February 26th, 2007 → 4:34 pm @ Seth Mnookin
Hey, guess what: Manny arrived at the Sox spring training site in Ft. Myers. Here’s proof.
And here’s proof that Boston is, without a doubt, the city most in need of some perspective of the relative importance of baseball. Since this morning, the Globe and the Herald have combined for 12, count em, 12 blog posts on the situation down in Florida.
Here are a rundown of the Globe‘s entries:
Manny’s Here
Ramirez Ready for Work
Manny in the Cages
“10 bucks for a haircut”
Q&A with Manny’s agent
Q&A transcript
Manny vs. Dice K
Dice-K’s session
Manic Monday
And the Herald‘s:
Manny’s in the Fort
Manny’s agent, not Manny, speaks
Dice-K update
Contrast that to the three dailies in New York. The Times* insofar as I can tell, doesn’t have a Yankees blog. The Daily News has posted eight Yankees blog entries in the past week, and that’s a week that’s included Mo’s talk of leaving New York, the Bernie Williams situation, and the A-Rod/Jeter clearing of the air. The two Post blogs total 11 entries in the past week: seven in Joel Sherman’s spring training diary and another four in the tabloid’s catch-all Bombers blog.
It’s a suffocating situation. Just ask David Wells, who recently told the Globe‘s Nick Cafardo:
“‘It was the worst. You go to a mall with your kids and you have people always wanting to take pictures. They should call it ‘Picturetown’ not ‘Beantown.’ … Listen, I know the people are Red Sox-friendly. They love the Red Sox. I understand that. They have to understand that when we’re not at the ballpark, we’re not subject to autographs and pictures and we need to be able to enjoy ourselves. I don’t think they see that and don’t get it.’
New York, where Wells spent four seasons, ‘is a cakewalk compared to Boston,’ he said. “But you know what? Boston is a great town. When I was playing against them, it was great coming in. Great stuff in that town. Great restaurants and nightlife. Historical stuff.
‘But you have to be able to deal with it. That’s why Manny [Ramírez] is always a little loopy — because he can’t do stuff. If you want to be subject to that kind of stuff, God bless you. But as you get older, you want to relax.'”
Relax? As a member of the Red Sox? Dude…get a grip.
* And, as reader TPIRman points out…I’m wrong about the lack of a Times baseball blog. (Shoot, it’s not like I’ve written a book about the Times or anything.) “Bats,” the Times blog, has two-dozen posts up from the past week; that covers the Mets, the Yankees, and the rest of MLB (including everything from Ichiro to Bonds). And, naturally, there are three posts dedicated to the Red Sox included in there.
Post Categories: 2007 Spring Training & David Wells & Manny Ramirez & Red Sox Fans & Sports Reporters
February 24th, 2007 → 12:30 pm @ Seth Mnookin
On ESPN.com, Jayson Stark has a column about how the Red Sox wish Jonathan Papelbon would remain as closer. “Under ordinary circumstances,” Stark writes, “no team moves men who are that good at a job that important to some other job. You sure won’t see the Red Sox trying Manny Ramirez at shortstop this spring. And David Ortiz won’t be hitting leadoff.” More to the point, regardless of how effective Ortiz is at moving runners from first to third, you won’t see him punching the ball to the opposite field instead of swinging for the fences, which is exactly what the Red Sox wanted him to do when they signed him.
And, as Papelbon himself knows (“the Red Sox drafted me as a starter,” Paps told Stark, “and that’s what I’m going to be”), he’ll be most valuable in a spot in which he can pitch the most innings. It’s common sense that 200 innings is worth more than 70. That’s why mid-level starters get $12 million a year and, in ’06, Mo made $10.5 mil. Unfortunately, common sense isn’t a lot of sportswriters’ strengths.
There are plenty of exceptions out there, and regular readers of this blog are well aware that of I think Rob Bradford is one of them. It’s obviously good news that Bradford has a new blog, Bradford on Baseball. If you haven’t already, check it out. You’ll be glad you did.
Post Categories: Jayson Stark & Jonathan Papelbon & Rob Bradford
February 24th, 2007 → 12:13 pm @ Seth Mnookin
There’ve been lots of good obits of Denis Johnson, the only think I haven’t really seen is a good appreciation of ’80s-era short shorts. I always thought DJ should have been more of an urban hero, the Celtics own John Starks (except DJ played spectacular defense, didn’t try to show up local legends, and didn’t choke in the clutch). Alas, Boston has no Beastie Boys equivalent, and it’s hard to imagine the New Kids busting out with “I got a heart like DJ / going to play / pass me the mic and I’ll be rocking all day.”
My memories DJ consist of a lot of A-Gonesque defensive gems, but, of course, whenever I see his freckled face it’s impossible for me not to flash back to the final seconds of Game 5 of the ’87 Eastern Conference Finals. I was still dealing with the trauma of the previous October, and had banished every member of my family from our TV room so I could nurse my despair solo. Then, of course, there was Most’s “Aaaaaaand, THERE’S A STEAL BY BIRD! UNDERNEATH TO DJ! LAYS IT UP AND IN! WHAT A PLAY BY BIRD!” By this point, it’s cliche to say that Johnson doesn’t get the credit he deserves for being on top of the unfolding play and hitting a damn tough layup from the left side. (That was one of the many game winners DJ, a self-described “horrible shooter,” nailed; the biggest ones always seemed to be on the biggest stages.) In our family, that will always be the day that we put the fear of god into our new cat, who responded to my frenzied screams by disappearing for more than a week. We found her under the radiator in our pantry. She was never the same.
Post Categories: 1980s Celtics & DJ
February 24th, 2007 → 11:48 am @ Seth Mnookin
I’m all for new revenue streams (so long as the team’s ownership remains committed to putting some of that revenue back into the team’s baseball operations, which thus far most definitely seems to be the case). But even I found yesterday’s announcement that Wise Foods had been named the “official potato chip and cheez doodle sponsor of the Boston Red Sox” a bit much. This, no joke, is how the press release read:
“Wise Foods, Inc., a leading regional producer of salty snacks, and the Boston Red Sox announced today that Wise has been named Official Potato Chip and Cheez Doodle® Sponsor of the team. … Under the three-year agreement, Wise will supply Wise potato chips, Wise kettle chips and Cheez Doodles® to all Red Sox games at Fenway Park. Wise will have prominent right-field wall signage in the area of the stadium known as Pesky Corner and will sponsor a new feature segment on the main Red Sox scoreboard. The company will have rights to use the Red Sox logos and team marks on its products and in promotional efforts throughout New England. … ‘We are pleased to welcome Wise Snacks to the Red Sox family and into our home at Fenway Park,’ said Sam Kennedy, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. ‘Great snacks are a tradition at baseball games, and this agreement makes sure Red Sox fans have a great selection of delicious Wise products to choose from.'”
Yeah. I can’t wait until the Red Sox wives start promoting Summer’s Eve Anti-Itch Cloths. You do, after all, need to feel refreshed while you’re enjoying those salty snacks.
Post Categories: Corporate Sponsorship
February 22nd, 2007 → 10:21 pm @ Seth Mnookin
OK, fine, that’s probably an exaggeration, but David Ortiz has to be up there. (There was some brief discussion of Ortiz’s relative pay in today’s press conference.) To recap, here’s a rundown of the man’s paydays since he’s been in Boston.
2003: $1,250,000
2004: $4,587,500
2005: $5,250,000
2006: $6,500,000
2007-2010: $12,500,000/yr (with a team option in 2011).
If you throw in the $2 million signing bonus Ortiz got when he re-upped last April, that’s a total of $82,087,500 for nine years of service (or $69,587,500 for eight years, if the Sox decide he’s not worth the $12.5 in ’11). Put another way, if Ortiz never played another game in his life and still collected the four remaining years of his contract, he’d have averaged $17,396,875 per year for ’03-’06. That’s less than Manny, Jeter, and A-Rod…and none of them has finished in the top 5 in MVP voting each of those years. (Fine, fine…A-Rod did win the award twice. But his lips are blue.)
Eighty two million dollars — or sixty nine million, for that matter — is an obscene amount of money, and it speaks to nothing so much as the insane paydays afforded professional athletes than there’s any world in which this could be considered below market value. But take a gander at this season’s free agent signings. That’s right: Ortiz was signed last April for just a little more than guys like Gil Meche and Ted Lilly are making.
Post Categories: David Ortiz & Major league contracts
February 22nd, 2007 → 10:01 pm @ Seth Mnookin
I’ve only been to one spring training in my life — 2005’s, when I was just beginning work on Feeding the Monster (bookplates, get yer free bookplates here!). Spring training is, for the most part, pretty tedious stuff…especially before the games start. (I never cease to amazed at the number of fans who truck down to Ft. Myers just to watch the workouts!) But every now and then, I miss it.
Today is one of those days. I would have liked to have seen Dice-K’s 103-pitch bullpen session, which, apparently, is no big deal for the $51 million man. I definitely would have liked to have been on hand for Curt’s press conference after Theo told him the Sox wouldn’t be offering him a guaranteed contract for ’08 before the end of the year. And I’ll never, ever tire of watching David Ortiz play baseball or talk to the press. Now that I’m no longer a working journalist — or at least one covering the Red Sox — I have absolutely no problem admitting that Ortiz is, far and away, my favorite player on the team, and certainly the only one who can get away with wearing lime green Izod shirts on a regular basis.
There’s more than a month before I’ll see the ’07 edition of the Sox in person. And yeah, I’m looking forward to it.
Post Categories: 2007 Spring Training
February 22nd, 2007 → 11:09 am @ Seth Mnookin
Here’s a lesson I should heed: when trying to cut back on interblogging, jumping into the maelstrom du jour isn’t the best way to go about it. And yet, and yet…I can’t resist one quick comment on February’s annual Mannypalooza.
I’m not going to get into the whole does-Manny-get-a-fair-rap-in-the-media debate, just as I’m not going to get into a Manny-being-Manny or a Manny-as-spoiled-manchild debate. But Keith Foulke’s recent retirement — a retirement scheduled in a way that would assure he wouldn’t collect any of the $5 million he was set to receive from the Indians — reminded me of two other Boston icons: Bobby Orr and Ted Williams. After leaving Boston, Orr played a total of only 26 games over three season for the Chicago Blackhawks. Because he was being paid to play hockey, and because he wasn’t playing, he refused to cash his paychecks.
Williams, who was rightly accused more than once of being a bit of a prima donna, also turned down money he was owed when, after a 1959 season in which he hit .254, he insisted on a pay cut from $125,000 to $90,000.
Manny Ramirez makes $20 million a year. One of the things he is paid to do is come to spring training, and February 27 is the mandatory reporting date; his spokesman, Julian Tavarez, said Manny would be a late arrival due to his mother’s illness, although it has since come out that he’s also scheduled to appear at an antique car show this weekend. Manny, as we all know, is not big fan of rubbing shoulders with the hoi polloi, but by going to said show, he can expect a higher auction price for his ’67 custom Lincoln convertible, a car valued at around $200,000.
Will Manny come back and have his usual .320, 35, 120 season? I’d bet on it. I’ll let you draw conclusions about everything else on your own.
* Edit: Jason Brannon points out that there’s a basketball icon who refused money at the end of his career as well: Larry Bird. Or at least that’s how Brannon remembers it. The story — Bird was a couple of days away from a bonus clause kicking in when he announced his retirement — rings a bell but I can’t find any reference to it online. Anyone?
Post Categories: Manny Ramirez
