Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

I have been away on vacation the past couple of days, my apologies for the lack of a post.

We need to step away from baseball for a post because I had an urgent request from a reader.

Dear Dr. Phil:

I am still in love with my partner of the past eight years but am finding it more and more difficult to put up with their constant lack of consideration for my feelings. This situation seems unmanageable. Do I hold on and try to make this work? I really feel that we have enough to make one more go at it.

Please help me.

Frolicking at the Fens

Dear Fens'


Sometimes the best thing to do when in a relationship that is not working for either side is to sever ties completely. You may think you and your partner can relive the glorious days gone by but quite simply there is too much baggage.

You know your significant other far too well. You remember when they were not there for you when they were desperately needed. You recall how they "quit you" back in 2006. Recently, you see how they treated your elderly grandparent when they did not get their way. Before that they even got physical and slapped a trusted friend. How about their appearance? They seem to not care about how they look and have come far too complacent. To top it all off, they say things like; "you don't deserve me", "I just want to know where I stand", "I'm sick of you. You're sick of me", and "You are trying to paint me as a bad person". All of your sweetheart's co-workers have had enough of the unprofessionalism, laziness, selfishness and the "I don't care how the company performs"-ness.

What to do you do? You get rid of this person. You two had a great run. Many happy times that will be forever captured in the digital camera that is your heart and soul will remain but it is time to move on. You know both of you will be better off without each other. Your former significant other had some qualities that will be impossible to replace but you move on.

There might be a nice Canadian that just moved in down the street. He or she is from the Niagara Falls region your friends wouldn't know them. This person may not be what your ex is but they can fill the void. I only hope your ex does not hook up with your hated rival next spring. Seeing someone you had such strong feelings for at least nineteen times in the arms of another that you have such animosity for would be almost too much to bear.

Yours in all that is love,

Dr. Phil

Game 3 observations ...

• Daily Manny Moment -- interesting negotiating strategy. Bad mouth the owner and then say you'll play in Iraq next year if need be. I know this has been analyzed to death over the past week but the bottom line is the guy has been getting paid $20 million a year for the past 8 years. He owes it to his employer and the people that go to watch him perform to play.


• A No Rain Rain Delay --Super Doppler 5,000,000 predicted rain for the start of the game, the problem is it never rained after 7:30 PM last night in Boston. Granted it poured from about 6:00 PM to 7:15 PM but nothing after that


• Johnny B. Good -- Lester looks like he has put IT together. He is throwing strikes and challenging hitters. Beckett, Dice K and Lester have been very consistent this year. Too bad some imbecile fans wanted to trade Lester earlier ;)


• Papi's Swinging It -- The off time dealing with the wrist has helped that gimpy knee heal. That was an absolute laser he hit last night.


• My Most Hated T Shirt -- A recent article called for Sox fans to stop the "Yankees Suck" chant. I will not jump on that bandwagon just yet (30 years of "1918" chants still ring in my head). I will like to start a movement to halt the making on wearing of the T-shirts that say; "I root for two teams. The Red Sox and anyone who beats the Yankees." I get it, really I do. However, this is idiotic. Do I root against the Yankees? Yes and no, you know? I won't root for the Rays to beat the Yankees when the Sox are chasing the Rays. What member of Red Sox Nation would? The teams fans root against, other than there team's opponent or a team ahead of them in the standings, are the ones who win all the time. Like Notre Dame football back in the day, the Patriots, or Duke men's basketball. These shirts make no sense in this millennium.


• Bertucci's Comes Through -- My new favorite pregame meal is Bertucci's. My daughter and I went last night and it was outstanding. A little pricey but portions were generous. Good stuff.

Game 2 observations

All is still well. Tough one yesterday but here's what I got;

• Pettitte did not have good stuff to start the game. Home plate umpire was squeezing him pretty good. Sox could not capitalize during the first two innings. Jeter's play on Lowell's grounder in the hole proved to be a big time play.



• Manny's hustle? Manny did get down the line pretty good on his rbi ground out in the first.



• My semi-annual CoCo bashing. In the 2nd inning bunt situation and he squares and let's two strikes go by. Between him and Ellsbury, they have something like ten hits this entire month.



• MacCarver's Musings. #1 "The best way to catch, call and hit a knuckle ball is to wait on it." Okay, I am assuming he is talking about the umpire "calling" the pitch but isn't this true for all pitched balls? #2 Both him and Buck could not tell the difference between Wakefield's slow curve ball and his knuckle ball. How about watching on the slow motion whether the ball is spinning or not? #3 Ball hit off the Monster and Pedroia is deking the runner going from first. MacCarver said Pedroia was faking a fly ball when obviously he was trying to get the runner to slide as if it was a ground ball. #4 My personal favorite : "The biggest hit in Atlanta sports history" was the Francisco Cabrera pinch hit game winner in the 1993 ALCS that propelled the Braves to the World Series over the Pirates. How about Hank Aaron's 715th career home run? The most startling thing about all this is that neither he or Buck ever correct these statements. Buck treats them like they were never said.



• ARod takes one. I would like to think Hansen did that on purpose but I have seen him pitch enough to know otherwise.



• Game 3- A ticket opportunity. Taking my oldest daughter tonight because I won a dutch auction on MLB.com for standing room only Monster "seats". If you want to got to a Sox game this may be your best bet. There were 70 packages of two available up until Friday. MLB has other Sox game packages on auction right now. These SRO tickets are pretty good especially if you have never been up on the Monster. It can get a little pricey though. Let me know how you make out.

Cut and paste the following URL:

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/bos/ticketing/green_monster_auctions.jsp?partnerId=etnbos07212008

Game 1 observations

Went out to watch last night's game. Did not hear any commentary, other than SportsCenter this morning.

• Manny, Manny, Manny -- Okay this is all officially out of control. Is anyone else having flashbacks to Nomar sitting out an important Yankee game in 2004? We all know how that ended. Dan Shaughnessy wrote a big time piece ( http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2008/07/26/now_hes_a_guaranteed_out/ in the Boston Globe today calling for Manny's exit. Manny says his knee is hurt and can't play after being in the original line up. Francona, Epstein, Henry all were / are dumbfounded. This will be the topic of discussion all morning on WEEI.

• Joba is filthy -- 98 mph fastball with a wicked (Boston accent please) slider -- very impressive. Personally, he was not trying to hit Youk. 2-0 count in a one run game. BTW, did anyone catch him singing a Luther Vandross hit on the ESPYs telecast last weekend? He sounded pretty good.

• Terry's Take -- Lowrie leads off the eighth with a single. Next three due up are Varitek, Crisp and Ellsbury. Farnsworth in the game, Mariano warming up. Hindsight is 20/20 but still was anyone else thinking of having Varitek sacrifice and giving Crisp and Ellsbury a chance to drive in the tying run? I mentioned early that the Sox were bunting more. I know you don't like to give up an out but sometimes you must scratch for a run.

• The Giambi Shift -- I guess if you are going to do it, you do it. The logic is that based on the "spray" charts, Giambi hits more balls to second base side of the field. However, Lowell would have been playing the shortstop position if there was no runner on third (or second for that matter). The runner at third scored the winning run but also was the cause for the winning hit. So much for advanced scouting

• McCarver's Musings -- Can't wait to hear the stupidity today.

Catching and batting eighth ...

Carlton Fisk (1969-1980)

7 time AL All Star

AL Gold Glove Winner 1972

AL Rookie of the Year 1972

Elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame 2000

The most contested starting spot on my team. Fisk gets the nod over Jason Varitek. Pudge was simply the best American League catcher during his time with the Red Sox. He started four of the seven all star games he was selected to. Varitek and Fisk have similar home run and runs batted in numbers while with the Sox but Fisk was a dominant player. He totalled 162 home runs, 568 runs batted in and a batting average of .284.

Two plays concerning Fisk stand out in my mind. I am not claiming to be at either game nor am I even saying I saw them live on television. The obvious one is game six home run off of the left field foul pole during the 1975 World Series. Most likely the most dramatic home run in series history in my lifetime (Joe Carter you say? The series was already over). The second one was footage I saw of a play at the plate in which Fisk is "taken out" by rival Thurman Munson. Fisk after picking himself off of the ground did not hesitate to pummel Munson for his action. This to me epitomized the Sox - Yankee rivalry of the 1970's. Members of both teams simply did not like each other.

I am a big Varitek fan and he will occupy one of the reserve spots on my all time team but Fisk was simply better. I do remember the day when I found out the Red Sox had allowed Fisk to become a free agent because they failed to file the proper paperwork in time. Fisk flourished offensively with the White Sox and retired as the all time leader in career home runs as a catcher.

After some debate, the New England raised Fisk decided to wear a Red Sox cap upon his election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000.

Justin Time

Justin Masterson looked like the guy we need in the bull pen yesterday. For 2 and 2/3 he dominated Seattle (I know it is Seattle) hitters. Lefties or righties it did not matter.

The Sox desperately need a reliable set up man to get the game to Jonathon Papelbon. Manny Delcarmen has recently looked like Calvin Schiraldi reincarnated. Craig Hansen was downright scary yesterday. In an interview the other day, Epstein said the team will not be a major player in the upcoming trade deadline. Brian Fuentes, Damaso Marte, Ron Mahay (remember him?) and whatever other reliever that is available will cost, in Theo's mind, too much. A report had the Rockies asking for Buchholz straight up for Fuentes. No thanks.

So we look within the organization. The first step was to convert Masterson from starter to reliever. He looked very comfortable yesterday. An Internet report said the team was going to do the same to highly thought of prospect Michael Bowden. Both Bowden and Masterson face an uphill battle staying in the starting rotation this year. Bartolo Colon has begun throwing again after hurting his back during an inter league game.

The In Theo We Trust Society likes this idea. Let's not overpay for something that we may already have in the minors.

Should he stay or should he go?

The (seemingly) yearly great Manny Ramirez debate is once again upon us. Should the Sox get rid of the guy?

Some questions to ponder (with my feelings):

Does there ever come a point where a player, regardless of how good they are, wears out their welcome? Yes! Think Ron Artest, Gary Sheffield and Carl Everett.

Should fans expect someone making a great deal of money ($20 million per year) to "act" like he actually cares? Absolutely. Whether you admit it or not how much money someone makes and their place in society does influence how you think they should act and present themselves.

Is "Manny being Manny" a good enough excuse for pushing down a 64 year old team employee because he failed to come up with your sixteen tickets for a game? No. If the reports of the incident are accurate, there is no excuse for such behavior.

If the team imposed fine was in the $10,000 - $15,000 range is that really acting as a deterrent to such behavior? No. A caller on WEEI said when figuring how much he makes that is like an average person getting a $25 fine.

Is Manny a "bad" guy? No. I've said it before he is aloof to what he does and says.

As a fan, would you rather have a guy that is marginal in talent but also a great teammate and human being playing or could you live with a player that has questionable character issues but gives you a .300 / 30 / 120 every year playing? I like to see the team win. I'll take Manny over Trot Nixon or the like. If you can get me Matt Holiday for the same money, I'd drop
Many in a second.

Should the club exercise its option in Manny's contract for next year? Yes. The back end of the contract is not that bad.

If the team had not won two World Series in the last four seasons would we even be talking about this? Nope, he'd be gone.

If you were the general manager and you believe a player took three straight strikes in a game winning pinch hit at bat just to show his displeasure in how he was being treated, what would you do? If it was Brandon Moss? -- send to the minors. If it was CoCo Crisp -- trade him. If it was Manny -- publicly shut my mouth and hope it blows over, privately, figure out a way I could live without him.

How much is truly enough? If what he has done in the past is bearable, what won't you put up with in the future? Not too much more. Things like leaving the All Star game early, going into the Green Monster during a pitching change or even an argument with a teammate are okay. I would have a hard time backing him if he is striking out on purpose. What message does that send to his teammates and other players in the organization?

Should he stay or should he go? Keep him until we can adequately replace him and his production.