We’re all baseball fans first and you gotta pay respect to some of those clutch plays.

And who knows what happens if they make the playoffs that year? Frankly I think the flameout will be good in the long run. Those guys got fat and lazy under Francona.

The Sox should get a new manager but keep Bobby V on retainer as an ongoing threat to bring him back if they ever get fat and lazy again.

What you may not understand is that in the world financial circles, things have changed (for the worse) since that sale went through.

I’m a Sox fan . . . and ya know what?

AWESOME line, dude!

Doubtful.

And they did “buy Red Sox” – they took on the albatross of $270 million in Red Sox salary – which, with the exception of Gonzales (who is good but still overpaid), was money that was going to prevent the Sox from being future contenders.

If they’re interested in picking up the remainder of Lackey’s $82 million contract they’re welcome to purchase that Red Sox as well!

There is nothing wrong with exploring a sale. Any smart sports team owner would be willing to do so – especially after the value of the team has increased so dramatically.

And if, as reports suggest, that other profitable ventures they own such as Liverpool soccer and NASCAR, are taking their attention away from the Red Sox, from a fan standpoint, one would WANT to see a new owner that would focus solely on the team.

Just as GMs deny trade rumors until the trade is complete, owners deny exploring the sales of teams, until the sale is complete.

This is common sense and it’s nothing to be upset about.

If this team is for sale, right now, I don’t see anyone paying the asking price until we are out of the toxic world financial predicament we are currently in.

And that won’t be for a few more years, at least.

But according to people with direct knowledge of the matter, the biggest challenge for Henry is running two expensive sports franchises. Fenway Sports purchased the Liverpool team for $476 million in 2010, and has been widely criticized for overpaying for players who have under-delivered.

In fact, Henry recently wrote an open letter to Liverpool fans, vowing not to overspend on talent in the future, but stating his commitment to keeping the team.

If this ‘business reporter’ is gonna report on a sports business story, he should at least fact check a few things before he mixes facts with fiction.

FSG has not OVERSPENT on acquiring talent in Liverpool. It was Henry’s predecessor that vastly overspent on transfers and got little return for the investments made.

IN FACT, Liverpool fans criticism of Henry & FSG has been the exact opposite! They have complained that Henry has not SPENT enough to compete with the billionaire Sheik who owns Manchester City, last year’s Champs. BTW – virtually no one but Warren Buffett has enough to compete with this Sheik . . . who lost in excess of $200M last season.

Of course, if you are a true Yankees fan, familiar with the team’s fell history, rather than just it’s recent history (2009), then you’d already know that the 17-year title drought was overcome when Steinbrenner was BANISHED from day-to-day operation of the club, and to his credit, left Stick Michael in charge of the day-to-day operations.

Steinbrenner’s ironfist ways ceased in 1990. Once he was reinstated he let his baseball people drive the bus and was a noticeably more restrained, less meddling Steinbrenner.

It was Stick and his protege’s Watson, then Cashman that have been by far the most responsible for the resurgence of the Yankees’ fortunes after that long title drought – caused by years of questionable big spending decisions and absolutist statements that didn’t endear him to many Free Agents.

The three titles that Steinbrenner’s teams won in the 1970′s were mostly because Steinbrenner was by far the most aggressive team early on in Free Agency. Again, to his credit . . . but I hate it when his legacy is overstated.

He was a GREAT if not controversial owner. He cared about winning first and budgets second. But having said that – he was not a baseball genius. He was an extremely savvy, uber competitive business man who loved his baseball team.

And you are right . . . the Yankees post-season appearance streak is incomparable to basketball . . . mainly because teams that have done it in basketball have done it with an actual salary cap. With the Yankees falling back to the pack and other teams amping up revenues – we’ll finally find out how resourceful the Yankees will continue to be. Certainly not as resourceful, as say . . . the Lakers.

If I don’t know enough background about a particular team, I either frame my comments as such, or don’t comment.

And it’s even more bizarre when someone who makes so many inaccurate and even fictitious statements in a three sentence paragraph gets seems to get so much agreement.

Jeremy Fox and Chill1184 are right on with their rebuttals.

He’s a schmuck. Believe THAT.

To say that Steinbrenner being more involved in the daily (or weekly or monthly) baseball decision making process helped the Yankees win would be to ignore all facts.

And that’s JUST for the team which they purchased for $380 million in 2002.

That doesn’t even count Fenway Park – to which they’ve made major renovations and improvements.

Nor does it count NESN or WEEI – which is probably worth a few hundred million alone.

So as you point out the value of the team as of last year – BEFORE they dumped $270 million in Theo’s salary mistakes (making them worth even more today) – had increased 3x in just a few years.

Part of that has to do with their investment in the team, stadium and sports networks and 2 World Series Championships.

So it’s not a stretch to think that the Sox, one of baseball’s most historic organizations, might even be worth more than the $1.5 billion paid for the Dodgers.

That’s quite a nice profit.

And if the new owners are going to solely focus on the Red Sox, and not Liverpool Soccer or NASCAR like the current ownership, that’s only going to be a big plus for Sox fans.

Here’s hoping it happens during this offseason!

Its not my fault that your team is old and everyone is overpaid. My team just sucks.

That’s what Browns fans said 2 months ago. Come back around the winter meetings and call BS again and see how smart you sound then….

The Red Sox have made a bunch of questionable decisions lately and the team is currently going in the wrong direction. But they’ve had a lot of success under Henry’s ownership, more than the Marlins have had over the same time frame. So I’m confused why you think Henry’s a bad owner, and also why you think he’s bad in the same way the Marlins ownership is bad.