Shaughnessy on the Francona book

Great payoff at the end.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2013/01/18/friend-tito-shaughnessy-writing-book-with-francona-friend-tito-writing-book-with-francona/BuIo3z87Zw9jAGomEjzEIL/story.html

 

This is Shaughnessy writing:

"The manager would dispute and clarify things I’d written in one of my Globe columns. He’d explain why he left Pedro Martinez in the game after Pedro exceeded his pitch limit. He would defend using Coco Crisp over Jacoby Ellsbury at the start of the 2007 playoffs. He’d challenge the notion that he was panicking by having Jon Lester ready to pitch on three days’ rest in the 2009 postseason.

" 'What I wrote is just an opinion,' I’d offer.

" 'Well, not having information hasn’t prevented you from having an opinion' " was a familiar retort from Francona."

Assuming this is true -- and Shaughnessy would seem to be a pretty good source -- this seems pretty damning to me. Shaughnessy repeatedly ripping Francona's moves without making the effort to get the manager to explain why he made the moves is pretty weak. If you don't agree with the explanation, rip away. But to rip decisions without even trying to get an explanation for the decisions smacks of laziness. And the reward is a book deal? What a world.

 

I just read the SI book excerpt last night. It was hilarious -- all the moves they made for 2011 were specifically geared to shoring up their TV ratings, which seemed to be the only thing management cared about. They needed more "sexy" players like Pedroia because they were an especially poor draw among women in 2010.

 

You think Francona was actually going to explain it to him?

 

Chris L just strangled a leprechaun and doesn't know why.

 

it's all the more ridiculous when you think that the red sox are supposed to be a "moneyball" franchise.

 

This is the franchise, I hate to say, that pioneered pink hats.

May daughter, who is 26 and a lifelong diehard, loves pink, but would never wear any pink Sox paraphernalia.

Given a life or death choice, she'd might wear a Yankee hat.