a700hitter

I'm not arguing for the sake of arguing. I made a comment that as bad as Shaughnessey is that the Boston Press has been much worse. Shaughnessy is the sole survivor. I also made the point that the Boston Press isn't as bad because the Red Sox have much more control over the media today than they used to have. I don't think that is necessarily a good thing. I also don't advocate someone losing their job, because i don't like them. What part of that is arguing for the sake of arguing? What part of that is defending Shaughnessey?

Ah, don't let it get you down. I have been at the bottom of the pile plenty of times. You will not let it deter you.

He can be snide and smug, and I always thought that the so-called "Curse of the Bambino" was opportunistic contrived drivel, but I wouldn't pull the book from the library shelves and burn them in a pile.

I really don't see how I did that, but I have never condoned piling on, and I will not participate in it. I wouldn't sweat it though. I have seen you in much nastier dust ups than this one. This one seems pretty tame. No one is hating on you. They are just disagreeing with you about this.

Of course it is a subjective statement, but it is based an opinion based on objective facts. I am emotionally tied to the Red Sox as much as any person that I know, and I always love going to Fenway to see the Sox. It is hard for me to be totally objective about Fenway, so I have relied in large part of the opinions of guest of mine who aren't no Sox fans who aren't big baseball fans who have been to games at a number of different venues. They are not emotionally tied to the team, so they can be objective about their experience. My wife and other non Sox fans that have attended Sox games with me unanimously do not think highly of Fenway. The tradition and history are just emotional things for us that add to our subjective assessment. It means nothing to people without the emotional ties to the team or ballpark. As I said in an earlier post, ownership spent millions renovating the place, because they needed (not wanted) to enhance the game experience for the fans.

He's largely right factually in that first paragraph. People don't like to be confronted with negative truth. And he is a snide guy. But by all means let the factions rule and silence all of the dissenting voices. That's the American way.

Sometimes you just want to post a thought. Every thought doesn't have to be debated. Right? I have a wife for that.

I am so damn good looking and charming that you would be threatened.

Cook looked good today. Considering his medical history, I am not getting my hopes up yet. But maybe we shouldn't cross him off the list yet.

I don't like Shaughnessy at all, but if he is a puppet, whose puppet is he?

Lin is never going to hold a starting OF position for any ML team, so I don't know how this could even be a discussion.

Basically, everyone has agreed that they love Fenway. Saying that it is not a great venue to watch a game should not be taken so personally by people. Really for a person who has never been to Fenway to tell fans that go to the games to stay home is preposterous. We all love Fenway, but we can objectively compare it to other venues without being accused of blasphemy. No shitstorm by SCM or me. We love the team and Fenway and we go to the games every year. Edit: If Fenway objectively was a great venue for fans to watch a game, I don't think the current owners would have spent countless millions updating the place for the last 7 or 8 years. Also, someone told me that when they replaced seats at Fenway that the manufacturer had to retool at the factory because the seats at Fenway are smaller than the standard seats.

All of New England fell in love with the Impossible Dream team of 1967 even though they fell short of a championship. Those Red Sox fans didn't feel like their team was a loser. The franchise was reborn and they had a new hero and new Super Star who was beloved across New England. Yet the press trashed him and the Sox every chance they got, and it had nothing to do with losing to the Cards. It was almost always exclusively petty ******** bullying by the print media. Real tabloid crap. The Red Sox have always been the focus of attention of the Boston Sports fans. The Patriots, with all due respect to their great teams, are Johnny Come Lately's. In the 1970's the town was a wild baseball town. The rivalry between the Sox and the Yanks was at a fever pitch. Not only did the fans of the teams hate each others teams, but the players genuinely hated each other. You are losing the forest for the trees here. I am not arguing which Sox era teams were better. The point we were arguing is why the press is kinder and gentler today. It has nothing to do with championships or good teams. You kids think everything that came before you sucked. That's just not true. The Sox were tremendously popular and competitive long before this ownership. Yes, they were even a wealthy and premier baseball franchise, although not as high in the rankings as today, but still a premier franchise. The reason why they are kinder and gentler today is the fierce competition for big $ that permeates the sport. The print press used to have a monopoly over the sports coverage. They no longer have that. The older guys here know what I am talking about. Finally, I would never tell you that I am smarter than you are. I am just telling you about the times I have lived through. Living through some things gives one a better understanding than reading about it in the paper. You are in your 20's and have never been to Boston. Experience is valuable. It doesn't equate to higher intelligence, and I never made any claim of being smarter than you.

There was no resemblance of the 1976 team to the original stadium. It was on the same piece of real estate, but it was completely different including the field dimensions. The new stadium 2009 version is much more nostalgic of the original stadium. I am a nostalgia fan an a collector of memorabilia. There was nothing nostalgic about the 1976 stadium. Without knowing the exact coordinates of the 1976 and 2009 stadiums, I would have no idea which sits on the original parcel. All I can tell you is that the present stadium has a much greater resemblance to the original than did the 1976 version, so for me it is more nostalgic.

The new Yankee Stadium is across the street from where the old stadium was located. No one knows the difference. The neighborhood is a dump. There is a prison down the block. If a bomb went off in that neighborhood and they had to completely rebuild the surrounding area, it would be an improvement. No one would miss a single thing about that neighborhood. In 30-40 years when the Yankees build another new stadium, maybe they will build the new one on the original site again. What difference that would make is beyond my understanding. The same goes for the area around Fenway. It's basically a dump, although it is not a dangerous slum like the area around Yankee stadium. Other than Cask n Flagon, nothing in the entire neighborhood needs to be preserved. There is no special historical feel to the neighborhood. There is no big deal about building a sports franchise a new facility when the old one has outlasted its utility. It's only a big deal if the franchise leaves town for the new facility like happened with the Dodgers and Giants.