Dan Shaughnessy, do you have to be so shrill? I know you’re a famous beat writer, columnist, and author, plus founder of the Curse and its sequels. But often you come across as just angry. Two of the columns the past weekend relating to the departure of Terry Francona were entitled: “Ignore that spin from the brass-he was fired” and “Kick in the pants for the fans.”
I know Shaughnessy sees his role as digging deeper-not accepting the party line. But over his career, he seems to have “manufactured” issues. Two examples were his criticism of Nomar Garciaparra for wanting to retire in a Sox uniform. Not only did he knock Nomar, but suggested he might have used steroids- a totally baseless statement. He also called into question the 04 championship when it was revealed that Manny and Papi might have used illegal substances. When I read this, I thought maybe his next book would be called “Reinstating the Curse.”
A much better approach was that of Nick Cafardo’s Sunday Baseball column. It characterizes the departure of Tito as stunning, and it was. He quotes several baseball people as saying that there must be more to the story than we have heard. I believe we should wait a while to cast judgements. I do applaud Francona’s admission that he does not want to manage players who have stopped listening to him, as many of them apparently did. “Player’s managers” like Francona often don’t work well when a kick in the pants (to quote Shaughnessy) is needed. Cafardo also discusses that the team obviously lacks leadershsip. Are we back to the “25 players-25 cabs” mentality of the 1970’s? Maybe.
Take a day to relax, Dan. Sit back and root for the Yankees to lose in the first round.
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