On Valentine’s Day, tough to love Sox
Alex Cora coached his son’s Little League team this offseason.
That makes him the perfect manager for the 2024 Red Sox.
The Red Sox need to go “full throttle” back to the basics. Forget analytics.
The team needs to work on complex issues like:
“Hitting the cut-off man.”
“Covering first base.” “Moving the runner from first to third.”
It should make for compelling drama.
The “Bad News Sox” will have their own show on Netflix in 2024.
The Super Bowl produced a record TV audience of 123.4 million. The “Bad News Sox” may crush that number when it comes to hate watching.
The Red Sox pitchers and catchers hold their first formal workout of the spring at Fenway South in Lee County, Fla. today.
Lee County is named for the same Robert E. Lee who led the Confederacy.
If only Boston could secede from the Red Sox.
Netflix’s most popular show is a science-fiction, supernatural, teen, horrordrama called “Stranger Things.”
The show is set in the 1980s.
That’s back when the Red Sox were the No. 1 team in town whenever Larry Bird wasn’t playing.
The Red Sox may need some “Stranger Things” supernatural juice if they hope to cover the over on 80.5 wins, avoid last place, or be relevant after Labor Day.
Cora met the media Tuesday.
On this day before Valentine’s Day, he spoke about the 2024 Red Sox with all the passion of a DMV clerk.
Cora was a bit more animated when discussing Cora.
The Red Sox manager confessed that last season wore on him more than most.
“It’s not easy, man. Dealing with the media, dealing with players, the front office, the pressure of winning is not easy. It should be fun, and sometimes it’s not,” he told the assembled scribes and cameras.
Cora spent the offseason working himself back into shape. A leaner-if-notmeaner Cora will be managing the team this year.
“This morning I got up, I ran four (miles). That’s where I’m at. All joking aside, I felt awful, physically, last year. I felt awful health-wise, energy-wise. It was bad. I cannot let a game dictate who I am as a person, or what I have to do. I feel really good,” he said.
Cora said he’s on the clock, whether it be just one more year or longer.
“I don’t see myself managing in 10 years,” Cora said, after citing the likes of Terry Francona and Tony LaRussa. “There’s more to life than baseball.”
In 2024, that includes the rebuild of the Patriots; potentially soul-crushing playoff flops by the Celtics and Bruins; and Superfan Episodes of “The Office.”
Cora and GM Craig Breslow on Tuesday passed on questions concerning the manager’s future with the team beyond 2024.
How will that affect plans for a “Bad New Sox” sequel?
Think of this show as “Hard Knocks” meets “No Knocks.”
The Red Sox were 10th in the AL in home runs last year. Their No. 3 home run hitter signed with the Blue Jays. Their No. 4 home run hitter is still a free agent. And their No. 5 home run hitter, Masa Yoshida, has been anointed as the new full-time DH.
Yoshida hit 15 bombs last season.
Those are 1975 Bernie Carbo numbers minus the World Series heroics.
The lack of power in this lineup mirrors the lack of passion throughout Red Sox Nation.
On this Valentine’s Day, it’s clear Cupid’s arrow missed the 2024 Red Sox by a mile.
This entire offseason was like kissing your sister.
The Red Sox and their fans watched as Fenway Sports Group spread its love far and wide, from Saudi Arabia to Ponte Vedra Beach.
Meanwhile, fans in New England were given the cold shoulder.
John W. Henry, Linda Pizzuti Henry, and Tom Werner have gone all in on trying to save … the PGA Tour. The PGA Tour is now golf’s version of the Red Sox + Tiger Woods once a month.
Henry’s newest subsidiary has fallen so far that bad weather and a bunch of no-names pushed the Waste Management Open into a playoff Sunday. The tournament ended during the second quarter of the Super Bowl.
To the surprise of no one, the TV numbers for that one were down 35% over last year.
Tiger will be playing this weekend at his own tournament in Los Angeles.
Hopefully, he’ll be using UberX to get to and from the course.
The 2024 “Bad News Sox” have no Tigers, lions, or bears.
But ownership continues to play the team’s fans for a flock of sheep.
We’ve been waiting to see if/when the Red Sox fan base would follow ownership’s lead and simply walk away from the franchise.
That Red Sox tickets can be had at Costco as part of a package deal that includes hats and hot dogs is an encouraging sign that you can only fool most of the people long enough.
Henry’s newspaper/website is doing its best to convince readers that everything is simply peachy in terms of the overall economy. The shrinking bank accounts and inflated credit card balances of the masses tell another story.
Visiting fans again will fill plenty of seats at the venerable ballyard on Jersey Street this spring and summer. When it comes to those electronic payments on MLB.com or at the Fenway concession stands, it doesn’t matter if the credit card owner has a Massachusetts or Missouri zip code.
The 2024 Red Sox are in an enviable position given that they cannot fall any further in the standings, if not the standing of the public.
Just like they were last year.