Some Things I Think I Think: Time for Red Sox to look in the mirror
Even now, a week removed, it remains mystifying how things disintegrated so quickly. It seems odd that two sides which only 30 months ago agreed to make Devers the highest-paid player in the history of the franchise could grow to, metaphorically speaking anyway, hate the sight of one another.
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You may ask yourself, 'Well, how did I get here? indeed.
From Devers' perspective, 'It's not my fault that players get hurt,' uttered weeks ago, stands as one of the most bizarre, self-involved remarks made by a modern athlete — and that covers a lot of ground.
Sounds like a guy who'll really have your back in an athletic foxhole, huh?
Sure, the communication was lousy and the Red Sox seem have approached this whole episode with the surgical precision of the Keystone Cops.
But Devers is far from blameless here.
That said, somebody needs to explain why the Red Sox have have habitually gone through these nasty, public divorces with their star players — many of them homegrown.
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From Nomar Garciaparra to Pedro Martinez to Manny Ramirez to, now, Devers, it never seems to end well in Boston. And that can't always be the fault of the player, as difficult as some of the them were — Devers included.
In their public comments after the trade, the Red Sox talked a great deal about culture and how important it was for the next generation of Red Sox stars experience the proper esprit de corps by the current star players. Fair enough.
But what about the culture established by the ownership/upper management group? How come they're not setting the right tone? How could the same owners responsible for four titles have lost the trust of much of their fan base? And why do they mostly succeed only in alienating the people to whom they pay the most?
How about that culture?
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Something's got to change? The club famously brought in a company to perform an efficiency audit last year, resulting in some demotions and layoffs.
It seems like another one could performed to solve the mystery: Why does this keep happening? And what can we do to fix it?
*The Edmonton Oilers are in the market for an upgrade in goal after two straight unsuccessful trip to the Final. There's been some reporting that the Oilers called the Bruins to inquire about the availability of Jeremy Swayman.
If they call again this summer, the Bruins have to listen more closely this time. It may seem counterintuitive to move Swayman just one year into an eight-year contract. But the Bruins must be open to anything and everything.
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*David Ortiz's decision to go scorched earth on Devers is a curious one. Ortiz must really have felt ignored or disrespected for him to embark on this kind of revenge campaign.
True, Ortiz remains on the Red Sox' payroll and it may simply have been good business for him to take the club's side when it comes to the dissolution of the relationship between player and the club. But this goes way beyond that. It's personal.
*We're getting ahead of ourselves, since the postseason obviously revealed that there's still plenty of quality hockey ahead for Brad Marchand, but he's pretty much guaranteed himself induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame with his second Stanley Cup.
*I can't recommend The Studio on Apple TV+ enough. Think of it as a mix between Robert Altman's The Player and Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm. Irreverent, profane and hilarious, it's both an indictment and love letter to Hollywood, and it will make you laugh endlessly.
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*I'm going out on a limb and saying that the Shedeur Sanders Redemption Tour is off to something of a sluggish start.
*I'm ashamed how long it took me to truly discover Paul Simon's Seven Psalms, now two years old. But seeing Simon live recently, he performed the entire suite before delivering a set of hits and deep cuts, and its brilliance really showed itself.
*Terry Francona returns to Fenway next week, this time in the uniform of the Cincinnati Reds, whom he naturally has fighting for a wild card spot.
Since Francona left the Red Sox in 2011, the Red Sox have won two additional championships and Francona none, but still, he's the big winner in all of this.
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*Sounds like the Celtics have put out the word that they'll listen on anything and anybody, but don't feel compelled to make some blockbuster just for the sake of shaking things up. Which is as it should be.
*Both baseball and journalism took a terrible hit Saturday with the passing of my friend Scott Miller. Miller didn't have an ounce of cynicism in him, and his writing was as welcoming and special as he was.
If you'd want to read a good baseball book, buy a copy of Skipper: Why Baseball Managers Matter and Always Will. You'll be doing yourself a favor and also supporting the project that Miller somehow managed to produce the last few years all the while conducting a brace battle with cancer.
*It's true, you know: there's no trophy like the Stanley Cup, and it may well be the hardest to win. But on this, there can be no argument: the winning celebration tops any other in sports. From the phrase 'The Cup is in the building!' to the reverence that's shown when it's brought out onto the ice to be handed to the latest victor, it's a thrilling event that not even Gary Bettman can ruin.
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*It has to concern the Yankees at least somewhat that, at any given moment, they remain capable of morphing into the team that dissolved in the fifth inning of Game 5of the World Series last October.
*It's always a good week when I start a new S.A. Cosby book. His latest, King of Ashes, is as good as all of those that came before it — which is saying something.
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