November 17, 2010

Tom Werner Is Not Looking For That Confounded Bridge

Red Sox chairman Tom Werner, on WEEI:
I think that we are going to sign, I won't promise, but we're going to sign a significant free agent. We are going to make a trade to improve ourselves. I want to assure everybody that there is no bridge year here this year. [In] 2011, we're committed to win.
Okay. Good. ... Lookin' forward to it.

I still cannot figure out why so many fans were put off by the bridge comment. (Unless you turn over all 25 players on your roster, isn't every season a bridge to the next year?) I'm with John Henry: It's a positive thing.

4 comments:

laura k said...

I understand.

Bridge = rebuilding = we're not winning a championship this year.

Yes, every season is technically a bridge to the next season, but that's not the way the expression is used.

It might be true, but fans don't necessarily want to hear it.

allan said...

Bridge = rebuilding = we're not winning a championship this year.

I don't even think he meant that. With even a normal amount of injuries, the Red Sox would have made the playoffs and possibly won the East.

I should try to find the exact quote. I think it merely signaled a transition of personnel and that the 2012 team would be quite different than the 2010 team.

2012 would have a new LF, RF, 3B, SS, C, DH, one SP, almost all of the pen and all of the bench.

laura k said...

I don't even think he meant that.

But that's how fans hear it. That was my point.

Joe Gravellese said...

And all of the no-names who were forced to fill in for injured Sox last year added to the "bridge year" perception.