There’s one now, Longo’s home run to put us into the Wild Card over the, the, the…….

Oh wait, that’s a typo!

I meant to say those RANGERS are looking tough.

and when the dust has settled there is but one conclusion to come to:

feces occur

You wrote: I may have discovered the missing link. Your logic and argument are so convoluted that they would. “that they would” what? What’s that sentence supposed to mean?

Let me re-state so that you might understand it: I understand your excitement. You are entitled to it. The first thing I did the other night was congratulate Rays fans saying that their team earned it and the Red Sox clearly didn’t.

But history doesn’t remember the Wild Card winners. History remembers the World Series winners.

All those truly lean years were made possible by the Red Sox and Yankees. I I don’t understand the revenue envy and constant fixation on it. I really don’t.

Finally the Rays didn’t humiliate the Red Sox. The RED SOX humiliated the Red Sox. If the Red Sox didn’t have so much dysfunction in that clubhouse this year – which is what led to the collapse – you’d be complaining about about how unfair it is that the Rays were eliminated again while the big spending teams are in the play-offs.

You can’t get to the series without winning a division or wild card, hey you should know that, but if you have lost THAT fact as well, you’ll be reminded every time you turn on the TV and see the 8 best teams in baseball on the field without the SOX.

As far as criticizing the spending of the ownership of the Rays, you should, they humiliated your RED SOX with nickles and dimes while you threw millions at what eventually will be seen as bad a decision as the sale of Ruth.

Then, and I have to chuckle at this one, you criticize the TV deal of the RAYS? WOW are you reaching. I understand, you’ve been jilted once again and it hurts. Too Freakin bad.

Oh, and if you want to take the discussion we are having back onto the field. What was the RAYs record against the dream team? A measely 12-6. Sorry pal, use history, use dollars spent, use TV deals, use the other teams in Florida, the SOX are watching TV and counting their money. I’m watching the RAYS play great baseball.

Oh ya, and great move by the SOX firing Francona, that’ll fix everything. Some team who hires him will be thanking you for a long time. The Evil Empire now has a red headed step brother, the No Clue Nation.

Still awaiting that first relevant and/or accurate comment from you.

But you make me laugh with your Rays Fan Napoleonic complex.

The Red Sox, Yankees and Phillies are all playing by the same rules that your beloved Rays are playing by (some would say abusing). Sternberg astutely hired Friedman to deploy a new economic strategy toward building a competitive club, which is obviously working.

The 4th-8th Rounders that everyone recognizes as premium talent – were talents that were identified, evaluated and drafted out of High School or 1 year of JuCo. This runs against the grain of conventional wisdom because teams generally like to select college players with their higher picks since the better ones come near major league ready. But it has allowed Friedman to capitalize on a market inefficiency.

Now drafting a younger player is one thing, but developing them is another. Unless its a once or twice in a generation type player – high school players will need 3-5 years of minor league instruction before they are major league ready. And a lot can happen to those players in the 3-5 years. Some will become major leaguers and others will drop off the radar. To address this market reality, Friedman always makes sure to have plenty of additional picks on hand so as to increase his yield of talent at the end of that 3-5 year instructional window.

It’s a brilliant concept and it has worked well to this point. But when an organization has good success like the Rays, eventually more and more teams take note of how that organization is doing it and before you know it, the model of success has been disrupted by other organizations who have incorporated elements of the Rays system.

In the meantime, while the Yankees/Red Sox/Phillies have significantly grown their franchises over the last 14 years by investing and re-investing their profits, expanding their reach and most importantly winning Word Series – teams like the Rays have been taking revenue sharing money and pocketing it as profit – while crying poverty.

Interestingly enough Rays games are broadcast throughout Florida – the 4th largest state in the country with a population of over 18 million (versus 14.5 Million in all of New England). The current RSN deal with SS/FSFis one that Sternberg signed for a measly $20 million per year and which they are locked into until 2016 (interestingly the same year that Longoria’s deal expires if all the options are picked up) as SS/FSF is raking in boatloads of cash – which finished 5th overall in 2010 of all the MLB RSN. Bad deal by Sternburg.

Fenway generated revenue is important and a packed ballpark enhances the game in person and on TV – but NESN is what allows the Red Sox to have the payroll they have.

Thus, the payroll argument has gotten real stale. Mainly because your boy Sternberg pockets revenue sharing money rather than investing it in the team. Ultimately if someday he takes that “profit” and uses it to buyout the lease at the Trop so he can move to Tampa, Northern NJ or CT because the powers that be in St Pete can’t get their heads out of their anuses – then I’ll likely have a different take on it.

Before I conclude, allow me to entertain your ridiculous “last 14 years” argument. Just the facts.

That other franchise that entered MLB in 1998? 1 WORLD SERIES title, 1 NLCS, 5 Division titles.

In the last 15 years, that other Florida team has 2 WORLD SERIES titles (or it can be said they won 2 WORLD SERIES titles in their first 11 years – you choose).

The DBacks took only an unprecedented 4 years to win their first WORLD SERIES – so I can understand your confusion over how to feel in year 14 and still hoping for the Rays first.

And just for fun we’ll throw this one in: over the last 14 years, the Red Sox have 8 playoff appearances, 1Division title, 2 AL Championships and 2 WORLD SERIES titles.

So much for the “last 14 years argument” right there”.

In conclusion, since the advent of the Wild Card – division titles mean virtually nothing – especially in the AL East. What matters is winning the World Series. I’ve been a Red Sox fan my entire life, and Red Sox fans know this truth perhaps better than any other fans: winning Division titles and wild card slots mean nothing if you don’t go on to win the WORLD SERIES.

1978, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1995, 1998, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2009 means NOTHING.

2004 and 2007 means EVERYTHING.

Likewise for the Rays:
2008 & 2010 means NOTHING – and neither will 2011 if the Rays end up with anything short of the World Series Trophy.

They don’t throw parades for the runner up.

The Rays have been in the league a total of 14 years and competitive in the last four, talk about the 14 or talk about the 4 and their three trips to the post season represent a good percentage. In three of the last four years the only teams to get to the post season that many times are the Yankees with over 600 million in payroll, the Phillies with over 400 million in payroll and the Rays with 176 million.

You want titles, I’ll give you some titles for the Rays. American League Champion, American League East Division Champion (TWICE), Wild Card winner. Oh, and how about these choices for titles, TALENTED, DEEP, YOUNG, DRIVEN, PROUD. In the last four years the sox have one of those titles and one only; Wild Card winner.

Ya like titles, How ya like them titles????

Its easy to call names.

Now let me ask you something . . . for all that depth and talent your Rays have – how many titles has your team won?

What is it? ZERO?

I’m an admirer of the Rays – but the sudden empowerment of Rays fans to speak as authorities on winning Championships is a little difficult to swallow.

They have 10 days from the end of their season to accept of decline the option.

Theo just released a statement that he, Cherrington, Henry, Lucchino, Werner and Francona met this morning to discuss what went wrong and express ideas on how to fix it. Epstein stated that they are now going to take some time to digest and analyze what was discussed.

He concluded that release by stating that “no immediate plans have been made to make an announcement on Francona’s future.”

Color me stupid, but it sounds to me as if Theo wants Francona to stay on. Maybe John Henry thinks differently. One thing I do know is they are taking their time and not making any rash decisions.

As was discussed earlier . . . if not Francona then who?

Everyone knew that Pedro had trouble in 2003 with his 3rd time through a lineup. During the regular season you can get away with letting Pedro go a little longer than he should have. The same can’t be said of the play-offs.

The problem is Francona still hasn’t been fired.

That’s how ABSURD the Boston sports media is.

The Sox have a choice to do something about their pitching staff or watch TV and golf in October again next year. Pitchers can suck and cost teams games or be injury prone and cost teams games. If Theo the Magnificent wasn’t so busy throwing money at position players and paid attention to the whole field, including the mound, the loss of front line pitching and the sucking of the bullpen, Bard et al, would have been overcome with…….here are the words of the day (or offseason for that matter) depth and talent.

Blaming injuries is for the uninformed and lost. Here you are.

With that logic, no one would ever be fired. Of course you let him go. He certainly is responsible for at least 3-4 losses this year. Why didn’t he fire Curt Young? Tim Bogar? All year Bogar has been pitiful. Even with Scutaro’s mistake between 2nd and 3rd, he still waved him home. He should have been replaced at the all star break. This is the managers fault. I could go on and on. Marching out Wakefield every 5th day so he could get his 200 wins. And don’t tell tell me they had no one else……etc…etc..

The Rays have a very good talented young pitching staff. No one can take that away from them. The Red Sox lost 3 out of 5 of their Starters to injury. To say they had no pitching is just silly.

As I said elsewhere – if the Rays lost 3/5 of their Starting Pitching by June, and their 3B who’s also their best RH bat for most of the last 2 months – how would they have fared?

I understand the no crying part, and I’m not excusing blowing a nine game lead (because there were obviously bigger problems than just injuries alluded to by Francona in yesterdays press conf.) but there’s common sense and there’s plain ignorance.

Hey, you all have a right to your opinion, but the logic and supporting arguments for your reasons why Francona should be fired are about as sound as the mortgage market.

If Joe Maddon lost 3/5′s of his starting rotation by June – how would the Rays have fared down the stretch? Then lost their 3B who also happens to be their best RH bat – how about then?

If Barolo Colon didn’t have a miracle come back and Ivan Nova didn’t emerge as a viable member of the Yankees rotation – how would the Yankees have fared?

Look, despite the issues with the Rotation, the Red Sox were somehow able to win enough and build a big enough lead that they should have been able to hold on. They needed only to win 2 more games than they did in the entire month of September to secure a playoff spot.

If they had slumped in June and July because of the Pitchers they lost, and instead entered September tied with the Rays for the Wild Card – then both battled it out to the last day, with the Rays still advancing – then the entire scenario would be framed differently. The timing of a winning or losing streak factors into the way the story is framed.

Yet the Red Sox still won 90 Games, again, they are being cast as losers. If the 2nd WC is introduced – they would still be alive under that format.

It’s easy for the casual fan to blame the Manager, but to fire Francona in the wake of what happened over the last month would be foolhearty and downright dumb. Let me ask this . . . who is there to replace him? Francona is a known and proven commodity.

And finally, comparing the Francona situation to Torre demonstrates absolutely zero knowledge of the Torre years in NY. Steinbrenner only hired Torre because he didn’t want to pay the money to hire Sparky Anderson or Whitey Herzog. Torre’s first contract with the Yankees was 2 years/500G per year.

In year 12, Torre was asking for more than the Yankees offer of $5M for 1 year plus $3M in bonuses if the Yanks won the WS – in which case he would also automatically get a guaranteed $8M for 2009. The Yankees hadn’t won a WS in 7 seasons & they were never really keen on paying that kind of money to any manager – especially one that Steinbrenner never figured to last more than a couple of seasons in the first place. If Showalter (who had won the 1994 AL MOY) and led the Yankees to their first post-season birth in 17 years in 1995 had stayed on – I find it hard to believe he wouldn’t have been the one standing in Torre’s shoes.

In Little’s two years as Red Sox manager, Boston was 93-69 and 95-67, and the Sox qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 1999. The Sox had a better record in both of his only 2 years than in 2011 AND they made the friggin postseason.

His tendency for NOT relying on stats was a nice excuse for management to let him go. Face it, he was fired for making a mistake. The only reason Francona isn’t fired is because of his two rings.

If the pitching had been solid this past month, most of the games they lost would’ve been wins. It still wouldn’t have been a record month or anything, but they’d certainly be in the playoffs. Besides, I’m guessing the price tags on Pujols and Fielder wouldn’t be pretty. heh.

That he went with his gut on Pedro in Game 7 in 2003 (even as virtually everyone in Red Sox fandom was screaming to take him out) – sealed his fate, but wasn’t the sole reason he got fired.