Red Sox and Rays start playing dodge-ball at Fenway: Umpires lose control in game where benches clear and 3 batters hit

Last year when Ryan Depster drilled Alex Rodrigiuez with a pitch, it was a bit of a revival of the nasty bench clearing brawls we saw between Boston and New York back in the early 2000's. However, when the Red Sox and Rays brawled on May 25th and then followed it up with an even rougher game 5 days later, that pegging of A-Rod suddenly looked petty.

The game started with fire. With 2 outs in the first inning, David Ortiz walked to the plate and stood in against former Cy Young winner, David Price. Price proceeded to drill a 95MPH fastball right into the Sox slugger's spine. Immediately, home plate umpire Jeff Kellog emphatically warned Price, the Rays bench as well as the Red Sox bench and Ortiz ferociously stared down Price as he began his trot towards first. 

But the fun was not done, even for that inning. As Ortiz finished delivering his death stare to David Price, John Farrell emerged from the dugout and began barking at a crowd of umpired between home plate and the pitcher’s mound. Before Farrell said anything though, he was ejected and we had ourselves yet another vicious baseball game. As the game dragged on though, Price proved that he seemed to be on a mission to turn this baseball game into a dodge-ball game. With 2 outs in the 4th inning, Price pegged Mike Carp with another 90MPH+ fastball and drew both teams out of their dugouts. Immediately, David Ortiz jumped into the scrum and began screaming and shoving Jose Molina in an attempt to get at Price. Also erupting during the fight was Rays bench-warmer Sean Rodriguez who despite being on the other side of the pile than the Red Sox was absolutely fuming. And yet as the umpires convened again, Price was not tossed. Acting manager Torey Lovullo however came out, got ejected after he spiked his cap and then started screaming at the officials of this game. Probably for good reason, the Red Sox got absolutely whacked by the umpires Friday night in Boston and nobody was happy. 

But anyway, with Lovullo gone, the Sox moved on to their 3rd  manager of the night: Brian Butterfeild. Miraculously, we made it to the 6th inning before anything more developed. With 1 out and 1 ball thrown to Evan Longoria in the 6th, Brandon Workman chucked a rising fastball behind and about 2 feet ABOVE Longoria. The pitch was without a doubt at least a bad attempt at a bean-ball and finally, the umpires recognized that. Workman and Butterfeild were both sent packing and suddenly we ended up with hitting coach Greg Coulbern acting as Boston's 4th manager of the night.

Coulbern would manage for all 5 innings between the Workman debacle and AJ Pierzynski's walk off triple in the 10th inning. But after dotting their opponents with baseball sized bruises and screaming copious amounts of profanity, the Sox and Rays took to the microphones after the game to further attack one another. One of the most blatant of this verbal attacks was made against David Price by David Ortiz. 

"It's a war," Ortiz said after the Red Sox victory, "It's on. Next time I see him, he better put his gloves on. I have no respect for him anymore."

Ortiz also eluded to the fact that Price may still be angry about last year’s wild card round when Ortiz shredded him with multiple home runs. He hinted that Price's lingering hatred is a sign of bad sportsmanship.

"I had a lot of respect for the guy, man," he said. "It is over now. I have no more respect for him. Last year, we kicked his butt in the playoffs and he went off talking crap about everyone. We go to talk on the phone after we kind of straightened things out. He was upset, and then I let him know how I felt. Later on he called me and apologized because he knew he was wrong. Everything was cool, so the first at-bat of the season against him, he drills me." 

John Farrell then came to the podium and cast a heavy eye on the umpires for allowing Price to stay in the game after the Ortiz bean-ball. 

"David's a heckuva pitcher," Farrell said regarding Price. "He comes in with two hit batters and eight walks on the year. He's got the lowest walk rate in the American League. And when he throws a ball and hits David Ortiz in the back, there is intent to that. They can dispute that all they want. There is intent to that pitch. As emphatic as Dan Bellino's warning was, it sure seemed like Dan Bellino felt there was intent as well."

He then started talking about how in the world Price survived the Mike Carp hit batter incident 3 innings later. Farrell obviously disagreed with the umpires' handling of the warning system and why a second warning was not issued after Carp was hit. 

"I disagreed with it," Farrell continued. "He took the ball out of our hand, and after [Red Sox first baseman] Mike Carp got hit with a ball up around his neck and they didn't make a move, then the umpires allowed this game to escalate even further. When we have four people ejected and also three players hit by pitches and they have none, that's a hard one to figure out," Farrell said. "He threw at Ortiz and hit him in the back. There's intent to that."

Umpire Dan Bellino defended his decision in the Carp incident while not speaking directly to the Ortiz handling.

"Again, if we feel there was intent to hit the batter, he would have been ejected," Bellino said of Price after the game. "We felt the pitch was certainly inside, but not intentional, so that's why he stayed in the game."

All and all, Friday night was a dark night for the umpiring universe. In a game with bean-balls galore, post-game comments of great foreboding nature, 4 umpires let a game get out of control and possibly set the stage for Ortiz's little feud with David Price to turn into the war he declared against him. 

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Red Sox receive World Series rings: In final day of reflection on 2013, the Red Sox act like champions

The sights and sounds buzzing through Fenway Park were of excitement, appreciation and a dash of that lingering pride in the fact that less than 6 months ago, our team, the Boston Red Sox were the first team in the history of baseball to go from last in their division 1 year to World Series Champion the next. 

On this day, April 4th, 2014, the majesty of that triumphant World Series win however was very rapidly melting out of the present and into the past. We had seen the post-game interviews and celebration on October 30th of last year then cheered in delirious unity a few days later when the Championship Parade wound through the streets of Boston raising us up and emphasizing the importance of this season that had possibly been the most important season in Red Sox history. 

And after that we still refused to forget these bearded brothers who had taken over the city in which they lived. We half-jokingly, half actually cried when Johnny Gomes shaved his beard prior to Spring Training while we celebrated when Mike Napoli resigned with the team and promised that his beard would do the same. 

You see, there was something about the 2013 Sox that went beyond dominance. It trumped the dynastic reign of the Patriots and shamed those Celtics fans who revel in the fact that their team has won more championships than any other team in the league even though 11 out of 18 of those championships were won in an era where the NBA had just 9 teams. It makes the Bruins fans of the eras of Bobby Orr and now Claude Jillian rethink the magic of their own respective championship runs and even makes people still bragging about the 2004 Sox title ask the question, was this 2013 title above all the rest?

We look back on the 162 games of 2013, 1 of which bears the emotional astrix denoting it as the game erased from out memory by the terror resulting from the Marathon Bombing on April 15th, and see how this team grew as one and really found out what they were as a result of that day and the support their city demanded from them after it. Their beards defined them but their camaraderie made them great. 

Stories of this clubhouse unity brought to the table by unknown guys like Johnny Gomes or forgotten stars like Mike Napoli and Shane Victorino erased those of Chicken and Beer that grew out of the doldrums of the 2011 collapse while stunning displays of dominance by those same players made us forget even about the game before. At the end of the season while they were not the stand alone best team in baseball they were close to it. They tied with the Cardinals for the top spot come years end but went above and beyond the rest of the league in offence while not once losing more than 3 consecutive games.

While for 4 years Sox fans felt a burning jealousy for the Yankees and their constant mantra of victorious play, the tables were turned in 2013 when the Sox rapidly became the do all say all owners of the baseball world. As the Yankees dealt with the fallout from the Biogenisis scandal and were hated for their part in it, the Red Sox were completely clean in 2013 always getting forgiven for their few unlikable moments (namely David Ortiz's phone smashing incident in Baltimore) and actually praised for moments that should have been unlikable but were not in Boston (namely the Ryan Dempster/Alex Rodriguez bean ball incident). 

This team was loved for what they did in 2013 and while many fans would never like to have to deal with finding space for new memories among all the great ones that team gave us, baseball does go on and on this day, April 4th, 2014, the 2013 Red Sox went from present to past while the 2014 Red Sox went from future to present. But as we knew this, as we prepared to cross that threshold to be felt when the first pitch a 2014 Red Sox pitcher threw on home turf was thrown, we also knew that there was one more chapter to this year of celebration, one last hurrah for the 2013 Boston Red Sox. That chapter, that last hurrah is and was the Ring Ceremony conducted this afternoon. 

“It’s going to be pretty cool,” pitcher Jon Lester said prior to the presentation of his 2nd Championship Ring for his work in Boston. “Just from what I remember from ’08, being able to be a part of that in different circumstances. I think this one means, obviously they all mean a lot, but this one means a little bit more. It’ll be pretty cool and I’m excited for it. You sit around all offseason thinking what the ring’s going to look like, so it’ll be pretty cool to go out there and get it and celebrate one last time, and after today we move on for good and think about 2014.” 

“Opening Day for me is one of the best things in baseball,” backup catcher David Ross said. “It’s probably at the top of my list, especially home openers and then you’re talking about a home opener with a World Series ring -- that’s a goal for a home opener. I’m just excited and looking forward to all the festivities. I’m looking forward to getting the ring and then getting the game going. We’re excited.” 

Ross was ready to turn the page, ready to get over the 2013 Sox and start biting his nails again as this city watches their 2014 team go for 2 straight titles. 

And yet for some that will not happen. Ryan Dempster, Jaocby Ellsbury and Jarrod Saltalamaccia all left the team after last season and as harsh as it may seem, Ellsbury and Saltalamaccia were all but ghosts who were not present at today's ceremony. Ryan Dempster however was there and at one point, just by his presence on the same diamond as new comers like Grady Seismore or AJ Piyrsynzki represented fully this acknowledgment of both past and present of Red Sox Nation.

Au revoir 2013 Red Sox hello 2014 Sox. Let us make this season just as special as the last. 

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Ryan Dempster walks away from 14 million dollar contract with the Sox: How long term fatigue finally caught up to Dempster and ended his up and down MLB carrer

15 years after he first joined the league, 40,000 pitches after the first one he threw one, 5 teams after he was drafted by the Rangers in 1995, Ryan Dempster is stepping away from this game that has been his for a decade and a half.

Fact is nobody expected this. Even though he might likely be booted from a starting role mid-season and would make his biggest contributions to this team as a periodically penciled in middle reliever, Dempster still had almost 30 million dollars in contract money to be paid out to him over the next 2 years. That number alone would have made most stick around. But that is not what Ryan Dempster did. Frankly, you have to hand it to him for having this kind of assertiveness in knowing what is best for himself and his family.

In the 15 years since his first contract was paid out, Dempster has made close to 90 million dollars and has in 12 seasons posted an ERA above 4.5. It would be fair to say that Dempster has never performed with the excellence that his money most surely demands. And yet at the same time, if you subtract him from the 2013 Red Sox roster that won the World Series last year, a pretty decent void would be left wide open. While when you take into account the money Dempster was paid last year, each of his 8 wins cost the team about 1.6 million dollars, he was not all that bad especially towards the end of the season.

After starting the year an abysmal 2-6, Dempster turned things around going 6-3 in his final 9 decisions of the year. Those 6 strong victories included key outings in both Chicago and Detroit towards the end of the year when the Sox were competing tooth and nail with the Oakland A's for the number one seed in the AL. But come playoff time it was clear that compared to John Lackey, Jon Lester, Clay Bucholz or even Jake Peavy, Dempster was nothing more than a side note and so he was confined to the bullpen for all of October. There he made 3 appearances (1 in each series) and at least in the first two was not half bad allowing just 2 hits a combined 18 pitches. 

The 3rd of those outings of course came in Game 1 of the World Series where Dempster blew a shutout by allowing a home run and 1 hit after that in the 8th inning of an 8-0 game.  

Honestly, that probably did not cause Dempster to much mental strife. Having played 597 games in the sport of professional baseball, Dempster has most surly had his low points and so he knows how to deal with them. But at the same time those 597 games have also spawned hundreds of bright spots that take to form of the 132 wins Dempster has led whatever team pays him to. Twice he has been an all-star and in 5 postseason games, he has grabbed the ball.    

But he is tired. 

"But I just feel like where I'm at with my health, how I feel personally, I just feel like it's in the best interests of both myself and the organization and the team to not play this year. I don't feel like I can compete or produce the way I'm accustomed to." Dempster said. 

According to Red Sox GM, Ben Cherrington, part of Dempster's decision to leave had to do with a nagging neck injury that he could not seem to shake. 

"Talking to Ryan, even before he came down here today, there were mixed emotions on his part," Farrell said. "He's had a great career. You congratulate him on that, but I think when the end is nearing [and] ... the physical side of things take away from the performance, you empathize with that and know you can't go on and play this game forever." 

Additionally, from what we have heard from the entire Red Sox organization since Dempster retired, though he was not necessarily the best pitcher on this roster, he was one of the most liked as his humble but humorous personality made it so that both Cherrington and John Farrel were sad to see him go. 

"In a career full of earning respect and building respect, he's ending his time with the Red Sox in a way [winning the World Series] that only bolsters that, strengthens that feeling about him," Cherington said. "It was ultimately the right thing to do in his mind. That doesn't mean it was an easy thing to do, and I have great respect for him making the decision that way."

Over 15 years these things, no matter how thrilling begin to take a toll on your body and while he has never been a man prone to injury, Ryan Dempster is a classy player who knows when it is time to call these up and down years in baseball a career. That time is now.  

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