I have to strongly disagree with you on many accounts here.
1.) I don't think the Media is to blame for the Nomar thing. It is clearly a shared blame on both sides. Nomar initially rejected the 60 million offer, that the Red Sox felt was incredibly fair. Nomar rejected it in hopes of further negogiations. The Sox felt insulted by this, since it was an INCREDIBLY FAIR OFFER!
As a result, the A-Rod thing began. That was handled very poorly by both sides as well. There should have been continued communication between both sides. There wasn't.
With that said, Nomars ego (which we know is pretty sensitive), was seriously damaged, and possibly irreperable. John Henry did not help the situation either, and continued no communication.
Take us up to just before the Trade deadline. Nomar reports to trainers and manager that he'll need to take some serious time off in order to play in September. This includes days off throughout August, and possibly time on the DL. Nomar forced the Red Sox into trade negotiations. With our current injury list growing, we CANNOT afford to have our SS on the DL for any length of time, especially if we're making a play for the wildcard! The Red Sox had no choice but to trade Nomar.
Now with that said, this was a good trade for us. The one thing that has been killing this team this year is dumb dumb dumb fielding and errors. We've lost way to many games due to errors. This team was built around GREAT pitching. Possibly the best in the league. However, we have not exibited the defense to back up the pitching. This trade seriously strenghtened our infield defense. I absolutely do not believe our poor playing is the result of management and personnel decisions. Sure, we had a couple tough calls by the 3rd base coach the last couple nights, but that's only 2 games out of 100 or so. The majority of our games have been good players playing marginally, and that's been our problem.
In addition, there have been rumors that the clubhouse isn't quite the same as a result of Nomar being moody. I think with all the trade talks done, things can get back to normal. Its amazing how you haven't heard any whining from Varitek, and he's kept quite about everything even though his contract is up. By the way, he's one guy I'd really like to see us sign.
2.) NO ONE EVER has the "RIGHT" to jog out a pop-fly. On more than one occasion, Manny's jogging attitude has cost him. When you're earning the kind of money he is, your club has paid for you to give 100% 100% of the time! Jogging out anything is total BS!
Ok, that's enough from me. I'll be at the game on Wednesday, and I'm looking forward to seeing Orlando and Doug playing some defense. Now if we can just get someone to put the stop sign up at 3rd, we'll be much better off.
