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Black and Blue Sox In bad news Boston, nothing is right for the Red Sox
By John Donovan, CNNSI.com The promise of spring lasted about two days in Boston. Then there was Nomar Garciaparra's wrist, and the realization that Pedro Martinez probably is good for only 25 or 30 wins, max. There were Carl Everett's busing problems and, suddenly, Jimy Williams is shaking up the lineup and making a star of a guy named Shea and hacking off two of the guys the team really needs. Are the Red Sox going to be fun to watch or what? "Stupid," Jose Offerman said of Williams' decision to platoon him at first base, after he thought he would be the full-time second baseman. "This is a position I cannot accept at this point," said designated hitter Dante Bichette after being informed that he'll only DH against lefthanders. He expected to be the full-time DH. The capper: They lost to the Baltimore Orioles on Monday. With Martinez on the mound. And so it goes in Red Sox Nation, which looks awfully ripe for an uprising. And soon.
Lose one pennant ...Don't look now -- or maybe you better look quickly -- but the Cleveland Indians' long streak of sellouts has about come to an end. The Indians sold out Monday's game against the Chicago White Sox -- the 455th straight sellout at Jacobs Field -- but Wednesday's tilt against the White Sox is in danger of snapping the streak. And if that somehow sells out, the Indians are still looking for more willing season ticket buyers for the rest of their homestand. The three games remaining in their first homestand, after Wednesday's, all had more than 5,000 seats apiece remaining as of the weekend. One reason might be ticket prices. The Indians boast -- is that the right word? -- the seventh-highest average ticket price in the majors, at $22.33 a ducat. They also are coming off a non-playoff season, the first time they missed the playoffs since the AL Central was formed for the 1994 season. The streak began on June 12, 1995.
A's 0, Giambi 0, fans 0The biggest non-story of the spring ended with the first pitch of the new season when the Oakland A's failed to nail down an extension for slugger and team heartbeat Jason Giambi. The A's are offering some big money -- six years and $90 million -- but Giambi is holding out for a no-trade clause, something the A's are dead-set against. "It's just kind of a stalemate, I guess," Giambi told reporters. Giambi has vowed not to let the ongoing talks bother his season, but the way things look now, there may not be much talking. The two sides evidently haven't talked in more than a week. If that continues, there's no way that will sit very well with the slugger or his growing legion of fans all over baseball.
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"If there is anything out there that is insane it's not football. It's baseball and basketball. Have we not moved backwards as a society from the ancient Romans? Then they killed each other in the Coliseum and charged nothing for it. We, however, pay outrageous ticket prices to see self-proclaimed superstars trash talk each other and act more childish then our own children. But these are the people we want our children to idolize."
