GreenBayPackerCheerleaders
Things can get ugly pointspread-wise when you start off 12-0
Anatomy of a Disaster: A Parallel Timeline between the 2011 Boston Red Sox and the Demise of the Andrea Gail as Depicted in the Film “The Perfect Storm”
By Chris Marakovitz
Note the Red Sox hat.
It was on September 20, 1991 that the Andrea Gail shipped out off the coast of Massachusetts with the highest of hopes. Like the 2011 Boston Red Sox, the crew of the Gail expected to sail deep into the month of the October.
It was not to be. Not for the Andrea Gail. Not for the 2011 Red Sox.
What follows is a point-by-point breakdown of the demise of the one (2011 Red Sox) in terms of the other (Andrea Gail)- based on depictions offered in the film The Perfect Storm.
Get Aceves up in the bullpen.
1. Meet the Skippers: Billy Tyne and Tito Francona
Admittedly there are some stark differences between the men who presided over the respective disasters. Billy Tyne had a chip on his shoulder. He had something to prove- maybe too much to prove. Tito acted like a man with far too little to prove.
Billy Tyne was quick to verbally bitchslap any member of his crew who showed the slightest indication of going soft. Tito enabled the considerable softness in his own ranks by coddling and defending a crew of overpaid, underachieving clowns.
Billy Tyne was restless. Tito Francona was complacent. What they had in common was a willingness to believe- even in the face of contrary evidence- that they were on the right course, that everything would work out in the end.
Key Quotes:
Tyne: “I always find the fish. Always! And I will this time. So don’t fuck with me!”
Red Sox Equivalent: Francona’s generally entitled and condescending attitude, as if to say: “Calm down, you nitwit fans and media, I’ve won two rings. So don’t fuck with me!”
2. The Journey Begins: Things Don’t Go as Planned
Like the 2011 Red Sox, the guys on the Andrea Gail thought success was inevitable. Perhaps they thought it would come easily. But it doesn’t work that way. You have to want it. You have to earn it. And right from the get go, neither the Andrea Gail (no fish) nor the 2011 Red Sox (2-10 start) were delivering the goods.
Key Quotes:
Bobby Shatford: “Hey. You promised me a shitload of fish!”
Red Sox Nation: “Has Carl Crawford ever actually played baseball before?”
3. The Hot Streak
Sometimes, though, you just can’t hold a good team down. Everything changed for the Andrea Gail when Billy Tyne busted a move and hit the motherlode at the old Flemish Cap. For the 2011 Red Sox it was a mid-May swing through Yankee Stadium that jumpstarted a 7-0/13-2 run that would get Tito and company right back in the race.
Key Quotes:
Andrea Gail crew: “We’re gonna party at the Crow’s Nest and we’re all gonna get laid- even Bugsy with the fat redhead!”
Red Sox Nation: “Wow. Adrian Gonzalez really does look good in a Red Sox uniform, doesn’t he?”
Ominous.
4. The Ominous Sign
Andrea Gail: The refrigerator dies.
Fucking Bob Brown! The guy who owned the Andrea Gail was a cheap, blood-sucking bastard who refused to get a new refrigerator for the boat when the old one was obviously breaking down. And when it finally died once and for all- the Gail crew faced a tough decision. Sail back home through a brutal storm while the catch is still fresh or wait out the storm and let the fish go bad.
2011 Red Sox: The rapidly spoiling John Lackey openly castigates his fielders from the mound.
Fucking Theo Epstein! The guys who own the Red Sox have so much money they don’t know what to do with it! Just because John Lackey happens to be the next best thing on a weak free agent market the year after after the Yankees land Texeira doesn’t mean you have to go out and throw 5 years, 82.5 million at the guy. Now the 2011 Red Sox face their own difficult choice: try to bring this ship into the port with the likes of John Lackey, Tim Wakefield, Andrew Miller and Eric Bedard rounding out the rotation or, I don’t know, something else maybe? Like how about making Aceves a starter?
5. The Perfect Storm Gathers
Andrea Gail: TV Meteorologist Todd Gross is awestruck by what he sees developing…
Gross: “Look, look at this. We got Hurricane Grace moving north off the Atlantic seaboard. Huge… getting massive. Two, this low south of Sable Island, ready to explode. Look at this. Three, a fresh cold front swooping down from Canada. But it’s caught a ride on the jet stream… and is motoring hell-bent towards the Atlantic. What if Hurricane Grace runs smack into it? Add to the scenario this baby off Sable Island, scrounging for energy. She’ll start feeding off both the Canadian cold front… and Hurricane Grace. You could be a meteorologist all your life… and never see something like this. It would be a disaster of epic proportions. It would be… the perfect storm.”
Red Sox Nation: “Look, look at this. We got complacency creeping up the Atlantic seaboard. Huge…getting masive. Two, injuries are killing us. Youkilis. Buchholz. Beckett and Lester missing some time as well. It’s uncanny. Three, incredible cold streaks gathering momentum. Crawford. Lackey. Even Adrian Gonzalez cooling considerably down the stretch. And what’s worse, there’s the Boston media, just magnifying the slide beyond anything imaginable. And here come the Rays, moving up rapidly in the standings from the south Atlantic. What if they run smack into us? Add to the scenario the increasing sense of panic closing in among Red Sox players over time as they realize the magnitude of what they’re caught up in. A choke job just waiting to happen…feeding off the cold streaks. Who’s pitching today? Wakefield? God help us. You could be a baseball fan all your life and never see something like this. It would be a disaster of epic proportions. It would be…the greatest collapse in baseball history.”
Mayday!
6. Desperate Pleas from the Outside
Remarkably, even with ominous signs piling up, both the Andrea Gail and the 2011 Red Sox sail on, oblivious to their impending doom.
Key Quotes:
Linda Greenlaw [warning Billy over the radio]: “Billy? Get outta there! Come about! Let it- let it carry you out of there! What the hell are you doing? Billy! For Christ sake! You’re steaming into a bomb! Turn around for Christ sake! Billy, can ya hear me? You’re headed right for the middle of the monster! Billy?…” [starts crying]
2011 Red Sox equivalent: A fan warning the Red Sox as Jimi Hendrix finishes playing over the Fenway PA system at the final home game: “Jimi Hendrix has more life than you guys!” [starts crying]
Clooney!
7. Battling the Storm
Andrea Gail: The crew fights valiantly, engaging in numerous acts of selfless heroism to save themselves in the face of insurmountable odds.
2011 Red Sox equivalent: None.
Okay, that’s not totally fair. I can think of maybe two examples worth mentioning:
1. Alfredo Aceves pitches 42 days in a row down the stretch in a desperate bid to bridge the gap between mediocre 5-inning starters and Bard/Pap. If Aceves’ arm goes out within the next year he should sue Tito.
2. Jacoby Ellsbury makes a valiant bid to put the team on his back in the final days and then literally runs into a wall…and drops the ball.
Good God! It's the Tampa Bay Devil Rays!
8. The Really Big Wave
Andrea Gail: Mark Wahlberg and George Clooney- along with movie audiences everywhere- look on in horror as a gargantuan 100 foot wave rises up before them.
2011 Red Sox: During a rain delay in Baltimore, Red Sox players- and Nation fans everywhere- look on in horror as the Tampa Bay Rays mount an impossible comeback from a 7-0 deficit in the eighth inning.
9. Facing the Abyss
Andrea Gail: As the water rises around him, Dale “Murph” Murphy speaks his last words: “This is going to be hard on my little boy.”
2011 Red Sox: As Carl Crawford flails around in left-field and the winning run rounds third, Red Sox dads everywhere cringe: “This is going to be hard on my little boy.”
COMING SOON: The Rock Box Sports 2011 Postseason Preview and Selections…
Week 3: Hilton Picks
Rock Box Sports Hilton Picks for Week 3:
Buffalo
Oakland
Tampa Bay
Chicago
Washington
Top Plays of NFL Week One: Over/Unders
Pittsburgh/Baltimore OVER 36:
Traditionally a low-scoring matchup, but look for this week’s game to divert from the trend. Both defenses have big names, but they’re also aging rapidly- two of the oldest defenses in the league. Meanwhile, the offenses are stocked with dynamic young playmakers. This is particularly true of the Steelers, who hold the potential to field one of the more explosive passing attacks in team history. Roethlisberger goes big in this one, and Flacco, Ray Rice and company put up a few points of their own. Forget the history- this one goes over easy.
New England/Miami UNDER 45.5: The Dolphins defense is better than you think- but their offtense is every bit as bad as you think. Meanwhile, the Pats look to be much improved on defense with a beefed up d-line and good young players like devin mccourty, patrick chung and jermaine cunningham emerging rapidly. Offensively, Pats may be a tad unsettled along the offensive line and in the receiving corps. Miami has enough on “D” to slow them down a bit and on the flipside New England’s new look defense should be able to handle Henne and company. It all adds up to a lower scoring game than one might think.
Week One Hilton Contest Picks for rockboxsports.com:
St. Louis, Buffalo, Washington, Carolina, Cincinnati
Heisman Vote: A Look at the 105 Who Left Cam Newton Off the Ballot
What do we know about the 105 voters who left Cam Newton off the Heisman ballot? In a perfect world the ballots of all 105 would be public. While that’s not the case as of now, we do have a small subset of that 105 from which we might get a glimpse into the demographics of the anti-Cam vote. To my knowledge, six sportswriters (heretofore referred to as “the public six”) have openly declared that they submitted a ballot sans Newton: Mike Bianchi, Orlando Sentinel; Gene Frenette, Florida Times Union; David Whitley, AOL Fanhouse; Kyle Tucker, Virginian-Pilot; Bob Molinaro, Virginian-Pilot; and Philadelphia-based writer Michael Bradley. A seventh writer, Seth Emerson of the Macon Telegraph, indicated that he abstained in order to avoid casting a vote for Newton.
Worth noting here, perhaps, is the fact that everyone on this list is white. Five of the seven are based in the south. Of course this doesn’t mean that all 105 who stiff-armed Newton were southern whites, but our small sample does hint at a trend in that direction.
(If there is an African-American voter out there who left Cam off the ballot, please, by all means declare yourself.)
Meantime, while we don’t have the data to construct a racial breakdown of the entire 105 as compared to the overall population of Heisman voters, we can get some small semblance of such a comparison in regards to ballot content itself. Whether the ballots of the anti-Cam crew have any more “integrity” than the average ballot is a matter of debate. If the public six are any indication, however, their ballots were a tad whiter.
Looking at the overall Heisman voting population we see that Newton came in first followed by Andrew Luck of Stanford and LaMichael James of Oregon. In other words, one white guy on the typical Heisman ballot. Looking at the ballots of five anti-Cam voters (Michael Bradley, to my knowledge, did not disclose who he voted for), we see that all five had two white players in their top three and four of the five put a white player at the top of their ballot.
The only writer in the group to give his vote to an African-American player was Frenette, who voted for Oklahoma State wide receiver Justin Blackmon. He followed up with Moore second and Luck third. Tucker and Molinaro both had Luck first and Moore second or third. Tucker had LaMichael James third (the only James vote on any of the declared anti-Cam ballots) while Molinaro had Auburn defensive lineman Nick Fairley second. Bianchi seemed inclined to associate “integrity” with whiteness as well, placing Moore at the top of his ballot.
And then there was Whitley who, apparently confusing the Heisman Trophy with the Boy Scout of the Year Award, had Stanford’s Owen Marecic (white) number one, followed by Colorado offensive lineman Nate Solder (white) and Texas’ Sam Acho (African-American). Again, in keeping with the trend, white guy number one and two white guys overall.
Does any of this mean that there was an element of racial bias in the voting of the 105? That the word “integrity” has been applied as a euphemism, either conscious or subconscious, for the word “white?”
That where there’s smoke there must be fire?
Honestly?
I don’t know.
While I have snippets of information that imply very indirectly that this may be the case, I don’t have nearly enough to know the truth.
Speculation is well and good, but I don’t make final judgements without all the facts.
And that’s precisely why, if I had the chance, I’d vote Cam Newton for Heisman.
RANDY MOSS TRADE RINGS FAMILIAR IN NEW ENGLAND
Once upon a time, before the championships, there was Terry Glenn.
We’ve seen this before in New England. A young, scrappy team looking for an identity. A dynamically talented malcontent receiver. A decision: cut bait and move on. Initial feelings of apprehension. Yeah, we know the guy was a troublemaker, but, seriously, how can this offense succeed without its biggest offensive threat?
And all we get is a third round pick in return? No players to help us this season? An offensive lineman maybe? A pass rusher? We could use a veteran cornerback.
It has to make you wonder. Are the Pats packing it in for the season, building for the future?
That’s exactly how it went down in New England- in 2001. The early days of the Belichick regime. Tom Brady had just taken over at quarterback for injured Drew Bledsoe. The Patriots offense looked positively anemic at the time, with the exception of speed demon wide receiver Terry Glenn. Problem is, Glenn was a moaner. He was fragile, physically and emotionally. In 2001 he wanted a new contract. He intimated that he was giving less than full effort, and perhaps missing time with phantom injuries, because his contract situation was unresolved.
That was the final straw. Belichick took the rare step of deactivating his best player for the rest of the season. Not trading. Deactivating.
This, remember, was before we all knew that Belichick was Belichick. Who the hell was this guy? Doesn’t he know you need good players to win?
The season looked hopeless.
And then, the young, scrappy team found its identity- as exactly that- a team. The rise of Brady. The wholly unexpected playoff berth. The tuck-rule. The Bledsoe reprise in the AFC Championship Game in Pittsburgh. Bruschi. Troy Brown. And, then, finally, the Super Bowl in New Orleans where the Patriots chose to be introduced as a team and where- as a team- they shocked the world and the St. Louis Rams, winning the first of three Super Bowl championships.
A lot of things happened along the road to that moment. But it all started within a matter of weeks, early in the season, with arrival of one man, Tom Brady, and the forced departure of another, Terry Glenn.
Six years and those three championships later they brought in Randy Moss. The ghost of Terry Glenn, you might call it, though Moss was even more talented. The feeling was that veteran leadership and the established credibility of three Lombardi Trophies could be keep Moss in line. Keep his selfish impulse in check. And it worked- for a while. Some records were broken. They went to another Super Bowl. But they didn’t win it. In fact, they haven’t won a championship now in six years. The veteran leaders, aside from Brady, are long gone. This year’s collection of players looks a lot more like the 2001 Pats than the 2007 edition.
And recently, as it always happens, things turned sour with Moss. While Tom Brady and Wes Welker and Danny Woodhead and Patrick Chung were reminding the world (and themselves) what New England Patriot football is supposed to look like on Monday night in Miami, Moss couldn’t find it within himself to be happy for his teammates. He was pissed off that he hadn’t caught a pass. That he’d been targeted only once.
Enough. They shipped him out.
This time we get it. Or at least we should.
Belichick is Belichick.
Moss is Moss.
And the Patriots-once again- are starting to look like a team.
NLDS PREVIEW AND PREDICTION: GIANTS VS. BRAVES
Lincecum is back in form.
It’s been apparent for the last few years that if the San Francisco Giants could ever find a way to get into the postseason they’d be truly dangerous. Whereas some teams are built for regular season success (with four or five solid starters and a few big bats) this Giants team is tailor made for the postseason with dominant front-end pitching. Yes they’re offensively challenged, but this is less of a factor in October when games are tight and low-scoring and, as the cliché goes, good pitching beats good hitting. Atlanta, meanwhile, might be even worse offensively at this stage and their starting pitching, while certainly strong, is not dominant at any spot in the rotation. Tim Hudson and Derek Lowe are wily vets, and they’re capable of putting up zeroes, but it’s hard to find any facet of the game that the Braves do better than the Giants. Atlanta’s strength is pitching, but the Giants are better both in the rotation and in the bullpen. San Fran’s weakness is offense, but with Aubrey Huff, Buster Posey and the resurgent Pat Burrell, they have an element of power that the Braves are sorely lacking. This is San Fran’s series to lose. If they play up to par, they’ll take care of business and move on to a much tougher challenge most likely against the Phillies in the NLCS.
The Pick: Giants in Four.
<object style=”height: 344px; width: 425px”><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/W5D2Kt5JjjE”><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”><param name=”allowScriptAccess” value=”always”><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/W5D2Kt5JjjE” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” allowScriptAccess=”always” width=”425″ height=”344″></object>
