This ‘full throttle’ approach has stalled
Picked-up pieces while wondering how many games the Patriots would have won with Joe Flacco at quarterback all season . . .
■ There are times when it feels like the Red Sox are just baiting us.
This is one of those times.
Team chairman Tom Werner promised “full throttle” for this offseason. Pathetic.
Thus far, the Sox have not lifted off the launch pad. While the Dodgers and Yankees behave like teams intent on spending to win championships (Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto anyone?), the once-proud Red Sox continue to dumpster dive and insult their fans with feeble efforts to get involved for highpriced talent. The Red Sox are Kings of Interest, always making you think they are competing for top talent when they are not.
It is still relatively early in the offseason and I promise to take it all back if the Sox wind up bagging Yoshinobu Yamamoto or one of the other free agent pitching talents (Jordan Montgomery, Blake Snell, Josh Hader), but until that happens, the message seems to be: “Come to Fenway. Sing ‘Sweet Caroline.’ We will rest on our four championships, promise you the illusion of contention — 12 of 30 major league teams make the playoffs these days — and continue to behave like a middle-market franchise while you pay the highest ticket prices in baseball.”
It should be clear to all that the Red Sox are an increasingly insignificant part of the Fenway Sports Group portfolio. Absent a real investment in a real talent (still possible), one can only conclude that ownership is taking loyal fans for granted, hoping you buy into the “baseball’s most beloved ballpark” and the phony plan of winning 84 games, then getting hot in the playoffs.
In the same week in which the Yankees traded for Soto, and the Dodgers committed $700 million to Ohtani and traded for starter Tyler Glasnow, the Sox signed newly released
righthander Cooper Criswell (career ERA 5.97) while getting outbid by the Kansas City Royals on a three-year deal for Seth Lugo. It’s downright Bloomanesque. This is the kind of middle-market fishing that produced three lastplace seasons in four years.
Keep another thing in mind: Red Sox manager Alex Cora is heading into the final year of his contract. Normally, that’s a drawback for any skipper, but I’m thinking Cora likes the flexibility. USA Today reported that multiple teams have approached Cora about hiring him after 2024 and we all just saw Craig Counsell — who’s 1-5 in playoff series — get a five-year, $40 million deal to manage the Cubs. Cora has told his bosses he wants starting pitching. How’s he going to react if the Sox stand pat?
We hear that the Red Sox are bringing David Ortiz, Pedro Martinez, Dennis Eckersley, Carlton Fisk, Fred Lynn, Luis Tiant, and other beloved stars to Springfield for the ball club’s Winter Weekend in January. That’s the event where owner John Henry, CEO Sam Kennedy, and baseball boss Bloom were roundly booed last year.
Swell. Pedro and Papi can shield Sox brass from slings and arrows. More eyewash.
Good seats for 2024 are still available.
■ Quiz: Name the four of the top 30 career NFL rushing leaders who played for just one team (answer below).
■ The Red Sox no doubt will honor their Curse-busting 2004 champs this summer, and the Curt Schilling question is a giant bowl of awkward. Schilling played a critical role in the most biblical sports story of all time, but his outrageous violation of Tim and Stacy Wakefield’s privacy has made him persona non grata with many of his ’04 teammates.
■ Here’s my new favorite phony stat: potential assists. This one’s right up there with expected batting average. It all starts with Jaylen Brown (who else?), who pushed back Tuesday when an ESPN Instagram post noted that he’d taken 43 shots and recorded zero assists in games against the 76ers and Pacers. Brown responded on his own Instagram, then told reporters it was “probably a slow news day.” Next came a Celtics team blogger reporting that Brown had five potential assists against the Pacers, but his teammates missed shots. Wow. That’s taking excuse-making to a new level. Evidently, it was Brown’s teammates’ fault that he had zero assists and 43 shots. Cutting-edge Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla picked up on the theme, calling assists “one of the most misleading stats of all time . . . You know what has to happen for you to get an assist?” (Eager crowd says, “Made basket.”) “Yeah. So we look at our potential assists. And so, to me, it’s one of the most misleading things to say a guy didn’t get an assist. That doesn’t mean he didn’t pass, it doesn’t mean he didn’t make the right read . . . Jaylen averaged 5½ potential assists in those two games.”
Wonder if the Celtics have logged JB’s potential triple-doubles? He’s probably right up there with Larry Bird by now. Small wonder Carmelo Anthony never led the NBA in assists. Simple answer: Anthony’s teammates stunk. And what about expected offensive rebounds. Every NBA power forward can now complain that he doesn’t get enough offensive rebounds because his darn teammates keep making shots.
■ A Politico article this past week noted that the Patriots’ dismal season has made it OK to campaign in New Hampshire on autumn Sundays again. “It’s gotten so bad that the Pats are no longer clear-the-calendar events,” former New Hampshire GOP chair Fergus Cullen told Politico. “It [planning a campaign event while the Patriots are on TV] has a lesser effect than it would have had two years ago,” added a senior adviser to Vivek Ramaswamy.
■ Do the Lakers have more championships than the Celtics? Both franchises have won 17 NBA crowns, but the Lakers last Saturday won the first NBA Cup as In-Season Tournament champs. Celtics diehards insist the Green Team is the NBA’s winningest because the Lakers won five of their titles while playing in Minneapolis. Not me. It’s 17-17, which is why I long for Boston-LA once again in June.
■ Is this the year for Jayson Tatum as NBA MVP? Not likely. We are a quarter of the way into the season and USA Today this past week had Tatum ranked eighth among early MVP frontrunners.
■ When the “Tommy Cutlets” life story is made, Michael Imperioli plays Tommy DeVito’s agent, Sean Stellato. A Salem native who would have looked great in “Goodfellas,” Stellato showed up for “Monday Night Football” at MetLife Stadium decked out in a black pinstripe suit, black fedora, and gold bracelet on his wrist. When Stellato kissed DeVito’s dad after a 26-yard scramble by DeVito, Joe Buck suggested that the agent might break the internet. Stellato played quarterback at Salem High in the early 1990s and has written a book, “No Backing Down.” The New York Post reported that Stellato will be inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame this coming week in Chicago.
■ Can’t wait for the 11 a.m. Wasabi Fenway Bowl featuring ancient rivals Boston College and Southern Methodist Dec. 28.
■ Jonathan Kraft turns 60 March 4.
■ Did anybody else think of Mike Dukakis in the tank when they saw Bill Belichick donning that 1962 Navy football helmet on ESPN’s “College GameDay” last Saturday before the ArmyNavy game at Gillette?
■ The Washington Nationals released Jeter Downs a week after the Red Sox traded Alex Verdugo for several bags of baseballs. Never forget that Werner told you that the Mookie Betts salary dump was “a baseball trade.”
■ The Wall Street Journal reports that Johnny Damon has put his Orlando-area home up for sale for $30 million. It’s a 30,000-square-foot palace with two gyms and multiple outdoor courts for tennis, basketball, and volleyball. It’s also got a saltwater pool, zipline, and veggie garden. Johnny and Michelle bought it for $4 million in 2007.
■ The death of former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor brought former Redskins Super Bowl MVP John Riggins back into the news. In January 1985, a drunken Riggo bulldozed his way through a black tie “Salute to Congress” event in Washington, managing to offend several guests and some innocent furniture. When O’Connor was aghast at Riggins’s behavior, Riggo said, “Come on, Sandy, baby. Lighten up. You’re too tight.” The two became friendly and years later when O’Connor finished a speech at the Alfalfa Club at the Washington Hilton, she saluted Riggins with, “Loosen up, Johnny, baby!”
When O’Connor died Dec. 1, Riggins posted, “Here’s to you, Sandy, baby, you’ll always be the greatest!”
■ Henry Kissinger’s death Nov. 29 reminded Bill Lee of Kissinger’s appearance at Game 2 of the 1975 World Series. The Secretary of State participated in first-pitch ceremonies from a box seat next to the Red Sox dugout and wore a Sox cap during the game. Lee had a 2-1 lead in the seventh when a 27-minute rain delay halted action.
“When the delay came, they brought him into our clubhouse for protection,” remembered the Spaceman. “He was sitting at a desk and his feet didn’t even touch the floor. That’s why he didn’t go to the mound for that first pitch. He would have looked like Eddie Gaedel out there. What bothered me about that rain delay was that Johnny Bench did a TV interview and said he was going to try to hit a pitch to right field. Forty-three million people heard that and nobody thought to tell me. When Bench came up in the ninth, I started him off with an outside fastball and he pounded it to right for a double and I was gone. [Manager Darrell Johnson] brought in Dick Drago and we wound up losing, 3-2.”
■ RIP Vic Davalillo, a Venezuelan Gold Glover who died Dec. 6. Davalillo patrolled center field for some mediocre Cleveland teams in the 1960s and some of us remember a 1963 Dick Stuart Fenway Wall-ball that clanged off Davalillo’s head, resulting in an inside-the-park homer for Boston’s cement-footed first baseman. Stuart hit 42 homers that season.
■ The Boston College community lost a giant this past week when Newton’s Moe Maloney died. A Brighton native and St. Sebastian’s grad, Moe played baseball at BC and graduated in 1960, but never really left. He served as head baseball coach and assistant director of BC’s Neighborhood Center and was inducted into BC’s Hall of Fame in 2018. There was always a folding chair in the trunk of Moe’s car. He never missed a game at Conte Forum and — usually accompanied by his trusty golden retriever — attended hundreds of soccer, lacrosse, softball, and baseball games at BC, and at playgrounds around Newton and Brighton.
■ Quiz answer: Walter Payton (Bears), Barry Sanders (Lions), Jim Brown (Browns), Tiki Barber (Giants).