Sox getting the business
Journey to Japan starts to interfere
<!--//Byline box//-->
By Tony Massarotti | Wednesday, Mach 12, 2008
<!--//article Image//--><!--//article//-->FORT MYERS - One week until takeoff. And never has it been more apparent that this whole Japan experience is screwing up things for the Red Sox [team stats].
Baseball and business frequently run counter to one another, though Red Sox followers already knew that. Three years ago, it was at least part of the reason Theo Epstein and Larry Lucchino were on a collision course.
Now the Sox are one week from breaking camp - one week - and it is becoming clear that they may not have anything close to a representative team when they play their first meaningful game of 2008.
Beyond that, here is something to consider: To play roughly 6-7 hours of regular season baseball, the Sox will spend nearly five times as many hours (34) in the air.
The moon isn’t in the sky that long.
“I don’t think anybody’s looking forward to an 18-hour flight over there,” said veteran Tim Wakefield [stats], one of many who continue to say the right thing. “But I think everybody’s really excited about representing baseball.”
Said Sox manager Terry Francona prior to yesterday’s game against the New York Mets at City of Palms Park, “We can sit here and bitch about it or we can go do it. I think we’d all prefer to go do it. If we screw it up, it’s our own fault.”
Well, yes and no.
On the surface, this does not look like an enormous sacrifice. Spring training is far too long to begin with and the Sox open their schedule only a week earlier than most everyone else. One week certainly isn’t too much to promote major league baseball and brand the Sox logo on the side of a pagoda. Who cares about Benny Agbayani when you can have Benihana?
In reality, the Red Sox aren’t giving up one week so much as they are two, maybe three. Last year, nobody would have batted an eye if Josh Beckett [stats] walked off the mound with back spasms prior to a scheduled start on March 8. This year, Beckett immediately became a candidate to miss a March 25 opener because the Red Sox need to be on a plane on March 19.
Think about that.
Today is March 12 and the Red Sox already have to start shuffling their rotation, all because they have to fly halfway around the world next week.
Said Francona, “It doesn’t allow you to go through the normal aches and pains of spring training without saying, ‘How are we going to handle this?’ ”
Beckett isn’t the only issue. The fact that [URL="http://www.bostonherald.com/search/?topic=Daisuke+Matsuzaka"]Daisuke Matsuzaka[/URL]’s wife is expecting their second child is a fluke that just as easily could happen during the regular season, but there is a chance Matsuzaka will not be on the trip, either. Meanwhile, neither Julio Lugo [stats] nor Coco Crisp [stats] has played in a game yet, and Francona admitted that the Sox can’t expect guys “to play (in Japan) if they haven’t played here.”
And it’s all because of that flight next week.
More than any other sport, baseball is a game of routines. As needlessly long as spring training is, it moves at a certain pace. Most teams earnestly begin ramping up to the regular season during the final week of March, when clubs customarily break camp and play a barnstorming game or two. The routine at this stage gets terribly monotonous, and players frequently feel like they’re ready to begin the season when, in reality, they are not.
Especially the pitchers.
This year, because of that March 19 flight, the Red Sox have no margin for error. For someone like Beckett, a relative speed bump like a back spasm can become a reason to abort the entire mission. Admittedly, two games against the Oakland A’s in March should not be enough to derail an entire season. Despite all comparisons to the 2004 New York Yankees and their trip to Japan, that team ended up winning 101 games.
Still, the Red Sox now are faced with decisions they would not normally face, and it’s all in the name of business, not baseball.
“Whoever set it up knew what they were doing,” Francona said of spring training. “And whoever set it up didn’t go to Japan.”
And if he did, we’re betting he won’t go back.
Journey to Japan starts to interfere
<!--//Byline box//-->
By Tony Massarotti | Wednesday, Mach 12, 2008
<!--//article Image//--><!--//article//-->FORT MYERS - One week until takeoff. And never has it been more apparent that this whole Japan experience is screwing up things for the Red Sox [team stats].
Baseball and business frequently run counter to one another, though Red Sox followers already knew that. Three years ago, it was at least part of the reason Theo Epstein and Larry Lucchino were on a collision course.
Now the Sox are one week from breaking camp - one week - and it is becoming clear that they may not have anything close to a representative team when they play their first meaningful game of 2008.
Beyond that, here is something to consider: To play roughly 6-7 hours of regular season baseball, the Sox will spend nearly five times as many hours (34) in the air.
The moon isn’t in the sky that long.
“I don’t think anybody’s looking forward to an 18-hour flight over there,” said veteran Tim Wakefield [stats], one of many who continue to say the right thing. “But I think everybody’s really excited about representing baseball.”
Said Sox manager Terry Francona prior to yesterday’s game against the New York Mets at City of Palms Park, “We can sit here and bitch about it or we can go do it. I think we’d all prefer to go do it. If we screw it up, it’s our own fault.”
Well, yes and no.
On the surface, this does not look like an enormous sacrifice. Spring training is far too long to begin with and the Sox open their schedule only a week earlier than most everyone else. One week certainly isn’t too much to promote major league baseball and brand the Sox logo on the side of a pagoda. Who cares about Benny Agbayani when you can have Benihana?
In reality, the Red Sox aren’t giving up one week so much as they are two, maybe three. Last year, nobody would have batted an eye if Josh Beckett [stats] walked off the mound with back spasms prior to a scheduled start on March 8. This year, Beckett immediately became a candidate to miss a March 25 opener because the Red Sox need to be on a plane on March 19.
Think about that.
Today is March 12 and the Red Sox already have to start shuffling their rotation, all because they have to fly halfway around the world next week.
Said Francona, “It doesn’t allow you to go through the normal aches and pains of spring training without saying, ‘How are we going to handle this?’ ”
Beckett isn’t the only issue. The fact that [URL="http://www.bostonherald.com/search/?topic=Daisuke+Matsuzaka"]Daisuke Matsuzaka[/URL]’s wife is expecting their second child is a fluke that just as easily could happen during the regular season, but there is a chance Matsuzaka will not be on the trip, either. Meanwhile, neither Julio Lugo [stats] nor Coco Crisp [stats] has played in a game yet, and Francona admitted that the Sox can’t expect guys “to play (in Japan) if they haven’t played here.”
And it’s all because of that flight next week.
More than any other sport, baseball is a game of routines. As needlessly long as spring training is, it moves at a certain pace. Most teams earnestly begin ramping up to the regular season during the final week of March, when clubs customarily break camp and play a barnstorming game or two. The routine at this stage gets terribly monotonous, and players frequently feel like they’re ready to begin the season when, in reality, they are not.
Especially the pitchers.
This year, because of that March 19 flight, the Red Sox have no margin for error. For someone like Beckett, a relative speed bump like a back spasm can become a reason to abort the entire mission. Admittedly, two games against the Oakland A’s in March should not be enough to derail an entire season. Despite all comparisons to the 2004 New York Yankees and their trip to Japan, that team ended up winning 101 games.
Still, the Red Sox now are faced with decisions they would not normally face, and it’s all in the name of business, not baseball.
“Whoever set it up knew what they were doing,” Francona said of spring training. “And whoever set it up didn’t go to Japan.”
And if he did, we’re betting he won’t go back.
