jad

Accepting the assignment to AAA would have done his career no good, would have hampered the RS organization by taking a spot away from someone they might need. No one would have benefited from it. So what purpose would this have served?

Ha. I thought I was reading a GOP press release!

Ted Williams needed to put on weight as well.

Actually, Pedro was right! Had (whats-his-name-thank-god-i've-forgotten) made decent contact, which he did not, it would have been a routine lazy fly ball to center and Little would have been hailed as a genius.

All I see going on with umpires is that on really close calls, half the fans are pissed. i.e., the same thing that has been going on with umpires for as long as I've watched baseball.

My question as well. Anyone know?

Well, I suppose anyone can read a piece of gnomic wisdom any way they want. But I don't think everyone who disagrees is necessarily a bad person who is ruining sports as well as our kids' future. The reason I tend to accept this rule ('no game is decided by one play') is the same reason I hate replay. No coach or player draws up a game-plan that includes getting the favorable or correct call on a close play, whether that's a ball/strike call, or in football, a foot landing a millimeter inside or outside the line. All those plays (that is, every play that goes to replay, and yes every borderline pitch) is essentially a coin-flip as far as game tactics and relative skill is concerned. So to me (as far as replay is concerned), you may as well have them called on the field (for better or worse). And if you're a hitter, you better be swinging at anything close on a 2-strike pitch; as a pitcher, you better get more of the plate on a 3-x count (I don't think if a professional athlete does that, that means they're a "trophe for everyone" guy).

You'd think that professional athletes would know how not to implode when they get a bad call. But on that, many of them seem no better than the rest of us.

I loved Manny on any team. In part because of the catch-high-five-doubling-runneroff-first play, but mostly because of the way he hit. I don't think I've ever seen a hitter who looked that balanced at the plate, and seemed also to be locked in on his approach to every pitch, regardless of the situation.

Yeah, you're probably right on this. I guess my thinking was that no one would actually ADMIT that any idea they had came from anywhere other than their own fathomless intellect!

Sorry you took my post as attacking you. I wasn't. I was simply wondering why anyone in the organization would listen to what a sports board says. We don't as a group contribute much (even if more posters are like you than me): it's not like we are about to cancel our luxury boxes. I just can't imagine anyone in any profession (a RS employee, or someone in my business or yours) thinking "I need some new ideas; I'm going to go OUTSIDE the profession to find them." People say they do that. But not many of them actually do. And I can't conceive of a RS employee on any level allowing themselves to think that we 'outsiders' know more than they do or might have ideas (good, bad or indifferent) that they haven't thought of already.

Just curious: who is doing the speculation? And who is "the Sox"? I don't think those who post, say, a dozen or more posts a year here are in any serious way representative of Sox fans, and I doubt also they are the ones who put the pennies in the seats. Just a question, how much money do you contribute to the RS a year in games and merchandise? My number is $0, and I imagine I am not alone. Why would anyone in the organization care what posters here think?

Fire/desire/ 'piss and vinegar' -- all nice myths, beloved of fans and amateur athletes. And if desire keeps you on the practice field for 8-10 hours a day, that will make you better. But once you get on the field, it's not going to help. You do not hit a golf ball harder, a tennis ball more accurately, or a baseball farther because you were 'fired up'. Even in intensely physical sports (like football), getting fired up will not help if you forget basic technique. Anyone who played or plays sports knows that the most overtly enthusiastic players tend to be those cheering wildly from the bench.

Hey, I don't ... Wait ... Oh, I see. Like "vagina" as in, wow, Pedroia is a WOMAN!!! You mean figuratively. And thus not tough like guys are all tough and strong? Damn. I'm exhausted. That is such a devastating put-down! And so clever. You surely don't give this stuff away, do you?

Because we have an ADM that holds half the country (women) in contempt? refuses to condemn neo-Nazis? is full of racists? wants to get rid of health care? is pro-Christian? anti-abortion rights? anti-gay? creationist? believes wealth is a sign of virtue? despises poor people? doesn't believe in science? encourages police violence? And we have 40% of registered voters who actually supported this? Could that have anything to do with it?

The contempt for Boggs as a player was ridiculous, but it was in a long long tradition of RS fandom. Rice was booed. So was Williams. Yaz got a lot of criticism. So Clemens. Seems to me I ran into a couple of cries here for Pedey's head. And of course Dice-K sucked the year he won 18 games. Lee Smith sucked. Ortiz was done. etc. etc. Adrian Gonzales 'never fit in'. And Manny of course was terrible ....

Exactly. I'm not sure why Leon is being blamed here, as he did exactly what he was supposed to do: given that he had no chance of tagging up if the ball were caught, he had to get as much of a lead as possible, which he did. When it was dropped, he was toast. JBJ, on the other hand, like most of us here, suffered a slight brain cramp given the unusual nature of what happened.

It really bothers you, apparently, not to have occasion to call anyone a c*t or a tw*t.

Agree that it's a blessing. But I don't think JBJ thought there were two outs, if so, he would have been running. He was as confused as most of us here (although many of the more confused posters are obscuring that with their sanctimonious invective). It was just a bizarre play on a bizarre night.

Apparently, last night's game confused posters as much as it confused the RS baserunners. (such a bizarre play, I'm willing to give everyone a pass on that.) It's amusing to see posters get outraged about the baserunning even though it took them several minutes to understand what actually happened.

Bradley forgot to go to third and it was a force out.

Nice baserunning.

Exactly! Giving up 2 runs in 19 innings--- Inexcusable!!!! Good thing Sox have the big bats.

I don't discriminate either. But when I criticize black people, I don't use the n. word, and when I criticize a woman, I don't call them c*'s and t*'s.

As you know, parking, food, and ticket prices have nothing to do with player salaries. They are set by what the market will bear, and capping what players make only puts money in the hands of the owners, who are perhaps less generous and social-minded than we might hope. There is only one way to make these prices go down--stop going.