Fire Bobby Valentine Now

If Bobby Valentine is the manager of the 2013 Red Sox, I think we'll all be stunned. For a few weeks, I didn't mind that he was sticking around. What's the difference between that and a bench coach serving as interim manager?

But Bobby Valentine is doing harm to this team. His pinch-hitting of Jose Iglesias is my Exhibit A. He pinch hits for a young AAA guy with a 2-2 count because there's a man who just stole second. And in the process, he jeopardizes a prospect's confidence, doesn't do much to win the game, and magnifies his own ego issues.

The reason the Mets dropped Valentine is that he tries too hard to impact the game. He can't just sit back, do his job, and manage. He tries to do more than that. He tries to have an effect on every single aspect of the game, the team, the organization.

He tried to provoke responses with statements to media (See: remarks about Kevin Youkilis). He tries to get youngsters motivated by putting them down (See: remarks to Will Middlebrooks). He tries to boost pitchers' self-esteem by leaving them in games. He's always trying, always failing, always reaching beyond his job description. He's not a psychologist, not a self-esteem guru, he's a friggin' baseball manager.

Bobby Valentine feels like it's his responsibility to do everything. He feels like the role of manager is the most important job on a baseball club.

It isn't.

Managers are supposed to manage. They're supposed to move players in and out of games. They're supposed to manage egos and expectations. They balance, they don't control. They're supposed to let pitchers pitch, hitters hit, and fielders field. They're not supposed to take players out of 2-2 at-bats.

Valentine is a shitty manager. There's no other way to phrase it. Every day he manages this team, he does harm to it. He infects it with his egomania, which is a mask for his lack of self-esteem.

Bobby Valentine is a psychological mess. He has Oedipal issues with his father. He's what I call an Insertive Personality, in that he feels the need to insert himself in any situation. He can't just sit back and let others do their job and succeed without his own influence. He pushes, far too much.

Most of all, Bobby Valentine is scared. He was scared of Pedroia back in April, he's scared of failure, he's scared of disappointing his father, he's scared of looking in the mirror and seeing Bobby Valentine.

Fire him and send him to a shrink.

My Favorite Brick at Fenway Park

A friend sent me this picture he took of a brick at Fenway Park. I would pay good money for this piece of masonry.

Patriots Sign Deion Branch... Again

This is perhaps the least surprising sports story in New England history. Even after releasing him, the Patriots never removed Branch's nameplate from the locker room. You never heard any rumblings that he might end up elsewhere. And with the injury to Aaron Hernandez, the Pats could use another reliable receiving weapon. There was no way that this wouldn't happen.

They also signed Kellen Winslow Jr. Winslow had worked out with the Patriots before the start of the season. I remember WEEI's Lou Merloni being baffled that the Pats would work out multiple tight-ends (they also worked out then signed Michael Hoomananawanui), if they didn't intend to sign them. This is why, Lou... just in case.

What will the offense look like without Hernandez and with Branch and Winslow?

Branch has always been one of Brady's most reliable, must-have-down targets for Brady. When it's 3rd and 7, Branch will get 8. He's older, but he can still play a situational role on the offense, which should take some pressure off Brandon Lloyd.

The Patriots can't just replace Hernandez's type of production. Winslow will get some passes thrown to him, but Hernandez was practically a wide-receiver. Branch will get some throws, Welker will get more attention, and the whole offense will have to change while Hernandez is out.

It's always good after both a loss and an injury to a key player to get a nice bit of news. I'm glad to see Branch back.

Red Sox on a Mission for .500

The Red Sox need to win every single game in order to avoid their first sub-.500 finish since 1997. And they're on their way. Only 13 more wins to go.

Felix Doubront went 6 innings and only 1 hit. He also allowed 5 walks. But it's good to see him get another win, and maybe end 2012 on a positive note. Doubront and Clay Buchholz are now tied for the team lead with 11 wins. Which speaks volumes about the struggles of the Sox rotation.

I wouldn't mind Doubront as a #5 pitcher in a future rotation, so long as the 1-4 pitchers were actually 1-4 pitchers. This team is loaded with #4 and #5 pitchers, and that's one reason they'll need a 15 game win streak in order to finish 81-81.

Cody Ross had a pair of hits, including his 32nd double. It'd be nice to see him back with this team next season.

There's nothing about this team you can't enjoy by watching any garden variety reality TV show. A reality TV show that lasts over 4 hours.

Photo Credit:
AP Photo

Great Time to Be a European Hockey Fan

The best hockey players in the world are flocking to Europe. So if you're a hockey fan in Europe, this lockout has been great news.

HC Davos of Switzerland has signed Joe Thornton and Rick Nash. The two played there during the last lockout, and probably chose the team because Davos is a ski resort town in the Alps. Sort of like playing in Aspen.

Mettalurg of Russia's KHL has been busy. They signed Sergei Gonchar, Evgeni Malkin, and Nikolai Kulemin of the Maple Leafs.

Some NHL players have taken advantage of the lockout to play closer to home. Christian Ehrhoff signed with the German team Krefeld, which is only 14 miles from his hometown of Moers. Mark Streit is playing in Bern, which essentially is his hometown town. Russian Ilya Kovalchuck signed with SKA St. Petersburg.

There are rumors that Bruin David Krejci will be signing with a Czech team.

I don't think Tim Thomas will be playing in Europe. But you never know.

The Best Commercial Ever for So Many Reasons

What Replacement Refs Are Like

I've come up with an analogy to illustrate the significant drop-off between proper NFL officials and the replacement refs that have tortured football fans for 2 weeks.

The proper NFL refs are like the US Congress. We didn't like them, they didn't seem to get anything right, and all we did was criticize them. But they actually knew what they were doing. They knew the procedures by heart, their mistakes were rare, and they knew how to do the job.

The current replacement refs are like the Norwood (or insert your hometown) Town Council being asked to do Congress's job. They're trying, but they aren't equipped to do the job, nor do they have the experience to figure out how to do it.

So imagine defense committees at Congress being run by people who are accustomed to zoning permits and organizing free concerts at the gazebo in the center of town. That's what these replacement refs are like running an NFL game.

Your Wes Welker Theories

After Week 2 last year, Wes Welker had 15 catches for 241 yards and 2 touchdowns. After 2 games this year, he has 8 catches for 109 yards and 0 scores. Why has his contribution been so dramatically reduced?

The last person anyone is blaming is Wes Welker. And some of New England's more dunderheaded sports fans have been attributing his lack of catches and lack of playing time to villainous scheming by Bill Belichick. My two favorite theories have been that Belichick doesn't want to pay Welker very much in 2013, so he's limiting Welker's production, thereby reducing his apparent value. The other golden nugget of imbecility is that Belichick is trying to "send a message" to Welker for the receiver's off-season contract negotiations.

People who actually believe such notions should be spayed or neutered in order to remove their faulty DNA from the gene pool and protect the human species from devolving back to simpler primates.

Other players have had contract disputes with the Patriots, then returned to the team, and their playing time didn't change. Why would Belichick start sending such messages now? And the suggestion that Belichick would jeopardize winning, or that Tom Brady would go along with such a change in priority, is laughable.

There are other FOOTBALL RELATED reasons that Welker isn't on the field as often. I think Josh McDaniels had wanted the slot-receiver role to be minimized in general. He wanted the tight-ends, Brandon Lloyd, and the running game to be the spearheads of the offense. That might change after Aaron Hernandez's injury. Welker certainly got more attention in the second half on Sunday.

And to be frank, maybe Welker hasn't earned more playing time than he's gotten. I can't forget his Super Bowl drop. Or his drop in Week 1. Or the drop on Sunday that preceded the blocked punt. He doesn't look as sharp as he did in years past. An maybe he doesn't look sharp in practice either.

Nobody is talking about this. Nobody is attributing the lack of targets or snaps to Wes Welker. I could only bear to listen to a few minutes of sports radio yesterday, but didn't hear Welker's pre-punt-block drop mentioned once. He had a chance to make a big 1st down play, and he failed. All 10 fingers touched the ball.

I don't pretend to know why Bill Belichick or his assistants do what they do. I try to come up with possible explanations that make logical sense. There is a complete lack of logic behind some of these Welker theories. To me it seems impossible that Welker's lack of targets/snaps is anything more than a football decision. You might not think it's a smart decision, but don't conjure harebrained theories about contracts or messages.