Other than timing and location how do we know that’s that their flight, again?
What does 2023 look like?
- Thread starter moondog80
- Start date
Delta #8878 has been the Delta Red Sox charter flight number for years, all season long. It is almost always a Boeing 757. The cabin crew is a dedicated staff. The airline has about 25 Boston based flight attendants from which they choose the 4-5 cabin crew for each flight. The players eventually get to know the cabin crew and vice versa.
On departures NOT from Boston, the cabin crew will fly on a positive space (not standby) to the departure airport to crew the flight. The members of that dedicated group receive special training on what NOT to do... ask for autographs, selfies etc. They also maintain a list of player preferences if possible.
Delta's Sox charter will often arrive at airports that they don't ordinarily serve if it is most convenient to the team hotel and/or stadium. For example, they use the St. Petersburg FL airport KPIE rather than Tampa. You can see the aircraft reposition from TPA to PIE, a 12 mile flight! They use Kansas City Downtown KMKC instead of the usual KCI. For Yankee games, they use Newark.
On departures NOT from Boston, the cabin crew will fly on a positive space (not standby) to the departure airport to crew the flight. The members of that dedicated group receive special training on what NOT to do... ask for autographs, selfies etc. They also maintain a list of player preferences if possible.
Delta's Sox charter will often arrive at airports that they don't ordinarily serve if it is most convenient to the team hotel and/or stadium. For example, they use the St. Petersburg FL airport KPIE rather than Tampa. You can see the aircraft reposition from TPA to PIE, a 12 mile flight! They use Kansas City Downtown KMKC instead of the usual KCI. For Yankee games, they use Newark.
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Duran has been optioned, suggesting Tapia will be added to the roster. No word yet on the last bullpen spot.
View: https://twitter.com/RedSox/status/1640828580304150529
View: https://twitter.com/RedSox/status/1640828580304150529
Yes, cool thanks! Another thing I can nerd out on.
Always wondered how major airline charter crew gets to a departure airport if it’s someplace non standard. If I understood, they would just pickup everybody at the closest one that is standard, and then fly the hopefully short leg to the team.
For example, if you check out the flightaware link that I posted earlier, you'll see that after arriving in Boston, the aircraft later flies out after refueling to Detroit DTW, a large Delta hub still as DL 8878. That flight will be pilots only, no cabin crew. Tomorrow the aircraft will likely operate regular Delta flights.
The next time you'll see DL 8878 operate is on April 5th. After that game, the Sox will start their first road trip, leaving for Detroit. The dedicated flight attendants just fly their regular flight routes until they are needed again.
The other interesting side story was last year for games in Toronto. After finishing the few series actually played in Toronto, the Sox would bus the 2 hours to Buffalo to catch their charter flight. There was no requirement to Covid-19 test for crossing the border by land, but had they attempted to fly from Toronto to a US airport, testing would have been required.
BTW, in case anyone cares, the Red Sox players and staff still have to go through TSA security, but it is done privately in a special MassPort facility. From the security check, they reboard their team buses, follow a series of Mass State Police cars across the tarmac to their aircraft. You won't catch the Sox strolling through Logan Terminal A!
If you do follow these Sox charter flights over the course of a season, you will appreciate some of the horrors of their schedule. Like arriving at their next series after playing a night game, and getting to their hotel at 4 or 5 in the morning!
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Interesting, wonder how they are getting Tapia on the roster.
Really good springs for both Dalbec and Duran, and they still don’t make the team. Wonder if either ever plays again for the Sox.
Mondesi to the 60-day IL would be the way to retain as many assets as possible. But considering they didn't announce it with the Duran news, it would appear they're trying to exhaust all possible alternatives first.
Ugh, I am really looking forward to Mondesi playing and was hoping it would be sooner rather than later. I like Tapia, but a healthy Mondesi would be awesome, hopefully the 60 day transfer is indicative of hoping he is healthy for the 2nd half and not a lost cause.
That's really interesting, thanks for posting. I didn't realize the planes went back into regular service between charters. I had assumed it was a retrofitted charter -- hard to imagine Big Papi back in the day in a regular coach seat, even if he had an entire row all to himself (I think the front office and coaches are up front, and the players are in the back of the plane).
In fairness, the actual aircraft being used this evening is a subset of the Delta B757 fleet. It is fitted with 16 lie flat first class seats, several rows of extra legroom coach seats, then regular coach. That aircraft is used in regular service, often on long haul premium routes like Boston to LAX.
I'm really pleased with this. They kept the better baseball player, 40-man be damned.
Maybe this isn’t the right thread for this, but I’ve received three emails this week about buying Opening Day tickets. So 2023 is going to look like an emptier ballpark it seems.
The season looks better than after ST, in my opinion. We haven’t had major injuries. The Yankees have 3 starting pitchers injured, the Rays also have pitcher injuries. The projections don’t adjust to actual injuries, so with decent luck this year we’ll be a good team. It looks like the rotation will be an area of surplus for us, which is a big change from the past.
I guess the key word is “major” but the Sox do have three projected starting pitchers starting the season on the DL, and a couple relievers too.
This is fascinating to someone like myself that likes to hear about behind the scenes logistics. Thanks! Did you ever happen to see what the altitude is that they get to on those 12 minute flights?
I just drove past Fenway Park and someone stopped me so Chris Sale could cross Ipswich Street and go from the team bus to a car. He did not appear to hurt himself doing it, so this year is already looking better than last.
This is a good thing, IMO, if the team can contend. The atmosphere in 2021 down the stretch and in the playoffs was tremendous and I believe it had a lot to to do with greater immediate ticket availability.
I’m guardedly optimistic (picked 84 wins, last WC spot and a shocking advance to the ALCS finals) but think they’re also well-positioned to trade off a lot of talent should injuries or underperformance happen. Not to drag the corpse of ‘22 back out again, but in retrospect Bloom should have just traded more talent (some at the time thought so but they were potentially a starting pitcher or two or three shortly returning from injuries to get back into a WC mix). If they’re in a similar malaise and deeply out of the last spot I think they have more tradeable parts
With these last few moves, is there a final calculation for luxury tax purposes of this year's payroll?
Sneak under for a reset this year and then hit the gas signing the young core to long term deals and adding a couple big names via free agency as wave after wave of cheap superstars arrive from the minors starting in 2024. That's the plan, right?
Sneak under for a reset this year and then hit the gas signing the young core to long term deals and adding a couple big names via free agency as wave after wave of cheap superstars arrive from the minors starting in 2024. That's the plan, right?
The payroll number continues to change as the season progresses, so for instance if you trade someone making $10M after game 82, you save $5M.
That's what I was trying to get at... how much space do the Sox have to work with this season?
Final calculations aren't until the end of the season. All we have to go on is the payroll estimates from sites like Cot's, Spotrac, and Fangraphs which estimate them as anywhere from $10M to $23M under the cap at present.
Cots (the most reliable IMO) has BOS around $217M, they continually update as things change.
View: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1WWRsQNsGZkWuJZwlY8--xVBXMJGjh230D45KiHTHuvY/htmlview
I understand- poor wording on my part... do we know CURRENTLY how much money the Sox likely will have to spend? I see roughly $208,000,000 listed for a payroll total at spotrac but I'm unsure how that historically has fluctuated based on expected additional costs.
EDIT: thanks for updating your post to add the current estimates. It will be fascinating to see how the Sox approach the trade deadline this year.
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They are saying he's coming back in early May. It's just ACL recovery, he's just finishing up the process of rebuilding all his strength and mobility. There's no mystery to it at this point.
Sorry, "May at the earliest". Per the team:
Expected return: May at earliest
Mondesi estimates he is running at 80-85 percent. He is participating in all baseball activities. The infielder estimated that he will be cleared to play in Minor League games "soon."
Can you backdate a 60-day injury list placement? I can't seem to find info on that. He's obviously been out all of spring training so he would have qualified early on.
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I asked this earlier in the week and the response was that the 60 day DL only starts the first day of the season. Is this correct, @jon abbey? I believe you had that info.
60-day IL stints begin on Opening Day regardless of when the player was added. Regardless, IL assignments can only be back-dated a maximum of 3 days so not a whole lot to be gained by doing so at this point anyway.
That said, Mondesi hasn't officially been added to the IL yet (10-day or 60-day). Of course, we know that's where he's headed, but we are only guessing that it will be the 60-day IL.
Not guessing exactly, there have been multiple reports to that effect on Twitter (although I know for you nothing is official unless it has been typed by someone who went to journalism school), but it's true it is not official yet.
No need for the snark. It's not official until the Red Sox announce it regardless of what anyone, including trustworthy journalists, might be reporting as inevitable. Anything can happen in the meantime.
There were a bunch of seats available in the $20/$30 range on stubhub this morning.
Quite a few Opening Day seats show up for sale at redsox.com. Maybe being in March has something to do with it, but the overall media/fan excitement seems minimal. This team really could use a strong month of April.
View: https://twitter.com/IanMBrowne/status/1641428973010792449
I think this means Mills to the IL.
Also: Mondesi to the 60-day IL & Tapia officially added to the 40.
I think this means Mills to the IL.
Also: Mondesi to the 60-day IL & Tapia officially added to the 40.
Apparently after one game there actually already is a bunch of sportswriters that have determined that the "problems" from last year are the same as this year and the Sox suck.
I think there's two very clear things to actually pick up from the opener yesterday: Ort and Brasier are both terrible. I don't think I'll shock anyone by saying that and whatever the XFip or Bfip or anything from the last years claim their "true" talent is.... they're just garbage. But unlike last year, within a month we 100% are certain that there is talent to replace them that will be better. However... if after Whitlock, Bello get activated to the ML roster and those two somehow continue to defy all logic and still are sticking on the 26, then all bets are off.
I think there's two very clear things to actually pick up from the opener yesterday: Ort and Brasier are both terrible. I don't think I'll shock anyone by saying that and whatever the XFip or Bfip or anything from the last years claim their "true" talent is.... they're just garbage. But unlike last year, within a month we 100% are certain that there is talent to replace them that will be better. However... if after Whitlock, Bello get activated to the ML roster and those two somehow continue to defy all logic and still are sticking on the 26, then all bets are off.
Zach Kelly is going to get demoted before either of them. Maybe Winchkowski too.
The FA has repeatedly shown they think these two have value.
The FA has repeatedly shown they think these two have value.
For your sanity you may want to read different sportswriters. I largely stick to The Athletic (McCaffrey, Jennings, Buckley) and BSJ (McAdams) and all of their takes fell squarely into the "we can't learn much of anything from game #1" category.
I barely read them... mostly just glance at headlines. I learned my lesson years ago. And also just posting to hopefully get some conversations going in here.... and still think the one prediction I'd bet on is that Ort and Brasier will not be good.
I can see Kelley getting bumped but I hope there's some commitment to Winchowski as long relief. Ort and Brasier have been seen enough at this point to know who they are.
Sounds like Cora may be at odds with the front office on Ort. Whatever numbers Ort flashes don't seem to be translating to in game effectiveness.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/03/30/sports/orioles-stole-win-with-aggressive-baserunning-red-sox-flaws-emerged-early/