MLB
10 Minutes With Terry Francona
By Jonah Keri at
Terry Francona recently joined the B.S. Report to talk about his time managing the Boston Red Sox. The Triangle tracked him down to discuss his newest gig, managing the Cleveland Indians.
Terry Francona recently joined the B.S. Report to talk about his time managing the Boston Red Sox. The Triangle tracked him down to discuss his newest gig, managing the Cleveland Indians.
Terry Francona joins Bill to talk about his days with the Red Sox and his future in Cleveland. Then Bill calls JackO to talk Red Sox, Yankees, and Manti Te’o.
Two of my favorite Onion stories are "Kevin Youkilis Puts Sign-up Sheet for Threesome in Red Sox Dugout" and "Kevin Youkilis Keeps Everyone on Bus Awake With Another One of His Nasty Sex Stories." Look at that face: looks like the crass degenerate we all knew in high school. But he's not some stunted party animal. He is an intense, talented, and intelligent ballplayer who is also a giant pain in the ass for his teammates and coaches. As his career in Boston moved past the championship phase and into a new decade, the problems grew, and the negatives of Youkilis, the man, began to erode the positives of Youkilis, the player. It led to a late-June trade to the White Sox, and when Youkilis returned to Fenway in the gray-and-black for the first time on Monday night (Boston beat Chicago, 5-1), he soaked in the applause and played the role of conquering hero. But is that characterization accurate? More to the point, is it fair?
In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Monday.
In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Wednesday.
Grantland's favorite Canadians, Jonah Keri and Chris Jones, return to The Triangle to discuss the Boston Red Sox. More specifically, Keri and Jones discuss the Boston Globe's bombshell story on the club. Over e-mail, they debated anonymous sources, journalism, and Boston baseball. Take it away, Canadians …
Mr. Jones,
So it seems we have something shiny and new to debate in the world of sports and sports journalism. Specifically this Globe article by investigative reporter Bob Hohler on the collapse of the 2011 Red Sox. A couple of choice snippets:
"Instead, Boston’s three elite starters went soft, their pitching as anemic as their work ethic. The indifference of Beckett, Lester, and Lackey in a time of crisis can be seen in what team sources say became their habit of drinking beer, eating fast-food fried chicken, and playing video games in the clubhouse during games while their teammates tried to salvage a once-promising season."
And …
“Team sources also expressed concern that Francona's performance may have been affected by his use of pain medication, which he also vehemently denied. Francona said he has taken pain medicine for many years, particularly after multiple knee surgeries. He said he used painkillers after knee surgery last October and used them during the season to relieve the discomfort of doctors draining blood from his knee at least five times.”
You’ll note the mention of "team sources" in that second passage. We’ll get to the post hoc explanation for the Red Sox downfall in a minute. But it’s the sourcing of this story above all else that’s punching me in the face.
Red Sox fans, did you think the worst thing you'd read today would be about Theo Epstein and the Chicago Cubs? You were wrong!
The Boston Globe's Bob Hohler gives us an epic postmortem on one of the greatest collapses in MLB history. Behold tales of Red Sox clubhouse freeze-outs (Jacoby Ellsbury!), players obsessed with their own stats (Tim Wakefield! David Ortiz!), a manager with marital and (alleged) painkiller problems (Tito!), and this corker about John Lester, Josh Beckett, and John Lackey:
You're going to want to pop some popcorn for this one. Read the entire piece here.
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In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Wednesday.
In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Tuesday.
