* “Major
League Baseball will investigate alleged steroid use by Barry
Bonds and
other players, and plans to hire former Senate majority leader George
Mitchell of Maine
to lead the effort.”
I’m
guessing the fact that Mitchell is also Director
of the Boston Red Sox means no one on our
team is juicing, right? Pfew! What a relief.
Seriously,
as longtime senator from my home
state (and a proud fellow Bowdoin alum ... Go U Bears!) I’ve been
familiar with Mitchell pretty much my whole life, and he’s a man of integrity
and piercing intelligence, and should do a fine job with a sticky task like this one. He’s helped
bring
peace to Northern Ireland, he’s dealt with problems in the Middle
East, he’s even done his part to calm the tumultuous Disney
boardroom. So there are few people better equipped to deal with such a
complex and entrenched problem.
The only
question is how hard
he’s willing to push.
* Another seldom-seen
Red Sox front office man, another soft-spoken guy with a huge brain and an
undying love for the game, is profiled in today’s Globe. The incomparable statistician, founder of Sabermetrics, and Red Sox
senior baseball operations adviser Bill
James. Some noteworthy quotes:
“I
work by obsession rather than by discipline."
''There's a
player on our team who we might keep or who we might trade," he
generalizes. ''And there's an issue about his performance last year about which
we need specific information. The specific information is, do players who have
this tendency ever get over it or is it permanent?
''I need to
study that, and I need to get that done within a week or two because I need to
send it to [general manager] Theo [Epstein] because Theo needs to make a
decision. Is this guy going to stay with us or do we involve him in a
trade?"
(Who on
earth could that be? Lowell? Snow?)
James
says he feels welcome to voice his opinions to the front office, but generally
waits until someone asks. How important is he to the Sox? ''If I were to drop
dead it would be quite awhile before the Red Sox noticed." Do they make
moves you don't recommend? ''Yes, sometimes I'm filing a minority report,"
such as this spring, when James argued vociferously against one player and the
Sox invited him to spring training nonetheless.
Even if
they don’t listen to everything he says, John Henry’s here-goes-nothing 2002 e-mail,
inviting “baseball’s wizard” to work for us is just one more reminder, as if
another was needed, that, other
past misgivings notwithstanding, when it comes to on-field performance, the
right people bought this team:
With or without you, we are going to be building on
what you have introduced to the game we love. We have access to great
universities. We have access to highly intelligent people who love the Red Sox
and thrive on devising strategies. But most of all we have a commitment to the
people of New England to bring a world championship to a community that lives
and dies daily with the fortunes of their Old Towne Team.
We're engaged
in this epic, long-term battle/saga with the New York Yankees. We are
determined to achieve what no long-suffering, die-hard Red Sox fan believes can
actually happen. Wherever we go across the nation, Red Sox fans come out in
large numbers. They're all waiting to be delivered. It's not an exaggeration.
Short of war, there has not been a bigger quest since King Arthur's days. We've
joined together, we're having a lot of fun and it's just beginning here.
As one SoSHer puts it:
“Who says Henry is a mild mannered numbers guy? These are words Winston Churchill
would be proud of.”
When you consider that,
just a little more than two years after that e-mail was fired off, this was on the
cover of Sports Illustrated...
...it really is (as Henry is also wont to say) “astonishing.”
(For
further reading, might I suggest the new The
Mind of Bill James: How a Complete Outsider Changed Baseball by Scott Gray. I’m only about
halfway through, but it’s a great, if slim, biography of the enigmatic man, and
a tidy introduction to his epochal ideas.)
* Let's get another trophy. It all starts Monday. The
lineup
is set. The starters
are as ready as they’re gonna be. The manager
is satisfied. Play ball.
The odds,
by the way, are 10-1.
We’re projected for 91.5 wins. C'mon, we can do much better than that.
The Yankees,
by the way, are predicted to win 97.5. But according to this New York magazine profile
of the MFYs’ new savior, Alex Rodriguez is a bit a
more optimistic. “Rodriguez likes a few reporters, and he exchanges win
predictions with one before disappearing into the steam. The reporter says 98.
A-Rod offers a shake of his head indicating no, and stage-whispers,
“One-oh-three.”
Puh-leeze. With
this rotation? Not a chance.
The article
also has this gem of a quote, from Mr.
October:
Before
I left Tampa, I asked Reggie what impact Damon might have in the Yankee locker
room. He looked at me like I was a slow child. “We know Johnny is a free
spirit, but we got him here because he’s a great player, not because he’s a
free spirit,” said Reggie. “All that personality and the lighthearted comments?
How about hitting .350? How about October? If he doesn’t help us win a
championship, he’ll be at the Laugh House in the meatpacking district on
open-mike night, and it will be, ‘Here’s Johnny,’ and then Cashman will come
out and say, ‘Johnny’s gone.’ ” Reggie started to walk away, then added, “And
we’ll bring in a new comedian.”
What a great, fun-loving
clubhouse. Have a great time with those naked pull-ups, Johnny!