Not sure if the spinning minds of the Front Office savants in the offices at 4 Yawkey Way realize that there is a slight possibility that the against-the-grain decision to hire a retired former Mets manager may have been a mistake. When I heard the final decision was to hire Mr. Bobby Valentine, I was dumbfounded....speechless. I am talking about the BOSTON RED SOX searching for a skipper to lead them into their highly-anticipated Centennial year at Fenway Park. They had the best minds in the game, and the savvyiest business leaders in the country at their disposal to make decisions.......

When will they admit that their choice of a manager was a flop? (Perhaps the day following the season's last game) Mr. Valentine has a lot to answer for. He has not navigated the tightrope walk between Boston's rabid sportsfans, the City's sinister and agenda-hiding media, and it's spoiled broken team of players very well. There may not be a person in the mortal world that could. In my mind, he was the wrong choice right from the beginning. Mr. Larry Lucchino had the hots for him so bad, that there was no way anyone was going to fight him on this Titanic wreck of a vision for 2012.....the Centennial.

1/2 of the players coming into the season were new to the team, and since then, more newbies have been added. When I look out at the everchanging field of players, I need a dry erase board to keep up with the endless changes. This is the most mixed-up, unstable bunch of baseball players thrown together in this town in recent memory. The Sox employees I feel most sorry for are the people that have to attach player names onto the jerseys (with the ever-changing roster) and the assistants that have to find housing/transportation for the recent team players.

I know the Patriots like to play Crazy Train at their home games, but I am thinking that for this year, it may be a more appropriate song for our baseball team instead.

After all the strife this season has had to date, the team is still within a couple of games from the 2nd place spot! If they can just inch-up to that & shove Baltimore back down to the hell hole low spot that they belong in......then, maybe there's a snowball's chance for the Sox to climb the rickety ladder into the clouds to knock those Yanks down a few pegs. It's possibly an unrealistic viewpoint, but wouldn't it be a nice dream?

Carl Crawford will finally rejoin the team tonight in Boston to take-on the Chicago White Sox. It will be so very weird to see Kevin Youkilis in a foreign uniform.

- fenway fruitgirl 2012