Hearts on Fire

The Red Sox hire a new manager, but behind the scenes, the battle rages. We have Rocky Lucchino training hard with Scrabble, Brain Trainer, and free weights. In the other corner, Ivan (Ben) Cherington trains with caffeine, an iPad, and Carmine in his corner. Rocky knows that he has the upper hand, while the "GM in Name Only" Cherington, sharpens his knives pencils to do battle for his candidate.

The Sox are defining themselves by this GM search, as a methodical but indecisive, assiduous but plodding cabal of dissidents in the affront office. The glitzy candidate, Bobby Valentine, gets dissed because he MIGHT actually criticize the players. God forbid that guys who miss cutoffs, run the bases at times like the Bad News Bears, and sometimes showed all the professionalism of a chimpanzee dance troupe take heat from...anyone.

Do you think Patriot players try to undermine Bill Belichick if they don't like the play calling or defensive strategies? Do you think Ross Ventrone wants to curse the coach or pick his brain on how to keep his career alive?

I'm not anti-Gene Lamont. It's not as though Bobby Valentine is a Corvette and Lamont is a Yugo. We're all going to be watching the Sox next season whether Bobby Valentine or Bobby Vinton is in the dugout.

But let's not get carried away. It's not rocket science; it's not Rocky IV. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.