The Providence Journal, April 3, 2016
The Red Sox, who open their regular season tomorrow, are desperate, in a Make America Great Again kind of way. Their political hats should read At Any Price, following the absurd off-season signing of a 30-year-old pitcher to a contract that pays $31 million per year, for seven years. Meet the new $217 million albatross, David Price, same as the old albatross: Pablo Sandoval, Hanley Ramirez, Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez…
Red Sox ownership, apparently unwise in old age, mirrors the impatient and now toxic Republican Party. Make the Red Sox great again! So last August, they fired their excellent, analytical general manager, Ben Cherington — the last real link to former General Manager Theo Epstein — and tore up the team’s best practices guidelines, with quaint concerns for organizational process and ideals. The playoffs will justify the means.
What a shame. Boston had the top-rated farm system in all of baseball, but like the Republicans under Obama, the Red Sox are poor losers, and couldn’t wait it out like Epstein (who, as president of the increasingly successful Chicago Cubs, is gaining on them) to develop their younger players. Instead, they brought in a finger-pointing dealmaker, David Dombrowski, to be the new president and general manager, and accelerate the Frankenstein team-building worst practices. Free-agent spackled rosters are nothing new, but of the 30 players now on the Red Sox roster, David Price makes more than two-thirds of them combined. Talk about income inequality!
This past summer, No. 1 Cubs fan and actor Bill Murray, on Martha’s Vineyard, lamented that Red Sox Nation used to be “gracious as losers, but are now unbearable as winners." Comedians tell the truth. The same could be said for the Republicans and their presumptive nominee, Donald Trump.
Politicians, and good leaders of all types, build consensus and have success by patiently doing the right thing. We don’t need to win the World Series every year to enjoy life as Red Sox fans, and we don’t need to win every economic trade deal to enjoy life as Americans. Some things take time to develop. Ask any gardener. Ask any parent. Some years you do things that won’t bear fruit for a while. It’s okay.
For the good of the team and the game it’s understandable to have a few down years, while the young players develop. Same thing goes for the U.S. of A. The economy is pretty good. Complicated, but good.
Yet here we are seemingly ready to go over the falls with Trump as Republican candidate for president, and then what would be the unthinkable for many, President Trump. As strong as the country is from the bottom up, a rotten top may make a world champion fragile beyond belief.
The Red Sox ownership are all in, at any Price, but it's a narrow unsustainable path. The obscene salary for David Price will corrupt the team on the field, and be a burden for the organization off the field in the years to come. The mentality for winning at David's price is bad for Red Sox Nation, and not just the sad sight of ordinary fans paying millions of their hard-earned dollars to bring young families to Fenway Park. Too much money and greed changes the equation, and expectations. We're at a tipping point between being curious and unbearable.
A game at Fenway Park last year was still a beautiful experience, despite the outcome on the field. The sky was blue, the stadium green and snug for all the incredible sights and sounds of baseball. Don't take that away from us. Winning wasn't the only thing.
Remember that on Election Day.
Chip Benson, an occasional contributor, has a home in East Matunuck.