Celebrating What Is, Red Sox Variety

Al Zarilla

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Anybody mind a thread borrowing on the Patriots thread with the same name for ongoing general good Red Sox news?

I'll get started anyway. Aaron Boone called into MLBN this morning and he said a few things that made me feel cool.

1. In answer to how he was doing and with how the season ended, well, all teams except the Red Sox have a sour taste in their mouths. Heh.

2. He made himself watch the Red Sox celebrate on the Yankees field, to see what it's like and it maybe gives more incentive to next year. Heh.

3. Vasgersian asked him what's up with USC (his alma mater) losing to Cal this weekend, who they always beat. He said "you really know how to kick a guy when he's down" or something like that. I have ties to Cal, including one son who graduated from there. Unless you went there, and you're Pac 10 (Pac 12 now, hate that) related, you probably don't like USC. Heh.
 

mwonow

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As OP for the other thread, *I* sure don't object!

And...as with the Pats, a lot of this year comes down to management. In my youth, the Sox had on-field talent but shitty managers. Tito changed that; we got a regression afterwards; but Cora seems like the real deal. Pitching peaked at the perfect time, with 6 straight Ks to snuff the last rays of Dodger hope. Heck, even game 3 was well done; Kinsler makes a routine play and the Sox are able to shut down three potent offices in their own yards.
 

RG33

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It’s pretty remarkable that they have won 4 WS titles in 14 years, and 3 of them with different GMs/regimes making the personnel decisions. While I know there has been some carry-over amongst the ranks, I can’t think of any teams off the top that have been so successful with so much change at the top of Ops/Player Personnel etc.
 

BaseballJones

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It’s pretty remarkable that they have won 4 WS titles in 14 years, and 3 of them with different GMs/regimes making the personnel decisions. While I know there has been some carry-over amongst the ranks, I can’t think of any teams off the top that have been so successful with so much change at the top of Ops/Player Personnel etc.
The Pats have made their run with the same person as owner, head coach, and top player.

The Sox have made their run with the same ownership, but different GMs, different managers, and different top players (and none of their 2018 players were on the team for the 2004 title).

Two different ways to go about it.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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The Sox have made their run with the same ownership, but different GMs, different managers, and different top players (and none of their 2018 players were on the team for the 2004 title).
I was thinking about this the other day and the only people who have been around for all four Red Sox World Series victories are John Henry, Tom Werner, Joe Castiglione and Joe Buck.
 

Yelling At Clouds

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The Sox have made their run with the same ownership, but different GMs, different managers, and different top players (and none of their 2018 players were on the team for the 2004 title).
2004? 2013 and 2018 only had one player in common (from the active roster) and only one coach, too, if I'm not mistaken.
Maybe this isn't the place for this observation, but I'm always struck by how many members of the 2013 team are either totally out of baseball or just hanging on. It was only five years ago!
 

Al Zarilla

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I saw in another thread that there’s a Facebook nonsensical about getting Josh Donaldson to play third and maybe the Sox need another right handed bat anyway. So I looked back on BBREF, and all the way back to the Williams era, there has never been a shortage of right handed, including power, guys. Yawkey and minions and his successors always stocked the team with such guys while mostly neglecting pitching. What’s that got to do with this thread? It’s nice to see on BBREF the yellow horizontal band that says “World Series Champions” across it for years 2018, 2013, 2007 and 2004. We’ve exceeded the Giants now and we look better than them for the foreseeable.
 

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MLB is showing Burns’ Baseball. They’re talking about Ruth w the Sox right now, and any minute they’re gonna mention the “curse”.
 

jaytftwofive

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MLB is showing Burns’ Baseball. They’re talking about Ruth w the Sox right now, and any minute they’re gonna mention the “curse”.
I watched the other night "The faith of 50 million people" Just before the Black Sox scandal. John Chancellor who was the narrator was up to where the Red Sox won their fifth world series in 1918................."They haven't won one since". When that mini-series came out in 1994, that really stung.
 
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rymflaherty

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It’s pretty remarkable that they have won 4 WS titles in 14 years, and 3 of them with different GMs/regimes making the personnel decisions. While I know there has been some carry-over amongst the ranks, I can’t think of any teams off the top that have been so successful with so much change at the top of Ops/Player Personnel etc.
It’s even more odd when you consider 3 of the 4 titles were won by managers in their first season with the team.
That’s my favorite fun fact from this run. I actually haven’t heard it mentioned much, if at all, and I’ve been surprised since it seems like such an anamoly. Team goes 80+ years without a title and now 3 of the last 4 managers have won one on their first shot...everyone’s done it, well, except Bobby V, guess he’s an even bigger failure than we’ve given him credit (or discredit) for.
 

Flunky

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I watched the other night "The faith of 50 million people" Just before the Black Sox scandal. John Chancellor who was the narrator was up to where the Red Sox won their fifth world series in 1918................."They haven't won one since". When that mini-series came out in 1994, that really stung.
“Inexorably I hung on, waiting for her to vomit the keel and mast back up again. I longed for them, and they came late; at the time when a man leaves the law court, for dinner, after judging the many disputes brought him by litigious young men; that was the time it took the timbers to appear from Charybdis.”
 

bankshot1

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Last night I was watching Showtime's "Ray Donovan" (a lot of bad acting but its fun) and in a closing scene, after Ray beats the shit out of a bad guy with a baseball bat, he's asked by his daughter's fiancee, why he uses a wood bat as studies have shown aluminum get at least 5% more distance.

and Ray answers, “Did Carlton Fisk use fucking aluminum when he won Game 6? No. Fucking wood.”

It cracked me up.
 
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Al Zarilla

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Last night I was watching Showtime's "Ray Donovan" (a lot of bad acting but its fun) and in a closing scene, after Ray beats the shit out of a bad guy with a baseball bat, he's asked by his daughter's fiancee, why he uses a wood bat as studies have shown aluminum get at least 5% more distance.

and Ray answers, “Did Carlton Fisk use fucking aluminum when he won Game 6? No. Fucking wood.”

It cracked me up.
I swear I see Fisk’s home run now more than any other historic homer. Sure, it’s probably because the Red Sox have been all over the post season the last decade and more. I watched it live on TV, always get a kick out of seeing it again. Ring those churchbells in Charlestown, N.H.
 

bankshot1

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I swear I see Fisk’s home run now more than any other historic homer. Sure, it’s probably because the Red Sox have been all over the post season the last decade and more. I watched it live on TV, always get a kick out of seeing it again. Ring those churchbells in Charlestown, N.H.
I was trying to find a clip of the scene and discovered that last night's episode was titled "Pudge".
 

Al Zarilla

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I was trying to find a clip of the scene and discovered that last night's episode was titled "Pudge".
My wife watched probably all of the Donovan episodes the first year it was on. I’d hear some of it and say ‘hey don’t they overuse the F word in that show’ (to say the least). Didn’t bother her.
 

m0ckduck

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It’s even more odd when you consider 3 of the 4 titles were won by managers in their first season with the team.
That’s my favorite fun fact from this run. I actually haven’t heard it mentioned much, if at all, and I’ve been surprised since it seems like such an anamoly. Team goes 80+ years without a title and now 3 of the last 4 managers have won one on their first shot...everyone’s done it, well, except Bobby V, guess he’s an even bigger failure than we’ve given him credit (or discredit) for.
I usually assume this is a phenomenon and not just a coincidence— have looked for studies on first-year-manager bump effect but haven't found anything. Seems like baseball seasons are so long and filled with so much boring routine that players would naturally respond positively to having a new skipper (in aggregate, of course-- sometimes there are Bobby V-style fiascos), and then eventually sink back to earth in subsequent seasons with the same manager.
 

TheoShmeo

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One of the “what is” things I celebrate is the sometimes casual nature of the references and the overall change.

Every time a team gets down 0-3 in a series, the 2004 comeback/collapse is referenced. 100 percent of the time, without fail.

That the Sox have now won more titles than any other team in this century gets thrown around during broadcasts in an almost “of course/Ho Hum” sort of way.

The hideous “19-18” chant at the Toilet is gone. An MFYF recently mentioned to me how much he missed it.

A whole generation of Sox fans is growing up with success and without the near miss/gut punch thing that is part of so many of us.

Former Sox players dominate the national media.

I could go on...but these little hallmarks of victory really make me smile. Each of them and all of them, and more.
 
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Skiponzo

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One of the “what is” things I celebrate is the sometimes casual nature of the references and the overall change.

Every time a team gets down 0-3 in a series, the 2004 comeback/collapse is referenced. 100 percent of the time, without fail.
A whole generation of Sox fans is growing up with success and without the near miss/gut punch thing that is part of so many of us.
I coach a travel baseball team that my 12 y/o pitches and plays OF for....A few weeks ago we were in a tourney semis and got down 7-2. My little guys starts yelling in the dugout "Lets get going. If the Red Sox can come back from 0-3 we can come back too!"

2004 NEVER gets old.
 

Al Zarilla

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Except for the breaking the curse year, this year was the best, and it was the most complete or the “cleanest”. I mean, In 2004, some Yankee fans were trying to diminish it with the ‘but you didn’t win the division.’ What? I actually saw that kind of thing on the internet. In 2007 we were down 3-1 to the Indians. Thanks to Josh F. Beckett for turning that ALCS around. In the 2013 ALCS, Big Papi saved us from going to Detroit down 2 games to none. This year, OK, lost game one of the ALCS at home to Houston, and some of the other games in that series were really hairy, but you never had the feeling we were in trouble in any of the three series.

Apparently, all this team has to do is get by the LDS round and it’s World Series Champions.
 

Adrian's Dome

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Except for the breaking the curse year, this year was the best, and it was the most complete or the “cleanest”. I mean, In 2004, some Yankee fans were trying to diminish it with the ‘but you didn’t win the division.’ What? I actually saw that kind of thing on the internet. In 2007 we were down 3-1 to the Indians. Thanks to Josh F. Beckett for turning that ALCS around. In the 2013 ALCS, Big Papi saved us from going to Detroit down 2 games to none. This year, OK, lost game one of the ALCS at home to Houston, and some of the other games in that series were really hairy, but you never had the feeling we were in trouble in any of the three series.

Apparently, all this team has to do is get by the LDS round and it’s World Series Champions.
2007 is easy to forget, but it was a pretty clean start-to-finish run outside of that one hiccup against Cleveland.

I think what makes this year sweeter is the Yankees fielding their best team since '98 and us just buzzsawing through them continually and even moreso when it mattered.
 

Wallball Tingle

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Except for the breaking the curse year, this year was the best, and it was the most complete or the “cleanest”. I mean, In 2004, some Yankee fans were trying to diminish it with the ‘but you didn’t win the division.’ What? I actually saw that kind of thing on the internet. In 2007 we were down 3-1 to the Indians. Thanks to Josh F. Beckett for turning that ALCS around. In the 2013 ALCS, Big Papi saved us from going to Detroit down 2 games to none. This year, OK, lost game one of the ALCS at home to Houston, and some of the other games in that series were really hairy, but you never had the feeling we were in trouble in any of the three series.

Apparently, all this team has to do is get by the LDS round and it’s World Series Champions.
It was a great year, an all-time top 20 season in MLB, maybe top 10.

I agree the success they've had once they've advanced is amazing. Since 2003 they've had one woulda coulda shoulda year and that was 2008.

2007 is easy to forget, but it was a pretty clean start-to-finish run outside of that one hiccup against Cleveland.

I think what makes this year sweeter is the Yankees fielding their best team since '98 and us just buzzsawing through them continually and even moreso when it mattered.
2009 but your point stands. Ran over a very good Yankees team to prove they can still beat them when it counts, then beat a potential all-timer in Houston in 5 games. Felt like they really proved themselves as all-time greats with the fierce competition and decisive victories in the postseason.
 

Adrian's Dome

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2009 but your point stands. Ran over a very good Yankees team to prove they can still beat them when it counts, then beat a potential all-timer in Houston in 5 games. Felt like they really proved themselves as all-time greats with the fierce competition and decisive victories in the postseason.
Just because the '09 Yankees won doesn't mean that squad was better than this year's. They won 103 but with a 95-win pythag, and the AL as a whole wasn't all that strong. Only 3 teams won over 90.
 

Wallball Tingle

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Something else to celebrate: the Yankees haven't won the division since 2012 and got to the ALCS once (losing G7 to Houston last year) in that timeframe. The Red Sox have won the division four times since then, and the whole enchilada twice.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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The Red Sox have won the division four times since then, and the whole enchilada twice.
Which got me thinking...four division titles in six years with two World Series wins...what kind of commonality did the two title rosters have? What about for all four titles?

2004 WS roster members on 2007 WS roster: 7 (Schilling, Timlin, Varitek, Mirabelli, Ortiz, Youkilis, Ramirez...Wakefield injured)
2007 WS roster members on 2013 WS roster: 4 (Lester, Ortiz, Pedroia, Ellsbury)
2013 WS roster members on 2018 WS roster: 1 (Bogaerts...Pedroia injured, Workman left off)

Not sure what exactly that says about the franchise, but it certainly seems like they have gotten better at putting together championship teams without relying on maintaining the same core of players from title to title. No way would I have ever imagined that description fitting the Boston Red Sox fifteen years ago.
 

simplicio

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Well, '13 was largely the result of a pile of short term deals to older veterans all striking gold at once, so it's not that surprising. The current core mostly started coming up over the next couple seasons.
 

Archer1979

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The recurring theme between these teams is that they all jelled as a team that was the antithesis of 25 players/25 cabs.

For some reason, reading this thread made me look the below up from 2007:

 

JMDurron

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Which got me thinking...four division titles in six years with two World Series wins...what kind of commonality did the two title rosters have? What about for all four titles?

2004 WS roster members on 2007 WS roster: 7 (Schilling, Timlin, Varitek, Mirabelli, Ortiz, Youkilis, Ramirez...Wakefield injured)
2007 WS roster members on 2013 WS roster: 4 (Lester, Ortiz, Pedroia, Ellsbury)
2013 WS roster members on 2018 WS roster: 1 (Bogaerts...Pedroia injured, Workman left off)

Not sure what exactly that says about the franchise, but it certainly seems like they have gotten better at putting together championship teams without relying on maintaining the same core of players from title to title. No way would I have ever imagined that description fitting the Boston Red Sox fifteen years ago.
Re: the bolded, I think it says the same thing that the 86-year drought said about that era of RedSox baseball. Ownership matters. Good management at the top guarantees nothing, but sets up the franchise for the kind of success that we’re now reflecting on.
 

Seels

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The recurring theme between these teams is that they all jelled as a team that was the antithesis of 25 players/25 cabs.

For some reason, reading this thread made me look the below up from 2007:

Seeing Wakefield choke up always kills me. This is one of my favorite clips of this whole era. Nothing but love for Wakefield and Timlin.
 

Punchado

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There's something wrong with Red Sox fans if we don't start a "two-thousand-eigh-teen" chant during every yankee game next season.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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For Ryan Brasier, who earned $3,364 per game during the regular year, that's a raise of $26,350 per game or $368,900.

For Rafael Devers, who earned $3,481 per game during the regular year, that's a raise of $26,233 per game or $367,262.

For WS MVP Steve Pearce, who earned $29,320 per game during the regular year, that's a raise of $314 per game or $5,516.

For almost WS MVP David Price, who earned $185,185 per game during the regular year, that's a pay cut of $155,471 per game or $2,176,594.