Red Sox Winter Weekend in Review

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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