It’s a busy Monday in the sports world, with the NHL trading deadline set for this afternoon, and the Bruins looking to add a piece or two to their roster. Stephen Harris thinks that anything the Bruins do would be minor in nature. Joe Haggerty has a look at some possible targets.

The Daytona 500 was rained out yesterday for the first time in history, and will be run tonight at 7:00 PM.

The Red Sox announced over the weekend that alcohol will be banned from the clubhouse. Former Red Sox manager Terry Francona, on ESPN Radio’s Mike and Mike this morning, called the decision “a PR move.”

SI’s Peter King continues to use his Monday Morning Quarterback column as a bully pulpit to speak on the matter:

g. Lord, who is doing the Red Sox PR? More shooting the messenger after an offseason of ignoring the drinking-in-the-clubhouse-during-games stories from last season. The team never addressed it, except to say it wants it buried and wants everyone to look ahead, not behind. “It’s a new chapter, beginning today,” Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino said at spring training the other day. “Our idea is, let’s write this new chapter. Enough has been said about the last chapter.”

But not by you. Not saying, “It’ll never happen again, and it’s a disgrace it ever happened in the first place.” Whoever in the organization had the grand plan of eliminating the issue by ignoring it and sneering at the media when it was brought up has no idea that such an irresponsible issue doesn’t go away in the eyes of many followers — like me — if you bash people over the head for bringing it up.

Peter, I’m begging you to set the moral compass down, and step away from it.

Airing it out: On the mound and off, Josh Beckett sees no reason to change – Rob Bradford has a long talk with Josh Beckett, who explains why he looks at what happened last year through a drastically different prism than any of his critics. Eric Wilbur doesn’t think Beckett has his facts straight.

Punto, Ross bring World Series experience to the Red Sox – Tim Britton looks at how the Red Sox have added a pair of players with World Series credentials to their clubhouse.

Youkilis ends D&C boycott: ‘It’s a new year‘ – Kevin Youkilis showed up at Dennis and Callahan’s picnic table this morning, and they proceeded to tell him why he was mistaken for avoiding them for years. He also said that despite getting engaged to Tom Brady’s sister, he’s done attending Patriots playoff games, as he is now 0-3. D&C also did their best to provoke David Ortiz this morning, who said he was tired of the media talking trash.

Patriots weigh risk, reward – Mike Reiss thinks that the Patriots need to add an elite athlete to their front seven.

What we learned at the combine: Patriots poised to address weaknesses – Chris Price takes away some observations from the combine.

Janoris Jenkins worth gamble – Karen Guregian thinks that the troubled cornerback could be a big reward type of pick. Colleague Ian R. Rapoport thinks that Alabama safety Mark Barron is a potential perfect fit.

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

24 thoughts on “NHL Trade deadline, Daytona 500, and a Dry Sox Clubhouse”

  2. So much to discuss where to start. I think each point deserves its own little thread so I will break each different point out into a different posting. Sorry if it looks like I am over posting but there is a lot I want to discuss.

    Starting with Peter King's moralizing. Bruce…King is not saying anything that a few of us have been saying now for 5 months. He just has a larger pulpit to say it from but that does not make him wrong. Sox management refused to accept responsibility for what happened last year. They refuse to apologize for it. They refuse to get the players to own up to it. They think they are ENTITLED to our support regardless of the product they put on the field and how it performs. They do not think they need any ACCOUNTABILITY. As such they have continued to compound the PR problems with yet another stupid move. Banning alcohol in the clubhouse and announcing it now does not explain how they lost control last year. If they did not lose control last year as they seem keen not to admit, then why the ban? Is a Mea Culpa that hard for these people? Honestly, John Henry has to think we are all morons and that telling us to move on and all will be fine and dandy is the way to handle this.

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    1. Come down off your high horse. You and maybe 2 others care about this drinking story. It's a non factor in why they lost.

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      1. First off I like my high horse…the view from up here rocks. Second…far more than just me cares. I agree drinking in the clubhouse did not cause them to have an epic collapse. Poor management, lack of attention to details, lousy effort and poor preparation caused them to fall apart. What you fail to see is that team management/ownership, specifically John Henry and Larry Lucchino think you are a lemming, than no matter what they do you should just blindly follow their lead and that no matter how the season turns out, what the play on the field looks like, or the reasons for it you should just accept management's position of “Move along, nothing to see here, its a new year, all is well”. That works in Kansas City or Milwaukee it doesn't fly here in Boston.

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    2. Wait, you weren't blinded by the first Liverpool cup in 6 years? The Carling Cup that many clubs don't even send B-squads after? You weren't impressed by the specific Versace outfits Linda Pizutti was wearing to Florida? Later at Wembley Stadium? And the other two black-label she will be displaying at Daytona later tonight?

      Too bad you don't have a jet to fly around between venues, otherwise you'd see how great things are.

      You need some more Kool-Aid!

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      1. Liverpool winning the Carling Cup was going to be my third point but i have had a hard time posting. I keep getting a "deleted by moderator message.

        Point 2 was all about Jermaine Wiggins and his fill in stint Sunday afternoon. Train wreck radio that was.

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    3. I find these thoughts bizarre. I’m a diehard and don’t really care about parsing the offseason statements of the ownership.

      The ownership isn’t perfect, but its the best Sox ownership of my lifetime, or my father’s, or my grandfather’s and I am really grateful we aren’t stuck with the Wilpons, or McCourts, or Peter Angelos etc. Spend money and don’t interfere too much with the team is all I ask, and this group has done that since the get-go.

      The players were the ones who messed up last September, but they don’t need to appease some self-righteous moral hunger of random fans with crafted public groveling. I don’t care if/how Beckett apologizes, I just care if he pitches well (and cut down on the time in between pitches).

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      1. We disagree. I don't know what to tell you. BSMW is all about talking about how the media perceives the teams and how the teams perceive the media/fans. I do care how the product is packaged…more importantly the Sox ownership desperately cares about our perception otherwise they would not spend so much money on marketing. I know that if we say nothing and do nothing as you propose then there will be no incentive for ownership to continue to try and win. All they will try to do is field a competitive team like the Bruins were for 30 years. Heck its already started this past offseason.

        As for this being the best owners in our lifetime…well compared to the racist Yawkees and the caretaker/pocketliner John Harrington I would agree with you. Compared to the Krafts or Steinbrenners I would disagree.

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        1. I’m all in favor of not buying tickets and not watching NESN when they stop trying to win, but I think it’s borderline insane to say that this has already happened based on interpretations of their offseason public statements. Wake me up when they have a small payroll. I think the Scutaro trade was a bad baseball move, but it is paranoid and delusional to think that they have become a cheapo team like the Marlins just because they traded away an old SS. We are only one year past the Sox plowing hundreds of million dollars into A-Gon and Crawford but all of a sudden the ownership supposedly doesn’t care about winning because the sheep will fill up Fenway park anyway?!? Really !? Take off the tinfoil hat….

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  3. Comment 2. Jerome Wiggins on 98.5. I had the misfortune to be driving back from Bow NH yesterday when Wiggins was filling in for Jerry Troupiano during the Hardy and Troup show. Aside from the fact that it is clear Wiggins is a racist and he is incapable of looking at any topic without coloring it with Race…even hockey….the fact that he was bragging about how he smokes pot on the air was just stupid and mindless. But even after I got beyond that, why would 98.5 want this guy discussing hockey, potential trades et al, the all-star hoops game and baseball. In the 90 minutes I was listening (WEEI had on pre all star game ESPN crap) there was no football talk even with the Combine. He might be worse than Fred Smerlis and I never thought I would type that sentence about anyone.

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  4. Comment 2. Jerome Wiggins on 98.5. I had the misfortune to be driving back from Bow NH yesterday when Wiggins was filling in for Jerry Troupiano during the Hardy and Troup show. Aside from the fact that it is clear Wiggins is a racist and he is incapable of looking at any topic without coloring it with Race…even hockey….the fact that he was bragging about how he smokes pot on the air was just stupid and mindless. But even after I got beyond that inane stupidity I was subjected to 90 minutes of Wiggy on hockey trades, the NBA Allstar game and Baseball. Nothing on football or the combine. I never thought I would type this sentence but he makes Fred Smerlis look competent.

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  5. When it comes to "getting the facts straight", there is no one I turn to more than Eric 'Brady hasn't even sniffed a Superbowl in 7yrs' Wilbur!!

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  6. This weekend Jermaine Wiggins filled in for Jerry Troupiano during the Hardy and Troup show Sunday afternoon on 98.5. Aside from learning about Wiggins favorite way to ingest THC the show was painful. Serves me right for driving from Bow NH to Providence when WEEI had the NBA all star game preshow on. When Wiggins is not making everything about race, he is completely clueless about hockey, basketball and baseball…the three things he and Hardy discussed for 2 hours. You would think Combine talk would come up but it didn't. I can't believe I am going to type this but Wiggins makes Smerlis look competent.

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  7. BSMfan stole some of my thunder when he mentioned that Liverpool won the Carling Cup. I was all set to retell of how we rioted in the streets of Providence celebrating the Carling Cup and Liverpool's victory over 92 other teams all of whom were playing younger players and bench guys to get them valuable experience. Of course in Liverpool's case they needed the victory to Qualify for the UEFA Championship (I went checking to see if they had qualified based on standings and could not find it so I might be wrong). Still it was awesome to see the trophy hoisted. It was just like popping the corks and breaking out the champaign, hats and shirts after winning the wild card! Its nice to see the FSG's lack of commitment to excellence extend to their English Soccer team as well. I wonder if NESN will show rebroadcasts of the game? Its all pretty exciting that this is happening right around spring training…"move along, nothing to see here, that's in the past…it's a new year". Golly gee I am so excited.

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  8. Last media point for today is the coverage of the combine. I understand football is king. I understand that marketing of some sort of hot stove football has been on the NFL's agenda for a while. But the wall to wall coverage of the combine has been a bit crazy this year. Over 750 press credentials to watch the equivalent of a livestock auction. Each player is measured, weighed, teeth checked, measured some more this time doing stuff, reweighed, interviewed (we do not get to see those) and finally measured again. All so draft geeks can maybe have an idea about which player their team might pick…yet be wrong in their projection. I bet they could sell 50,000 tickets to the workouts. Its nuts.

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    1. RG3's 40 time made lead in the USAToday's Sports section.

      Could you have envisioned this even 4 years ago?

      NFL has become a religion!

      I heard Wes Wekler torched the combine on twitter or some other outlet (he was not invited in 2004).

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  9. There are rumors that StyleBoston will be spending an hour alone on Linda Pizzuti's outfits she wears to Anfield, as well, that NESN will be co-producing and airing.

    Doesn't that make you feel better?

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  10. Just a technical note here: I've been having issues with the site all day when using Chrome. (Had to log in with IE to post this.)

    And just so this isn't a totally wasted post…. has anyone confirmed that John Henry is rushing to the Sports Hub studios to emphasize that he was NOT in favor of purchasing the light fixture that caught on fire today, and sadly announcing that as a result of the fire the team and Fenway Park will be parting ways, as a "new soil" was necessary in the wake of such unacceptable flammability?

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    1. Same. I've had 100% issues using Chrome/Firefox on different operating systems. I had to use an independent browser where this finally worked. Is something up with intense debate? I tried disabling all plugins on each browser with 0 luck.

      And, your comment is awesome. It made me laugh out loud there.

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        1. Bruce, seems to be good now. I think was something that happened between an adblock filter and not clearing the cache. I had never had it happen before so I wondered if something else was up but it is good now.

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        2. I type a response or a post sometimes, click on submit comment and then I get a message that says deleted by moderator. It happens unpredictably. All that I typed is then lost. I then go and retype the post and it posts. But it is frustrating because I do not know if both comments will post which I don't want to do.

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        3. As of now, Chrome and Firefox won’t display any comments, just note that there are comments. I needed to log into Explorer in order to see the comments.

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  11. Bust open the Champagne (just not near the club house):

    @ESPNStatsInfo: 300th NASCAR National Series win for Roush Fenway Racing (includes Sprint Cup, Nationwide + Camping World Truck Series), 1st team with 300 Wins.

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