lefties are where it's at, yo

Taking a brief break from a 15-page term paper and the unenviable task of untangling a massive string of Christmas lights so that my office looks Festive Like a Festive Thing.

Blue Jays sign free agent closer Ryan
"That was a good day on and off the golf course," Ryan said with a smile on Monday, minutes after officially inking his five-year, $47 million deal, the richest total ever for a reliever.

Uh, they're kidding, right? Ryan's been a closer for a year. If he can get five years and close to $50 mil, I gotta ask for a raise. I'm a lefty, I just burned myself on a pointy little orange bulb and did not say ONE WORD about it, and my hair's way better.

ATTENTION: Kevin Brown is a free agent. Get him while he's hot!

During an online conversation with our favorite comment poster/Chickball groupie, I discovered that Yankees and Red Sox fans DO share something in common: a strong hatred for douchebag Kevin Brown.

Manton: OH MY GOD
Manton: KEVIN BROWN'S A FREE AGENT!!!!
Manton: JLASDFAOSD;F ;ASIFASFAODFHIUASDFJD AIOFIALSDAHUFOA
Me: congratulations
Manton: WHY WASN'T THERE A GIANT SIGN SOMEWHERE ALERTING ALL OF US!!?!?!
Manton: Oh you don't understand
Manton: this is the greatest thing ever
Me: Oh, I understand. If Chief Wall Puncher was on the Sox, I'd be bouncing off the walls right now.

(And now, let's see if any team actually signs the guy.)

In other free agency news, the Mets signed Billy Wagner, yet another step in Omar Minaya's master plan to acquire every high-profile player possible to create the ultimate MLB all-star team. But smart people like us know that will never happen. There always seems to be buzz surrounding the team, always some new player who will carry the Mets to an NL East title. This past season, it was Pedro and Beltran and the team still couldn't cut it. (Granted, the Mets had a decent record and would have won the division title had they been in the NL West instead. But still.) Having lots of money to throw around does not necessarily make a stellar team. In fact, of the teams with the 10 highest payrolls in 2004, the Mets were the only ones who finished under .500. So, they've added an offensively great first baseman (Carlos Delgado, a favorite of mine after his peformance on my fantasy team this past season) and a solid closer. It'll be interesting to see who else Minaya can lure to New York.

HAHAHA

if anybody reads "the dugout", you'll love this from the ChiTrib:

"The White Sox reached a preliminary agreement Wednesday to send center fielder Aaron Rowand to the Philadelphia Phillies for slugger Jim Thome."

snerks abound!! i'll write about football later, i promise.

oh, and speaking of the dugout: the new one concerns sailor moon and the phrase "oh snap". hell yeah!

Beattie, Beckett, and the bullpen

Well, it's November 22 and we're two weeks from the winter meetings. Frightening, considering the Red Sox are still without a GM. Looks like Jed Hoyer and Larry Lucchino have been handling the "important stuff" but it still makes me nervous, considering Jim freakin Beattie remains a candidate. Jim. Beattie. Who is he, you might ask? Well, he was the VP and GM of the Montreal Expos from 1995-2001. All the Sox fans out there, you're probably feeling queasy already, even if you don't know the regular season results for the Expos during those years. Let's take a look, shall we?

Montreal Expos
2001: 68-94
2000: 67-95
1999: 68-94
1998: 65-97
1997: 78-84
1996: 88-74
1995: 66-78

That's right, folks. In those seven years, the 'Pos had just one season over .500. But Jim Beattie's most recent position was as the executive VP of the Baltimore Orioles. Surely the team fared better than the Expos during those years...

Baltimore Orioles
2005: 74-88
2004: 78-84
2003: 71-91
2002: 67-95

Not a single winning season. And I don't care if being the Red Sox GM is this guy's dream job. Plus, putting aside the wins issue, Beattie's managerial style is not right for this team, so let's hope John Henry, Tom Werner, and Larry Lucchino recognize that.

Right now, I'm pulling for Jed Hoyer or Jim Bowden, though Bowden has previously indicated that he wants to stay in Washington. Hoyer I just like. He's young, smart, and innovative.

*****
The Josh Beckett trade: definitely a good move for the Sox. I'm not going to lie and say I have absolutely no problem with losing Hanley because ideally, we'd want to hold onto him for as long as possible. But the reality is we don't desperately need him right now. Honestly, I'm surprised we kept him for this long. (Theo can be credited for that.) He's perfect trade bait and if the Sox were to use him in a trade, I'd want it to be for an ace like Beckett. It's no secret the team struggled in the pitching department last season and you just can't make a decent post-season run without a number 1 (or number 2...) starter. Schill is a question mark, not sure what's going on with Wade Miller, Arroyo could also be trade bait, and Wells is gone. We'll see if the Sox put Papelbon in the starting rotation (Tito, if you're reading this, pretty PLEASE start Paps) and then there's other youngins lurking around.

As for the bullpen, I'm feeling fairly confident with it right now, especially after we re-signed Timlin. We'll see what happens with Foulke, but I'm already in love with Hansen and am pulling for him to prove himself as a setup man and become the Sox closer in a year or two. He can do it. Being a closer takes a certain mindset and this guy has been doing it for years with great success. His stints with the Sox this past season were so-so, with Theo and Tito hesitating to put him on the post-season roster, but I really have a good feeling about this guy. Plus, he's a cutie.

(I just had to throw that in there.)

By the way, if the Sox can't re-sign Damon, I'd love to see him go to the Yanks with a ridiculous contract for four or five years. Watch as his numbers tail off within a year or two and his shoulder continues to give him more and more trouble, leaving the Yanks with a 40 million-dollar contract and a subpar outfield.

Or maybe that's just wishful thinking...

i'm ready. are you?

Ned Colletti named new Dodgers GM
LA Times, 11/16/05

McCourt hires the guy he should have hired instead of DePo -- old-school, blustery, and fairly unlikely to draw the wrath of Bill Plaschke. (Y'all think CHB's bad? Check out this guy if you've got a chance. Or, you know, if you're dangling over a snakepit by your ankles and the only reading material your captors have given you is the LA Times -- and you've already read the classifieds.)

Note that I still think DePo's still got the better managerial baseball mind -- and as pissed off as I am at Sox ownership right now, I'm still eternally grateful that Henry/Werner/Lucchino won out over McCourt in the Sox bid. Christ, I would have bought that A's cap a hell of a lot earlier if that had been the case.

So, there's that. The Boston Red Sox are now the only team in MLB without a general manager. Aside from this being, oh, I don't know, HIGHLY EMBARASSING, it's an object of great concern. How many different issues do the Sox have to address? Manny? (Keep.) Damon? (Out.) First base? (Konerko, please.) Third base? (Give Youks his due.) Second? (Keep Graffanino.) Pitching? (I need hard alcohol to even think about this one.) And how, pray tell, are they supposed to address said issues without a general manager, or even an interim one?

I have two words for you, John Henry.

Kim Ng.

Every single candidate you've asked about this job has turned you down. Dayton Moore. Kevin Towers. J.P. Ricciardi. David Forst. Brian Sabean. Doug Melvin. Tony LaCava. Chris Antonetti. And the one guy who does want it -- Jim Beattie -- has a proven track record of mediocrity that makes a woman cringe. I'm dying over here, man. You've got a baseball operations staff -- if they don't flee to AZ, that is -- that's built for forward-thinking policies and statistical analysis, and Beattie is not the guy to manage that staff.

My opinion? You've got to keep the post-Theo core -- Jed Hoyer, Ben Cherington, Peter Woodfork and Craig Shipley. Theo's awesome, and you all know I think Theo's awesome, but there's no way that he did everything himself, even pulling 18-hour days and giving up, you know, his entire life. It's not humanly possible. He had a great support staff, and if you want to keep the organization moving in the same direction that won it a world championship a year ago, you've got to keep that staff. And Jim Beattie is not the man to manage that staff.

Maybe it's not even a man.

Look at it this way. Kim Ng interviewed for the LA job; she clearly has immediate GM aspirations. She was a DePo hire, so you know she's not an old-school baseball thinker; it's likely her philosophy jives with that of the Epstein-era Sox. She's young, but not so young as to be inexperienced -- she's 36, and worked with the Yankees before going to LA. We're talking about the youngest person -- and first woman -- to ever present a salary arbitration case in the major leagues. The woman deserves a shot. The Sox already hired a guy who was, at the time, the youngest person ever hired to run a baseball team. This ownership group shouldn't be afraid of rocking the boat a bit.

The Boston Red Sox were the last team to break baseball's color barrier. Why not be the first team to break the gender barrier?

Come on, Mr. Henry. Y'all broke my heart when you let Theo walk away.

Heal the wounds, stop the maelstrom of rumors, get this team back on track, and give the rabid Boston sports media something else to talk about.

Hire a trailblazer so I don't have to do it myself in ten years.

Week 10

It was officially alternaverse football this weekend. Let me expound...

1) The Packers won. No, I'm serious! They beat the Falcons, 33-25. It's not even like the Falcons suck, they were 6-2 before Sunday's game. I didn't see it, so I have no insight. Sorry, I'm as baffled as you. PS- PACKERS SUCK.

2) The Giants lost... to the Vikings. Come ON guys, the Bears are beating the Vikings!! The Vikings are just not good this year (Daunte Culpepper is trying to carry the team with no Randy Moss, you do the math). Eli just checked out of the game. As my roommate said, "he was playing like Eli from last year." They're still a good team, they just had an off night.

3) Buffalo did well! Good for them! They beat the Chiefs, which I didn't see coming. In fact, NO ONE saw it coming. Because the Bills suck. But hey, good for them!

Other than that, the Colts are continuing their streak; the Bears won in an ugly game (the 49ers' QB completed 1 out of 13 passes...); the Patriots almost lost to Miami before pulling it together in the 3rd (their defense, previously #2 in the league in scoring is #30 this year); the Broncos totally WON (over Chokeland ::snerk::); and the Seahawks continue to kick some ass.

About the Chokeland comment: I used to like the Raiders (contrary to my mother's feelings, she still thinks of football as it was in 1965 when the Raiders played dirty). But then they were like "hey, if we bribe Randy Moss to desert his teammates, maybe we'll be good!". And then I lost all respect for both the team and Moss (who is NOT living up to expectations for the season).

Also, it looks like the Cowboys will win MNF, which puts my week 10 win prediction at 9 for 14. I want someone to tell me that girls don't know anything about football so that me and Ashley can stomp him into oblivion.

I now get to pimp my new favorite site, coldhardfootballfacts.com . It's pretty awesome. Check it out.

A-Rod slaps balls

I hate that all those people who gave A-Rod 1st place votes disregarded WHEN he was most productive. Ever notice how he seemed to get a thousand RBI's in games when it didn't matter? When it was a low pressure situation? When the Yanks were up 10-1?

And at the risk of sounding like a silly fan girl, A-Rod is not a nice person and that's another reason why it bugs me that he was selected as MVP. I am by no means a Yankee fan but there are players on that team who I can respect; Alex Rodriguez is not one of them. (Neither is Gary Sheffield, who came in 8th in the MVP voting.) So what if he played in the field everyday? If the role of Designated Hitter will not be treated with respect, then perhaps it shouldn't exist at all. But that's another issue for another day.

EDIT: I've thought about this further and realized something. Not choosing Ortiz as MVP primarily because he didn't play in the field everyday is like failing to select an AL pitcher with 25 wins and a 1.12 ERA because he never batted and only pitched once every five days. Yeah, exactly.

I'm boycotting the AL MVP

I despise Alex Rodriguez.

Maybe I should say more about this, but I don't care about the arguments stating that A-Rod played both sides of the game as opposed to our man Ortiz who came to bat every day and delivered day after day, week after week, month after month of clutch hits, endless hope to millions of Red Sox fans any time he came up to bat, and endless fear to opposing teams any time he came up to bat. And yes, I'm being repetitive. I'm trying to prove a point here.

A-rod is a whiny boy ballplayer with less than manly tendencies, and I'm sorry (or I'm not sorry at all), but I will never forget or forgive him for his past lame attempt at swiping the ball out of Arroyo's glove during the playoffs. Real ballplayers don't need to play like that.

And thus I am disappointed in the selection of the 2005 AL MVP. Ortiz delivered, time after time, and you CANNOT tell me that he was not just as valuable as any other member of the team because he didn't play the field. And okay, yeah, I just hate A-rod. And really, I was expecting AR to win, because we all know how fair and logical baseball has been lately, but still. I know I have justification for my rationale, but I'm probably not explaining it well because my blinding rage and hatred for the Yankees and the AL "MVP" are distracting me from coherant thought.

I have to go think about something else now.

Dear Better Business Bureau...

Phiten's Aqua-Titanium products help to stabilize the electrical current flowing through your body, making you feel more relaxed and helping you recover faster after physical activity.

I've been meaning to write about these things for a while now. What is this crap? I'm calling on Beth the Science Major to explain here.

It's fine if crazy, superstitious baseball players want to wear Phiten's products. But I'm surprised MLB.com allows the company to advertise since... well, does it seem like a scam to anyone else? Apparently, we all have "a natural healing power" weakened by stress and fatigue. What does that even mean? I'm guessing hundreds of Yankee and Red Sox fans have gone and ordered these things after seeing that Ortizzle and the Big Unit swear by them. To me, those necklaces are their equivalent of a lucky rock.

In other news, I've been wearing my watch during exams and it helps me through in the clutch! I'm always looking for a product to make me better, keep me relaxed in pressure situations. Guess has a product that WORKS. (Perhaps they should advertise on Sparknotes.com...)

Day 1

First day of the free-agent season, and ESPN is already like "THE RED SOX MADE DAMON AN OFFER !!!!1!!eleven!!!". I'm sure that Suzie will cover this whole shopping season with 10 times more knowledge and eloquence than I could, let's be honest here, but let the deal-making begin!

don't you spoil my delusions, lucchino

Sox turn page on Epstein
Boston Globe, 11/10/05
''We have read the rumors, and we completely discount them and are at a point where we turn the page."

For their next trick, Tom Werner and Larry Lucchino will travel New England and tell all children under the age of 5 that Santa Claus isn't real.

*

Bartolo Colon didn't deserve the Cy Young, but Chris Carpenter did. Half-right. Now, if the writers would just get over their fascination with wins as an accurate barometer of pitching performance, we might be on to something. But what do you want from an association that's 90 percent white, male, and brain-dead?

I'm really glad Emily's writing about football because baseball just keeps making me more and more angry these days.

football

i was going to write a stirring diatribe on baseball curses and superstition... but it's football season. SO.

Let's start with my hometown heroes. The Bears are 5-3 in the season so far, which puts them on top of their division. Scary, huh? They have a good QB who can pass and everything (thank god for draft picks...). Orton's going to keep doing well this season and the famous Bears defense will help get this team wins. In division news, the Packers are off to a woeful start at 1-7. Ouchies. The interesting part of that is Brett Favre is doing pretty well still. He completes his passes and moves the ball... but he's out there all alone. It makes my life better, but I (almost) feel bad for the cheeseheads.

Onto MNF. The big game of the season. Colts at Patriots. I called the Colts on this one, but Mike Ditka said the Pats might syke them out and take it. Coach, you were wrong on this one. The Colts dominated, leading the game every quarter. So that makes the Colts undefeated. My Superbowl pick? Yeah, Colts are there. Everything about them looks good. The defense is great (a few turnovers in the game), the offense moves the ball fast and efficiently. Payton Manning is just awesome to watch. He had some interception problems, but overall it was awesome to see him play. Tom Brady, on the other hand, looked a little haggard. He was still playing great football and made some stunning plays, but he looked tired. And then he just looked pissed.

About the Patriots. I've never really been a fan. I mean, they're a good team, but everyone was screaming "DYNASTY!" after ring #2. There are arguments that the Bulls weren't a dynasty in the 90s, and they had 8 titles. The Pats are technically good, and they have the great team dynamics that my OB prof lectured about, but I've never been passionate about them. And then I saw some doofas with a "Chowda-Head". I don't like Green Bay. But I've always thought that the triangles of yellow styrofoam were clever and distinctive, if nothing else. Seeing a ripoff raised my eyebrow more than a little. Who comes up with this stuff?

My picks of teams to watch:

-Giants: This is not just lipservice for my roommate. Eli is coming into his own nicely and their defense is looking good.

-Seahawks: Matt Hasselbeck is keeping these guys on their feet.

-Bengals: Their defense is HUGE. The matchup with the Colts should be good.

-Bears: Hey look! They have a good QB! Is the world ending?

-Colts: See above. I'm predicting Superbowl champs. Everything about this team is good.

-Steelers: I secretly love the Steelers. Even without Roethlisberger they do well.

-Broncos: They're finally back in Superbowl contention. This club takes the football all the way down the field. Which is generally a good thing in football.

My mother's all nostalgic about Superbowl I now that we're at XL. Seriously, what did we do before football?

players' choice awards, now with commentary!

I have elected to inhabit a little world wherein Black Monday never happened. The Boston Red Sox still have a general manager and I haven't been living on the edge of sanity for the past four days. 'Kay? We all clear on that?

In other news, MLB's announced the winners of the Players' Choice Awards. These are a little bit like those senior superlatives that every high school shoves in their yearbook to fill up a few more pages between "Our Crappy Football Team" and "Student Groups Nobody Cares About, Like Model Rocket Club and The People Who Put This Stupid Yearbook Together, Anyway." God, I hated those superlatives. I never got one. Then again, this could have a lot to do with the fact that everyone with whom I went to high school hated me, and "Most Likely to be Consumed by the Hellfires of Her Own Bitchery" probably wasn't a kosher category to throw in there. Ahem. Anyway.

Player of the Year: Andruw Jones
I'm sure Andr(insert seasonally appropriate vowel here)w is a very nice guy. I mean, I haven't seen photos of him plastered all over that MLB gossip website that I definitely don't frequent AT ALL DID YOU HEAR ME. But here's the thing -- he finished the year with an OPS of .922, 19th in all of MLB. I'm kind of a stathead -- the Paul DePodesta of Chickball, if you will; number-crunching, blandly dressed and reportedly unable to deal with live humans -- and I know that's not the most convincing evidence possible, but it seems like he won the honor on the basis of his 51 HRs and 128 RBIs. Overrated statistics. I don't know, maybe he saved a baby from oncoming traffic or something. If that's the case, good on you, Mr. Jones. Good on you.

Man of the Year: Mike Sweeney
Mike Sweeney was given this award for pledging money to build an inner-city stadium, among other charitable endeavors. I think Mike Sweeney should have been given this award on the basis of playing in Kansas City for, like, a billion years and not bitching about it. The man could cure cancer and no one would notice.

AL Outstanding Player: David Ortiz
My personal pick for AL MVP. I haven't been taking arguments on this since late August. Tizzle was third in AL OPS behind Slappy McBluelips and Travis Hafner (who doesn't get nearly enough play in MVP discussions). My problem with picking Slaps for MVP is based less on stats and more on team comparison -- Rodriguez isn't even the sure Yankee MVP (you can make the argument that Mo Rivera was more valuable), whereas if the Sox don't have Tizzle, they don't make the postseason and I doubt if they're very far over .500. So in short, I agree! Good for you, players.

NL Outstanding Player: Andruw Jones
Previously discussed. Oh, God. I hope this list doesn't repeat itself. Otherwise, my whole idea for a Chickball post goes down the drain and I'll actually have to do homework. Ew.

AL Outstanding Pitcher: Bartolo Colon
If I could pick up Mark Buehrle and parade him around on my shoulders, believe me, I would. But he's kinda large, so that's not gonna work. COME ON, PEOPLE. As players, of whom would you really be more scared? 20 games don't mean that much. Seriously, Barry Zito did it once and I'm pretty sure he was blazed the whole season.

NL Outstanding Pitcher: Chris Carpenter
Um. I agree. I have nothing to add, beyond "this is an excellent selection. Carpenter is my pick for the NL Cy as well." Moving along.

AL Outstanding Rookie: Huston Street
I can't even lie. I've talked about OPS and DePo and win values here, and I hope I've established myself as someone who kinda knows what she's talking about, but OH MY GOD I LOVE HUSTON STREET LIKE JANICE DICKINSON LOVES HER PLASTIC SURGEON. Except Huston Street has never cut my face off and attached a new one. And then did it again. But, Huston. Not only stepped in for Dotel, but proceeded to blow anything Gas Masterson could have done right out of the water. ERA's not necessarily the key ingredient in evaluating a pitcher, but when a rookie clocks in with the second-lowest relief ERA in the AL, that says something. And that "something" is "Huston Street, please come to Boston and marry me and throw an increasingly awesome slider as much as possible. Love, Suzie." Oh, God. I'm going to move on now.

NL Outstanding Rookie: Willy Taveras
Willy Taveras is the reason that one of my fantasy teams (The Twenty-Sevens, as opposed to Stealth Ninjas! and Suzie's Team of Hot, both of which fared considerably better, kthx) didn't sit in the cellar all season. Willy Taveras saved me from a lifetime of humiliation at the hands of Pam, who kicked my ass in that league because she took Tek and Chase Utley and Carlos Delgado while I took, like, Joe Mauer's Catcher Booty and Mark Grudzielanek and Bobby Crosby, and then Bobby went on the DL for about eight billion years and I tried to win a fantasy league with freaking Neifi Perez at short and GOD I AM STILL RESENTFUL ABOUT THAT. Ahem. Yes. Willy Taveras is a fine ballplayer.

NL Comeback Player: Ken Griffey, Jr.
This is because for the first time in years, Junior Griffey had fewer than eleven malfunctioning body parts. This year, even, there were only two -- the knee and the foot -- and he managed to keep it confined to the same region! Snaps to you, Junior Griffey. I wish you a happy and healthy holiday season and I hope that your spleen does not fall off. Or something.

AL Comeback Player: Jason Giambi
Wait for it...

wait for it...

I swear to God, it's coming...

Okay, it's not. This is a Choose-Your-Own-Punchline kind of joke. I'm sorry, but picking on Jason Giambi is pretty much like shooting Mako sharks in a bathtub with an AK-47. It's just not enough of a workout anymore. I wish they'd given this award to Jason Varitek's goatee.

And those are the winners of the Players' Choice Awards, brought to you from a parallel universe where Theo Epstein is still running the Boston Red Sox, John Kerry won the 2004 election and I don't have eleven thousand papers to write by the end of the month. Over and out.

Let's play the blame game

I don't think I've ever read so many articles on one subject in such a short period of time. Of course, I'm referring to the Theo situation. I figure that, well, reading anything and everything I can get my hands on will help me make sense of this.

I don't know if it can ever make sense but I'm trying. (If anyone is interested in my initial reactions, they can be found here.)

Right now, I'm completely disgusted with the Boston media, specifically the Globe. And the fact that I'm supposedly aspiring to be like these people makes it that much worse. Now, I like the Globe. It's no New York Times (um, not even CLOSE) but it's decent. I read it every single day because it covers the area I live in well, and I enjoy the Sports and Living/Arts sections in particular. But. The way the paper handled the Theo negotiations is appalling. It was obvious that the negotiations were supposed to be kept hush-hush (most likely at the request of Theo himself) yet stories were "somehow" leaked. Sure, it's possible that some Sox employees were getting inklings of the goings-on and decided to tell the media. But the key word there is "possible." The inaccurate article appearing in yesterday's Globe, claiming Theo would re-sign later in the day, revealed the source.

Here's my theory (and many others', I'm sure). Perhaps Theo was about to re-sign but then he read douchebag Dan Shaughnessy's horrendous article on Sunday and again questioned what the crap he was doing. Sox management was unaware of how much that article pissed him off. (And man, if I were the subject of that article, I'd be pissed too. It was degrading, one-sided, and poorly written.) So, John Henry and Larry Lucchino had no reason to think Theo wouldn't be signing a contract yesterday, and Lucchino informed his minions at the Globe. Well, Theo had the last laugh there.

(Random tangent: I despise Dan Shaughnessy. From using the curse to bring himself fame and fortune, to thinking he's all that and a bag of chips because celebs call him at home, he's never exactly been my favorite sports writer. Screw him for writing that the Globe doesn't have "home-court advantage" on Sox stories because they so obviously do. I hope this Theo incident really makes people question his credibility. And the fact that he disclosed information in today's column that was supposed to be kept off the record? Great journalistic ethics ya got there, Danny boy. No wonder the American public distrusts the media.)

What's a person to do when his boss leaks a story meant to, quite literally, show him who's boss? We'd been hearing rumors of a power struggle, but there must have been more to it. Theo wasn't comfortable with his celebrity status in this town, and the fact that Lucchino is an attention whore who probably hated seeing Theo get the credit for the World Series title... trouble. Theo is a good person, that's one reason why this hurts so much. Try as they might, the Boston media will not succeed in making the public think otherwise.

Theo Epstein acheived his lifelong dream a year ago. Why should he have stayed with an organization that didn't show him respect? It was probably the toughest decision of his life walking away from that job, but he can pretty much do anything he wants now. With a Yale degree, law degree, connections at every turn, a ridiculous resume, and millions of people who'd jump at the chance to give him a free meal, a job, or sexual favors, Theo is set for life.

What hurts is that he was GOOD for this town, for this organization. What hurts is that Sox management has screwed over the fans. Again. Do they care about us AT ALL? I think it's a legitimate question.

But it doesn't really matter because the games will sell out for all of eternity regardless.

Someone will replace Theo. That person might do a decent job, might get the Sox into the post-season. This team isn't entirely doomed and I'm not giving up on it. I'm just so disappointed, so angry with the owners and livid that the Boston media has acted in such a despicable manner.

What person in their right mind will want to take over as GM now?

(cross-posted to Let's Take a Breath)