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In a recent “Only a Game” segment Bill Littlefield bemoaned how even non-sporting events near the Hub have been dominated by angst about the Red Sox. While the pre-2004 fatalism had been mostly banished by the club consistently contending this season has revived the Old Town team’s fans’ old habit of anxiety and dread. I especially liked this anecdote: Moments later I found myself face to face with a man whose novels and stories have been widely celebrated. He has created memorable characters of all sorts. But in the garden on this potentially lyrical day in late summer, his concern was non-fiction. He was savaging a Boston sportswriter whom he regarded as sarcastic, mean-spirited, and wrong, at least as regards the Red Sox, upon whose trials the sportswriter has capitalized in several books. The sportswriter is undoubtedly Dan Shaughnessy but the novelist is less easy to discern. Stephen King, perhaps? Speaking of horror, the Blue Jays completed their second straight sweep of the Red Sox. Bobby Valentine visited Clay Buchholz in the ninth with speedy runners at the corners and one down. Buchholz thought he was being taken out and handed the ball over but Valentine told him he was...
Manny Ramirez dominated the headlines not because of what he did on the field (a decent 2-for-4 showing but no extra base hits or runs batted in) but because of what he said. Ramirez apologized for his behavior in 2008. “Everything was my fault, but you have to be a real man to realize when you do wrong,” he told reporters. “It was my fault, right. I already passed that stage. I’m happy. I’m on a new team.” A real man wouldn’t shove an elderly man. So what about Pedro Martinez playing matador to the charging Don Zimmer you might ask. That doesn’t count; Zimmer is an elderly gerbil. A real man wouldn’t inject himself with female fertility hormone as part of a steroid regime. A real man wouldn’t wait two years to admit that he was wrong. How genuine is his contrition in light of the fact that he is a free agent next season and has to buff up his tarnished reputation? The only success the Red Sox had was in the execution of the “fake to third” ploy. Of all players Omar Vizquel was lured off of third base when Clay Buchholz feinted a throw in his...
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Photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library’s Sports Temples of Boston.