Ahh the Boston air...

The air is different here in the Hub, now that the hopes and dreams of every single living person in New England's hopes and dreams have been fulfilled. Its still amazing for me to see World Champions merchandise in stores STILL selling out. I love it.

BRING IT BACK

Now, onto my thoughts for the day...
Pats lost a MIND BLOWER tot he Dolphins Monday night. Good thing I wasn't in Philly for this or else I would have never heard the end of it. Friggan eagles fans. HOW'S T.O. DOIN? Yup that's right sit down. Sorry. Well needless to say, Tom Brady was awful. I have to say it was the worst performance of his career. Four interceptions. FOUR. Guy has the most accurate arm in the league, and throws four interceptions. He made piss poor decisions, and tried to take the game into his own hands in the end. Tom, remember that ball you threw on third down WHILE FALLING DOWN AND NOT KNOWING WHERE IT WOULD GO? Ya well the week before you did it, and completed the pass, but you said you wouldnt make the same mistake again. Way to be smart with the football. I ask you this. If you have the five point lead with like 1:50 left, wouldnt you take the sack, and punt it away? Put it in one of the best defense's hands? Against one of the worst offenses in the league? Wouldn't you want to pin them back in their own territory instead of giving the ball to them on the 25 yard line? I don't get the decisions he made. I don't understand them at all. Sorry Tom. It Just Wasn't your day.

Now onto the only highlight of my sports week so far. The Sox signed Matt Clement. Thank God. I couldn't deal with the fact that a fat Boston hater was going to be the number two behind The Messiah. It also (thank God) puts the possibility of a certain Byung Hyung creeping up into the rotation FAR behind us. We also signed Wade Miller, a very good pitcher, hounded by injuries last season. The Sox always carry a six man rotation going into the Spring, and it looks like Wade could be next year's Bronson Arroyo, picking up that 5th spot. He will definitely help too if Curt Schilling's ankle isn't ready for the Season opener. I hope this news quelled any fears that the Sox' front office might be going soft after the series win, I know that Steve is going to breathe a little easier. Well, Steve I think the entire Red Sox Nation will join you in that sigh of relief.


-N



ps. if any of you have HBO, try to catch their special called "Reverse of the Curse fo the Bambino." its amazing.

Incompetent AL East?

After reviewing the moves that the AL East has made so far this year, I have to question whether or not the GMs and Presidents running the AL East teams have any brains. The AL East can claim to have the two biggest spenders in baseball with the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. The AL East also has the fiscally retarded Baltimore Orioles and the economically deprived Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Toronto Blue Jays.

As far as the Devil Rays and Blue Jays are concerned, they cannot be blamed for their inability to sign Tier-1 Free Agents. Their only hope can be to develop Superstars through their minor league systems and keep those stars as long as their financing can support them. The Jays and Rays need to style their baseball operations after that of Billy Beane's in Oakland. Keep young talent as long as you can afford them, and then ship them out for hot, young prospects before the stars reach free agency. The Baltimore Orioles are a disaster waiting to happen. The Orioles are in an unfortunate situation being in the same division as the Red Sox and Yankees. If the Orioles were in any other division, they might be able to buy a division title and playoff birth. The Orioles have the revenue to compete with an $85 M + roster, but they spend that money stupidly. Instead of paying for top-notch players that could help the team win, they seem to overpay for players. These roster moves are usually the result of the Sox or Yankees. The Orioles make these deals in an attempt to show the fan base that they are trying to compete with the Payroll Titans.

Now onto the Red Sox and Yankees. Between both teams not a single extremely cunning move has been made. The Red Sox allowed Pedro Martinez to walk, signed John Halama, signed Edgar Renteria, signed David Wells, and re-signed Doug Mirabelli. The Yankees have signed Carl Pavano, traded for Felix Roderiguez and Mike Stanton, and seem to be on the verge of acquiring Randy Johnson. Does either team have any idea what it is doing?

Now the Yankees signing Carl Pavano doesn't sound bad on the surface, but lets dig a bit deeper. Pavano has a career 57-58 record with a career 4.21 ERA. It's not the signing which is disappointing, but the amount of the contract. Pavano will be paid a reported 4 year- $44 million deal. $11 million a year for a pitcher that has only had 1 very good season. Isnt Carl Pavano the same pitcher that the Red Sox lit up a few years back when the Sox won like 26-5? That doesn't bode well for the Yankees seeing that 2/3 of the Red Sox lineup that bombed Pavano still plays for the Red Sox. Now onto Felix Roderiguez. I actually like this move for the Yankees. Roderiguez is a very solid relief pitcher. The only thing about this trade was that it offsets a stupid move by the Yankees. They traded Kenny Lofton for Roderiguez. Lofton was an overpaid bench player who never really contributed to the Yankees. Mike Stanton has been a great reliever over his entire career, but will turn 38 during the season. How long until he isn't effective anymore? This is my same arguement against Randy Johnson. Johnson is a great pitcher, one of the best of his generation, but he's 41 and will have an extended contract with the Yankees. This man is bound to hit a wall sooner or later, and its going to be sooner then people realize. For $16.5 M for the next 3 years, I'm not sure if that was where the Yankees should have invested their money.

The Redsox will start the season with out two of their starters from 2004 in Derek Lowe and Pedro Martinez. Granted, Lowe and Martinez combined for an ERA in the high 4 range, but how can you replace a dominant pitcher like Martinez and someone like Derek Lowe who always had the potential to be spectacular. In Pedro's situation, I understand that the money didn't work for the Red Sox, but what about Lowe? I mean who is better that is available right now. Lowe clinched all three series for the Sox in 2004, shouldn't that count for something. Instead, the Red Sox replaces these two pitchers with a 41 year old lefty with a history of back problems and hatred of Fenway Park in David Wells and should I dare say (gulp) Byung-Hyun Kim as the fifth starter. Wells' back could break down at any time and BYK has no mental stability. This could be a disaster. If one of those two fail, the Sox will look to John Halama as a starter. Anytime you have to resort to a Tampa Bay reject, you know your in trouble. And finally, the Sox signed Edgar Renteria to a 4 year- $40 million contract. Edgah is an exceptional SS, but doesn't this go against exactly what the Red Sox planned? Wasn't the plan for the Red Sox to have Hanley Ramirez become the fulltime SS by 2006? Now Renteria could be holding that position until 2008. If they didn't plan on having Ramirez take over, why not re-sign Orlando Cabrera. He played a terrific defensive 2B, while have solid performance at the plate, nevermind the fact that he was already part of the team and aquainted with all the other players, facilities, manager etc? Nowif the Sox decided to sign Edgar(which they did), they should have immediately peddled Hanley Ramirez off for a top flight starter like Tim Hudson. Unfortunately, Hudson was traded to the Atlanta Braves, leaving the Red Sox with nothing.

When will these guys learn? I don't know, but my suggestion is that it better be soon. For all the trust Theo gained during the 2004 World Series Championship season, the beginning of the 2005 season doesn't seem so great.

-S-

Amazing 2004 Red Sox Video
you need quicktime to view it

Signings...
Wade Miller
Matt Clement
Edgar Renteria
John Halama
David Wells
Matt Mantei
Doug Mirabelli

That's it for now.
-N

Jump off the Bandwagon

First off, I'd like to welcome everyon to "The Big Red Citgo Sign." Here you will find Nick and myself (Steve) bitching and moaning about Boston sports because well, that's what us Bostonians do. We bitch about sports. Once again thank you and here is my first rant.

I Hate Bandwagon Fans. I've grown up in the same Massachusetts town my entire life, but now I currently go to college in Philadelphia. As I noticed during the playoffs and I continue to notice now, is that there are a million people walking around with Redsox hats. As a dumb Freshman, I just assume that they are from New England. So I go over and I say: "Hey, you from Boston?" Every single response is "No, I just like the hat." If I hear that again I am going to strangle someone. These people do not deserve to wear that hat. They didn't earn it.

Being a member of Redsox Nation is not like being a member of a local gym. With gyms, you can change when your membership expires. Maybe a different gym has newer, nicer facilities so you decide to change gyms. This is not true with the Redsox. You cannot just jump onto our bandwagon just because they were in the playoffs or won a World Series. RSN(Redsox Nation) is a way of life. You cannot fully appreciate the Redsox if you didn't grow up a Sox fan...its impossible. Yeah you might be able to go out and buy a nice cap or a World Series Champs t-shirt, but you don't grasp what the Sox mean to us.

I can never consider these type of people a brother of mine. They don't know what it's like to stand in the freezing cold for tickets at 4 am on a March morning just so you can see the Sox play the Devil Rays. They don't know what it's like to live and die with every pitch on a Thursday night game in May. They sure as hell don't know who actually was the first owner of the Redsox (The Taylor Family for all you morons). They didn't cringe when outsiders referred to the "Curse of the Bambino." I'm sure most of these bandwagon people didn't even know that Troy O'Leary was the first Redsox player to hit a grandslam in a playoff game. They sure as hell don't have a Grandfather whose only wish was to see the Sox win a Series, or have father whose favorite connection to his son is talking about the Red Sox. They sure as hell we're not parked on the side of a highway crying when Aaron Boone homered off of Tim Wakefield in 2003. And I know there is noway that they shed tears when Foulkes toss to Doug Mientkiewicz clinched the first World Series title in 86 years. I'm sure that Red Sox highlights from the 2004 playoffs do not send goosebumps down their spine and tears build up in their eyes. They do not know what its like and never will.

So if you didn't catch my drift let me spell it out for you. If your not from New England, not a member of RSN from birth, don't wear Red Sox anything or I will punch you in the face. You never earned that hat or shirt and can never understand what we went through.


-S-

3am and i wanna go to bed...

Ok. I had to post tonight/this morning because the Boston sports world has been turned absolutely upside down in the past 24 hours. I want to start off by saying that the two men I am going to discuss here, I believe, had some of the biggest impact on not only the Boston sports world, but their respective sports in general...

First off, Pedro. I have one gigantic question for Pedro...WHY? Listen, it is safe to say that he is the best pitcher to ever don a Red Sox Uniform, and he is past his prime, but c'mon petey, the Mets? That's like John Elway winning a superbowl in Denver and then saying "Alright, I finally got that ring, now my career would be complete if i could only play on the Bengals." I mean sure, the Mets pulled out all the stops and threw a four year (Do you really think Pedro has four more years as an Ace of a struggling staff in him? I don't), $56 Million dollar contract at him, but if you were him, wouldnt you say to yourself..."Hmm, i just broke an 86 year old curse (coming through on my claim to 'Wake up the Bambino and drill him in the ass'), I posted a 117-37 record with the Red Sox, I WON A WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, and I was part of a team who's bond will never and can never be explained or copied, not tomention the 40 million dollars they are offering........buuuuut im gonna take the the mediocre team's offer instead." IS THE POSSIBILITY OF WINNING THE SERIES LESS IMPORTANT THAN THE MONEY NOW A DAYS?! Theres no other way i can explain it other than that. Mets fans face it, you're at LEAST 4 years away from a Championship, Piazza is so old he can't physically handle playing catcher anymore, youre biggest RBI producer last year was Richard Hidalgo (Let me repeat that...RICHARD HIDALGO) with 80 RBIs, and you're leading ERA guy, Al Leiter, one of my favorite personalities in baseball, signed with the Marlins. Sure a Glavine-Pedro 1,2 punch may look good on paper, but one of them is done before four years, guaranteed.

And now onto the saddest news I have heard from the New England Patriots in a long while. One of the greatest Offensive Coordinators in Patriots history, Charlie Weiss, is leaving the staff to be the head football coach at the University of Notre Dame. It was only a matter of time before either him, Romeo, or both got scooped up. Lets face it. This coaching staff has been one of the main reasons these guys have DOMINATED the rest of the league. Their combinations of coaching styles combined to take an injury-ridden, not extremely taleted team,and win 21 straight football games, including the biggest sports spectacle in the entire world, the Super Bowl, TWICE. These guys worked magic. Weiss' creative offenses won those Super Bowls without even a mediocre running game. To make a long story short, the man is a genius. And i do hope he does just as well there as he did here, cuzlets face it, the Irish need it...BAD.

Oh, and I hate Barry Bonds.
-N

Boston, you know we love you madly...

HOW BOUT THEM SOX?
For us, as Boston sports fans, this year could not have gotten any better. The Pats started off 2004 by bringing home the Lombardi Trophy once again and Tom Brady proved he is still the best quarterback in the league. The Bruins in 2003-2004 kind of bit the big one against the Canadiens, but thats another story. And so begins the dream season of the 2004 Red Sox.

From the acquisition of Curt to the loss of the A-Rod trade to the empire (which this fan was vehemently against from day one), this season had amazing written all over it. Us here at the Citgo Sign followed it every step of the way, from waiting at fenway to scalp tickets to see them dominate the A's, to sitting at school in Philly and making sure we had MLB.com on our favorite places to watch games on "Game Day," one of the greatest inventions ever created. Post Season came along, and well we knew it was game time. As sox fans transplanted into a place where every other person is a Yankees fan, and going to school with the entire state of New Jersey and New York put together, well you could get an idea of what we had to deal with for those first three games of the ALCS. Well the Nation here in Philly persevered, and we witnessed what could possibly be the greatest feat in sports unfold before our eyes. From 0-3 to World Champs. It took a bunch of idiots who believed "Why Not Us?" to erase all the pain from the past. No more ghost-like images of the Babe. Johnny Peski's throw isn't the reason anymore. Bucky Dent's Home Run isnt that big of a deal. Bill Buckner can finally be proud to say he played for the Sox. And for damn sure Aaron Boone is still one lucky bastard. No more 1918 chants. No more "Who's your daddy?" The yankees fans may still flaunt their 26 championships, but our ONE means more to us than all 26 combined to them. We are the ones who never lost faith. We are Red Sox Nation.

-N