There was more excitement in tonights games.... than in the last 50 years of soccer....
Cards and Rays came out of nowhere
Braves and RedSox totally melted down....
Wild....
Baseball......
Theres allot of "Life Lessons" in Baseball......
From Yahoo Sports....
"These men are hired for these jobs in baseball, to manage ballgames for a few hours a night and try not to do anything so stupid that it gets in the way of the actual baseball players. For the other 21 hours, well, that’s the hard part.
Terry Francona and his Boston Red Sox boss, Theo Epstein, sat shoulder to shoulder Thursday afternoon in a small room at Fenway Park. Each was bent a little at the neck, each crossed his arms across his chest, each blinked at the table too much. They were miserable. One, or both, was on his way out. For good.
On Friday came word that Francona would not be back. Not fired, exactly. Francona’s contract was due to expire and the team would not exercise his 2012 option.
Now Francona, about the best thing to happen to the Red Sox in eight decades, would be free to find work with the Chicago White Sox, if he so chose. And the Red Sox owners, along with Epstein, had their scapegoat, much as they’d try to think of other words for it.
The Boston Globe reported that Francona was definitely out, and that the decision came from “ownership level,” which is John Henry.
Out there, past the old brick of Fenway, across the ruins of their season, the New York Yankees – the stinkin’ Yankees – were readying for October, like seven other teams.
But not the Red Sox, the $165 million Red Sox, the hugely favored Red Sox, the collapsible Red Sox.
They’d sit in a press room and explain to Boston what the hell just happened, and whose fault it was, how it all got so soft and bloated, and when exactly it was supposed to be fixed.
Epstein got this job at 28, back in 2002. He hired Francona, who’d just spent four difficult seasons as the manager in Philadelphia, a year later, after Grady Little had screwed up the first rule of field managing – which is to try not to overthink the damned game.
As luck would have it, the Red Sox would win their World Series in 2004. They’d win again three years later. Under Epstein and alongside Francona, the Red Sox had themselves a decade.
Or most of a decade, anyway.
Now the Red Sox aren’t smarter than everybody anymore. They took to black-topping their bad decisions with money, which granted them the freedom for more decisions, which led to more spending, which turned them into the Yankees.
Hey, it happens, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. It just has been lately. The Red Sox haven’t won a playoff game since Oct. 18, 2008. That’s three years, going on four. They’ve posted back-to-back third-place finishes in the American League East, in part because the Tampa Bay Rays are smarter, more streamlined, and hungrier.
You know, all the things people used to say about the Red Sox.
Want to know the difference between the Red Sox and Rays? A few days ago, there were reports Epstein hoped to acquire Chris Capuano(notes) or Bruce Chen(notes) for a possible one-game playoff against the Rays. Yesterday, the Rays, sort of in a jam for a Game 1 starter against the Texas Rangers, announced they’d give the ball to 22-year-old left-hander Matt Moore.
Ultimately, the Red Sox – and Epstein – boxed themselves in. The climate they’d created to chase down and then overcome the Yankees had dissolved into a talent grab, a revenue grab. Screw tomorrow; the Yankees are out there.
And so, on a late September day, Epstein leaned into a microphone and granted that, yes, somewhere along the line, the Red Sox had misplaced their clubhouse chemistry. Players, he said, were out of shape.
“Nobody blames Tito for what happened in September,” Epstein said. “That would be totally irresponsible and totally shortsighted.”
But, in the 21 hours which surround the game, what the manager is in charge of is chemistry and preparation. Instead, Epstein seemed to be saying, the Red Sox were disconnected and fat.
Presumably, the Red Sox will now seek the antidote to Francona’s player-friendly managing style, a man with a harder edge and a passion for sit-ups and wind sprints.
Maybe that’ll work for a while too.
What the Red Sox experienced was complete institutional failure. While that became most evident for those three hours every night, it was the other 21 they messed up.
The harder 21.
From Yahoo Sports....
"These men are hired for these jobs in baseball, to manage ballgames for a few hours a night and try not to do anything so stupid that it gets in the way of the actual baseball players. For the other 21 hours, well, that’s the hard part.
Terry Francona and his Boston Red Sox boss, Theo Epstein, sat shoulder to shoulder Thursday afternoon in a small room at Fenway Park. Each was bent a little at the neck, each crossed his arms across his chest, each blinked at the table too much. They were miserable. One, or both, was on his way out. For good.
On Friday came word that Francona would not be back. Not fired, exactly. Francona’s contract was due to expire and the team would not exercise his 2012 option.
Now Francona, about the best thing to happen to the Red Sox in eight decades, would be free to find work with the Chicago White Sox, if he so chose. And the Red Sox owners, along with Epstein, had their scapegoat, much as they’d try to think of other words for it.
The Boston Globe reported that Francona was definitely out, and that the decision came from “ownership level,” which is John Henry.
Out there, past the old brick of Fenway, across the ruins of their season, the New York Yankees – the stinkin’ Yankees – were readying for October, like seven other teams.
But not the Red Sox, the $165 million Red Sox, the hugely favored Red Sox, the collapsible Red Sox.
They’d sit in a press room and explain to Boston what the hell just happened, and whose fault it was, how it all got so soft and bloated, and when exactly it was supposed to be fixed.
Epstein got this job at 28, back in 2002. He hired Francona, who’d just spent four difficult seasons as the manager in Philadelphia, a year later, after Grady Little had screwed up the first rule of field managing – which is to try not to overthink the damned game.
As luck would have it, the Red Sox would win their World Series in 2004. They’d win again three years later. Under Epstein and alongside Francona, the Red Sox had themselves a decade.
Or most of a decade, anyway.
Now the Red Sox aren’t smarter than everybody anymore. They took to black-topping their bad decisions with money, which granted them the freedom for more decisions, which led to more spending, which turned them into the Yankees.
Hey, it happens, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. It just has been lately. The Red Sox haven’t won a playoff game since Oct. 18, 2008. That’s three years, going on four. They’ve posted back-to-back third-place finishes in the American League East, in part because the Tampa Bay Rays are smarter, more streamlined, and hungrier.
You know, all the things people used to say about the Red Sox.
Want to know the difference between the Red Sox and Rays? A few days ago, there were reports Epstein hoped to acquire Chris Capuano(notes) or Bruce Chen(notes) for a possible one-game playoff against the Rays. Yesterday, the Rays, sort of in a jam for a Game 1 starter against the Texas Rangers, announced they’d give the ball to 22-year-old left-hander Matt Moore.
Ultimately, the Red Sox – and Epstein – boxed themselves in. The climate they’d created to chase down and then overcome the Yankees had dissolved into a talent grab, a revenue grab. Screw tomorrow; the Yankees are out there.
And so, on a late September day, Epstein leaned into a microphone and granted that, yes, somewhere along the line, the Red Sox had misplaced their clubhouse chemistry. Players, he said, were out of shape.
“Nobody blames Tito for what happened in September,” Epstein said. “That would be totally irresponsible and totally shortsighted.”
But, in the 21 hours which surround the game, what the manager is in charge of is chemistry and preparation. Instead, Epstein seemed to be saying, the Red Sox were disconnected and fat.
Presumably, the Red Sox will now seek the antidote to Francona’s player-friendly managing style, a man with a harder edge and a passion for sit-ups and wind sprints.
Maybe that’ll work for a while too.
What the Red Sox experienced was complete institutional failure. While that became most evident for those three hours every night, it was the other 21 they messed up.
The harder 21.