First, a personal note: thank you, everyone, for reading my post on the Boston Marathon.  I never expected that so many people would see that post, and I feel honored that so many of you read it, shared it, and found something in it.  Things are still very raw in Boston, but the city’s also starting to pick itself up, dust itself off, and get back to business.

Speaking of getting back to business, we have a few Red Sox games to catch up on.  The Sox beat Tampa Bay on Monday in a true Patriots Day classic, and then proved their mettle against Terry Francona’s Indians for the first time yesterday.

The Patriots Day game is fun and unique, because it starts at 11:00 a.m.  You literally wake up, get dressed, and go straight to Fenway.  But, the fact that Patriots Day is always the third Monday in April portends a mixed bag on two fronts: weather, and early-season shaking the rust off.  Monday’s weather was beautiful, but I went to a Patriots Day game a few years ago (I don’t know which year – Josh Beckett pitching, playing the Angels, Manny was in the lineup) wearing my snowboarding gear, including a hat and gloves.  I had thought about bringing my goggles, decided not to, and then regretted it – good times!

Along with the weather, Monday’s game was also one of the good ones.  Ryan Dempster – RYAN DEMPSTER, folks – spun a gem, holding the Rays to one run and two hits through seven innings of work.  The former National Leaguer (I point that out because National League pitchers are not known for adjusting well to the American League, so this is an interesting and heartening development) struck out ten batters and only walked two.

Andrew Bailey picked up closing duties for the injured Joel Hanrahan, but he promptly blew the one-run save when he let Desmond Jennings on, and then let him steal second, and then let Ben Zobrist drive him home with a line drive to left field.  Oops.  It’s sad that this doesn’t surprise me – Bailey had such a clunker of a debut in Boston, that you can’t help but think that maybe his closer mentality’s gone.

Anyway, bottom of the ninth, Dustin Pedroia on first, tie game: Mike Napoli’s swing was horrible, but he managed to ding the ball off the Monster to score Pedroia and win the game for the Sox.  Pedroia and Napoli, Napoli and Pedroia: I picture them getting together after the game to be gritty and unshaven and clutchy together.

Tuesday’s game was more somber – the Sox traveled to Cleveland to oppose Francona for the first time since he left Boston.  Cleveland played “Sweet Caroline” during warmups (New York, which nobody ever accused of not having class, played it in the third inning).  Cleveland also held a moment of silence, after which the Red Sox bats made some noise.  Boston scored seven runs in the second inning (double, three walks, sac fly, single, walk, walk), putting the game out of reach.

It’s nice to think that the Sox are playing with the city on their minds – that they’re somehow playing for us, that they’re thinking of us when they dig in.  Boston needs something happy and joyous, and when baseball’s played right, in that ethereal, balletic way, it’s the very personification of joy, of the human capacity to be perfect for a brief moment in time.  But while the city needs the joy that comes from the perfect double play, the lope across the outfield grass, the uncoiling of a bat against a ball (PS: Mike Napoli’s double on Monday – you’re doing it wrong), the city also needs to not have that joy be a condition of grief.

Joy as a condition of grief: what I mean by that is, baseball will help this city heal.  The Red Sox can – and should, and do – acknowledge the city’s grief.  But instead of focusing on the tears, and the hurt and the uneasiness you feel when you notice a SWAT team on the corner of your street or when you step off the T to a phalanx of soldiers with assault rifles, the Sox are in the unique position of being able to help the city find joy again.  Very few things, we’ve learned, unite this city like an attack on one of its institutions.  Another one of its institutions has a chance to unite this city in joy, not in grief.  It sounds so simple: that baseball, the same simple game that’s always been there, can suddenly help us all handle this monumental obstacle that’s been put, unwillingly and unwelcomed, in front of us.  But, it can.

The Sox are winning games because they’re playing good baseball that, for short bursts, is perfect baseball.  That’s enough to help the city start to heal – play well, let spring turn into summer, let nights at Fenway be the place to be again, and smile in the dugout.  Let’s be happy about something as pure as baseball.  Let’s enjoy those small, sweet moments of perfection while they last.

The Boston Red Sox went through some major changes over the last year. Some good, some bad and some just… meh. They unloaded some dead weight — Josh Beckett and his bad attitude, Carl Crawford and his bad contract and Adrian Gonzalez and his bad luck (as collateral damage.) Needless to say, the 2013 Opening Day line up is going to look a lot different from 2012 with only four players returning for the starting nine.

1. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF: He will most likely bat lead off as his did last year. That’s only if he doesn’t sprain his earlobe in spring training or catch a hangnail during warmups.
2. Shane Victorino, RF: Newly signed Victorino makes the most sense for the #2 spot. Dustin Pedroia held this spot last year, but with the addition of the speedy “flyin’ Hawaiian,” he may be better suited further down in the order.
3. Dustin Pedroia, 2B: He’s proved himself to be an offensive asset and has surprising power for a guy of his stature. He has a career .303 batting average with a .830 OPS. Last year, the #3 spot belonged to the departed Adrian Gonzalez.
4. David Ortiz, DH: Big Papi will once again commandeer the clean up spot. Let’s just hope that achilles can hold up and David can pick up where he left off last season before he went down with the bum heel.
5. Will Middlebrooks, 3B: The position stays the same, just the personel has changed. Middlebrooks takes over full time at the hot corner after the somewhat rancorous departure of Kevin Youkilis.
6. Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C: Salty takes over the #6 spot from Ryan Sweeney who was allowed to go to free agency following an unspectacular year.
7. First Base?: With the Mike Napoli deal in limbo, could Mauro Gomez start the season at first base? Or will they continue to search for a more seasoned first baseman if the Napoli contract crumbles. If Napoli does end up in Boston, I imagine he’ll bat a little higher up in the order — probably 5th. In 2012, the recently departed Cody Ross held this spot in the line up.
8. Left Field?: Do the Sox see Jonny Gomes starting the season guarding the Green Monster? Or Ryan Kalish? This one baffles me. Salty batted #8 to start last season.
9. Stephen Drew, SS: Drew replaces last year’s shortstop Mike Aviles at the end of the order. Needless to say, my excitement level for this position is very low. I’m begging this guy to prove me wrong.

Well, 2013 should be an interesting year. There were some big holes to fill over the off season in this line up and I’m not feeling too confident that the new acquisitions are going to get them where they need to be. I’m not sure I can handle a “rebuilding year” so someone needs to do something really sparkly or that’s exactly what we’re going to get.

You know, I take a few weeks off from following the Red Sox to give birth to the cutest little girl in the world, and I come back and things in the nation are… basically exactly the same.  Minus a few superstars, that is (I heard the rumors of the Beckett/Gonzalez/Crawford trade while I was in recovery and, let’s just say, didn’t have my wits about me, and I thought I was hallucinating).  But at the end of the day, the trade didn’t do much to change the timbre of the 2012 Red Sox, and we’re still looking at a seemingly endless vortex of doom: ineffective pitching, lackluster offense, a dearth of motivation, and as of today, a 21-game gap in the standings and the prospect of a long winter ahead.

Last night, for example:  Aaron Cook gives up six runs in the first inning, the Red Sox muster up only one hit and one run (both by Scott Podsednik, and both probably more a circumstance of Orioles miscues than of any actual baseball fortitude), and the Sox slip into another night of oblivion.

Podsednik’s bunt single was the only Red Sox hit of the night, the first time the Sox had mustered only one hit in a nine-inning game since 2009.  Pouring lemon juice in the wound, Cook got smacked around for six runs in just over one inning.  A two-out Baltimore grand slam in the bottom of the first sealed the deal on this game, and the only real question was how badly the Sox would lose (the answer?  9-1).

Here’s the box score for last night’s game, courtesy of the Red Sox.  Boston steps up again tonight in Baltimore, when Felix Doubront (11-9, 4.91 ERA) takes on Steve Johnson (4-0, 1.62).

Congratulations, PawSox!!

After a dismal series with the Yankees where the Red Sox lost two of the three games, putting their September record at paltry 2-9 as of Thursday, I was just desperate for some good news. Anything that will make me smile and think the season isn’t a total loss… even though it really is…

Good News Nugget #1:
Thursday night, while the Boston Red Sox were doing their usual sucking, the AAA Pawtucket Red Sox were busy winning the International Leagues’ Championship, taking home the Governor’s Cup for the first time since 1984. With all the player movement between AA, AAA and the Show this season, it’s a wonder the PawSox could put together a team cohesive enough to pull this off. But they did… somehow.

I’ll give credit to team manager, Arnie Beyeler, for keeping this team on track. This is Arnie’s sixth season managing in the Red Sox organization. He spent four season in Portland and this is his second year with Pawtucket. Maybe it’s time for Arnie to get called up to the Show as well… seriously, he can’t be any worse than Bobby Valentine.

Good News Nugget #2:
Congratulations to the Pedroia family on the birth of their second son Thursday morning. The look on Dustin’s face during Wednesday night’s game when Bobby V. took him out of the game telling him his wife went into labor was priceless. He looked scared to death. Mother and baby are doing just fine and Pedroia is expected to rejoin the team this weekend in Toronto.

Good News Nugget #3:
Holy crap, the Red Sox beat the Blue Jays last night, 8-5 to snap a six-game losing streak against the Jays. They scored three runs in the top of the ninth to break a 5-5 tie on singles by Jacoby Ellsbury and Cody Ross, followed by a two-run triple by Mauro Gomez. Ryan Lavarnway finished off the scoring with a sac fly and Andrew Bailey came in for the save.

Click here for the box score, courtesy of the Red Sox. The Sox and Jays meet again this afternoon with Clay Buchholz still searching for his first win since August 16th.

Good News Nugget #4:
Ok… this made me laugh because as it turns out, Josh Beckett can’t even pretend to hustle with his new team. In the game Thursday night between the Dodgers and Cardinals, Beckett singled to right field, but basically jogged to first base and ended up getting thrown out by right fielder, Carlos Beltran. Embarrassing… Click here to watch it and giggle!

Hey… the good news has been hard to come by this season so I’m clinging to anything that shows life in this organization. As pissed as I am at them right now, I’m still rooting for them to be successful in the future. Without Bobby Valentine.

For once a Red Sox win is not the biggest news in town. Although it should be big news since it’s not a commonly occurring event these days. In the midst of the trade rumors swirling about Boston last night, the Red Sox finally managed to stop their current four-game skid and beat the Kansas City Royals 4-3 behind another good pitching performance by Jon Lester.

You would’ve thought, especially considering their history this season, that those pesky trade rumors would have sent this team into a spiral of despair. But no… it seemed to do just the opposite.

The Red Sox took the quick lead in the first on singles by Pedro Ciriaco and Jacoby Ellsbury. After Dustin Pedroia moved the runners to second and third on a soft ground out, David Ortiz, in his first at bat since he injured his achilles on July 17th, laced a line drive single up the middle to score Ciriaco and Ellsbury.

After going down 3-2, the Sox came back in the bottom of the seventh to take the lead back for good. Mauro Gomez walked to open the inning. Mike Aviles singled to right and Scott Podseknik sacrificed the runners to second and third. Ciriaco followed with a double to left scoring both Gomez and Aviles.

Jon Lester looked good in his seven plus innings, giving up three runs on six hits while striking out six. He left after three pitches in the top of the eighth with a left hamstring cramp — hopefully, it’s nothing serious. Lester didn’t appear too concerned about it when talking to reporters after the game.

“I’m fine, it just cramped up on me,” Lester said. “I’d been kind of battling with it a little bit since the fifth inning. It got a little worse as the game went on.”

Vicente Padilla, Andrew Miller and Andrew Bailey held the Royals scoreless and secured Lester’s eighth win of the season, and third straight. Bailey, who had originally been acquired to fill the departed Jonathan Papelbon’s closer role, got his first save of the season.

Click here for the winning box score, courtesy of the Red Sox. These two teams go at it again tonight and your guess is as good as mine as to who’ll be on the mound for the Sox. Josh Beckett was scheduled to pitch but since he’s been traded… it’ll be a surprise!

Bye-bye, Beckett… (Photo by Keith Allison, c/o Flickr.com)

It’s official… the Red Sox have completed a mega deal that will send Josh Beckett, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Nick Punto to the LA Dodgers for first baseman, James Loney, pitchers Rubby De La Rosa and Allen Webster, outfielder Jerry Sands and infielder Ivan De Jesus Jr.

According to the Boston Herald (who also had the great headline of “Bums Away”):

The deal will be worth in excess of $275 million to the Red Sox including luxury tax savings and salaries for the remainder of this season and beyond. Over the next six years, the Dodgers will receive $12 million from the Red Sox, with the payments to begin next year.

I’m ridiculously excited about this deal. Not so much the Adrian Gonzalez part because I did sort of like him. But Josh Beckett and Carl Crawford? Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. And what are they really missing by getting rid of Punto? His main roll in this team was to operate the Shredder after a walk-off home run — and those were few and far between this season.

I know this trade isn’t going to fix what’s wrong with this team. There’s still a lot of work to be done. First and foremost — to make this group of selfish shitheads an actual TEAM again. And I don’t see that happening this year. The Red Sox organization needs a major overhaul starting with the manager position. As long as Bobby Valentine skippers this group of guys, there’s going to be discontent.

Hopefully this will end the bad habit the Red Sox have of making big, $100 million plus blockbuster deals that never seem to work out the way they should.

That thing is trying to eat his face. (Photo by Keith Allison, c/o Flickr.com)

As long as I can remember, baseball players and fans have always been superstitious. My grandfather was convinced he could affect the outcome of a ball game just by turning on the TV. If he turned it on and the Red Sox were winning, he’d immediately turn it off because obviously they were winning because he wasn’t watching.

You always see a guy on a hot streak go for weeks without shaving, or cutting his hair, or changing his socks. Or you have a guy like Wade Boggs who would eat chicken before every game, hot streak or not. I personally love it (although I’m sure I would get really sick of chicken.) I love when a guy thinks his 10-game hitting streak will grind to a halt if he shaves off his Grizzly Adams-type beard.

So please, can someone tell me why the hell Josh Beckett has not shaved that STUPID CHIA PET off his chin this season? It’s obviously the source of all 11 losses and some seriously bad clubhouse mojo. It needs to go. I’m convinced some fried chicken got stuck in there last September and it’s acting as a damn voodoo doll for the 2012 season. WTF, Josh? Just suck it up and shave. it. off. You can’t suck any more, that’s for sure.

In case you were living under a rock today, here’s a very short, very late recap of last night’s very sad Yankees 4-1 win over the floundering Red Sox. Josh Beckett sucked. The Red Sox line up sucked. Hiroki Kuroda pitched a gem. Ichiro Suzuki was the hero. Yankees take two out of three over the weekend. And Carl Crawford is having surgery this week which means he thinks his team has no chance of making the post season. The end. For the suckfest of a box score, click here… courtesy of the Red Sox.

The struggling Sox finally head home after a brutal 10-game road trip that saw them go 4-6. If you ask me, it seemed much worse. They’ll get tonight off before welcoming in the LA Angels in to Fenway for three.

The Red Sox came out strong yesterday in the Bronx, beating the Yankees 4-1 in a nationally-televised game.  Jon Lester put up seven strong innings, allowing five hits, one run (a Curtis Granderson solo shot) and striking out four while allowing only two walks.  Honestly, I didn’t think he’d pitch this well, especially since he let the leadoff guy get on base in each of the first two innings.  But, he turned it around, and the Sox lineup helped him out.  Adrian Gonzalez ripped a first-inning two-run bomb to set the tone, and Nick Punto scored Pedro Ciriaco on an RBI single in the fifth inning.  The Sox tacked on an insurance run when Scott Podednik scored on a wild pitch from Cody Eppley in the ninth inning.

Jon Lester (Keith Allison, c/o flickr.com)

Ciriaco went 4-for-4.  What is it with this kid?  And, Punto had a great day at third base – he flashed the leather a couple of times.

Also, a moment of excitement in my house: when Craig Breslow came on to pitch in the eighth inning, Breslow and batterymate Ryan Lavarnway formed the first all-Yale University alumni battery in the major leagues since 1883.  As the wife of an especially enthusiastic Yalie, this was a Very Big Deal, and we spent most of the time Breslow and Lavarnway used inducing Robinson Cano to hit into a double play facebooking about it.  For God, For Country, And For Yale, and all that.

Here’s a link to the respectable box score, courtesy of the Red Sox.  In tonight’s rubber game, Josh Beckett (or, as McCarver called him yesterday, John Beckett) and his 5-10 record and 5.19 ERA take on Hiroki Kuroda (11-8, 3.06 ERA).

Two other items of note from yesterday:

First, the Globe reports that within the next few days, Carl Crawford will ask the Red Sox for permission to get Tommy John surgery next week.  Crawford’s been playing better lately, but he’ll be the first to tell you that he’s in pain.  There’s a balance that it seems like Crawford’s trying to strike here, between playing through pain if the team’s in contention for a postseason spot (which they are, barely), and thinking of what’s best for his own health if they’re not (which I think is also ok – he does have his own career and well-being to think about, which I can’t say I blame him for).  He tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow in April, and since then he’s received a platelet injection that lets him play through the pain – but that’s never been seen as a permanent fix.

Second, the New York Daily News puts an interesting spin on the ongoing Adrian Gonzalez text message drama: apparently, you see, it was recently-traded backup catcher Kelly Shoppach’s fault.  Kelly Shoppach, who had clashed with Bobby Valentine over his playing time earlier this year, apparently sent the text message to ownership from Adrian Gonzalez’s cell phone.  It sounds like a group of players – probably none of them the impact players that could actually get ownership’s attention – became unhappy with Valentine’s style and convinced Gonzalez to let them use his phone to send the text.  Gonzalez is the highest-paid player on the team, and they apparently thought that a text coming from him would actually have some heft behind it.

So, looks like both the instigator and the leak are Kelly Shoppach.  Or at least, that’s what the Sox would have you believe, since nobody, including Gonzalez or Shoppach, care to talk about the incident any more.  Isn’t that convenient – let’s all just blame the backup catcher after he’s been shipped out of town.

I still think the larger issue is that there’s an issue at all – it’s not who told on who, or who covers for who, or who has the bigger salary and more sway over the ownership.  Fact is, this clubhouse is still in disarray, and blaming Kelly Shoppach for all the team’s problems is shortsighted, inaccurate, and will only take the Sox as far as the next blowup.

This entire episode – the July meeting in New York, the text messages from Adrian Gonzalez and Dustin Pedroia, the entire soap opera that is a below-.500 team finding the gall to blame its issues on its manager – has taken an even more bizarre and blatantly uncommunicative turn.  Yesterday, instead of addressing the issues head on, talking straight with the media and the fans, and giving Red Sox Nation any smidgen of hope that ownership had its hands on the wheel of this Titanic, we get this, from Larry Lucchino:

“We are very concerned about a breach of confidence in this matter because in the 10 years we’ve held these meetings, we’ve never had information leak like this.”

Really, Larry?  Your most pressing concern in this matter is that, basically, someone told on you?  That’s the big takeaway here?  Don’t you think that’s a little… out of touch?

Look, Larry, I’m no public relations maven, and I don’t work for the Red Sox.  I’m a lawyer, like you, and I have the same training you have.  I see what you’re trying to do here: group people with opposing viewpoints together behind a common cause, get them all angry at the Other Guy, find the Other Guy, destroy the Other Guy, invite everyone out for a celebratory drink together, revel in newfound satisfaction.

But, this time, it’s utterly transparent.  Nobody cares, really, about who leaked the story of the meeting – it will probably remain a mystery forever, along with what was in those shakes in the Dominican Republic (David Ortiz is on it, and will let you know), the identity of the chicken and beer snitch (Josh Beckett’s on the case, folks!), and why Heidi Watney really left town (I’m going to just leave that one alone).  A lot of internet whodunit commenters think backup catcher Kelly Shoppach spilled the meeting on his way out of town.  Who cares?

Let’s say we learn that the snitch is Kelly Shoppach.  Big deal, it’s Kelly Shoppach.  That doesn’t change the substance of the meeting, and it doesn’t change the obvious rampant discord up and down the Sox organization right now.  It seems to me that it’s far more important to address WHAT was said, than it is to bluster about WHO said it.

And, it’s amazing how quickly the players have toed the company line on this.  Ortiz, one of the last vestiges of 2004, the guy everyone looks to when the team needs a boost, said the following:

I hope it’s not someone on the team. Maybe it’s coming from outside. A lot of this stuff comes from outside, from people who we never see here. It doesn’t come from the reporters who cover the team because they know what’s going on.

Note that Ortiz didn’t address the actual point, either: whether there’s a disconnect between players, management, and the front office, and where in the system the fault lies.  He’s blaming the media – just not the beat writers who play a huge role in forming and maintaining his public image.

And, from Bobby Valentine, the victim in this entire exhausting vortex of doom:

Huge news in Red Sox Nation yesterday.  HUGE NEWS.

Andrew Bailey, the team’s presumptive closer going into spring training, finally came off the disabled list last night, and held the Baltimore Orioles scoreless over a one-out appearance.

And we thought this was Bobby V’s low point.

Oh wait, that’s not it?

Huge news.  HUGE.

Josh Beckett got roughed up yet again last night, pitching five and a third innings and giving up six earned runs – three on a home run with Beckett’s runners on that Mark Melancon gave up in relief of Beckett, but still.  The 7-1 loss dropped Beckett’s record to a lowly 5-10, and was, in a nutshell, not what the Red Sox needed.  I fully expect Beckett effigies to start appearing on Yawkey Way any day now (not that the offense did much better – one run?  Come on, guys).

With the loss, the Sox fell to 57-60, and failed to pick up a game in the standings against not only an AL East competitor, but also to a team directly ahead of them in the wild card race.

Oh wait, that’s not it, either?

How about this: huge news in Red Sox Nation. HUGE.

There’s somewhat of a mutiny afoot.  Back on July 26, while the team was in New York, Adrian Gonzalez, who claimed to represent a group of players (p.s. – NOW Adrian Gonzalez acts like a leader?), sent a text message to the team and ownership.  The text, according to story-breaker Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports, blasted manager Bobby Valentine for leaving starting pitcher Jon Lester in Boston’s July 22 game to get blasted for 11 runs, embarassing Lester and shortening the lifespans of Red Sox fans everywhere in one fell swoop.

A meeting followed between a group of players and ownership, and to read Passan’s piece, people are p-i-s-s-e-d.  Gonzalez and Dustin Pedroia were the most vocal, and some players flat-out said that they didn’t want to play baseball for Valentine anymore.

Interjection: if these players call their lollygagging the ball around the infield, their lollygagging their way down to first, their lollygagging in and out of the dugout, “playing baseball,” then I’m not sure I want them playing baseball for Valentine anymore either.  Because you know what that makes them? Larry? Lollygaggers!  Lollygaggers.

Passan notes, and I think this is important, that not all the players share Gonzalez’s and Pedroia’s and their amorphous scary-sounding “group of players” concern – many players, it appears, feel that Valentine is being unfairly scapegoated for the team’s sheer inability to play baseball with any modicum of skill, competitiveness, or, lately, professionalism.

Ben Cherington and the ownership, predictably, gave some boring quotes about how the front office was behind Valentine and was committed to him managing at least through the season and blah blah blah.  Boring, but what do you expect?  They’re really going to say that they made a mistake with the hiring?  That would open up the Terry Francona drama all over again (oh, and interestingly, this text message was sent at around the same time that Francona spent 45 minutes hanging out with his old players in the Sox clubhouse a few weeks back – coincidence?).

Readers, let’s get serious for a second here.  The part of the Passan piece that stands out for me is the part where we really see how immature and terrible some of our most respected, shortest, “team-player,” “grittiest” Red Sox players are.  I’m talking to you, Pedroia.  Compare this quote, from the Red Sox’ wrap of last night’s game, to Pedroia’s antics as described by Passan.  First, the wrap quote:

We’re going to go out and play as hard as we can. That’s all we can do. We’ve dug ourselves this hole and we’ve got to try to dig ourselves out of it. We’ve got to be professional, go out and grind out at-bats, play good defense and pitch well. That’s it.

Second, from the simply illuminating Passan piece:

From the beginning of the Red Sox’s courtship of Valentine this offseason to the double-barreled votes of confidence last week, the match of the hard-nosed Bobby V with the laissez-faire Boston clubhouse seemed tenuous at best. It has proven far worse, personified best perhaps by a picture circulating around via text message, according to a fourth source.

Pedroia, notorious among teammates for his wit and humor, is in the foreground with a giddy smile, his tongue wagging and both thumbs up. Next to him is allegedly Valentine, face down on a table, apparently asleep. A caption accompanies the picture: “Our manager contemplating his lineup at 3:30 p.m.”

Yeah Dustin, that’s mighty professional of you.  Please, please, grow up, and back up your manager.  That’s part of your job.  And if you can’t do that, at least don’t strut around acting like a professional baseball player – because to me, the word “professional” has a much greater connotation than just the simple fact that you get paid (millions of dollars) to play a game.

Passan’s story has a lot of meat to it, and I recommend that you read it in full.  It describes a clubhouse in flux, a mercurial manager who has made some terrible baseball and personnel decisions with only the veneer of front-office approval, and hints at another major scapegoating to come in the offseason (because, as we all know, the fact that the players are playing badly can’t just be the player’s fault – clearly, Valentine has to go so that the Red Sox PR machine can roll on unencumbered).

I also recommend that you read this internet gem, which makes an amazing play on the iPhone’s tendency to autocorrect text misspellings in hilarious ways.  Somewhere, Adrian Gonzalez is blushing.

If it even matters anymore, the Red Sox are playing in Baltimore again tonight.  Aaron Cook (3-5, 4.70 ERA) starts in place of Felix Doubront against Miguel Gonzalez (4-2, 3.42 ERA).

Just ridiculous.  Ridiculous.