∗ As long as the Red Sox are undertaking a complete end-of-season review of their organization, now would be a good time to more closely examine their medical and training staffs.
The news that reliever Garrett Whitlock played much of this past season with a broken tibia that went undetected is merely the latest red flag in a season full of them. When Garrett Crochet and Roman Anthony were injured in the first month or so of the season, both were expected to return to action quickly. In reality, Crochet was lost for the remainder of the regular season and Anthony didn’t rejoin the active roster until the last days of August — before suffering an aggravation of the same injury, forcing him off the postseason active roster in Game 2 of the wild card series with the Yankees.
(The Curtis Mead case, in which a broken wrist wasn’t determined until the following day, doesn’t fall into this same category since initial swelling made it impossible to immediately diagnose the injury properly).
Even with all the advancements made in sports medicine, diagnosing injuries remains something of an inexact science. No two cases are the same, and in the case of both Crochet and Anthony, setbacks during the rehab process derailed the original timetables for their return.
But this has happened too often in recent years, raising questions about the staff’s competence. If these instances were the result of miscommunication, that needs to be addressed. And if there’s evidence that the trainers and/or doctors failed to properly diagnose these original injuries, that should result in a thorough examination of the team’s processes and personnel.
∗ The schedule provides the Patriots with a break the next two weeks, with home games against two very beatable opponents: Las Vegas and the Jets. If the Pats can take care of business in Foxboro and head into their matchup with the Bears at 4-2, their season could take off.
∗ Marco Sturm is demonstrating little patience in the early going, shaking up his line combinations and swapping players in and out of the lineup after just four games.
It’s one thing to tinker with the power play personnel when it stalls. But this early in the season, and with the benefit of just four exhibition games, players need some time to develop chemistry. Mixing and matching this soon creates chaos.
∗ Major League Baseball made a number of headline-grabbing proposals in their latest bargaining session with the Players Association — some of which I applaud, some of which I detest.
Good: Shortening the regular season from 162 games to 154. This would result in a universal off-day every week (Monday), allowing more recovery time for players and, theoretically, reducing injury risk. Purists will complain about the integrity of individual records, but MLB played 154 games until 1961, so there’s precdent.
Passable: Expanding the Division Series from five to seven games. Like everything else, this has to do with revenue; MLB can sell additional postseason inventory as it prepares for its next national TV deal, to take effect in 2029. You could argue that the potential for playing as many as 24 (!) games in a postseason (three in the wild card, then seven in each of the next three rounds) makes the postseason too arduous. But it’s also a better competitive test.
Bad: MLB also proposed that the highest seed in both the wild card and Division Series round choose their first-round opponent. The industry is clearly trying to develop a Selection Sunday TV equivalent to kick off its postseason. But it feels forced and gimmicky to me.
∗ Through the first two rounds of watching the baseball playoffs, the TBS team of Alex Faust and Ron Darling was my favorite. Faust handled the basics well and Darling was his usual insightful self. But I’m already dreading the NLCS and World Series when John Smoltz dissects the execution and thought process behind every single one of the approximately 300 pitches nightly.
∗ Wonder if Drake Maye believes the Patriots once rallied from being down by 25 points in a Super Bowl or the franchise he once played for had most its home games blacked out on local TV? Both are true, Drake. You could look it up — along with the six times NASA landed a spacecraft on the moon.
∗ It’s early yet, but the Celtics acquisition of Devin Carter looks like a smart one. Carter’s offense is streaky, but he’s scrappy and a tenacious defender who could add nice depth to the roster.
∗ Apparently, the apple does fall far from the Steinbrenner family tree. There’s no way that George would have retained a manager who failed to win a World Series in nine seasons. But son Hal is OK with it, apparently.
∗ Don’t be surprised if, now that he’s decided to keep pitching, Sonny Gray signs with the Atlanta Braves. The Braves need help for their rotation, but are otherwise capable of competing for a World Series title, one of Gray’s stated prerequisites. And, not incidentally, the Braves are the closest team to his native Tennessee, which is a huge factor for Gray.
∗ Mike Ditka was one of the NFL’s last links to its golden era. Even in the 1980s and 1990s, he seemed to be right out of central casting from the game’s distant past: gruff, no-nonsense and occasionlly bombastic. His larger-than-life persona made him Must-See TV. As a player, he was probably underrated; as a coach, the opposite was probably true. Take away the magical 1985 Chicago Bears season and he was 3-6 in the postseason.
Still, Ditka was an unforgettable personality, the likes of which we don’t see much of anymore. He wasn’t sanitized, but he was authentic.
∗ Recommended viewing: Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger, now streaming on Disney Plus after a brief theatrical run. An illuminating look at the band’s celebrated reunion tour and the sometimes tortured relationship between the Brothers Gallagher.
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