Manager Terry Francona had his usual perspective on all things Red Sox after yesterday's 14-5 drubbing at the hands of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
On Tim Wakefield (8 runs, 10 hits, 4 1/3 innings): "Didn't have his best knuckleball for sure, but for a while I thought we were going to be fine."
On Anastacio Martinez (4 runs, 2 walks, a hit batsman, one-third of an inning): "Has tremendous stuff, but you see that with young pitchers."
And David McCarty (1-2-3 ninth for the first baseman/pitcher): "His velocity was much better."
If we've learned one thing about the Red Sox skipper, it's that he is the all-time glass-is-half-full guy. Francona makes Baghdad Bob look like a prince of pessimism. Terry is like the knight in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" who runs around after both arms have been severed and says, "It's only a flesh wound."
He is our new baseball Pete Carroll. Francona is simply not going to say anything negative about any of his players. Ever. We learned this when Pedro Martinez left the ballpark before the game was over on Opening Night and Francona took the blame, saying he didn't tell Pedro the rules.
In this spirit, let's try to imagine what Francona would have said after some of the memorable dark moments in Sox history:
Manny Ramirez declines to run out of the batter's box after hitting a dribbler back to the pitcher in Tampa.
"You know, I think Manny thought that ball hit him in the leg." Gene Conley goes on a bender in New York City after a loss at Yankee Stadium. Conley buys a plane ticket for Jerusalem at Idlewild Airport, but can't board because he has no passport. "Geno's a sensitive guy and I understand that. Sometimes a trip to the Holy Land is just what a guy needs to clear his head." Johnny Pesky hesitates on a relay throw to home as Enos Slaughter scores the winning run of the 1946 World Series. "Guys were yelling, `throw, throw,' but Johnny thought they were saying, `no, no.' "
