The Good Ship Red Sox Is Taking On Water and Going Down Fast

There are many reasons for choosing the motif of the Titanic sinking to capture the current state of my erstwhile favorite baseball franchise.

• Fenway Park opened in April of 1912 - the same week that the doomed ocean liner met its fate at the bottom of the cold Atlantic.
• Like the 2011 edition of the Red Sox, who were labelled entering the season by the Boston Herald as "The Best Team Ever," the Titanic was touted as "unsinkable."
• The Titanic came to grief after encountering a physical object - an iceberg - that should have been anticipated; the Red Sox fell victim to a chilling series of physical injuries that better conditioning may have prevented.
• Both "ships" foundered in large part because of the hubris of owners and designers who spent recklessly and failed to include enough lifeboats to deal with potential disaster. Theo should have done a better job shoring up the leaky bullpen and decimated starting rotation.

This morning's Boston Globe included a disturbing column by Bob Hohler:

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2011/10/12/red_sox_unity_dedication_dissolved_during_epic_late_season_collapse

The current state of affairs is disastrous on more levels than I have time to enumerate. Here are a few bullet points that highlight some of the self-inflicted wounds:

• The second highest payroll in MLB missed the playoffs for the second consecutive year.
• The players stopped listening to Tito Francona, so he was the first sacrificial lamb to go after the historic September collapse.
• The highly touted starting rotation let themselves get out of shape and had a collective ERA in September in the neighborhood of 6.00.
• They abandoned the dugout during crucial games as the team was desperate to hang onto a playoff berth, retreating the the club house to play video games, drink beers and scarf down fried chicken. Animal House seems exemplary by comparison.
• The General Manager, Theo Epstein, is decamping to Chicago to take over the helm of the long-suffering Cubs.
• The owners and senior officials (read John Henry, Tom Werner and Larry Lucchino) have apparently decided to continue their scorched earth policy of leaking damaging details about anyone leaving the organization. Tito Francona is merely the latest victim of their despicable smear tactics.
• The team has spent 10 years refurbishing Fenway Park and the Red Sox brand. In two weeks time, they have undone all of that hard work and turned the Sox once again into the laughing stock of major league baseball.

This lifelong Red Sox fan is officially disgusted and disgruntled. This band of rogues - those playing fast and loose with professional responsibility and integrity - on the field and in the offices on Yawkey Way have betrayed their fandom. They will now have to win back my trust, loyalty, mind share and love. I am not sure they even would know how to go about doing that, or would even acknowledge how much damage they have done and continue to do to the most rabid and loyal fans in baseball.

Shame upon them.

Go Sox - go away!

Sadly.

Al

Gladwell Does It Again- Mini-Review of "What the Dog Saw"

Each time I read a book written by Malcolm Gladwell I find myself quoting him in conversations for the next several months. He finds topics to write about that intersect perfectly with concerns that my business associates and friends and I talk about. He has done it again with "What The Dog Saw," a compilation of his best columns from The New Yorker.

Here is a case in point. This week I received a frantic call from a friend of mine who is training to be a professional musician. He was stressing out over an upcoming recital in which he had to revert to a style of singing that he had not used for a while. In practice he did fine, but in preliminary performances for a small audience, he felt as if he was "choking." I was able to quote from one of the chapters of Gladwell's book in which he analyzes examples of spectacular failure, looking at the difference between "choking" and "panicking." Now that I have finished reading the book, I will be mailing it today to my friend. Once he reads Gladwell's word, I am sure he will be "singing a different tune"!

Enjoy!

Al