Red Sox Reality Check

The Red Sox accepted a Presidential invitation to meet President Bush and tour the White House and visited Washington Wednesday. After spending time at the White House, the team also visited wounded service personnel at Walter Reed Army Hospital. Several members of the team and management weren't present, and Sports Radio vilified them today. If I ever got invited to the White House (actually I did interview for a position there once), I'd certainly go, provided no medical or family emergency prevented it. As for Walter Reed, I spent two months during my Pulmonary/Critical Care fellowship there, and it's quite an intriguing place. The Army has a very robust and sophisticated relationship between its medical department and troops...a difficult task for doctors, who tend to have an independent streak. Walter Reed hasn't gotten such good publicity lately, but during my remote and peacetime duty there, I considered it a very special place. We know that a few individuals did...

Not exactly a quiet Sunday as the Red Sox ink Terry Francona to a three year extension with options and sign Bartolo Colon to a minor league contract. Francona's pair of World Series pelts in four seasons reversed his perceived failures during his prior tenure with the Phillies. Francona is in the top 100 managers all time with 660 wins and has the highest post-season winning percentage of any manager with at least twenty decisions. One would have to expect Francona to be ebullient with financial security for life, and from an ego perspective, recognition of his achievements as Red Sox manager. Francona has shown an ability to extract the best from his troops, and keep problems contained and in house. As for Colon, the Sox roll the dice on the 34 year-old right-hander known for a pair of twenty game winning seasons , most recently in 2005, and a perennial weight problem.

Nobody has a greater vested interest in Curt Schilling's baseball career than...Curt Schilling. In a very real sense, Schilling's dilemma resembles what in medicine was called 'risk contracts'. As a patient you would ask yourself are you better off if the physician (and the entire entourage) caring for you gets paid for what they do, or what they do not. Are you better off getting some riskier elective surgery or taking medical treatment? The answer is, as always, it depends...on many factors. The Red Sox, with Schilling under contract, would like to extract some value (public relations aside) from Schilling's ability to pitch, whenever and whatever that might be. If Schilling needs (and has surgery) the presumption is that the Red Sox get nothing from the righthander this season. Ergo, a conflict arises, what is good for Schilling over the remainder of his career (whatever the duration) or what is good for the Red Sox now. Is this a 'zero sum' game, or is ...

I don't play a doctor on television; I practice medicine in real life. The mind-numbing, constant barrage of Reality TV (nobody holds the clicker to your head) evidently has rendered us victim to a national stupidity. I give injections on most days - flu shots, pneumonia vaccine, tuberculin tests, hepatitis immunizations, tetanus, B12. Over the years I'm sure I've given thousands, many to those with serious underlying health problems - cancer, diabetes, heart, lung, or renal disease. How many people have gotten abscesses from one of these injections? I can't remember one (although I'll acknowledge my memory isn't getting any better). There is absolutely no reason I can think of (absent arms) to give a B12 injection into somebody's buttocks. Studies on cadavers years ago showed that a majority of intramuscular injections wind up in lipomatous (fat) tissue anyway. And as pop culture (movies) remind us, "pitcher's got a big butt" as in fat. I spo...

It's early spring training at the proverbial Camp Tranquility. Clay Buchholz versus Julian Tavarez doesn't exactly cut it as a quarterback controversy. How much does Terry Francona mean to the Red Sox? Anybody who can will a pair of World Series and deal with the chucklehead players and media deserves an extension. I'm sure Francona also can recognize that the Sox value both continuity and his ability to 1) communicate with players and 2) incorporate organizational philosophy into game situations. Yes, he's had some good fortune, like Okajima's outperformance and the achievements of the rookies last season. But isn't that where chance favors the prepared mind? Are you watching the NESN Spring Training coverage? Me neither, at least not yet. Off the warning track ? Like Indian food? I do, but I don't want to go into Cambridge or Boston to get it. There's a relatively new Indian food restaurant in Wakefield (Water Street) named India's Finest and we...

I didn't watch the testimony of Capitol Hill today. This matter belonged in the province of MLB, an organization apparently too busy coining money to solve a simple problem. As a lawyer told me once, " This isn't about right or wrong. It is all about money ." If I were Bud Selig (God forbid), this is how I would solve the issue, with a brief and simple solution. "To all professional baseball players: We have endured hardship to our integrity and game because of the widespread use of performance enhancing drugs. We must rid our game of this travesty as soon as possible, with a program of both healing and enforcement. All affected players, major and minor league will have seven days effective from the release of this statement to submit a statement acknowledging use of performance enhancing drugs. Submission of a 'previous user' statement results in immediate and total amnesty for any and all use of performance enhancing drugs, with no suspension, fine, or ...

Well, it's never boring, as we approach the dawn of the 2008 season. Curt Schilling, All-Star, World Series hero, blogger, and political pundit appears headed for the shelf, with the only question being, for how long. Schilling has a combination of shoulder and biceps injury, which accoompanying greybeard status, can't be a good career prognosticator. Will the Red Sox regret not trading for Johan Santana under these circumstances? I hope not, because they continue to maintain control of young talent at the major league level, and have been ranked as the number two organization (behind Tampa Bay) in minor league talent. If Schilling is done, that certainly promotes much better opportunity for Clay Buchholz to join Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Tim Wakefield, and Jon Lester as frontrunners for the starting rotation. Recent Sox acquisitions of Sean Casey and resigning of Bobby Kielty have firmed up the overall roster. Varitek Mirabelli Youkilis Pedroia Lugo Lowell Casey Cora Or...