The Red Sox finally got back into the win column yesterday, scoring a 9-4 win over the Atlanta Braves at Fenway Park. Brock Holt was the star, playing second base in place of Dustin Pedroia and hitting for the cycle in the victory.

Boston Red Sox should have identified Brock Holt as an everyday player before signing Hanley Ramirez – Christopher Smith thinks that the team should’ve just penciled Holt into an outfield spot and saved $88 million.

Newest Red Sox need thicker skins – Michael Silverman says that the Red Sox need to quit worrying about the media and focus on improving.

Rebuild of Red Sox might test patience of impatient fan base, media market – Brian MacPherson says that fixing this team might take longer than some are willing to realize.

Seven straight Red Sox losses, but not a negative word to be heard here – If you missed it yesterday, Gordon Edes took a “Royal Rooter” approach to the Red Sox losing streak.

Bill Plaschke Proves That Stupid Cheating Takes Aren’t Exclusive To Patriots-Bashing – Michael Hurley takes apart the LA columnist, who seems to want to play the Gregg Doyel role in the Cardinals hacking scandal.

How Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen brought the Celtics back – Chad Finn has an enjoyable and definitive look at the New Big Three era with the Celtics, and the cast of characters and the moments that made it so memorable.

Tom Brady might be more motivated than ever – Karen Guregian says that the man who thrives on proving people wrong has the fires stoked even hotter this offseason.

Salem State foundation paid Brady $170,000 for speech – The Globe had Bob Hohler “investigate” the QB’s appearance at the University the night after the release of the Wells Report.

This fairly snarky article, which seems to be more about Brady not talking about the Wells Report and PSI, is a curious bit of investigative journalism. Imagine if the Globe used its resources to try and track down the leaks in the NFL front office which set the stage for the witch hunt atmosphere that followed? Wouldn’t that be a huge story?

The Golden State Warriors won the NBA championship last night, beating LeBron James and the Cavaliers in Cleveland. The city’s streak of not having a championship team continues.

Sorry, Dan Shaughnessy!

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

23 thoughts on “Red Sox Don’t Lose.”

  1. Thank heaven that Hurley read the Plaschke column so I didn’t have to. The excerpts were bad enough. Note to the media: what you call “cheating” has always been referred to as “gamesmanship” and as “part of the game” by those who play and coach said games — this includes MLB, the NFL, the NBA, the NHL….all of the major sports. At least that’s the way it was before the modern media age, where hotsportztakes have replaced rationality and common sense. Granted, hacking another team’s computer system is definitely a modern take on gamesmanship, but to think that it had anything to do with the Cardinals’ on-field success since the mid-2000s is simply nuts.

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    1. Excellent Point, Tony….I think the term cheating has been used wrong for a while now. A player lining up in the neutral zone on purpose to get an extra step is cheating. A player using stick em on his hands to make catching easier is cheating. A Player using a corked bat is cheating. A team circumventing the salary cap by promising a player a front office job at X dollars per year when he retires is cheating. A team that secretly has 3 equipment “boys” who were ex division 1 players that suit up and participate in drills during in season practices to avoid legally going over the 53 man roster rules is cheating.

      A team that introduces a formation that takes a lineman off the field and makes a running back not eligible is not cheating…they are participating in gamesmanship. A player that waves his hand over his head signaling a fair catch when he knows the ball is going to bounce on the end line or in the end zone is not cheating, he is participating in gamesmanship. A player successfully steals an opposing teams hand signals when he is standing on second base is not cheating, that is gamesmanship.

      A team hacking another team’s scouting database for an advantage is not cheating. It is theft coupled with racketeering.

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      1. LOL…I like that last line!!
        You know one of the things that has always driven me nuts since the “Patriots are cheaters” meme was created in 2007? Try this one: The Dolphins absolutely crushed the Pats during the teams’ last regular season meeting in 2006, down in Miami…absolutely killed them, 21-0. The following week some of the Miami players were quoted in the local paper saying that they had purchased a tape, or had somehow gotten their hands on a tape, that gave them a very clear read on Brady’s audible calls, etc., and that they used that intelligence to totally disrupt the Pats’ offense in that game. The media’s (and the league’s) response to this was either to ignore it, to downplay it, or to say, “that’s just football”. I believe the latter response came from an league official, but I’m not 100% sure about that. Is that not just about the same thing the Patriots were absolutely hammered for doing the following September in the Meadowlands? For my money, the Dolphins’ actions were just gamesmanship….yes, it was “just football.” But that’s exactly the way the Patriots’ transgressions the following year should have been viewed. The fact that they lost a first round draft pick over it and also had their name and reputation dragged through the mud and had this false “cheaters” meme created around them (which culminated in this year’s even worse witch hunt and draconian punishment based on “past transgressions”), while the Dolphins didn’t even receive a finger-wag from the media, let alone any penalties from the NFL, has always gnawed at me.

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          1. I know, and I have absolutely no problem with anything the Dolphins did to prepare themselves for that game, nor do I have a problem with the league’s/media’s reaction. Too bad the Pats’ minor rules violation back in ’07 wasn’t treated the same way. If it had been, we never would have seen this “deflation” b.s. story crop up, because the “Patriots are cheaters” meme never would have existed. By the way, how logical is it for the NFL to have a rule pertaining to filming signals, but to NOT have a rule pertaining to making audiotapes of audible calls? Not very logical, right? (Aside: Unless they changed things after Spygate, I’m not sure the NFL rulebook or its Game Operations Manual, to this day, contain language that specifically mentions filming hand signals. Both mention the approved filming locations, but it was the NFL’s 2007 memo that was, at the time, the only source which mentioned filming signals.) UGH…need to stop now, because 8 years of pent-up frustration and anger over that b.s. story, and its even uglier cousin, are starting to turn my face red.

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  2. Three things:
    1- I know some people on this board don’t like him but Gordon Edes column is pretty funny.

    2- Is there any truth to the rumor more people watched the USA Women’s Soccer Squad play Nigeria than watched the NBA finals last night. I know I did. Nothing better than Chick soccer…well unless you could watching artificial grass turn yellow in the fall.

    3- The Cards hacking of the Astros story is two days old. It has not led any of the major news networks nor has it caused the earth to stop spinning on it axis. Therefore using Ted Wells logic I conclude that it is not as important a story as deflate gate.

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    1. Using Ted Wells logic and relative severity of the offenses, the Arizona Cardinals should have been penalized 1,742 draft picks and $897 trillion by now.

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      1. Nope…there needs to be a $50 mill investigation, pre ordained and undertaken by someone completely out of his element that he is exposed as a fraud…I am thinking MLB should hire Roger Goodell to run the investigation that will eventually conclude that he is not quite sure but he thinks the Pyramids were built by a guy named Phil. (*It is always a good day when I can get an obscure Steven Wright joke into a Post).

        It is at this point the Cards can be penalized 1742 draft picks and $897 trillion dollars. These things have a structure. You can’t be jumping straight to the punishment before the witch has been properly hunted.

        Of course the difference between this and Deflate gate is that the Cards appear to be dead to rights.

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    2. Is there any truth to the rumor more people watched the USA Women’s
      Soccer Squad play Nigeria than watched the NBA finals last night.

      No way. I could never imagine any of our soccer teams beating a NBA finals match, unless the USMNT were in a WC Final.

      See the recent timeline of @Ourand_SBJ.

      15.9 for NBA; 3.9 for Soccer. Both are pretty big #’s for the respective sports.

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      1. I was being a bit facetious but lets take it in the serious direction you are going. I don’t have the historical numbers in front of me but 15.9 seems low for a game 6 where 3.9 for any soccer never mind Women’s soccer is a huge number. Of course a bunch of people could have been watching the Women’s soccer to see if Hope Solo was rearrested mid game or if someone would pull a Brandy Chastain and strip on national TV after the game.

        Anecdotally I do not know anyone who watched the NBA final…I do know several people who watched the Femme World Cup with their daughter(s).

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    3. On #3, I’m not even sure where to begin.

      On this very point alone, you’d think that Brian Williams would setup a webcam to do his own “earth shattering, breaking news” live broadcast:

      If the Cardinals did what has been charged, that’s a federal offense and various team officials could be doing federal time. The Patriots never broke a federal law.. Hello? Bias?

      I think depending on how far Brady takes this, we might wind up looking back at it as Duke LAX 2.0.

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      1. The Pats did not break an NFL rule…never mind a city, state or federal law or statute. All the Cards did was apparently commit interstate wire fraud, IP theft, and a violate a host of computer network laws. Call me back when they let 1 PSI out of a baseball. Then it will be a story.

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    1. Okay let’s talk about the idiot media. Felger and Mazz went over Sally Jenkins article in the 4:00 hour today. They tried to ridicule it. Saying she had an anti NFL agenda or that she was always pro player and that she was in the Brady camp.

      They then said…”We grant that the science in the Wells report is wrong…but so what”. I was sitting in my car and screaming…REALLY? Their argument was that if the Pats were innocent why did they not make McNally available and why wouldn’t Brady give up his phone? Again I was yelling at my radio…REALLY?

      They were unwilling to accept that if the science was wrong and instead proved the Patriots did not violate a rule. If no rule was violated then there should not have been an investigation. No investigation no Tom Brady withholding his phone or the Pats denying the NFL another shot at McNally. Jazz kept saying this is not a court of law. On that we agree. These are business partners. As such the NFL should be looking out for the value of the Patriots organization. Instead they are continuing to devalue the Pats while they keep up this witch hunt.

      Felger and Mazz do not understand why Pats fans and Brady’s people are so incensed by this charade. They do not understand the investigation should not have happened. The Pats reputation should not have been sullied and their should not have been any punishments at all. What the AEI report showed is in simple direct language how really moronic Ted Wells and his report were. What Sally Jenkins showed is how dumb the NFL was for accepting the Wells report. What I am trying to show is how dumb Felger and Mazz are for continuing to beat the anti patriots drum on this one.

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      1. It boggles the mind. I understand they exist to push agendas, but at what point do they admit defeat on this one? Mark my words: Brady, and everyone involved with the organization could be completely cleared once this thing ends up in court, and those two assclowns, and other mediots like them, will continue to say, “but I still think (fill in the blank) did something to those footballs.” It’s a no-lose situation for them; that is, until if and when the audience around here finally gets fed up with their idiotic schtick and begins tuning them out.

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      3. Jenkins can be discredited because she has “an anti-NFL agenda.” Volin tried to tie the AEI report back to Robert Kraft. Any objective analysis gets scrutinized and met with doubt.

        You can’t bring up all the NFL personnel who either worked for NY teams or grew up in the NYC area, though. Mike Kensil, who’s father was a Jets executive, who worked for the team for over 20 years and who posts on a Jets message board, for example, his credibility can’t be questioned. Exponent doesn’t get the same skepticism, either, even though they were able produce a study that claimed second hand smoke isn’t bad for you because that’s what their client needed.

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        1. The “agenda” and links are all valid. Everyone has ties to something–some more than others–and it creates doubt anywhere. Nothing is ever going to be perfect.

          The Kraft/AEI “ties” seemed to be first brought up by Felger, or people who look for instant political backing. AEI supports rich white big business owner, Kraft’s a Republican (is he? I have no clue nor do I care), blah blah blah.

          You know what is supposed to be above this? Science. Dismiss that and there’s still the Brady denying knowing JJ and then the texts.

          The biggest thing for me was this instant “trusting” of the NFL when virtually nobody in the national media bought the Mueller Report.

          Right now, I think the gambit the NFL is pulling is that Brady capitulates because he doesn’t want to waste the time, missed games and money going the court route. Seems like a risky gamble but this is what us here (fans) are hoping.

          It’s the only way to salvage the travesty that has gone on.

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  4. I would agree with this. Ironically, Allen’s best season (and post-season performance) with the C’s was 2009, when they lost Garnett in February and then lost underrated contributor Leon Powe in the playoffs, and fell to Orlando in the East Semifinals. He was a contributor in 2008, and while he did play well during the 2010 run, his two abysmal shooting performances in Games 3 & 7 of the Finals — the two close games the Celtics lost — pretty much cost them a second championship.

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  5. Agreed, I always hated that label. The original big three
    were called that because they were the backcourt of one of the greatest
    starting 5’s in history, not because they were the three best players on the
    team at the time. There was one big three era. Because Pierce was here for so
    much longer I almost feel like it should be called the KG years, because between
    him and Allen it was KG that had the most impact of getting another title. In
    my humble opinion.

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