LOL -Will This Globe Sportswriter Get Fired?

[ralmat55]

The one hurdle that I can't quite get past with basketball is how unabashedly awful the officiating is. It makes the NFL replacement refs look decent by comparison. I just have a hard time getting fully invested in a sport where it's openly accepted that superstars can more easily draw fouls, not get called for fouls, walk with the ball, etc. etc. simply by virtue of being superstars. .

To this I say, amen!

 

[Rob0729]

Right on. Baseball is a 1900's game trying to survive in a new century. I have three kids and seven grandkids, and none of them follow baseball. Football is king with them, and all the other pro sports are fading in the backstretch.

I know that if I'm having trouble sleeping, all I have to do is switch on a baseball game, doesn't matter who, and I'll be out like a light in ten minutes.

The problem with baseball is the baseball purists run the show. The NFL is constantly changing for the times (not always good), but MLB is still stuck in the 1900s in a lot of ways and refuse to make the game more attractive to younger viewers who are part of the videogame generation and want more action.

That along with their CBA structure that dooms about 2/3 of the league to being basically out of World Series contention each year before the season even starts. It has made the sport very regionalized.

 

[ForThoseAboutToRock]

I understand how it's easy to hate on the Sox. I've grown increasingly apathetic towards them since 09 onwards (which is probably the thing that Sox ownership wants least of all... unhappy fans in the stands booing are still spinning turnstiles.)

That said, the playoffs of 03 and 04 were and will always be some of the most compelling sport I've ever watched. I think it lacks foresight to declare baseball dead (a relic of the 19th century etc...) and football the perpetual king when football (at all levels, especially at the top) has major injury and organizational concerns to bend into shape before the current golden age of the game can be declared as one that shall never end.

 

[Off The Grid]

A few thoughts, if I may, Gents...

1 ~ The reason these guys spend 95% of their time on the Red Sox isn't because they care more about the Red Sox. It's because most of them don't know crap about Sports other than the statistical surface garbage that everybody knows...and baseball "knowledge", because the game is so stat-oriented, is far easier to fake.

2 ~ 35 years ago, I knew the name of every player on every roster in the Game. In fact, I knew most guys on most team's 40 man Rosters. And I knew the name of almost everybody in our Farm System. Even as recently as 1994, I could probably spit out every 25 man roster, and most top Prospects...Today?? I couldn't even tell you our own 5 man rotation, or half of our starters.

3 ~ In 1978, the Red Sox had a very distinct Personality. They had a Soul. And you know what? The Brewers had a Personality and a Soul. As did the Tiggers. And the Oreos, of course. Even the KnickerBockers ~ if you're not from New EngLand, your are not a Yankee and never will be, thank you ~ had a Personality, though of course they had no Soul.

4 ~ Perhaps because BaseBall is such a One on One Sport ~ Pitcher versus Batter ~ building team Chemistry, Cohesion, and Collaboration became perceived as unimportant...and Stars turned into Mercenaries and GM's turned into Shoppers, as with the advent of Free Agency, team's Personalities gradually faded away...'til you reached the point where you found yourself wondering why in Hell you ever cared in the first place!!

5 ~ And then there was the Disgust Factor: The 1994 Strike ~ happening in August, after we fans'd spent literally hundreds of millions of dollars, that year, towards, above all costs, the player's salaries ~ displayed such raw, brazen contempt for us fans, by flushing the entire four and a half months of a season we'd poured our money and our hearts into...right down the toilet...that it elicited in me a deep, disgusted repugnance for all the players, ours included, for such offensively disgusting Greed...that my former love for the Sport has simply never even come close to recovering from.

 

[Rob0729]

I understand how it's easy to hate on the Sox. I've grown increasingly apathetic towards them since 09 onwards (which is probably the thing that Sox ownership wants least of all... unhappy fans in the stands booing are still spinning turnstiles.)

That said, the playoffs of 03 and 04 were and will always be some of the most compelling sport I've ever watched. I think it lacks foresight to declare baseball dead (a relic of the 19th century etc...) and football the perpetual king when football (at all levels, especially at the top) has major injury and organizational concerns to bend into shape before the current golden age of the game can be declared as one that shall never end.

All you have to see the year after year decline of participation in Little League to see that America's interest in baseball in waning. The youth generation are going up without the emotional attachment to baseball that we and our fathers did who spend summers playing in a Little League league.

Also, that same youth generation have been growing up with Belichick, Brady, and Super Bowls. None of them know what the Victor Kiam era was like (or even who Kiam is). Most of us have lived through years where the Patriots were a joke. The young generation have lived through mostly good to great times with the Pats which means they have been raised more on this team.

Personally, I think it is more shortsighted to dismiss the trend of the Patriots becoming king of the hill and the Red Sox declining in popularity. The next generation seems to be conditioned to be more of Patriots fans than Red Sox fans which means the Patriots' dominance could be decades.

 

[BradyManny]

The one hurdle that I can't quite get past with basketball is how unabashedly awful the officiating is. It makes the NFL replacement refs look decent by comparison. I just have a hard time getting fully invested in a sport where it's openly accepted that superstars can more easily draw fouls, not get called for fouls, walk with the ball, etc. etc. simply by virtue of being superstars. There's some element of that in football (and every other sport, for that matter), but basketball's by far the worst. I love watching it otherwise, but at least 2-3 itmes per game the officials basically ruin the immersion for me.

There's no doubt. NBA rules & officiating has hit rock-bottom. It's a joke.

At best, the officials are incompetent. At worst, they actively affect outcomes of the game favorable to the league or at the whim of their ego/favoritism. The truth, sadly, probably lies somewhere in the middle.

The result is a great sport watered down by a league with some serious culture problems. Stern needs to go. Unfortunately, that probably won't be enough to change it at this point.

 

[DarrylS]

Baseball seems to be the sport most affected by free agency and guaranteed contracts, you have developed a bunch of mercenaries.. and if you do develop a player he is only with you for about 5 years then he is gone.

An excellent point was that only four players went to Johnny Pesky's funeral.. Papi, Saltamacchia and a couple of others.. but everyone went to Beckett's bowl a thon fund raiser. I know they got in late the night before and had just returned from a road trip, but somethings you gotta suck up.

I do not like this team, its manager, the management team or its ownership..

 

[shmessy]

*****Hey, folks, I started this thread really NOT to whine about how bad the Sox are but to celebrate how far the PATRIOTS have come in the region's psyche.******

THAT is the story, and it is truly remarkable.

(enough already about that other team).

 

[captain stone]

I use WEEI because 98.5 employed more football guys (Gresh, Zo, and Felger).

But who are the football guys?

 

[nashvillepatsfan]

If you listen to WEEI it most definitely is a Red Sox town. i gave up because they simply cannot stop talking aboiut the Red Sox.

So true. I loaded the eei app on my iphone. Day 1,,, "here we are at Patriots camp, and we'll be talking Patriots",,,,,,then for the next hour all they talked about was the Sox. This went on for a week, before I finally deleted the App. What a waste. Though I suppose if you're a huge baseball fan, and dont care about football, then eei is awesome :bricks:


edit; To be fair to eei, I can only listen from about 7am cst till noon. Maybe they talk Pats in the afternoon

 

[fnordcircle]

EEI is where I go when I want to listen to 40 minutes of commercials and 20 minutes of Red Sox talk in an hour.

 

[Off The Grid]

*****Hey, folks, I started this thread really NOT to whine about how bad the Sox are but to celebrate how far the PATRIOTS have come in the region's psyche.******

THAT is the story, and it is truly remarkable.

(enough already about that other team).

Ja WOHL, Mein Fuhrer.

*I have great respect for you, Brother Schmessy, but I don't appreciate my carefully chosen words being disparaged as a "whine", nor do I appreciate being peremptorily ordered what to write about.

That's not like you, my friend.

I would also add that your OP was a comparison between the Sox and Patriots. Therefore, commentary about the Red Sox is hardly a case of our drifting miles away from the original subject.

 

[wizwor]

Some glaring numbers show Red Sox drop in popularity - Boston Sports Blog - Boston.com

"........While most of the results confirmed that the Red Sox remain second in popularity to the Patriots,........"


Now THAT won't go down well with the powers that be over on Morrissey Boulevard.

Expect Eric Wilbur to get sucker punched by Shaughnessy, Massarotti and his editor Joe Sullivan.

The wife and I talked about this this morning. Both of us are Pats fans first. Both of us are less interested in the sox now than we have been in the past.

People say winning fixes everything, but I'm not sure I afree. I dislike this ownership team and most of the players. I thought Francona was the best thing that ever happened to the franchise and suspect people will be talking about him in 86 years.

At the same time, Mr. Kraft is a great owner. Fair or not, he is credited with keeping the team in New England, bringing BB and TfB to town, and building a stadium without state or local aid. We all know him as a local guy and a fan or the team. His organization is polished and principled.

It would be great of Mr. Kraft would buy the Red Sox. Then I'd have two teams I could root for.

 

[shmessy]

Ja WOHL, Mein Fuhrer.

*I have great respect for you, Brother Schmessy, but I don't appreciate my carefully chosen words being disparaged as a "whine", nor do I appreciate being peremptorily ordered what to write about.

That's not like you, my friend.

I would also add that your OP was a comparison between the Sox and Patriots. Therefore, commentary about the Red Sox is hardly a case of our drifting miles away from the original subject.

No one ordered you to do anything, bud.

Ratchet down the sensitivity meter a few notches (not an order, just a friendly suggestion ).

Let me clarify: The original intent of the OP was to CELEBRATE the PATRIOTS finally being acknowledged by the #1 Booster Organ of the Red Sox as the pre-eminent sports franchise in the hearts and minds of Boston/New England fans.

It is the ultimate white flag of surrender from Fortress Globe.