Sox Therapy: Just Say No

With the World Series in full swing the Boston Red Sox (who will not win their fifth title despite losing the fewest games in a single season in franchise history) are searching for a new manager.  Reports from all manners of places have had them interviewing Pirates coach Don Kelly, Diamondbacks bench coach Luis Urueta (oh to hear Remy pronounce that), possibly Dodger coach George Lombard, Cub coach Will Venable and possibly others.  Of course, all of these interviews come while the elephant ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1932 Ballot

For 1932 each voter should rank the top 10 players from all leagues combined.

Balloting is scheduled to close at 4pm EDT on 4 November 2020. Please let me know if you want your preliminary ballot counted as your final ballot.

Anyone can vote, even if you do not normally participate in Hall of Merit discussions. If you have never participated in an MMP election, just post a preliminary ballot in the discussion thread by 3 November 2020.

For detailed rules see one of our previous ballots.

Sox Therapy: The Perfect Post-Season - World Series

Well, we reach the end of our series.  I hope you’ve enjoyed it.  With no baseball during the first four months of the season and then the Sox playing “baseball” for two months a little look back at some fun seemed like a good exercise. The timing of this ending is fitting as my youth baseball coaching for this year will also be ending this week.  I guess it’s time to move on.  A few random comments;

- I only go back as far as 1986 here.  No 1975.  I was five years old so while I’ve seen the ...

Sox Therapy: The Perfect Post-Season: ALCS

After sweeping all five games of the perfect Division Series the Sox go out and sweep all seven games in our perfect ALCS as well.

ALCS Game 1 - 2003 - Sox 5 at Yankees 2 - I’ll always believe the Sox were the better team in 2003.  Entering this series I was sky high with confidence and game one did nothing to diminish that. Homers from Ortiz, Ramirez (as part of a four hit day) and Todd Walker ringing one off the foul pole chased Mike Mussina.  Tim Wakefield dominated the Yanks not getting ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1931 Results

Congratulations to our 1931 Most Meritorious Player winner Babe Ruth!

Player Name	pts	ballots	1sts
Babe Ruth	115	8	3
Lefty Grove	112	8	4
Lou Gehrig	96	8	0
Joe Cronin	91	8	1
Al Simmons	85	8	0
Earl Averill	46	5	0
Mickey Cochrane	45	5	0
Wes Ferrell	39	4	0
Bill Terry	34	4	0
Willie Wells	29	3	0
Martin Dihigo	29	4	0
Wally Berger	28	3	0
Jud Wilson	19	2	0
Rogers Hornsby	15	2	0
Lefty Gomez	12	2	0
George Earnshaw	11	1	0
Bill Dickey	9	1	0
Mel Ott	7	1	0
Turkey Stearnes	6	1	0
Logan Hensley	6	1	0
Willie ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1932 Discussion

The Yankees swept the Cubs in the World Series.

Top teams in the fractured Negro Leagues include the Pittsburgh Crawfords, Cole’s American Giants, Monroe Monarchs and the Detroit Wolves.

Vote for 10.

Player			SH WS		BBR WAR
Jimmie Foxx		41.9		10.5
Babe Ruth		35.7		8.3
Chuck Klein		31.7		6.6
Mel Ott			32.1		7.9
Lou Gehrig		37.9		7.9
Mickey Cochrane		30.9		5.8
Joe Cronin		30.9		6.1
Babe Herman		24.4		6.6
Bill Terry		31.6		7.2
Lefty O'Doul		32.9		6.4
Tony Lazzeri		27.0		5.2
Paul ...

Gonfalon Cubs: Cubs Postseason Thoughts

No real surprises with the WC round roster - 3rd catcher so Caratini/Contreras can DH.  A little surprised Underwood didn’t make the pen since he’s been better lately, but Ross only used him in mop up type situations for the most part.

Any thoughts go here.

Sox Therapy: The Perfect Post-Season

The postseason begins and the Sox look to come out strong in the Division Series.  One of the great things about the last 40 years of Boston Red Sox baseball is the number of memorable games that are available to us with a good outcome.  One thing I realized is that the Sox have at least one win in every possible postseason game with the exception of game 7 of the World Series.

ALDS Game 1 - 1998 - Sox 11 at Indians 3 - There are moments when you know you’ve picked the right job.  My boss ...

Sox Therapy: Meet the 2021 Boston Red Sox - Position Players

With the 2020 season coming to an end yesterday let’s take a look at what the 2021 Boston Red Sox look like at this very early date.  For these purposes I’m going with the 26 man roster that the 2020 season was supposed to feature.  Obviously depending on what happens with the plague and the whole world coming to an end thing may change this but we gotta start somewhere. Starters in bold.

Infield: Bobby Dalbec, Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, Tzu-Wei Lin, Christian Arroyo, Michael Chavis

Sox Therapy: Party Like It’s 1975

For the first time since 1975 the Boston Red Sox completed their home season without ever having me in attendance.  I suspect that my absence was not noteworthy (though how cool would it be if Sam Kennedy* called me up and said “hey, here are free Opening Day Monster seats next year, we missed you”) but with just three games left I figure we can do some talkin’ about the state of the Sox.

Thanks for the Memories - If last night was Jackie Bradley Jr.‘s final home game at Fenway Park it was a ...