The Day Dougie Parmasan Came Home

John Marzano Olympic Hero

has fancy plans, and pants to match
Dope
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Apr 12, 2001
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On Sunday it will be ten years since Theo Epstein traded Josh Bard and Cla Meredith to the Padres for Doug Mirabelli. Hardball Times wrote an excellent oral history about that day.

Take a moment to read it, it's fantastic. Epstein is especially candid about a few things, as is former Padres GM Kevin Towers.

I'm pretty sure most SoSHers hated that trade when it was made (including me) but I love this story. It's really excellent.
 

tims4wins

PN23's replacement
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Jul 15, 2005
37,320
Hingham, MA
Gotta post the day in the life of Dougie too

http://quinnmedia.blogspot.com/2006/07/day-in-life-of-doug-mirabelli.html

Doug Mirabelli's Day
9:00 Shakes off the cobwebs and gets out of bed.
9:01 Lets out a blistering fart and takes 90 second piss on his hands, farts 5 more times.
9:03 Drinks three raw eggs Rocky Balboa style and opens the fridge.
9:05 Takes out leftovers from the Kowloon Pupu Platter for three he picked up last night.
9:15 Grunts at his wife and gives his kids 20 bucks each to leave him alone.
9:17 Takes a dump.
9:22 Sings Van Halen in the shower.
9:25 Shaves and leaves his goatee.
9:30 Takes 35 vicious cuts with his bat naked in front of the mirror, screams out loud "Dougie is going deep tonight!"
9:45 Puts on his cowboy boots and tight jeans and tank-top and gets ready to leave.
9:50 Grunts at his wife and kids and tells them he'll see them tomorrow.
9:57 Pulls onto Route 1 with Led Zeppelin blaring, cuts three people off, gives the finger to all three people.
10:15 Pulls into Fenway Park, tells clubhouse parking attendant to make sure he blocks Nomar in.
10:16 Puts the kid in a headlock and threatens the kid and his family's life if there is one scratch on his truck.
10:22 Walks into clubhouse and calls Nomar a homo for the first time today and 350th time this month, asks Nomar if he misses his boyfriend Lou Merloni.
10:27 Takes another dump, leaves door open and yells at anyone who walks by.
10:30 Gives Nomar a dead leg and calls him a homo.
10:33 Stuffs Derek Lowe in a locker and pisses on him.
10:37 Goes through a 10 minute hand shake with his boy Tim Wakefield.
10:45 Takes Pokey's headphones off and steps on them, says until he is hitting .250, no music.
10:50 Francona walks by and Dougie cuts him off and says "Is Dougie DHing the first game?"
10:51 Francona runs and hides behind Schilling.
10:55 Dougie tells Trot if he played 162 Games his numbers would look like this: .375 average, 72 HRs, 52 Doubles, 9 Singles, 6 Walks, 220 K'S.
11:17 Writes back response to fan's letter: "Hey P***y, I don't wear batting gloves because they are for p**sies like your boyfriend Nomar."
11:30 Walks out to batting practice with a tank-top on.
11:45 After no stretching steps into the cage, ignores the five bunts standard procedure.
11:47 Takes 25 cuts, hits 17 over the monster and misses the other 8.
11:48 Calls the batting practice pitcher a homo and tells him to go bang Nomar for mixing in a curveball after Dougie hit one onto the pike.
11:55 Tackles Nomar and gives him wedgie, calls him a pickle smoker.
12:00 Dougie's daily order of Double Chicken Parm from Joe Tecci's arrives.
12:07 Dougie finishes Chicken Parm and pours the rest of his sauce into Nomar's locker.
12:15 Tito posts lineup, Dougie sees he is not the DH, calls Francona a p***y. Francona runs behind Schilling.
12:25 Dougie gets naked and takes 25 swings in front of the clubhouse mirror, announcing "Dougie is going deep tonight!"
12:45 Takes yet another dump, uses Nomar's $350 silk shirt to wipe his a**.
1:05 Game starts, Dougie tells Francona he is not going to the bullpen to warm up pitchers. Francona hides behind Schilling.
1:25 Dougie announces he is ready to pinch hit in the bottom of the first for Nomar.
1:45 Abe Alvarez comes in, Dougie tells him he sucks and will back at Portland (AA Eastern League) by 7 tonight.
1:55 Dougie's four Fenway Franks arrive, pays with Nomar's credit card.
2:15 Finishes shopping with Nomar’s credit card, maxed it out at Auto Zone.
2:30 Dozes off.
3:30 Sees they are losing and goes back to the dugout and tells whole team they suck except for him and Wakefield.
3:33 Announces himself ready to pinch hit.
4:30 Sox lose game, Dougie tells Francona he should have DH'ed him, Francona runs away.
5:00 Dougie tells Nomar singles are for p**sies.
5:30 Dougie takes batting practice again, refuses to bunt.
5:33 Dougie hit 22 pitches over the wall: 11 fair, 11 foul, all pulled, he missed 15 pitches.
6:00 Dougie see’s name in lineup, calls Francona a p***y for batting him 8th. Francona hides behind Schilling.
6:05 Dougie demands to bat cleanup.
6:25 Announces that Dougie is going deep tonight.
6:30 Dinner arrives, two steaks from the Capital Grille. Dougie pours steak juice into Nomar's locker, makes Derek Lowe eat the fat.
6:35 Dougie gives D-Lowe an atomic wedgie.
7:00 Tells Wakefield to show some balls tonight and don't throw anything in the dirt.
7:10 Scoreless first. Dougie tells Francona it must be the catching.
7:25 Dougie tells fans in on deck circle he is going deep.
7:27 Dougie screams at pitcher, tells him he is a p***y and he is taking him deep.
7:30 Dougie hits bomb off the wall, coasts into second. Almost gets thrown out.
7:31 Tells pitcher his fastball sucks. Tells shortstop and second baseman that he didn't get all of it.
8:15 Dougie ropes a rocket to third, third baseman takes all day and still turns a double play on Dougie.
8:16 Fans boo Dougie.
8:17 Dougie tells family of four to @#%$ off and steals some kid's hot dog on way to dugout.
8:18 Dougie is tired and is happy he hit into a double play, as he did not want to run the bases anymore.
9:10 Dougie strikes out on inside pitch after crushing 4 foul home runs. Calls pitcher/catcher/ump all p**sies.
9:30 9th inning. Dougie is exhausted. Walks out to the mound and calls Embree a p***y and tells him to just bring the heat. Dougie wants to get home.
9:50 Dougie showers and walks around the clubhouse naked. Tells the Globe's Dan Shaughnessy and Gordon Edes to bl*w him.
9:55 Dougie shaves and leaves a goatee.
10:00 Knocks Nomar off his exercise bike. Calls him a homo singles hitter and leaves clubhouse.
10:10 Cuts off 4 Red Sox fans. Gives the bird to everyone near him.
10:25 Arrives at Kowloon Chinese Restaurant on Route 1.
10:45 Sits down at bar and digs into his pupu platter for three.
12:00 Stumbles home and parks truck on the front lawn, goes for a dip in his above ground pool.
12:10 Leaves tighty whiteys on his neighbor’s windshield.
12:15 Walks into house naked and screams "who saw the bomb I hit tonight???"
12:30 Wakes up the whole neighborhood.
12:45 Takes 35 swings naked and orders porn.
12:55 Pulls out bucket of KFC and gets ready for the movie.
1:15 Dougie passes out on couch.
 

Seels

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Jul 20, 2005
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Baseball wise it made no sense. But I don't think Josh Bard and Cla Meredith were anything to be upset about losing now or then. Neither had much of a career and both were pretty blah after 2006. The trade was very symbolic of that 2003-2010 era of Sox teams.
 

InsideTheParker

persists in error
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Jul 15, 2005
40,452
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Oh, that was so much fun to read, especially the part about the travel back to Boston and being cleared for everything in the way.
Sorry, who is MSP?
 

nattysez

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Sep 30, 2010
8,482
I'm blown away by the last line of the story:

"The only thing that could’ve been better is if I had gone deep."
I really hope that's a real quote.


Edit: And I should add that Theo's reference to traveling with the team potentially having a downside because it allows the GM to get caught up in short-term clubhouse drama is really interesting.
 

beezer

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Jul 9, 2009
597
Oh, that was so much fun to read, especially the part about the travel back to Boston and being cleared for everything in the way.
Sorry, who is MSP?
Massachusetts State Police

I also love the bit about Theo calling Beckett first to tell him he'd been traded. I want to hear that story from Josh's perspective as I imagine it being closer to the way Ricky Vaughn reacted to being cut
 

Leather

given himself a skunk spot
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Jul 18, 2005
28,451
I distinctly recall most people here thinking, at the time, that it was a stupid over-reaction and a bizarre example of catering to Wakefield, who was nothing special.

It was all so strange.
 

CantKeepmedown

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Jul 15, 2005
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Towers "My God, Doug Mirabelli!?" quote when told about clearing airspace was great. As he said, he should've asked for more. He probably could have got it.
 

Leather

given himself a skunk spot
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Jul 18, 2005
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Back when Yanks/Sox series were the biggest show in either town.
 

Van Everyman

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Ok, not to steer this in too serious of a direction but I will never get the agita over this trade. Yes it was silly. Yes it was reactionary. And yes we knew that at the time. But there is no reason for anyone, much less Theo, to make any pronouncements about how this was a "violation of a process." It was a minor move using minor pieces.

Great piece tho.
 

snowmanny

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Dec 8, 2005
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It was a stupid over-reaction and a crappy trade but it was an awesome spectacle and the game was great and it wasn't like they gave up Jeff Bagwell or lost any titles over this. Meredith was spectacular for about five minutes. On balance I'll take the good time.
 

whatittakes

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Apr 11, 2016
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2006 was a special year in so many weird brain-damaged ways. I don't think I've had more fun watching a baseball team than I had watching that one, and that includes the championship Teams (2004 was more extreme stress followed by extreme exhilleration than fun and I wasn't really in a position to get the most out of 07 and 13 because I was in school in 07 and working nights in 13)
 

Pilgrim

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I think part of the angst was that Meridith had a big fan club among Red Sox nerds. They called him up, immediatly misused him, then traded him for a backup catcher. The trade did truly stink for a short period of time.
 

whatittakes

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I think part of the angst was that Meridith had a big fan club among Red Sox nerds. They called him up, immediatly misused him, then traded him for a backup catcher. The trade did truly stink for a short period of time.
Kinda silly in hindsight. Cla had that one great year in 2006, and then spent the rest of a very short career being exactly nobody.

Pastabelly meanwhile did his Wakefield-caddy bit to help get us through the ALCS the next year and earn himself another ring (I don't think Wake pitched in the Series, but I know he pitched a game in the 07 ALCS that my memory says was critical to turn that series around).
 

Laser Show

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Nov 7, 2008
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God, the height of post 2004 Red Sox insanity was so much fun. Kind of feel terrible for Josh Bard after reading that though.
This was my thought too. The 2003-2009 Sox, maybe even up to 2011, were just tremendous theater. Each game felt huge, and like drleather said Sox-Yankees was unrivaled.

I hope we get back to that someday. It was insane and over the top, but it was damn fun.
 

donutogre

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Kinda silly in hindsight. Cla had that one great year in 2006, and then spent the rest of a very short career being exactly nobody.

Pastabelly meanwhile did his Wakefield-caddy bit to help get us through the ALCS the next year and earn himself another ring (I don't think Wake pitched in the Series, but I know he pitched a game in the 07 ALCS that my memory says was critical to turn that series around).
Afraid your memory is betraying you. You're right that he didn't pitch in the WS, but he got shelled in the game he started in the ALCS, leading to Lester taking his spot in the rotation in the WS.
 

Rough Carrigan

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I remember the whole thing pointing out how weak the NL was relative to the AL at the time. Meredith went over and did great for a while and was interviewed and said something to the effect of "Yeah, the Red Sox kept nagging me about having command on both sides of the plate and over here I just throw to one side and it works great."
 

brandonchristensen

Loves Aaron Judge
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Feb 4, 2012
38,480
Gotta post the day in the life of Dougie too

http://quinnmedia.blogspot.com/2006/07/day-in-life-of-doug-mirabelli.html

Doug Mirabelli's Day
9:00 Shakes off the cobwebs and gets out of bed.
9:01 Lets out a blistering fart and takes 90 second piss on his hands, farts 5 more times.
9:03 Drinks three raw eggs Rocky Balboa style and opens the fridge.
9:05 Takes out leftovers from the Kowloon Pupu Platter for three he picked up last night.
9:15 Grunts at his wife and gives his kids 20 bucks each to leave him alone.
9:17 Takes a dump.
9:22 Sings Van Halen in the shower.
9:25 Shaves and leaves his goatee.
9:30 Takes 35 vicious cuts with his bat naked in front of the mirror, screams out loud "Dougie is going deep tonight!"
9:45 Puts on his cowboy boots and tight jeans and tank-top and gets ready to leave.
9:50 Grunts at his wife and kids and tells them he'll see them tomorrow.
9:57 Pulls onto Route 1 with Led Zeppelin blaring, cuts three people off, gives the finger to all three people.
10:15 Pulls into Fenway Park, tells clubhouse parking attendant to make sure he blocks Nomar in.
10:16 Puts the kid in a headlock and threatens the kid and his family's life if there is one scratch on his truck.
10:22 Walks into clubhouse and calls Nomar a homo for the first time today and 350th time this month, asks Nomar if he misses his boyfriend Lou Merloni.
10:27 Takes another dump, leaves door open and yells at anyone who walks by.
10:30 Gives Nomar a dead leg and calls him a homo.
10:33 Stuffs Derek Lowe in a locker and pisses on him.
10:37 Goes through a 10 minute hand shake with his boy Tim Wakefield.
10:45 Takes Pokey's headphones off and steps on them, says until he is hitting .250, no music.
10:50 Francona walks by and Dougie cuts him off and says "Is Dougie DHing the first game?"
10:51 Francona runs and hides behind Schilling.
10:55 Dougie tells Trot if he played 162 Games his numbers would look like this: .375 average, 72 HRs, 52 Doubles, 9 Singles, 6 Walks, 220 K'S.
11:17 Writes back response to fan's letter: "Hey P***y, I don't wear batting gloves because they are for p**sies like your boyfriend Nomar."
11:30 Walks out to batting practice with a tank-top on.
11:45 After no stretching steps into the cage, ignores the five bunts standard procedure.
11:47 Takes 25 cuts, hits 17 over the monster and misses the other 8.
11:48 Calls the batting practice pitcher a homo and tells him to go bang Nomar for mixing in a curveball after Dougie hit one onto the pike.
11:55 Tackles Nomar and gives him wedgie, calls him a pickle smoker.
12:00 Dougie's daily order of Double Chicken Parm from Joe Tecci's arrives.
12:07 Dougie finishes Chicken Parm and pours the rest of his sauce into Nomar's locker.
12:15 Tito posts lineup, Dougie sees he is not the DH, calls Francona a p***y. Francona runs behind Schilling.
12:25 Dougie gets naked and takes 25 swings in front of the clubhouse mirror, announcing "Dougie is going deep tonight!"
12:45 Takes yet another dump, uses Nomar's $350 silk shirt to wipe his a**.
1:05 Game starts, Dougie tells Francona he is not going to the bullpen to warm up pitchers. Francona hides behind Schilling.
1:25 Dougie announces he is ready to pinch hit in the bottom of the first for Nomar.
1:45 Abe Alvarez comes in, Dougie tells him he sucks and will back at Portland (AA Eastern League) by 7 tonight.
1:55 Dougie's four Fenway Franks arrive, pays with Nomar's credit card.
2:15 Finishes shopping with Nomar’s credit card, maxed it out at Auto Zone.
2:30 Dozes off.
3:30 Sees they are losing and goes back to the dugout and tells whole team they suck except for him and Wakefield.
3:33 Announces himself ready to pinch hit.
4:30 Sox lose game, Dougie tells Francona he should have DH'ed him, Francona runs away.
5:00 Dougie tells Nomar singles are for p**sies.
5:30 Dougie takes batting practice again, refuses to bunt.
5:33 Dougie hit 22 pitches over the wall: 11 fair, 11 foul, all pulled, he missed 15 pitches.
6:00 Dougie see’s name in lineup, calls Francona a p***y for batting him 8th. Francona hides behind Schilling.
6:05 Dougie demands to bat cleanup.
6:25 Announces that Dougie is going deep tonight.
6:30 Dinner arrives, two steaks from the Capital Grille. Dougie pours steak juice into Nomar's locker, makes Derek Lowe eat the fat.
6:35 Dougie gives D-Lowe an atomic wedgie.
7:00 Tells Wakefield to show some balls tonight and don't throw anything in the dirt.
7:10 Scoreless first. Dougie tells Francona it must be the catching.
7:25 Dougie tells fans in on deck circle he is going deep.
7:27 Dougie screams at pitcher, tells him he is a p***y and he is taking him deep.
7:30 Dougie hits bomb off the wall, coasts into second. Almost gets thrown out.
7:31 Tells pitcher his fastball sucks. Tells shortstop and second baseman that he didn't get all of it.
8:15 Dougie ropes a rocket to third, third baseman takes all day and still turns a double play on Dougie.
8:16 Fans boo Dougie.
8:17 Dougie tells family of four to @#%$ off and steals some kid's hot dog on way to dugout.
8:18 Dougie is tired and is happy he hit into a double play, as he did not want to run the bases anymore.
9:10 Dougie strikes out on inside pitch after crushing 4 foul home runs. Calls pitcher/catcher/ump all p**sies.
9:30 9th inning. Dougie is exhausted. Walks out to the mound and calls Embree a p***y and tells him to just bring the heat. Dougie wants to get home.
9:50 Dougie showers and walks around the clubhouse naked. Tells the Globe's Dan Shaughnessy and Gordon Edes to bl*w him.
9:55 Dougie shaves and leaves a goatee.
10:00 Knocks Nomar off his exercise bike. Calls him a homo singles hitter and leaves clubhouse.
10:10 Cuts off 4 Red Sox fans. Gives the bird to everyone near him.
10:25 Arrives at Kowloon Chinese Restaurant on Route 1.
10:45 Sits down at bar and digs into his pupu platter for three.
12:00 Stumbles home and parks truck on the front lawn, goes for a dip in his above ground pool.
12:10 Leaves tighty whiteys on his neighbor’s windshield.
12:15 Walks into house naked and screams "who saw the bomb I hit tonight???"
12:30 Wakes up the whole neighborhood.
12:45 Takes 35 swings naked and orders porn.
12:55 Pulls out bucket of KFC and gets ready for the movie.
1:15 Dougie passes out on couch.
holy shit that was the funniest thing I have read in a long time
 

Rook05

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Afraid your memory is betraying you. You're right that he didn't pitch in the WS, but he got shelled in the game he started in the ALCS, leading to Lester taking his spot in the rotation in the WS.
And that led to this moment:


My now-wife and I are somewhere in the stands behind them. Damn, time flies.
 

SoxFanInCali

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About the time that interview above was happening, I was in the stands at Coors Field talking to Dougie's dad and getting a closeup look at his 2004 ring. For that reason alone, I will always be thankful for the trade.
 

Seels

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Jul 20, 2005
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I love that interview. I really loved Timlin on the team. He wasn't a great pitcher but damn if he wasn't a guy you could support. Him and Wake just seemed like legitimately good dudes all the time.
 

SumnerH

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Jul 18, 2005
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I love that interview. I really loved Timlin on the team. He wasn't a great pitcher but damn if he wasn't a guy you could support.
From 2003-2007 the dude put up a 135 ERA+ (3.5 ERA in that offensive era) while averaging over 70 IP a year in relief. That's at least pretty good.
 

whatittakes

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Apr 11, 2016
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I still remember that retardedly awesome run Timlin put up for us in 2007 where he lived for half a season on nothing but smoke and mirrors. Timlin was the guy who managed to somehow show up at just the right time to cover for Gagne, and he wound up covering for Okajima's late season troubles as well. It seemed like he was showing up in the 7th or 8th to get the ball to Papelbon in at least half the games down the stretch.

And there was absolutely nothing behind it. The guy should have been cooked to a turn. But somehow the BABIP gods kept smiling on him (.202 BABIP from July 1 to the end of September) and it somehow kept going and going for no apparent reason. it made absolutely no sense at all, whatsoever. but I guess baseball is like that sometimes.
 

CarolinaBeerGuy

Don't know him from Adam
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Mar 14, 2006
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I still remember that retardedly awesome run Timlin put up for us in 2007 where he lived for half a season on nothing but smoke and mirrors. Timlin was the guy who managed to somehow show up at just the right time to cover for Gagne, and he wound up covering for Okajima's late season troubles as well. It seemed like he was showing up in the 7th or 8th to get the ball to Papelbon in at least half the games down the stretch.

And there was absolutely nothing behind it. The guy should have been cooked to a turn. But somehow the BABIP gods kept smiling on him (.202 BABIP from July 1 to the end of September) and it somehow kept going and going for no apparent reason. it made absolutely no sense at all, whatsoever. but I guess baseball is like that sometimes.
Don't.
 

ngruz25

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Sep 20, 2005
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Almost forgotten in the hoopla of the day: this was the same game when Ortiz faced Mike Myers, the guy the Yankees acquired specifically to get him out, for the first time. Bottom of the 8th inning, Sox just went up a run, a stiff, cold wind blowing in from CF. Ortiz works the count to 3-2 before blasting a 3-run bomb to the deepest part of the ballpark.

Man, those were great times.
 

Dollar

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May 5, 2006
11,089
Great article. That 2005-06 offseason was insane, with the Beckett/Lowell-Hanley/Anibal trade, Renteria for Marte, Marte/Mota/Shoppach for Bard/Crisp/Riske a few weeks later, and Arroyo for Wily Mo. And that's not even including the pre-season signings of Juan Gonzalez, J.T. Snow, John Flaherty, and Julian Tavarez, Just a strange, strange offseason looking back at it.

I just hope we have another one of these oral history articles next April for the tenth anniversary of the famous NESN pizza toss.
 

whatittakes

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Apr 11, 2016
215
Great article. That 2005-06 offseason was insane, with the Beckett/Lowell-Hanley/Anibal trade, Renteria for Marte, Marte/Mota/Shoppach for Bard/Crisp/Riske a few weeks later, and Arroyo for Wily Mo. And that's not even including the pre-season signings of Juan Gonzalez, J.T. Snow, John Flaherty, and Julian Tavarez, Just a strange, strange offseason looking back at it.

I just hope we have another one of these oral history articles next April for the tenth anniversary of the famous NESN pizza toss.
And that's figuring without the Theo-in-a-gorilla-suit drama.
 

crystalline

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Oct 12, 2009
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God, the height of post 2004 Red Sox insanity was so much fun. Kind of feel terrible for Josh Bard after reading that though.
Yeah, Bard just didn't have the ability to catch the knuckleball here.

I was surprised at how long Bard's career was. He stuck around till 33, accumulated about 2000 PAs, and made about $6M. A worthy run, I'd say.
 

SydneySox

A dash of cool to add the heat
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Sep 19, 2005
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Remember Cla Meredith? Remember when we brought him up after what my memory tells me was 9 days after we drafted him?

Poor Cla Meredith.