Inside the Red Sox meltdown

Good luck dealing Lester and Beckett. You'll get tenths of pennies on the dollar and wind up with Tim Wakefield as your Opening Day pitcher.

 

How many other teams have papers as "house organs"? I'd think the Denver Post is the house organ of the Rockies based on the DNA being a limited partner.

 

Drinking openly in the clubhouse after games has disappeared in the last few years. In visiting clubhouse, such as Cincinnati, beer would be rolled in on a cooler after games, but very little was consumed really.

Most players would rather go out to a bar on the road than sit in the clubhouse, and at home players generally split quickly.

Since think the death of that Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock a few years ago, I've noticed less and less beer provided on road. Even in the coolers in the visiting managers' office, which seemed to always have a stockpile of beer on the road.

 

Local article wrote about drinking in the clubhouse too. Yes, during games. Said one of Francona's reasons for leaving was these "discipline issues".

 

Lengthy profile of Ben Cherington by Alex Speier.

http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/alex-speier/2011/10/12/heir-apparent-how-ben-cherington-emerged-theo-

 

http://fullcount.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/2011/10/12/peter-gammons-on-mm-im-pretty-sickened-by-trashing-of-terry-francona/

 

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has minority ownership in the Pirates. I think they put money into the team to keep it in Pittsburgh a few years ago.

 

I'm pretty sure the Nuttings have bought out most if not all of the limited partners.

Which reminds me ... the Ogden papers have a lot of see no evil, hear no evil when it comes to the Buccos.

 

I think Curt Schilling is one of the biggest blowhards in sports (although I loved watching him compete), but he's saying some pretty good stuff on Baseball Tonight right now. Ownership is absolutely behind the character assassination of Tito, ownership completely destroyed the credibility of the franchise that Theo and Tito spend nine years building, free agents won't come to Boston because of this, Lackey will never pitch for Boston again, and he believes everything in the article is true after being in the big leagues for 20 years, but the fact that ownership felt it was necessary to hammer Tito and Theo on the way out of town when most of the fanbase was ready for a change shows how little class they have. "They're bad, bad people," Schilling said, referring to ownership.

 

I heard a story that on off-days, Smoltz and Glavine would show up to Turner just a few minutes before first pitch, throw on their pants and a pullover and call it good.

That, however, is a far cry from drinking beer in the clubhouse during the game.

 

When Curt Schilling and I agree, the end times are upon us. But I do.

 

Schilling has an ax to bear here, too. He's carried Tito's water for a long time. Forgive me if I take his comments, which do sound very plausible, with a touch of skepticism.