Red Sox Ownership Has Done the Impossible: Made it Hard to Like the Red Sox
By any objective standard, Red Sox ownership's press conference in the wake of firing Alex Cora and still shoulder deep in a major cheating scandal that won't go away any time soon was a disaster of Bruckheimerian proportions.
That's a random sampling, but I defy you to find one person who came away even remotely satisfied with a single answer. We still don't know how far up the management chain this thing went. Whether anyone else is getting fired. We just saw a table of millionaires and billionaires who couldn't put a coherent sentence together and looking more like they were at Senate hearings on UnAmerican Activities than facing a room full of sympathetic baseball reporters.
And sympathetic they were for the most part. This was an actual question. Tell me this wasn't a friendly planted there by ownership:
"In this city, we've enjoyed so many Duckboat parades, fans have lost count. I guess 12 at this point. And yet we have a cheating scandal here with the Red Sox. The Patriots have been implicated with different scandals. Little kids go to school with their favorite players' jerseys on their backs. How concerned are you about honesty in professional sports? And how important is it to you that you have a level playing field as you go out there and compete?"
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You're going to be shocked when you hear the answer: Honesty and a level playing field? They are VERY important. Roger Goodell faced a tougher grilling from that 9-year-old girl who asked if she can play in the NFL someday and the Brit who asked how he's managed to make American football so darned popular across the pond.
I bring this up because this theater of the absurd - I'd call it a Dog & Pony Show, but what did dogs or ponies ever do to me? - is just another in an already disturbingly long list of reasons why this ownership group has made it hard to like their team.
A few things I want to be clear about before I go any further. I'm not talking about the players. Mookie Betts is one of the most complete players they've had in my lifetime. Xander Bogaerts is the best shortstop they've had since Nomar, and I raised two kids with closets half full of Nomar shirts. Chris Sale is clutch and accountable and does nothing but work hard. Andrew Benintendi is impossible not to like. Everything I'm about to say is directed only at the people running the team and making money every time I walk into Fenway.
Nor am I suggesting that stonewalling at a press conference makes me not like a team. The sigil of House Thornton is Bill Belichick killing a reporter with lasers from his eyes. But at least he's a master at it. This performance was just pathetic and transparent.
Another thing is that, while I'm not the Red Sox writer around here and Carrabis is way more informed than I am, don't ever mistake my lack of posts for indifference. I've been obsessing over this team since first grade. I might be Barstool's Patriots Guy but Boston isn't one of those towns where it's either/or. No one around here loves the Patriots, Celtics, Bruins and say, the Royals. We all follow the four majors to differing degrees. But that doesn't equate to a lack of loyalty.
I didn't shed a single, manly, Spartacus tear on an Emmy-winning HBO documentary because I don't care.
And in a million lifetimes I never imagined that after four championships in under 15 years anything could make me stop caring. But John Henry and these disingenuous weasels are coming close.
It's not one thing, it's an accumulation of things. Not the least of which is John Henry's newspaper's blatant attempts to diminish the more successful franchise an hour south of his. The way they downplay the Patriots obvious popularity. Posting dreck like this the same month they draw 30,000 people to a Super Bowl sendoff rally and 1.2 million to a Duckboat parade on a Tuesday morning:
While pretending Red Sox Truck Day is a huge event. And not just two dozen middle aged ladies who average 4.5 cats clapping for a truck while Wally and Tessie pose for pictures and Dick Flavin recites a poem. Worse, Henry denies having a double standard while he himself is the driving force behind it.
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Not to mention, his paper was suing the state of Florida for the right to publish an illegal, unethically obtained video of his buddy Mr. Kraft being serviced by a masseuse. (Allegedly.) It investigated Tom Brady's charitable work, despite the fact that all 501(c)(3) organizations have to present hyper-accurate records to the state's Attorney General. They've taken every allegation against Bill Belichick - real or imagined - as gospel truth. Including suggesting the team knew about Aaron Hernandez.
But that's enough about the Patriots. Let me give you a Sox-only example. I'm a capitalist. If someone wants to make a ton of money at something, welcome to the club. As we say it in Weymouth for some reason, so don't I. Just make money. Don't insult our intelligence about it. Remember a few years ago when they put a new section of seats up above the first base side? It was called the "Tony C. Section," to honor fallen local hero Tony Conigliaro, whose life was cut tragically short. To great fanfare, they priced the tickets at $25 in tribute to Tony C.'s number and to make it affordable for families. And for doing so, they pleasured themselves like bonobo apes for giving back to their community.
That lasted one year. The next season, that section was named after a chain of convenience stores. And tickets were 100 bucks. Whatever happened to honoring Tony C. we'll never know because there wasn't a press conference or an announcement or a ribbon-cutting. I guess he got his tribute and now it was time to honor a place where you can buy cigs and scratchies.
I could name plenty of other examples. Contributing to the death of my emotional connect to this team by a thousand paper cuts. Of course "Sweet Caroline," regardless of the score or whether the bullpen just blew a three run lead. Anonymous sources kicking Terry Francona in the ass on his way out the door. The time they were in last place so they threw together an 8th Anniversary celebration of the 2004 team. Or that same year, a tone deaf Larry Lucchino bragging to season ticket holders about the "cheerful Cody Ross" and "friendly Mike Aviles" and how Fenway "leads the league in bronze plaques and commemorative displays," so get to the park early. "The World's Most Beloved Ballpark." Treacle like James Taylor's "Angel of Fenway." The way they fire everyone who wins them a World Series because they have no vision for how to run the franchise. Tom Warner making millions off of Bill Cosby. I could go on but you get my point.
I've posted some of these sentiments here, on the social medias and in texts to friends. And the most disturbing part of it is, I'm not alone. Not by a damned site. Way too many people agree with me. I'm shocked by how many. A lot of Red Sox lifers find ourselves still caring about this team because we've always cared. So we've got the Red Sox license plates (I raise my hand) and Sox wallpaper in our kids room (me again), and still go to the games. But there's an unlikeability factor with the people in charge that can't be denied. I never dreamed I'd be saying that after four championships, but it's there. The best case scenario would be John Henry selling the team so he can focus on winning English Premiere League titles instead, though I don't see that happening.
I hope it does because I hate having to force myself to like the baseball team I grew up loving.