loyalty vs good business…

Loyalty vs. good biz decision.

I had a Hummer once. It was my dream car. It was big, decked, and perfect for ME. It also got about 9 miles to the gallon. Moving to Boston I needed something I could actually park on the street and that got better gas mileage. I sold the Hummer of 3 years and bought a little crossover. I’m not telling you this to brag that I owned a Hummer (however, did it work? Are you jealous?). I’m referring to El Capitan or Tek. He wants to play and we owe it to him, right?? He’s caught more games in a Red Sox uniform than anyone else. He’s also helped us win two WS titles and helped break the curse! Yet we discard him without a thought now that his tree trunk legs can’t carry his own weight. The answer is YES, YES, YES! That is good business, fellas. It’s not, “what have you done for me”… It’s as Janet asked, “what have you done for me LATELY??” He was one of my favorite players but so was Mikey Lowell, Roger Clemens, Bruce Hurst, Mo Vaughn… and the list goes on. Yesterday it was Tek, today it is Ellsbury… that’s just the way I am! Call me disloyal but loyalty doesn’t bring you championships with the budget busting Stankees in the same division.

Speaking of Ellsbury… STUD… hate his taciturn style, his desire to prepare for his next at bat rather than ham it up with the boys but I believe he is one of the three factors that MUST happen for the Sox to avoid its third straight playoff-LESS season. #3- Ells has to be at or near the numbers he put up in ’11. #2- Carl Crawford MUST have a turn-around season! And #1- Our starting pitchers must go at least one full inning longer than in 2011. Look, A-Gone will be A-Gone… and Pedey will be Pedey there is no stopping that. If Ells can table set like he did or even move to the 3 spot (another discussion) and have the same power he displayed, we’ll be in any game and winning most! Throw a CCC (Comeback Carl Crawford) in there, that is getting on base like he was in Tampa Bay and stealing bases like he did against us and we will win more than we lose. Then you have our starting pitching able to go a little longer and deeper in each game and you have an offense AND defense that takes care of business. Last year our starting pitching had only 44% quality starts and averaged only 5.8 innings per start… second to last in the league only to Baltimore in both categories (ironically, the team that ended ultimately ended our season). THAT MUST IMPROVE. But truly if that changes and if Ells can have the same type of year while Carl turns it around offensively, we’ll be nothing less than dominant! It won’t even matter who plugs the innings after 7 (although, I love the Melancon and Bailey trades). Papelbon won’t be missed! And Big Papi can start his decline… We’ll still be playing in October!!

Let me know what your top three MUSTS are for the Sox to win this year!

Go Sox!
Dusty Rhodes

***

friends, will you do me a favor? in order to share husbands sox updates with other fans – via see jane blog – do you have a friend-co-worker-significant other who is a baseball fan? maybe a red sox fan? if so, will you send this link out to them so they can read his posts & see what they think, maybe he can get a little community. maybe some comments! {thank you!}

warmly,
jane
xoxo.