TWO VERY DIFFERENT STORIES - PART 2

So the World Series is set: Texas against St. Louis, which means we get to watch Ron Washington dance and Tony LaRussa average ten substitutions a game. I'm already bored.

***If New York is the Evil Empire....***
...then what does that make Boston? So when all the dust has settled, what did we learn? That the Red Sox did not have the best team in the American League, but a collection of unprofessional, egotistical clowns who disregarded not only themselves, but the whole franchise.
True, there were some players who still showed respect for the game--Youkilis, Pedroia and Ellsbury for example. There had to be a reason that Adrian Gonzales seemed to lose his focus over the last two months and Carl Crawford lost all interest in playing there. I have always respected Terry Francona, but he has to shoulder the blame for allowing this situation to continue.

The person who came out of this looking the worst has to be Theo Epstein. He destroyed Boston's farm system, saddled the organization with some onerous contracts and paid no attention to team chemistry, that is, how well the players would get along. After completing this total devastation he abandoned the Red Sox and ran off to the Chicago Cubs leaving the Red Sox organization to deal with the results of his mismanagement.

Epstein and Cashman were considered to be the two brightest and best General Managers in baseball. It now appears that it was 'no contest'.

I believe that Boston should start over. Keep a few key players and dump all the players who have shown so little respect for the game. One player who should go is David Ortiz. For someone who is considered a team leader, he not only did nothing to rectify the situation, but claimed not to even notice any of the problems. I don't believe that for an instant. Goodbye, David!! Goodbye Boston!!

Note: Up to this point, I haven't mentioned the Bosox 'incidents' directly. The allegations were that pitchers not scheduled to pitch that day, spent the game in the clubhouse drinking beer, eating fried chicken and playing video games. I didn't want to limit the problems to that one circumstance, since I believe there was a lot more to it than that. For example, there are now allegations that beer was actually being consumed in the dugout during games. I'm sure there will be more incidents revealed in the near future.

Correction to Vod's posting:
Hard to disagree with Vod, however, there are a couple of minor corrections I should point out.
Soriano actually came from Tampa, but Pedro Feliciano was a former Met. It doesn't matter, the Yanks did get taken both times. Might as well add Sergio Mitre to the Scott Proctor fiasco. I think Vod means Noesi not Nunez when referring to the pitching.

Because of my recent surgery, I am physically unable to maintain my focus or sit in front of the computer for any length of time. I haven't kept up with my usual writers who keep me on top of the sports world. People like Dwight Perry, Brad Dickson, R.J. Currie, Cam Hutchinson, Buster Olney and Jason Stark have been the source of insights, information and humor and I miss reading them. Hopefully that will be changing.

CP-