"Attitude Reflects Leadership"

Okay, so I lifted the title from Remember the Titans. Who's watched that lately. As for the Red Sox, do they have a leadership vacuum? Well, there's Bill Lajoie, a fossil who doesn't have to listen to any sabermetric mumbo-jumbo anymore, Jerry Kapstein, reborn from the Dark Side of his former player agent life, and the gang of well, however many, until they abandon ship.

So what do you want, attitude or performance? I'll take Manny, who is, yes underrated, in left, and produces at the plate. So he doesn't run out a ground ball once in awhile. A patient came in the other day and said, 'you can't replace performance. You may like your job, but aren't there days when your office door looks like Mount Everest, and you don't want to climb it? Nobody loves their job every day.' Well, nobody on the Red Sox anyway.

The Celtics' pregame show asks, "if the Colts can't win the Super Bowl, who's your next pick?' Tanguay liked the Bengals, with Carson Palmer and Chad Johnson. Holley liked the Carolina Panthers and their defense. I guess I'm pulling for the Vikings. I mean, can anybody else celebrate with the Vikes?

What's the difference between this year's Bruins and last year's team. This team wins a game occasionally.

The word seems to be that Tony Graffanino will resign with the Sox, and possibly Mark Grudzielanek. AND the Sox have been talking about Alfanso Soriano. Who's next Robbie Alomar, or Nellie Fox? Whatever became of Dustin Pedroia? Must be a Bill Lajoie thing about Pedroia. NO JOY, NO JOY for landing the 'young rookie' in the Sox lineup.

Kelly Shoppach needs to get off the schneid, too. Is he the new AAAA catcher, with no hits in 2005 in MLB?

Billy Wagner gets 43 extra large, Konerko 60 mill, and they're talking 55 mill for 5 years for Brian Giles. http://www.baseball-reference.com/g/gilesbr02.shtml Giles numbers are not too shabby compared with Johnny Damon. Scott Boras, the new Hans Christian Andersen of baseball literature, has his spiral binder with the 'Legend That Is Johnny Damon'. Damon will get 3000 hits, and no doubt eclipse the stolen base records of Lou Brock.

Damon's an excellent player. http://www.baseball-reference.com/d/damonjo01.shtml He could get 3000 hits. He plays hard and he plays hurt. But it's an economic decision. You can't pay top dollar for everybody, in both terms of annual salary and years. Maybe Nomar could come back and play center for a year. That's what I love about the Mother Tongue...because slim chance, fat chance, and no chance all mean the same.