After bringing home a Superbowl title and a Worlds Series win, Boston sports teams have had an excellent year. As we grow closer to the one-year anniversary of the Reverse of the Curse, Boston sports players have been confusing the hell out of Bostonist this past week. The Patriots training camp started up today with some big gapping holes in their defensive lineup.
Last week, Tedy Bruschi decided to opt out of this season with the Pats after facing suffering from a stroke this past February. A few days later, fellow defensive player Ted Johnson announced he would be retiring after 10 years in the NFL, saying that the numerous concussions he's had could hurt him in the long run. Both linemen were captains this past season; two other linemen, Ty Law, now a free agent, and Roman Phifer, not resigned by the team, add to the Pats’ problems for this upcoming season. To add to the drama, Richard Seymour is holding out for a better contract and didn’t show his face at camp today. With offensive coordinator Charlie Weis and defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel leaving after last season, Coach Belichick and the boys will be facing some big personnel issues this season, which kicks off with a preseason match on August 12 against the Bengals.
As if that’s not enough, we now turn to the Red Sox and the soap opera over at Fenway. Pitcher Matt Clement was struck by a ball in the head in Tuesday's game against the Devil Rays; he was taken to the hospital and looks to be okay. That same game, Trot Nixon left in the third inning and is now on the disabled list due to a "left oblique strain."
Then of course comes the recent talks of trades right before the July 31 deadline. Manny Ramirez has been expressing his desire to be traded to another team, with some saying he wants to leave because he is too well known in the city. (Gee, a World Series win will do that, won’t it?) Nothing is set in stone yet, but Sox president Larry Lucchino confirmed that Ramirez requested a trade, but he’ll be hard to trade due to his existing contract of $60 million thru 2008. The Boston Globe had some breaking news tonight with an inside source claiming that the Sox are in talks with the Mets and Devil Rays in a trade involving Manny. (Yet according to the pre-game show tonight, Bob Lobel and the boys said that 4 other teams have been talking about a trade for Manny and that the Mets deal is the least likely to happen.) Sox fans were their vocal selves tonight when Manny first went up to bat against Minnesota and was greeted with a round of boos.
For those that suffer from amnesia, it was exactly a year ago when Theo Epstein sent Nomar to the Cubs and in return, we got some new blood and the World Series title. Sometimes a little change can be a good thing.
Photos courtesy of patriots.com and mlb.com
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