The Red Sox lost our trust a long, long time ago, and whether they can reclaim it is the story of the 2013 season. Terry Francona is now in Cleveland, and his depiction of the Boston organization cements every perception we have of a dysfunctional Red Sox hierarchy.
In the highest offices at 4 Yawkey Way, baseball and business have been mixed, seemingly with no regard for the toxicity. There has been no separation of church and state. Francona — and, for that matter, Theo Epstein — are both letting us know that Red Sox owners regard the team as merely some incarnation of “The Truman Show,” the principal players nothing more than pawns used to drive the almighty Nielsens.
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"Win in a more exciting fashion"? That's got to be the line of the year. Well, with Bobby V, they got it half right- it was exciting, in a sort of NASCAR 'wait for the pileup' sort of way. This whole thing- Francona and Epstein's revelations- may well make this a very ugly year if the Sox don't get off to a good start.
Here we go again. Sports radio analysis. Francona has succeeded in moving attention away from his failures as a manager and put the onus on the front office. He built his case on a few throw away casual comments and of course the media took it and ran with it. My view is that Francona was responsible for the 2011 collapse. He stopped managing. He didn't order the pitching staff to shape up, nor did he discipline them. He made a number of critical strategy mistakes during that month. He had the tools to win the pennant but for whatever reason, blew it. He's responsible, not the front office. No surprise that a talk show host like Massarotti would take Francona's view as the gospel. What passes for analysis on sports shows these days is very weak.