Dan Shaughnessy doesn't think the Boston Red Sox deserve to be in the playoffs. He doesn't feel this way like how I feel the Atlanta Braves don't deserve a playoff spot because they have played badly, but I will surely take it if they are lucky enough to make it. No, Dan thinks the commissioner should step it. He thinks if the Red Sox make it, then Bud Selig should kick them out of the playoffs due to the best interests of baseball. Why would Dan take this position? Because he hates the Red Sox and wants their fans to suffer. What kills me is I read (presumed) Red Sox fans in the comments agreeing with him. Since when did you become too good to make the playoffs, even if you struggled down the stretch in doing so? I'm sure other teams would love to back into the playoffs like the Red Sox have. Quit being a spoiled sports fan.
With nowhere else to turn, I called baseball commissioner Bud Selig yesterday.
Weird, many Boston-area natives, with nowhere else to turn, called upon the editor of the Boston Globe after reading this column.
Left him a message:
They left him a message: Please don’t make us read Dan Shaughnessy’s columns anymore. We know you make money off his negative drivel, but tweaking Boston-area fans and making them hate themselves isn’t the type of thing we want to read anymore.
How about banishing the 2011 Red Sox from postseason play on the grounds of horsebleep play for the entire month of September?
Dan Shaughnessy gets off on writing this kind of crap. He gets the self-hating Red Sox fans to say, “Yeah, we don’t deserve to make the playoffs,” and he gets Red Sox fans who disagree with him to say, “What the hell are you talking about?” Either way, he gets attention, which is all that really matters to him.
This is Dan Shaughnessy. The same guy who took 30 seconds to make 2011 NFL predictions for the Boston Globe, said the Patriots would go 16-0, and then lose “again” at home in the playoffs. He wrote "again," just to piss off the readers and get a reaction. What a waste. The other writers who contributed to the Globe NFL predictions seemed to take the task seriously, but Shaughnessy seemed to just write his predictions down in 30 seconds and then call it a day. He just wants to be hated for the attention and I can’t believe he takes anything he writes seriously.
One other thing that annoys me about Dan Shaughnessy is he has a Twitter account but only posts links to his columns. What’s the point of that? If people want a link to his column they can go to the Boston Globe sports site. Would it hurt him to Tweet something, other than a link to his column, every once in a while? It probably would hurt Dan because then he would have to interact with the sports fans he blatantly attempts to piss off.
The math says the Sox are probably going to qualify for the tournament,
I have never heard the MLB playoffs referred to as “the tournament.” I think at this point Dan isn’t even paying attention to what he is writing.
The reason the Sox are qualifying for the playoffs is because they put up monthly win/loss records of 19-10, 16-9, 20-6, and 17-12 during May, June, July, and August. So while their September has been terrible, are the Rays or Angels any more worthy to make the playoffs? They have been more (Joe Morgan alert) consistent than the Red Sox, but does that really mean anything if at the end of the year the Red Sox have a better record?
Really, how do you root for these guys anymore? They have the third-highest payroll in baseball.
They had the second highest payroll in 2004 and 2007 when they won the World Series and that didn’t seem to bother Dan when it came time for cheering for the Red Sox. The Yankees and many other teams could have told Dan simply because a team has a high payroll it doesn’t mean that team will make or win the World Series.
It would certainly be stupid to root for them to make the World Series wouldn’t it? I can't think of anyone who would write he would like to see the Red Sox in the World Series. Well, there is this idiot who talked back in July about how great it would be for the Red Sox to make the World Series, even knowing they have baseball’s third highest payroll. It sure seems like rooting for them, but maybe that's only when the Red Sox are winning...
But let's put the nasty stuff on the shelf for a few happy moments and speculate on things we hope to see over the next four months of the baseball season.
Another Boston-New York playoff classic. I realize the rest of America hates the Red Sox and Yankees. Certainly it would be fun to tweak the big payroll boys and see the Tampa Bay Rays in the playoffs again. But we haven't had Red Sox-Yankees since Boston's epic comeback of 2004. It's time for an autumn revival of the greatest rivalry in sports.
A Giants-Red Sox World Series, steeped in tradition. The last time they met in October was in 1912. Fenway is the best of the old ballparks and AT&T is the best of the new breed. Great players, great uniforms, great fans.
What moron could cheer for the Red Sox to make the World Series because of the tradition of Fenway and to continue the rivalry with the Yankees? I can’t believe this person could cheer for the Red Sox to do well, fully knowing they have the third highest payroll! Who is this guy?
Why it was Dan Shaughnessy who said that. I guess the Red Sox are only worthy of watching when they are winning. What kind of journalistic fairweather fan-hood is this?
One of the players talked about winning 100 games at the start of spring training. A local tabloid touted them as “Best Team Ever’’ before a game was played.
One idiot writer picked them to make the World Series.
That was Dan again.
Okay, fine Dan wants them in the World Series, we get it. But who said this on May 16, sounding very much like he would just be happy if the Red Sox were respectable?
It certainly looks like 100 wins is out of the question. Right now, a couple of games over .500 would look pretty good.
Why that was Dan who said that.
On May 16 a few games over .500 is good, but on September 23, 2011 a 2 game lead (now it is a one game lead) in the Wild Card race is unacceptable and the Red Sox don’t deserve to make the playoffs? How does that work?
One other thing…the Red Sox had a terrible start to the year and then looked great after that. Now they are ending the season terribly, but based on the early poor start and eventual rebound isn’t it unwise to say they couldn’t perform well in the playoffs? It would be unwise to count the Red Sox out since the playoffs are essentially a whole new season. I can’t help but wonder what Dan will write if the Red Sox make the World Series.
And they are 5-16 in September. Unraveling.
They are 5-16 and yet they still had the lead in the Wild Card race. That tells me the Red Sox were impressive in other months during the season.
They were in first place on Sept. 1. Three weeks later - with a full week left in the regular season - they were eliminated from the top spot in the division by a Yankee team that was roundly mocked throughout New England for most of the last year.
So because the Yankees were mocked around New England that means the Yankees weren’t a quality team? I hope Dan knows the perception of the Yankees in New England isn’t the reality, because flawed or not, the Yankees have been at the top or close to the top of the AL East for the entire season and they had 95 wins as this column was written. The Yankees have been a good team all season. The Red Sox were in 1st place on September 1, but they had shared that spot off and on with the Yankees all season. That’s a little fact Dan neglects to mention and prefers to instead wallow in his puddle of self-hating sadness instead.
Can we please not make this about injuries? Every team has injuries. The 2010 Sox were truly decimated by injuries. Not this group.
The Red Sox lead in the Wild Card race. That’s a good thing, even though it doesn’t meet the invisible high standard the Red Sox somehow have set by winning the AL East twice since 1995, to where the Wild Card isn’t good enough for them. I remember a time, like any other year, when making the playoffs was a good thing for the Boston Red Sox. Apparently this year is different.
This is about underperformance. Most of the Sox stars have been here for the bulk of the season.
I have begun to get a little irritated at this. Yes, the Red Sox have expensive players who have underperformed this year, but every team has this problem. The Red Sox are still in the hunt for the playoffs, so shut up about the underperforming players and just be happy you are covering a team that has players who are performing well enough to get into the playoffs while playing in the toughest division in baseball.
This is about Carl Crawford’s pathetic 18-steal, no-production season. For $20 million a year, Crawford can’t get on base 30 percent of the time?
So the Red Sox don’t deserve to make the playoffs because they have an expensive player underperforming? This is really stupid reasoning.
No one in the Sox clubhouse is spared. Even Adrian Gonzalez has come up short when it counts.
So even the Red Sox players who aren’t performing, they suck too. If you aren’t perfect in all facets of playing the game of baseball, you know like the 2004 and 2007 Red Sox teams were, then Dan Shaughnessy doesn’t think you deserve to be in the playoffs.
For all of his great numbers, the first baseman has been A-Gone against the Rays (.131) and Yankees (.186).
Contrary to what ESPN may tell you, those aren’t the only two teams the Red Sox play. Gonzalez has hit .500 this year against the Orioles (who the Red Sox play starting today), .417 against the Rangers (who are in the playoffs), and oh yeah, he is hitting .340/.408/.555 for the year. I am not impressed by your smaller sample sizes at all, Dan Shaughnessy.
General manager Theo Epstein gets his share of the blame pie for the inestimable millions spent on 1. players who aren’t here and 2. players we wish weren’t here.
Shut up. Just shut up about how Theo Epstein gets to share the blame for players on the team who aren’t performing well. If Epstein had not gone out and signed expensive free agents like Mike Cameron or Bobby Jenks and the Red Sox were in this position then Shaughnessy would have whined Epstein didn’t do enough to improve the team. Epstein very easily could have counted on cheaper options to win the AL East for the Red Sox, but I have a feeling cutting back payroll wouldn’t have made Shaughnessy happy either. So while I recognize Theo Epstein is the General Manager, he can only put the Red Sox in a position to win, and every GM makes move that don't work out.
And let’s not start on Bobby Jenks, Mike Cameron, and the raft of shortstop busts.
Epstein also traded for Adrian Gonzalez, signed Salty, and pretty much put together at least one World Series champion team. So there’s that too. Oh, and he is like 19 years old so he will be around forever if he chooses to be.
The pitching is particularly pathetic. Like it or not, momentum was lost when Tim Wakefield needed nine tries to get his 200th win.
If only the Red Sox have not given Wakefield all of those starts and trotted someone else out on the mound who could have won these games. If only they had thought of that. It's not like the Red Sox had a ton of healthy pitchers to choose from and just liked seeing Wakefield start 23 games this year. Though I am sure the injuries to the Red Sox pitchers is Theo Epstein or Adrian Gonzalez's fault.
Josh Beckett couldn’t hold a 4-1 lead against the Orioles Wednesday at Fenway.
Really, you whiny little man? The same Beckett who is among the pitchers for the Red Sox who haven’t been pathetic this year? The same Beckett who is 13-6 with a 2.70 ERA and WHIP of 1.000 this year? He doesn't get to have a bad game? If Shaughnessy wasn’t such a negative person in a desperate grab for attention then perhaps he’d realize Beckett is an example of a really good pitcher on the Red Sox roster and even really good pitchers have bad days.
Who was the GM that orchestrated the Beckett/Lowell trade again? I forget, but it certainly wasn’t Theo Epstein.
Statistically, the Sox are likely to wind up being the team with the highest September ERA ever to make the playoffs.
Statistically, they still are leading the AL Wild Card race.
Statistically, if the Red Sox make the playoffs it is because they won the Wild Card race.
Statistically, this means the Red Sox deserved to make the playoffs.
Would it be piling on to reference the wild pitches, passed balls, and easy steals allowed?
It wouldn’t be piling on, but I would like to see Dan Shaughnessy provide statistical proof of “easy steals allowed.” That doesn’t sound like a made-up statistic at all.
Some of this has to come down on the manager.
Let’s see who has been to blame so far. We have Theo Epstein, the Red Sox players not on the team, the Red Sox players on the team, the injured Red Sox players, the Red Sox players underperforming, the Red Sox players performing well but having a bad game, the Red Sox players not performing well against two specific teams but otherwise performing at an extremely high level, and the manager. These people are all at fault for the Red Sox current unimaginably terrible position of being in the Wild Card lead. Or is this season the product of a "curse" that Dan Shaughnessy will later write a book about?
Who’s next? The fans? Has Red Sox Nation let the team down by not cheering loudly enough or not caring enough? We all know Red Sox Nation cares more than any other fan base, but what if that isn’t enough anymore?
Maybe the food spread should have been turned over in the clubhouse once or twice.
Let’s add “the food spread” to reasons why the Red Sox have struggled and are on track to make the playoffs with a one game lead in the Wild Card race. Everyone knows if you serve a team chicken at least once a week that team gets super comfortable and begins to play poorly. Meatloaf was a much better choice on Tuesday nights for the clubhouse spread. If only everyone would listen to Dan Shaughnessy.
Maybe Francona should have called out Lackey once or twice.Because nothing helps team chemistry and turns the fortunes around for a team than the manager publicly criticizing one of his players. What could go wrong if this happened?
Maybe the Sox are going to take him down the way Patriots players walked over nice guy Pete Carroll.
Again, the Red Sox are in the Wild Card race and leading it by a game. How nice Terry Francona may or may not be isn't the reason the Red Sox pitching hasn't performed well lately. Unless you are of the belief major league pitchers only pitch well because they are afraid of being yelled at by their manager if they do not pitch well.
This team has too much talent to play this badly. The Sox were the best team in baseball for four months, but the 2-10 start has been bookended by this putrid finish.
It sounds like Dan Shaughnessy has gotten the hang of the reactionary, overblown criticism the New York media has become well-know for.
The Sox are going to make it. The numbers are with them.
So perhaps this means the Red Sox deserve to be in the playoffs? Once a team is in the playoffs anything can happen, it is a new season.
Like hopeless habitants of Shawshank,
A "Shawshank Redemption" reference? You can expect a lawsuit from Bill Simmons. This is his pop culture reference to beat into the ground.
But what a way to go. Has any playoff-bound team ever been booed off the field at the conclusion of its final regular-season home game?
Does this matter really? The Red Sox are playing poorly in September and yet they still could make the playoffs. Isn't that a testament to how well they were playing earlier in the season? So this shouldn't count in their favor?
“Best interests of baseball’’ is rarely invoked by the Commish. Bowie Kuhn did it when Charlie Finley was selling his stars in 1976. Bart Giamatti used it when he kicked Pete Rose to the curb. Most recently, Bud cited “best interests’’ to save the Dodgers from the House of McCourt.
So the commissioner of baseball has traditionally used "best interests of baseball" in matters dealing with a manager illegally gambling on baseball (that resulted in a lifetime ban) and when an owner is running his team into the ground? Banning a team that is having a bad month from the playoffs doesn't seem to fit into this category too well.
Now it’s time for Bud to bounce the Sox from October baseball in 2011. If the Rays or Angels can’t do it, Bud should do it.
For the good of the game.
Most teams struggle at some point or another and the 2011 Red Sox have shown themselves to be very streaky. What if in an alternate universe the Red Sox had a terrible August and then turned it on in September? Would they not deserve to make the playoffs then? Even when their final record ends up being the same in reality as it would be if they excelled in August and struggled in September? I doubt Dan would be writing this column if that had happened.
How about Dan Shaughnessy quits writing articles and retires? For the good of our sanity.
18 comments:
How about banishing the 2011 Red Sox from postseason play on the grounds of horsebleep play for the entire month of September?
This would actually really improve Bud Selig's reputation. He'd go from the "This time it counts" guy to "hates Boston as much as the rest of us" guy.
Oh ya and it would suck to see your team make the playoffs and potentially lose in the first round, which oddly enough happens to half the teams that make the playoffs anyway.
Has any playoff-bound team ever been booed off the field at the conclusion of its final regular-season home game?
This might be the dumbest rhetorical question ever posed in a sports article. If your team makes the playoffs and yet you boo them on the last game of the season, you are a moron.
For the good of the game.
Yes, because what an amazing precedence that would serve! Any team finishing below 0.500 would have to be banished from post-season play. Forget what happens the first 95% of the season folks, if you can't ride a winning streak into the playoffs, get your ass out of there.
Oh and in that case, kick the Phillies out this year too.
2005 White Sox, 2006 Cardinals...
Both teams played like shit coming down the stretch, barely made the playoffs, and went on to win the WS that same year. The White Sox lost 1 game the entire postseason.
None of this means shit, but it does show that a late season collapse doesn't necessarily mean that an early playoff exit is unavoidable. But Shaughnessy and other spoiled Boston fuckheads are above that, apparently wanting style points to go along with postseason appearances.
"NO ONE IS AS DEMANDING OF OW-AH TEAMS AS RED SAWX NATION!!"
This isn't the motherfucking NCAA Tournament with a selection committee and bubble teams. If, as much as the Red Sox have sucked down the stretch, the Rays and Angels cannot catch up than that seems to tell me they don't deserve it either because they most likely had shitty stretched throughout the season (I'm too lazy and busy to look up when). But what makes me angrier is that I, a fucking Yankees fan, have allowed myself to be driven insane by the drivel that pours out of Shaughnessy's writing.
Hey anonymous, if you agree with Shaughnessy and honestly think the Red Sox should be banned from the playoffs because of their late season swoon then you have more than earned the title.
I'm a Cubs fan, I will take whatever playoff appearance by them I can get because I am not an entitled crybaby with a VERY short memory. It wasn't even a decade ago that Shaughnessy claimed the BoSox were cursed, now they should skip the playoffs if the team doesn't play up to some arbitrary standard? Fuck that shit!
Its that attitude that makes people despise Boston sports teams. It's the extreme sense of entitlement.
Rich, good point about the Phillies. It is ridiculous to think the Red Sox shouldn't be in the playoffs simply because they haven't been hot in Sept. It's a testament to how well they played the rest of the year they are still ahead in the WC race.
Jack, I saw a study of some sort the other day that basically said how a team played in Sept is negligible when it comes to how well they play in the playoffs. I wish I knew where, but once you are in the playoffs, that's all that matters.
The attitude from Shaughnessy, and however many fans of the BoSox there are who believe this, that simply b/c they aren't cruising into the playoffs they shouldn't be there is a bit annoying. Just be happy the team is there Shaughnessy, and be happy there is a chance the Yankees/Red Sox ALCS can happen.
Pat, the Angels and the Rays seem to have been more consistent this year, but the Red Sox have been really, really great or not very good at all. I refuse to be driven insane and wish everyone could ignore Shaughnessy. Unfortunately, his continuing antics don't allow that to happen.
Jesus,
Before Drew Bledsoe got his chest crushed in 2001 (BTW why was Bledsoe ever the starter in the first place over Brady if shithead Belichek is such a fucking "genius") all we ever heard from Boston fans was all this crybaby shit about how they were the most cursed sports town in the country and even the mighty Celtics has fallen victim to it.
Then we've put up with a decade of pure unadultrated smug assholeness about how Boston is clearly the chosen one and all others must bow before us.
Now the arrogance has reached the point where Boston fans AND RED SOX FANS AT THAT aren't content to have a chance at a title if it isn't up to their arbitarty standards of excellence.
I used to hate the Yankees. Now I root then for like the 1980 US hockey team just to stick it to those bean eating turdsticks.
Posnanski twitted something about streaks last week, so you might have seen a Sports Ilustrated thing Ben, because I saw one last week too. I assume it was SI because of JoPo, but they talked about a couple of the Yankee 90's teams and the 06 Cards as having been just lousy getting into the playoffs, and then the magic of small sample size lead them to glory!
Anon, I try to be open-minded and assume most Red Sox fans don't think the way Dan Shaughnessy and the fans who agreed with this column do. I try not to let the minority of idiots speak for the majority. It is hard sometimes b/c the idiots have a lot of say.
I read yesterday, from Peter King, that the Patriots may have replaced Bledsoe with Brady anyway. That's what he was trying to sell to me. Not sure if I believe that or not. Either way, his injury turned out to be good for them.
It has been a tough ride for the Red Sox from a cursed team (which is a narrative Dan Shaughnessy helped invent) to not accepting a playoff spot if it isn't up to the usual standards...which is weird because usually the Red Sox do not win the AL East. There is a large amount of smugness, and if you remember Dan Shaughnessy wrote an entire column about how great Boston sports are, but I hope it is from the outliers and not the majority.
Still, anyone who thinks the commissioner should pull the BoSox from the playoffs b/c they aren't "worthy" for some reason is an ass-hat who clearly wasn't around cheering for the BoSox 10 years ago.
I find it hard to root for the Yankees, but I am married into a Yankees family so it has become slightly easier.
Martin, very true. The 99 Yankees weren't quite as bad as the Red Sox, but they went 15-13 in Sept. The '00 Yankees went 13-17 in Sept. Really, that wasn't an especially good team. October is a completely different set of circumstances for a team, so once a team makes the playoffs anything can happen. It's a cliche, but it is true.
Shithead Belichick? I think he's a pretty good coach
At least call hime Bellicheat. That way I know I can disregaurd any opinion you hold
Also I never said we were cursed. I also never said we were the chosen ones.
I'm only pointing out the fact that Belicheck suddenly became an all time great coach when Drew Bledsoe got injured and Tom Brady got the starting job and showed the world what he could do.
If Belichek is such a genius then what the hell was Bledsoe even doing being a starter in the first place. Clearly Brady was ready for the big time, Belichek saw him in practice every single day yet he thought "Yep....Drew's my guy."
And I don't buy into this Peter King revisionist crap about how BB was ready to bench Bledsoe anyway. Seems to me you can't be that great of a coach if you're benching one of the top 5 best QB's of all time in favor of a QB who could be called "good" at best.
Belichek wins the football version of the Scottie Pippen award for being praised as "great" due to someone else's greatness.
In regard to that story, PK said Bledsoe was going to be gone after the '01 season, so maybe he saw something in Brady but kept Bledsoe on anyway. I'm not sure. It had something to do with Bledsoe changing the play calls and the coaches not liking it. I find it somewhat hard to believe as well, simply because putting Brady in instead of Bledsoe, outside of a poor season from Bledsoe, would have not gone over well in New England...at least I don't think so.
In regard to Belichick being a genius or anything like that, for any coach his level of genius is measured by how good he players were. There are coaches who makes players better and vice versa. A great quarterback covers up a lot of problems and mistakes a team may make, so he's been lucky to have Brady, but I also think Belichick has done a good job of putting a team around Brady.
Still, Belichick isn't really a genius, but I would love to know more about his and Bledsoe's relationship.
to the second anonymous poster who called out boston for its "the entire sports world revolves around us and whether we are great or terrible you must be forced to constantly hear either our smug, over the top bragging or spoiled, whiny woe-is-me spiel" - BRAVO. you get a standing ovation for me. i agree with ben that obviously not every boston sports fan thinks the world revolves around boston the way shaughnessy and simmons, but those two alone are enough to make me want to pierce my eyes out.
What coach isn't good without great players? Also when has Belichick ever said "Hey yall I'm a genius"? Is Walsh great without Montana? If Rex was coaching the Bengals would he have been in 2 AFC title games? Would Francona or Torre take the Pirates all the way? Also before Bledsoe got hurt rumor was Belichick was eventually going to put in Brady. Bill never like Drews game
It's not a matter of a great coach and great players in this case. Of course every great coach has great players. With Belichick it's a coach who had, arguably, one of the TOP 5 QB's OF ALL TIME, and BB had him riding the bench behind a QB that was good but not great. I didn't see Walsh benching Montana and having a fluke injury being the only reason Joe got to be the starter.
Think of how stupid that sounds. BB sees them in practice every day and decides Bledsoe is the better QB, and it's not like Brady was just wasn't developed yet, he was awesome as soon as he became a starter. How is that great coaching?
Let's say hypothetically there was an NBA coach in the 1980's who had Terry Cummings as his starting small forward. Certainly Cummings is a good, solid player. Suddenly Cummings goes down with an injury and the coach turns to a back-up named Larry Bird to start. Bird goes on to be a 30 point, 10 rebound, 7 assist and one of the greatest clutch players of all time. Wouldn't you think the coach is a complete dumbell for not starting Bird in the first place. Well that's basically what happened with BB and Brady. Yet the media seems give him a free pass on that little oversight.
BB is a good coach sure. But no coach has benefitted from a fluke like he has to suddenly become a genius.
Anon, no coach is great without great players. I don't know if anyone would argue differently. My larger point is those who argue about the greatness of Belichick ignore the players he puts on the team that are great as well.
We will never know if Belichick would have put Brady in at some point once Bledsoe started losing or not. The talk by PK the other day was the first I had heard of it, but that doesn't mean it wasn't going to happen b/c I probably wouldn't have heard about it.
Anon #2, Steve Young was on the bench behind Montana for a time, but of course Montana was fantastic so that made sense. I get your point and I am not sure if I would argue personnel-wise Belichick is a huge genius or anything. I think more of his smart coaching rather than his front office moves. I would hope if he saw something in Brady he would have put him in regardless of Bledsoe's standing among the team, but that probably played a factor. I would say Belichick was afraid to rock the boat or didn't know Brady would be this good. I think of him being really smart more outside of his personnel moves basically.
Do great coaches need to cheat?
Pretty simple yes or no question...which I'm sure will not be answered with a yes or a no.
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