Red Sox Winter Weekend in Review
The Red Sox Winter Weekend had been on my radar since it was first announced in early December and it was very exciting to think about all the players that would be there, past and present. The list of events even increased my excitement. Close to 40 players were slated to attend. The weather forecast dropped like a ton of bricks on my plans. It was continually shifting, two feet of snow, then down to a few inches. My nearly three hour trip almost did not happen, but the snow wasn’t coming until Saturday, so I was going even if it was alone. The news came on Friday that newly acquired mega-free agent
was slated to attend as well. My friend drove as he is a Foxwoods veteran, a semi-pro poker player who had been there dozens of times. Once we discovered we were in the proper place, lunch plans were made and event passes were acquired.
This article is intended to serve both as a review of the event and the venue and possibly a guide for those who might be going next year. Before these events get closer to next year’s event rather than this year’s, let’s take a look at the festivities.
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A preview of the weekends events was presented with team bigwigs John Henry, Tom Werner and Sam Kennedy all in attendance. As the players filed off the stage, Manager John Farrell removed his uniform jersey to come back out, joined by President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski and General Manager Mike Hazen. These six answered fan questions, go forward to page five of this piece to see a few of the things all of them said.
While this writer is not the best photographer, you can tell that player is Wade Boggs who made an appearance at the event to get his #26 jersey back from Brock Holt who came out and ceremonially took Boggs’ number off his back and helped the Hall of Famer put it back on. This was a surprise to this audience member as it was not on the program for the event.
Perhaps it was the coming snow that kept people away, but unlike the Saturday events, this was not a full house as there were many empty seats toward the back of the hall.
Event Logistics
There were numerous staff roaming the rooms looking for event goers to help, even one standing in the lobby with a sign on a pole offering to answer any questions people might have.
When entering the ballrooms for events the staff were insistent that people exit through particular doors. With the exception of the beginning and ending of the event, this seemed like a pointless exercise as there was no hazard to just go out any door when you were the only one trying to get out of the room.
One of the best amenities you could imagine for those who rely on their phones, which is pretty much everyone between the ages of 10 and 60 and beyond, were at least two charging stations for all manner of devices with six spots per station to juice up your device. As someone with an older phone, an IPhone 4, this was a welcome sight as this device tends to go through power very quickly. A useful thing my tech savvy buddy told me was to get on any available WiFi network offered as that preserves your power better, in addition to using less data.
For next year’s events, come with questions. It appeared initially that only the Town Hall was going to allow questions, but every event has a question and answer opportunity.
Changes Needed
The events on Saturday were too close together and got in the way of checking out of my room on Saturday, the deadline for which was 11 am. All due respect to Foxwoods, but Friday nights cost $229 for a room, so a second night ($400 for a Saturday night, but was sold out anyway), even with a storm coming, was not a feasible option.
Perhaps some sort of premium ticket which could guarantee a seat in an event would be a good idea. There were premium areas for season ticket holders, perhaps another area for higher priced ticket holders could guarantee more access. This writer was just ten minutes late, due to checking out, for the Outfielder event with my all-time favorite player, Fred Lynn, but the line to get a seat was at least 50 people long and if I wanted to get a seat at the Infielder event, I couldn’t wait in the other line. Then, during the infielder event, I knew that I couldn’t watch that whole thing or I would never have gotten a seat in the 1986 team event as they overlapped by 15 minutes. Even leaving early from the Infielder event where Pedroia was breaking up the room with his jokes, I barely got a seat in the 1986 event. There was no way to see the 1986 event then go to the event with Pedro Martinez and Jason Varitek for which people started lining up early.
Space the events out more. There was only the Town Hall on Friday night. A couple player events could happen that evening as well as the player events could be spaced out into the evening on Saturday. Someone who took the time to come to this event (I came from 3 hours away) should be able to see every event if they want to. If you are not coming with kids and don’t need to know how fast you can run or throw a ball, the events on top of each other also leave you little time for enjoying the trophy display, of which my brief view was spectacular, and the merchandise area.
Best Moments
Going by each event, here are some interesting things heard at the forums I was able to attend.
Town Hall
- Favorite movies/players of the brass: Fever Pitch and Stan Musial (Henry), Major League and Wille Mays (Werner), The Shawshank Redemption and Wade Boggs (Kennedy) Braveheart and Mickey Mantle (Dombrowski) Gladiator and Jim Rice (Hazen) and Jaws and Tom Seaver (Farrell).
- When asked how he will replace David Ortiz‘ 35 homers and 100 RBI, Dombrowski he said he won’t worry about that until after the season (a nice way of saying he has no idea)
- When asked about how players train in the offseason, Farrell said there was a specific plan starting November 1 for each player which was highly detailed to their situation.
Baseball Operations
- President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski could not name anything good about management giving players opt-out clauses which is now a popular negotiating tool.
- With all the talk of signing the young core players to long term deals, Dombrowski said the player has to be open to it and he tries not to talk about contract negotiations publicly.
- Dombrowski said a player isn’t trained at multiple positions unless their skill set shows an aptitude for success at the new position. Management wants to avoid confusing the player by putting too much on his plate.
- General Manager Mike Hazen said to advance in baseball operations for a major league team you need a passion for it and a variety of skills on your resume. You also need to work long hours for very little money.
- Hazen said the newest metrics are to predict when a player might be breaking down and stop an injury before it happens
- Hazen said in regard to trading prospects said you can never have too much talent.
1986 Team Event
- Dwight Evans said Bob Stanley was not beating Mookie Wilson to the bag even if Bill Buckner had fielded the ball cleanly in 1986 World Series game 6, that is why Buckner had to hurry and missed the ball. After the highlight reel of the 1986 season showing Evans pimping some Fenway homers, apparently his other talent was throwing teammates under the bus.
- In the 1986 forum, other players were asked if they had similar eating rituals to Boggs. Evans piped up that he ate pesto a lot before the games and Bruce Hurst chimed in that they all knew he ate pesto, all too well.
Infielder Event
- When asked what he would be doing if not baseball, Pedroia said he would be a middle linebacker. Bogaerts followed him by saying he would be a teacher to which Pedroia said those media classes were really paying off for Bogie.
- Bogaerts is the most superstitious of all the players. Pedroia said Bogie throws his gum and one time Pedey caught it and ate it. “Is that wrong”? he chirped.
- On offseason preparation, Bogaerts said he is from Aruba, so he goes to the beach to train in the offseason.
- President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski could not name anything good about management giving players opt-out clauses which is now a popular negotiating tool.
In a long offseason, such a Winter Weekend is a great treat for fans to see players old and new and despite all the obstacles, I wouldn’t hesitate to make the three hour trek again to have another great Red Sox experience.
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