On the 27th was one of the halcyon days of the early-2000s big-basher lineup. We were up 10-1, against the eventual World Champion Marlins, before we'd made an out; Damon scored 3 times that first inning, after which the score was 14-1. We scored in 7 of our 8 at-bats that day, winning 25-8. It was a cacophonous, joyous romp, the kind of day that turns first-time Fenway visitors into lifelong fans.
After the game,
Grady Little felt bad. He was personal friends with Marlins manager Jack McKeon, and... well, I'll just quote the article.
So it was no surprise Saturday afternoon when Little, the Boston Red Sox manager, sought out his Marlins counterpart to apologize for his team's behavior in Friday's 25-8 laugher at Fenway Park.
The two managers chatted on the field for about five minutes near the end of Red Sox batting practice. Little made it clear he disapproved as much as McKeon did of the piling-on Boston did in the late innings.
"Jack knows me and I know him," said Little, who addressed the issue with several members of his team as well. "You see some stuff on the field sometimes that you can't believe. That certainly was the case [Friday] night."
McKeon was critical of the way several Red Sox tried to score from third on short fly balls with the game clearly in hand. Todd Walker, for instance, was thrown out at home with a 21-5 lead in the seventh.
"A lot of times we do a whole lot of assuming," Little said. "I didn't want that to happen here. We make mistakes when we lose a close game and sometimes we make mistakes in a game like that."
Red Sox owner John Henry wasn't so sure. Told of Little's apology, the former Marlins owner shook his head in amazement.
"Grady apologized?" he said. "I disagree with that. That's old school. What about the fan who pays $50 and gives up his Friday night to come out here? Don't we owe it to our fans to play hard all the time?"
Henry mused that perhaps next time the Red Sox should put a disclaimer on the scoreboard: "We're not trying anymore."
The
game the next day, which will live in managerial infamy, saw another offensive eruption, 7 in the 6th, that put us up 9-2. Grady goes and make some defensive replacements, because we'd clearly gotten enough runs, no need to get more or embarrass anyone, right? So, a clearly-tired Tim Wakefield had gutted through 7 innings, the last 5 of them scoreless, but was sent out there again in the top of the 8th. As Grady, we may presume, watched with approval, Wakefield proceeded to give up 3 straight singles, followed by a 3-run HR that brought it to 9-6. Finally, there was Exit Wakefield, Enter Timlin - groundout, strikeout, inning over.
Next inning, same score, save situation, right? Well, in comes arguably our worst reliever, who had been given game-finishing responsibilities that year and done shakily at best - and also had logged 5 two-inning appearances within the previous month. Nobody wanted Brandon Lyon out there, except the guy whose vote counted. With 2 on and 2 out, up comes Ivan Rodriguez, who knocks in a run, followed by Mike "Annus Mirabilis" Lowell, cleanup hitter and MVP vote-getter, who promptly puts it over the fence for a 10-9 lead. That held up through the bottom of the 9th, and we lose.
In the aftermath, it was clear Grady had taken his foot off the gas, so as not to put up an embarrassing scoreline two days in a row. The effect was to pull defeat from the jaws of victory - which, given a 7-run lead in the 8th inning, took some doing. "Make Grady Apologize" became a battle cry around SoSH for years. And not least, it clearly cost him some of the owner's good faith, too.