Baby Come Back

Get over it. Yeah, I said it. He's gone and the Nation needs to accept it. Terry Francona was relieved of his managerial duties and all I hear on the radio and media is that the Sox lost a huge part of their team. Yes, I agree that they did, but its not the end of the world (talking to you WEEI). Tito began to lose this team for many reasons (not all his fault). This team had their head up their asses all season (don't look away from me, Gonzalez), starting with opening night and fittingly ending with them blowing a late lead.

Francona is an unbelievable coach and no one can take that away from him but he couldn't handle all the egos of the players this year. With Tito gone, I think this team is getting a wake up call.

Now, I've never been a fan of the"if it doesn't work, start all over again" approach. This only seems to set teams back in the dark ages only to come out of it 30 years later (kudos to Detroit Lions on mastering this). Terry has been to handle personalities before, like in 2004 with Manny, Big Papi, Pedro, Millar, and even Curt Schilling. The reason why he could handle them was because they weren't ridiculously over paid and the '04 group just wanted to win. Sadly, the 2011 bunch wanted that paycheck every month, not even caring if they won or lost. By the time they realized they had dug themselves a nice hole, they couldn't climb out. That's what happens when you pay the big bucks! Terry got sick of having to deal with everything that was happening in the club house and I don't blame him for wanting to leave. I think he wanted to stay but he wanted some changes that the front office weren't positive they could provide. When you have overpaid players like Josh Beckett, John Lackey, Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez, and J.D. Drew, they are all bound to have an ego, which is fine if they perform. Out of this group, only Gonzalez had a decent year, while Beckett was solid for the first half of the year. Tito couldn't handle watching players like Lackey disgrace the game of baseball (I will save the Lackey rant for a later date as it could take many, many pages).

Tito left some big shoes to fill and many aren't going to want to be put up to the task of filling them. The front office laid a huge burden on him by supplying him with players who wanted the check rather than the trophy. Theo Epstien isn't the only person I'm talking about in the front office because I don't believe some of the signings were wanted by him. I wasn't a fly on a wall during the meetings, but I find it hard to believe Theo wanted Carl Crawford. From seeing Theo in action for his tenure in the Red Sox, this move baffles me beyond belief. Lackey is another one that Theo shouldn't be held responsible for because he's never been a fan of giving contracts that long to older players. I do believe he wanted Beckett signed because he felt that he wouldn't have any other solid pitchers for a few years after that deal. Beckett has fallen into the "I'll do just enough so you guys think I'm good" category while Lackey just flat out, can't pitch.

Here's my point: Tito is gone, move onto how the front office needs to improve this team. The next manager, whoever it may be, must have balls to coach this team and deal with this front office. Theo may leave to take that Cubs job, which I think he'd be dumb not to take unless the Sox make him co-CEO. Let's just not remember Terry for this collapse as it is not entirely his fault. Its more of the front office and the players than Tito's. Now that Tito's gone, stop thinking he's coming back media, because he's not. Any more talk about "well Terry did this and Terry did that", I'm going to go crazy! Let's hope the front office learns from this year and hopefully we will not have to deal with any bigger issues than missing the playoffs by one game. And Theo, get a manager before you leave town!

Sick to My Stomach

I was nine years old the first time the Red Sox broke my heart. It was Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS. It was a school night, so I went to bed right after Kevin Millar went deep to put the Sox ahead 4-1. Hey I was nine. I had no reason to think that the Red Sox could blow it. Not with Pedro, my favorite player, on the mound. When I drifted off to sleep that night, there was no doubt in my mind that the next day I would be talking with my friends about how the Red Sox were going to the World Series. The next morning, I woke up and the first words out of my mouth were "They won, right?" I'll never forget my dad's face. He paused and said "No, they lost." I thought he was joking at first, but once I realized that he was dead serious, I did what any other kid my age would have done when his dreams were crushed. I cried. I don't even remember how I even went to school that day. I was a total mess.

I thought that day was bad. But today, today was even worse.

Last night I was watching the Red Sox go to battle with the lowly Baltimore Orioles in an attempt to salvage their season. Everyone knows the story by now. If the Sox won and Tampa lost, the Sox were in. If the both Sox and Tampa won or lost, there would be a one-game playoff. If Tampa won and the Sox lost, then Boston would be out. All the Red Sox needed to do was win ONE game against a team that had lost 93 games over the course of the season.

Just like in 2003, the Sox were winning when I fell asleep (this time, I dozed off on my couch during the rain delay), and even better, the Yankees were up 7-3 on the Rays in the 8th inning.

Just like in 2003, I awoke to shocking news.

It was about 3 a.m. I woke up on my couch and realized what time it was, so I quickly flipped on the T.V. to see whether the Sox would be in the postseason or playing a one game playoff against Tampa. The possibility that they had lost and the Rays had won never crossed my mind. So when I watched the highlights on SportsCenter in horror (and I do mean horror, I'm pretty sure I looked like I had just seen Samara from The Ring), I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I stared helplessly as the clip showed Papelbon blowing away the first two batters in the 9th, then giving up back to back doubles to tie the score. I was speechless when Baltimore's second baseman Robert Andino (who had been killing the Sox all season) hit a sinking liner to shallow left, and Carl Crawford, the $142 million man with vaunted range who was already playing shallow to begin with, somehow couldn't come up with the catch. I then proceeded to watch as the next set of highlights showed the Rays somehow coming back from a 7-0 deficit to beat the Yankees in 12 innings 8-7. It started to sink in. I didn't cry this time. I just sat there. Speechless.

What the 2011 Red Sox did this month was disgusting. Simply atrocious. This was, without a doubt, the worse choke job I have ever witnessed a sports team commit. That's right. Worse than the 2004 Yankees. The Sox went 7-20 in the month of September, and somehow managed to blow a 9 game lead in less than 30 days. They quit on the season, on the their manager, and worst of all, on their fans. Here are some stats that I found interesting.

• The Red Sox were 2-18 when scoring less than nine runs from August 24 to September 24
• Their starting rotation compiled a 4-13 record with a 7.03 ERA this month
• The team ERA for September? 5.90
• The Sox didn't win back-to-back games once in September.
• Daniel Bard, the team's eighth inning guy and "closer of the future" was 0-4 with a 10.64 ERA in final month of the season

Sickening. Almost as sickening as watching Carl Crawford play every day this season. Or John Lackey. As a matter of fact while the players definitely deserve the blame, the front office (I'm looking DIRECTLY at you Theo) has really screwed up this team. Theo has made some awful choices. Signing Lackey for $18 million per year for 5 seasons was a disaster. Signing Crawford, a corner outfielder who has NEVER hit 20 home runs in a season and, at age 30, is only going to see his greatest strength (his speed) decline over the course of his contract (a contract which is 2 years and about $60 million too much) was a disaster (Quick rant: Wouldn't it have made more sense to use the money on Cliff Lee instead of Crawford? Think about it. Offense wasn't the issue last year OR this year. Both seasons pitching screwed the Sox over. In 2011, the Red Sox were 1st in runs, 2nd in batting average, 1st in on base percentage, and 1st in slugging percentage. They were 22nd in ERA, 28th in quality starts, 16th in WHIP, and 9th in batting average against. Which player would have had a bigger impact? Lee or Crawford? But I digress.)

That didn't stop Theo, because any time you can sign an outfielder with 10-10 potential you have to do it, apparently. Now that I think about it, Theo has made some brutal missteps in free agency. 4y/$36 million for Lugo? 4/40 for Rentaria? 5/70 for J.D. Drew? 5/82.5 for Lackey? 7/142 for Crawford? What about Mike Cameron at 2/18? Or Dice-K and his ridiculous deal?

When was the last time Epstein signed a free agent that wasn't a disappointment? When was the last time that he signed someone who's performance during the season made you say "Wow, where did this guy come from?" (Aceves was phenomenal this year. He's been the only guy like that in about 4-5 years). Theo has been unreliable at best when it comes to bringing in talent via free agency. He treats his own players, players who have proven they could handle the bright lights of Boston (Victor Martinez, Johnny Damon, Orlando Cabrera, Adrian Beltre, even Bronson Arroyo for God's sake) like old toys and never hesitates to bring in guys who have never proven they can handle Boston (Rentaria, Lackey, Drew, Crawford, for example). Theo has totally abandoned any premise of "moneyball" and prefers to simply play "money". He's been throwing bills around like PacMan Jones in a strip club the last two off-seasons. And what has that brought? Two straight years without a playoff berth.

I'm not blaming Theo for everything, the players are very much the main people at fault for this collapse. Terry Francona deserves some of the blame as well. But the point I'm trying to make here is that the front office has made some questionable moves recently that may have crippled this team finically for the next 4-5 years. The Crawford and Lackey deals are what stand out the most. Will those deals prevent the Sox from resigning (as usual) one of their own? The Red Sox could very soon be faced with the reality of being unable to afford resigning Jacoby Ellsbury, the team's MVP this year. If the Crawford and/or Lackey deals prevent the Sox from bringing back Ellsbury, we could have a riot on our hands.

In the end, the Sox have nobody to blame but themselves. In a lot of ways, I like this team less than any other Sox team I can remember properly. They were kind of like an extremely attractive woman who looked like she had all the goods and was smoking hot, but when you actually talk to her you realize she's a huge bitch with the personality of a tree stump. The last month had a lot to do with that outlook. I'm tired of the excuses, of the rationalizing, of the hanging heads, of the complacency. I don't want to hear the star hitter on the team blaming injuries claiming "God didn't want us to win" after losing the most important game of the year. Because that was pathetic, Adrian. You and your teammates are at fault here. Don't give me that shit. Hopefully this dark day serves as a wake up call for the entire organization, from those on the field to those off it. And if someone has to go (Tito? Theo?) to really bang that point home, I'm all for it. Enough of this free pass. Time to start acting your payroll, Red Sox. Because until you stop with the excuses, this team will never be more than a 88-90 win team. And to all the Sox fans out there "proud" of this team and trying to stay positives, please for the love of God stop. Just stop. Because when it comes to the 2011 Red Sox, there is nothing to be proud of.

One For the Ages

When I last wrote a column, it was September after the Red Sox had more or less been eliminated from contention (although they somehow managed to string me along for the rest of the month, not getting officially knocked out until the last week of the season). For whatever reason, I stopped writing here. Maybe it was because I was busy (the number one reason, actually). Maybe it was because I didn't know what to write. Maybe it was because I couldn't take my eyes off Tom Brady's ridiculus Euro-flo. Maybe it was because I tried to start an ill-fated podcast (which is a work in progess. I'm not giving up on that dream just yet). And really, it's a shame I couldn't focus on this more. I missed the chance to write about a 14-2 Patriots season that ended in a first round flameout, a great Celtics run (as well as one of the best NBA seasons in history), the Red Sox landing Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford, John Lackey, Big Baby and Bobby Jenks fat jokes, etc. Not exactly a good time to stop writing about this stuff.

About a month ago I promised myself I would come back if the Miami Heat made it to the Finals. That would be the only thing that could bring me out of retirement. But even as the Heat and Mavs prepared to duke it out, I wasn't certain that I would even bother to post anything about it.

Then this series happened. Everything changed.

I've had a full day to process what I just witness happen in Game 6, with the Mavericks defeating the Heat to clinch their first title in franchise history. Trust me, I needed all the time I could get. This series was trancendant, an insta-classic that will be replayed over and over again for years to come. And the drama was off the charts. All I know is this: this series will be remembered for the impact it had on not just the history of the league, but possibly the future as well.

Let's start with the big winner here. Dirk Nowitzki has done it. Finally, the odessy has come to a close. After hoisting a championship trophy for the first time in his career, Dirk's managed to make a case for his inclusion in any list of top 20 players ever. Not only that, but a huge weight has been lifted off his shoulders. That's a fact. Anyone who saw him go into the locker room immediately after the final buzzer sounded, moments away from tears could tell you that. Just the expression on his face as he got his chance to lay those massive German hands on the Larry O'Brien trophy told everything anyone needed to know.

That's not to mention that Dirk has officially gone from "soft European player who can't win the big one" to "best European player ever and cold blooded killer with unguardable crunch time offense" in the span of one postseason. Dirk vanquished his demons by unleashing on of the most incredible playoff performances in recent memory, with a dizzying array of post up fade-aways and high post, one legged, off-balance step back jumpers that nobody (not LaMarcus Aldridge, not Pau Gasol, not Serge Ibaka, and not Chris Bosh) could stop. Even though he only eclipsed 30 points once in the Finals, he hit a game winner in Game 2, and played with a fever of 101 in Game 4 (Good God...is that Michael Jordan's music?). He averaged 10.3 points in the fourth quarter. Even in Game 6 when he struggled, getting off to a 1-12 start from the field, he rallied for 10 points in the final period to close out his nemisises on their home court. Dirk's Finals performance was the stuff of legend, and his championship ring is both well desereved and well earned.

Now in July (my second to last column) I wrote about The Decision and what it meant not only to the 2011 season but the next 5-7 years and how it had irrevocably changed the direction that the NBA was headed. NBA titles, MVP awards, and the like were all about to change. We've already seen the MVP award change hands, with Derrick Rose winning it this year. And the future of NBA championships (and who wins them) has been changed as well. No, the Heat didn't win this year. But next year, it's unlikely that Dallas will be there. The Lakers are on the decline, as are the Celtics and Spurs. Orlando is a shadow of the team that went to the NBA Finals in 2009, and with Dwight Howard halfway out the door look like they will be eliminated from being considered contenders. This season was, in many ways, a changing of the guard. The Lakers, Celtics, Spurs, and Magic have had their runs, but they're being overtaken by the teams of the future: the Thunder, Heat, and Bulls. The Heat didn't win it this year, but they are looming as a potential juggernaut and both they and the Bulls will be battling it out for the next half-decade in the East.

Finally, it's time. I've defended LeBron James to a fault his entire career. I've said he was the best player in the NBA. I've blamed his postseason failures on the fact that he's spent his career playing with guys like Mo Williams, Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, and Antawn Jamison being the second banana. No, I'm not joking, look it up. I said that the reason LeBron quit on the Cavs in Game 5 against the Celtics last year was because Delonte West was tapping his mom, a perfectly acceptable reason to not want to play basketball. Hold on, I have to go throw up. I even defended LeBron's decison (not The Decision, which was almost disgusting as the pre-season championship party that the Heatles held afterwords) to go to Miami to win a championship.

But this...this one is tough to explain. LeBron collapsed in this NBA Finals, and nobody can explain why. Maybe he was tired. It could have been that the Mavericks' zone took him out of the game. It might have been that his massive shoulders finally collapsed under the pressure that has been on the Heat since he decided to take his talents to South Beach. It was probably a combination of all those things. Ultimately, LeBron has left us asking more questions than is necessary for a player who is supposed to be the best in the game. Someone this talented should relish the spotlight, not shrink from it. Yet, shrank LeBron did, to the point where Dwyane Wade got so fed up with him in Game 3 that he started screaming at him. I knew The Decision would change so much about the NBA, but I never thought that it would fundamentally change the former best player in the league to the point where I now put him at number three behind Kobe and Wade. To borrow from Steven A. Smith, quite frankly I'm shocked.

In the end, this was one for the ages. The most publicized and villianized team in NBA history met the team they had beaten in the Finals five years earlier. Dirk and the Mavs were finally able to erase the pain from 2006 and the playoff flops that followed, and the Heat both wore down from playing 82 playoff games in the regular season and finally collapsed under the intense scrutiny they had been under since July. That alone would have made this series great, but throw in Games 2, 3, 4, and 5 (an incredible four games which will be played on ESPN Classic forever) and this might be the greatest NBA Finals I have ever witnessed (even more than 2008, even though the Celtics winning their first title in my lifetime was roughly 2,973 times sweeter). It's a shame it's all going to be taken away with the impending lockout. Excuse me while I go cry in a corner.

P.S. I promise to write more this summer.