The Way I See It
Red Sox up to their
old tricks againOK, Red Sox fans, I'm Dr. Dan Duquette.Here it comes.Now open your mouths, stick out your tongues and say "ahhhhhh."
Hmm, doesn't look good.
OK, now open your mouths again, wide....
The sugar-coated placebo. Sure tastes familiar.
This time it's called Jose Offerman. Four-for-five yesterday in Kansas City and making everyone forget -- almost everyone -- that in nine major league seasons he has only 22 homers and 312 RBIs.
Because Offerman hit .315 last year (he signed for a four-year $26 million deal as a free agent), Duquette is telling everyone that he will replace Mo Vaughn's "on-base capability."
What about the 40 home runs that marked Vaughn's bases-clearing capability?
Ah yes, Red Sox management, which offers baseball's highest average ticket price, always has that sweet little pill handy. I can remember swallowing it after the departures of Roger Clemens, Jose Canseco, Wade Boggs, Dennis Eckersley, Carlton Fisk, Fred Lynn, Cecil Cooper, Ken Harrelson and George Scott.
GRANTED, the franchise has more often than not been in the thick of the battle since the Impossible Dream year of 1967. But it's been eight decades since the last World Series title.
Having grown up 30 miles north of the Green Monster, I still care. And it's hard to view yesterday's opening win with the cynicism it deserves.
I hope that Offerman has a career season batting leadoff and continues to set the table for John Valentin and Nomar Garciaparra.
But face it, Offerman was in the park where he spent the last three years. How he'll handle himself at Fenway, in front of fans not known for their tolerance level, is another matter.
What team with a 310-foot left field line, and a 302-foot right field line would be satisfied with asking its all-star shortstop to bat cleanup, even if he did hit 35 homers in 1998?
The center field wall is only 17 feet, and the bullpen fence in the outfield is only five feet. This has always been a ballpark for sluggers.
But now we have Jimy Williams, Boston's third-year manager, and he's more partial to pitching and defense than power hitting. That philosophy is alien to Fenway Park.
Fans there are not used to seeing the 37-foot-high Green Monster devour their hitters. It's supposed to be the other way around. Right, Mo?
NO telling how many balls Mark McGwire could've hit over the screen atop the left field wall and into Lansdowne Street.
If everything comes together, and a lot of guys play over their heads as they did last year when the Red Sox had the second best record in the American League behind the New York Yankees, Williams and Duquette might be spared a fan revolt.
After all, the pitching staff does have Pedro Martinez, and Garciaparra is the closest thing to a human vacuum cleaner in the hole.
But if the absence of Vaughn's hefty run production buries Boston with the Big Dig, Duquette and Williams will feel like they're in an oarless scull on the Charles River.
This is not a good year to tick off Boston fans. Before June 1, plans should be announced to replace Fenway with a modern stadium. And you think the levelling of Boston Garden stung? Watch how people react to scrapping baseball's holiest relic, in combination with a bad season in the AL East.
I'll give Williams credit for making Offerman the DH rather than a starting infielder. You sure don't want to make things worse by dredging up the memory of Bill Buckner.
Pat Bigold has covered sports for daily newspapers
in Hawaii and Massachusetts since 1978.