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Turn Off The Lights, The Party Is Over (for the Sox)

September 29, 2010 By

The inevitable finally happened last night. Somehow they managed to stretch it to the final week of the regular season, but the Red Sox were elimanated last night when Tampa and the Yankees won (and Boston lost).

Time to look to 2011.

Even before the Red Sox lost to the White Sox last night 5-4, they had been eliminated. David Ortiz hit his 32nd home run of the season in the loss. Get all the coverage at RedSoxLinks.com.

Taking a moment to recognize how these Red Sox made it as far as they did - Rob Bradford hands out some credit for keeping the Red Sox alive for so long.

Season ends early for Red Sox - Gordon Edes says that this season was doomed from the start.

Splendid memories of a genuine giant - Dan Shaughnessy remembers Ted Williams on the 50th anniversary of his final game at Fenway Park.

Official end of chase tough to take - Michael Silverman looks at a disappointed club still able to hold their heads high.

Papelbon will probably get a raise, but he shouldn’t - Jim Donaldson says that common sense plays no role in salary arbitration.

One may catch Varitek being emotional - Peter Abraham’s notebook has the Captain realizing that his days with the Red Sox are numbered.

The Celtics had their first practice of training camp yesterday. Check out the complete links at CelticsLinks.com. Gotta love Peter May already looking for the negative after one practice.

Fresh legs - Gary Washburn has Kevin Garnett feeling as good as he has since leading the Celtics to the championship in 2008.

Jermaine O’Neal fits right in - Scott Souza has the “other” O’Neal already enjoying himself. A. Sherrod Blakley has Shaquille O’Neal saying he’ll get his share of shots this year.

Refreshed Doc Rivers returns with Celtics - Mark Murphy has the head coach talking about his return for the final year of his contract.

What’s with this Baby talk? - Rich Levine looks at Glen Davis running his mouth on the first day of camp.

The Patriots are getting ready for a Monday night battle with the Miami Dolphins. Check the coverage at Patriotslinks.com.

Nothing little about Danny Woodhead’s impact - Karen Guregian has a mini-feature on the newest Patriot.

What about this defense? - Mark Farinella takes a fair and balanced look at the struggles of the defense.

Long journey to Foxboro for Hernandez - Christopher Price talks to those who knew the rookie tight end as a high schooler in Connecticut.

Pats opponents finding that left is right - Tom E Curran with a quick look at how opponents are targeting the Patriots.

Hey Tom, shouldn’t you follow the example of your colleagues in Miami:

I’m all about providing Dolphins fans the information they crave, but we need to be smarter about not giving away a competitive advantage.Wed Sep 29 12:46:59 via webOmar Kelly
OmarKelly

And not give the opposition a “competitive advantage?”

Aside: Is this guy serious?

Belichick is not expecting that wild a game - Shalise Manza Young’s notebook has the Patriots coach not expecting a lot of wildcat formations from the Dolphins on Monday.

Bruins Find Reliable Center Option in Blake Wheeler During Preseason Loss to Capitals - Douglas Flynn has Wheeler showing he might be able to play some center for the Bruins.

I caught most of last night’s The Tenth Inning on PBS. At one point they mentioned “a Boston Globe columnist” who, in 1998 said the media was making too much of Mark McGwire having a bottle of androstenedione in his locker, saying that “There’s nothing sold at drugstores that would help any of us hit a home run in the big leagues” and comparing andro to aspirin, prime rib and coffee.

I looked it up, and sure enough, it was Shaughnessy – August 26th, 1998. I encourage a visit to the Globe’s archives to check it out. You’ll have to pay for it, but it’s worth it.

Filed Under: Morning Links
  • Tony

    I lived in Miami for more than five years: sadly, that is what passes for sports journalism down there. The sportswriters and talking heads down there are exactly what guys like Mazz and Felger accuse others in this market of being: total fanboy cheerleaders for the home teams. In my time down there the only guy who I can ever remember being critical of the organization(s) was Hank Goldberg on his afternoon radio show (and even he had a total blind spot when it came to the aging Don Shula, who clearly had lost a little off his fastball by the time the 90s rolled around). If Felger, Mazz and Borges want to see real cheerleading in the media, they should spend an entire football season in South Florida (this applies to the U of Miami, too: they could never do any wrong as far as the fans and media were concerned, no matter how many laws their players broke or NCAA rules their program violated).

    • Angry Old Bastard

      where's the "happy medium"??……that's my question. I WOULD NOT want the media around here to be "cheerleaders" like they are in Florida……but around here they have gone SO FAR to the other side it's UNREAL…….I have one question for the Boston sports Media…….you do realize we watch sports to ENJOY ourselves, don't you?…..we don't watch them to be cynical,angry and mocking……jeeze, the other day Callahan (in reference to Brady talking about the fans) made it seem like it's a "bad thing" for fans to cheer at a freeking football game…… WTF?

  • Danny Boy

    The Persecution of McGwire a Crime

    No wonder ballplayers loathe the media. Mark McGwire is stalking one of baseball's most cherished records — until now the feel-good story of the baseball summer — and suddenly he's engaged in a tabloid-driven controversy that's painting him as a cheater and a bad role model.

    It's unfair.

    If you just dropped in from a two-week trip to Guam, here's the background: An Associated Press reporter noticed a jar of androstenedione in McGwire's locker last week. He asked the slugger about the stuff, did some homework, and wrote about it. Androstenedione, known in baseball clubhouses as "andro," is an all- natural, over-the-counter steroid (not of the dangerous anabolic steroid family) that is used to help an athlete train harder and recover faster. It is banned by the NFL, the NCAA, and the Olympics, but allowed by the NHL, NBA, and Major League Baseball.

    There. McGwire takes something that can be sold at any drugstore and is permitted by his sport, and suddenly he's lumped with Olympic swimmer Michelle Smith and sprinter Ben Johnson, a couple of champs who got the gold using illegal substances.

    Wake up, America. The IOC has limits on caffeine intake. Juan Antonio Samaranch would strip McGwire's medal if he went to the plate after consuming eight cups of Maxwell House.

    The story of McGwire's historic home run chase is being tarnished because folks are hearing bits of stories and reading wild headlines and concluding that Big Mac is a pharmaceutical creation.

    McGwire is not some 98-pound weakling who went on the juice and came back as Rambo. He is a huge, muscular man, who hit 49 home runs in his first big league season 12 years ago.

    In today's Globe, a doctor claims that andro is part of McGwire's success. This makes it sound as if the substance is adding 40 feet to McGwire's long fly balls. This is ridiculous. Andro might help McGwire stay healthy and aid his recovery time from injuries, but the same could be said about aspirin, or any other pain reliever.

    If a slugger eats Wheaties (sold over the counter, not banned by MLB) wouldn't it be true that Wheaties are part of his success? What about steak? Is prime rib part of McGwire's success?

  • Danny Boy

    In McGwire's case, it is misleading to write that he's using a "performance-enhancing drug." He's a baseball player, not an Olympic sprinter. There's nothing sold at drugstores that would help any of us hit a home run in the big leagues (unless the store has a book on hitting written by Ted Williams). Facing Randy Johnson and hitting a ball over the fence requires bravery, timing, hand-eye coordination, reflexes, leverage, and strength. Most of all, it requires practice.

    Meanwhile, how many other baseball players are taking the same stuff? McGwire probably doesn't go more than a couple of days without hitting against a pitcher who uses andro. While we're at it, what about creatine, another dietary supplement sold over the counter, also used by McGwire? What about MET-Rx (endorsed on radio and in print by Mo Vaughn)?

    McGwire's been a good citizen, never one to disgrace the uniform. Most recently he's dedicated his charity efforts to awareness and funding for abused children. And now he's got to read that he's a bad example to young athletes? Please.

    Perhaps andro will be proven unsafe. That is an issue for the Food and Drug Administration and for Major League Baseball and its Players Association. In the meantime, McGwire should be left alone on this issue.

    Yeesh. We've all heard the stories about Roger Maris's hair falling out from stress when he chased Babe Ruth's record in the summer of 1961. Turns out Roger was lucky. He didn't play in 1998 when you can do something legal and be painted as a cheater.

    And what about the Babe? The Bambino hit 60 homers in 1927, the seventh year of prohibition. Think he might have had a little bathtub gin coursing through his veins at any point during the '27 season?

    Hope not. After all, it would have been a bad message for America's youth.

  • Classless

    Who's Omar Kelly? Florida is a joke for sports, unless your name is FSU or Florida.

    • Bruce

      Dolphins beat writer.

  • PatsFan

    If you’re unlucky enough to be a Globe subscriber (even if you subscribe only to the Sunday edition) you can access the archives for free, though you’ll need to register.

  • Lance_

    I watched the 30-for-30 program last night on Terry Fox. What an story that left me emotionally drained but a better person for having watched it.

    • Tom

      I am not a Simmons fan at all, so I really did not want to like the 30-for-30 series, but every one I have seen has been really well done. I have not seen every episode, but what I have seen has generally been good.

  • mandb97

    I just read this on Charlie Pierce's blog. I do not think Charlie was a big fan of Ken Burns' "10th Inning".
    http://www.boston.com/sports/columnists/pierce/20…

    • Eddie

      The main problem I had with Ken Burns' "Baseball" was that, while there were a lot of great old pictures and films, it was more of a scolding of white America for poor treatment of minorities. Instead of a show about baseball. it became a sermon about civil rights.

    • cakes_are_cooking

      I didn't see it. Did Doris make an appearance? How about the Shankmeister?

      • 02062

        no shank – but plenty of doris kearns.

        i wanted to enjoy it – i really did – but the former globe metro columnist made it all about him.

        my son cried – my mother in fitchburg after hanging the laundry, sitting under a tree, on a busy street with her stockings rolled down to try and catch a breeze – and all the while keeping score on a piece of paper while listening to the game on the radio.

        can’t wait to read pierce tomorrow.

        i laughed out loud when they went write from the globe columnist to a doris kearns goodwin essay – no shame.

        for the most part – i enjoyed it.

  • Tom

    Eddie… I think I understand your overall point. I do. But I have to be honest… to even remotely suggest that Burns should have just casually mentioned that for the first 70yrs of it's existence, baseball did not allow non-whites to play, is just plain silly. It is the single biggest story in the baseball's history. You, and many others, may not like that it is… but again, it is. To borrow a phrase: "That is fact. Not opinion".
    If you think he "scolded" white America, you obviously have the right to that opinion. But in the end, none of us like the story of what went on in baseball back then… but it can't be avoided if you truly wanted to document the sport the way he did.
    Ok, I'm done. :)

  • Steiny

    Bruce, Thanks for doing the research about the 1998 Boston Globe columnist – I should have known it was Shank.

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