a700hitter

He did publicly acknowledge that it was a mistake. It was an admirable gesture on his part, and I agree that it might not have been completely necesssary.

I'm not looking for his head either, but he shouldn't be looking for a pass either. It was a f*** up. It should be acknowledged and he should move on. He stood up and took the blame for BK Kim's contract extension.

I agree. I could understand that a blockbuster trade could not be completed at the deadline, but certainly there were smaller deals that could've been done that would have bolstered this sagging, limping team. Doing nothing was a mistake. There are no excuses. Theo has to accountable and not make excuses.

When the Balco story started breaking, I felt that Bonds, Giambi and the other known roiders should have had their records stricken from the books. After the Congressional hearings, it was clear to me that MGwire should be added to that list. Then Palmiero got caught after falsely testifying, so I thought he should have his records stricken. It was also pretty clear to me that Sosa was a cheater although he had his attorney do the lying for him, and the lie was constructed in a very clever manner, so that a perjury charge would be very difficult to pursue. BTW once Slammin Sammy gave up steroids he tried caulking a bat and he lied about that too. I though all of their records should be stricken, but then when Grimsley got caught and gave up a bunch of names, I started to realize that the steroid use was widespread, not limited to Bonds, MGwire and Sammy. Pitchers were using it. Role players were using it. The owners, trainers, managers and sportswriters all knew that it was going on. It was the culture of the game. Writers that have been covering the game for decades estimate that one-third of the players were juicing at one time or another. The playing field was way more level than I had ever suspected. Bonds, MGWire and Sosa might have been juicing, but they were batting against pitchers that were juicing and lots of other batters were juicing. It was the culture of the game at that time. If steroid use was so available and widespread, where was the unfair advantage to Bonds. Yes it allowed him to get bigger and stronger, but everyone was getting bigger and stronger. You had middle infielders with 20 inch necks. Rocket Clemens transformed his body into this chiseled muscular physique and revived his career, but while he was with Boston he had fat roles around the middle. Who knows if he didn't use some help along the way. The bottom line is that steroid use was pervasive, and it is unfair for Bonds or other players to be singled out even if there is proof. If they is punished, other users will escape punishment and be rewarded. We also can't go down the road of punishing suspected users without proof, because that would run the risk of condemning innocent players, and that would not be acceptable. In my mind, I have come to conclude that the playing field was relatively level, because the open use of steroids were at least tacitly approved by the baseball hierarchy. Bonds' records should stand and there should be no question that he, MGwire, and Palmiero should go to the Hall of Fame.

Giambi is an easy going guy, Sheffield has thrown his share of fits. He's a pretty big ******* too. He more or less threatened that if the Yankess traded him to the Mets that the Mets would regret it. Earlier in his career he admitted to deliberately making errors so Milwaukee would trade him. He's right there with Bonds as a big jerk.

Who's talking about '04? He f***ed up this year. Other teams made moves to improve their teams for the stretch run, but apparently the Red Sox are the only team concerned about the future and apparently teams want a higher price from the Red Sox than other teams. Maybe the truth is that Theo and the other two stooges just f***ed up for the second year in a row.

I can't see that they will be able to obtain an impact player. If they weren't dicking around with far-fetcfhed three-way scenarios, they might have been able to make an acquisition like Maddux or the Abreu/Lidle, especially since they'll be letting Nixon walk. If they were willing to take on the contract, we could have done better than the Yanks on prospects.

Randy kept his 5 ERA intact. He even managed to have it go up a little bit.

Bernie pops up.

Has Oswalt cleared waivers?

Although he didn't catch maddux, he did catch some very successful pitchers on that Braves staff.

Did you ever see him play. Granted that he was an average offensive secondbaseman, but I believe he still holds certain defensive records for DPs etc. He was the Gold Standard for Second Baseman of his generation. Defense should count for the Hall. He was not one of the best defensive second baseman. He was the best. There are many HOFers who made it based on their offensive #'s that were not the best player at their positions.

Of the Red Sox remaining 27 August games only 13 are against teams with a .500 or better record. The White Sox play 20 out of 26. The Twins play 13 of 26. The next 9 Red Sox games are against sub .500 teams while the White Sox next 10 games are against plus .500 teams. Over the next week and a half the Red Sox need to put some distance between themselves and the other Wild Card teams or they will be in big trouble.

The gaping holes in the rotation for more more than a month and a half have allowed a limping Yankees to stay close and overtake. Now the Yankee rotation is looking solid, and their lineup has received a shot in the arm with Abreau. Sheffield and Matsui will be coming back. Now that the Yankees are getting healthy, the Sox are getting injured. The Yankee FO took action to help bolster their team for the stretch run. OUr FO has done nothing to plug the rotation holes. Jason Johnson and Snyder are jokes. I guess the Yankee FO is more interested in winning a Championship rather than the future, but for a team that only cares about the present they beat us for the division every single year. When does the future come for the Red Sox, and will the Yankees still be beating us.

And now the game is in a rain delay.

He's 13-6. He's not the problem. The 4th and 5th slots have basically been forfeit games, and it's been going on for two long. If there were legitimate major leaguers in those spots, the Sox would be about 4 games in first place.

God, I'd rather listen to the Ford commercial with Taylor Hicks a thousand times rather than watch that stupid Jimmy Falon Pepsi commercial one more time.

With Michales and Peralta out of the lineup, Beckett should not have had such a tough time.

Why did Francona do this? I know that Lowell has been slumping, but unless he is suffering from heat exhaustion, he's better than Belli.

I think you might need to go cold turkey from baseball for a few days.

Need a PH for Huckaby.

Can Hansen pitch a clean second inning? BTW: It would have been nice to have Javy to bat for Huckaby in that bases loaded no out situation.

I am glad that I didn't place a bet.

Here's a prediction for you. The Blue Jays who have been shut down the last two nights will tune up that scab Cory Lidle.

I heard on WEEI today that Andruw Jones cleared waivers today. I wonder if Oswalt will be put on waivers now that we are in second place and the Yankees can't block us. THe fact that MDC did well tonight will help his trade value.