February 6th, 2007
OK, fine, so I’m not adding anything here…but read the damn articles anyway
There are a lot of great sports reporters out there. With that caveat out of the way, the reason Eagle-Tribune Sox beat writer Rob Bradford’s stuff stands out so much is that he’s always coming up with new angles and new ways to approach stories and then reporting the crap out of them. He had a pair of doozies in the paper over the weekend, both about J.D. Drew. If anyone missed his piece on Drew’s, um, unusual regimen for staying healthy, do yourself a favor and check it out. And in this story, Bradford explains — or helps explain, anyway — why Drew’s contract got held up. (If only Murray “call me Woodward and Bernstein” Chass had half the initiative and a third of the reporting chops of Bradford, Times readers might have known this a while back…and been spared a whole slew of insane jeremiads. Oh well.)
February 6th, 2007
Guess who’s back…back again
I’m almost certain I’ve already used that lame, ripped-off headline after disappearing for three days or so. But I’ve found — especially when I have other things going on and when it’s so motherfucking cold outside it takes all of my energy to go out to get milk — that this whole keeping-informed-to-the-extent-that-I-feel-like-I-have-something-to-add-to-the-conversation stuff is hard. And yes, I know, I could just blather on about a subject about which I have nothing to add…but I’m not at that point. Yet.
Anyway, to keep the whole Slim Shady thing going, way back when I did the whole “cleaning out my comments” schtick (twice, actually); it’s time for a reminder. I’m all for throwing some elbows and letting the invective (or the freak flag) fly, but once a conversation has run its course (or once people start being truly offensive), I’ll cut things off. Don’t take it personally, folks…
February 2nd, 2007
But seriously, folks
Speaking of Shaughnessy, lord knows he and I are not the best of friends. I called him out in Feeding the Monster; he called me something along the lines of a two-bit, gutless coward. (My standard and stupid quip about this when asked is that “I don’t think the Shaughnessys are going to invite me over for Thanksgiving dinner anytime soon.” Seriously. Listen the next time I’m asked about Dan on the radio.)
That said, there are things I respect enormously about Shaughnessy. One is his fearlessness and his consistency in showing up to take his lumps after coming down hard on a player. (Unlike, say, Jay Mariotti.) Another is his (not quite as consistent) proclivity to go out and actually ask questions when mailing in a snide column would be far easier route.
Today’s piece on Schilling’s contract ultimatum is a perfect example. Schilling doesn’t get along with Shaughnessy. Shaughnessy knew that Schilling knew that Shaughnessy was going to get on him about his “sign me before the season starts” bit. And he called to get comment, and in doing so, got some gems.
Like…
Is Schilling negotiating through the media?
“That’s the way everything happens in this town, but they know I’m not doing that. Perception outside of the Red Sox and myself is uncontrollable for us. I’ve talked to Mr. Henry and Theo and we talked on this before it got public. We’re all in a good place.”
I call BS on that one; there’s nothing uncontrollable about telling people you need to be signed before the season starts, just as there’s nothing uncontrollable about telling WEEI that you’re going to play in ‘08. For an example of how contract extensions can be done without media attention, take a look at Ortiz, David, circa 2006.
There’s also this gem:
“The media is the hardest part of this. There’s so much of it and there’s a lot of bitterness and jealousy here that doesn’t exist in other places. You guys have an immense impact on the ebb and flow of the fans and their take on things. It’s an ingrained part of culture here.”
I agree; the media is one of the hardest parts about playing in Boston. But it doesn’t seem to me that Curt is someone who shrinks from that spotlight. (Seriously, how did he keep a straight face while saying, “I don’t enjoy talking to the media. I don’t look forward to being in front of you guys . . .”?)
I love watching Curt pitch. (Most of the time; I didn’t love watching him come in as the newly annointed closer in ‘05 to the strains of Guns ‘n’ Roses immadiately after a red-eye flight from California (necessitated because of an appearance on an ESPN awards show) only to get tattooed by the Yankees. But I digress.) His performance in the ‘04 playoffs is rightly celebrated as one of the greatest of all time. I also think that it was totally unnecessary, and totally predictable, to cause this kind of mini-firestorm. Curt is too smart not to know this was going to be the result of his going public; to claim differently is disingenuous.
February 2nd, 2007
There’s some obvious joke here about great minds, etc etc
“With Curt Schilling in danger of being supplanted as the team’s top pitcher by Dice-K, Schill pulled a Pedro and picked up the gun #45 had pointed at the Sox’s front office before the ‘04 season.”
– Me, February 1, 2007
“And now that the Big Lug is back in the news again — putting a gun to the head of the Red Sox and telling them they must extend his contract before the season starts or risk losing him to free agency…”
– Dan Shaughnessy, February 2, 2007
Thanks, Dan. I always knew you were secretly reading my work. (Speaking of Shaughnessy, here’s an early way to tell if the Sox’s 07 season is going to be a bust: make sure to read his columns the last week of June.)
February 1st, 2007
Meet the new ace…same as the old ace: The big Schill pulls a Pedro
Let’s see: in the months since the ‘06 season ended, the Sox were seconds away from trading Manny, until they weren’t. They were about to lose the rights to Daisuke Matsuzaka, until they didn’t. They signed J.D. Drew to a five-year deal, until they didn’t, and then they did. And in just the last week, the Red Sox were thisclose to a deal to bring Todd Helton to Boston, and then they weren’t. In the midst of all this, the New York Times has been waging a bizarre jihad against Theo Epstein, who, oh, by the way, happened to get married. (Don’t worry: he nuptials did not really feature Coney Island’s Nathan’s hot dogs.)
It’s been a hectic offseason. It shouldn’t be too much to ask for a calm couple of weeks until spring training starts.
It shouldn’t be too much to ask, but it is. With Curt Schilling in danger of being supplanted as the team’s top pitcher by Dice-K, Schill pulled a Pedro and picked up the gun #45 had pointed at the Sox’s front office before the ‘04 season. Less than a year after saying ‘07 would be his last season in the bigs, Schilling announced — on WEEI, naturally — that he would pitch in 2008. Oh, and he sure as shit better get a deal before April 1. “There won’t be any distractions in questioning because if I don’t have a contract before the season starts, then I’ll get a contract after the 2007 season, as a free agent,” Schilling said last night. What if the Red Sox want to, you know, see how a 40-year old whose last two years could generously be described as up and down was doing once the rigors of the season started? “That’s not going to happen,” he said. “I think I’ve earned the right to do one or the other. If they don’t think the risk is worth the reward, or vice versa, I get that.”
That language might sound familiar to readings of Feeding the Monster. Here’s how I described the situation as it stood in spring training 2004…a couple of months after the Sox signed Schilling:
“Pedro Martinez, meanwhile, who was paid $14 million in 2002 and was signed for $15.5 million in 2003, said he felt disrespected by the fact that the club hadn’t picked up his $17.5 million club option for 2004. If the Red Sox didn’t act by the time the 2003 season started, Martinez said, he’d assume his career with the club was over. ‘It’s bye-bye once the year starts,’ he told reporters. ‘I’m gone. I’m just going to pitch. I won’t wait until the All-Star break to talk to them.’ …
With Schilling on board, Martinez wondered if the Red Sox were planning on keeping him around beyond the 2004 season, and without a contract, he was both hesitant to risk further injury and worried about giving the impression he was less than totally healthy. Martinez’s anxiety about pitching during one season before he knew if he’d get paid for the next had been apparent since 2003, when, during spring training, he began agitating for the Red Sox to pick up his 2004 option. Now, when he spoke of Grady Little’s decision to leave him in Game 7 of the previous fall’s American League Championship Series against the Yankees, he talked not of the fact that the game was on the line but of the risk to his arm. “I was actually shocked I stayed out there that long,” he told Sports Illustrated. ‘But I’m paid to do that. I belong to Boston. If they want me to blow my arm out, it’s their responsibility.’ …
The same fragility that made Martinez anxious about securing a long-term deal made the Red Sox concerned about giving him one. ‘The arm angle Pedro had in spring training was very worrisome,’ says John Henry. When Henry asked one of the team’s top baseball operations executives what kind of season Martinez would likely produce, the answer stunned him: ‘I was told, ‘He’ll win 12 or 15 games, have a 4.00 ERA or a 3.50 ERA.’ And I was like, ‘Fuck.’’ Despite this prediction, the team wanted to re-sign its star. ‘I thought he should finish his career in Boston,’ says Henry. …
On April 30th, as the Red Sox sat in the visiting clubhouse in Arlington, Texas, waiting for a thunderstorm to pass, Martinez decided to chat with the Herald’s Michael Silverman, his favorite reporter on the beat. Martinez told Silverman he was cutting off all negotiations with the Red Sox until season’s end. ‘I’m just really sad for the fans in New England who had high hopes that…I was going to stay in Boston,’ Martinez said. ‘[The fans] don’t understand what’s going on, but I really mean it from my heart—I gave them every opportunity, every discount I could give them to actually stay in Boston and they never took advantage of it. Didn’t even give me an offer.’ His contract status, he said, wouldn’t be a distraction for him or the team ‘because I’m not going to allow it.’”
It’s no secret that Pedro and Schilling were not the best of friends, and it’s no secret that Pedro was wounded that Schilling overtook him as the Sox’s best pitcher. It turns out the two pitchers might not be that different after all. Negotiating in the media? Check. Playing on fans’ emotions and Boston’s tendency towards soap operas? Check. Needing the attention focused on himself? Check.
On the upside, 2004 — another season with its fair share of drama — ended up okay when all was said and done.
(Obligatory FTM plug: The reviewers love it, it was a New York Times bestseller, and it’s available for only $17.16 on Amazon. Oh, and, of course, signed, personalized bookplates are still available free of cost. And How can you resist?)
