Tag: Red Sox

Dr. Shaughnessy is in

Why does he do this? In his Globe column today, Dan Shaughnessy insinuates that the Red Sox were lying — or at least blowing smoke — about what was really wrong with Josh Beckett between May 13, when he hurt his finger, and last night, when he made a successful return. Writes Shank:

He appeared to be bound for a start in the All-Star Game in San Francisco before suffering an “avulsion” on his right middle finger while throwing a pitch against the Orioles in what turned out to be the most memorable game of this young season (a.k.a. the “Mother’s Day Miracle”). Remember, boys and girls, this was not a blister — it was an avulsion.

Shaughnessy, of course, presents no evidence. But reports have been pretty consistent that Beckett did not get a blister, a problem that plagued him pretty consistently when he was younger. For instance, here is what the Globe’s Amalie Benjamin reported on May 17:

Beckett suffered an avulsion — a torn piece of skin below the pad on his right middle finger — in the fourth inning Sunday against the Orioles. He has experienced similar skin problems in the past, though the Sox are careful not to characterize the injury as akin to the blisters he developed with the Marlins.

Medline Plus defines “avulsion” as “a tearing away of a body part accidentally or surgically.” That doesn’t sound like a blister, either.

A small matter, obviously. You just wonder what’s rattling around Shaughnessy’s brain when he types this stuff.

David Ortiz’s non-roid rage

Did the Herald do David Ortiz wrong? Globe columnist Jackie MacMullan ups the ante today with a lengthy piece on the fallout from the headline on a short Michael Silverman item in Tuesday’s Herald. The headline: “Papi unwitting ‘roid user?”

MacMullan writes: “The headline was a disservice to Ortiz, and to Silverman, who does not write his own headlines. In fact, no writer at a major paper writes his or her headlines.”

OK, the headline was kind of idiotic. But, as these things go, it wasn’t that bad. Here’s how Silverman’s item begins:

On the topic of steroids, Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz said he is not 100 percent positive that he’s never used them. If he did, it happened when he was much younger.

“I tell you, I don’t know too much about steroids, but I started listening about steroids when they started to bring that [expletive] up, and I started realizing and getting to know a little bit about it,” Ortiz said Sunday. “You’ve got to be careful…. I used to buy a protein shake in my country. I don’t do that any more because they don’t have the approval for that here, so I know that, so I’m off of buying things at the GNC back in the Dominican [Republic]. But it can happen anytime, it can happen. I don’t know. I don’t know if I drank something in my youth, not knowing it.”

I’d say the headline was an exaggeration of what Ortiz actually said, but not by that much. MacMullan says this about the Herald’s headline:

It was an inflammatory rhetorical question that set off a national chain reaction of speculation. One of the first hints was when Red Sox manager Terry Francona said a Toronto reporter entered his office and declared that Ortiz had exposed himself as a steroid user.

The Toronto reporter needs a reading-comprehension lesson.

This is the second time the Globe has let Ortiz vent about the Herald; here is Gordon Edes’ piece from Thursday’s paper. And yes, I think the Herald could have written a more deft headline to describe Ortiz’s remarks.

But the real story here is that Ortiz let himself get caught thinking out loud at a moment when everyone is baseball is freaked out about steroids. He said nothing wrong, but, sadly, in the current climate, he probably shouldn’t have said anything.

Roger and out

I’m not a Roger Clemens-basher. I wish he’d never left the Red Sox. But now that he’s signed with the Yankees, I’ve got to hope that he’s trying to push his incredible career one season too far. Here are his stats from last year. Pretty good for an old man, but he averaged just a hair under six innings per start. Think that’s going to work out with the Yankees’ bullpen?

Saturday in the Bronx

The problem with doing this today is that I won’t be able to do it tomorrow. But I don’t want to take any chances — after all, the Sox could lose this afternoon. Anyway …

From the New York Post:

Could Torre, who is in the final year of his contract, really be fired before April is finished? Is Torre the reason the starting rotation has melted in the first month and put an alarming workload on the bullpen? Is it Torre’s fault the lineup, so potent through 19 games, has gone 20 innings without an extra-base hit? [Obvious answers: yes, no and no.]

If Steinbrenner and the voices he is listening to believe the answers are “yes,” and if the Yankees get swept this weekend by the Red Sox, it’s not out of the realm of the possibility that The Boss could make a change.

Next up, the Daily News:

So where is the fight in this team? They didn’t just lose last night, the Red Sox embarrassed them in their own Stadium, to the point where fans mocked them with cheers when they finally got three outs in the ninth inning….

Is this the year? Is this the year that, for all of the talent on the roster, the pieces never fall into place? Is this the year that age and injuries and bad karma send the Yankees tumbling down the mountain?

Oh, let’s hope.

Finally, from the New York Times:

The season is too young to be slipping away from the Yankees. But it has gotten ugly quickly, with the team on its longest losing streak since 2000. The voices in the organization that grumble about Manager Joe Torre, whose contract expires after the season, will grow louder if the losses keep mounting.

Torre left Yankee Stadium at 12:40am this morning, much later than usual. He was nearly fired after last season, and if the Yankees are swept this weekend, his job security would be very much at risk. It is doubtful that General Manager Brian Cashman could save Torre’s job again.

Great stuff, eh? And wouldn’t it be wonderful if Torre got fired? The man is a great manager and a class act. Maybe the Sox could hire him as a bench coach. The Yankees should love looking into the other dugout and seeing that.

A Red Sock comeback

Let the DNA testing begin!

The biggest loser in the controversy over whether that was blood or paint on Curt Schilling’s Hall of Fame sock may be Tim Wakefield. Why? Orioles broadcaster Gary Thorne says it was Doug Mirabelli who told him it was paint. Mirabelli vehemently denies it. But it strikes me as more likely that Mirabelli shot his mouth off and now is horrified by what he said than it is that Thorne simply made it up. Depending on how Thorne handles the aftermath of his on-the-air comments last night, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Wakefield’s personal catcher run out of town.

Schilling fans please note: I’m not saying it was paint. Given what we know — that Schilling underwent temporary surgery to hold the tendon in place in his badly damaged ankle so that he could pitch in the 2004 postseason — then the weight of the evidence would suggest that it was, indeed, blood. (If you’ve got a strong stomach, look at this.)

Gordon Edes has the details in today’s Globe, and Edes’ story is currently number one on Boston.com’s “Most Popular Stories” list. Unfortunately, the hometown Baltimore Sun sheds little light on the subject today (other than to remind us that one of its own then-columnists raised the same question in 2004), running a story that credits the Globe.

This is too big to go away. Thorne and Mirabelli are both going to have to account for themselves. And even if Thorne is telling the truth about Mirabelli, he can’t justify casually passing along such an explosive accusation without making any effort to verify it.

As Bruce Allen writes, “Based on the reaction within the story from Red Sox players and management, this bears watching, and Thorne will likely find himself at the center of attention today.”

More: Why did the great Jim Palmer just sit there and say nothing? Oh, sorry — he said, “Yeah.”

Still more: Thorne now says it was all a “misunderstanding,” according to the Sun. I doubt it. But if that’s what it takes to put an end to this, fine.

Head cases

Here’s a little context for Jackie MacMullan’s story in today’s Boston Globe on Ted Johnson, the former Patriots linebacker who’s suffering from depression and other ailments that he blames on repeated concussions during his career.

In August 2004, the Globe’s Gordon Edes checked in with Johnny Damon, who, you might recall, had suffered a concussion in an outfield collision with Damian Jackson and missed two games in the 2003 post-season. Edes wrote:

He is dealing, he said, with some physical aftereffects from that Jackson collision, most notably its impact on his vision. He is sufficiently concerned, he said, that he has an eye exam scheduled and plans to have doctors check out a few other things, too, though he refused to be more specific (“I’d rather not talk about it,” he said).

“I definitely can’t see like I used to,” he said. “When I cover up an eye and try to get a clear vision, it’s not there. At night, at dusk, I definitely have a tough time. It’s something I have to battle with.”

Then there’s this, from Damon’s book, “Idiot”:

While I was on a stretcher being put into an ambulance, I gave a thumbs-up. When they carted me off the field, everyone thought I was okay, but I wasn’t. I’d suffered a bad concussion. My mind was scrambled. I actually thought I was wearing an Oakland uniform and that I was walking off the field waving to the Oakland fans, saying, “Thank you for supporting us this year….”

When we got back to Boston, I went to the team doctor, and he said everything was checking out fine, that I was regaining some of my faculties. But the truth was I wasn’t close to normal — it took me four or five months before I had a clear, vivid picture of what was going on.

Remember, this was after one concussion, and Damon, by all appearances, made a full recovery. By contrast, here’s what Johnson told MacMullan: “Officially, I’ve probably only been listed as having three or four concussions in my career. But the real number is closer to 30, maybe even more. I’ve been dinged so many times I’ve lost count.”

Based on MacMullan’s story, it would seem that Patriots coach Bill Belichick is slated for a mighty uncomfortable off-season. Still, Belichick, by pushing Johnson to play before he was ready, wasn’t doing anything unusual by football standards.

The larger question is what is the NFL going to do about it. The players need to be protected from themselves.