Saturday, November 26, 2011

Free Falling



If there's anything worse than bad publicity in professional sports, it's no publicity. The NBA will be coming online, the Patriots challenge for the top spot in local hearts and minds, and the Bruins have won 10 of 11. Meanwhile the Red Sox continue to baste in the hangover of "the Collapse".

But the Sox have a chance to turn it around next week, with a triple play of news, naming Bobby Valentine the next manager, signing David Ortiz (also relieving the right field offensive problem to a degree), and finding a new queen of what is known as "honey shots".

First, I digress. How are the 1 percent doing lately? 1356 to 1158 in about four months. Put that Dom Perignon back on the shelf, Honey.
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As for Valentine's Day coming in November, consider it done. What's the Buzz Meter do with a Gene Lamont signing? The best seismograph at MIT won't even twitch. A Bobby V signing at least wakes the dead, which represents the majority of the Nation.  The Red Sox might have an infatuation with NASCAR and the other Football, but tone deaf to the local indifference?

As for Ortiz, from everything we hear, there's mutual desire for the 36 year-old (is that in US or Dominican years?) DH to return, and he's got the arbitration offer to prove it. According to BaseballReference.com Ortiz has at least an outside chance at Hall of Fame status using their Hall of Fame monitor criteria. And last year, he was the DH Silver Slugger, finished 6th in the AL in batting and 4th in OPS. In other words, his offensive contribution proved sizable.

Finally, who will win the Sideline Reporter sweepstakes, which cannot be called the "Heidi Bowl" as that's been taken? We don't really know what the criteria are. WEEI has offered up their candidates. How about a long shot? Maybe a local politician's daughter who would have access to all sorts of critical financial information and be insulated from prosecution (the Stocks and Jocks guys review this in their first hour with Peter Schweizer of Stanford). You can fill in your own blank for the name.

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