some brutal fashion, which really sticks out like a sore thumb when the movie peaks just before Dave Roberts’ steal in Game 4 of the 04 ALCS. Then they slap on a 30 second ending explaining the greatest comeback in baseball history and the Sox actually winning the World Series capped off with the most cringeworthy memory of the entire thing; Fallon and Drew Barrymore celebrating on the field with the players.

But hey I’ll take whatever Red Sox content I can get at this point, which is why one of the principals of marketing is that nostalgia is a powerful weapon. I haven’t been to a Sox game in slightly longer than usual and my body is already starting to go through withdrawals. And the team wasn’t even going to be good this year!

John Henry has us by the balls and he knows it. Now I’m not going to be the first guy there when the quarantine is lifted, but when the dust settles on all this I will be more than happy to buy a few a dozen $11 beers at 4 Jersey Street.

Man, do I miss sports.

Have You Heard About This Proposed Change to the MLB Playoffs?

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ESPN – Major League Baseball is mulling significant changes to its postseason, including increasing the number of teams from 10 to 14 and adding a reality TV-type format to determine which teams play each other in an expanded wild-card round, sources told ESPN.

MLB is considering a move in which each league would have three division winners and four wild-card teams making the postseason starting in 2022, sources said. The best team in the league would receive a bye into the division series. The two remaining division winners and the wild-card team with the best record of the four would each host all games of a best-of-three series in the opening round.

Once the teams clinch and the regular season ends, the plan gets congested:

  • The division winner with the second-best record would select its wild-card opponent from the three wild-card winners not hosting a series.
  • The division winner with the worst record would then choose its opponent from the remaining two wild-card teams.
  • The final matchup would pit the wild-card winner with the best record against the wild-card team not yet chosen.
  • All of the selections, sources said, would be unveiled live on television the Sunday night of the final regular-season games.

I don’t like the idea of nearly half the league making the playoffs, but I do love that MLB is considering shaking *something* up. Baseball has been painfully slow to adopt any significant changes. Remember when they put in the rule that batters had to stay in the batters box and players immediately ignored it and MLB did nothing? Remember when MLB was testing a pitch clock in Minor League Baseball with the plan of then implementing it in the major leagues? That was in 2015. Whether it’s rules to improve pace of play or ideas of how to combat the culture of rampant sign stealing; baseball is afraid of change. So I am intrigued by this pretty radical shift in the playoff format. Baseball needs to become more like the NFL and try things out. Hell even the NBA tested a new ball in 2006, which was a complete and utter disaster, but the point remains; at least they tried something new.

My favorite part about this new format is it gives teams a real incentive to play for the No. 1 seed, which there isn’t really any of currently. Too many teams these days play out the string as they’d rather get their rotation set for the playoffs than try to win as many regular season games as possible. The new Wild Card format of the past few years has helped negate that a little bit, but a first round bye would have teams gunning for the top seed.

Another aspect that would be great is we would no longer have to hear the song and dance about how players don’t care who they’re playing in the playoffs. Bullshit! Now we’ll know exactly who you want to play and who you think is an easy out. Just imagine the Red Sox winning 100 games in 2022, 5 games out of the No. 1 seed behind the Astros, selecting the 90 win Twins for obliteration in the Wild Card round. How awesome would it be to see team officials cringe on live TV as their fates are sealed like an NBA Draft Lottery special? The reality TV aspect of it all just has me picturing Kramer hosting the Merv Griffin Show.

I am far from a baseball purist so count me in.

Not everyone is sold on the idea including Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer.

To be fair though, this is the guy who got scolded (and traded) by Terry Francona for launching a ball over the fence after getting yanked from a game. Seems like a guy who doesn’t take it well when things don’t go his way.

People who complain about changing the game forget just how much the rules have actually evolved, some faster than others, over the years. In 2011 the MLB added the new Wild Card format, the Astros changed Leagues in 2013, balls have been juiced and unjuiced, steroids were encouraged ignored then banned, the mound was lowered, and on and on we go. So testing out a little tweak to the playoff format is not going to have Branch Rickey rolling in his grave. It’s baseball, lets have a little fun.

Red Sox Reportedly Hire Ron Roenicke as Manager, Team Says Search is Ongoing!

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So it was reported earlier today that the Red Sox had ended their expansive search for a new manager and hired…the guy that sat next to Alex Cora all last season. At this point I do not care who they hire as the next lameduck manager, but at least by promoting last year’s bench coach in Ron Roenicke it confirms the Sox don’t believe any further suspensions are coming from the MLB sign stealing investigation. So that would be a positive.

Then later on came the conflicting reports and we were back to square one.

John Gibbons would be a terrible hire, essentially John Farrell 2.0, but he would make for great content since he’s a dead ringer for No. 2 in Austin Powers.

So who the hell knows what the Red Sox will ultimately do in their managerial search, but is any of this a surprise to fans? Something I thought of today as I cackled amidst all the chaos; do other fan bases find the same entertainment in watching their team implode or are we just fucked in the head? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the Patriots could win 10 Super Bowls and the Red Sox would still be the most entertaining team in town because they are a reality show. They’re either flying high and winning titles or failing in a spectacular ball of fire. The Francona smear campaign, Bobby Valentine, Pablo Sandoval, David Price vs Eck, the Mookie trade; it’s. always. something.

Welp, we still have four days until pitchers and catchers report so theres PLENTY of time to figure it all out.

The Indians’ Trevor Bauer Had a GLORIOUS Meltdown on the Mound

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Just an A+ flip out by Trevor Bauer who lost his shit and decided to just launch the ball OVER the center field wall before getting yanked. Part of me loves how much he cares about losing and another part of me wants to rip him for being a gigantic baby. I remember one time in my softball league we were playing this team of jacked, roided out 5’8″ dudes and we were really taking them to the shed. Well after a long night of getting their doors blown off this one guy strikes out and proceeds to scream at the top of his lungs and literally fires his bat into the woods. It was like watching a train wreck, it was superb.

The only thing funnier than Bauer’s meltdown was Terry Francona’s reaction.

“What the FUCK is wrong with you?”

For a guy like Francona, who has been around baseball his entire life and has seen it all, over to have a genuine reaction like that was laugh out loud funny. This is a guy who publicly defended Mark Bellhorn for 6 months straight so needless to say you don’t normally get this honest of a response from a major league manager.

Dustin Pedroia Says John Farrell Wore Down Red Sox Last Season

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NESN – “There certainly seemed to be something of a leadership void, and Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia admitted Monday that former Boston manager John Farrell was part of the reason the club didn’t seem to enjoy itself in 2017. “The overall approach, every day, would wear on guys. It wasn’t people not liking each other. We all love each other. Trust me,” Pedroia said Monday morning on WEEI’s “OMF.” “There’s the mindset of, ‘You show up to the yard, you put your work in, you have your approach that day, and you try to execute it. If you don’t, guess what? You’re going to show up tomorrow and still be in the lineup. We’re all going to have confidence in you. We’re all going to show up and try to win and accomplish the same thing.’ That’s what wore on guys and made the season that much more grueling — when everything that day was more magnified. It put a lot of pressure on our young guys, it put a lot of pressure on our veteran guys. That’s the part, when you hear Mookie (Betts) or (Xander Bogaerts) say they weren’t having much fun, you don’t ever have a chance to enjoy yourself if you don’t go 4-for-4, throw a complete game shutout, or we don’t win by 10. You don’t look ahead to the end of what we were trying to build for.”

Color me shocked. Dustin Pedroia came out and admitted on WEEI that last year sucked because John Farrell just beat guys down. It seems like his approach was just a grind on guys mentally. As much as we like to rail on players for whining and complaining, Boston may be the toughest city to play in the entire league so its important to manage that level of stress. This is where I’ve always been kind of disapointed though considering John Farrell came up in the Terry Francona school of management. Pedroia said guys were stressing because they were hyper focused on day to day success rather than building towards something bigger. If a guy didn’t hit the cover off the ball one day he’d be worried about getting moved down in the batting order or getting bumped from the lineup entirely. Farrell never really seemed as comfortable managing the Sox as we all thought he would be when Boston traded for him with Toronto.

Compare that to a manager like Francona who was infamous for sticking with his guys, almost to a fault. Anyone remember Mark Bellhorn? That guy was a goddamn enigma. In theory, a pretty solid player, but holy hell was he frustrating. Half the time he straight up SUCKED.  He was a disaster in 2004 with his double ear flapped softball batting helmet.

He hit .264 with 177 strikeouts, which was 1st in the American League and 2nd in all of baseball. He did have a .373 OBP though! But Francona knew the guy could hit so he kept going with him day in and day out. Guess what? In the long run it paid off as Bellhorn had a HUGE 3-run HR in Game 6 of the ALCS to force Game 7 against the Yankees. Don’t remember? It was the one that smoked a guy sitting front row in the chest, but he was wearing all black so Matsui and those dirty Yankees tried to play it off like it hit the wall.

So theres definitely something to be said for consistency.

Everybody remembers Game 6 of the 04 ALCS for the legend that was Schilling’s bloody sock, but people forget that was also this game:

But, I digress.

As a manager you could also go the other way and tell these professional athletes to sack up. I mean if I have a few non-productive shitty days at my job, my employer is most likely going to chew me out. If you’re not performing the manager is well within his rights to sit you down. But, and I think this is what John Farrell’s biggest weakness was, if you’re going to do that you have to communicate why to the player. Build them up. Co-mmu-ni-cate. And that is where Farrell dropped the ball. The guy just did not have the social skills or the management skills or whatever you want to call it to relate to his players on a day to day basis. Not to beat a dead horse, but again Francona could call Pedroia in to play a game of cribbage and while the two are having a friendly competition Tito could tell him that he has sucked lately and is giving him a day off. Whether that was good news or whether that was bad news, Tito could communicate.

One of my favorite stories about Francona was how he would go out during batting practice every day and if he had to have a talk with someone he would bring them behind the backstop to chat. It was in the middle of everyone and completely public, but nobody could hear what they were saying except Tito and the player. So he was a master class in dealing with the players and their fragile egos and getting the best out of guys. Hell Francona could call a guy into his office while he was taking a dump and have a chat. I don’t really see that kind of comfort level existing between John Farrell and any of these Red Sox players. So the hope here is that Alex Cora is able to bring back that warm and fuzzy feeling back to the players. Maybe Cora won’t be sitting on the porcelain throne when he’s calling in Rafael Devers, but hey its only his first year on the job.

Red Sox Hire Tony La Russa to Be the Adult in the Room

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ESPN – Tony La Russa joined the Red Sox in a vice president’s role, and he will assist president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, the team announced Thursday..La Russa spent 33 seasons as a manager, beginning in 1979 with the White Sox when Dombrowski was an administrative assistant in the organization. La Russa won the World Series in 1989 with the Oakland Athletics and in 2006 and ’11 with the St. Louis Cardinals. He retired from managing after the 2011 season and worked in the commissioner’s office before joining Arizona’s front office.

How do I feel about the Red Sox bringing HOF baseball guy Tony La Russa into the fold?

Player personnel has been relatively good for the Sox, basically its been hit or miss over the years like any team. Chris Sale was a stud and was the front runner for the Cy Young until he faltered down the stretch. David Price has been disappointing for the most part. Eduardo Nunez? Excellent trade! Travis Shaw for Tyler Thornburg? Not so much. My point is the personnel moves have been, for the most part, pretty good. But the front office? Holy shit, thats been a soap opera for the past 15 fucking years. Ever since John Henry and co. took over the team. Lets run though some of the highlights.

  • Theo Epstein quits on Halloween night in 2005 and leaves the office in a gorilla costume.
  • Jed Hoyer and Ben Cherington take over as co-GMs and immediately trade Theo’s most coveted prospect in Hanley Ramirez (worked out OK).
  • Theo returns, but ultimately quits again in 2011 after yet another pissing contest with Larry Lucchino. Lucchino retires 4 year later, while Epstein has not only resurrected the Cubs and won a World Series, but has turned them into a juggernaut.
  • Beloved manager Terry Francona gets absolutely TRASHED in the media on his way out of town in 2011.
  • Bobby Valentine is hired in 2012 and immediately makes a mockery of the franchise and is shit canned after just 1 season.
  • John Farrell is kept on as Red Sox manager after 2016 and the team lets his replacement in waiting, Torey Lovullo, leave for the Diamondbacks. Lovullo goes on to lead Arizona to a 93 win season (+24 from 2016) and the Red Sox promptly fire Farrell one year later anyways.

So now finally, after years of a reality TV show running the front office we finally get an adult in the room. La Russa is a legend in baseball so its a huge win for the Sox to bring him on board.

Apparently La Russa and Dombrowski are buds, so I would assume it was Dave’s idea to pluck him out of Arizona’s front office to help right the shaky ship that is the Boston Red Sox.

The Red Sox now have a respected, experienced, strategic guy in the front office to complement Dealer Dave. So when Dombrowski wants to trade Rafael Devers, Mookie Betters, Xander Bogaerts and Andrew Benintendi for Giancarlo Stanton and his $300 Million contract Tony La Russa can slap the phone out of his hand. Plus he’s the only one with the stones to tell David Price to pipe down if he tries to mess with his boy Dennis Eckersley again.

Win-win situation.

Red Sox Brass Must Enjoy Watching All the Former Red Sox Dominate MLB Awards

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francona_theo_epstein_celebrate

With Terry Francona wining AL Manager of the Year yesterday it got me thinking. Francona was manager of the year and was in the World Series, now Jon Lester could very easily win the NL Cy Young tonight to go along with his World Series title, not to mention Theo Epstein potentially winning MLB Executive of the Year. So out of Boston’s not so long ago core of the franchise, we could see a Manager of the Year, Cy Young winner, MLB Executive of the Year and a World Series title all in the same season and the Red Sox will receive ZERO BENEFIT.

theochampagne

Thats crazy. I know some of these guys have been gone for a couple of years now, but let that sink in. The one time core of the Red Sox may have a clean sweep of the biggest awards in the sport. I honestly don’t know if Larry Lucchino feels bad about ousting pretty much all of these guys or if he just laughs it off and thinks, “Fuck it, I invented Camden Yards.”

pianokeynecktie

Either way, hopefully its a wakeup call for John Henry to STOP MEDDLING IN BASEBALL AFFAIRS. You ran the best baseball executive of our generation out of town over a pissing contest just so we could hold onto the 70 year old guy who likes to monetize everything down to the goddamn bricks at Fenway. Solid management plan.

theocubs