Boston Red Sox ownership, lack of pitching dooms 2023 season

Thinking out loud…while wondering if saying “early to bed and early to rise” just means I wasn’t invited to the party…

∎ Sorry Red Sox. I. Just. Can’t.

∎ Friends, Sox fans, New Englanders, lend me your ears. I come to bury the Red Sox, not to praise them.

∎ With respect for William Shakespeare’s wordsmithing and Marc Antony’s impassioned speech, this Red Sox team is officially quietus. Or in modern day terminology, dead as a doornail.

∎ It’s the pitching, stupid. Said this last spring, repeated it during the summah. You can never have enough of it, and Boston certainly doesn’t. The trouble is, they’ve shown glimpses of competitive fire and ability along the way.

∎ But management (and ownership) silence has been deafening. It’s all you need to know. They don’t care that you care.

∎ I don’t even blame Alex Cora for forcing us all to sit through the 13-5 debacle last Monday night against Houston, leaving pitcher Kyle Barraclough hanging out to dry like so much laundry.

∎ The staff was beyond depleted. No pen, the starters failed (again) to do their jobs (Chris Sale, hello!), and the predictable result adds up. Did Cora mismanage the situation in a game that certainly might have meant something in a playoff chase?

∎ Perhaps. But the real mismanagement took place weeks and months prior to Monday’s embarrassing performance.

∎ The coming schedule is too tough, the pitching too inconsistent, the defense too poor to make up the ground they’ll need to reach this postseason. That management is too stubborn (or cheap) to help change this course is too obvious.

∎ “The evil that men do lives after them,” Shakespeare also wrote. Methinks he might have had this team ownership in mind.

∎ We know John Henry’s Fenway Sports Group has been busy spending and buying, just not on Boston stuff lately. FSG is purchasing AT&T Sportsnet Pittsburgh to keep Pirates’ and Penguins’ games on the air in Pittsburgh.

∎ My buddy “Big E” sez everyone can bring joy in a room. Some by entering, others by leaving.

∎ Bailey Zappe’s expulsion from the Patriots’ roster this week, albeit a brief one, should not have been a surprise. Especially when you consider the issues playing out in front of him.

∎ We get too fixated on the emotion surrounding individual performances, and yes, he had a couple of surprising ones a year ago. But to be a regular NFL QB, he’s got some work to do, and I think he’d admit to that. His preseason was, um, less than stellar.

∎ Combined with the line issues playing out – much of it self-inflicted by coaching choices and personnel decisions, coupled with injuries and learning a new offensive system – and voila! Boy Wonder Suddenly Becomes Vulnerable in Roster Shakeup. But he’s back now, albeit at a less-expensive price.

∎ Seems to me the idea of the Patriots drafting an offensive lineman early this year was largely panned by critics, so-called experts, and fans. I thought they’d take a tackle. Looks like they should have taken a tackle now, doesn’t it?

∎ These days, the Patriots (and others) would rather play their cards close to the vest and not give anything away too early.

∎ But anytime you would like to flip the switch to ‘on’ Coach BB and show anything… that would be great. Preferably by Sept. 10.

∎ BetMGM sez the most popular bet of any team, in terms of the tickets out, is the over/under for Patriots’ wins set at 7.5. The “over” is getting pounded. Did these people see what we saw during the preseason?

∎ Former Mount Saint Charles goaltender Brian Boucher has a new announcing gig. He’ll be leaving ESPN to join TNT’s NHL coverage with former NBC teammates Kenny Albert and Eddie Olczyk.

∎ Say hello, again, to women’s pro hockey. The Professional Women’s Hockey League – a merged entity between two previous leagues – will drop the puck in January of 2024 with six franchises, including Boston. Unlike the WNBA arrangement with the NBA, the PWHL won’t have financial assistance from the NHL.

∎ But they’ll have lots of advice. Wait, men giving women advice? Former Friar Brian Burke will take over as the PWHL Players’ Association Executive Director.

∎ The Friars men’s hockey program is celebrating 50 years at Schneider Arena on campus this season. But the home opener won’t come until Friday, Oct. 13 against Stonehill. PC first opens with two on the road at Michigan Oct. 7-8.

∎ Not for nuthin,’ but this week saw the most-attended women’s sporting event of all time – 92,003 fans – attending a volleyball doubleheader at Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. Yes, volleyball.

∎ That might be more than the Cornhusker football team draws for a single game this season. The former women’s attendance record of 91,648 was for a soccer match in Spain. The previous US record of 90,185 was for the ’99 World Cup final at the Rose Bowl between the US and China.

∎ URI’s football team found themselves in a shootout Thursday night against FBS Georgia State in Atlanta. Couple of killer picks in the second half after fighting back from an early two TD deficit… and this Rams team almost pulled it off.

∎ The difference between being really good and not-so-good, however… is often self-inflicted.

∎ This week, on “As the College World Turns:” The ACC has apparently decided Cal, Stanford and SMU are worthy of their courtship. Meanwhile, the AAC has contingency plans if SMU decides to leave them at the altar.

∎ And what about the two Pac-12 orphans, Oregon State and Washington State? Will anyone show them love and adopt them? It’s all coming up on “As the College World Turns.”

∎ Stupid is as stupid does: SMU, if they move into the ACC, reportedly will give up SEVEN years of TV revenue just to say they have membership in a Power Five (make that Power Four) conference. Branding for them, it seems, is not just everything… it’s the only thing.

∎ Hey Edward in East Providence, who ya’ got in the US Open tennis tourney? I find myself liking Carlos Alcaraz. On the women’s side, third-ranked Jessica Pegula from the US is as good as any, no?

∎ Although Patriots’ fans might find that hard to swallow – she’s the daughter of Buffalo Bills’ owner Terry Pegula.

∎ It’s been 50 years since Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in the famed “Battle of the Sexes.” That tennis match, seen by 50 million people on worldwide TV, sparked much of the debate on equality in sports and society that still rages today.

∎ Had the honor of meeting and working with Ms. King in the early ‘80’s when she was commissioner of World Team Tennis, and I called matches for the San Antonio Racquets. As we sat courtside next to each other, sweating out a hot, steamy summer night she leaned over and asked, “you wanna beer?” 

∎ I pulled a $5 bill from my wallet (yeah, it was a long time ago) to pay for it and told her jokingly, of course, I rooted for Riggs in the big match so I can’t let you pay. She took it from me, autographed it and handed it right back.

∎ She paid for the beer. And I still have the fin.

∎ Does it pay to be popular? Maybe not as much as you think. The Celtics, according to Betting-AZ.com are the most-searched for American sports team worldwide… but only rank as the 14 most-profitable generating $269 million in profits. The Patriots are 13-most searched, but the second-most profitable behind the Dallas Cowboys.

∎ You play fantasy football? Chances are if you’re reading this, you do, or you know someone who does. Massachusetts is the second-most addicted state to fantasy football (behind Minnesota) and Rhode Island is ranked FOURTH most-addicted, sez NoDepositDaily.com.

∎ New Hampshire, by the way, is ranked eighth. Fantasy football heaven (or hell) in New England, huh?

Casino.org sent me a note this week on superstition. The most superstitious fans among the five major sports in America come from the NFL.

∎ As for superstitious fans of teams, the Cowboys and Los Angeles Lakers tie for first… Celtics’ fans come in eighth, Patriots’ fans are 10-most superstitious.

∎ New Englanders. Once again, putting the super in superstitious.

∎ Has anyone heard from Bruce Arena since his exile as the Revs’ head coach? Makes you wonder what was said or done, doesn’t it?

∎ Bob Barker passed away this week at age 99, 16 years removed from his "retirement" as host of the legendary “The Price is Right” game show in 2007. Wish I had the chance to properly thank him… for all those alleged "sick" days I spent at home from school watching him on TV.

∎ Barker hosted TPIR for 35 years, an extraordinary number in the volatile business of television. His iconic presence as a host ranks up there with everyone else – Wink Martindale, Bob Eubanks, Gene Rayburn, Peter Marshall, Alex Trebek, Pat Sajak, Monty Hall. And his movie "fight" with Adam Sandler in “Happy Gilmore” likely won over an entirely new audience within a younger generation of fans who had never really known him.

∎ He won me over a long time ago. Dreamed of being a game show host when I was a kid. Thanks Bob, for helping me to learn how to dream.

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