Picked-up pieces while wondering if 76er Paul George has met American sci-fi author John Ringo . . .
⋅ What’s up with Fenway Sports Group’s not-so-subtle campaign to erase Larry Lucchino?
Lucchino, who died in the spring of 2024, had enormous impact on FSG’s Red Sox success for 14 seasons but is hard to find in a new team statement and video celebrating “25 seasons of stewardship” since John Henry’s group purchased the ball club in 2002.
Those of us who were there from 2002-15 remember how the “new” owners presented themselves as a united trio: Henry, TV magnate Tom Werner, and Lucchino, a visionary ballpark builder who came into baseball with the Orioles under Edward Bennett Williams in 1979.
It was always “John, Tom, and Larry.” After Theo Epstein came on board as boy wonder general manager, they were “Theo and the trio.”
Four months after Lucchino died, Henry said, “The three of us had one of the greatest rides in sports history . . . He [Lucchino] was as much a part of Red Sox history as any part of the organization.”
And yet it’s hard to find his place in team history when one views FSG’s silver anniversary celebration.
At the Sox’ home opener this season, a full-page press release was distributed to the media.
The statement opened with, “2026 marks Fenway Sports Group’s 25th season as stewards of the Boston Red Sox. In 2002, John Henry, Tom Werner, and their FSG partners made a set of bold commitments . . . ” then lists FSG’s many laudable accomplishments, on and off the field.
Lucchino’s name did not appear in the lengthy statement. This is akin to a 21st century Beatles press release stating, “In 1964, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and their Beatle partners changed the course of rock ‘n’ roll history . . . ”
Lucchino is similarly marginalized in a four-minute team video, celebrating FSG’s quarter-century of achievement — his image appearing only once, for a nanosecond. It’s a lot like the Krafts’ 10-part vanity docuseries (“The Dynasty” on AppleTV) in which ownership attempts to demonstrate how the 2001-19 Patriots somehow managed to win nine AFC championships and six Lombardi trophies without a head coach.
Lucchino was much more than just another “FSG partner.” For 14 seasons, Henry, who also owns the Globe, identified Lucchino as the man who “runs the Red Sox.” It was Lucchino who led the initiative to renovate Fenway while famously jousting with George Steinbrenner, labeling the Yankees, “The Evil Empire.” After Lucchino was nudged aside in 2015, he remained as “president/CEO emeritus” until his death in April 2024.
Reached at Fenway Park Thursday night, Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy said, “Larry Lucchino was a giant in the baseball industry and mentor to every single one of us at Fenway Park. He’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer and a first-ballot Red Sox Hall of Famer. To suggest there is any effort to minimize his impact would be disappointing.”
I believe Lucchino did more to improve Fenway Park and boost the Sox’ championship quest than anyone in the hierarchy in first dozen years of the FSG ownership. With the exception of the 2018 World Series champions — a team that still had Lucchino’s fingerprints on it — the Sox have largely struggled since Lucchino was sacked. And the brand has suffered.
Remember Frank Capra’s Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life”? The film’s protagonist, George Bailey (played by Jimmy Stewart) gets to see what his sweet hometown would have looked like if he’d never been born. In my world, that’s the FSG Red Sox if Lucchino hadn’t been there to work with Henry and Werner. Close your eyes and try to imagine 25 years of what we’re seeing now.
So why is he not better represented in this 25th anniversary celebration?
“He has been represented, and everybody here respects, admires, misses, and loves Larry Lucchino,” said Kennedy.
I reached out to Larry Lucchino’s brother, Frank, a retired judge in Pittsburgh. After reading the Red Sox statement and viewing the video, Judge Lucchino said, “Our family hopes that the failure to mention Larry’s substantial role was a pardonable oversight.”
⋅ Quiz: 1. Name three NHL players who scored 20-plus regular-season goals for 19 or more consecutive seasons; 2. Name four southpaws with more than 4,500 career innings pitched (answers below).
⋅ Vrabel-Russini-gate moved to a new level Wednesday night when ESPN’s Mike Reiss broke news that Patriots coach Mike Vrabel was going to miss Day 3 of the NFL Draft to attend counseling. Yikes. So much for the theory that Vrabel’s transgression is a personal and private matter that won’t impact the team. Now we better understand the team’s reported attempt to get the New York Post to kill the original story (the delicious possibility of Bob Kraft phoning his pal Rupert Murdoch in this effort is too good to be true). The Post release of new Vrabel/Russini photos from 2020 make the story even more confusing and suspicious.
Manipulating Vrabel’s first media availability to assure that few reporters would attend on Tuesday was weak sauce. The team wanted to ease its coach’s burden when he finally decided to take questions, but that’s not going to work moving forward, and Patriots players didn’t get the same courtesy when they took questions in front of their lockers after charges were filed against them last season.
What a mess. By any measure, the Patriots are the Nixon White House of 20th century sports. They’ve had every crisis imaginable: multiple cheating scandals, massage parlor hijinks, a conga line of player domestic violence charges — oh, and let’s not forget they had a murderer in the huddle. Perhaps more than any pro team, the Patriots are experienced at crisis management, and they have broomed dozens of embarrassments. This one seems to be getting away from them.
⋅ Must Red Sox players persist with their juvenile and provocative, double hip-thrust celebration on those rare occasions when one of them actually hits a two-bagger? You’d think a celebration dance would be a low priority considering how badly things are going. Imagine being Jarren Duran being MVP of the All-Star Game two years ago, and now seeing Isiah Kiner-Falefa coming out of the dugout to pinch hit for him? One of my great readers suggests “Mendoza Line Night,” honoring all the Sox lineup regulars batting under .200, and rewarding fans with Mario Mendoza bobbleheads. Time to take a long look at the Driveline coaching staff, no?
⋅ Spoke with new Celtics owner Bill Chisholm courtside before Game 1 last weekend, and he expressed interest in getting Larry Bird back into the Celtic fold in the near future. I checked with Bird’s longtime executive assistant, Jill Leone, to see if Bird still has any type of job with the Pacers. “Yes, he is still under contract to the Indiana Pacers,” reported Leone. “Among his duties is draft adviser and player acquisition, etc.” Bird’s name does not appear in the staff directory of the Pacers’ 2025-26 media guide.
⋅ Let the record show that on the night the Celtics missed 37 of 50 3-point attempts, old friend Marcus Smart scored 25 points, making 5 of 7 threes, in a Laker win over the Rockets. At the other end of the floor, Smart put some muscle on 6-foot-11-inch Kevin Durant.
⋅ Seeing 76er Tyrese Maxey work his magic, I think back to his time at Kentucky under John Calipari and wonder where the bags of cash were stashed in the pre-NIL era.
⋅ Looking to see how Knicks guard Jalen Brunson responds to being outplayed by Atlanta’s CJ McCollum, a 34-year-old point guard who last won a playoff series in 2019. A 13-year NBA veteran, McCollum torched Brunson down the stretch in the Hawks’ Game 2 win at Madison Square Garden.
⋅ Love the idea of an NBA team back in Seattle soon. But does the league really have to expand? Wouldn’t it be better to just have the Wizards or Grizzlies move to Seattle?
⋅ Beast Mode update: Marshawn Lynch, the man who didn’t get the football when Pete Carroll handed a Super Bowl to the Patriots, continues to thrive in Hollywood. Mr. Mode, a student at the Albert Belle School of Media Relations when he played for the Seahawks, has joined the cast of “Euphoria” and recently did 30 interviews in five hours to promote Season 3 of the HBO hit. He’s started his own entertainment company, BeastMode Productions. Lynch and Celtics 2008 world champion Leon Powe were high school basketball teammates at Oakland Tech.
⋅ The Vegas Golden Knights fired Bruce Cassidy near the end of the season (too tough on the players) and brought in wildman John Tortorella to coach, and it looks like they knew what they are doing. The Golden Knights went undefeated in their first nine games under Tortorella. They trail the Utah Mammoth, 2-1, in a first-round series.
⋅ Thursday, April 30, marks the final day of work for Sports Museum curator Richard Johnson, who has been on the job since March 17, 1982. Author of 25 books, a cross-country competitor at Lawrence Academy and Bates, Johnson is the smartest and most knowledgeable Boston sports historian of all time and will be greatly missed. “The museum has been his life’s work,” says executive director Rusty Sullivan. A toast to you, Richard.
⋅ Bishop Feehan’s 6-9 lefthander, Brody Bumila, is probably going to be selected in the first round of July’s MLB Draft. Look for the Nationals to take him at No. 11 if he’s still on the board.
⋅ Fans of Apple TV’s sci-fi drama “For All Mankind” may have noticed a comical Red Sox reference at the start of just-released Season 5, which dropped in late March. Continuing its fictional narrative, the new season catches viewers up with events that transpired in an alternate universe between 2003-12, and features a sports magazine cover photo of Manny Ramirez dropping a fly ball accompanied by a headline of “The Curse of the Bambino Continues — Game 7 Error costs Red Sox Chance at History.”
⋅ The Mets not only lost 12 straight for the first time since 2002, they offended a large portion of their fan base by eliminating Jewish Heritage Night this year, even though they will still be having heritage nights for Irish, Italian, Puerto Rican, Japanese, Korean, African-American, and Pride/LGBTQ fan groups. The 1962 Mets lost 17 straight.
⋅ The football/lacrosse field at St. Sebastian’s School will be named Frisoli Field Saturday, May 2, in honor of Mike and Kerry Frisoli, and their five sons who played varsity football and lacrosse at St. Sebastian’s.
⋅ RIP Quincy legend Jim Rendle, longtime volleyball coach at North Quincy High School and athletic director at Quincy High, who died last month. A 1966 graduate of Quincy High, Jim dedicated his life’s work to coaching and teaching young people, won multiple state championships, and was married to his high school sweetheart, Linda Hoyt, for 56 years.
⋅ Anagram of the week: Joel Embiid = Me I job idle.
⋅ Quiz answers: 1. Gordie Howe (22 straight seasons), Alex Ovechkin (21, still going?), Brendan Shanahan (19); 2. Warren Spahn (5,243⅔), Steve Carlton (5,217⅔), Tommy John (4,710⅓), Jim Kaat (4,530⅓).
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at daniel.shaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him @dan_shaughnessy.