On this morning’s drive in, radio said Big Papi is looking to NY Yankees, is tired of the “drama” in Boston.  Is that a plausible excuse for jumping for the money?  Is it better than Roger’s?  How about Damon’s?  It is of course bullshit but is it good bullshit?

You know the other side of all this is a growing belief that tickets should not be bought at all.  I know, I know, I have waxed eloquent about how in the Spring men cannot resist the call of the green viewed through the ramp when you first enter the ballpark, but this is Fall, heading for Winter, so I am not there yet.  If you think about the team without Pap, Tek, Wake, Papi, a  questionable Scutaro, maybe Beckett, Bard as no real closer’s closer, Crawdaddy feeling even more pressure, looks like a solid lock on third place.

BTW, remember how careful the team was to relieve the players, platoon them, not over-work the pitchers, so there would be general gas in the tank for the year-end?  I thought Francona was really smart in that way and what did it get us?  Not sure it mattered one way or another, but perhaps it backfired?  The winning teams I think (need data here) just played balls to the wall all year.  Like a good race horse, you don’t run a loose race, it ruins the animal who always should be looking straight ahead.  That’s what blinders and whips are for.

Plus you just cannot get comfortable in rooting for a team when its key elements go out the revolving door all the time.  Remember when you could recite from memory the starting line-up of most teams?  More important than where you finish is, how do you feel spending $500 to take your family to the ballpark?  You should not feel angry.  Right now I have this floating anger.

Morning headlines: our sainted teen-aged General Manager likely is going to Chicago.  Radio says he will be promoted to President, etc. and get $15M for five years.  The same guy who John Henry is quietly firing ala Francona (you’re fired, now go out to the microphone and say you quit).  The same guy who brought us the much criticised 2011 Red Sox!  Either the Cubs are nuts to hire this loser or the baloney in the press about the Red Sox dream team being garbage is simply space filler for the Globe.  I vote the latter; we lost, we won lots of games, we lost two starters, we had a team of overpaid, immature morons (like every baseball team), so what’s new?  What GM can hire or predict team cohesion and hunger?  My only wish is that Theo takes Crawford with him as a doorstop.

Playoff games last night were really fun.  Good to see some other teams show their grit.  These guys want it bad, you can tell.  My partners from the hinterlands (not NY, not Boston, not Philly) are emailing about how good this is for fans and baseball, albeit not for Fox TV.  Likely Fox will be mildly surprised by how much TV attendance they will get for the Series, they will get my attention regardless of who is playing from among these four survivors.  I have respect for teams that act like teams.  But no doubt the Series loser, whoever it is, will be skewered in a tell-all mega-press article about how they hated each other really and further how they never washed out their jocks after an extra-inning game.

I see deja-vu.

OR, as in the children’s rhyme:

I see London, I see France,

I see Papi’s ————-.