Elktonnick

Excellent but that tells us only when not who or why. Upon reflection while it is sometimes used in all sports it seems to be used primarily in baseball.

Interesting discussion almost metaphysical in nature. What is clutch? On a more practical basis, who first coined the term "clutch" to describe a key or crucial moment in an athletic contest? Why clutch and not some other word?

From my point of view Farrell gets an A- minus for his managing this team to the division title. Up until the ASB I would have given him about a C but since then he (again much to my surprise) did an excellent job over coming some tough hurdles to get them to the ALE title. For me his most brilliant move was empowering Butterfield to unleash the running game. With no real consistent power hitter and injuries to some key players (Bogaerts' wrist and Ramirez's shoulder) he got the most out of this team's offensive capabilities. He recognized early on that Sandoval was useless and played mix and match at 3rd until Devers arrived. Dombrowski's only major failure was not getting a big bat. But, he did make some great acquisitions during the year Nunez and Reed and calling up Devers. Nunez and Devers arrival came at the key moment. Remember everyone and I mean everyone had certified the Yankees as ALE champions when the made their trade deadline moves but it worked out differently. Dombrowski also gets an A-. Now the playoffs are for me a whole new season. Anything can happen in a short series. The Yankees could end up playing the Rockies in the World Series. Hell ! Don't I think that will happen. If you don't believe me just ask President Hillary Clinton or President John Kerry.

Thank you for the comments.

The upcoming playoff series sort of reminds me of the 1960 world series between the Pirates and the Yankees. The Yanks pounded the Pirates when they won but lost the close ones and the Prates ended up winning the series. When the Sox have beaten the Stros they have won the close ones except for yesterday. The Stros when they win, do so by a wide margin. Pomerantz may not be as good as Sale but he did beat the Astros today. Fister pitched well enough to win yesterday but he didn't have any run support. Quite frankly I may be in the minority but he is my third starter for this series. The Sox may be the underdogs but they do have the pitching to contend. I expect this to be an exciting series and this post season is setting up to be an outstanding one regardless of whether the Sox go all the way. I say Hooray for baseball. The rest of professional sports are just a poor second to the thrill of playoff baseball.

I must admit much to my surprise Farrell has managed well this year, especially since the ASB.* He has taken a team with 6 leadoff hitters and no real power hitter anchoring the middle of the lineup and taken them to the division title.* One has to give him special credit for letting Butterfield design an effective running game that made for some exciting baseball when they could get men on base.* He has gotten the most out of a sometimes shaky rotation and developed a strong bullpen.* In essence one has to recognize that JF got the most out of his club.* Even if the Sox get eliminated in the Division series (let's face it this team isn't as talented or as well balanced as either the Astros or Guardians and will be the underdogs) I fully expect to see Farrell's team being aggressive and putting it all out there.

This has become not about Price, Eckersley nor Pedroia. The media has its sights set on Farrell. They want Farrell gone IMHO

He is being hired to do the same job he would have had if he stayed in Boston after Dombrowski was hired.

Toronto hires Ben Cherrington as VP for baseball operations. It appears to bethe nbr two baseball job in Toronto. It isn't the top job and looks to be at the same level as the job he would have had if he stayed with Boston once Dombrowski was hired.

I wholeheartedly agree. The problem we fans generally have with Farrell is what we see on the field. What we don't see is what is going on behind the scenes and in the clubhouse. JF obviously has his strengths. His weakness is his in game management and decision-making. These are quite evident for all to see. What I find interesting is the increased criticism of some of his game moves by paid NESN employees like Lyons, Eckersley, Remy and O'Brien. I simply don't recall such criticism in years past at least not with the frequency we have seen recently. I do think Farrell is likely to be back next year, however, baring a complete collapse and a clear series of mishaps on his part which results in the Sox missing the playoffs entirely.

No watching Patton doesn't but 6 years as an NCO plus a 2 year civilian tour in the five sided puzzle palace on the Potomac in SOLIC plus a three year tour in El Salvador during that civil war plus surviving an Embassy bombing in Kuwait which killed four of our Foreign Service national employees does give me a first hand point of view.

The offense came alive. Doubles galore and how about Brock Holt, one can see that the concussion really messed him up. Glad to see he has recovered.

You say you aren't going to argue with me then proceed to argue with me. To be precise I said extraordinarily sloppy baseball is a sign of poor morale which it is . Sloppy baseball is a sign of ill-discipline. Ill discipline is a sign of poor morale. Anyone who has managed for results a large number of people over many years would know that. It isn't a question of the sox being sloppy in isolated cases but repeatedly over several weeks. How good a coach I was is irrelevant. It isn't about me. The ******** is watching an inept manager and Farrell is inept.

People misunderstand the term morale when it comes to the workplace. They mistakenly confuse morale with being happy in your job or with your boss. A group can be happy with their jobs and with their boss and still have lousy morale. At the same time a group can hate their boss and their jobs and have high morale. Morale means unit cohesion discipline and effectiveness. In WW2 the troops may have hated Gen Patton but the units he commanded generally had high morale.

Oh! but I have coached sports and ran large non sports organizations before I retired. I know poor morale when I see it. Webster defines morale as: the confidence, enthusiasm, and discipline of a person or group at a particular time. What we have witnessed over the past six weeks clearly falls within the definition of a unit with poor morale. Whether he has lost the clubhouse is immaterial. He is still a lousy manager.

If he hadn't been sick when Dombrowski was hired, Farrell would have been fired last year IMO. Whether there is discord in the clubhouse or not, the fact is this team has played extraordinarily sloppy baseball the last six weeks and that is an indication of poor morale.

Farrell got the benefit of a weak schedule in April and May. Regardless of whether they win or lose Farrell is a lousy manager who doesn't get the most out of his ball club.

Lou Merloni, Jerry Remy and Dave O'Brien all criticized Farrell's brain dead move by not having some one ready at the start of the inning. This isn't an isolated incident with the dim witted manager of the Red Sox. Farrell never should have been allowed to start the year as manager. Whether the sox won the game or not. Farrell is one of the worst managers in baseball. His sixth inning fiasco is just one of many examples of his inept in game management.

O'Sullivan earned himself another start.

It won't solve everything but it is the first place to start. It makes no sense to rebuild the team only to have it managed by such an inept field manager as Farrell. The first mistake Dombrowski made was not letting Farrell go last year.

If you recall I was against picking up his option and his performance indicates he is done. End our and his misery DFA him, if no picks up his option release him.

I had this team as an 85-87 win team in the spring but the pitching has gotten worse and the morale has virtually collapsed as evidenced by the repeatedly sloppy play. Unless DD makes a major shakeup this team will be lucky to break 500.

Apart from the obvious, Jerry's health isn't very good.

The sixth inning of last night's game was not on the players but solely on Farrell and his pitching coach. Everyone and I mean everyone knew that Wright can not command the knuckleball in the rain. At the start of the sixth inking Farrell should have had some one warming up in the bullpen not because Wright was struggling at that time but because it was raining. Instead Farrell waits until Wright lost total command of the knuckleball. Any one watching the game would have seen it wasn't a case of the pitch knuckling out of the strike zone but rather Wright wasn't able to keep his grip on the ball. So then the dim wit sends his even slower witted pitching coach out there to tell Wright to keep throwing the knuckleball, a pitch he wasn't able to literally get a grip on. Weren't these clowns watching what was going on. The trouble is we have been watching Farrell's incompetence now for too many years. He has to pay the price for his utter ineptitude. If I had been in Dombrowski or Henry's shoes Farrell would have been fired last night and told to take his pitching coach with him.

Everyone on the planet, knew that once the rain started Wright would have command issues with his knuckleball. Does the braindead manager of the Boston Red Sox prepare by having some one warming in the pen, no he does not. Remy, O'Brien said before the game to expect control issues with Wright if it started to rain. After the sixth they quite rightly said Farrell would be second guessed for his failure to have some one ready in the pen. The sixth inning is yet one more example why Dombrowski shouldn't wait any longer and give Farrell his walking papers. The man is just over his head as a field manager.