Grady Redux

Two words why the Red Sox will not win the World Series in 2004: TERRY FRANCONA. That's all you have to know after Yankees 6, Red Sox 4 on Friday night at Fenway. Didn't Francona watch the tapes of Pedro's meltdown against the Yankees in the 2003 ALCS? Didn't he know that the reason he is even managing in Boston is because his predecessor waited too long to pull a pitcher? Apparently not. Francona, like Grady Little before him, hung ace pitcher Pedro Martinez out to dry in the 8th inning vs the damn Yankees.

Last October it cost Boston a trip to the World Series and Little was fired. In fact, the whole reason he was fired was because he made a bonehead decision to leave in a pitcher who was gassed and it cost the team. In the offseason Red Sox GM Theo Epstein promised he would find the right man to take this club to the next level, who wouldn't make the wrong choice under pressure. Well, guess what? Last night, 8th inning, Red Sox just take the lead 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh on a Johnny Damon home run off Tom Gordon. Pedro at 101 pitches through seven and giving up two loud outs to end the seventh to A-Rod and Sheffield. He's done, right? Turn it over to the bullpen for sure! NOT!
In what has to be described as the stupidest move in baseball history (more stupid than Grady's because now there is a precedent) Francona allows Pedro to pitch the eighth when he knows from recent history that Pedro is a different pitcher after 100 pitches. Sure enough, on the second pitch of the inning Hideki Matsui homers to tie the game. Then, to add insult to injury, Francona, like Little before him, still leaves Pedro in the game to give up the go-ahead run. And how does Francona defend not going to get Pedro after the home run? He says, and I quote, from the Hartford Courant story on the game: "If I run out there after two pitches it would look like I wasn't making a very good decision before the inning." Excuse me? Who cares??? The concern here is what you look like and not the game situation? This clown should have been fired at that moment by Theo Epstein and a press conference then called by management to apologize to the fans for hiring a jackass for a manager. If Francona is truly worried about his image he is even more clueless than Grady Little. "It boggles the mind how incompetently the Red Sox organization is run, from the owner on down Where do they find the GMs who find these bad managers? It's time to stop blaming the players for 85 years of futility. Last night showed that it is poor management that kills this team every time. The list of incompetent managers is a long one for this team: Don Zimmer, John McNamara, Butch Hobson, Jimy Williams, Grady Little and now Terry Francona, the biggest loser of all because he didn't learn from the mistakes of the past. I have no confidence that this team will win anything ever with Francona as the manager. It really is a disgrace to a team that has shown so much heart the past 2 seasons. Looks like 86 years and counting....