Amen Schill

Totally agree with everything Schill said on ESPNBoston radio today:

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/red-sox/post/_/id/14744/schill-lack-of-player-discipline-not-on-tito

“You can’t make these players do what they need to do if they’re not going to do it themselves,” Schilling said. “He put the names on the lineup card, but it’s up to the players to execute.”

Schilling and Francona go way back. Not only was Schilling on Francona’s Red Sox teams from 2004-07, he was also on the Phillies team that got Francona fired in 1999.

“It was very personal, a very distressing thing for me to be a part of when you are part of a team that costs someone his job, especially if it’s someone you respect and love and like and is a close friend,” Schilling said. “It’s a horrible feeling. But there are a lot of players that don’t care, and, in that (Red Sox) clubhouse, based on everything that those guys have said, there’s probably a couple of guys in that clubhouse, which is pathetic and sad in and of itself.”

Schilling discussed reports that have surfaced recently about the bad chemistry and lack of discipline that were present in this Red Sox clubhouse, saying those were more a reflection of a lack of leadership among the players than any fault of Francona.

“In past years, you always had a personality in that clubhouse who would make it very clear whose fault it was. It doesn’t generally get to this stage when you’ve got players in the clubhouse that can handle this stuff themselves,” Schilling said. “(Francona) was always a guy who had a team comprised of players that ran the spectrum, but he always had personalities to help him manage the clubhouse. Every manager has to.

“The days of the manager running through the clubhouse and turning stuff over and fearing guys into performing is gone in baseball. It’s been gone for a long time. The smarter managers understood it before a lot of the other managers did: You need players that will police themselves and police each other. We always had that here.

“It’s very clear, when you look around this team, you’ve got some guys — the Pedroias, the Ellsburys, the Papelbons, the Variteks — they’re not guys who are going to stand up in the clubhouse. That’s not their makeup. That’s the big piece. You can’t have a guy be that because he’s your best player. You have to have a guy, multiple guys in the clubhouse who do that, regardless of what their batting average or ERA is. That’s the challenge.

“Doug Mirabelli was a tremendous clubhouse presence. He wasn’t an everyday player, but Doug Mirabelli was not afraid to talk to anyone based on their status on the team. Orlando Cabrera‘s first week in this clubhouse, he marched back to Manny Ramirez‘s locker and, literally, they almost got into a fight because Manny asked himself out of the lineup. Orlando said, ‘Listen, no, you’re playing.’ Mike Lowell, another one. Those guys, I don’t know that they have those guys.”

If the Red Sox are to get rid of Francona (they say no final decision has been made, though all signs point to his departure), they might as well start from scratch, says Schill, because they’d be losing the one guy with the makeup to handle that clubhouse.

“I would argue that with this group of players, with this group of players in this market, that Terry Francona is one of the few guys that can manage this team,” Schilling said. “If you’re going to get rid of him I think you have to blow it all up.”

Schilling also called Adrian Gonzalez’s comments blaming injuries, schedule and “God’s plan” for the team’s collapse “embarrassing” and an example of the type of excuse-making that he doesn’t think is tolerated by Sox fans.

“God’s plan was to put a test in front of him that they did not pass, in my mind,” Schilling said. “Don’t embarrass yourself and disrespect the game, the organization and the fans by making excuses.

“These are smart fans. The last thing they want to hear is something other than ‘I failed’. There are guys on the team that just don’t get that. These (fans) are smart people. When you throw six innings and give up five runs and you sit in front of the media and say ‘I felt good, I thought I threw the ball well,.’ (the fans) roll their eyes and laugh. They know the game.”

Sad Day

And so it seems today will be the last day with Tito as our manager.  UPDATE:  As I was writing this, McAdam has confirmed he is out.  I think today is a sad day and hope everyone appreciates what we had in him, which in my opinion is the greatest manager in the history of the Red Sox.  At no other point in this team’s history has another manager had to deal with the media, personalities, and expectations surrounding this team and he was the perfect manager for it.  But, like any great coach, their voice starts to weaken as the composition and personality of the team changes and that appears to have happened here.  The sad part to me is Tito’s eventual firing is more an indictment on Theo and the types of players he brought in here than Tito’s performance.  Sure it sounds like Tito could’ve done more to exercise some authority and leadership with this group, but what option do they have but to let Tito go?  Something had to change with this team, and unfortunately it isn’t going to be the overpaid, lazy veterans on long-term deals that nobody wants…they aren’t going anywhere, so Tito has be the fall guy.

In the wake of yesterday’s press conference, I’ve been trying to make sense of what happened to this team.  One thing that is slightly comforting to me as a devoted fan of this team is what we saw was actually the case.  I said a few weeks ago when the collapse was beginning that this team didn’t seem to have any fun or any external chemistry, and it turns out it was even worse than we could’ve imagined.  When Peter Gammons’ story came out last week about Tito managing for his job, I thought it was crazy, especially in light of the fact he used John Lackey staring him down as he took the ball from him as an example of a disconnect between him and Theo.  But in light of some other stories trickling out from Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman about the clubhouse chemistry, it perfectly crystallizes the concept that the inmates were running the asylum and Tito recognized he was helpless here and started to distance himself from the team.  Tito should’ve been LIVID with Lackey for having the gall to stare him down after giving up 11 hits and 8 runs, but the very fact Lackey would think he can get away with that just totally makes sense.  Sherman makes an excellent parallel to the end of Joe Torre’s tenure with the Yankees, where his laid-back approach wasn’t working with the new personality of the team, and that seems to be exactly what has happened here.  Heyman makes references towards “cliques,” specifically between Beckett, Lester, Lackey, and Varitek, and that totally makes sense.  I saw Gordon Edes reference on SportsCenter this morning that Tito didn’t appreciate pitchers drinking in the clubhouse on days they weren’t pitching, and that seems to feed into his assessment yesterday that the team was focused on things other than each other and winning.  John Tomase has more info on this with information from sources who were at the meeting.  Look no further than Tim Wakefield’s “quest” for 200 which nobody gave two sh-ts about except him…btw, Edes has the best take on things today and is standing by outside Fenway Park weasing on cars coming and going.

Big picture, today’s events are not Tito’s fault.  This is yet another example of Theo not placing enough value on the intangibles of team building by just signing high-priced free agents to long-term deals and throwing them together.  Teams are comprised of distinct personalities that come together to form a unit that fights for each other, has each other’s back, and fights through adversity.  Obviously you need talent to win, but I think our underachieving 90 wins was a direct result of just how far talent can bring you…talent can’t help you fight through adversity.

So what’s next?  What type of manager is going to come in here now?  If they think Bobby Bleeping Valentine is the answer I might burn all of my Red Sox gear, what an asshat that guy is.  Is DeMarlo Hale ready for the job?  He’s interviewed for several positions over the years…you wanna know who would’ve been perfect for this team?  John Farrell, the guy is a total hardass who holds people accountable and also has the baseball acumen to work well with the stats-oriented front office.  I really don’t know how you can feel good about this team going into next year…its not like a new manager can come in here and whip a bunch of veterans into shape when they’re the ones making all of the money and literally can’t be moved.  If money wasn’t an option, I think the problem players are Lackey, Youk, Beckett, Wakefield just to name a few.

Plenty more to come from this space, the message here is to appreciate Terry Francona and the unprecedented success he lead here for 8 seasons.  He’ll go down as the greatest manager in the history of this franchise in my opinion and seemed like a genuinely good guy that players absolutely love playing for.  Unless he writes a book with someone, which I doubt he will but would be a full pants-tent for any Sox fan, we’ll never truly know what went on behind the scenes that an old-school baseball guy like him had to grin & bear for years.  As much as I like him, I have to agree it is time for a change…once you lose a team, you can’t get them back and this same exact team is coming back next season.  Looking forward to getting that email about 2012 tickets?  Me neither…