Sports writer - Grant writer

Category: Boston Red Sox (Page 1 of 5)

Three Red Sox Prospects Worth Watching in Vacationland

I just got back from a few days in Portland, Maine, where I caught a few days of Portland Sea Dogs baseball. I wrote up some brief thoughts about three players who caught my eye on my Tumblr.

My choice to share it on Tumblr is because there seems to be a strong Red Sox community there who I wanted to engage with the post. Also, I need to get in the habit of writing quicker, more casual posts on all the baseball games I catch over the summer (I end up at a lot of them that I never end up talking about!) and I am hoping the “Fisher Price” quality (big, bright and easy) nature of Tumblr will encourage me to do so. Enjoy!

What Life Lessons The Boston Red Sox Mutiny Can Teach Us

Fenway Park and a Boston Red Sox banner for the ballpark's 100 anniversary.New England is watching their beloved Boston Red Sox fall to a level of organizational failure not seen in quite a while. Players pitted against teammates, players forming factions against their manager, players not seeing the need to give any effort – every other day gives fans a new example of the reported mutiny in the dugout.

Whether these allegations and incidents are true or exaggerated, they can provide everyone with some key life and career lessons. Like the higher education administrator and student affairs professional that I am, I had to write a blog post with those lessons. Read on, so you don’t make the same mistakes the Red Sox did.

If you have a problem with your supervisor, address it with management appropriately.

Yahoo! Sports reported Tuesday afternoon that Adrian Gonzalez text messaged Red Sox brass to tell them that he and others had issues with manager Bobby Valentine. The text ended up being the impetus for a meeting between the disgruntled players and management.

Text messaging is a useful form of communication. But when it comes to business, text message is not the most appropriate medium in which to tell your management that you are having severe issues with your supervisor. Discreet conversations initiated by a more personal medium – such as in person, or if you are away, on the phone – are a far better way to lodge such a complaint. Older generations (who are usually the ones in management roles) don’t view text messages with them same validity as other forms of conversation, because they can be sent without much thought.

How about we don’t take photos we wouldn’t want other people to see?

In that same Yahoo! Sports article, second baseman Dustin Pedroia allegedly took a photo mocking a napping Bobby Valentine and made a snide remark about his napping habits, which was texted among players. Now that the possible existence of such a photo has made it to the media, Pedroia has backtracked and claims it never existed.

What happened to Pedroia happens to thousands of Americans every day. You don’t possibly know where that photo of you faux-stripping/completely trashed/hanging off someone’s arm you aren’t supposed to be/making a politically incorrect joke came from! But you posed for the photo, and you texted it to your friends. So yes, you do know where it came from.

How about we, collectively, as a populace, decide that taking photos that could be used against you probably isn’t a good idea? Dustin Pedroia can be our spokesperson. Don’t take photos you don’t want to come back to haunt you. Easy enough, right? And if you must take that photo, keep it on your own darn phone for you – and you only – to look back at.

The conversation has been had – let’s not broadcast it to everyone.

Valentine has been criticized (most recently by the Boston Herald’s John Tomase) for opening his mouth and divulging details of otherwise private conversations between himself and players. He tells the media what he’s talked to other players about, even though some players (like outfielder Carl Crawford) allege that they thought such conversations were held in confidence.

If you have a honest one-on-one conversation with a co-worker or supervisor, be discreet if you feel the need to tell others about it. Many times, it’s no one else’s business but the two people who took part in the conversation, especially if it is about an injury, illness or job performance.

Personal branding is important, but don’t let it seem to distract from your full-time job.

Valentine has been criticized for seemingly continuing to pursue his own interests – being über accommodating to the media (which he once was a member of) and appearing in all sorts of commercials. (Awkward Dunkin Donuts spots chatting iced coffee with centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury, anyone?) Especially in the preseason, it made it appear that Valentine was a tad too invested in keeping up the “Bobby V” brand he had built up in non-coaching years, and maybe he was not completely invested in the Sox.

While branding yourself and having outside interests besides your full-time gig is highly recommended these days, make sure you give everything you have your hands in the appropriate amount of effort. You don’t want to ever be in a spot where your supervisor calls you out because it seems like you aren’t giving enough effort at your full-time job because you’re spending all of your time on outside interests. In this current economy, personal branding is important – but so is the gig that you’ve committed to full-time.

No matter the culture at work, limit your on-the-job drinking.

Even though your company has a Friday beer cart (which is an idea I am behind 100%), you should probably not pull a John Lackey and double fist in your workplace (even if it’s a light beer.) Just trust me on that one.

The Grand Boston Red Sox PA Auditions List

Updated July 6, 2012

On the morning of Wednesday, May 30th, Boston Red Sox president Larry Lucchino announced on WEEI that the team would hold auditions to replace legendary PA announcer Carl Beane. Beane, who passed away in a single car accident a few weeks ago, had a booming voice with a trademark pronunciation and cadence. His replacement will have a lot to live up to, but many feel ready for the challenge.

I thought it might be helpful to curious types (like myself) to assemble a list of those who are auditioning and on what day. So here is a list I’ll keep updated as much as I can, culled from Twitter and other sources. I’ll be sure to credit where I first heard the news. If you have news to share about auditions, send it to me on Twitter or via email (sportsgirlkatATgmail.com)

May 30 – Brian Maurer, Boston University alum (Source: his former WTBU broadcast partner Prescott Rossi in this Tuesday night Tweet.)

May 31 – Jon Meterparel, currently heard on WEEI’s Dennis and Callahan (Source: Lucchino on WEEI Wednesday morning and the Boston Globe.)

June 7 – Mike Riley, currently on WEEI and WRKO, formerly of the Boston Blazers and too many other New England area teams to count (Source: Riley announced it via Twitter Wednesday morning.)

June 8 – James Demler, Boston Pops and BSO baritone and Boston University College of Fine Arts assistant professor. (Via Pete Abraham’s Twitter account)

June 9 – Tom Grilk, Boston Marathon Executive Director and race PA announcer. (Via Maureen Mullen’s Twitter account)

June 10Kelly Malone, in-game host of the Boston Bruins and voice-over personality. (Via her Twitter account)

June 19– I missed this announcement, and haven’t had time to track it down. Sorry!

June 20– Gordon Edes of the Boston Globe (Via seemingly everyone ever on Twitter.)

June 21– Jim Murray from 98.5 The Sports Hub (Via many of the 98.5 staffers who are on Twitter.)

July 6 – David Wade, anchor at WBZ Channel 4 (Via his Twitter account.)

Accountability and Expectation: Why The Josh Beckett Anger Is Justified

I thought out this blog post while in the shower this morning. So, we’re not even going to pretend that it is well-researched. It’s stream of consciousness. I apologize in advance.

Josh Beckett and Kelly Shoppach

Josh Beckett (image from Over The Monster and Getty Images)

There are Boston Red Sox fans who I follow on Twitter who are upset that the media has pointed out that Josh Beckett went golfing, despite having a muscle issue and missing a scheduled start on the mound. They feel as if the media has ganged up on the pitcher, and he has every right to play golf on an off-day. Beckett himself even defended his actions by saying that he “only gets 18 off-days a year” and that he had every right to use one to hit the links.

Let’s put the supposed media “witch hunt” aside. Let’s look at the actuality of an athlete playing another sport as leisure while in season.

Professional and college athletes are often forbidden from playing any other sport – even one as innocuous as golf – while in season. For example, a very good friend of mine played Division I hockey, but she also loved to ski. But when she was home for the brief time she had for the holidays because she was in-season, she had to watch everyone else in her family ski while she sat there. She couldn’t downhill or cross country ski. She had an understanding with her teammates and her coaching staff that because she was an athlete in season, she couldn’t jeopardize being injured participating in another sport at leisure.

Sometimes this expectation is physically written into a contract with a professional athlete, and sometimes it is just implied. If you make a living from your body being at its peak, you don’t put it at risk of any type of injury.

There is a vast difference in athletic output between golf and skiing, but you still can be injured playing golf (ask my father, who actually broke ribs playing golf a few years back.) While those injuries are usually relatively mild, the risk is still there. And given that baseball is a sport where players often miss starts due to things as minor as ingrown nails and broken toes*, the minor injuries that golf can cause are significant enough to meddle in the everyday life of a baseball player. For a pitcher, the repetitive shoulder isolating actions of golf increase that risk more. If you’re a pitcher with over ten years of major league wear and tear on your arms and shoulders, and you have a sore latissimus muscle (which Beckett has) the motion of hitting a golf club may not be advisable in season. (In layman’s terms, the latissimus muscle is the muscle found from under your armpit around the side of your back. It’s a muscle used in both pitching and swinging a golf club.)

Also, there is that old adage that if you’re not well or performing well enough to do your job, go to school or attend an event, than you shouldn’t be stepping out and doing something enjoyable in its stead. When you were a kid, and you had to stay home from school with either an legitimate illness or a trumped up cold because of an exam you wanted to avoid, your mother wouldn’t just let you go to the mall or playground or what have you later in the day. No, even if you were feeling better, you stayed home. You needed to keep up appearances – or at least my mom wanted us to. Even to this day, if I am stuck home sick, I’m not jumping in The Kat Mobile and putting around. That’s playing hooky. I don’t want to appear to be playing hooky.

If you are being paid handsomely to show commitment to your job, you never want to appear to be playing hooky.

Josh Beckett knew he was not making his next scheduled start. He then decided to go play golf with another pitcher. He’s an adult and is allowed to make his own decisions, but I just don’t know if that was his best one. Is the media out to get Beckett? Frankly, the media is out to get anyone and everyone involved with the Red Sox because no one within the organization is showing accountability. It’s like a consumer report – you pay $50 to attend a game, you spend $140 a month to get a cable package with NESN so you can watch it, but you’re getting nothing but failure from that money. I think it’s fine for the media to ask these questions. The product is faulty, and they are just trying to figure out why.

*And before anyone comments, “Have you ever had one of those injuries? They hurt,” yes, I have had both. And danced on pointe, ran cross-country and did beam with both. I’ll get off my high horse now.

Is The Baseball Community Overprescribing Tommy John Surgery? If So, Is John Lackey The Perfect Example?

Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox.New Boston Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington had his introductory (or re-introductory?) press conference overshadowed Tuesday afternoon by an announcement he made about 45 minutes into the event. In one of his first public acts as GM, he announced that beleaguered pitcher John Lackey would be going under the knife for Tommy John surgery.

My first thought was, “Isn’t that a bit…convenient?”

I do not have the ability to argue that Lackey does not need an ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction (UCL, the medical term for Tommy John surgery.) I am not a member of the medical community. But we have reached the point where it seems like every time a major league pitcher needs to take a “vacation” for a spell, they’re sent down to visit Dr. James Andrews (the nation’s best surgeon for this particular procedure) in Birmingham, Alabama.

This leads me to ask: Is the baseball community overprescribing Tommy John surgery? Continue reading

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