In this sad Red Sox spring of 2026, they’re no longer the talk of the town, and other thoughts
Picked-up pieces while waiting for Mickey Gasper to sign a multiyear deal with W.B. Mason . . .
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My morning routine takes me on a slow neighborhood jog and I regularly cross paths with a couple of sports fans who’ll often comment on the latest events involving our local teams.
“How about those Sox?” I teased as I shuffled past the guys this past week.
“We don’t talk about them anymore,” said one of them. “We just talk about A.J. Brown.”
Bingo. Such is the tone of most sports conversation in this sad Sox spring of 2026.
It’s early June and the Sox are the only game in town, but they’re largely ignored on local sports airwaves. If you visit a Hub saloon, the TV over the bar will probably feature golf, the Knicks, Roland Garros, or Stephen A. Smith ripping Jaylen Brown.
Fenway is still full most days and nights when the Sox are in town, but it’s no longer home to diehard seamheads who keep score with No. 2 pencils and have the smarts to boo Manny Machado. In 2026, Fenway Park is part of the Freedom Trail, regularly filled by tourists, road-tripping Phillies/Braves/Orioles fans, and oblivious mooks singing, “So good, so good, so good,” when the Sox come to bat trailing, 8-1, as they did in the eighth inning of Thursday’s matinee loss to the Orioles.
Sad, but true. Fenway Sports Group and Craig Breslow have made Boston baseball dull, allowing the Patriots to dominate sports talk even though they are more than three months away from their first regular-season game. If it’s not Patriots, fans are talking Knicks-Spurs, Hurricanes-Golden Knights, or Giannis-JB trade speculation. Even the (gulp) World Cup.
Sox talk has been reduced to disgust and/or mockery. Eight years of payroll flexibility, horrendous player evaluations, emphasis on data at the expense of scouting and actual baseball experience have made the once gold-brand Red Sox a middle-market mess. The 5-9 Boston batters Thursday were Isiah Kiner-Falefa (one homer), Andruw Monasterio (.245), Caleb Durbin (.194), Carlos Narváez (.214), and Connor Wong, a designated hitter who last homered in 2024.
Remember when supernova prospects Brayan Bello, Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, and Kristian Campbell were going to rescue the franchise? The Sox “locked up” three of them, long term, before they accomplished anything, and right now that’s looking like Rusney Castillo money. Bello (2-6, 6.34) is a puddle who needs something more than a pitching coach, Anthony can’t get healthy, Mayer is a career .225-hitting platoon player, and Campbell is hitting .229 in Triple-A, probably a victim of smarter-than-you Driveline guys.
The Sox go into Yankee Stadium this weekend ensconced in last place with a 26-35 record and are two games under .500 since changing managers and wiping out their coaching staff. They are 10-21 at home, their worst start at Fenway since 1932, when they finished the season 43-111. They’ll visit the first-place Rays after their weekend in the Bronx.
Breslow last Friday told the Herald, “We’re still in this.”
Ugh.
Technically, that’s true, I suppose. Going into the weekend, the Sox are only 3½ games out of the third wild-card spot. No American League team was more than seven games from the playoffs. So it’s virtually impossible to be out of the picture in early June.
Swell. But do savvy Boston fans really take any pride in the Sox’ pledge to “play October baseball” by competing with American League dregs to land a third wild-card slot with a sub.-500 record. It this the new standard? The new goal? Do the Sox score points by saying, “Hey, we’re not as bad as the Royals”?
Let’s go back to talking about A.J. Brown.
⋅ Quiz: 1. Name the Red Sox’ five career leaders for games pitched; 2. Name six switch-hitters who have won batting titles since 1990 (answers below).
⋅ Bill Russell and K.C. Jones are by far the most successful teammates in basketball history. They won back-to-back NCAA championships for the San Francisco Dons in 1955 and ’56, then won eight NBA crowns together for the Celtics from 1959-66. They also won an Olympic gold medal together for good measure. Only six other pairs of teammates pulled off the NCAA-NBA double. We bring this up because Knicks teammates Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, and Josh Hart won an NCAA championship together at Villanova in 2016 (Brunson and Bridges won a second title for the Wildcats in 2018) and are attempting to win the NBA title. Six other sets of teammates who pulled off this rare double are: Frank Ramsey and Lou Tsioropoulos (Kentucky, Celtics), John Havlicek and Larry Siegfried (Ohio State, Celtics), Keith Erickson and Gail Goodrich (UCLA, Lakers), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Lucius Allen (UCLA, Bucks), Billy Thompson and Milt Wagner (Louisville, Lakers), and Derek Anderson and Antoine Walker (Kentucky, Heat). I would love to have made this a quiz question, but it’s too hard. Right?
⋅ Get ready for the Big Tent Circus to come to Madison Square Garden Monday when the 47th president joins Knicks owner James Dolan for Game 3 of the NBA Finals. I’m still hoping the pope makes an appearance to cheer for his Villanova homies. The Knicks are trying to win their third NBA title, first since 1973, and they also are striving to become New York’s first major men’s sports champ since the Giants beat the Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI in 2012. The Big Apple is agog.
⋅ Count me as one who was just fine seeing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder lose Game 7 to the Spurs last weekend. SGA is a wonderful talent and worthy two-time MVP, but who loves any player whose best skill is “drawing fouls”? The game becomes an endless slog of SGA picking himself up of the floor and going to the foul line while a suckered opponent — who just couldn’t stop himself from going for the up-fake — complains to officials. No thanks for seven games of that.
⋅ Hoping that by now you all know that Hart is the great-nephew of former Yankees/Red Sox catcher Elston Howard.
⋅ Should it be “Fenway’s Fired Seven” or “Sacked Sox Seven”?
⋅ Chad Tracy had three catchers in his lineup last Sunday: Gasper, Wong, and Narváez. Bet the powerhouse Yankees did this when they had Yogi Berra, Howard, and Johnny Blanchard.
⋅ Still too much happy talk on Red Sox airwaves. No need to keep pumping tires. Respect the fan base.
⋅ Speaking of Sox broadcasts, do all MLB teams find sponsorship for every tiny announcement during a nine-inning game? I was in my car with grandkids over the weekend when one of the Sox radio guys said, “That walk is brought to you by NorthShore Adult Diapers.” Gulp. I suppose we should be grateful it’s for a “bases-loaded” situation.
⋅ Sox fans at Fenway Park on April 27, 1963, saw two NBA players on the mound. Tall righthander Gene Conley (three rings as Russell’s backup) started for Boston and future Knicks world champ Dave DeBusschere pitched briefly in the fourth inning of the Red Sox’ 9-5 win over the White Sox. DeBusschere retired Carl Yastrzemski on a pop to third but surrendered a three-run homer to Frank Malzone later in the inning.
⋅ MAGA Bob Kraft and spouse Dr. Dana Blumberg must be upset that a federal judge ordered President Trump’s name removed from the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. Dr. Blumberg is on the Trump-appointed board that unanimously voted to slap Trump’s name on the building back in December.
⋅ The NCAA championship game rematch between UConn and Michigan at TD Garden on Friday, Nov. 6 should be a treat.
⋅ Can’t wait to see “Lightning in a Bottle,” a documentary five years in the making by UMass alums Brad Davidson and Mike Corey. They’ve got interviews from UMass legends Julius Erving, Marcus Camby, and John Calipari. It’s all about the golden era of UMass basketball, which resulted in a No. 1 ranking (35-2) and a Final Four in 1996, when UMass lost to champion Kentucky. Unfortunately, the Minutemen’s Final Four appearance was later vacated by the NCAA when it was learned that star center Camby accepted cash payments and gifts from a sports agent. Now that anything goes in the NCAA’s wild world of NIL (when’s the last time you heard of any player being “academically ineligible”?), there’s an initiative to legitimize UMass’s Final Four. After all, Camby’s transgressions would mean nothing today. The world really doesn’t work this way, does it? If it did, the 2001-02 Raiders, 2016-17 Falcons, and 2018-19 Chiefs would surely like to replay the overtimes of postseason losses to the Super Bowl champion Patriots. Today’s NFL overtime rules stipulate that both teams must possess the ball at least once before the game is decided. This was not the case when the Patriots became champs by winning the coin toss, then winning the game while their opponents never possessed the ball.
⋅ A news story in Monday’s New York Times headlined “Beer Sellers Hope Soccer Lifts Sales” reported, “Beer companies are placing huge bets on the World Cup, spending tens of millions of dollars on sponsorships and advertising deals to promote their brands during the 104 matches that will be played in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, starting on June 11 and culminating with the final match on July 19.”
⋅ Congrats to Jack Edwards, Steve Burton, and the late Clark Booth — all inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame this week.
⋅ If you’re the parent of a young man 11-18 who loves basketball, there’s still time to register him to the Red Auerbach International Basketball School (run by Steve Curley and K.C. Jones III, son of the Celtics legend) at Nichols College in Dudley for the week of July 26-31. Visit www.redabballschool.com to register.
⋅ RIP Raymond Berry, nationally known as Johnny Unitas’s favorite receiver in their golden days of the late 1950s and early ’60s. Berry was Patriots coach for 5½ seasons and — along with Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, and Mike Vrabel — one of only four men to lead then to the Super Bowl.
⋅ Quiz answers: 1. Bob Stanley, Tim Wakefield, Matt Barnes, Jonathan Papelbon, Mike Timlin; 2. Willie McGee (1990), Terry Pendleton (1991), Bernie Williams (1998), Bill Mueller (2003), Chipper Jones (2008), Jose Reyes (2011).
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