Everyone needs to calm down and stop firing bullets.
This is on the players and now it’s time to move on. None of us really know all of the details. We have a couple of leaks and a whole bunch of speculation.
The ownership group and Theo Epstein are very smart and will reload for next year with new emphasis and direction. And before anyone starts, please don’t act like you weren’t ecstatic when they inked Carl Crawford. Who knew he would fail so badly?
Suddenly, Theo doesn’t know what he is doing and we are doomed.
Now Francona is gone and the manager who replaces Tito might be a bench coach somewhere right now but it was time for change. Tito couldn’t lead anymore — his fault or not — but he couldn’t lead anymore. Wish him well, move on and get ready for a roller coaster off-season because the media vultures are going to being out looking for the wounded. I am for one can’t wait to hear from all the attackers inside the city limits as well as all the passer-by’s who stop over to point and laugh.
The Red Sox organization handled Tito’s departure very well from history’s perspective. There is no blame on him and no shame on him. History will judge this well and no one will be talking blame over his departure 25 years from now. The blame you hear comes from guys like Felger who beat the same drum daily until it starts to settle into the psyche of the city. Why do you think guys like Dan Shaughnessy love to play games with the team and fanbase? It’s because they know people will take the bait and help add layers and layers of fear, doubt and blame onto the Red Sox.
To me, one of the best people we have in the Sox organization is Larry Lucchino. Like him or not, that guy is always ready to battle and pushes everything and everyone as hard as he can. People who are worried that the Sox are doomed need to remember that the team is still stacked and still has deep pockets. Don’t let anyone tell you they are going to be gun-shy with capital just because Year 1 of Crawford was a bust. John Lackey, he’s another story altogether. Do you/did you trust Francona? well, he defended Lackey on his way out so that needs to count for something.
So Tito took fell on the sword and by all accounts it seemed he did it with earnest. I think he wanted to get out and I salute him for his wonderful work here. Just don’t forget that this team is not going to suddenly stop being competitive because of a bad month. They will not be caught up in all of the drama that us fans, bloggers and media will take part in from now until the snow thaws.
Whether it ends up being Be it Lackey, Kevin Youkilis or Josh Beckett — someone is going to pay for that September. They say no scapegoats but I fully expect there will be some significant roster upheaval this winter.
Finally, don’t lose perspective that whatever info is leaked about the secrets of inside the Red Sox is going to be chewed up, spun around and fed to us everyday. Everyone in the media can gain and many of them will use this as their platform.
Stay out of it and just move on to next year because 2011 was a failure of statistical oddities (278,000,000 to 1) and the consequence of a rudderless ship. It was terrible circumstance, not a sign of the future.
This is from Nate Silver:
The Red Sox had just a 0.3 percent chance of failing to make the playoffs on Sept. 3.
The Rays had just a 0.3 percent chance of coming back after trailing 7-0 with two innings to play.
The Red Sox had only about a 2 percent chance of losing their game against Baltimore, when the Orioles were down to their last strike.
The Rays had about a 2 percent chance of winning in the bottom of the 9th, with Johnson also down to his last strike.
Multiply those four probabilities together, and you get a combined probability of about one chance in 278 million of all these events coming together in quite this way.
You don’t have to revert to the John Harrington days and let the poison seep into the water. Remember that with sustained-success over years and years, also brings hard failures. They failed this year. But unlike your father’s Red Sox, these Red Sox will be back.
Count on it.