Red Sox Suck?

Did you hear what John Lackey said after the Angels were eliminated by the Red Sox for the second straight year?

"It's way different than last year, we are way better than they are. We lost to a team not as good as us. [On Sunday] they scored on a pop fly they called a hit, which is a joke," said Lackey, referring to a popup that was misplayed into three runs. "[On Monday], they score on a broken-bat ground ball and a fly ball anywhere else in America [except in Fenway Park]. And [Pedroia's] fist-pumping on second like he did something great."

Somebody is a sore loser. Well, at least we're not the only ones with a nice amount of Red Sox hatred going. The Score.com went as far to say the Red Sox are replacing the Yankees as the the new team to hate. We're not sure we would go that far ... but there's plenty of hatred to go around.

The Score.com lists a couple of reasons why the Red Sox are so easy to loath but doesn't really back it up with the best evidence. That's where we come in...

1) The Fans
Finding a video showing the typical Sox fan is as hard as finding a drunken Irishman...wait, we think we just repeated ourselves. These two clowns from 2007 were the most entertaining we could find. "If Jon Lester can beat cancer he can beat some (beep'in) Indians!" Nice.

2) Yankees' Suck Chants
In Little League, kids are taught to cheer on their team instead of trash talking the opponents. At Red Sox games chants of "Yankees Suck!" are to be somehow encouraged. We don't mind a bit of trash talking as long as it's clever ... this is a looooong way from clever.

3) Jonathan Papelbon
When Papelbon was a rookie his antics were mildly amusing. He's no longer a rookie. His infamous riverdance ruined a perfectly good Dropkick Murphy's song, he can't speak Spanish, and he does a terrible Milli Vanilli impersonation. Added to the fact he's a bit of a jerk (as the video in the Score.com article shows) and you've got a nice focus for your hatred.

4) Celebrity Red Sox Fans
Watching Game Two against the Angels we saw TBS show Timothy Hutton wearing a Red Sox hat at the game. Do they think we care that Timothy Hutton is a Red Sox fan? Who is Timothy Hutton, anyway? Once celebrities start jumping on your band wagon you know you are close to being the most hated team in America. Luckily for Red Sox fans (like Dane Cook) the Yankees will always have this guy.

5) Fever Pitch
We never like it when Hollywood takes a good book and turns it into a crappy movie. We really don't like it when they take a good book and turn it into 'Fever Pitch' starring Jimmy Fallon. This movie sucked balls and must have made Red Sox haters out of half of America.

We can come up with as many reasons as we want to explain our hatred of the Sox, but it really comes down to one thing .... they win too much and we're jealous. Go Rays Go...did we just say that?

Manny being Manny...in Los Angeles?

Yahoo and ESPN (among many others) were reporting that Manny Ramirez was very close to being dealt to the Marlins. From the Yahoo article:

"The current parameters of the trade have Jason Bay and reliever John Grabow coming to Boston, Marlins outfielder Jeremy Hermida and two prospects heading to Pittsburgh and Manny plus a prospect going to Florida."

The deal wasn't yet finalized, as Peter Gammons reported, but it sure sounded like something was going to happen before the trade deadline. I couldn't see the Sox letting the deadline go by with Manny still being a member of Red Sox nation.

Yahoo is now reporting that the Red Sox-Marlins-Pirates deal fell apart at the last minute but like we thought, the Sox we're not going to keep Manny around after the circus that's been created. SI.com is reporting that:

The Red Sox traded embattled slugger Manny Ramirez to the Dodgers late Thursday afternoon. Jason Bay is headed to Boston as part of the deal, SI.com has learned. Pittsburgh gets pitcher Craig Hansen and outfielder Brandon Moss, both from Boston, as well as third baseman Andy LaRoche and right-handed pitcher Bryan Morris from the Dodgers. It looks like Manny is now headed to Los Angeles, with only minutes remaining before the trade deadline.]

I still think this is a very bad move for the Sox. After the season, I can see moving Manny. He's a headcase, we get it. But he's still impossible to replace in that lineup. Here's what Manny's own manager, Terry Francona, had to say on the subject on July 27th to the Associated Press:

"I'd take a guy that's hitting .500 that's miserable as opposed to a guy that hands out bouquets to his teammates and is hitting a buck 45."

Francona is smarter than I thought.

Things have gotten messy between Manny and Boston. Here was his response to the Marlin trade report in the ESPN article:

"The Red Sox did the same with guys like Nomar Garciaparra and Pedro Martinez, and now they do the same with me. Their goal is to paint me as the bad guy," Ramirez added. "I love Boston fans, but the Red Sox don't deserve me. I'm not talking about money. Mental peace has no price, and I don't have peace here."

Things never used to be like this. Manny used to be happy in Beantown. He won World Series in 2004 and 2007. He took home the series MVP in 2004 and even invited Red Sox fans to come back to his place for drinks after the parade. He even used to talk to the media. Gasp!

Sure his defense was a bit of an adventure, but when you have a player that can hit the game winning HR you forget about what happens in LF. Boston will miss Manny.

You want something obscure don't you? Well you're at Waikiki Hockey so you are in the right place.

How about Manny as a muppet with an Italian acccent?

Not bizarre enough for you? How about this then? Where to people come up with this stuff?

Wouldn't an Dodger - Red Sox final have a bit of intrigue now?