Ouch! Ow! Oh no! My guess is there were many more demonstrative reactions than those from Red Sox fans after Evan Langoria lined a Daniel Bard fastball to center field for the winning run in last night’s game in Tampa. By the way, why wasn’t Langoria walked? After Desmond Jennings hit a ball to right center field that should have been caught had not Ellsbury and MacDonald came close to colliding. Jennings ended up at third base with a triple and nobody out. Bard then got Upton on a weak grounder to first for out number one. When Langoria came up to hit I thought for sure Terry Francona was going to give the intentional walk sign to Bard but it didn’t happen. Langoria is an extremely good RBI man and clutch hitter. Walk him and maybe the next hitter hits into a double play. Didn’t happen. Game over.

The Sox made a terrific comeback in their half of the ninth. Down 5-3, Saltalamacchia hit a homerun to right off of Kyle Farnsworth the Rays closer to make it 5-4. The Red Sox fans who were mostly transplants from New England got very excited about that homerun and Jacoby Ellsbury, the next hitter, got them even more excited when he planted a Farnsworth curve ball in the stands to deep  right field to tie the game 5-5. After Pedroia, the next hitter, doubled to left center, the Sox hitters could not get him across for the go-ahead run. Tough loss for the Red Sox and Tampa is inching up in the Wild Card race. I don’t think they’ll overtake the Sox but you never know.

In this game, and many other games during the season, we see how important the Closer is to a team’s success. You would think just about any major league pitcher could hold a lead of one to two runs in the ninth inning but it just isn’t that easy. When a team is behind, by a run or even two in their last at bats, the hitters get pumped up and the adrenalin starts to flow. Most teams have good closers so you’re facing someone with an excellent fastball and maybe a good splitter or curveball. As a hitter you have to look for the pitch he throws most often. Forget the other pitches until you get two strikes.

In last night’s game, Kyle Farnsworth, the Tampa Bay Closer, throws Jacoby Ellsbury a curve ball and he hits a homerun to tie the game. The curve is his second best pitch. His fastball is clocked at ninety seven. How stupid was he to get beat with his second best pitch? On the other hand, John Papelbon pitched two superb innings using his high velocity fastball, which is his best pitch, and was very effective. Bard lost the game on a fastball that was neck high to Langoria so we can’t second-guess his pitch selection. The only thing we can second-guess is why Langoria was hitting at all.

John Lackey is an enigma. Since signing with the Red Sox as a free agent in 2009 he has shown very little consistency and command of his pitches. Sure, he’s been effective at times but overall he’s been a big disappointment to the fans and the Red Sox organization. Everyone knows he’s had family health issues and that would affect any of us but he seems to have adjusted to that problem.
 
 Last night in Tampa he looked like a minor league rookie pitcher. He had problems throwing strikes once again and when he did throw a hittable pitch Tampa Bay catcher John Jaso parked a three run homer to deep right field putting the Rays up 3-0. Sox lost this one 7-2. Right after giving up the home run Lackey seemed to lose his composure looking more like a thrower than a pitcher. He got behind in the count to almost every hitter and in the third inning he committed the cardinal sin of pitching. He failed to cover first base on a grounder to Adrian Gonzalez. That was a mental mistake and it cost the Red Sox a run. After getting hit with a line drive to his left shin in the third Terry Francona, mercifully, took him out of the game. It was a disgusting outing, period.

 Watching Lackey the last few years, I’m beginning to wonder if he may not have the make-up to pitch in Boston. He has a temper and shows it when things go wrong. He’s thrown tantrums when one of the position players makes an error or doesn’t get to a ball Lackey thought he should have caught. That’s unprofessional and I never would have put up with that. The one pitch he lacks is the change up. He throws a fastball and curve and nothing else. He has to come up with a change up to be effective. If he keeps going the way he’s been, he won’t be the only one throwing tantrums. I don’t think there’s anyone in Red Sox Nation that isn’t pulling for this guy. He’s been very good in post-season play and the Red Sox would love to see him be a factor but he’s got to show something these next few starts or he may not get to pitch in the post-season.

 For a guy whose supposed to be the future closer for the Red Sox, Daniel Bard unraveled big time in the bottom of the eighth inning blowing an 8-5 Red Sox lead. By the time the inning ended the Blue Jays were up 11-10. The Sox almost got Bard off the hook by scoring two runs in the top of the ninth but fell short after Aviles was thrown out trying to steal second base which ended the game.

Francona will get second guessed on that move but I won’t harp on it because the Sox pitchers could not hold down a mediocre hitting Toronto lineup all evening. Wakefield had a chance to finally get his 200th career win but Bard had his worst outing of his career. I was also surprised that Francona left Bard in the ballgame as long as he did. He threw close to forty pitches which is normally the amount he throws in three outings. Why couldn’t Papelbon pitch in the eighth inning? 

The good news from this game is that most of the Sox bats stayed hot. Ellsbury, Papi, Gonzalez, and Scutaro continue to produce the big hits and RBI. This was only one loss but it was a real tough one to take.

Baseball is a humbling game. One day you’re a bum and the next you’re a hero.  After a 1-0 loss in eleven innings to the Blue Jays Monday night the Red Sox bats exploded for twenty hits and fourteen runs in last night’s game. The Sox scored eleven of those runs by the fifth inning. That made it a lot easier for John Lester. I’ll get to him later. The whole lineup got one or more hits except for second baseman Dustin Pedroia. He was hitless but hit a few line drives right at infielders. Scoring 14 runs on 20 hits is not surprising to any of us because the Red Sox have had a number of games where they banged out more hits and scored more runs.

What was interesting to me was the pitching match-up in this game. The Red Sox had John Lester, “the pitcher” start against LHP Luis Perez, “the thrower.” Perez is young with little experience in the big leagues. He’s facing one of the best hitting teams in all of baseball. In his three plus innings of work he made more pitches down the middle of the plate than Lester made in his last three starts. He got the sign and just threw the ball with no idea where it was going. Red Sox bats did not miss many of those fat pitches, to their credit.

In contrast, John Lester knew exactly where he wanted the ball to go. He pitched a masterpiece. He showed a good fastball, a great curveball, change-up and the splitter that ties up right handed hitters inside. Even though he had a lot of runs to work with he kept his focus and threw a great game. He struck out eleven Blue Jay hitters making them look like little leaguers. If he can continue to pitch well the rest of September and stay healthy he will be a big factor in the playoffs no matter who the Sox will play.

Perez and the rest of the Toronto staff better learn how to pitch and not just throw the ball down the middle. Hitters from other teams will beg their managers to play against Toronto. I’m sure the Red Sox hitters would love to see them stay just as they are, lousy.

Red Sox bats have been streaky all year long but when a team with the talent they have can’t score a run against the Toronto Blue Jays in eleven innings you’ve got to be perplexed. The game ended on a walk-off home run by Brett Lowrie who doesn’t normally put fear into Red Sox pitchers but on this occasion, however, he put the game away with a long home run to center field in the bottom of the eleventh inning off Dan Wheeler.
 
The other bad news in this game was the injury to Beckett in the fourth inning after throwing a pitch to home plate. He came out of the game almost immediately but seemed to walk normally toward the dugout. At first I wondered if the injury was that serious and that maybe he should have stayed in the game. It’s no time to beg out of a game after a minor injury, especially this time of year. Reports said he had a sprained ankle and might miss a start. The bullpen staff did a terrific job holding Toronto at bay until the eleventh inning.

Wheeler gave up the home run but I wasn’t too worried about that. The hitting has got to get more consistent. Throughout the year the Sox have had streaks scoring anywhere from nine to fourteen runs in four or five games and then go on and not score more than two or three runs in the next four or five games. In this game they left sixteen men on base. Was Toronto’s pitching that great on this day? I saw a lot of pitches that were in the middle of the plate but the sox hitters could not make good contact.

With the Yankees 11-10 win over the Orioles the Red Sox fall 2 ½ games behind in the standings. They should be in front by six games with the talent they have. They need to win the division for home field advantage and they need to put the good pitching and good hitting together so they can get to another World Series. Now is the time to put it all together.

Boston Baseball welcomes back Rico Petrocelli for another season. A two-time All-Star during his 12-year playing career with the Red Sox, and a key member of both the 1967 Impossible Dream and 1975 American League Champion Red Sox teams, Rico shares his thoughts on the Red Sox with us each month during the 2011 season.  

Boston Baseball: Rico, what are your thoughts on Erik Bedard as a deadline acquisition?

Rico Petrocelli:  Well… he’s OK.  I’ve seen him pitch a couple of times, and honestly, I think there’s something missing there.  It doesn’t have anything to do with his velocity.  It seems like he’s not utilizing all of the drive that he has, the aggressiveness that he needs.  He looks like he doesn’t want to fail.  I think he lacks confidence in himself. The most successful pitchers are the guys who are aggressive. They’re not worried about losing or failing.  If a pitcher has that in the back of his mind, then he’s not going to be successful.  

People criticize John Lackey, but I give him a lot of credit.  For all that has happened to him personally, and with all his struggles, the guy came back.  He battled back. And he’s pitched some excellent games. Sure, the Red Sox got him a lot of runs. So did the Angels.  So what?  A win is a win!  Lately I’ve seen in Lackey what we all saw with the Angels in those playoff games.  I see him going out there and being aggressive. And that’s what I’d like to see from Bedard!  If Bedard can develop that attitude, he’s going to win games. 

Confidence!  If you are going to pitch in the majors, you’ve gotta go after hitters.

Erik Bedard

BB: It’s interesting that you bring up Lackey, because right now you’d have to guess that the Sox will go with Beckett and Lester and Bedard as their top three starters in the playoffs, and you have to wonder if Lackey is even going to get a postseason start. Andrew Miller looked pretty good in his last time out.

RP: That’s possible. Lackey does give up a lot of runs.  But he has a lot of heart.  I hope that they consider pitching him.  A lot depends on how he pitches over the final couple of weeks.

BB:  If Lackey doesn’t take the mound in the postseason, you have to question the Red Sox and Theo Epstein signing him to the contract that they did.  This is a guy making $15 million, and we don’t trust him to make a playoff start?

RP:  Well, Lackey’s had success in the playoffs. He’s got that mentality.  There’s no doubt in my mind, Lackey is the guy I would want in there as my number three guy in a short series.

BB:  Seriously?

RP:  Yes, absolutely.

BB:  If you combine Lackey’s $15 million with J.D. Drew’s $14 million, Daisuke Matsuzaka’s $10 million, Mike Cameron’s $7 million, and Bobby Jenks’  $6 million, you have 52 million bucks doing absolutely nothing for the Boston Red Sox this year!  Maybe we have to go back and concede that Buck Showalter had a point!

RP: [Chuckles] Well, you can say that now, but nobody knew that these guys were going to get hurt, or be struggling, and all that.  

BB:  Remember when we used to laugh at the Yankees for stuff like this?  They would sign Steve Kemp or Steve Sax, spend a lot of money and get nothing.  That was one or two guys.  This is $52 million, Rico! There are five major league teams whose entire payroll doesn’t equal $52 million!  The Rays, who are a heck of a ballclub, have a $41 million payroll. The Diamondbacks are at $54 million.  And I didn’t even mention Carl Crawford, making $14 million, with his OPS of .673.  

RP:  Well, thank goodness for [Dustin] Pedroia, and Gonzalez, and Jacoby Ellsbury… and let’s put Big Papi in there, too. They were the core of this team before those free agents were signed, and they’re still the core of this team.

BB:  Rico, we’ve seen the Yankees, we’ve seen Texas and we’ve seen Detroit.  How do the Sox match up with these teams in a short series?  Who would you rather play?  Who are you worried about?

RP:  I’m always concerned about Texas; they’re a pretty solid team.  They can hit.  They’re playing well in their ballpark, and then they come to Fenway, which is also a good ballpark to hit in. So you have to hope the Sox are hitting well, too. 

The Yankees will be a challenge.  Even though the Sox have done a pretty good job on them this year, the Yankees will be tough because of their hitting — in their ballpark especially.  Pitching, that’s their weakness. If you can get ahead early in the game, you have a good chance of beating them.  The Red Sox’ bullpen is very, very tough in the late innings.  It could be a seven-inning game!  And if the Sox get out early against the Yankees, it puts a little more pressure on their hitters.  

Justin Verlander

Detroit… I don’t worry too much about them, other than [Justin] Verlander.

BB:  He’s having an incredible season. Is Verlander at the level right now where he could pull a Bob Gibson or an Orel Hershiser and just carry his team through the postseason?

RP:  He’s strong enough, but I don’t think he’s going to do it.  I don’t think it’s going to be enough for them. The Tigers have a pretty good hitting team too, but I just don’t see them matching up against the Red Sox.  I think the Red Sox would beat them handily.

BB: Are we fooling ourselves when we try to handicap these short series?  After all, this is baseball — anything can happen in a seven-game series. And in a five-game series, the Houston Astros could beat the ‘27 Yankees!  We’ve seen it a hundred times.  Is it all just a lot of hot air when we try to handicap these short postseason series?

RP:  [Laughs] Hey, there’s people who do that for a living!  

BB:  Well, it’s fun; everyone is excited about the playoffs, and they want to talk about it.  But in a best-of-five series, your ace can go out there and lay an egg,  your best hitter can go 0-for-12, and you get swept and it’s over. These things have happened!

RP:  A short series is very dangerous for the better team, no doubt about it. Seven games is a little different. You never play a team seven times, seven days in a row.  Your weaknesses, your strengths come out over those seven games. In a seven-game series, you’re using everybody.  It’s not just the nine guys in the lineup; you have to use your bench, your bullpen.  You can’t hide a weakness.  

Three out of five, sure — somebody gets hot, anything can happen! Seven games is a little tougher.

BB: I’d like to go back to the 154-game regular season and make the Division Series best of seven.  But instead they’re going to add another wild-card team and have the wild cards play a one-game or best-of-three short series. 

RP:  Well, you know why they’re doing it — to keep the interest up in these other cities.  But let’s not get too worked up over it. Many baseball traditionalists thought that the wild card was a terrible idea when they first introduced it back in 1995, and you’d have to agree, it’s worked out pretty well.   

Rico and his partner, former big-league reliever Mitch Williams, can be heard on Sirius XM each Saturday morning from 8-10.

Boston Baseball welcomes back Rico Petrocelli for another season. A two-time All-Star during his 12-year playing career with the Red Sox, and a key member of both the 1967 Impossible Dream and 1975 American League Champion Red Sox teams, Rico shares his thoughts on the Red Sox with us each month during the 2011 season.  

Boston Baseball: Rico, Adrian Gonzalez looked like a Triple Crown candidate this spring.  He had sixteen homers on July 1, and then he hit only two more homers over the next seven weeks.  How do you explain that?  Did teams pitch him differently the second time through the American League?

Rico Petrocelli:  Not really — the reason being that he hits everything!  When he’s hitting well, if they try to pitch him away he just goes the opposite way, especially at Fenway.  The book on him was to pitch him in, but he’s been hitting that inside strike!  

When he goes bad, however, he does swing at bad pitches, at low pitches, he’s all screwed up with his timing.  He’ll do that for a few days and look bad.  

BB:  You and Adrian are both members of the 40 HR club.  In fact, you did it exactly 40 years apart, in 1969 and 2009.  Did your homers come in bunches like that?  Or to get to 40, do you need to have steady production the whole year?

RP:  You’ve got to be pretty steady.  You might have one great month, and that sure helps, but you can’t go through an extended drought. You have to be consistent.  You have to see the ball well.  Your timing has to be good.  You can’t be up there swinging at the pitcher’s pitch.  Being patient at the plate, that’s key.  

BB:  It’s probably not a coincidence that the year you hit 40 homers — your career high — you also set a career high with 98 walks.

RP:  That’s right. One of the keys for a young player coming up is to learn the strike zone.  He’s got to lay off bad pitches.  Because once it gets around that you’ll swing at bad pitches, they won’t throw you strikes.  

Kevin Youkilis is a great example. Right through the minor leagues, he always had a good eye, didn’t swing at bad pitches, and he came up to the big leagues and he continued that. Pitchers know they’ve got to throw him strikes, and eventually, he started hitting more home runs, and knocking in more runs.  The discipline Youkilis has is fundamental to his success, to his ability to hit for average, to draw walks, to hit for power.

Adrian Gonzalez

BB:  That’s the Red Sox philosophy, really — that it all starts with control of the strike zone.

RP:  Absolutely.  

BB:  You were a guy who was hitting in the teens for home runs for the first four years of your career, and walking 30 or 40 times.  Then in 1969, you went from 12 to 40 homers, from 30 to 98 walks.  What happened over the winter of ‘68?

RP:  First of all, I worked out real hard!  Yaz was a great example, with all the conditioning he did leading into his ‘67 year.  I did all kinds of workouts, and I gained 20 pounds, from 165 to 185!  It was pretty dramatic, but it was a family trait.  My brothers, four of them, right around the same age, did the same thing and got bigger and stronger.  

Then I reported to Winter Haven, and mentally I just said, ‘Look, I’m not going to let a bad day bother me!  I’m going to be myself, and I’m going to relax instead of trying to be someone else.’ 

I was up at the plate trying to be great. I was so tightly wound — every at bat was a do-or-die situation. I put so much pressure on myself until that year.  That year, I just finally decided to be myself, and it paid off.

BB: It sounds like maturity was big part of it.

RP:  Absolutely. I was 25! And then, I hit home runs against a few of the top pitchers, which gave me some confidence.  It was an expansion year, and I hit some home runs off of those guys, too.  Every one counts!

And I just felt great.  I saw the ball so well. No matter how hard the pitcher threw, I felt he couldn’t throw it by me, and that I could wait on the ball and then really explode.  And things worked out!  

I’m not going to compare myself to Gonzalez, though. He’s really a complete hitter.  He can hit for average, he’ll hit home runs, he’ll knock in runs.  The only thing he lacks is speed!  If he could run, he’d hit .370 every year.

Boston Baseball welcomes back Rico Petrocelli for another season. A two-time All-Star during his 12-year playing career with the Red Sox, and a key member of both the 1967 Impossible Dream and 1975 American League Champion Red Sox teams, Rico shares his thoughts on the Red Sox with us each month during the 2011 season.  

Boston Baseball:  Rico, in July the Sox got into it a bit with the Orioles. Was this just frustration on the part of some of the Orioles, or do they really have a problem with the Red Sox?

RP:  Ha ha!  They’re mad because they are getting the crap kicked out of them by the Red Sox, that’s what it is!  

BB: During the spring, Buck Showalter made some pointed remarks about GM Theo Epstein, implying that his success is more due to the Red Sox’ bankroll than his own ability.

RP: That’s a statement that surprises me. Buck has managed before, and has been in the broadcast booth.  He knows what’s going on.

BB:  He’s managed some teams that had healthy payrolls, too.  He hasn’t always been a mid-market guy.

RP:  It could have been a psychological ploy to get the Red Sox upset. I don’t know!  The Red Sox have really done a job on the Orioles this year.  

This year, there were some expectations in Baltimore — people thought the Orioles were going to move up in the standings, but it just hasn’t happened. I’m sure there is some additional presure on Buck and his team because of that. But people should worry about their own teams!  Don’t worry about the other team’s payroll!  

Buck knows how it goes; every team has an opportunity.  I am not saying every team can afford an Adrian Gonzalez or a Carl Crawford, much less both of them in the same year, but they have the opportunity to go out and get guys.

If you don’t want to pay more or can’t pay more, you have to go the Tampa Bay route. You have work the draft hard and hope that these kids come up and develop and become outstanding major league ball players. 

Buck Showalter

Hopefully, if you’re able to develop a winning ballclub, then the fans will come out and support you; otherwise you have to trade your stars for prospects, because you can’t afford to keep them, and you start over again. I  would hate to be a fan of a club that acted that way.

BB:  You’d think that if Buck was just trying to get his team fired up, he would say those things in the clubhouse and not necessarily to the media.

RP:  True. Once it gets into the media, it’s controversial and it sounds like it’s personal. I guess only Buck knows what his intentions were. Like I said, maybe he’s just frustrated.

BB:  Well, the Sox have more games against the O’s in September.  I guess we’ll see how it goes!

RP:  You’ve seen what the Red Sox have been doing against the Orioles this season — 8-3 if I’m not mistaken.  Right now, Buck ought to just be concerned about his own team and not worry about the payrolls of the Red Sox or any other club! 

BB:  We had some record-setting hot weather at Fenway in July; thankfully the Sox had night games scheduled on the two hottest days, but it was still pretty tough on everyone, especially the players. I can only imagine what it was like back in the days of wool uniforms!

RP:  I played with the wool uniforms, 104 degrees, a Saturday day game against the Detroit Tigers… the hottest!  Ugh! It was absolutely terrible!  We had ammonia water in the dugout, and between innings we would soak ourselves in that!  Smelling salts, too.  

Somebody came up with an idea that really helped:  they got lettuce and dipped it in cold ice-water and put it on your head, under your cap. And it worked! It really did help.  Every inning, when you came in, you would take the lettuce and dip it again in the ice water before you went out. 

Maybe after a couple of innings it starts to mush up a little, so you’d get another piece!  That, with the other two things, really made a difference.  

BB:  [Laughing] Who was in charge of the lettuce?

RP:  I’m not sure if it was the trainer, Charlie Moss..?  Whoever came up with it, it was a good idea!    

Rico and his partner, former big-league reliever Mitch Williams, can be heard on Sirius XM each Saturday morning from 8-10.

Boston Baseball:  Rico, you were up in the Legends Suite in late July for another great start by Josh Beckett, this time against the Mariners. How did he look from up there?

Rico Petrocelli:   He looked very good!  One thing that’s really stood out to me in that start, and for most of this season, is his command of his pitches.  He’s throwing a lot better to the corners, but he’s also got more movement.  

When he gets hit, it always seems like it’s the four-seam fastball — it seems that way, anyway — and sometimes he leaves a changeup up in the strike zone. But he’s really added a whole different look, you can tell by the hitters. They look a little confused! He has that tailing fastball too, the two-seamer, that he’s getting inside on them.  Their timing isn’t good.  I don’t think they’re able to just wait on his fastball like they could in the past when Beckett struggled.  He looks a lot better to me this season — more confident.  I just hope he stays healthy.

BB: That 3-1 win over the Mariners followed the Red Sox’ usual recipe for a win this season, in that the offense wore down the opposing starter, put up a crooked number against the bullpen, and then Bard and Papelbon hung up zeroes in the eighth and ninth.

RP:  Well, that’s it!  That’s the plan, that’s the team that they developed.  They went out and got the guys, brought others up from their system, and it’s working out pretty well.  Going out and getting players like Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford; it’s amazing.  But they did have the core of this team with Papi, Youkilis,  Pedroia and Ellsbury the last few years.  Professional hitters, having good at-bats, driving up the pitch counts, and they’re all capable of doing damage. Pedroia’s really come on this past month. 

BB:There’s not much that this 2011 ballclub doesn’t do well. They run well — very well by Red Sox standards — and they are a good defensive team.

RP:They are. And I don’t want to leave out Jason Varitek, either. Even though he no longer gets the lion’s share of the at bats at catcher, he is a big part of this team. Saltalamacchia is improving, but he still has some trouble blocking balls. I’m so glad that the Sox hung onto Varitek and I am sure the pitching staff feels the same way.

Josh Beckett

BB: That game was also Terry Francona’s 1000th win as a manager. 

RP:  Yes. That was great, a terrific milestone.  

Terry is such a modest guy, and he’s always been that way.  It’s great to see things going so well for him, especially after his first managerial stint with Philadelphia, which at the time was just a terrible team. I don’t care who you are, you don’t have some players, especially pitchers, you’re not going to go anywhere!

BB:  That’s a tough crowd down there, too. 

RP: Oh, very tough, Philadelphia!  Nowadays, of course, they have a new ballpark and they fill it every night. They’ve got a very good team. 

But you look at Boston over the years, our fans were filling the park when our teams were not winning, in the 1990s.  Down in Philly they’re tough on their teams, but when they have a good ballclub, the fans are going to be there.

BB:  You’ve seen a dozen managers come and go since you signed with Boston in 1961. What makes Terry Francona successful, apart from being modest?  

RP:  His personality, his ability to handle players.  Like in the past with Manny [Ramirez].  There have been people who have criticized him… but he never retaliates. He takes the high road.  I think that shows that the guy has class.  He’s mature. 

He’s also a players’ manager. That’s not to say that he can’t do certain things when they have to be done.  When a player is at the end of his career, you have to make decisions sometimes… and even though you like the guy, you have to do it. You have to make difficult decisions, but he’s able to do that, and do it in such a way that everyone understands where he’s coming from, even if they don’t necessarily agree with him.

Just about everyone likes him, too.  I’m talking about the press and all that.  He’s been accessible, and he has a good sense of humor.  I know the team has had good players and good teams, but that doesn’t always mean you’re going to win!  You gotta be a good manager on a good team, too. 

 BB:  All that fans can really judge a manager by is the lineup card he makes out, the pitching changes he makes during the course of the game, or if he puts a play on — a steal, or a bunt or something like that. They don’t see the day-to-day managing of the personalities in the clubhouse, which is an enormous part of the job.

 RP:  Absolutely, great point.  You don’t just start managing when you go out into the dugout, you start when you get to the ballpark. Beyond managing the game, you’ve got to handle personalities, deal with the media. Once you get to the park, you’ve got to be ON!  

When a team is losing, that’s really the test of a manager.  I thought Terry did a great job in 2005 and last year too, of holding things together during a season when guys were hurt and things just weren’t going Boston’s way.  

BB: You won pennants with Dick Williams and Darrell Johnson. Who was your favorite manager to play for?

RP:  Darrell Johnson.  I didn’t play for [Don] Zimmer too much. Zimmer is a great baseball man, and he is very respected by players and other people in the game.  

Darrell was fair, and a laid-back guy.  He didn’t get too excited when things didn’t go well.  He was a good baseball man; knowledgable.  He made the good moves, I thought.  In ‘75 we had a good ballclub, and he handled the pitchers well.  But Dick Williams was, I would say, the best manager I played for.

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