By Bob Lobel (@boblobel)
It's time for the annual spring pivot. You must know what I'm talking about, Red Sox die-hards.
Spring training began six weeks ago, and the optimism was abundant! Oh yeah, the usual stuff about chubby players, rich players that should be able to play better, or at least show they want to win. And, of course, the annual "will the manager get past memorial day?"
It was all totally harmless back then. The pitching staff will be ready, the team will be ready, blah, blah, blah!
So here comes the the annual spring pivot.
With the countdown under seven days until the opener, panic starts to set in. The pitching is not ready. The bullpen is faceless, and there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to how they get ready to play.
They do have some really outstanding young players, versatile ones too. So why are we in pivot mode? Because it's what we do. We really know nothing about this team, except that David Ortiz is already old. Let's say he doesn’t have such a great year. In fact, let's say he has a terrible year and the club is floundering.
For fun, let's say that this is happening in July. Everything is coming up down. Except that the gifts keep piling up for Ortiz, and that becomes the focus of the season.
If he had a better spring, I would not be pivoting so much. But he is not the only one. The rest will go unnamed. There is subtle pressure already on Farrell. Unable to answer a question in a straight forward manner, it's all about slipping around the subject at hand with no real answer at all. Sounds like some candidate for president.
Will Trump call the Red Sox and ask to throw out the first ball some night? Does he get to pick the person he throws it to?
God forbid we find out that he threw it to an illegal alien from Cuba.
Talk about a bad day.
So, with the NFL Draft looming and the other local teams in shock, this is what we get. No wonder we are pivoting. Three last-place finishes and one World Series in the last four years. No wonder the pivot has back in full throttle.
And by the way, was there really a column trying to compare David to Ted? Nah, I must have had a bad dream. A result of, once again, pivoting.
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