Reminiscence: Red Sox the World Series Champion, Part III

I can’t believe this has become so long that I started to feel like I’m writing a paper on the Red Sox. Should this even be considered as a blog anymore? May be I should throw these on a page or something. In any case part 3 mostly is about the parade and the offseason. I’ll try to make this a little shorter this time.

· The Parade – This is what every Sox fan was waiting for after the World Series victory. I was expecting a parade and then a rally at the City Hall Plaza just like the Patriots did when they won the Superbowl in 2002. It was a lot of fun watching the players talking to the fans during the rally, not to mention how the players made Patriots owner Bob Kraft dance on stage. To a lot of people’s disappointment the Sox and the City of Boston decided against having a rally because of crowd control issue. There would be millions of people going to the parade and they were afraid they wouldn’t be able to control the crowd. While their reasoning was understandable it still was disappointing. What made it worse was they called the parade “Rolling Rally.” Come on, what kind of pathetic spin was that?

The parade was to start at 10am on Saturday. The weather was kind of crappy. It was cloudy and chilly and there was some light showers right before the parade started. I was out at Copley Square around 9:30 or so and tried looking for a good spot. I walked along Boylston Street and in the end I found myself right next to Fenway Park. “What the heck, I will wait right here,” I said to myself. Around 10:15 or so, the parade started as the duck boats showed up on Boylston Street amid roaring cheers from the crowd. I tried to follow them along while taking a few pictures here and there. I was at least 5 or 6 rows of people behind (that was at the beginning, later I was as far as 15 rows deep…) and it was difficult to get a good shot while walking along. There were people on both sides of the street and some of the players stayed on the other side so I never was able to get the shots of every player. Here are a few of the better ones I took:

The 3 headed monster during the World Series: Schilling, Lowe, and Pedro. I think the location is near Back Bay Fens. I was way behind in the crowd and it took me about 5 tries to get a shot like this. I’m not very good, err, let’s simply say I suck with a camera. Trying to keep up with the motorcade while making sure I didn’t run into anybody only made it worse.

This picture was taken near Copley. Foulke and Arroyo were holding their camcorders. Timlin was standing on the other side. The guy with the white hat probably is Embree. After I took some pictures I found myself stuck with the crowd because there were too many people and nobody seemed to be moving. As the boats continued down Boylston Street I knew I wouldn’t be able to follow them. I looked around for any kind of opening where I could sneak by and after some struggles I squeezed through and found myself near Newbury Street and Virgin Records. Newbury Street runs pretty much parallel to Boylston Street, with the crowd mostly gathered on Boylston, I ran down the almost empty Newbury Street to catch up to the motorcade.

Finally caught up with the motorcade just a bit before the old FAO Schwartz building. Somehow I managed to get a shot of all 5 players. The guy pointing at the crowd is Bellhorn.

As the motorcade moved toward Tremont Street, the crowd became so big it was way too far for me, standing at 15, 20 rows deep, to take any pictures. So I decided to take the T at Park Street, got off at Charles/MGH and waited at the edge of Charles River just before the Long Fellow Bridge. After 20 minutes or so the duck boats finally showed up. I was standing just a few steps from the water, with the zoom on my camera at max, and managed to take these pictures. This was as close as I could get, if only I had a 12x optical zoom camera…

The person holding the microphone is Theo Epstein, talking to the crowd. I couldn’t hear a word he said because the crowd there was screaming like crazy as they passed by.

Those 3 guys again. Schilling’s head is behind Lowe’s arm. I have no idea where Wakefield was hiding. On the far right is Jerry Remy, The Remdawg.

Check out that thing around Big Papi’s neck! I guess he probably can’t swim and is afraid of water. There is also Manny and Millar. (Millar is the guy holding the camera, I think.)

After they passed by the crowd started to disperse. I decided to go home as well. The boats continued a little bit farther down and then made a turn to the other side of the river. On my way back, the Charles/MGH station was packed like a can of sardine. I figured I had no chance to get on a train there, so I took the outbound train to Porter, got some food at Porter Exchange, then went home. (There were very few people at the Porter train station, so the trains were mostly empty and there were plenty of seats.) Couple of more notes here:

• Priceless: at one point a fan gave Manny a sign that said “Jeter is playing golf today. This is better.”
• Idiot alert: when the duck boats were on the Charles River, it was said that someone hit Pedro on the forehead with a baseball. I hope people there gave this idiot a good spanking. (I have to say that he was pretty good to be able to hit someone on the forehead with a baseball. That was pretty far away.)
• Brave hearts: Doug Mirabelli spent a lot of time sitting at the front of the boat. He seemed to enjoy it so much that he stayed there even when they were on the Charles. Later Gabe Kapler joined him as well. May be Belli can give Papi a swimming lesson…

· The Offseason – Reality set in as soon as the parade was over. The Sox had truckload of players that became free agents in the offseason and the management had a lot of decisions to make. Below is a list of the players who became free agents and what happened to them, along with the players the Sox traded or signed. For Sox players I’ll only list the players who were on the postseason 25 man roster:

• Curtis Leskanic: he was having arm trouble even during the postseason and decided to retire afterward.
• Doug Mientkiewicz: he wanted to be an everyday 1st baseman but the Sox couldn’t accommodate him. As a result he was traded to the New York Mets for minor leaguer Ian Bladergroen.
• Gabe Kapler: signed with the Yomiuri Giants of Japan. The japanese team simply paid him more than he would get here.
• Bill Mueller: the Sox exercised the option on his contract.
• Pokey Reese: with all the injuries he’s had the Sox had no interest to bring him back. Reese signed with the Seattle Mariners.
• Dave Roberts: he also wanted to play everyday, again the Sox couldn’t accommodate him so he was traded to San Diego Padres for Jay Payton, Ramon Vazquez, minor leaguer David Pauley, and cash.
• Doug Mirabelli: resigned with the Red Sox as the backup catcher.
• Ramiro Mendoza: returned to the Yankees as a free agent. Was he an embedded Yankee or what? The only things he had done with the Sox were either getting injured or getting lit up. Sheesh.
• Mike Myers: signed with the St. Louis Cardinals in December, but was later traded to the Sox in spring training.
• Orlando Cabrera: the Sox seemed to be more leaning toward signing Edgar Renteria, thus the team wasn’t very interested to bring him back. Los Angeles Angels signed Cabrera to a 4 year, $32 million contract.
• Jason Varitek: after quite a bit of negotiation the Sox resigned Tek to a 4 year, $40 million contract. There’s also a clause in his contract that will give him a no-trade clause after 8 years of service with the team. He’ll be with the Sox for 8 years after the 2005 season.
• Derek Lowe: even with his incredible run during the postseason, the Sox had no interest to resign him. Having Scott Boras as his agent didn’t help either. Los Angeles Dodgers signed Lowe to a 4 year, $36 million contract. It didn’t surprise anyone that the Sox weren’t willing to pay that kind of money.
• Pedro Martinez: after some very ugly negotiations, Pedro decided not to come back with the Sox and instead accepted a 4 year contract that worths $53 millions from the New York Mets. I was upset that the Sox couldn’t resign Pedro, though I do understand why the team was reluctant to give him a 4 year contract. What I was most upset with is that the negotiation process became really ugly it left a sour note to everyone involved in the end. How come players like Pedro and Nomar, who had contributed a lot to the team over the years, just couldn’t leave on good terms? Once again when it became clear that the player was on his way out, there would be articles in the papers that “officials who are familiar with the situation” or “a teammate who does not wish to be named” would say some pretty nasty things about that player to make him a bad guy. It happened to Nomar, now it happened to Pedro. Where were these unamed sources came from anyway? I wonder if this is going to be a trend whenever a high-profile contract negotiation comes up in the future. I mean, do we have to trash everyone who doesn’t want to return to the Sox, even the team lowballed him to begin with?
• Matt Clement: to replace Pedro and Lowe, the Sox signed former Cub Matt Clement to a 3 year $25.5 million contract. It was said that the Sox’s first choice was Carl Pavano. When Pavano signed with the Yankees the Sox moved to pursue Clement. Clement has always been known for his great stuff and poor control. Whether the Sox can help him with the control issue is something to be seen.
• David Wells: the Sox signed Wells to a 2 year, $8 million contract with incentives that could make it worth $18 million. I couldn’t believe the Sox would turn to David Wells, of all people. He sure has the reputation of being a big game pitcher, at least when healthy. The problem is that he is old and he has a history of back problems. The incentives in his contract are based on the number of starts he makes. If he makes a bunch of really crappy starts, the Sox are screwed.
• John Halama: the Sox signed Halama to be the long man in the bullpen and emergency starter when needed.
• Wade Miller: the Sox signed Miller to be the 6th starter in case one of their pitchers goes down with injuries. Miller himself was recovering from a shoulder injury. There were conflicting reports whether it was the labrum or rotator cuff. He was very good when he was with the Astros. The contract he signed with the Sox was relatively cheap so it was a rather low risk and high reward signing.
• Matt Mantei: signed with Sox to help out in the back of the bullpen. The former closer of the Arizona Diamondbacks had shoulder problems in 2004 and didn’t pitch since landing on DL in May. He was a similar signing to Miller. He is good when he is healthy. The problem lies with the word “when.”
• Edgar Renteria: the Sox signed Renteria to a 4 year $40 million contract to replace Nomar and Cabrera at shortshop. The Sox seemed to think he is a better offensive shortstop than Cabrera and just as good defensively. Personally I have reservation whether he is worth $40 million. Just this past season, I had Renteria on my fantasy team and I got burned pretty badly. I even drafted him in the top 5 because of his incredible numbers the year before. After getting burned by his mediocre offense, I had to wonder whether his 2003 season was really a fluke. To be fair though, the available shortstops in the offseason were limited: it was either Renteria, Cabrera, or David Eckstein. If I had to choose 1 from the 3 I probably would go for Renteria too, just not at $40 million for 4 years.

This is it. I’m done. I found it unbelievable that I would be able to write this much about the Sox. For that I feel proud of myself, just a little bit. (I knew my writing sucks, but I wouldn’t let that stop me from blogging.) After writing this much about baseball I’ll have to stop for a while to write something else. I’ll be going to my cousin’s wedding on the west coast in a few days. I already got tickets to a San Francisco Giants game at SBC Park. I can’t wait. It’s unfortunate that I won’t see Barry Bonds there. I’ll write about my trip after I return. Wait, is that mean I’m going to write about baseball again!? Oh no!

~ by haydeé on July 6, 2005.