There was an old saw in Boston that lost real meaning after 2004, when the formerly inept Olde Towne Team won its first World Series championship in 86 years: “They [Red Sox] killed my father and now they’re comin’ after me.” The way things have gone in Beantown over the past few weeks — with daily bombshells confirming and disputing certain players’ reprehensibly bad behavior and generally adding to the radioactive atmosphere surrounding the worst collapse in major league baseball history and those who perpetrated it — perhaps it’s time to update the adage: “They threw Terry Francona under the bus and now they’re really pissing me off.”
Because now the Sox epic September meltdown and the never-ending fallout surrounding it are messing with our golf. With the woefully short New England links season screeching to a halt, that’s almost as unforgivable as Popeye-munchin’, Bud Light-swillin’, fat slob pitchers so out of shape they couldn’t hurl their way to one more stinkin’ win (although many of us ex-fans hurled enough for all of them).
Which brings us to Tito and golf. The toxic environment in which unnamed sources blamed Francona’s alleged pill-popping and marital instability for the team’s failure proved too much to bear for the most successful manager in Sox history, as he pulled out of next week’s golf tourney in his honor at the swanky International Golf Club & Resort.
“Unfortunately Terry Francona cancelled his participation due to the hostile media coverage,” Brian Lynch, The International’s general manager told us in an e-mail message on Wednesday. “It’s unfortunate because it was going to be a fun day, celebrating an extremely successful eight years of Red Sox stewardship.”
So, thanks, John Lackey, Josh Becket, Jon Lester, and the rest of you overpaid spoiled brats who are, no doubt, teeing ‘em up at some lush tropical paradises. Not only will Sox fans have no chance to thank Francona for leading their team to the promised land twice in the last eight years, but the Dana Farber Cancer Institute will miss out on the donations from Boston golfers lined up to play in The International’s “Thank You Terry Francona Day.”
All in all, a lose-lose for everyone.
(Emily Kay is a regular contributor to New England Golf Monthly. Check her out on the The A Position, Waggle Room, Boston Golf Examiner, National Golf Examiner, and GottaGoGolf websites. You may also follow Kay on Twitter @golfexaminer.)
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