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Mystified by the Red Sox’s lost season, yesterday I turned to where every sports fan goes to glean inside information about the world of sports they can’t get anywhere else: sports talk radio.
Brooks is on Twitter, Facebook and at sportsbybrooks@gmail.com
In 2004, Boston sports fans enjoyed the greatest playoff comeback in sports history, as the Red Sox overcame a 3-0 ALCS deficit to defeat the Yankees en route to their first World Series Championship since 1918.
It was hard not to root for the Sox back then. But since 2004, knowing Boston sports fans as I do, it’s been hard not to root against Boston and its insufferable, hipster-strewn “nation” of followers.
While I didn’t care enough earlier this month to actively root against the Boston Bruins as they somehow blew a 3-0 playoff series lead after frittering away a 3-0 Game 7 advantage against Philly, I must admit recent developments in the Orlando-Celtics NBA Eastern Conference Finals have me intrigued.
Consider these comparisons between the 2004 Yankees-Red Sox ALCS and the 2010 series between the Magic and Celtics.
If someone from outside the United States asked me what the best town in America was to get a feel for what Americans are like, I’d send them to Boston. Local folk are patriotic, funny and not shy about physical confrontation. Love The Bean.
So I was appalled to see a male Red Sox fan, who was afraid to give out his name, crying to the BOSTON HERALD this week about Evan Longoria trying to hook up with his “girlfriend” while the Rays were busy sweeping up the Fens last weekend.
“So this guy won’t stop texting my girl,” said our annoyed dime-dropper. “We are at a concert at the House Of Blues and he messages her: ‘I’m in town what are you up to?’ She replies, ‘With my man at a concert,’ and he says, ‘That’s unfortunate, etc. etc.”
Apparently Evan met the lady in question - who works as a bartender - on one of his previous forays to Fenway and he wanted to get up to bat again. And Longoria wasn’t taking no for an answer.
“He continued texting her all night and the next day. ‘Let’s go shopping, it’s harmless,’ ” said our spy. “And the next day, ‘Let’s go to a movie today.’ ”
The bummed out BF said he tried to “remain calm” during the Text Offensive, but he was rather aggravated. Especially when he found out that Evan was also texting another bartender asking her out, too!
“She, too, has a boyfriend and has told him to lay off, but he stays persistent,” he said.
Now our source - who was adamant about remaining nameless - insists he isn’t just slagging the Rays’ Romeo after the particularly savage beating his team put on our hometown heroes. He believes he is performing a public service!
“I think we should put this guy on blast and let all the guys around town know to make sure you don’t leave your GFs around Evan Longoria while he’s in town because he has no class or respect for other men,” he said.
Okay, if your “girlfriend” gave her number to Longoria, she was obviously interested in hanging out with him in the future. So I don’t blame the Rays third baseman one bit for going back to the well.
At the very least, if I’m going to call out Longoria, man-to-man, I’m not going to hide behind the skirt of the lady who wrote the Herald piece.
Longoria and the Rays got a big, fat laugh from that sad, little Red Sox fan.
In case you don’t know, the Boston Red Sox was the last MLB team to sign a black player - 14 long years after Jackie Robinson inked a deal with the Dodgers. Because of that, there’s been plenty of speculation as to why it took the Bosox so long to integrate.
Longtime baseball writer and editor Glenn Stout went back into the archives to see if he could turn up any published evidence of racism by the Red Sox Owner at that time: Tom Yawkey. What he culled, from a 1965 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED piece on Yawkey, was startling.
Upon examination, Yawkey’s final statement - “We scouted them right along, but we didn’t want one because he was a Negro. We wanted a ballplayer,” might be the most telling statement of all.
For if we follow Yawkey’s logic – “We looked for black ballplayers but we wanted talent first and foremost” – then compare it to the fact that from the time of (Jackie) Robinson’s signing through July of 1959 the Red Sox neither put an African player on the major league field who they signed themselves nor traded for one, the conclusion is inescapable: Tom Yawkey and his organization simply did not believe that any African American ballplayer had the talent to play for the Red Sox.
This, despite the fact that they were playing on every other team in baseball, and that by 1959 there were dozens and dozens of African Americans winning championships, winning Cy Young awards and MVP awards and playing on All-Star teams throughout the major leagues, players like Henry Aaron, Willie Mays, Ernie Banks, Don Newcombe and many, many, many more.
But none, apparently, were good enough for Boston. “We wanted ballplayers,” indeed.
There’s more.
We’re fully stocked with fun-size Milky Way bars here at SbB headquarters, and if there isn’t a wide variety of people dressed in various versions of the above costume tonight, we’ll be sorely disappointed. Party hardy, everyone; but use caution. We value each and every one of you.
Wasn’t it the ancient Mayans who predicted that the end of the world would come when a Red Sox fan donated bone marrow to save the life of a Yankees fan? That time has arrived. (*Earth trembles*). It’s been nice knowing you, everybody.
Look at this warm family portrait above. And then I have these snapshots of Osama bin Laden making out with Salman Rushdie that I’d like to share. The guy on the left, Boston resident Steve Karas, provided stem cells that saved the life of young Matthew Welling, 3. And that’s Matthew’s dad, Michael, in the middle, who is a frothing Yankees fan. Also I think Jimmy Carter may have been involved. Your Nobel Peace Prize is in the mail, gentlemen. Read more…
One of the joys of living on the Pacific: Early morning playoff baseball!
Actually he probably is up. (Freeway trash detail always starts at dawn.)
As you can see in the photo below, the standard for being called out on your way to first base has changed a bit. Now, apparently, not only must you tag the runner, but you must also tackle him before he reaches the base and tie his feet, rodeo style. At least if the umpire is C.B. Bucknor.
Red Sox Nation is a little miffed this morning over a couple of blown calls by Bucknor, who not only inexplicably missed this tag by Kevin Youkilis, but botched another call at first in the sixth. And within minutes of the conclusion of the Angels’ 5-0 win in Game 1, the assault on Bucknor’s Wikipedia page had begun. Fun! Read more…
As we begin the ALDS showdown between the Red Sox and Angels tonight, please take a moment prior to the opening pitch to channel some good thoughts toward Boston shortstop Alex Gonzalez. He could use them right now.
Whatever it takes for a professional to get into the right frame of mind to play the game of baseball at this level day after day, multiply that by about a hundred for Gonzalez. The Boston shortstop has had a lot on his mind the past two years, as his 3-year-old son, Johan, is in a coma in a Florida hospital, doctors holding out little hope that he will ever recover. But somehow, his father carries on. Read more…
If there’s one thing I hate, it’s starting off my Friday with a gruesome description of how lab workers played batting practice with the cryogenically frozen head of baseball legend Ted Williams. That’s the claim in a new book by a former executive at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Yikes. The freezing of Williams’ head had become the stuff of jokes and legend before this revelation surfaced, unfortunately, and now it all just reaches a whole new, creepy level. And that’s not the only shocking revelation in the book. Read more…
