People to Thank for the Red Sox World Series

Time to go to Hallmark and get some thank-you cards for a lot of people who made this World Series Championship possible. Here are the people who you should send your cards to...

1. The Los Angeles Dodgers
The Dodgers took all of the Red Sox' baggage. The Sox had a bad kidney (Gonzalez), infected tonsils (Crawford), and an appendix about to burst (Beckett), and the Dodgers accepted all of them. Then the Dodgers paid for most of the surgery. The Dodgers deserve their own duckboat in Saturday's parade for taking all of this payroll and malignant personality off of the Red Sox roster.

2. The Red Sox owners
The owners did the best thing that owners can do: delegate. Bob Kraft didn't become a good owner until he eased up and delegated. The Red Sox owners were good when they let Theo Epstein do his job, then they became overbearing, they then pulled back in response to the failures of the 2012 season. The best thing the Red Sox owners did in 2013 was what they didn't do.

3. Koji Uehara
Where would this team be if Uehara didn't emerge as one of the best closers in the game? Bailey and Hanrahan got hurt. Uehara filled a role that had been vacant since Papelbon was allowed to leave. And Uehara filled that role's brains out.

4. Ben Cherington
The Red Sox GM didn't go nuts, he didn't try to sign any "wow" free agents. He acquired guys who were hungry to win. Savvy ballplayers who knew how to do the little things. He didn't care that Stephen Drew was related to J.D. Drew. He signed Mike Napoli, who was starving for a ring. He made many small moves that combined to make a big difference.

The timing was right as there really weren't many big name free agents on the market anyway.

5. John Lackey
This guy pitched his ass off. He got no run support all season long. We all hated him. Many wanted him to be traded. He's a 35-year-old recovering from surgery, he pitched 189.1 innings in the regular season then 26 more in the postseason (including 1 in relief). And he still argued with Farrell to get just one more out in Game 6. He went from slacker to gamer. Lackey's hunger in 2013 (for doing well, not for beer and chicken) was a key part to the hunger this team had.

And again, give thanks to the Dodgers for not wanting to take this guy from us.

6. John Farrell
His in-game decisions weren't always correct. But trading for John Farrell was an important part to this team's success. He didn't try to discipline the players, he tried to make them more self-disciplined. He got the pitching staff to refocus, and he brought with him an attitude geared toward winning. Most importantly, he didn't put his own ego ahead of anything. If he made a mistake, he learned from it and made different moves. Pride is not one of John Farrell's faults.

7. J.J. Hardy, Jason Kipnis, Jose Bautista
I can't say I remember the All-Star Game. But these three guys all knocked in runs for the AL team. And that's why the Sox had homefield advantage in the World Series. Thanks, guys!

8. Pedroia, Lester, Ellsbury, all the rest of the players
The players who were here in 2011 and 2012 became reinvigorated. And the guys who weren't here brought a fresh energy. All the players, from Pedroia to Lester to Victorino to Bogaerts to Workman to Tazawa. They all gave 100%. Which you sadly could not say about the 2011 or 2012 Sox.

8. The Fans
Yes you. Your outrage over this team's failure in 2012 caused so much to change. In 2011, we weren't as angry as we should have been. And the owners thought they could use Francona as a scapegoat and we'd be happy with his dismissal. We were complacent for a time, until the team failed again in 2012. And the horrible managing of Bobby Valentine became evident.

We as fans actually accepted Bobby V. That's kind of sad. He was shit. Once the fans demanded that he be banished, along with all the other cancerous players and contracts, that's when things turned around. We threatened a revolution in Red Sox Nation and the front office responded.

So pat yourself on the back for being pissed about the 2012 season, then also ask yourself why you didn't start that season with the same skepticism.

Hopefully in 2014 Ben Cherington can continue to do his job, and the front office won't inflate attendance figures. Marketing people can market the team, and baseball people can assemble it, and baseball players can play baseball.

So Many Reasons to Not Watch the MLB All-Star Game

I'll admit that I watched the All-Star Game. And by "watch" I mean I did other things while it was on TV. I cleaned up a little bit, ate my dinner, I'm even writing this as the 9th inning plays out. My back is to the screen as I sit hunched over the computer sitting on my desk in the corner of the room. I need to get another beer, and won't pause my TV as I go fetch it.

...

I'm back. Last Wachusett Blueberry. Not much has changed in the game. And if it had, I wouldn't care. And that's Reason #1 not to watch...

#1 No rooting interest
This time it counts? Who cares? It's exhibition baseball, the only thing in the Sporting Universe that means less than regular season baseball is exhibition baseball. Nobody cares about World Series homefield advantage in July. Nobody cares about who wins the All-Star Game.

#2 Baseball is slow
And the All-Star Game isn't an exception. Last night's was 3 hours and 6 minutes, considered a short game by modern standards. There's so much time between pitches, in a game that doesn't matter. No tension, just waiting.

#3 The game starts too late
A 3 hour and 6 minute game. That ends at 11:27pm. What's wrong with this picture? I know you don't want to start the game while California fans are still stuck in freeway traffic. Then again, California fans suck. They show up late to their own games, why not make them show up late to the All-Star Game too. Start the game at a modest time for the East and the Midwest. Especially so kids, who still have bedtimes in the summer, can watch.

#4 Fox's production sucks
Fox tries too hard to make their sports coverage epic. Nobody watches sports for the shiny extras, they watch for the game, or because they're degenerate gamblers. The All-Star Game is one of Fox's crown jewels, and they try really hard to make it more than it is. I'm always going to remember that artificial moment when Cal Ripken Jr. left his last All-Star Game, and they brought out a podium to home plate. What a BS, contrived attempt at a tear-jerker moment. The best All-Star moments are impromptu, like when Ted Williams was swarmed by everyone on the mound in 1999, or last night when Mariano Rivera tipped his cap to the fans. As opposed to generated moments such as Neil Diamond singing "Sweet Caroline."

Everything on Fox is overly staged.

#5 Tim McCarver and Joe Buck

How can you listen to these guys call a game that you don't have a rooting interest in? How can you do so without drinking heavily? It's like brain surgery without anesthetic.

#6 Too many players
There are about 80 All-Stars. Doesn't that seem a bit much to play in just one game?

#7 Too many players play
Too many people get into and out of the game. I understand the thought behind each team having a representative on the roster, but why will some Royals fan watch 3 hours of baseball to see his guy play, especially when he doesn't know which inning his player will play, especially when his player will be lucky to get more than 2 at-bats, or more than 1 inning on the mound?

29 players took the field for the AL last night. 26 for the NL. 55 total. 55 players in one game of baseball. Way too many to keep track, especially in a game that you don't have a rooting interest in.

#7 Pitchers don't last
Pitchers are so soft these days. They can't go if they pitched Sunday. Only two pitched more than an inning last night. And if they throw more than 15 pitches, their arms will fall off. In this modern age of sports medicine (both legitimate and illicit), the frailty of pitchers is inexcusable.

#8 Interleague play
The All-Star Game used to be a chance to see the best NL hitters face the best AL pitchers. And vice versa. Now this happens regularly with interleague play. Remember how exciting it was to see Pedro Martinez face McGwire and Sosa? And I can remember watching All-Star Games to see Greg Maddux face the best AL hitters. Now this happens in regular season games.

#9 Over commercialization

This ties in with Fox. There are far too many commercials, too many promotions. Everything is sponsored by something. A millionaire athlete gets a car for being an MVP of a game that he only played in for one or two innings. Every 5 seconds is a commercial or product-placement. It feels more like watching an infomercial than a baseball game. Your viewer is already barely interested in watching, so you saturate the broadcast with ads?

All of the All-Star games in all sports suck. Baseball is the least worst of them all. But none of them are any good. None of them entertain. You shouldn't watch any of them.

National League 8, American League 0

I didn't watch much of this game. I'm a Red Sox fan. I watch plenty of meaningless baseball that's not being taken completely seriously by the players.

David Ortiz was 1 for 2 with a single. And that was the AL's problem. All 6 of their hits were singles.

Verlander was taken advantage of for 5 runs in the 1st. And the game was over after that. If you continued to watch, I'm sorry that you haven't yet found anything more interesting in your life to do.

Although to be fair, the MLB All-Star Game is the best among the 4 major sports. The NHL All-Star Game and NFL Pro Bowl lack the physicality that are the foundations of those two sports. And the NBA All-Star Game doesn't feature defense until the 4th quarter.

Maybe it's something about the game of baseball, that allows it to be played lackadaisically, yet still be played in a normal way. It doesn't require 100% effort to be played. Just ask the 2011 Red Sox.

So the NL will have homefield advantage in the World Series. And that probably doesn't mean much for Sox fans.

Photo Credit:
AP Photo

Possible All-Star Break Alternatives

I think it's a bit ridiculous how in depth ESPN covered and analyzed the trivial filler-material known as the Homerun Derby. Then again, what else should they talk about? There are no other sports to discuss this week.

I think it's time for the other sports to step up and schedule something for the All-Star Break. The sports fans in this country are eager to be entertained. Give them some options.

Maybe something as simple as making the All-Star Break the first day of free agent movement for the NBA and NHL. At least then there'd be something to talk about apart from batting practice dingers.

Or maybe the NBA and NHL can allow teams to scrimmage each other during this one week.

Better yet, call this week "Pick-Up Game Week." Allow the players to form their own teams and play a game or two in some small gyms and rinks around the US and Canada. Do it for charity. People would love to see unique combinations of players. And as mentioned, there is nothing else on.

The sports fan deserves an option this week. Give us some big free agent signings, or some scrimmages between hastily assembled teams. Let's see KG and Paul Pierce build separate teams and play each other in Boston. Let's see a team of French Canadian hockey players play an Ontarian team in Ottawa. How about an all-star team of European basketball barnstorms across the country?

The Homerun Derby is for morons. Big men hold a club, are thrown easily hit balls that are wound much tighter than regulation balls, and they hit them 450 feet while Chris Berman flirts with a heart attack. It's impressive for a few moments, then repetitive and tedious.

The other sports should take advantage of the opportunity and give us some mid-season entertainment. The players would like it. The media would like it. The broadcasters would like it. The fans would love it.

Entertain us, please.