Thursday 8/8/19
1. I knew the Red Sox were in trouble this year when Alex Cora announced in the off-season that Dustin Pedroia would hit lead-off in the team's first game, as a tribute to his determination to come back from his injury. That struck me as so arrogant. Regular season game that counts, treating it like an opportunity to let someone take a bow. To start your season. To start the tone of your season. Which was also condescending to the player, because it also meant, "You're not good enough for this anymore, and this is a one-time deal, before we drop you down to seventh or eighth, but hey, take a bow first."
2. I fell asleep last night, like I do most nights, during the Sox game, which was ultimately suspended because of rain at 4-4 in the tenth, against the dreadful Royals, who just took the last game against the Sox. A theme throughout the year: even when the Sox win, it's a slog, man. They put no teams away. They have to battle it to the last.
3. The three man booth with Eckersley and Remy is good. Eckersley is much better than Remy in the booth, though. And Remy should never talk about kids on a broadcast. Remy feels a little dark to me at times. You sense that it's there.
4. I saw a USA Today list in which a writer picked the 100 greatest NFL teams of all-time. This was a bad list. Ten Patriots teams were on it, none in the top fifteen. The top Patriots team? The 2007 team. Soft team. Overrated team. One-dimensional, chuck it down the field, nothing else, porous defense, no playmakers at all on defense. The 2001 Patriots team is so underrated. Even now people rank them lowly because they were underdogs, came out of nowhere, and that is still the takeaway, not the roster. That team was jacked. Hall of Famers. What's more, B+/A- type players who made big plays. For instance, Tedy Bruschi. How many NFL players ever made more big plays than he did? Not a Hall of Famer, of course. Not close. But if there was a Hall of Fame for "gotta have it" moments and the players who seized them, he'd be in it. These are the best teams in the four major North American sports during my lifetime: 1983-84 Edmonton Oilers, 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, 1998 Yankees, 2004 New England Patriots. Best international team: Canada at the 1987 Canada Cup. I'd also pick them for greatest collection of talent.
This Carlton Fisk photo has nothing to do with any of the above, I just had never seen it before and I like it. It's from Yankee Stadium.
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