IainDaniel

Beat me to it.

I mean what the fuck.... we new Tampa was going to be improved... but this is ridiculous.

Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.

Michael Jordan

shiznit2169

It's still early. They will collapse in August-September.

My Journal

IainDaniel

They will make the playoffs.

Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.

Michael Jordan

min0 lee

Boston Red Sox - Now he's a guaranteed out - The Boston Globe





The Red Sox have had it with Manny Ramírez.
Manny has punched his ticket out of town. It's over. O-VA. Adios, amigo. Good night, Irene. Turn out the lights. Last night's 1-0 loss to the Yankees (think they could have used Manny?) was the proverbial last worthless evening.
Ramírez sealed his fate with the club yesterday afternoon. After longtime enabler Terry Francona filled out a lineup card with Manny batting fourth, the Sox made an announcement that Manny could not play in the biggest game of the season. Seems there were problems with his right knee. Manny was a late scratch.
It was extraordinary. In the past, management and the manager would do handstands to excuse Manny's strange acts. No more. This time, the manager - apparently confident there's nothing wrong with the slugger - put Manny's name in the lineup, then sat and waited for Manny to pull himself out of the lineup. Manny complied. Never concerned with wins or losses, Manny told Brad Mills he was unable to play and took himself out of the batting order for the (thus far) biggest game of the season.
It was predictable. It was ridiculous. It was the last straw.
Former state treasurer Bob Crane happened by the EMC Club, pregame, and spoke for many fans when he said, "Manny's got to go. Enough's enough. Fans are finally sick of this guy."
The possibility exists that Manny truly has a sore right knee. No one can get inside the head of an athlete and evaluate game-readiness. If Manny's knee is killing him, there is no way for us to know, and we are wildly unfair to question his condition. I'm willing to take that chance. I don't believe him.
Call me a cynic. Call me a nitwit. Whatever. I'm comfortable with the theory that Manny is using his alleged knee injury to send a message to the ball club. We don't know why. We never know why. Manny shut it down in 2006 and he's toying with the Red Sox again. In the middle of a pennant race. It is despicable. And the front office and his teammates are burning. Off the record, of course.
Ramírez had an MRI yesterday and it was clean. This time, the Sox plan to do something about this situation. Soon.
Ramírez was in the throes of an 11-game hitting streak (.487, 11 for 39) when he showed up at Safeco Field in Seattle Wednesday and told Francona he could not play and could not pinch hit. It was odd.
For the first time since July 2005, when Manny insisted on taking a promised day off in Tampa even though Francona told him he was needed because the team was shorthanded, the manager made no effort to excuse his savant slugger. Francona said Ramírez's name had not appeared on the injury report and the injury took him by surprise.
In the old days, Tito would have talked about a day game after a night game and referenced Manny's multiple complaints about knee problems. There was none of that. The manager said Manny's knee injury came out of the blue. There was no history. It was just Manny being unavailable.
That's what happened yesterday. When the clubhouse doors were thrown open to the media at 3:30, Manny was sitting in front of his locker with an ice pack on his right knee. Despite this, his name was in the starting lineup and when Francona was asked about Manny just after 4 p.m., the manager said, "We told him, 'If you can't play, come tell us.' "
While Tito was speaking, Manny went to Francona's aide-de-camp, Mills, and said he was unable to play. The Sox revised their lineup and media members went to work deciphering the Manny Code.
At 4:36 p.m. owners John Henry and Tom Werner were standing behind the batting cage, blissfully unaware their star had bailed yet again. When they learned the hard news, they saw Francona emerge from the dugout.
"We'll go have a conversation," said Werner.
No one was saying much after the meeting.
"No comment," said Henry and Werner.
When Theo Epstein saw this typist approaching, notepad and pen in hand, the general manager put his Blackberry up to his ear.
"Veteran move," said Theo.
Something's got to give. The owners are mad. The manager is frustrated. The GM is frustrated. Teammates are angry. Even with sycophants who excuse everything, Manny may have finally exhausted his reservoir of goodwill. He quit on the team in 2006 and now it looks like he's quitting again. Is that OK with you, Red Sox Nation?
Manny's snit comes after he flattened 64-year-old traveling secretary Jack McCormick over a ticket allotment in Houston. It comes after he ripped ownership for allegedly lying to him in contract negotiations. It comes after he was rebuked by Henry. It comes after his giggle-fest when he played a popup into a triple while the Sox were being swept in Anaheim.
This might be a poor read of the tea leaves by Manny. He is not as valuable as he was. For $20 million (club option for 2009 and again in 2010) the ball club can expect to do better than .301 with 19 homers and 61 RBIs after 104 games. Stat geeks, take note: Manny's OPS is down the last two years. By a lot.
Sox management is at the end of its long rope. This has been an interesting and rewarding eight years, but Manny is acting out in a decidedly unflattering fashion. Red Sox owners have had enough. There will be meetings with the slugger in the next few days. Something has to happen.
The Yankees beat the Red Sox, 1-0, last night to close within one game of Boston in the loss column. It was supposed to be the magical night of the return of David Ortiz. Instead, it was another ridiculous night in Mannyland.
Stay tuned. The manager and the owners have had enough.

Triple Threat

If he wasn't the gifted hitter that he is, he would have been gone a long, long time ago.

min0 lee

I Are Baboon

Sox acquire Paul Byrd. Good. They could use the help. Clay Buchholz has been horrible this year.

IainDaniel

He has been on fire as of late. Good acquisition, surprised he didn't get traded earlier.

Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.

Michael Jordan

I Are Baboon

4-0 with a sub 2.00 ERA since the break.

min0 lee

Two words Schilling....fuck you!
BY MARK LELINWALLA AND LARRY MCSHANE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Updated Tuesday, September 9th 2008, 5:04 PM

Stick a big red sock in it.

Big Apple-bashing Boston pitcher Curt Schilling unloaded on New York's "bitter and miserable" fans Tuesday, mocking the Yankees and picking the Patriots to whip the Jets this weekend.

PHOTO GALLERY: INSIDE SPORTS' GREATEST RIVALRY

Schilling ripped New Yorkers for reveling in the season-ending injury to Tom Brady - and then rubbed buckets of salt in the wounds of Yankees' fans in a nasty Boston radio appearance.

"The Yankees suck this year, and they're bitter and mad and they're making excuses over that," the over-opinionated Schilling said on WEEI-AM.

YANKEES BRAWL, BUT THEY LACK PUNCH

"Now they've got Tom going down, so New York's excited."

Schilling, yet to throw a pitch this year due to a shoulder injury, showed his motormouth was in All-Star form as he continued his rant.

HANK: GIRARDI 'WILL BE BACK' IN '09

"The sad part is going to be when [the Patriots] beat the Jets," added Schilling, predicting a possible 11-5 finish for the Brady-free Patriots this season.

The veteran has memorably lashed out at New York before, ridiculing the Yankee mystique, detailing his delight in making Yankees fans "shut up" and criticizing Alex Rodriguez.

This time, his diatribe went beyond just fans of the pinstripers, painting local sports rooters with a broad and brutal brush.

"The euphoria in New York is palpable," Schilling said when asked about Brady's injury. "They want us to be as bitter and mad and miserable as they are, and unfortunately it's not going to happen."

Schilling, unimpressed by the Yankees' run of 13 straight postseason appearances, said the Bronx Bombers were just another team lately.

"I was front row and center when their quote/unquote dynasty ended," said Schilling - referring to Boston's stunning 2004 defeat of the Yankees in the American League Championship Series.

The veteran righty, pitching with a blood-soaked sock after injuring a tendon, defeated the Yankees to force a Game 7.

The Red Sox won the deciding game, coming back from an 0-3 deficit and sealing the Yankees' historic collapse.

Before the series, Schilling said, "I'm not sure I can think of any scenario more enjoyable than making 55,000 people from New York shut up."

Three years earlier, asked about the "mystique and aura" surrounding the Yankees, Schilling joked: "Those are dancers in a nightclub." That was when Schilling was a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks - the team that beat the Yanks in the World Series that year.

When A-Rod decided to opt out of his contract with the Yankees during the World Series coronation of the Red Sox last season, Schilling attacked the Bombers third baseman.

"All I heard was cha-ching, right after I heard A-Rod opted out," Schilling said.

Schilling's latest comments were made as the Red Sox remained in position to overtake Tampa Bay for sole possession of the American League East.

New York fans - grudgingly - had to give the loud-mouthed lout his due this year.

"He's saying the truth," said Ariel Ramos, 17, a high school student at Kennedy in the Bronx. "I can't be mad."

Pedro Rosa, 33, a Brooklyn security guard, agreed the Yankees were awful - but warned that New England could suffer a tough fall and winter.

"[Schilling] should watch his mouth," Rosa said. "Last time I checked, Boston doesn't have Manny Ramirez. As for Brady, he's right. What do they need him for? So they could go 18-1?"

lmcshane@nydailynews.com

I Are Baboon

Curt Schilling is an attention whore.

min0 lee

That's why I like Brady a lot, he's the opposite of Curt.

soxmuscle

Yankee fans can't handle the truth.

Not one thing Schilling said in there is false.

Age: 20 | Height: 5'7" | Weight: 150 lbs | Penis: 12 inches

soxmuscle

The Red Sox have had far worse injuries than the Yankees and yet are a game and a half out.

You'd think with a payroll almost $100 million dollars higher than any other team in the league, depth wouldn't be a problem; meet the 2008 New York Yankees.

Age: 20 | Height: 5'7" | Weight: 150 lbs | Penis: 12 inches

min0 lee

I don't think I am bitter nor am I miserable.

min0 lee

Schilling is a fat classless media attention whore, don't like him at all.

min0 lee

Boston Red Sox
Updated Player Pos Injury Status Expected Return
06/24/2008 Curt Schilling SP Shoulder DL 15-day DL. Out for the season
09/10/08 David Aardsma RP Groin DL 15-day DL. On Class A rehab assignment
09/09/08 J.D. Drew RF Back Questionable Questionable for Sept. 10 vs. Tampa Bay
08/31/08 Julio Lugo SS Quadriceps DL



08/31/2008 Chien-Ming Wang SP Foot DL 15-day DL. Out for the season
08/23/2008 Phil Hughes SP Rib DL 60-day DL. On Triple-A rehab assignment
08/03/2008 Edwar Ramirez RP Suspension Suspend 3-game suspension. Playing amid appeal
06/15/2008 Andrew Brackman P Elbow DL 60-day DL. Out for the season
09/03/08 Jonathan Albaladejo RP Elbow DL 60-day DL. On Class A rehab assignment
09/09/08 Ivan Rodriguez C Suspension Suspend Likely facing suspension, pending review
07/28/08 Jorge Posada C Shoulder DL

soxmuscle

From Cashman to Hank, the front office execs have all made comments ranging from pathetic to comical. Not only are they bitter but they sound miserable in the process.

Age: 20 | Height: 5'7" | Weight: 150 lbs | Penis: 12 inches

soxmuscle

He is fat.
He is an attention whore.

I wouldn't say classless though. He goes on to WEEI every week to promote his charity, just because the radio hosts asks him these questions and he's a straight shooter doesn't mean he has no class.

Age: 20 | Height: 5'7" | Weight: 150 lbs | Penis: 12 inches

soxmuscle

You're forgetting the time Josh Beckett missed and the time David Ortiz missed.

The injuries that count for both teams are Posada, Wang, Matsui, and Chamberlain for the Yanks and Ortiz, Drew, Beckett, Schilling, Lugo for the Sox.

Both aren't fun, it just so happens that the Yankees are the only ones complaining about it.

Age: 20 | Height: 5'7" | Weight: 150 lbs | Penis: 12 inches

min0 lee

I don't really see people complaining, we lost.....it's as simple as that.

The only people making a stink about this is...damn, you and Schilling?

Can't you guys win gracefully, I mean you still have to beat the Rays and stuff...

min0 lee

I just wish red sox fans would see that they are basically the same kind of fans the yankees are. Just farther north.

soxmuscle

Hank Steinbrenner:
Maybe next year, you poor sport.

Age: 20 | Height: 5'7" | Weight: 150 l