The Daily Jolt is a dose of baseball reality every weekday morning.
What would a new baseball season be without more renovations at Fenway Park. The ownership group of John Henry, Tom Werner and Larry Lucchino has been committed to overhauling Major League Baseball's oldest and most revered ballpark since it took over in 2002.
In an effort to squeeze every penny out of one of the smallest venues in the majors, they have added seats atop the Green Monster and on the right field roof and converted parts of the luxury .406 Club (now known as the EMC Club) to open-air sections. This year, they upgraded a number of the box seats in the lower seating area as well as adding more seats on the right field roof, making it possible to sell roughly an additional 350 tickets at each home game.
After being introduced as the newest member of the Yankees, Mark Teixeira revealed to reporters how he was able to make up his mind: by listening to his wife:
"We were really waiting for teams to drop out," Teixeira said. "I said to Leigh, we were sitting at dinner, 'Everything's equal. Where would you want to play?' Finally, she broke down and said, 'I want you to be a Yankee.' That's what did it for me."
Smart man: life is a lot easier when you keep the missus happy. Up until that point, the Yankees were lingering in the background while the Red Sox positioned themselves as the favorite, but once Teixeira told Scott Boras to revive talks, a deal was struck within 11 days.
It's an amusing anecdote ... unless you're a member of Red Sox Nation. Leigh admitted her preference on Dec. 12; Red Sox owner John Henry, president Larry Lucchino and GM Theo Epstein made their trip to Texas on Dec. 18. Had they known they were suddenly the underdogs and not the favorites about to seal the deal, it's likely they would have re-considered the trip.
In hindsight, the trip did prove fruitful, at least from Teixeira's perspective: Boston's final offer provided the leverage Teixeira needed for the Yankees to step up with the highest offer on the table a week later, making Mark and (more importantly, for his sake) Leigh one happy couple.
"We are not going to be a factor," said Henry in an e-mail Thursday night.
If we take that statement at its face value, then Boston has been outbid for Teixeira. That's certainly a possibility, even considering the Red Sox's rumored eight-year, $184 million offer to the first baseman. He's a special player. The Yankees and Angels have the resources to best the Sox. The Nationals seem so wildly intent on landing Teixeira that they too could have topped Boston as well.
But this could all be a negotiating ploy on the part of Henry and the Red Sox.
The architect behind one of the most successful periods in Red Sox history is going to remain in Boston for awhile. General manager Theo Epstein has agreed to a new three-year deal with the team, according to Red Sox owner John Henry.
''We are all on the same page with regard to our vision for the organization," Henry wrote in an e-mail this afternoon. "The negotiations were pleasant and were all about rewarding Theo for the great, great job he has done in bringing two world championships to the Red Sox. We look forward to the difficult task of trying to win a third."
Henry clarified in a later e-mail that while the main negotiations were complete and "lawyers are handling the details," the sides haven't settled all matters.
The last time Epstein's contract was up in 2005, he famously snuck out of Fenway Park in a gorilla suit after resigning his post, partially because of a conflict with team president Larry Lucchino. Epstein returned three months later, and there's been harmony ever since in Boston's front office -- enough at least that the Red Sox will avoid another offseason of speculation about their star GM's job status.
Epstein was hailed as a "boy wonder" when he first took over in Boston. He became the youngest GM in major league history when he was hired in 2002, and two years later he helped the Red Sox end an 86-year title drought.
But Epstein has transcended that moniker over the last two years by delivering another championship in 2007 and cultivating a minor league system that is the envy of baseball -- one that will give Boston a chance to become a dynasty.
Back in 2002, John Henry wanted A's GM Billy Beane to lead the Red Sox. When Beane backed out after initially accepting Henry's contract offer, the job fell to Epstein. Six years later, not even Beane, a brilliant executive in his own right, can lay claim to the title of best GM in the game. Epstein stands alone on that mountain.
Whether the Red Sox win the 2007 World Series or not, the mere appearance, the second in four years -- and the plodding, powerful way they got there -- has confirmed a sudden truth: the Boston Red Sox are a monolith.
Like the Yankees, they have a huge payroll. Like the Yankees, they print paper at their home stadium. Like the Yankees, they have a national fan base that annoyingly floods opposition stadiums. And, like the Yankees, everyone is slowly starting to hate them. The irony is not lost on the front office:
"I totally understand that," General Manager Theo Epstein said. "If I were a fan of another team and 20,000 Red Sox fans came into my ballpark, it would [tick] me off too."
"We go into parks, and anywhere from one-third to one-half the fans are rooting for the Red Sox," Henry said. "That doesn't necessarily endear you to everyone. Our payroll has grown as our revenues have grown. That doesn't endear you to everyone either."
Not that Red Sox President Larry Lucchino wants to entertain comparisons to the Yankees, a franchise he once called the Evil Empire.
"Don't go there," Lucchino said. "We are not the new Yankees. We are the improved Red Sox."
Sorry, Larry, but you're not far off. The more Fall Classics you appear in, and the more your fans establish themselves as some of the most insufferable numbnutses in sport, the more you slowly morph into everything you once hated.
One of the most interesting things about this year's ALCS is the role played by the Boston Red Sox. In all their playoff appearances before 2004 the Red Sox carried the monkey of 1918 on their backs and each failure reinforced the belief that they were a cursed franchise. It was a grueling history but one that made them the consummate underdog and made fans around the country change their citizenship to "Red Sox Nation."
But then they won the World Series and shed the straitjacket of always falling apart when the games mattered the most. That win coincided with a major increase in spending as the team tried to keep pace with the Yankees. They bought players here and abroad, grew the payroll and became a baseball behemoth. That's not the profile of an underdog, not when you're playing a team whose historical futility spawned a comedic movie, but team President Larry Lucchino still wants your pity.
"To say we're no longer underdogs seems to be going too far. We're in the division where Goliath resides. Something that has lasted for a considerable number of years does not disappear overnight."
It's amazing that a team as good as the Sox could be run by someone as stupid as Lucchino.
China will enter a team in Arizona Fall League, and it will be coached by former major leaguers Jim Lefebvre and Bruce Hurst.
Barry Larkin, Tom Lawless and Duffy Dyer will assist in the instruction of the Chinese team, the first to participate in the Fall League. The United States also has a team in the Fall League, which starts Oct. 9 and includes players from big league teams who are not on 40-man rosters.
"The Olympics give us a unique opportunity to showcase baseball to the people of China, and we are happy to help the national team reach its potential," said Jimmie Lee Solomon, an executive vice president in the commissioner's office.
As I've said before, China is a country with around 1.3 billion people in it. So if MLB can start brining its baseball talent stateside, this means more revenue, more growth and more fans for the league. Certainly nothing wrong with that.
Via the excellent catch-all BBTF comes this parody of Red Sox Nation and a perceived dumbing-down of the fan base at Fenway, something people in every fan base complain about but which has traditionally been lodged at Wrigley Field. Now, it's the Red Sox fratmosphere that people are decrying ... but fake Larry loves it!
Lucchino goes on to explain that they have done extensive research to support this marketing strategy. "Let me say unequivocally that the stupid fan is very important to us," he says earnestly. "We've done focus groups with hundreds of stupid fans to really get into their mindset and see what drives them. For instance, we found that they'll pay almost anything for a beer as long as there is no limit to how many they are served. That's why our policy is that no matter how drunk a fan is, if they can somehow manage to stagger their way to the concession stand-we'll keep selling them beer." Lucchino said that research indicates that stupid fans don't mind not having any recollection of the game. "Hey, I love watching baseball, but who am I to tell someone what constitutes a fun time at the game?"
Hard to argue with that, right?
In semi-seriousness, I get really tired of the "frat boys" argument regarding various fan bases. Baseball fans are baseball fans, and you're just as likely to get some distracting drunk twentysomethings in front of you in Arizona as you are in the Wrigley bleachers. Same goes for Red Sox fans. If your team is selling out every game and attracting casual fans in addition to the diehards with scorebooks in their hands, count your blessings. That can only be good for your favorite franchise.
"So I wanted to play a practical joke on Larry," he revealed in an exclusive e-mail yesterday. "John Henry was in on it with me. I told John to get Larry down to the field at 12:30. I put on the Wally suit (it was about 200 degrees in the suit), I walked out on the field and, after shaking a bunch of kids' hands -- isn't that what I'm supposed to do? -- I walked up to John and shook his hand.
"Then I walked up to Larry and tousled his hair. He had that look on him which said, 'What the hell are you doing?'
"I then took three rubber baseballs that I had in my hand and fired them at his head. Now he was getting extremely irritated.
"I then went up to him, started to push him, and tousled his hair again. He said, 'What is going on with you?'
"I put up my mitts and pretended to fight him. Now he was really getting angry."
Lucchino is notorious within the team for having a short fuse, which is what made him such an easy mark. There were kids around, and considering Lucchino was on the verge of scarring them for life by pummeling the unknown man inside the Wally costume to a bloody pulp, it was then that Werner finally yelled out, "Larry, it's me! Tom!"
Werner admitted that Lucchino wasn't quite as amused as he and Henry were. I'm guessing Henry is pretty much untouchable, but Werner might want to consider having an intern start his car and taste his lunch for the next couple of weeks.
Attention baseball people: Are you from Western PA? Have you ever worked with a mildly successful small market club? Or helped rebuild a big market club? Do you know Robert Nutting? Could you possibly be described as "blue collar" or "hard working" or any other cliche that is often applied to Pittsburgh?
If you answered "yes" to any of those questions, chances are quite good that you'll be hearing your name linked to the open Pittsburgh Pirates' CEO position any day now! I know, I know, it's a dream job. Anyways, John Perrotto of the Beaver County Times gives the first list of potential replacements for Kevin McClatchy today. The current thinking is that even though Bob Nutting owns most of the team, he knows squat about baseball and will look for a baseball person to replace McClatchy while running the business side of things himself.
The thing about this list is that Perrotto didn't actually talk to Nutting about who he was considering hiring, he talked to other people about who they think Nutting might think about. The most prominent names on the list are Larry Lucchino (like he would leave Boston for Pittsburgh), Jim Duquette, and Dan Duquette (pictured). Most of the people are employed by other teams, meaning the Pirates would need to get permission just to talk to them. Personally, I just hope it's not a Duquette, for everyone's sake (except Orioles' fans that would likely pay Nutting to hire Jim away).
After being introduced as the newest member of the Yankees, 
The architect behind one of the most successful periods in Red Sox history is going to remain in Boston for awhile. General manager 
Whether the Red Sox win the 2007 World Series or not, the mere appearance, the second in four years -- and the plodding, powerful way they got there -- has confirmed a sudden truth: the Boston Red Sox are a monolith. 
One of the most interesting things about this year's ALCS is the role played by the Boston Red Sox. In all their playoff appearances before 2004 the Red Sox carried the monkey of 1918 on their backs and each failure reinforced the belief that they were a cursed franchise. It was a grueling history but one that made them the consummate underdog and made fans around the country change their citizenship to "Red Sox Nation."
Via the excellent catch-all 
Mascots can get away with a lot of things, whether it's 
Attention baseball people: Are you from Western PA? Have you ever worked with a mildly successful small market club? Or helped rebuild a big market club? Do you know Robert Nutting? Could you possibly be described as "blue collar" or "hard working" or any other cliche that is often applied to Pittsburgh? 
