Sun. 11.30.03

Pats Win Was Thrilling

But on 'EEI's "Patriots Monday," it's all about Schilling.

Titofficial Wednesday

Announcement on Francona pushed back again.

Honeymoon Not Over for Nomar

Shortstop wants to stay in Boston even if A-Rod comes.
But he won't switch his position.

Curt Comes to Boston

Ace will be in town for Sox Christmasfest December 12-13.

Here We Go with Pedro

Mike Francesa reports Pedro will demand a contract extension
before he even throws a pitch in 2004.

The '02 Martinez-Schilling Matchup

"I am a rookie at this ... I don't really know what to expect and when to expect it," said Martinez, despite striking out 10 in six innings and throwing 75 of his 115 pitches for strikes. "The biggest adjustment I have to make is realizing that I have to deal with this for the rest of my career -- or for this year at least. After the season is over, I am not going to know what is going to happen. In reality I don't know if I am going to pick up velocity after [this year's] first half. I don't know if I am going to make it to the second half. I am wondering. I don't know. I don't know. I am lost." - Pedro's comments after 3-2 loss to Schill and Snakes.

There's a New Scheriff in Town

"Please pass along a sincere thank you to the Red Sox Nation from my entire family for the amount of support they have given us this week, it's been appreciated. Yesterday (Friday) was the best day of my Red Sox career, nothing will match it until we hoist that trophy in October, more than once, over the next four years.

God Bless,

Curt"

---

"He's not a prima donna who won't talk, like Nomar or Pedro. You want guys out there promoting the team." - Fenway Frank, SoSH

Schilling Sends Message Sox Want to Hear

Even Schill Got Scooped on Friday {wink}

From the initial overnight SoSH Chat with Sox ace Curt Schilling (CS) 11.28.03:

BTW, Dirt Dogs says that the deal is done

CS: Dirt Dog is wrong, and so are the west coast sources. Drop a message over there saying you heard that the Sox will ask for a 24 hour extension tomorrow morning and watch them call you Carnac.

Curt and Tito... back together again (dirt dogs sub headline)

CS: BTW folks Tito gets this job on his own merit and if you ever get a chance to meet him you will understand why.

"BREAKING NEWS, DONE DEAL, Schilling Agrees to Sox Contract"

CS: Really? How much did I get? Someone pass me the terms, need to let Shonda know.

"Diamondback Ace Signs Three Year Deal and Will Become the #1 Starter"

CS: No it isn't, not guaranteed anyway... not even remotely (issue of being #1 starter), that's Pedro's job, he's got the hardware, same as RJ (Randy Johnson) here.

"California Sources Confirm Schilling Saga Has Come to an End as Curt Waives No Trade Clause. Give Thanks to Theo, Henry, Lucchino as Diamondback Ace Signs Three Year Deal and Will Become the #1 Starter for the Boston Red Sox. Steinbrenner Steamed. Nation Breathes Sigh of Relief." True or false?

CS: FALSE, NO THREE YEAR DEAL. I am the #2 starter if it does happen.

CS: I have seen that, great site, a lot of work on that site and way too much made of my comments about Pedro.

Are you excited to potentially pitch with Pedro?

CS: Next to RJ he's the most dominant pitcher in baseball. I go out of my way to watch him pitch when the schedule allows it.

Curt, you have any comments on how Francona let you pitch deep deep deep into games regardless of pitch counts in Philadelphia?

CS: We had no bullpen. I didn't want to come out, he was being paid to manage and win. My arm issues from Philly were a direct result of filling the bullpen with 6 year free agents and guys that were not ready.

Fri 11.28.03

BREAKING NEWS

DONE DEAL

Schilling Agrees to Sox Contract

California Sources Confirm Schilling Saga Has Come to an End as Curt Waives No Trade Clause. Give Thanks to Theo, Henry, Lucchino as Diamondback Ace Signs Three Year Deal and Will Become the #1 Starter for the Boston Red Sox. Steinbrenner Steamed. Nation Breathes Sigh of Relief.

Official News Conference This Afternoon.

(Hey, it was afternoon somewhere on the planet)

Together Again

Curt and Tito will Be Reunited As Red Sox Get Their Ace and Make Push for World Series in 2004.

 Foulke, A-Rod Move Back on Front Burner

THE BIG CURT COMES BACK TO BOSTON

"The Boston situation presents a challenge
that... none of the other ones do."

"The Manager Makes the Difference"

The Philadelphia Story: Manager's Brotherly Love Brings Schilling to Sox

Sox Get #1 Starter as Schilling Will Land in Boston in Trade for Fossum, Lyon, de la Rosa and Michael Goss.

 Francona is the Key to Curtain Call

"The Terry Francona situation changes things. I enjoyed playing for Terry and I have a lot of respect for him."

Deal for Ace Gets Done Before Friday at 5:00

Schilling to Get Top Billing

1. Curt Schilling, 2. Pedro Martinez,
3. Derek Lowe, 4. Tim Wakefield, 5. B.H. Kim

Complete-Game-Curt Will Start On Opening Day.

Pedro Wants Another
Press Conference.

Schill to keep his eye on Pedro and his "stupid" comments.

---

Curt on Challenges

Reporter: "You've pitched in Philly which is probably one of the toughest places, we've talked about New York, and now Boston where they are so passionate and live and die by... every... pitch

"All three of these clubs have some kind of challenge with them. With Philadelphia winning a championship, one of two in the last century. With the Red Sox it would be winning the first one in the last century... and beating the Yankees. With the Yankees it would be joining a long line and the tremendous heritage and the prestige of being a Yankee, so there is bait to all three of them that looks good... there's challenges to all three of them that I look forward to if that's what it ends up being, but the Boston situation presents a challenge that... none of the other ones do."

Extension Situation

"I won't leave here without an extension, so there will be an extension of some sort, you know I'm reading that people are saying that I've demanded three years, I never demanded anything from anybody, uhh but I will get a contract extension if I leave Arizona."

Curt Coming Home

Less than two weeks ago, he told The Philadelphia Inquirer that he would not approve a trade to Boston. "I'm a right-handed fly-ball pitcher," Schilling told the paper. "In Fenway Park, that's not a tremendous mix." But yesterday the pitcher reconsidered. "That's something I just assumed. You start looking at numbers, and it's not what I made it out to be. Everyone is going to say, `You said you wouldn't go to Boston, but Boston wasn't one of the clubs I heard they were talking to. Basically, the Red Sox and Diamondbacks agreed in principle to a deal that will go through if the Red Sox can convince me that that's where I want to finish my career... Yeah it is kind of ironic, yes it is, I started with the Boston Red Sox and spent two years there and left in a trade that was hopefully was going to get them to a World Series and maybe going back in the same kind of trade... my daughter is excited about snow... but if we don't feel comfortable at 4:59 on Friday, we won't go and we'll move on... If we meet and (my wife) Shonda and my kids and I decide that this something that works for us, then it will happen. If we decide that we aren't comfortable with certain aspects of it, it won't (happen).

Phillies are Off

"The Phillies were not involved at all. I haven't talked to the Phillies, but I think both sides thought neither side was being sincere. Take that for what it's worth, I guess. Considering the fact that the only two teams that can talk about me over the next four days are the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Boston Red Sox, I'd say (the Phillies chances) are pretty slim."

Boston is On

So, now it's just a matter of one guy saying "yes" or "no." When I sit down — and I was talking to Shonda about this last night — and assess the big picture, of all the teams that the Diamondbacks had the permission to speak to about me, and you look at the attractions in Philadelphia, it's the possibility of playing for a team that could bring a World Series to a town that is dying for one and has only had one in the last century. When you look at the Yankees, it's adding to a tradition that incredibly storied and full of World Championships. When you look at the Red Sox, it's the challenge of possibly being a guy who helps them win their first World Series in a century."

Gammons Shills for Curt

"Fans will adore Schilling in Boston. Is that... you know what, if he ever, along with Pedro, pitched the Red Sox to the World Series, he'd go to the Hall of Fame. If he pitches the Yankees to a World Series, he's just another Yankee pitcher who pitched in a World Series, because that's what the Yankees do. And let's face it, I completely agree with Epstein's philosophy, you know, I mean it's one thing to talk about 'OK we're gonna make ourselves a little bit better,' I know he has felt all along, we're talking about Curt Schilling, we're not talking about a good pitcher, we're talking about a great pitcher and that's why they're trying to do this."

The Final Curtain

Epstein and Lucchino Flying
to Arizona to Seal Deal.

"There is a saying in business, "Until it's signed you don't have a deal.""
- John W. Henry - SoSH

Let's Talk Turkey

Ace Shilling for New Contract

Schilling wants an extension of his current contract, which expires at the end of the 2004 season. Schilling could want as much as $30 million for the two additional years with the Red Sox, which would take him through the 2006 season. Schilling would reportedly want less money to come to the Yankees.

The 37-year-old Schilling earlier said he'd be willing to accept a trade to two teams, the New York Yankees or Philadelphia Phillies.

Schilling's salary is for $12 million next year and with incentives that can rise to $14 million. He has pitched for Arizona since being traded from Philadelphia in the middle of the 2000 season. This past year, Schilling battled injuries and went 8-9 with a 2.95 ERA over 24 starts. He missed six weeks with a broken hand and two weeks because of an appendectomy.

Since coming to Arizona, Schilling has compiled a 58-28 record with a 3.14 ERA. He was runner-up to teammate Randy Johnson in the 2001 and 2002 Cy Young Award voting. Schilling has a 163-117 record with a 3.33 ERA in 450 career games.

This would mark a return to the American League for Schilling, who started his career playing for the Baltimore Orioles from 1988-90. He then spent one year in Houston and followed that with 8 1/2 seasons with the Phillies.

Fossum had a 6-5 record with a 5.47 ERA in 19 games, including 14 starts for the Red Sox this season. The 25-year-old lefthander has pitched for Boston since starting his career in 2001.

Thu 11.27.03

BREAKING NEWS: Reports out of Texas state that Kevin Millar did not go back for a fourth helping today, a sign that the DH/first base type may attempt to actually get in shape this off-season. Stay tuned.

We Thank Our Troops

And So Does The President
as Bush Goes to Baghdad

Second Helping

Theo Spends Thanksgiving with The Schillings

Schilling Ordered Scrod Last Night

Which means the deal is done.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Wed 11.26.03

Tito Won't Talk

Francona cancels interview minutes before going on with WEEI's Dale & Neumy, he "said too much in the paper" already today, does not want to say anything else to imply he has the job.

Announcement coming Tuesday so Sox don't steal 'Patriots Monday' airtime again.

Pats owner Bob Kraft is sick of Sox dominating media, airwaves during football season.

Sox-Schilling Talking Turkey

Lucchino, Epstein finalizing deal with Curt today.

Mon/Tues. 11.24/25.03

Sox Will Foulke Over Another Year

Theo will go for four years on closer to keep Keith from going back to plan A's.

Friday. Nov. 14 - Monday Nov. 17

Theo to Announce Player News at 2:00pm EST

But It's Just About the Timlin Signing ZZZzzzzzzz

(Nothing about Manny, Pedro, or Nomar. Or Varitek, Lowe, or Nixon. Nation needs drama, disgusted by lack of real news)

"It would be a Ralph Houk shock if Francona doesn't get the job." - Gammons 11.15

"Timlin in the Eighth"

Mike is Back for More in 2004. New Contract Calls for Fewer Home Runs Per Appearance.

Just Say Yescobar

Kelvim in the mix as Sox search for starters.

Kimpossible

Sox look to lock up BK for two years.

Where's Pedro?

On the crowded and late 5:55 from Montreal to Boston Thursday evening was none other than Pedro Martinez.

Can't Keep Him in Boston in the Summer. Won't Stay in the Dominican in the Winter.

Shaping Up or Shipping Out?

Will Martinez Give Us More in 2004?
Is He Going to Workout Like It's 1999?

Players Can't Avoid Roid Testing Next Season

25 Home Runs Should Lead the League

Foulke Festival?

Keith may be coming to Boston. Sox think free agent closer may get them to Series.

Playing the Role of John Burkett in 2004: Pat Hentgen?

Grady Little Does Not Win Manager of the Year

Pedro Grabs Another $500k for Coming in Third in Cy Young

(Gee, and we thought $15M meant you're supposed to be in the top three. Thanks Duke.)

Esquire - The Genius Issue: Theo Epstein

"...he took over a doom-struck franchise that has spent far too much time wallowing in its own sad past, a franchise afflicted with the most self-indulgent fan base in the world."

The youngest proponent of a radical way of building a sports team is moving baseball—and one of its most storied franchises—into the modern era.

by Charles P. Pierce | Dec 01 '03

Old baseball guys look like they've been carved by the Borglums—weather-beaten, wrinkled, and most of them with knuckles that appear to be at least 10 degrees out of plumb with the rest of their hands. OBGs drink unblended whiskey with every meal, use fuck as a term of deepest endearment, and read only that which can be hung on a motel-room doorknob. OBGs have names like "Doc." So do their children. Even the girls.

Old baseball guys do not have fathers who are respected literary novelists. They do not have grandfathers—and great-uncles—who wrote Casablanca, and they most decidedly do not, as Theo Epstein does this fine September morning, stand around the home dugout with all their fingertips bandaged because they were out the night before playing their electric guitars too long and too hard.

"What do you think?" Epstein says, smiling. "I think Pete [Townshend] would be proud of me."

OBGs think Pete Townshend (sic) played in the Tigers system.

When Epstein was named general manager of the Boston Red Sox last November, he was twenty-eight years old. Some of his predecessors had hangovers that lasted longer than that. He was so quickly dismissed as too callow for the job that when one superannuated local-radio idiot ridiculed Theo, his father, novelist Leslie Epstein, fired back with some decidedly nonliterary heat. (It was Leslie's father, Philip, along with his uncle Julius, who contrived to have Ilsa visit Rick's Café Americain one foggy evening in 1942.) All of the uncertainty about Epstein's age lasted about as long as it took for him to put together a delightfully entertaining ball club that made the playoffs and won more regular-season games than any Red Sox team since 1986.

In his first year, Epstein constructed a team of professional hitters—among them Bill Mueller, who led the American League in hitting, and the robust slugger David Ortiz—and the Red Sox broke the major league record for extra-base hits in a season and reached base more often than any other team. "It's like anything," Epstein says. "Some of the things you do work out better than you expected, but I would have liked our bullpen to have performed better."

He is the newest of the new day in baseball, one of the children of the Gospel of (Bill) James, the revolutionary number cruncher who reinvented baseball statistics over the past two decades and whom the Red Sox hired as an adviser. Before they made it their career, none of these young executives had seen the inside of a major league ballpark without a ticket. They do not look at the game as a pastoral fixed in amber. They do not go by the Book, baseball's unwritten constitution that covers everything from when to make trades to when to have your pitcher hit their catcher in the head.

Their conjuring spells include "on-base percentage," which they count as more valuable in evaluating a player than the traditional batting average. Others of this ilk include Billy Beane, the recently hagiographized GM of the Oakland A's; J. P. Ricciardi in Toronto; and to some degree Brian Cashman of the Yankees. Epstein is considerably younger than even those other three. He doesn't have Ricciardi's problems with the exchange rate, and he doesn't have Cashman's problems of working for a lunatic. And, unlike Beane, he doesn't have to work in Oakland.

Instead, he took over a doom-struck franchise that has spent far too much time wallowing in its own sad past, a franchise afflicted with the most self-indulgent fan base in the world. Theo Epstein has already succeeded in hauling the Boston Red Sox away from all that maundering and into the modern baseball economy. To paraphrase a line that his grandfather once gave to a world-weary expatriate barkeep, their business is history. His is running a ball club.

---

Cowboy Up-to-No-Good

"My favorite Week 10 quote came from Bucs cornerback Ronde Barber, on the precarious position that the defending Super Bowl champions find themselves at 4-5:

"We've been here before. You look at our record in the past few years, other than last year when we won the Super Bowl, we've been down, we've been out a couple years, and found a way to get back into it. It's the same story. We've been winning football games in situations like this for a long time. We've just got to cowboy up and do it, man.''

Uh, somebody might want to tell Mr. Barber that things didn't turn out all that swell for the last club to employ that particular rallying cry. Trust us on this one.  - Don Banks from si.com

Tues. Nov. 10 - Thurs. Nov. 13

Plan A-Rod

Alexcellent! Superstar Shortstop
May Replace Disgruntled Garciaparra

"Those Rumors are Baseless" - Theo

"Recently, Texas has discussed a potentially enormous three-way trade with the Red