14-03-2025
Suddenly, the AL East is wide open, so now's the time for the Red Sox to get it together, and other thoughts
And yet . . . the Sox are stalled in Fort Myers. Spring training stats don't count for much, but the Red Sox seem to have set a record for most players showing up in camp already injured (Rafael Devers, Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford, Lucas Giolito) or sick (Wilyer Abreu, Triston Casas). Meanwhile, Trevor Story's has new back issues, the team has no closer, no second baseman, suspect defense, and zero catching depth. Sound like division winners to you?
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Get it together, Red Sox. This could be your time. Ownership has elected to spend money again, and the AL East has morphed into the Tomato Can AFC East of 2002-19. After five awful seasons of the post-Mookie era (including three last-place finishes), it's time for the Red Sox to give us something more than Bres-Lowball and the illusion of contention.
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Preseason baseball predictions are silly but fun. Hardly anyone takes them seriously, though I do remember Red Sox owner John Henry (he also owns the Globe now) in 2006 showing me a flow chart tracking success-failure rates of preseason picks made by New England scribes during his years owning the Red Sox. My grade was Bluto-esque.
The only other memory of anyone commenting about prognostications came in March 1988, when beleaguered Sox manager John McNamara spit nails after most of us picked his team to win the AL East.
'Some people pick you to finish first just to see you get [expletive] fired,' snarled McNamara.
Alas, Haywood Sullivan knifed the Mac in July, replacing him with Walpole's Joe Morgan, who took them to the AL East crown.
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There's plenty of time still for the Sox to make us feel good about 2025. Crochet looks like the real deal and we know what Buehler can do. Bregman is a winner and a leader. Alex Cora says we can expect Jarren Duran, Devers, Bregman, and Casas to bat 1-2-3-4. He's got Story penciled in for the No. 5 spot.
The Sox hang a lot of their hopes on Story, which always gives me pause. Ever-injured, Story's played only 163 games for Boston in three seasons. He's been a .232 hitter for the Red Sox. And he missed a couple of games this past week with upper-back tightness.
The Red Sox are hanging a lot of their hopes on Trevor Story, who has played only 163 games over the last three seasons.
Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
Color me concerned.
It's the same with the eroding depth of the starting rotation (Bello, Crawford, and Giolito — half of their top six starters — will all open the season on the injured list) and big holes at second base and catcher.
Here's hoping we see something from the Sox' super-touted top three prospects in the final two weeks of spring training. Kristian Campbell (.167),
Anthony and Mayer were struck with a flu bug that's hit the Fort Myers clubhouse. Sorry to be impatient, but after reading about Campbell/Anthony/Mayer, I was hoping for something like 19-year-old Tony Conigliaro setting the Cactus League on fire and slugging his way into the 1964 Red Sox Opening Day lineup. Not yet. We've seen more Juan Bustabad than Tony C when it comes to the Sox' Baseball America legends.
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There's two more weeks of spring training. The 2025 Red Sox need to give us some reasons to believe.
⋅ Quiz: 1. Name five NBA franchises that have played in four or more consecutive NBA Finals; 2. Name five Baseball Hall of Famers who fell 25 or fewer homers short of joining the 500-homer club (answers below).
⋅ At least five of my readers contend that DOGE wiz kids are embedded in the Driveline subdivision of the Red Sox analytics department.
⋅ RIP author/reporter John Feinstein, who died Thursday at the age of 69. Feinstein was a ferocious Washington Post reporter who authored more than 40 books, 23 of which became New York Times bestsellers, including the groundbreaking 'A Season on the Brink,' the story of the 1985-86 season with Bobby Knight's Indiana Hoosiers. Knight was unhappy with Feinstein's No. 1 bestseller and called Feinstein 'a whore and a pimp.' Never one to back down, Feinstein said, 'I wish he'd make up his mind so I'd know how to dress.'
In 1993, when I was approached to write a biography of Red Auerbach, I went to Red to ask him how he felt about such an undertaking and he said, 'Go ahead, I got nothing to hide . . . The only thing I don't want to get involved in is what that [expletive] did to Bobby Knight.'
Feinstein laughed when I relayed the story. A few years later, Feinstein encountered Auerbach in a Washington television studio and they had a nice exchange. When Feinstein told Auerbach that Knight loved him, Red said, 'That's because I never wrote anything about him.'
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Feinstein and Auerbach became great friends, and in 2004 they co-authored a bestselling book: 'Let Me Tell You a Story.' Check it out on Amazon. You'll love it.
⋅ Local hockey legend Mike Eruzione has some thoughts about the $20 ticket price (plus fees) for all patrons going to the Garden for this weekend's high school hockey finals (the MIAA has the same price for basketball at the Tsongas Center in Lowell): 'I am blown away,' says Eruzione, who played at Winthrop, Boston University, then scored the winning goal against the Russians in Lake Placid in the 1980 Olympics. 'Winthrop plays at the Garden at 9 a.m. Sunday morning (Division 4 boys' final vs. Dedham). My daughter and her husband have three boys and it's gonna cost them $100 to go. I think that's ridiculous. Can't they have a lower fee for students, or kids under 12? A lot of kids from Winthrop can't afford this and will wind up going to somebody's parents' house and watch it on stream. We're a small town that wants to have kids dream of playing for the high school. This is a big deal in our town. It's big in the community and I bet a lot of kids can't afford it. I don't agree with it and I don't understand.'
⋅ Imagine saying goodbye to
Andrews goes down as one of the great stand-up guys in New England history and there should be a spot for him in Bob Kraft's Hall of Fame. He played hurt, never complained, was a great role model for his teammates, and always first at the podium after games. Wins and losses.
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Longtime Patriot David Andrews was always accountable, win or lose.
John Tlumacki/Globe Staff
Marchand was drafted by the Bruins 19 years ago and ranked in the franchise's top five in games (1,090) and goals (422) when he was traded to the Panthers last Friday. A nifty, small-print Globe clip-and-save timeline of Marchand's career included this ditty: 'May 5, 2018: Managed to avoid any punishment, but was warned by the NHL's director of hockey operations, Colin Campbell, to stop licking opponents after he licked Toronto center Leo Komarov in Game 1 of the first-round series with the Maple Leafs, as well as Tampa Bay forward Ryan Callahan in Game 4 of the second-round series with the Lightning.'
Brad Marchand was shown the door after licking the Lightning's Ryan Callahan.
Charles Krupa/Associated Press
The L'il Ball O' Hate (President Obama used that nickname when the Stanley Cup champ Bruins visited the White House in 2011) scored two of Boston's four goals in Vancouver in Game 7 in June 2011, when the Bruins won their only Cup since 1972.
Eight years later, in a Stanley Cup Final at the Garden, Marchand tragically came off the ice early in the closing seconds of the first period of Game 7 against the Blues. With the confused Bruins suddenly playing shorthanded, Alex Pietrangelo scored with eight seconds left in the period to give St. Louis a 2-0 lead and all the momentum as the air drained out of the Garden. The Blues won, 4-1, and Boston didn't get its next championship until the Celtics brought one home last June.
⋅ Incoming Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is a former Harvard third-string goalie who roomed with Peter Chiarelli when he played for the Crimson. After a March 1985, Harvard 10-2 win against Colgate, the Globe's Bob Monahan wrote, 'A Colgate player banged Harvard backup goalie John Devlin on the head with his stick . . . Devlin was replaced by Harvard's third goalie of the night, Mark Carney.' This makes Carney quite possibly the most famous Harvard goalie since Arlington native Joe Bertagna made it to the Silver Screen, stopping pucks for Ryan O'Neal in the iconic 1970 film 'Love Story.' Playing for Harvard means never having to say you're sorry.
Canadian prime minister Mark Carney was a goaltender at Harvard in the 1980s and was roommates with former Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli.
Graham Hughes/Photographer: Graham Hughes/Bloo
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⋅ Bill Belichick's North Carolina Tar Heels play TCU at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill in a nationally televised college football Labor Day special, Monday, Sept. 1. Count me as one who thinks its a blunder for the Tar Heels to be billing themselves as 'the NFL's 33rd team.'
⋅ It's hard to believe that the Cubs have won only one postseason series (2017 NLDS vs. Nationals) since winning the World Series in 2016.
⋅ Let it not be said that the Yankees didn't get their money's worth in the first five years with
⋅ For the record, Terry Francona is wearing No. 77 with the Reds. No doubt you'll never see it under his ubiquitous, ready-to-change-the-oil windbreaker.
Reds manager Terry Francona's uniform number is 77, though you'll likely never see it.
Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press
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⋅ Blasted through all 10 episodes of Netflix's comedy 'Running Point,' a thinly veiled farce on the history of Dr. Jerry Buss's daughter, Jeanie Buss, running the Lakers. Kate Hudson plays the character modeled on Jeanie Buss, who serves as one of the show's executive producers, along with Linda Rambis, wife of Kurt Rambis. Keep an eye on the court in episode 10 and you'll see former Celtic Kelly Olynyk playing 'Portland big man.'
Kate Hudson (above) plays a character modeled on Lakers owner Jeanie Buss in the Netflix's "Running Point."
Katrina Marcinowski/Netflix 2024
⋅ If you're a fan of the Cape Cod League, go to Amazon and check out 'Cape Dreams — a season with the Brewster Whitecaps' by Mark Epstein.
⋅ Quiz answers: 1: Celtics (1957-66, 1984-87), Lakers (1982-85), Heat (2011-14), Cavaliers (2015-18), Warriors (2015-19); 2: Lou Gehrig (493), Fred McGriff (493), Adrian Beltre (477), Stan Musial (475), Willie Stargell (475).
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at
