Scott Cordischi On Sports: Lying Larry A Laugh A Minute!
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Know how to tell when Red Sox President and CEO Larry Lucchino is lying? His lips are moving!
The 2013 Major League Baseball season hasn’t even begun and already Red Sox management is picking up where they left off, which is to say turning us all off with their behavior.
Last week Lucchino met the media in Fort Myers where the team has opened their camp for Spring Training. Unfortunately, what came out of his mouth was the same old B.S. we have now come to expect from him and this current ownership group.
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Among Pinocchio’s lines was the fact that he believes that this year’s team should be considered “scrappy underdogs.” Really? How is it that a team whose payroll is in the neighborhood of $170 million to be considered any type of underdog?
Try telling the good people of Pittsburgh ($55m), Oakland ($60m) or Tampa Bay ($60m) that your franchise is an “underdog.” I doubt you’ll be able to find a buyer for what you’re selling.
Although I must admit that I do think that there is a modicum of truth to what Lucchino said. The franchise that he operates has been an absolute “dog” for the past season-plus. A mutt is more like it!
Then there was Lucchino trying to sell to us the idea that the team’s franchise-record 793-game sellout streak is indeed legitimate. While acknowledging that it will likely be coming to an end soon, Lucchino claims that by “baseball’s definition” of sellout, that the streak is 100% legit. However, he cautioned us not to use the “dictionary definition” of sellout. Hmmmmm. I wonder why? Is it because the dictionary definition is the right one?
I know when I attended games at Fenway last year and saw thousands of empty seats in the upper reaches of right field, that the ballpark was packed. I convinced myself that the $9 dollar beers that I had been drinking were clearly affecting my vision and that the people sitting in right field must have simply been dressed like empty seats.
But Lucchino’s fibs didn’t stop there.
Lying Larry’s best fib was the one he told us when he claimed “not to have read” Dan Shaughnessy’s book entitled “Francona: The Red Sox Years.”
Lucchino claims that he, John Henry and Tom Werner chose not to read it because they believed that there were probably too many inaccuracies within its pages that they would want to dispute and he didn’t want to waste energy doing that.
To his credit, Shaughnessy challenged Lucchino and Henry to point out any so-called “inaccuracies” so that he could help clarify things for them. Naturally, the Disingenuous Duo didn’t take him up on that offer.
Does Lucchino really expect us to believe that he and his compadres did not read that book? Wow! He really does believe that his consumers (i.e. us) are 5 beers short of a 6-pack, which is to say – morons!
The sad part is that this overly PR-conscious ownership group could very easily get back in our good graces very easily by doing a couple of things.
First and foremost, winning baseball games is the key. When this franchise was winning games, making it to the postseason and winning World Series titles, we put up with their B.S.
When they smeared players’ reputations on their way out the door, we didn’t make a big deal out of it because they won without them. (see: Nomar Garciaparra and others)
But, in the absence of winning, they would be far better off by trying something completely new to them which is being honest with their fans.
We all have eyes and can see what has taken place over the past couple of years. It would be nice for Lucchino and Company to acknowledge the franshise’s short-comings and tell us that they will do everything they can to win us back.
The sooner they realize that Sox fans appreciate honest guys like Terry Francona a hell of a lot more than they do snake oil salesmen like them, the better off they’ll be. And maybe, just, maybe they will stop smearing people on their way out the door which would make them much more likeable than they are right now.
-In stark contrast to the Red Sox ownership group, there’s Celtics forward Kevin Garnett. The hardest working member of the team, Garnett said at the All-Star game in Houston that he wants to “live and die green” and does not want to be traded. Now there’s someone Boston sports fans can wrap their arms around.
-Something tells me that last weekend’s chat with Alfredo Aceves won’t be the last run-in that new manager John Farrell has with his mercurial reliever.
-Leave it to the NCAA to make one of the biggest “bandit programs” like the University of Miami look like a sympathetic figure.
-Let’s see if I have this right. In 2011, the Big East presidents and AD’s turned down a 9-year television deal worth $1.17 billion and are about to agree to a new 7-year deal worth between $20-$23 million per year. Reports claim that the new deal will pay each school about $2 million annually. I was only a math-minor in college but even I can see that this was a disaster for the conference. Smooth move, Ex-Lax!
-It’s time for all of the so-called “power conferences” to band together and say “so long” to the NCAA. They don’t need to waste their money on such an inept organization.
-If anyone who is reading this has been to a restaurant chain called “Flanagan’s” in south Florida, don’t you wish that we had a few up here in southern New England?
-Is it me, or is LeBron James a little less detestable than he was about a year ago at this time?
-Not that I think LeBron’s the greatest of all-time. That title still goes to Michael Jordan.
-Although my father will argue that Bill Russell is the greatest NBA player of all-time. All Russell did was win 11 championships in his 13 years in the league. He also won an NCAA title at San Francisco, an Olympic gold medal and an NBA Championship in an 18-month stretch. And, in this day and age where we look at the great scorers as those who are among the greatest of all-time, Russell had more than 20,000 rebounds in his career which is a feat that will likely never be duplicated.
-Words With Friends or Hanging With Friends? Which is your favorite app?
-Glenn Ordway was a Boston sports radio institution and will be missed.
