Gone

Manny’s gone, just like the Coke bottles. There’s been all kinds of press all week about Manny’s departure. First his discontent, then the public airing of differences, then the rumors, then the trade, and finally the post-mortem. Was it good for the team? Can they ever replace Manny’s spot in the line-up? How does everyone feel about this in the clubhouse? I’ve waxed eloquent on many occasions about Manny’s batting prowess – how he’s one of the top RBI producers in the history of the game – how his numbers can reach rarified heights if he keeps playing for another five years or so. And in years past, I’ve often complained about front office decisions which let good players slip away. Why we never resigned Orlando Cabrera after he helped win the first World series in 86 years. But I’m not going to criticize anyone on this trade. Manny obviously wanted to go, and although he had expressed discontent in the past, it had never before seemed to interfere with either his play or the team. This time, more was going on. You can sense that in the other players’ comments; in the suggestion that the front office solicited certain players’ input. And I’m not even going to suggest we look back, or think about what might have been with the lethal combo of Manny and Papi still in the lineup. Instead, it’s just like the deal of the cards. There’s no sense bemoaning what happened. Let’s just play what we’re dealt.

Meanwhile, we were in Fenway last Monday to see the Sox lose the first game of three to the Angels. It was a game they should have won, even with Dice-K blowing up for one inning, and staking the Angels to a lead. Four innings the Sox left runners in scoring position. There were a couple bad breaks – Lowrie lining the ball hard with two men on base, but hitting it right to the shortstop. Manny got doubled off second. Lowell doing the same in one of the late innings, hitting it right at the left fielder. But there were far too many missed opportunities; too few timely hits.

What I noticed for the first time that night was that the Coke bottles are gone. How did that happen? And how come it happened so silently, so secretively? The Coke bottles had become something of a good luck charm, sitting high above the monster. In 2004, Millar had a game where he hit three home runs, the last of them off one of the Coke bottles. In 2007, Game Seven of the ALCS, after the Sox had blown the game open in the eighth inning, Youk punctuated the victory, put an exclamation point on the pennant, by hitting the Coke bottle off Jensen Lewis. Of course, it occasionally backfired, when some visiting batter would do this, but mostly, it always seemed to me like the Sox were the ones who hit the Coke bottles. Hard to think of two Boston icons disappearing in one season.

Jason Bay endeared himself to the Fenway faithful last night, by scoring both of Boston’s runs in a 2-1 win. And the second run, the walk-off run in the bottom of the twelfth, resulted from Bay running hard on a fly ball off the monster, and ending up on third base. A triple. I noticed that Bay is wearing 44. That’s the number they gave Cabrera when he replaced Nomar in 2004. I think if we get KG to come back to the park and toss out the first pitch, wearing that ring that Russell promised him, or at least a championship T, we can get some of the good karma we need for these next two months. Is that a good plan, or what?