First off, and I hope this doesn't sound impertinent, I think it's time to help educate you younger baseball fans who've been getting their slant on the game of baseball from the media for the past 15 years or so when it should be coming from real baseball people who truly DO know the game.
"Baseball is very simple," said none other than Ted Williams:--"Score more runs than the other team." Timely hitting and good defense make pitchers better and win ballgames, PERIOD."
The fact is that baseball is NOT 75% pitching and ONE pitcher is NOT worth 20-25 million dollars a year. And trading a real good hitter (like Thespedus), who will affect at least two or three batters in the lineup, (EVERY GAME) for a pitcher who, at very best, will pitch every 5 days (32 games a year) and possibly win 20 games, IS NOT A GOOD BASEBALL MOVE!! AND...it was the media who made up the term #1 pitcher on the staff. Teams have won pennants without a 20 game winner (as you may very well see with the Red Sox this year) Let me remind you of the 1975 Sox team whose "ACE," Luis Tiant, was not the winningest pitcher on the team... It was Rick Wise, with a 19-12 record. (He tied Bill Lee for the Sox ERA title that year with a mark of 3.95), and was still not considered the ace. As a matter of fact Wise did not even get to start ANY games in the series and didn't appear until game six when he came into the game as a reliever in the 12th inning.. For you trivia buffs---Wise was the winning pitcher in the famous "Fisk home run" game. (Fisk hit it Off Pat Darcy).
Back to Charrington who has already built a pretty good pitching staff with at least three pitchers who have a history of pitching over 200 innings per season with a good potential upside. He can also be assured of a harmonious clubhouse now that Lackey and Peevey aren't there to beef about their contracts. I'll even include David Ortiz in that group. (Hope he'll go back to being a real team leader and stop crying to the media about a contract extension).....stay tuned.....
Coming up next is Patriot's talk followed by the Celts and Bruins.
NOTE---Try to stump me with a trivia question and I'll print it right here. Someday soon we'll have a sports trivia hall of fame for top performers. We'll also have our own hall of fame for the players who SHOULD BE in Cooperstown but are not like Shoeless Joe Jackson, Dom DiMaggio, (My promise to Ted Williams to keep on trying for these two), Pete Rose, Dwight Evans and Roger Clemens. It will also include other sports. Except for biases from the "powers that be" Rick "Nifty" Middleton would be in the NHL hall of fame.
In what I consider the biggest disgrace of all, the NFL has passed by the Patriots great, Gino Cappelletti. According to the late, great sportswriter, Will McDonough, who nominated him every year, those "powers" said that he was only an AFL player and not worthy of the hall. Gino's stats are---he was an all-pro defensive back in his first year sharing a (then) record 3 interceptions in one game with a few other players, as well as leading the league in scoring as a placekicker. Gino also set a scoring record and then broke it scoring 173 points in 1964. His CAREER scoring average of 7.34 points per game stands alone with the closest player in the hall of fame scoring 5.7 points per game. Gino is also the only man in football history to average more than 100 points per season for his entire career, never missing even one game in eleven years. Gino also led the league in scoring four out of the six years the AFL was in business. (2nd the other two) in 1964 he was league MVP but, when all-star game voting came about he was only about the fifth best wide receiver missing out on THAT vote. BUT, how can you leave the MVP off the all-star team?? Thus was created the very first "special teams" position on the all-star team. Since then they've added a few more "specials" to the voting.... ALSO, in the first two years of its existence the AFL was on shakey ground and if even one team folded that could have been the end of the AFL (and football as we know it today). Gino, who was known as "Duke" because of his classy style and friendly manner to everyone, was a perfect leader representing the BOSTON Patriots to the Boston community. His nightclub, "The Point After" in Boston was crowded to overflowing every night and made football (Patriots) fans out of thousands including the ladies. AND he never refused an autograph, a favor or a personal appearance request. His tireless work in charities also made him the perfect ambassador for the team AND the league. Will McDonough used to say that Gino did everything except park cars and take tickets at the gate. I was there and, believe me, that's not an exaggeration. HE helped the Patriots survive those early years in Boston leading up to making them the great organization they are today.
The NFL Hall of Fame voting is very biased against old time players (only one per year) and should be revamped. Please Mr. Kraft, with your superior record of influencing great progressive changes in the NFL, help change the old timers voting procedure out of the dark ages and into the realm of recognizing the accomplishments of older players who don't stand a chance under this archaic system of voting. Try to get Gino Cappelletti, with all his many contributions to pro football, into the Hall of Fame where he belongs. Gino, as well as the older Patriots' fans of Boston, deserve
to see that day. Remember, if the Patriots folded you never would have had the chance to make the team the greatest organization in the NFL that it is today. Please put that great heart of yours to work and make this happen. We all have faith in you Mr. Kraft.....Stay tuned.....
NOTE---since the sports media won't say it I WILL---Ben Charrington deserves an award for the handling of the Lester negotiations despite the big handicap of Lester's agents playing off the pitcher's statement that he "would take a hometown discount" to stay in Boston!! (But never mentioning a figure). Then, when the Sox made an offer, the same amount that brought Josh Beckett to Boston, they called it "insulting" and broke off talks. (AGAIN, never making a counter offer). I believe they KNEW he was going with the Cubs and his old pal Theo Epstein all along. Lest we forget, Epstein tosses his bosses money around like it was going out of style and THAT'S really where they were going all along. And the "drive-by" media was a willing accomplice in this big PR game that the agents use so very well against the teams. To his credit, Charrington never "caved in." Fans forget that he has 24 other players that are watching to see what the "market" is going to go up to when THEIR turn comes to negotiate. It's absurd, but true, that when just ONE player gets a high salary the media makes THAT the market value. My college economics professor always told us the market value was set by the AVERAGE salaries, not one isolated case...but that's another story.
Now back to learning how to build a baseball team.....
Pitching is 35% of the game, DEFENSE and HITTING is the rest. Good defense and timely hitting will make a mediocre pitcher a good (or very good) pitcher. And, a pitcher's record of wins alone does not tell you of his REAL VALUE. ERA, strikeout/walk ratio, strikeouts/nine innings, ERA with runners in scoring position, ERA in a close game (one run either way, or tie game) in late innings AND walks/hits per nine innings. AND, the most important---how many innings per year can you count on from him. The baseball experts call that DURABILITY....THOSE are the important and most telling stats of a pitcher's value. Lester is an exceptionally good pitcher but still hasn't layed claim to being a guaranteed 20 game winner. Charrington's job is to build a winning TEAM. By not allowing ONE player's salary to create a turmoil among the rest of the players (who will all start screaming for THEIR piece of the pie as they did when Theo Epstein gave away the store a few years ago) was the mark of a great GM and deserves to be recognized. Keep up the good work, Ben....Stay tuned.....