Most of you know that the Baseball Furies was a gang from the movie, The Warriors.  If you don’t know, the basis of the movie was that The Warriors themselves had one night to fight their way through a bunch of gangs to get back to their home turf of Coney Island.  One of the opening sequences was a scene of the ferris wheel called the Wonder Wheel.  When I think about that scene, the concept of the ferris wheel and the analogy of getting back to where you started it is the perfect analogy for the Red Sox off-season.

Theo’s back.  Sure I’m happy.  Theo has made a lot of good decisions in his young career and most tend to brush under the carpet the bad ones.  That’s OK.  Win a World Series in this town and you tend to be forgiven for the Jeremy Giambi and Ramiro Mendoza signings.  I’m not going to do cartwheels over this, but I love how the media was up in arms about a lack of a press conference.  Instead the Sox had small, scheduled, meetings with members of the media.  So why the anger and hostility?  It gets so annoying, especially when you whine about a situation that was actually better for everyone.  I have seen many press conferences and from what I can pull from it is that you have a bunch of people jockeying each other for verbal position to ask questions that will be the basis of your stories.  How many questions do you really get to ask in your average press conference?  Three?  Four?  Unless you’re covering the Kansas City Royals I’m sure that’s the max in this town.  When given the chance to have Theo and Larry’s undivided attention did your brains explode?  Were you that upset about not following the routine?  Did you realize that you don’t know how to ask more than four questions or were you upset that you wouldn’t get the sweet lunch buffet the Sox put out for the media?  My gut tells me it’s the lunch.  You cheap, silly, people.  Don’t, for one second, think you are serving me, my friends, family and my mailman Ralph.  Unless your name is Chris Snow and you pride yourself on being a good, non-opinionated, writer then you are only serving yourself and the thousands of other ignorant fools who claim they are fans.

If you asked most fans, I’m sure 95% would care more about the product on the field than anything.  I’d say 2% support the team because they are trying hard to get the attention of a guy that they like and the remaining 3% have aspirations of making their first Jumbotron appearance.  You know who you are blonde girl with a pink Johnny Damon jersey and you too kid with a pile of cotton candy stuffed in his mouth.  Can we get down to the business of baseball? 

Sure there is still a hole at center field and shortstop, but has anybody focused on three of the most important decisions (aside from a youth movement) the Red Sox made so far.  They are, in no particular order 1.)  Obtaining an ace caliber pitcher  2.)  Shoring up the bullpen 3.)  Firing Dale Svuem.  Let’s break it down.

Beckett

Yes he has a history of arm issues.  I’m willing to accept that, because I’ve already mentally trained my body to live with pitchers with similar issues.  Remember that guy Pedro Martinez?  Beckett is a bonafide stud and combined with Schilling and Papelbon you have three big boys who can bring the heat.  When was the last time we had three intimidating pitchers?  The last time we had more than one was Clemens and Oil Can Boyd, but Boyd only counted because he was Bobby Brown’s zen master.  We still have a solid offense, but everyone needs to remember that pitching wins championships.  Look at the White Sox.  Sub-300 hitters and a bunch of really good pitchers.  Knowing that we failed for 85 years with rosters consisting of bashers and a suspect pitching staff we should all be more than giddy about this.

The Bullpen

Nobody pitches complete games anymore.  Sure, there is one every so often, but it is now the exception and not the norm.  I like what we have done here.  From what I hear, Foulke is feeling good (only time will prove that), Timlin is Timlin and Julian Tavarez is a madman.  As long as he doesn’t punch out Wally, after a bad performance, we’ll be in good shape.  Now if Delcarmen and Hansen find spots they could be solid all the way through.  I haven’t mentioned Mota, because I’m not sure he’ll be around, but if he stays they’ll have a bunch of guys who can bring it every night.  No more patsy pitchers.  Each and every one of those guys goes after hitters.  Foulke is the closest thing to a finesse pitcher and he’s the damn closer.

No More Svuem

I don’t think anyone understands how good this is.  The Sox will probably score 100 more runs, because I think that’s the number of guys Svuem got thrown out at home by more than 10 feet last year.  Also, no more insane choices to wave home Manny and Papi only to watch them risk life and limb while sliding?  As an aside, should you even be allowed to be a major leaguer if you cannot slide?  That’s as fundamental as catching the ball with two hands and putting your cup in your jock.  Any potential offensive inadequacies you’re worried about will be resolved right there.

We’re a month away from pitchers and catchers reporting and I’m excited.  The team made some tough decisions and swallowed some big pills knowing they wouldn’t be popular ones with the Nation.  PR-wise they took some serious beatings, but they are still standing and the guy who never left is back making the decisions.  I believe these guys are fighting hard to put the right product on the field.  They’re fighting their way back to Fenway.