Francona-The Red Sox Years by Terry Francona

Author:Terry Francona
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Non-Fiction
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 2013-01-22T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

• 2008 •

“This will not help us win”

RED SOX NATION WAS GLOBAL. The Sox were the most popular sports team on the planet. The Sox were hot. They were trendy. It was almost impossible to travel anywhere without spotting a Sox cap, and many of those caps were pink or camouflage. Garb was sold by the truckload, and tickets were impossible to acquire without going through the dreaded “secondary markets,” which somehow managed to get into business with the ball club. New Red Sox books hit the shelves in the spring of 2008, but they were no longer stories about a team that overcame insurmountable odds and shucked off an 86-year-old drought. The 2008 book titles were boastful and conceited. Tony Massarotti wrote Dynasty, and Michael Holley penned Red Sox Rule.

The Sox were no longer the little engine that could. They were not lovable losers. They were not Cub-like. Their fans were not needy. Hubris and arrogance became the trademarks of the Boston baseball fan. The Sox had become like the Yankees. And ownership seized the day.

This is when Red Sox Nation and the Fenway game-day experience jumped the proverbial shark. There was scalding demand for all things Red Sox, and everything was for sale. Spontaneity was replaced by commercialization of just about everything related to the Boston baseball club. In 2008 the Red Sox became the first team in baseball history to provide fans with two hours of daily live television coverage of spring training drills. Sox flagship station NESN aired weeks of bunt drills and pitchers’ fielding practice.

More than the Freedom Trail or Harvard Yard, Fenway Park became a destination for tourists who touched down at Logan Airport. Tour groups ponied up their dollars and filed through Fenway at all hours. Drivers barreling toward downtown Boston on the Massachusetts Turnpike noticed that the ballpark lights were always illuminated at nighttime, game or no game. It didn’t matter if the Sox were out of season or out of town. There was 24/7 renovation and construction going on in the ballpark, and the club-level function rooms were rented almost every night. If you had enough money, you could have your wedding reception or your child’s bar mitzvah at Fenway.

Under the direction of Lucchino, the savvy “new” owners cleverly and regularly reached out to Boston mayor Thomas Menino. Patriots owner Bob Kraft and his son Jonathan famously failed to bring the mayor into the loop when they attempted to build a new stadium in South Boston in the 1990s, and it proved costly. The Sox owners were determined not to repeat the misstep. The Red Sox of the 21st century consulted the mayor on every ball-club decision that had even the remotest impact on city business. Nothing was too small.

The relentless courtship of Menino paid big dividends as the Sox rebuilt Fenway Park. (According to the ball club, it spent $285 million on Fenway renovations in Henry’s first ten years of ownership.) With Menino’s help, the ball club developed a

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