Mailblog of cheer

Cleaning out the mailbag to make room for toys …

First, from the Bah, Humbug! crowd …

For a long time I loved reading interesting, well-written pieces of actual journalism. Recently, things have spiraled downward to the point that I do not believe for one second anything that your department reports as ‘fact’. Even some of your department’s baseball ideas are so far off the map that you should be ashamed to call yourself sportswriters. Last week, there was a story speculating on a Soriano deal to Boston before he went to the Nats. The article stated almost as fact that ‘Soriano could be moved to the outfield’. It then proceeded on to tell us all why the trade could happen. Everyone else in the world with a baseball pulse knows (even before ESPN reported that he explicitly rejected the idea) that Soriano will not go the outfield. This is just one example of the bad sports reporting plaguing the Globe.
Adam Fliss

ESPN’s Chris Mortensen also reports that I am about to answer this question.

ESPN’s Neil Everett reports that Eric Wilbur did a Google search for “alfonso soriano outfield nationals” and came up with 688 news articles, many of which discussed speculation about Soriano moving to the outfield. ESPN’s Jayson Stark reports, this seems to mean that the Globe wasn’t the only one reporting such a scenario, which means, as you first heard on ESPN when John Clayton reported it, it was common discussion.

By the way, ESPN is reporting they weren’t the first one to break Soriano’s comments, just taking credit for things as they usually do. Soriano aired his feelings in the Fort-Worth Telegram.

I have to admit, after reading your latest effort I am about up to here w/ your high & mighty attitude on boston.com. You seem like a cynical, bitter person. Your sarcastic style is extremely abrasive. You know what, as much as you don’t like it, people wanted to hear from the Red Sox front office about what has been going on lately. The Red Sox are big news around here, no matter what they do. If you don’t like it, maybe you should seek another career? Or perhaps become a little more creative in your writing style vs. coming up w/ one sarcastic zinger after another? Your slam of the people who shop at Wal-Mart on Black Friday a couple of weeks back was particularly offensive. You know what, Mr. Wilbur? You better thank your lucky stars that those “idiots” exist because that is what is driving our economy right now. Without those people spending their hard earned dollars, a lot of others would be w/o jobs. If you think hard enough, I’m sure you can reach the conclusion that that’s a bad thing. Life’s too short, try to enjoy it a little more, you’ll live longer.
A reader

You’re right. Wal-Mart jokes are WAY too easy. I should be better than that.

It’s reporters like you that cause unrest. Shut up.
Michael Mahoney

Unrest? Are we being a tad overdramatic?

Quit sulking about that one game in NY. You’re not a mind reader so you don’t know what Nomar was thinking during that game in NY. You’re the one who has been sulking ever since. Give it a rest. It’s unpleasant. You mentioned that Nomar did not play short as well as he liked, but you forgot to mention that he was playing hurt. He also hit .321 for the Sox. You write as though he played poorly at times on purpose. Make a pretense at fairness. Nomar and his wife bought a house in Boston and were having it renovated. He probably expected that the offer from spring training 2003 would still be there since his season was almost identical stat/wise to his 2002 season. Instead the front office humiliated him by going after Rodriquez and never again negotiated a contract in good faith. Why does it bother you that Nomar still has fans and well wishers among Red Sox fans? Instead you write about his misfortunes with a certain nasty glee. It’s Christmas. Show some goodwill for a change.
Margaret Crowley

Hmm. He wouldn’t commit to being here long-term, a place he hated, and the Red Sox went out and looked at another option in case it didn’t work out and they were jilted by Garciaparra leaving via free agency. Yeah, totally all their fault. Even after all that, Nomar could have had $60 million in his pocket. Now, he’s looking at utility jobs, and yes, a certain amount of greed and spite are the reason for this happening. And he’s going to come back here? Please.

As for good will, well Merry Christmas, Nomar. OK?

… and those who spread good cheer …

I just finished reading your article and I can’t believe my eyes. Every point that you made was absolutely correct. Manny needs to go away, but not be given away for a two or three worthless players. This makes sense for both teams. The Red Sox I feel would benefit from this trade from the stand point of Tejada and Ortiz being so close. Team unity would be great I think. Anyway, do you think Manny will go for it?
Chad Staley

Could you not believe your eyes because the points were right on or that I made them? Either way is understandable.

The Jedi/Padawan thing made that piece. Just like Star Wars, the apprentice always eventually kills the master …

I like the call of Jimmy Caan as Lucchino, great choice. But Elijah Wood as Theo? Not a chance, too wussy. You need Hayden Christensen to play Epstein (see Shattered Glass & Life as a House for acting credits outside of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader).
And given that people are now producing glorified home movies about their love and lives being Red Sox fans, this may actually happen! My wife and I have a saying:

“If you’re not making money off of this team, you’re just not trying hard enough.”
Jeremy Mastro

Someone brought up the suggestion this week that the Sox should have packaged the snow that fell last week and try to peddle it off to the yahoos who bought the Fenway grass. I might start collecting discarded peanut shells on the way out of games and start selling those on eBay. Stupid, you say? Yeah, if someone can try and sell this thing for nearly $2,000, beer-drenched casings don’t seem so insane, do they?

And let’s hope we didn’t just give the Sox an idea with the snow thing.

If you guys think T.J. Simers and the L.A. Times columnists are any easier than the Globe’s guys, you’re not reading the paper. (I think the self perpetuating Boston media “we’re so much tougher to live with” mantra is counter productive but, whatever …) Regards,
Charles D’Atri

Simers may be the most entertaining read out there. I can’t wait for the summer afternoon when he and Bill Plaschke throw down. The scathing Simers has to be licking his chops with Grady Little in town, and since we all know how colleague feels about the new Dodgers manager after his embarrassing love letter last week, it is going to happen, no doubt.

Eric- When I was home over Thanksgiving, I was flipping through the channels and came across the latest NESN movie serving as homage to the Red Sox championship season. I figured I’d blow it off within a few minutes, and while I was disgusted with how bad it was, I couldn’t turn it off. So can you please answer a question for me, seeing as you probably have more insight into the matter than I do: was that a real documentary, or something fabricated by NESN after the fact? No one would talk like the woman did in front of any camera. No one would do the things that they did. Half, no, almost all of that entire thing seem scripted. And somehow she got interviews with Bill Lee, Rice, Evans, and even Yaz, which you can’t say that Still We Believe or anything else off the assembly line was able to do until the 2004 season. The movie entranced me, because there’s no way that real life could be that bad, or that the main woman would leave Game 4 of the ALCS to try to save her marriage. So, please please please please help me out here: ignoring how bad it was, how fake was that movie? Thanks.
Luke Landherr, Ithaca, NY

It’s a half movie, half documentary. Or it tries to be at least. I’m not absolutely sure. After repeatedly trying to make it through I continually have this urge to hitch a ride to my Salem dentist friend so he can drill the hell out my molars in a vain attempt to lessen the pain that’s been inflicted.

Eric- Here is a suggestion on how you can help stop the Red Sox from dominating local media coverage. Don’t write an 800+ word piece on how the Red Sox dominate local media coverage.
Dave

Zing.

I always hear about how the Sox are such bigger news in Boston (where I am from but do not live anymore — now DC), but since I don’t live there, I don’t really believe it. “C’mon,” I tell my brother (who lives in Gloucester), “you can’t tell me people still talk about the Red Sox even now?” I (foolishly) assumed that the web traffic monitors were showing bigger Pats interest during the NFL season (or at least after the MLB playoffs). Unbelievable. And I grew up there. I guess I grew up in a football house without knowing it. Because I remember the 1985 Bears as well if not better than the 1986 Mets.

Maybe this is why the crowd at Gillette is so lame and quiet. There’ll all obsessing over Theo Epstein’s next move.
Jason J. Jarvis

Nice line. Not the first time someone has brought up such a reason either, questioning whether the reason the fans were so quiet is because they are in essence baseball crowds, in which you don’t exactly cheer nonstop for 60 minutes of clock time. Base hit. Applaud. Double. Maybe stand and applaud. Home run. Extended ovation, for 36 seconds.

Personally, I think Gillette fans are just spoiled. There’s nothing inherently evil in that from the perspective of being a fanatical supporter. They’re just used to a higher level of performance, and sorry, even when they see some semblance of that, it’s difficult to get all crazy for Richard Seymour when they “figure out” Brooks Bollinger.

This may be a commentary on MLB in general. If you visit espn.com with any frequency you surely have noticed that baseball stories dominate that site and offseason rumors frequently trump the stories from other sports currently in season. Maybe baseball fans follow their teams with more interest than fans of other sports.
Travis S. Prestwich

It might just be that baseball remains America’s passion. That’s a stance I’ve never really backed down from over the years, despite the obvious dominance of the NFL in our society. But it is the only sport everyone talks about year-round. I’ll hang out with friends this weekend, and we’ll talk baseball after coming off the slopes. In the summer, hanging at the coast, it’ll be more of the same. Offseason football talk doesn’t carry quite the allure baseball does. I think part of that is, like previously mentioned, baseball is such a long season, full of intrigue and soap opera headlines, that it transitions rather naturally to the winter when those same themes can be nurtured into how the club prepares for the following season.

And in Boston, well, it’s all that … 52-fold.