Will someone please put some wood in the stove?

by Ric Glaub, International Editor

Tashkent, Uzbekistan—November 15, 2011. So Paps is gone. Tito is gone. Theo is gone. Maybe Big Papi. Who knows? Maybe Jacoby Ellsbury will give up baseball and enter the priesthood and Dustin Pedrioa will go to Tibet and become a Buddhist monk. I mean, really, what’s next?

And now we’re looking at Dale Sveum as manager? Dale “send ‘em home” Sveum? Well, if he gets the nod we should at least see some interesting base running.

I agree with both our Editor in Chief, regarding Sveum, and our Down Under editor, Mark Lawrence, regarding the apparent demise of the Sox (yes, I think BenCher is exactly right). Mark is right in that at this point it seems like watching the rivets tear off the Titanic against the iceberg. It’s not sinking quickly; there’s just enough time to get most of the women and children into the lifeboats.

So here’s our starting rotation: Buchholz (maybe), Beckett (hopefully), Dice-K (ha ha), Lackey (why does Boston have the highest ticket prices in the land? Whoops, I forgot, he’s getting a new arm) and Lester (hooray). Our closers? Bard and/or Jenks. We don’t really have a right fielder and maybe no DH. I remember coaching little league and one time having only seven players show up for a game. Won’t happen with the Sox next year, but one wonders if they’ll end up playing Pawtucket as the big team.

If ever the team should be forgiven for going into the clubhouse to drink beer and eat chicken, it may be next season. That’s probably what I’m going to do.

All the while Larry Luchinno morphs more and more into looking like Peter Angelos. Or maybe even Marge Schott.

You know things are bad when you start thinking perhaps things would be better if Frank McCourt had bought the Sox.

Oh, well, perhaps I’m being too pessimistic. Miracles happen – water into wine and all that. I have always enjoyed the hot stove league. Right now, however, the stove doesn’t even feel warm.