Bambino's Curse

And I Begin Dreaming (More Than a Feeling)

So yesterday I had nothing more than a gut feeling about the Manny for A-Rod trade.

But this morning I awake to these headlines:

• Sox talk it up: Sources: Henry has met with A-Rod (Herald)
• Interest shown in Garciaparra: Dodgers discuss trade for shortstop with Sox (Globe)

Seems there's a whole lot more to this than a rumbling in my stomach due to too many tamales, eh?

"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
in hopes that Alex Rodriguez soon would be there."

A-Rod "Desperately Wants to Leave the Rangers."

The Red Sox continue to give Paris Hilton a run for the title of most talked about celebrity. For while the infamous Paris Hilton "sextape" hoopla is on the wane, the Manny for A-Rod trade rumors persist.

According to sources with knowledge of the discussions, the Rangers would send Rodriguez to Boston for moody but productive slugging outfielder Manny Ramirez, under two conditions:

• Boston would have to take the remaining seven years of Rodriguez's $252 million contract. About $180 million remains on the deal.

• The Red Sox would have to ante up a significant portion of Ramirez's average annual $20 million salary for the remaining five years of his contract (Grant, Dallas Morning News).

Of course, the conventional wisdom suggests that a Red Sox ante up to cover some of Ramirez's salary "is highly unlikely. … [as] the Sox already would be taking on the estimated $186 million still due Rodriguez while disposing of the $99.5 million due Ramirez. adding roughly $86.5 million to their payroll…"(Massarotti, Herald).

My gut feeling based on nothing more substantive than intuition is that the Rangers will drop their "significant portion" demand in favor of a little something in cash and the Red Sox will do it.

Recall Edes' "voodoo economics" column:

Using the salary figures recognized by the commissioner's office, Ramirez is due to be paid $20,223,976 by the Sox next season, while Garciaparra is due $11.5 million. Rodriguez, meanwhile, is due $21,026,693 from the Rangers next season, just slightly more than Ramirez. But A-Rod is due a total of $179 million through 2010, while the Sox are obligated to Ramirez for an additional $97.5 million through 2008, a difference of more than $81 million. That's a huge obligation for the Sox to take on, but with Garciaparra due to earn a huge payday as a pending free agent, the Sox would be saving more than $10 million this season and even more down the road if they move Ramirez and Garciaparra and acquire A-Rod (Edes, Globe).

And take note that in all the quotes we've heard from Schilling about his wanting confirmation from the Red Sox that they'd be fielding a World Series caliber team throughout the duration of Schilling's contract, not once was the name of Nomar Garciaparra mentioned. I heard how is was important to Schilling that the Red Sox do everything possible to keep Pedro, Lowe, and V-Tek beyond '04. Didn't hear a peep about Nomar. Of course, a pitcher is going to think about other pitchers as well as the catcher first. Still, it's worth noting I think.

Speaking of Schilling, Tom, who writes the Shallow Center blog dedicated to the Phillies, has published "An Open Letter to Red Sox Nation." Tom predicts we may have got more than we bargained for.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes (Turn and Face the Stranger)

If you've been a regular reader over the course of this season then you probably recall that I'm a big follower of the work of Carl Jung. Of course, I'm just a dabbler and not an expert or scholar or anything (and you can say that about pretty much everything in my life — dabble, dabble, do!). As you may know, Jung, like Freud, spent a lot of time focusing on interpretation of dreams as a tool of psychoanalysis.

Jung considers the dream fundamentally as a natural expression of the unconscious psychic process. It provides an X-ray of the unconscious, so to speak, as it is - as a matrix of symbols, it presents its dynamic, source of all psychic processes, in symbolic form, with its own peculiar language (Xaviar, CG Jung Page).

So it's interesting (to me if not to you) that for the past three nights in a row I've had dreams about water, specifically flooding and being on flotsam or a raft just sort of literally "going with the flow." It's important to point out that I'm never worried or anxious about being surrounded by all this water but rather I'm quite content.

Now interpreting your own dreams can be pretty tricky (if not impossible), but the notion of water/flood imagery in dreams is one of the big symbols in the Jungian world and is normally associated with birth, rebirth, or change in general. And, for my purposes, I'll accept that.

The question is, then, what is this change that is coming or that is already underway? Beats the hell out of me. Though in my myopic everything relates to the Red Sox world view, I can't help but think it has something to do with what has transpired in the past week (and what a heckuva a week it's been!) That is the whole CyberCurt-SoSH-Internet v. Traditional Media thing that we are in the midst of.

If you haven't got the back story on all this, by all means go to DirtDogs and get the scoop. And then read this article in Slate: "C_Schilling1966 Has Entered the Room."

Along the same lines, consider what media critic Jeff Jarvis wrote in a recent post to his blog:

… the role of the newsman has utterly changed … but that news hasn't caught up to the newsmen yet.

It used to be, we depended on them to tell us what is happening (and some prided themselves on doing it better than others). Those days are over. Toast. "What happened" is the commodity; we can find out what happened anywhere anytime.

The pressthink … evident in this tale is of pressthinkers still believing that we need them to report this news and that they stand in the position of gatekeeper and newsfeeder and grand informer. They don't want to admit that's over.

… We are now in the age of transparency: We can all see all the news and judge for ourselves what's news and what isn't, what's real and what isn't, what's important and what isn't, and often what's true and what isn't (Jarvis, BuzzMachine)

And this is only the beginning, I predict, of the sea change we are all a part of.

How long before a player like Curt Schilling starts his own blog? How long before the Red Sox start to follow the lead of the Patriots and make available to the public the full transcript of their press conferences so we can draw our own interpretations without the media middleman or woman?

Don't get me wrong, I do not think blogs, message boards, and the like will replace sportswriters. There is a huge difference between coming up with a witty line or two in a SoSH thread and weaving together a column or story the way someone like Gordon Edes or Tom Boswell does. But there is no doubt the roles and rules are changing between fan, player, media and ball club. And as Martha Stewart would say, it's a good thing.

"Luke, I Am Your Father."

In an absolute must read piece, Gordon Edes reports on a visit with Curt Schilling at the pitcher's current home in Scottsdale Arizona, and in revealing so much about why Schilling chose to waive his no trade clause and sign with the Red Sox, demonstrates yet again why Edes once is the #1 starter in the Boston baseball beat rotation.

My favorite graf:

His son, Gehrig, who came home from school after the trade and said, "Daddy, do you know what a snow day is? It's when it snows so much they have no school. They have snow days in Boston!"

Reread that one sentence and consider how much info about the Schilling family is packed into it. Then read the entire story again (if you haven't already.)

I haven't even seen Schilling pitch a game yet and he already is becoming one of my favorite players.

Speaking of, my #1 fave since he signed in December three years ago, Manny Ramirez, is starting to see the light:

"He would be disappointed if he were traded at this point," Ramirez' agent, Jeff Moorad, said last night. "At this point, the best protection that Manny can hope to have against being traded away from the Red Sox would be that it is hard to believe that someone would trade for a $20 million player who prefers to stay with Boston" (Gee, Herald).

Heh heh … as much as the swap for A-Rod is intriguing to think of, I really would miss seeing Manny's cocksure walk into the batter's box. Despite all the Manny madness we've had to put up with in the past three seasons, I still love the big braided haired lug.

And there's more. (Can you believe how much baseball there is to talk about as we sit here waiting for the first snowstorm of the season?) Howard Bryant insists, and I have to agree, that the Red Sox are finally starting to act more like the Yankees:

The Red Sox, Larry Lucchino especially, may like to point to the Yankees as the ultimate, dangerous free-market machine. But the personality during the brief Henry Era has been to collect stars not necessarily through barter, but by simply crushing the rest of the field with greater financial resources. It is, of course, very much a Yankee way of doing business.…

If the Yankees are indeed the Evil Empire, then the Red Sox are its Evil Twin. It is no coincidence that most of the individuals above were targeted by both teams (Bryant, Herald).

As Yoda would say, "Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future."

Minnie the Moocher Update

My panhandle quest for donations to help fund a trip to the Annual Awards Dinner hosted by the Boston Chapter of the Baseball Writers Association now stands at $207.56. And I'm extremely grateful to all of you who "cowboy upped" (aw, that expression kind of stings now doesn't it?) and sent anywhere from $1 - $20 my way.

However, if you recall the dollar goal I had in mind was $407, and I don't think that is going to happen. Well, it might happen if I continued to shill, beg, and otherwise harangue you to donate, but I'm not at all comfortable doing that. As it is I feel bad for even asking in the first place.

With that said, then, I think it's for best if we discontinue the donation drive for the Awards Dinner.

If you feel like I pulled an Enron on you, please email me within 30 days and I'll have PayPal refund your donation back to you. Otherwise, I'd like to keep the $207.56 in an escrow account to be used for some yet to be determined future event of the same nature as the Awards Dinner, i.e., something directly related to the Bambino's Curse blog and Red Sox Baseball (Spring Training trip? Monster Seats at Fenway? Other suggestions welcome.)

Thanks again for taking the time to donate and for reading the blog.

Mirror, Mirror

Remember the so-called "bearded Spock" episode of Star Trek Original Series when, due to interference from an ion storm, the Enterprise's landing party (made up of Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura) is transported into a parallel universe and find themselves aboard another Enterprise with crew members who are mirror images of themselves and belong to an evil Federation known as the Empire?

I can't help but think of that episode when considering how in the past week it seems (due to an ion storm perhaps?) that the Yankees and Red Sox have become parallel versions of each other.

Recall if you will December 2000. At that time the Red Sox wanted to bolster the starting pitching and they set their sights on Mike Mussina only to lose out to the Yankees (no, really?) To compensate for that the Red Sox went out and got the big, albeit defensively challenged, slugger Manny Ramirez. Over time, while Manny Ramirez has kicked plenty of offensive bootay, it has become clear the Yankees got better results with the pitcher Mussina.

Now here we are three years later and it's the Red Sox who get the best available pitcher and a pitcher the Yankees very much wanted to add to their own roster. And the Yankees, to compensate, go out and sign a big, albeit defensively challenged, slugger Gary Sheffield.

Interesting, eh? Keep your eye out for the bearded Brian Cashman and remember: it is easier for logical men to appear barbarous than for barbarous men to appear civilized. (Life according to Star Trek, of course. Truth be told, there are very few situation in life in which I cannot find a Star Trek episode to relate to. Perhaps it is the same for you? You think Schilling will live long and prosper?)

Quote of the Day

Reader "Joe in Philly" writes:

In Philly, they are talking about the grass in the new stadium. In Boston, there's talk of a World Series. That's spirituality. Amen.

Amen.

Chekov, set a course for Fort Myers. Kirk out.

The Chat Heard 'Round the World

Looks like the Big Dog has the biggest bone of the year when he writes,

… the mainstream media is swimming upstream as the internet killed the radio, newspaper, and television story on the signing of Curt Schilling over this Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Thanks to CyberCurt himself.

'EEI hosts like Yankee fan Craig Mustard "I don't do that chat thing" and out of touch Mike Adams sounded like buffoons trying to explain what happened over the weekend. A writer for the Boston Herald in today's edition thinks the Sons of Sam Horn is actually about Sam Horn, making their paper look like a lost soul in the hot space ("Barks and Bites" at DirtDogs).

At the risk of hyperbole, I'm telling you we are present at the dawn of a new day. While the trade that brought Schilling to the Red Sox was nothing short of revolutionary (and further brands Theo Epstein as sachem and genius of our tribe), as the Big Dog points out, the whole way this thing went down is remarkable.

While I was stunned that the trade went through while I was out of town for the holiday, I was even more stunned to return and find this email from Shaun Kelly in my inbox:

Curt Schilling just was on our board [SOSH]chatting for more than two hours.  What a neat guy.  He's checking us out - I think it's a done deal.

And, then, to find as well that John Henry officially breaks the Schilling news first on the web via the same message board?

You know the whole interweb-dotcom thing got over hyped in the 90s, but I think we are now witnessing first hand a real paradigm shift in the relationship between fan, player, owner, and management of which was only made possible by the technology afforded by the internet.

And, I predict, Curt Schilling is just the beginning, just the first player, Red Sox or otherwise, who gets it, who understands (as Henry and Epstein understand) the power of the new medium and the benefit (and risk) of bypassing the traditional media by going directly to the fans.

One can argue, of course, that this doesn't have anything to do with bringing a World Series to Boston — But it does! Oh, it most certainly does.

A year ago when Lucchino made the "We are not your father's Oldsmobile" statement I was cynical as the next guy. Just another managementspeak sound bite I figured. Only now am I really coming to learn how prescient Lucchino's words were.