Hey folks. It's been a while since I've written but the job and travel has worn me down a bit and I haven't had much time to write. But I'm back to the grind and hope to keep you entertained and informed on a regular basis once again. A couple of things until I get to the topic du jour. First. Carl Everett. So much talent and so much attitude. I think the man is a class act strictly based on his everyday hustle and desire to be a great centerfielder. Unfortunately, his temper is taking up too much space in the daily papers. I can understand blowing up and getting ejected and he obviously had no intent to injure Umpire Ron Culpa (though I woulda soiled my pants were I him) but the subsequent tirade and refusal to leave the field and arrogance to believe he's never wrong are unacceptable. I'm sorry, but you don't start ripping Jimy a new one in his office because you get chewed out for breaking team rules. What a dumbass. And as far as the whole foot in the batter's box thing - get in the box, it's in the rules. If not, you AL pitchers should have the balls to keep plunking him till he does. What's better, putting him on base with a HBP or giving up the homer cuz his illegal stance takes away the inside and outside of the plate. Just keep the ball below his head, OK Roger?

Second, for the love of god, quit loosing to the little league teams we call the Twins, Orioles and Royals!

On to the topic I've been mulling over for a while. Dynasties in Sports. Watching the LA Lakers made me start reminiscing about all the great dynasties we've seen in person or on ESPN Classic (cable gave it to us FREE along with HBO and we don't even get charged the extra $20 a month!). Thinking back to our own Bostonians, the Red Sox were a dynasty the second decade of the 20th century and Celtics of course in the 1950's and 60's who also owned the eastern conference and 3 titles in the early 80's. And then you have some of the greatest dynasties of all time that unfortunately didn't happen in red brick hub - The Bulls of the 1990's were just nasty. the Green Bay Packers of the 1960's, Pittsburgh Steelers of the 70's and Cowboys of the 90's made Football America's favorite sport to watch on TV. UCLA put college basketball in everyone's living room March after March and Duke (yes, the same bastards that kept knocking out my UConn Huskies in the early 90's) helped make the NCAA tournament the greatest sporting event in the world behind the Olympics and the Superbowl. And it looks like dynasties can become a one-person/family show with Tiger Woods, Pete Sampras and the Williams sisters making their peers look like grade schoolers.

And then there is baseball. Since 1918, the Red Sox haven't exactly dominated the game. The Yankees began their dynasty back in the 1920's when they first discovered how to buy their World series rings - paying off the Sox's hapless owner Harry Frazee to get the likes of Babe Ruth and most of Murderer's Row and using and astronomical payroll to keep the team together. 25 titles later, the Yankees just keep on going. The A's and the Reds had mini-dynasties in the 70's and no team has ever owned the NL like the Braves do. Too bad they keep self destructing when it counts.

So with all these dynasties in our nation's sports-rich history, and with so many of the greatest players to ever be in the game to wear a Red Sox uniform, how come our beloved BoSox can't cut the mustard in the title department. One reason. Stupid management. That's right folks, our organization rarely makes the right decision when it's crunch time. Our loss-rich history is not marred by on the field mysterious happenings (minus buckner and the worst officiating ever in the playoffs last year), but by stupid people. Let's go down the list:

Selling Babe Ruth to fund No No Nanette

Larry Anderson for Jeff Bagwell cuz Scott Cooper was our 3rd baseman of the future.

Mike Bodicker for Brady Anderson.

Izzy Alcantara

The entire 1920's and 30's.

John Macnamara letting Buckner play in the 9th inning in game 6 when he was replaced for defensive purposes in that situation every other time in the 1986 playoffs.

Letting Mo and Roger go w/o getting anything in return. can you imagine how stocked our farm system would be had we traded them? Hell, what if the Duke wasn't such a Personnel Relations Dunderhead and we kept them?

I'm sure nomar will be booted to the curb when his contract is up.

The list goes on and on if you want to nit pick.

Basically, we continually cough it up cuz we don't put the right people in charge of making decisions. Let's talk about the present.

It's time to stop with the reclamation projects and build around a stable starting staff. They are a great way to fill out a roster but we're starting to base our team around them and that isn't smart. What happens when Joe Kerrigan leaves. Kerrigan wanted a manager's job last year and if he keeps up his miracle work he's gonna get a shot sooner rather than later. Jimy Williams is cooling to the Duke, another interesting sub plot. Kennedy was a good manager before Jimy came on and he didn't deserve his fate but a cool relationship with the Duke necessitated it. Jimy is the best thing to happen to Boston management since the Morgan Magic of '88, and that was a flash in the pan. Jimy isn't. He's the guy this team should be built around, not Nomar. He's a Tommy Lasorda type of manager that should be here for a decade or two. The Sox have a history of using the revolving door approach to managers and the time has come to settle up and give this man a long-term guaranteed contract and ride him to the playoffs year after year. I understand the thought behind the coaching staff's one year contracts but that is starting to look to be a loophole for the Duke to eliminate anyone that disagrees with him. If contracts don't let him keep his players in line even when they are in the right (Mo, Frye, Stanley, Neahring, Rocket, etc.), then dangling the coaching staff's job security over their heads on a yearly basis seems to be a nifty and disgusting way of making sure at least someone takes his baseball decisions seriously.

As far as the everyday players go, Jimy can only get so much out of a team when platoons at 3 of the four infield positions and not having anyone on the bench to play every day at any position should we put a starter on the 15 day DL - apparently a weekly occurrence now. Let's ditch the philosophy of highly paid bench players, round out the starting roster at 2nd and thirdbase and either designate or get an infield and an outfield utility player that can step in at whim for long periods and can at least perform around the major league average for their position.

And what about player development. What is going wrong that we can't get player past AAA. Nomar would have been a star in any system. That had nothing to do with the sox. We haven't brought a solid starting pitcher along since the Rocket. Aaron Sele was good but got traded cuz Joe Kerrigan wouldn't let him use his best pitch, the backdoor curve. Toma Ohka can pitch a perfect game for the Pawsox but can't get past the second inning for the Red Sox. Donnie Sadler just can't hit to be the leadoff hitter he should. Trot Nixon took 6 years in the minors! Can anyone name a hot prospect that didn't play in the independent league for years or hasn't already been sent down twice by the parent club cuz they played like AAAA players?

It's sad folks. It's time to get our act together and bring in a GM that can develop our farm system, play nice with others and win some post season games. We've always had the talent folks, but for a hundred years, we haven't figured what to do with it.