seabeachfred

I think Orr, Gretsky and Richard could be the triumvirate of the greatest hockey players in history. To me it's hard to pick one over the other. To me the others are simple. Basketball is Michael Jordan; football Jim Brown; baseball Babe Ruth.

Come on CP---hell we all goof up here once in awhile. Hell, I couldn't even remember an outfielder we had three years ago. You're fine.

Boy I hope not. We are going to depend very heavily on Porcello and he just might to turn out to be our "ace". He's still a young pitcher with some experience and is entering his prime. No way do I think we can prosper without him making as solid contribution. As for Holt, something tells me we are going to depend on him a lot more than some of the rest of you are. Varvaro? I take the fifth.

That's very surprising to hear Spud. I thought Rhode Island was hard core Red Sox country being a New England state not touching New York as Conn and West. Mass do. Thanks for enlightening me.

You heard it from my pal 700Hitter.....JIM BROWN. I would put Jerry Rice up there as a fairly close second.

Wietecha? The center on the 1956 NFL Champions. I remember that team. I took them with me when we moved to California in 1954 and followed them for a few years before I became totally Californiaized.

Well I take it Spud that you don't live in the Boston area----Connecticut maybe or Western Mass? Besides, those college kids are migrants and temporary "citizens". Chances are if they stay around Boston and settle there they might get a rude awakening when their kids grow up and become Red Sox fans instead of Yankee ones. I run into quite a few people out here in So. Cal that went to colleges in the Boston area and now most of them are Red Sox fans. Yes my friend, there are more Sox fans in my neck of the woods that you might think.

mvp----You're ok in my book. You might be a little caustic from time to time but I have some of those traits myself. Besides, I would be willing to bet dollars to donuts that if you, User, irotiz, 700 Hitter and I ever by some chance wound up together at a Red Sox game I think we'd all find that we liked each other just fine. I've found through my trips to Boston over the years when I've met people who I knew only a board that they were not that way in person----and believe me, I've gotten that all the time. Besides, we're all Red Sox fans and there is no need to have any pissing contests at all. I think User and I have put some of our irritations into drydock and that's the way I like it.

Triple "R" I've taken about a dozen trips with Red Sox Destinations and they are a class operation. The only bummer is if you go early in the season through them they sit you up near the Coke sign where that damn wind blows in from the bay. You literally freeze your ass off. Otherwise the operation is great. You get to go on the field, into the Green Monster, meet a member of the Sox and have a nice lunch, not to mention get to see batting practice from a very nice vantage point. I would be right there with 700 Hitter for the induction of Pedey but I have to budget my money for those two Red Sox trips I allow myself each season. If, however, se succeed in selling a time share that we no longer use, I will have enough cash for the Coopertown Trip. Have you ever taken a Red Sox trip through RSD? I think it's worth it.

Anything that keeps our minds on the Red Sox stands tall with me, but to tell the truth I am getting tired of downloading my DVD's of 2004, 2007 and 2013 to get my Red Sox fix. They all have happy endings but it's nice to hear something about the here and now. Besides, the only other baseball fix I can get out here in So. Cal is that 24 Hour Dodger station and that is like getting a two-by-four shot to the gut.

Hanley is learning a new position and is coming to a town that he left in less than optimum prestige and labeled a problem child. There is enough pressure on him as it is and we all need to pull like hell for him. Keep in mind he also has had physical problems and has played 145 games only once since 2010. I'll say this, though. If his mind is clear, his body in shape and he adjusts to LF he could have a top notch season......and we need his bat very badly. You know, for the first month after we got him I would make some cracks about him and it seemed after I did I either pulled a muscle, got a cough or had my wife made at me for something or other. Enough of that....I'm pulling for Hanley to beat the band.

I'm chomping at the bit myself CP and Prune Face, and for the life of me I just cannot see us having two train wreck years in a row. We have some real question marks but so do all four of the teams in our division. It should make for an interesting season and I for one have had all the football and basketball I can stand. Bring on baseball. As to you Pruney, you made a very salient point. There are a lot of fans who live in a city with a ML baseball team, some with two, but many of those fans do not root for either of them and I am one of those types. I think in places like Boston there seem to be very few who are not followers of the Sox, but out here in LA the press acts like the whole population are Dodger fans. They may be in the majority but they are not the whole population. We have a very sizable minority of fans who like neither the Angels or the Dodgers.

The first clue on Farrell will be the type of Spring camp he runs. I said this many times in the past year---he did not run a good camp last Spring. He ran a kiddy nursery. Everything was put on hold, there seemed to be no urgency whatsoever and instead of pushing the envelope it was more like a country club atmosphere down at Fort Myers......and it showed from the first home series until that disgusting season mercifully ended last September. He's got to go into this year's camp with guns blazing.

IU never understood why Scioscia was stubborn about keeping Mathis behind the plate and panning Napoli's defense. He was no Johnny Bench but he was a much better defensive catcher than Mathis was as a hitter, and I think it might have cost the Angels a pennant or two for all the time Mike was benched by the manager.

Well pitchers and catchers show up in about ten days......and then we'll really have something to talk about......like I wonder what Cliff Lee would cost us NOW if we were to take a flyer on him and talk the Phils into trading him to us.

It's worth about the price of a ham sandwich User----but it still is nice to hear someone saying we're the best in something. Maybe something to look forward to when the bell sounds.

700 Hitter was right about on one point User. I was so high as the 2011 season approached that I had to come down from my self made cloud. However, that bad start worried me, and if you remember we had another slump somewhere in June before we took off again. That worried me more and it was then on another board that I came to the conclusion that as good as our team was on paper, they had the possibility of going into the tank and predicted that if they did it would be a collapse. I'm not happy I was right on that but I and others got scarred by that collapse. I'm less inclined to go overboard today. The difference is that I was not always that way. On the Dirt Dogs Board before the 2007 season I predicted we were going to go all the way and win the World Series that year. I hit it then but to tell the truth my predictions have not been worth a s*** since. I may just take a radical chance to turn that around and predict that the Red Sox are going to win the AL East this season-----and maybe I just might do that, to change my luck and to shock Kimmi, mvp and few other of my friends here.

You should know that the refusal of your friends on that echo chamber board to admit they were wrong back in 2011 was a main reason for them folding up their tent and going their own way where they could all smile, be happy and grin themselves away in complete harmony even if it stifled their place with boredom and a total dullness. I want the Red Sox to do as well as you do, and I can damn well tell you that I take their losses a lot harder than you do---believe me on that. Too many of my colleagues here said they were more than willing to hammer the front office if they didn't deliver the top pitchers we needed for the coming season. Well, the front office failed miserably in that attempt because none of the ones they got right now even remotely resemble an ace or a No. 1 type pitcher, and yet so many have fallen into line and are now rationalizing that the front office didn't do so badly after all. Well they did do badly. We don't have either a No. 1 pitcher or an No. 2 pitcher-----just a bunch of three's and fours who we all hope will morph into a bunch of twos. It just might work, but it could also blow up in Henry's face and we fans all get hit with the debris from the fallout. I most certainly do not want that to happen.

No, hammering the front office and if I get some negative feedback from people who still insist the front office did the right thing, then I will hammer them. It all depends. If I am willing to swallow my pride and admit I was wrong if what Cherington did this winter turns out well, then I would expect those who praised him for what he did and said he was right should be willing to admit that they were wrong and man up. As you should no, I take a very dim view when people will not admit that they are wrong about something.

Remember that song from the late 50's? HIGH HOPES??? Some of our friends here have some very high hopes----and that's not all that bad either. At this time of year hope does spring eternal, and Red Sox fans are very anxious to rid our memories of 2014 as quickly as humanly possible. I saw mvp predict we'd finish third with 86 wins. If that's the case, the AL East is going to be better than most people think because I think that number of wins put whatever team that gets that number to be within two to four wins of the division title.

Just a pre warning Kimmi. I was one like iortiz, 700 Hitter and others who did not drink the Kool Aid and believe that a pitiful mistake was made by Cherington in not getting us a No. 1 and No. 2 pitcher. I do not think he did a good job at all of rebuilding the rotation; it is potentially the worst one in the division. Now if all goes well and we take the AL East I will gladly give a mea culpa and praise the FO for its prescience in this matter. OTOH, if this thing flops as it could I will feel free to hammer away at Cherington and his minions and I will do so with great prejudice, and maybe even at you and those who might stubbornly refuse to admit they made a bad mistake.

Hell of way to come on board with a weird post like that. And for the record, Red Sox and Yankees fans are not alike at all, the most obvious difference is that the latter think that a WS Title is their birthright and anything less is abject failure. Red Sox fans just want their team to be in contention every year and when the chips fall our way we thank the heavens instead of taking it with a conceited grain of salt. And don't forget that.

No offense taken Kimmi;) There might an element of truth to what you said. I do sometimes take the Red Sox too seriously. I do believe, however, that the Red Sox should be able to contend EVERY year-----not win a title every year but compete for one. I do not accept that our team should finish last two out of the last three years even if one sweet candy bar was thrown in between the two. And here I thought I heard the last of that word FrancoMa!!!!!!!!

Make that 107 years and counting. Not saying they can't or won't do it; in fact I hope they get to a WS within the next three or four years, but keep in mind the Cardinals always seem to be in the mix and they are run very well with a deep farm system. The Pirates have turned it around and are now a dangerous team and the Reds are better than they showed last season. As for Milwaukee they have learned how to compete. That division has become real tough and it would behoove the Cubbies to keep bearing down all the way. Nothing is written down in stone that it's automatically going to be "their" turn. It took our Red Sox 86 years to get out of hock. Hell, even out my way here in So. Cal the big bad Bums have now gone 26 years and counting and haven't even won a pennant, let alone a WS----and the Angels one title in their 54 year history. The Astros none in 53 years. Nothing is assured in this game.

Why? Maybe because I saw how the front office's moves in 2012 and 2014 had saddled us with two complete duds. They haven't done all that well to engender a lot Pollyanna ideas from where I sit. Maybe this year we get vindication of some sort. They didn't exactly hit the confidence button with Middlebrooks and Bradley, did they? And the jury is still out as far as I'm concerned with Bogaerts, who was about the worst hitter in baseball with RSP last season.