04/25/24
April 12, 2012
Completely unsurprisingly, Terry Francona does not want to be part of Fenway's 100th Birthday: somewhat more surprisingly, the Boston Globe let his ghostwriter pen an article about that. But then they edited it. Can't imagine why.
Not sure they really want Francona to attend their party. Doesn't sound like Lucchino or Henry know the depths of Francona's feelings. Or care. Not when their invitation leads to an argument.
posted by roberts at 08:31 PM on April 12, 2012
This year's edition of the Fenway 9 has somehow become a very unlikable team. The players are OK, and there are some really admirable people there. It's not the manager, as Valentine is quite entertaining if somewhat self-promoting. Even the General Manager has done nothing to arouse dislike, so where does it come from? Simply enough, Larry Lucchino has gone all in on the "Fenway as a destination" thing. The pink hats, bandwagon riders, and front runners have kept things going well for the Lucchino strategy since the end of 2007, but the act has worn thin with the hard core baseball fans. I don't blame John Henry for what's going on, other than the fact that he seems oblivious to it. I'm wondering how long it will be before Fenway Sports Group sinks the flagship.
posted by Howard_T at 09:05 PM on April 12, 2012
I don't see how they could be unlikable so early in the season. But if bandwagon riders are bothering the Sox fans, they seem to be addressing that problem.
Even without the bitterness over how things went down last year, it would be weird to have Francona back this year for anything ceremonial.
posted by rcade at 09:09 PM on April 12, 2012
Francona is the guy who brought them to the promised land not once but twice. He may never re-connect with current ownership, but he'll have another day in the sun with Sox fans at some point.
The 2004 march was surreal. People could not believe it was happening. Folks were totally mesmerized by the magnitude of the epic comeback against the Yankees. Hard to imagine there was more to come after that.
People were setting their life clocks by the events unfolding in the WS and placing the moment in historical context. I remember thinking: Johnny Kelley just missed seeing this and David Brudnoy is going to live just long enough to see it.
In my local supermarket the night of Game 4, they patched open the phone intercom and put a radio up to the wall phone in the meat department so the game could be heard live throughout the store. It was blasting. The bread delivery man was pounding on the door out back by the loading dock - no one knew he was out there. 10 at night, shoppers were stumbling around in the realization that it was going to be a sweep. "This is crazy", one guy said. "It's too close to being a sure thing. This should be a Game 7 with the whole thing on the verge of going to hell at any moment."
People are not gonna forget. Hang in, Tito.
posted by beaverboard at 10:37 PM on April 12, 2012
So, 2 guys you used to work for come up with a scheme to direct all of the blame for the organization's failure to achieve on you, even attack you personally via the media to clear themselves of any responsibility.
Do you accept their offer to attend the company barbeque 6 months later to make them look good?
What a couple of clowns.
posted by cixelsyd at 11:39 PM on April 12, 2012
Do you accept their offer to attend the company barbeque 6 months later to make them look good?
Depends...are they serving Johnsonville brats?
posted by The_Black_Hand at 01:40 AM on April 13, 2012
Winning a couple of World Series really messed the Red Sox up.
posted by dyams at 08:15 AM on April 13, 2012
I hate Larry Lucchino.
And I am glad Francona said no. Fuck 'em, Tito. You didn't deserve to be treated like that.
posted by jerseygirl at 10:44 AM on April 13, 2012
I don't see how they could be unlikable so early in the season.
It's a gift. The media has never let last year end: every story about the Sox seems to need to refer to chicken and beer (Google claims 5,000 references in the past week) and the players have gotten understandably surly since no amount of apologizing has changed the questions. Josh Beckett, in particular, has found just the environment for his Texas-sized take on churlish ass. Mix in an overdose of Bobby Valentine, who's yet to meet anyone smarter than him (I think he would argue with Uatu the Watcher) and you have a perfectly unpotable cocktail.
It doesn't help that Valentine is replacing a fairly well-liked manager who was a convenient scapegoat for ownership last year in spite of winning two World Series in the past decade. Now that 2012 has started exactly like 2011, I think it's even woken up the "Francoma" Brigade that last year wasn't his fault and they've been sold a bill of goods by a group who came into power as a fan-friendly, pay any price to bring a World Series to Boston but have become something less than that, seeing the fans as a brain-dead income stream. It feels like they think they are bulletproof because of the titles (yet Francona was not), so they can turn Fenway into Wrigley East, where people will just show up and pay ridiculous prices because it's Fenway.
It's hard to explain (and of course we Sox fans have a well-deserved reputation for being overly dramatic), but the constant Disney-fication of everything is distasteful and declassé. This year they spent every waking moment of Spring Training referring to the new park as "Fenway South". Seriously. They called it Jet Blue Park maybe twice, but after that, every single event was the first X in "Fenway South" and Hey guest in the booth, what do you think of "Fenway South"? Fuck you and your stupid cash grab from the taxpayers of Florida.
I think it's so frustrating because I don't understand the human motivation behind it. The ownership group to a man is fantastically wealthy. They've all been successful within and outside of the Sox. So why do they constantly have to upstage their own team and crap on anyone who doesn't toe the party line? Lucchino is an unlikeable bully and John Henry seems to be a man in a waking coma, who came to only to marry some woman half his age to check off yet another box on the creepy list.
Enjoy your ownership group Liverpool fans. As a Toffee, I certainly am.
posted by yerfatma at 11:04 AM on April 13, 2012
Not to overdo it, but NESN is currently doing 10 minutes on their new partnership with a local news station to provide pre-game weather. Both sides are "very excited about this partnership". If I wanted this, I'd sit in a boardroom meeting.
posted by yerfatma at 01:01 PM on April 13, 2012
The ownership group to a man is fantastically wealthy. They've all been successful within and outside of the Sox. So why do they constantly have to upstage their own team and crap on anyone who doesn't toe the party line?
You may have answered your own question there. How many fantastically wealthy and/or successful people in business or politics are probably borderline sociopaths?
posted by owlhouse at 08:11 PM on April 13, 2012
But then they edited it
I've got the original on my Kindle. Heh.
I think it's so frustrating because I don't understand the human motivation behind it. The ownership group to a man is fantastically wealthy. They've all been successful within and outside of the Sox. So why do they constantly have to upstage their own team and crap on anyone who doesn't toe the party line?
My take on it? I don't know the DSM term for it, but this happens sometimes with those who are connected with an event that gets a whole lot of people stirred up. They start thinking that all that stirred-up emotion is about them, or that they control it somehow, and from there it's a short step to it being for them and about them. The Sox have always had a loyal fan base, but back before the Disneyfication and Red Sox Nation, rooting for the Sox and going to games was not something that corporate types did. It wasn't a thing; going to a Sox game wasn't a hot date, and it certainly wasn't the hottest ticket in town. Now, well...sad to say, I think to the ownership, the team is just another yuppie status symbol, along with all the other things that they bought with their money, the things that they didn't make or build. And the last thing you can permit is for your status symbol to start showing signs of being anything other than a pure extension of your will.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:38 PM on April 14, 2012
Love the Red Sox and want to see them win, but after the September collapse and the subsequent firing and smearing of Francona, I look at that 1-5 record and keep thinking "serves them right."
I mean, I still want to see them have a good season, but they still have some 'splainin to do and some bridges to rebuild top down.