Mookie Betts: Same As He Ever Was
About six weeks ago, after watching Mookie Betts go 0-for-5, with 2 strike outs and leaving a couple of runners on base, I had a thought bubble. At the time, Mookie was hitting roughly .240 and slugging below .500. This was the thought bubble: “Has Mookie lost it? Did the Red Sox avoid a catastrophe,…
Fathers + Sons = Baseball
Today is Father’s Day, which is always a frantic holiday for me as my daughters typically leave for camp this weekend, my sisters live in different directions, and it is nearly impossible to make sure every dad in the family has his day. Last year on Father’s Day, I flew to Chicago and took in…
Are the Red Sox Good?
My son, who in his 20 years orbiting the sun has known essentially nothing but triumph for our beloved Red Sox, remains an eternal optimist. Every year, he views the team through the prism of inevitable success. Pitching woes? Those will be solved when Chris Sale comes back. Hitting woes? Triston Casas will be the…
RED Hare Running / WHITE & BLUE Hair Cheering: A Very Special Patriots’ Day
As a child of parents who grew up in Boston, the city holds a special place in our ancestral heart. As multi-generation Red Sox fans, the team holds a special place in our familial heart. As a two-decade runner and marathon finisher, the Boston Marathon holds a special place in my beating heart. And as…
The Blue in the Sky
We currently have the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years, but we could always use more jobs. Going back many years, I have had a plan to add at least 15 new ones. And while these jobs wouldn’t do much for the national labor statistics, they would do a great deal for our enjoyment of…
Bring on the Chaos
I have a motto, one that I communicate to my kids as well as anyone I work with, and one that has served me well for over two decades: “Try never to make the same mistake twice.” Because, in the words of Billy Joel, “We’re only human, we’re supposed to make mistakes.” Mistakes are, for…
Attach Some (Payroll) Strings to Stadium Subsidies
I recently read “Field of Schemes” by Neil deMause and Joanna Cagan, which delves into the decades-long grift wherein billionaire owners bilk municipalities out of billions (it used to be millions) of dollars by having them finance stadiums under the threat of relocation. I read that book after reading Dan Moore’s terrific piece in The…
Taking Off My Red Sox?
Joe Posnanski, the fantastic sportswriter and podcaster, simply had enough. After a lifetime of Cleveland Browns fandom, after “Red Right 88,” “The Drive,” “The Fumble,” a middle-of-the night absconding to Baltimore, after a revival of the franchise, after all the heartbreak, and near elation, the ownership of the Browns dropped one additional straw — a…
Re-Examining Andre Ethier
On May 28, 2006, the Los Angeles Dodgers started Matt Kemp in center field and Andre Ethier in left. This was the first time the two “rookie sensations” played together in Dodger blue. Kemp went 1-for-4 to start his career, and Ethier went 0-for-2 with a walk in his 22nd career game. Starting on that late…
Quit Your Whining
In the end, the best team won. That sort of vindicates the system, no? At the beginning of these playoffs, the first under the expanded format wherein 12 teams were allowed into the dance (2020 excepted), there was a great deal of Sturm and Drang about the early outcomes. When the 89-win Padres knocked off…