The 2007 Boston Red Sox: The Product of a Good Front Office

There seemed to be little hope that the Boston Red Sox would make it to the World Series. Down three games to one to the Cleveland Indians, they were one game away from an offseason full of fishing trips and relaxation. But instead of accepting this idea and rolling over in Game 5, the Red Sox went on to win seven straight games including the World Series. Josh Beckett pitched that decisive Game 5, and while watching, it almost became clear that the Red Sox would come back from this hole and go on to win the World Series. Beckett was unhittable, going eight innings and giving up only five hits while striking out eleven. His performance completely turned around not just that series, but also the entire post season for the Red Sox. They became a powerhouse. Beckett took that team on his back and delivered an overpowering performance. If Beckett hadn’t been pitching that game, would the Red Sox have surmounted this incredible comeback and gone on to win the World Series for the second time in four years? I guess we will never know, but having a gplayer like that on your team is something that a lot of GMs wish they could have. It’s guys like Theo Epstein who get guys like Beckett, and many others for that matter, that make such a difference on such a big stage.

There are so many guys who you can attribute this World Series victory to. There’s not just one guy that came out and dominated. Josh Beckett won every game he started in the post season, but he didn’t do everything. Mike Lowell seemed to have an RBI in every at bat. Jacoby Ellsbury hit so many doubles it was hard to keep count. Dustin Pedroia looked like a World Series veteran in his first post season ever. David Ortiz was… well… David Ortiz. And Manny was Manny. This entire group went out and did their job to perfection. But it’s not just coincidence that brought these guys together. Theo Epstein, General Manager of the Boston Red Sox, did a lot of things right in the past few years in order to assemble a team that would work as well as the Red Sox do. While the Yankees were going after Carl Pavano, who they eventually got, the Red Sox got Beckett AND Mike Lowell. Since signing with the Yankees, Pavano has posted a record of 5-6 over the past 3 years. He didn’t even pitch in 2006. Currently he is on the disabled list waiting to get Tommy John surgery (an operation on the elbow of a pitcher, possibly ending their career). Meanwhile, Josh Beckett has gone 36-18, and had 4 post season wins this year. Mike Lowell was apart of the Josh Beckett trade with the Florida Marlins in 2006, as the Marlins refused to pay the remainder of his contract. I’d say everything has worked out well for the Red Sox, as Lowell earned himself the World Series MVP this year hitting .353 with 15 RBIs.

Then there are the stories of David Ortiz, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Dustin Pedroia. Ortiz was released by the Minnesota Twins on December 16, 2002, and was subsequently picked up by the Red Sox as a free agent in January. Since joining the Red Sox in 2003, Ortiz has hit 205 HRs, had 642 RBIs, and batted .302, a staggering amount of offense for a man who was simply dropped by a team. Jacoby Ellsbury was drafted by the Red Sox in the first round of the 2005 draft with a pick that the Sox traded for Orlando Cabrera. In the World Series this year, he hit .438. Dustin Pedroia was drafted out of Arizona State University by the Red Sox in the 2005 draft as well, and it seems that he has worked out well for the team too. In the ALCS hit he .345 with 5 RBIs all coming in the decisive Game 7 against the Cleveland Indians. All of these guys have played an important role in bringing yet another World Series Championship home to Boston. It hasn’t been just “a one man wrecking machine” as Guster would say, but rather a group of hard-working men who got together to achieve a common goal. And it was Epstein who brought these men together.

It seems as if the popular thing to do in sports these days is to bring in the one gigantic All-Star to solve all of your problems. Example: The Chicago Cubs and Alfonso Soriano. Soriano helped the team offensively, but once they got into the post season, all of the holes in their lineup and their lack of depth in the pitching rotation were exposed, leading to their departure after the NLDS. Teams around the league need to realize that it takes more than just one player to fix a problem. It takes time, money, and the will to study the game in order to find the guys you’ve been looking for. The 2007 Red Sox were able to do this and came away with a championship. And from what I’ve seen, they’re here to stay.

Dear Major League Baseball: Let Mark Cuban Buy the Chicago Cubs

If there’s one thing that needs to happen for baseball at this point, it’s letting Mark Cuban (at right), the current owner of the NBA franchise Dallas Mavericks, buy the Chicago Cubs. Mark Cuban purchased the Dallas Mavericks in 2000, and up to that year, the Mavericks had never made it out of the first round of the playoffs, assuming that they even made it there with their abysmal regular season records. However, once Cuban took over, the Mavericks have made it to the playoffs every year, and advanced to the NBA Finals in 2006. He has put enough money in the team over the course of the past couple of years to allow this to happen, something that needs to be done with the Cubs.

The Chicago Cubs are the lovable losers of the National League. They haven’t won a World Series since 1908. They’re like the pre-2004 Boston Red Sox. Except now, they still don’t have a World Series ring. One thing that can be said about the Cubs though, is that they have extremely loyal fans. Tickets to games routinely sell out, even when the team is playing poorly. Fans that aren’t attending games pack bars and clubs throughout the North side of Chicago just to watch the game and cheer on their team. If there’s any team, or fan base alike, that deserves to win a World Series, it’s the Chicago Cubs.

In 2006, the Chicago Tribune announced that they were going to sell the Chicago Cubs. This was big news in the baseball world. Immediately, speculation as to who was going to buy the team became the hot topic of the sports business world. A franchise like the Cubs has a price tag of nearly $700 million to $1 billion, so there were obviously only a few candidates. So far, there are two options: Mark Cuban, and John Canning Jr., a partner in a high-powered law firm based in Chicago. Canning Jr. is a personal friend of MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, former owner of the Milwaukee Brewers. It seems as if a lot of factors are weighing in against Mark Cuban ever owning the Chicago Cubs. In the end however, Cuban owning the Cubs could be one of the best things to happen for baseball in recent years.

Cuban has said that if he were to purchase the Cubs, whose final sale will be in the Spring of 2008, he would opt out of sitting in lower box seats, the usual area where owners and front office executives sit, and instead take up residence in the bleachers. The Wrigley Field bleachers are notorious for having some of the craziest fans in baseball. They drink beer. They yell at opposing players. They scream and high five whenever anything good happens for their “Cubbies.” It’s like sitting in the student section of a college football game, except all the people sitting around you can be found in a business suite during the day. To have Mark Cuban sitting out there would be something to behold. Saying that he would sit out there is evidence that Cuban is a fan of the game. Sure, he could sit in this posh luxury box and entertain guests, but instead he wants to be out with the die-hard fans, screaming at players, and getting the full Wrigley experience at every game. This would be an awesome sight to watch. Now I don’t know about you, but I just can’t see Canning Jr., a partner in a prestigious equity firm, sitting out with the Bleacher Bums yelling at the other team’s right fielder with his shirt off and the fans taking him seriously.


The only knock on Cuban from current owners is that he is TOO passionate about his teams, and that he comes off in a bad light when seen screaming at officials at Mavericks games and getting in on team huddles during the game. Cuban has been fined at least $1,665,000 for a total of 13 separate incidents. He has criticized officials. He has thrown tirades when his team has lost. He has criticized players. He has done almost everything a regular fan does, but since he’s in the spotlight, he gets fined for it. He’s the bad boy of the NBA owners. He’ll do anything that will help his team win. He’s a self-made man, and has said, “I happen to make the personal choice to reinvest 100 percent of [all revenues] into players and organization,” something the Cubs could truly use.

It looks as if the odds are against him. It looks as if he stands less chance of owning the Cubs than David Spade does of ever being taken seriously as an actor. And this is a sad fact. The Cubs could really use an owner like Mark Cuban. He’d put absurd amounts of money into the team. He’d make them perennial contenders. They might even win a World Series (knock on wood). But instead MLB looks as if they’re too antiquated to let him buy the team. They’ll end up being sold to Canning Jr., who in turn will sit in his posh, luxury box seat, entertain guests, and not know the score of the game by the 5th inning. Well done, Major League Baseball. The opportunity to really bring in a new era of ownership and new ideas is right in front of you and you’re just letting it pass you by.

Pressure in the Bronx: The Unraveling of the New York Yankees

With the Major League Baseball off-season fast approaching, it’s hard to think that the New York Yankees aren't going to have a completely different look come next season. The front office, mainly George Steinbrenner (at right), is ready to make drastic moves to completely revamp the team. The most influential moves being getting rid of long time manager Joe Torre, who in his 12 seasons with the Yankees has made it to six World Series and won four of them. He has made it to the playoffs every single year he has managed the Yankees, but still, the front office is calling for him to be fired. And if Joe Torre leaves, what other Yankees may leave along with him?

Before Game 3 of the ALDS this past week, George Steinbrenner issued an ultimatum to Joe Torre (pictured at left) – win this series or you’re fired. What kind of front office does that? Already down two games in a best of five series, the Yankees had their backs against a wall. And on top of that, the starting pitcher of the night was an aging Roger Clemens, who lasted all of two innings. The next day, Clemens was placed on the disabled list for the rest of the series. Now Joe Torre had a lot of talent on his team, no one is going to argue with that, but he also had a lot of aging and one-sided talent. The starting rotation was old, with no clear-cut ace. The lineup was filled with a lot of big bats, but a lot of the guys who swung a big stick were a liability on defense. While George Steinbrenner did indeed pay for the best hitting team in baseball, $215 million dollars a season to be exact, he left his manager with gaping holes to fill and make up for.

This post-season could see the departure of such Yankees as Jorge Posada, Roger Clemens, Mike Mussina, Mariano Rivera, Jason Giambi, and Alex Rodriguez. Rodriguez and Mussina have the ability to opt out of their contracts, but that decision could be based highly on the firing of Joe Torre. Replacing all of that talent would be extraordinarily difficult. Alex Rodriguez is possibly the best player in the game. Mariano Rivera is one of the most dominant closers in the game. Mike Mussina and Roger Clemens, while still old, have the ability to anchor a team’s starting rotation if healthy. Replacing these players will not be easy, and as a result of this, we could very well be seeing the end of the Yankee dynasty.

George Steinbrenner accepts nothing less than winning from his team. However, the near future may become highly frustrating for him as he tries to rebuild this beat down Yankees squad with only his checkbook. With the possibility of so many stars leaving the team, it could be a while before the Yankees are seen as a perennial powerhouse. And this fact is going to be hard to accept for a lot of New York fans, which have become so accustomed to winning over the years. But who is to blame for this complete overhaul that is just waiting in the wings? No, it’s not that man that is going to lose his job here in the next week or so, it’s the man who will be firing him. George Steinbrenner’s demand for success and need to stop at nothing to win has caused this turmoil in the Bronx, and getting this team out of this hole may take a small miracle.

Brett Favre: All-Time Touchdown Leader Deserves Never-Ending Respect

This past weekend, Brett Favre (at right) of the Green Bay Packers broke the all-time touchdown record previously held by Dan Marino. This record has stood for a long time, and few thought that it would be possible to break, but here stands Brett Favre, an old-fashioned gun-slinging quarterback who’s never been afraid to hurl the ball downfield. Brett Favre is the NFL’s all time winningest quarterback, and holds the record for most number of consecutive games started by any player at 241. Favre is a man to look up to for sports fans of all ages, and in a time of Pacman Jones, Tank Johnson, and Mike Vick, Brett Favre breaking the record is something that this sport needed dearly.

Brett Favre is old school. He started playing in 1991 with the Atlanta Falcons, was traded to the Green Bay Packers the next season, and hasn’t looked back since. He has led his team to two Super Bowls in that span, winning one and losing one. He celebrates every touchdown as if he just won the Super Bowl. He’s not afraid to take a hit. And winning a game is more important to him than any record. Why is this important? Because the media is obsessed with records. The coverage surrounding Barry Bonds home run chase to break Hank Aaron was ridiculous. Every game switched over to Bonds’ at bat just to see if he would break the record. Favre on the other hand, downplayed his achievement, claiming that he was happier that his team was winning than he was that he was about to break the all time touchdown record. His team, and I do mean HIS team, is now 4-0 after going a mediocre 8-8 last season. This offseason, there was speculation that Brett Favre might hang up his cleats and retire. He’d thrown a lot of interceptions, his team was young and inexperienced, and it looked like there was no chance of the team having a real significant season. Despite all this, Favre stayed around and decided to play. And look at all the amazing things that have happened.

Brett Favre is headed to the Hall of Fame, there should be no doubt in anybody’s mind about that. He has set amazing records in his time in the NFL, and has been a role model for fans of the game throughout his career. When he broke the record on Sunday, however, Favre still paid homage to the great quarterbacks of our time, stating “I would never put myself up there with Dan Marino. He’s one of the greatest of all time.” I don’t know anybody who has this kind of humility in sports anymore. Just the other week we saw Chad Johnson sport a jacket in the endzone after he scored claiming “ Future [Hall of Fame] 20??.” That is the opposite of humility and respect for the game. The most Brett Favre has ever done to celebrate one of his 422 career touchdowns in run down the field with his arms over his head and celebrate with the receiver (seen at right), or just pat the linemen on the helmet, praising them for a job well done. This is something rarely seen in sports and Brett Favre should be acknowledged for his never-ending respect of the game.

In a time of so many sports scandals going on, Brett Favre breaking this record with pride and humility couldn’t have come at a better time. He is a well-respected player; both by the fans and players alike. He has never asked to be put in the limelight, but rather lets his play do the talking for him. He is a stand up guy, and hard worker, and a man that deserves unending respect. In the words of one of the greatest coaches of all time, former head coach of the Green Bay Packers Vince Lombardi (pictured at left), “hard work is the price we must pay for success.” Brett Favre has showed us this truth through his illustrious career. This record could not have come at a better time for a sport that truly needed it. And for that, Brett Favre, the sports world as a whole gives you thanks.