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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

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2 days ago

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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Red Sox Back On Track

Sports fans: Not only is it Saturday, it’s the Saturday of NFL opening weekend 2017. Let’s use our mulligan on that excruciating Patriots’ loss, Thursday night. Try to enjoy some objectively exciting football, Pats fans. As sure as the snow will fall, come this winter, we will have our redemption. This Sunday, we should be so sportsmanlike as to cheer for the heartbreak of other teams and other cities that we don’t care about.

Enough sulking. Buck up! It’s time for another edition of: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

The Good

You may have been distracted by the disheartening commencement of the NFL season, but while you were away the Sox got back on track.

This past Tuesday, Boston won a 19 inning-game against Toronto. It was the 2nd longest game ever played in our beloved, yet well antiquated, Fenway Park. The worst part is: I had a ticket to this game, but of course work got in the way. It’s fine, I just missed a historical Red Sox moment. No big deal… Shout-out to my best friend, and The 7th Floor podcast co-host, Joey Copponi for going without me!

It’s the bottom of the 19th inning. Mookie Betts has just crushed a ball to left; he’s standing with latent speed waiting to be unleashed on 2nd base. Notorious big-whiffer Hanley Ramirez is at the plate. He loads and pops up a rainbow of a bloop single to center field. Mookie, absolutely on his horse, crosses home and the Red Sox win. The best part: They have not lost a game, since this super climatic victory.

Hanley was interviewed after being drenched with gatorade and tackled by his teammates, in celebration. He’s not known as the most eloquent of orators, but Tuesday night (Wednesday morning technically) he put it best. On the manufacturing of the victory, Ramirez said: “We don’t have a bunch of guys who hit home runs”, but we hustle and we “get it done”.

Every World Series winning team has to have a little bit of magic. All the great postseason teams have had regular season’s that are saturated with pivotal, and seemingly impossible, victories. This past Tuesday, the Red Sox illustrated their heart and conviction to win. Sometimes that is enough to compensate for your deficiencies on the field and on paper.

When trailing after 5 innings, the Sox have won 17 games this year. That is by far the best in the majors. Considering that they have 80 wins this year, almost 25% of those are late-inning comebacks.

Feel that dirty water momentum Boston! The boys are rolling. Chris Sale takes the mound tonight. We lead the AL East by 4 games over the Yankees. Red Sox fans should be encouraged by the appraisal of their team, at this juncture in September. That should remedy some of those open Patriots wounds.

The Bad

These guys have really, and I mean REALLY, earned it. The bad category this week goes to Roger Goodell and his band of inept subordinates who run the NFL. They take the cake for their miscarriage of the personal conduct policy, this time in regards to the Ezekiel Elliott case.

An ex-girlfriend is accusing the Dallas running back of physically abusing her, in July of 2016. Wait. Didn’t Elliot have a breakout rookie-season with the Cowboys last year? Yes, so either the NFL is legally ignorant. Or they wanted to stimulate the popularity of this budding star for as long as they could.

This summer, our insufferable commissioner Roger Goodell announced that Elliott will serve a 6-game suspension. Again, it appears that upon a negligible amount of, if any, deliberation Goodell has come up with an arbitrary punishment. His dolling out of suspensions, when it comes to the personal conduct policy, seems expedient. On the surface, Goodell wants “justice”. But when you inspect the timeline, you see that these punishments have all been rather convenient for the NFL.

The NFLPA fought for an injunction in the Elliott case, recently granted by U.S. District Court judge Amos Mazzant. Ezekiel Elliott’s suspension is now on hold. Yeah, fantasy owners rejoice, but this is a solemn matter. We’re talking about purported domestic abuse, and the integrity of America’s football league.

Suspiciously the NFL has just now protracted the suspension of ex-Giants Kicker Josh Brown. If you remember, he was accused of assaulting his significant other last year. Like the reactionaries that Goodell and gang are, they gave him a hasty 1-game suspension, without conducting a coherent investigation. Now, on the coattails of Ezekiel Elliott’s injunction, they’ve decided to suspend Josh Brown 6 more games. It appears as though the NFL is trying to set a precedent here, in a retroactive manner.

Don’t get me wrong: A precedent must be set. The NFL has been dishing out incalculable suspensions for players who violate the personal conduct policy.

It seems like Goodell reads the public barometer, then decides what a fair punishment would be. He’s playing both sides, like a moral-less businessman. Why were both Brown and Elliott allowed to play in the season in which their respective allegations were made against them?

When it comes to domestic violence, a thorough investigation has to be conducted on behalf of both parties. No matter who’s involved. Goodell has ignored evidence and he has assessed evidence, at his convenience. This has been a huge issue for the NFL in recent years.

Make the punishment predictable yet more severe for players who are violent domestic criminals. Do whatever you have to do to send the message that this is invariably unacceptable behavior. As it stands, the litigation of the NFL domestic abuse policy needs an overhaul. It is ineffective and confusing for fans, players and most importantly the victims.

The Ugly

Short ugly category: Stop despairing Patriots fans! We lost the season-opener, so what? If the Super Bowl was decided by the first game, the Chiefs would be champions. Flukes happen!

Since Thursday, I have heard talks of a forced Tom Brady retirement. I’ve also heard questions of Bill Belichick’s competence. This uncertainty needs to be arrested right now.

We weren’t perfect last year, and we won the Super Bowl. We all remember what happened last time we were perfect up until the Super Bowl: So calm down.

You learn more from defeat than you do from victory. It’s foolish to presume that Bill won’t scrupulously study the tape, and correct these mistakes. Tom looked bad, but he’s older now: He may have needed to shake off the rust. In practice this week, rest assured that the Patriots will be indefatigably running laps until they vomit. Pain is weakness leaving the body: Belichick’s gonna make them feel it.

As I said in the beginning, we will have our redemption come this winter. Don’t be the fickle doomsayer that jumps off the wagon prematurely. Do we not remember that, at heart, we’re hard-nosed underdogs? Nothing has changed: The Patriots are still favorites to win the Super Bowl this year. 28-3. That’s all I have to say.

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Columnist operating out of Manchester, NH. Retired pitcher (unprofessional not amateur). Voracious consumer of all things Celtics and Red Sox. Sometimes I produce content as well.

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Boston Red Sox

Red Sox Get Trampled by Rays

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11 hours ago

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September 11, 2017

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Red Sox Get Trampled by Rays

The Red Sox on Sunday took a hard blowing defeat by the Rays in a score of 4-1.

Christian Vasquez was able to get in 1 run to make it look as if they weren’t going to be score less. The Rays Lucas Duda and Evan Longoria each hit 1 run while Wilson Ramos got in 2.

This was a hard hit for the Red Sox to take as they are now 81-62. The next game is against the Athletics on September 12.

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Boston Red Sox

Boston Red Sox Get Burned By Replay

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21 hours ago

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September 10, 2017

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Boston Red Sox Get Burned By Replay

The Boston Red Sox fell to the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 on Sunday to end their four game win streak. While the final score is a three run deficit, the game at one point looked a whole lot different.

In the third inning the Red Sox owned a 1-0 lead and where about to bring a second run to the plate to gain a 2-run lead but Christian Vasquez was deemed out at the plate. After video review the play was not overturned.

The homeplate umpire, Brian O’Nora did not hesitate when making the call in real time. And in real time Vasquez actually looked out. But upon further review it looked as if he was able to slide in ahead of the tag. But that wasn’t enough for Major League Baseball to overturn the call.

The decision ended up swinging momentum towards Tampa Bay who wouldn’t give it back for the remainder of the game. For a team in a pennant race, it doesn’t sit well with the Red Sox.

“The explanation was they can’t definitively say if the foot made contact with the plate,” Farrell said. “He beat the tag, it was a high tag, the foot was in prior to the tag, but inconclusive from the standpoint of whether the foot swiped across the surface of the plate.”

“Looking back with only one run on the board, yeah, it’s big, and I think any time you think you’ve got a run scored and it’s taken away, yeah, that’s a missed opportunity. Vazqy runs the bases extremely well going from… on the base hit he ends up at third base after a missed cutoff and again, felt like he was safe.”

Reporters were unable to ask Vasquez about the play after the game with the Red Sox catcher leaving the clubhouse rather quickly.

The decision by the replay crew doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. It appears that he was clearly in ahead of the throw and is safe. This was a key swinging moment in the game and could have caused the outcome to go the other way. Which it might have done with Tampa taking the lead and winning the ballgame.

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Boston Red Sox

JetBlue Park Being Used As Safe Haven During Hurricane Irma

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2 days ago

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September 9, 2017

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JetBlue Park Being Used As Safe Haven During Hurricane Irma For Both Boston Red Sox Personal And The City Of Fort Myers

The Boston Red Sox have a major facility down in Fort Myers Florida called JetBlue Park. The team uses the facility for Spring training but it serves the team all year round with rehabbing players spending time their along with extended spring training players.

But the facility will be put under an immense test this weekend with Hurricane Irma coming right for Florida.

According to the Boston Red Sox the facility will be used as a command center for the City of Fort Myers as well as a safe haven for family members of Red Sox players and personnel who work out of the facility. The team had made arrangements to get their own players out of Florida and back up to Boston. But those left behind and their families who live in the area will use the structure for shelter.

Many of the Red Sox players have their offseason homes down in that area of the country so they can use the facilities during the offseason. So it was important for the Red Sox to get anyone unable to evacuate into the facility to keep them safe during the storm.

“What’s going to take place down there, you know, we’ve got a lot of guys that either make offseason homes down there or guys that even at this point have families that are unable to evacuate that are actually going to go over to JetBlue and stay there,” said Red Sox manager John Farrell. “This is a serious situation, and I think in these times that are challenging, the goodness of people start to really come through.”

It is believed the clubhouses will be serving as the primary housing for those seeking shelter, with many of the offices being outlined by windows.

Hitting Coach Victor Rodriguez, catcher Sandy Leon, and bullpen catcher Mani Martinez are among the Red Sox staff that still have family in South Florida. Others who live down there like Chris Sale and Hanley Ramirez have already flown their families up to Boston.

What the Red Sox are most concerened about is people and not the property.

“Property, that’s something that can be repaired, whatever happens to it,” Farrell said. “There’s concern. There’s attention to be paid. Hanley for one, in South Florida, has gotten his family up here. You try to make sure you understand what they’re going through. There’s obviously some kind of compassion that’s got to be given in these situations and hopefully all are going to be available to avoid something severe.”

The Boston Red Sox are doing more than just providing shelter though. Since they operate a full time facility in Florida they have decided to partner up with the Boston Bruins, Florida Panthers, and the Tampa Bay Rays to raise funds for hurricane reliefs.

Here is the information that the Boston Bruins sent out in the press release:

The Boston Bruins announced today that they will team up with the Boston Red Sox, Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Rays tomorrow, September 10, to raise funds for Hurricane Irma relief efforts.

Noel Acciari, Kenny Agostino, Patrice Bergeron, Brandon Carlo, Torey Krug, Adam McQuaid, Kevan Miller, Paul Postma,Ryan Spooner and others will join members of the Red Sox, Panthers and Rays at the gates of Fenway Park to collect donations before and during the Tampa Bay Rays vs. Boston Red Sox game slated for 1:35 p.m.

All donations will go to support the Red Cross to assist the region of South Florida. The Boston Bruins Foundation will match the total funds raised at the gates.

Across town the Boston Bruins have taken in the Florida Panthers who evacuated their entire team and families up to Boston to avoid the storm.

With the storm bearing down on Florida it is important to keep everyone down there in your thoughts until the storm passes.

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