Comments on: The 2011 Red Sox: “a story of disunity, disloyalty, and dysfunction like few others in franchise history”

By: loki311

loki311 — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 09:03:43 +0000

It is Pujols, don’t complain if you aren’t knowledgable.

By: lostsok

lostsok — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 04:53:39 +0000

So, thanks to a major over-reaction by the local media and a MASSIVE over-reaction by fans…the Sox are going to blow up a 90 win team.

What could possibly go wrong?

By: meteor32

meteor32 — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 04:21:35 +0000

Sorry, 1986 World Series. I doubt Wade Boggs caused the Cardinals to collapse against Kansas City.

By: tominma

tominma — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 21:32:06 +0000

The Red Sox werent in the World Series in 1985! And I’ve never heard anything about Wade Boggs eating and drinking DURING the game! Maybe Bill Buckner did tho!

By: meteor32

meteor32 — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:20:10 +0000

Does this mean we can blame the 1985 World Series collapse on Wade Boggs for eating fried chicken in the club house before every game of his major league career?

By: deathmonkey41

deathmonkey41 — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:15:49 +0000

Are you a St. Louis Rams and Yankees fans.

By: tominma

tominma — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 19:35:18 +0000

This collapse is 100% on the players. Francona’s style is that he expects his players to conduct themselves in a way that fosters tean unity and professionalism. He was always considerate of his players and never called them out in public! It’s the players that failed HIM–not the other way around! He could have been harder on them, but then he wouldnt be the namager that he is! Itis true that Theo Epstein made 3 HUGE mistakes in the last couple of years, with Lackey ( who had marital problems), Crawford who is NOT worth his contract ( tho mebbe they signed him to keep him away from the Yankees and short right field), and Bobby Jenks. Ownership lost confidence in both because they couldnt solve the problems but it was 100% on the players! That’s my view anyway.

Re-signing Papelbon and Ortiz is a must as is rebuilding the farm system!

By: jamkarat

jamkarat — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 17:13:46 +0000

It became increasingly apparent during the season that the BoSox were self involved and the “me..me..me..” was heard from top to bottom in the organization.
The entire organization’s immature handling of success is obvious.

By: mgp1219

mgp1219 — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:44:38 +0000

Then it will be another 86 years before you see another World Series champion in Boston.
Smart comment, cerowb.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:28:41 +0000

How was this permitted to happen? How did chicken and biscuits go undetected by the league office all season long? Don’t they do random urine tests anymore?

By: buddaley

buddaley — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:09:18 +0000

Again, the same hobby horse and the same nonsense.

There probably is more news, especially on ESPN, about NY and Boston. But why comment on this site when it is clearly not true here-or at least not in this case.

As usual, there are 20 posts on this page. 3 of them concern the Red Sox directly. This one refers to an exceptionally provocative article that, had a similar one been written about any team, would be highlighted. The fact that Boston’s collapse was so unique means that articles about their plight will proliferate, and this site would be remiss not to link to them.

Of the remaining 17, there is one about Cashman and one about Dominic Brown of the Phillies. The Cashman story refers to an ongoing question about the post-season that is larger than the Yankees, and the Phillies reference concerns a major prospect any fan would be interested in.

That leaves 15 stories. 3 are about the Cubs. Coincidentally, the Red Sox are peripherally involved, and one of the Boston stories relates as Epstein’s leaving raises an important question for Boston. Should the site ignore stories about the GM opening in Boston? And given Epstein’s place in the game and the Cubs situation, his move there is big news.

The other 12 stories are about the Rangers, Rays, Posey, Orioles, Stow, Pirates and White Sox (2). And finally, there are 4 stories about the playoffs.

So where is the bias? This continuing harping on too much Boston/NY content is silly unless you can demonstrate it is crowding out other, more interesting, stories. Note that on a recent page, there was an article about the Angels shakeup which followed other stories on the same subject.

By: phillyphreak

phillyphreak — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:25:22 +0000

Equally silly to use it as “post facto analysis?”

By: brewcrewfan54

brewcrewfan54 — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:05:37 +0000

Gotta love the after the fact smear campaign against guys who led ya to 2 World Series Championships. Sox lost for 86 years because they didn’t have the right guys making decisions. Apparently they think these people are easy to find.

By: tashkalucy

tashkalucy — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:05:37 +0000

Red Sox……Yankees
Yankees……Red Sox
Red Sox……Yankees
Yankees……Red Sox
Red Sox……Yankees
Yankees……Red Sox

Do any national outlets know that there are 28 other teams in MLB – albeit they’re not interesting to write about..

How about a series of articles on the shake-up with the large market – big spending Angels?

Of course not.

As far as the national media s concerned, there are only 2 teams in MLB. And the 2 others they talk about are the other New York team and the nearby Phillies.

What a bunch of bull MLB has turned out to be over the last few decades.

26 MLB teams that don’t count at all. Just throw them in once in a while when they have a quality free agent or are looking to trade a vet in a salary dump. Then instantaneously we get stories about how
the Red Sox and Yankees are interested in the guy.

Now that Puhols and Fielder are free agents, they’ll be getting ungodly amounts of press, and you can be sure that the rumors will start abut the Red Sox and Yankees being interested in them.

The Onion has the 2 team league down pat.

By: lovesmesomeme

lovesmesomeme — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:54:27 +0000

Excellent point

By: guypatsfan

guypatsfan — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:48:47 +0000

If I was a baseball free agent Boston would be the last place I’d want to go. I’ve never seen a city go through such angst every time one of its sports teams loses. It’s like everybody slaps on hairshirts and flogs their backs with chains over every loss!

By: CJ

CJ — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:48:45 +0000

how creative. must be a yankee fan with such intelligence.

By: guypatsfan

guypatsfan — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:44:45 +0000

“winning”

By: paperlions

paperlions — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:35:56 +0000

The dysfunction was obviously all Manny’s fault.

It is Boston, when things do go perfectly, the media finds the easiest target(s), aims their venom at him/them, and the mindless masses follow.

By: Jack Marshall

Jack Marshall — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:30:32 +0000

This article is one of the best illustrations of hindsight bias I have ever seen. Change one factor—say, Carl Crawford playing up to his career average, or Clay Buchholtz staying healthy, or Daniel Bard not losing the strike zone for two weeks—and nobody cares about what the starting pitchers were doing during games.

By: psousa1

psousa1 — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:16:11 +0000

It’s called Theo Epstein. He usually would leak it through Peter Gammons.

By: acheron2112

acheron2112 — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:08:10 +0000

My favorite part: All year, we hear rumors about how Theo wasn’t that enthusiastic about signing Crawford, but the ownership kind of pushed him into it. Now that Theo’s about to leave, suddenly an “unnamed source” (and obviously I don’t know who, but if I had to guess I’d say his name rhymes with “Barry Bucchino”) puts out there that actually it was all Theo’s idea and it was the ownership who was against it all along. Uh huh.

By: cerowb

cerowb — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:50:43 +0000

I love all the stories about these “dysfunctional” Red Sox teams. Two World Series titles in eight years. I’ll take that dysfunction any day.

By: pellypell

pellypell — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:46:55 +0000

Of course he did, he can’t refill his prescription until the 15th. Give it another few days, they will have to wheel him around like Weekend at Bernies.

By: bucsraysboltsfan

bucsraysboltsfan — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:44:52 +0000

*laughing*

By: cur68

cur68 — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:40:31 +0000

Boson as a whole should do what Toronto does after (another) season of mediocrity; focus on the upcoming hockey season and the Leaf’s excellent chances for hockey mediocrity again. This was the cycle of anger and bewilderment at how a team with money and talent can suck for so long. The constant, low levels of frustration will keep the ups an downs of disgust from cycling out of control. This “championship” winning stuff only creates unsustainable expectations, IMO.

By: antlerclaws

antlerclaws — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:39:27 +0000

Francona seemed pretty animated when he acted as a color analyst during the Rangers-Tigers first 2 ALCS games. I liked him as a broadcaster, thought he was better than McCarver. New career? Seems like a lot less stress.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:24:52 +0000

I know, right? I F’n love chicken and biscuits.

By: yankeesfanlen

yankeesfanlen — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:22:32 +0000

I prefer the Yankees “sweep it under the rug” position. Lupica, for all his glorious eforts, never figures out which rug it is.

By: franklapidus316

franklapidus316 — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:17:56 +0000

yeah, there’s this total disconnect. The attitude here, on any stats-based site, and even apparently on the Red Sox themselves,was that none of the nonsense mattered when they went on this 80-41 run, and it only matters now because they sucked down the stretch. And if they sucked 1 less game, even that wouldn’t matter. But hey, maybe it does actually matter. Maybe that dysfunction snowballed as the slide got worse. Who knows. But its silly to kind of dismiss it as post facto analysis.