A few
months ago I wrote about the sad state of Red Sox baseball and what it means to
have a child that is a Red Sox fan in this age of uncertainty. Time has passed, some wounds have healed,
some have been scraped away (so long Bobby V, you will not be missed) and like
Star Wars in the 70’s, there is a new hope.
The best part about the offseason is that there always feels like you
have a chance, even if you know that your team is short on quality pitching, or
you are missing that big bat in the middle of your lineup, at least you have
the same record as every other team in the league. Your flaws have yet to be exposed and you are
still “perfect”.
While no
one is actively playing the game of baseball during this time period, there is still
all of the behind the scenes wheeling and dealing, the “hot stove” time if you
will. This is when deals are made, when
fans find their allegiance tested or renewed depending on the action, or in
some cases inaction, of their favorite team.
Sure, you can have a bad season; oftentimes that is just confirming what
you already felt about your team. During
hot stove time though, that hope blows up like a balloon and with a little
prick it can be all gone.
Today’s
little prick: Brian Cashman and the New York Yankees.
Okay, I
can’t really blame the Yankees too much for this, it’s a great idea to go out
and bolster their infield and their lineup with Red Sox hero Kevin
Youkilis. They had to get someone to
fill in for A-Rod during the first half of the season, and Youk, who will
probably only be able to play half a season anyway, is a great choice. I would be lying if I said that I was okay with
it though. I am obviously not old enough
to have seen Babe Ruth pull the same switcheroo, and I wasn’t as invested in
Johnny Damon as I am in Youk. Is this
how that felt?
Look back
at the last decade or so. Who do you
look at as the most important Red Sox during that time? Youk is probably pretty high on your list
right? To see him unceremoniously
shipped away at the behest of Bobby Valentine was as downright disrespectful to
us as fans as it was to Youk himself.
Was he the “chicken and beer” snitch?
Maybe. Even so, he was making an
issue out of something that involved underperforming players doing the wrong
thing at the wrong time. It is hard for
me to believe that, as hot-headed as he is; he really created a division in the
clubhouse that would not have been solved by a twenty win month.
While I
didn’t like it when it happened, I understood it. Sometimes you have to make room for the
younger kid to step up (Middlebrooks at third base), and there was just no room
on the roster for Youk as all the positions he played were manned by long term
investments both emotionally (Ortiz at DH) and monetarily (Gonzalez at first
base). This made for an awesome scene
when they shipped Gonzalez out of town in their summer fire sale and got back
James Freaking Loney in return (who is no longer with the club). Loney for the win!
Seriously,
was there no other offer on the table?
Was Youkilis compelled to go to a team that he battled and bled against
for years because he had no other viable options? I get it, $12 million for one year is hard to
pass up but if there is another offer on the table with even a fraction of that
money and he can still keep his dignity, don’t you think he would do it? The guy is married to Tom Brady’s sister; if
he needed money couldn’t he just hit up his brother-in-law?
This is
just a tragedy. To have a hero to the
club, hell to the city, go to your chief rival is just sickening. All of the accolades that he received when he
returned to Fenway last year as a member of the White Sox will be gone
now. The memory of what he has done for
the team during his tenure in Boston
will always remain, but it will be impossible to cheer his success when he is
hitting behind Jeter, Texeira and Cano and not Ellsbury, Pedroia and
Ortiz.
Youk, I
wish you the best of luck, but I also wish you the longest slump in baseball
history.
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