Can You Imagine Reading This 20 Years Ago?

Boston Sportswriter:

[Red Sox General Manager] is coming up on three years in October and has not won the World Series. Public perception has turned sharply against him . . .

What?!?!? Our GM hasn't won the Manfred Piece of Metal in three whole seasons? Horrors!

This is a very stupid take no matter who wrote it or when or where it appeared.

Unmasking: The sportswriter is Peter Abraham and his words appeared in last Sunday's Boston Globe. From context, Abraham was being completely serious when he wrote it. Here's the entire section:

Red Sox: Alex Cora could be in hot water. Here’s how.

John Henry and Tom Werner have been impulsive with their baseball operations chiefs over the last decade. Ben Cherington lasted a little less than four years. Dombrowski got a little more than four years. Each put together a World Series champion.

Chaim Bloom is coming up on three years in October and has not won the World Series. Public perception has turned sharply against him in recent weeks after a convoluted and unsuccessful approach to the trade deadline.

If the owners decide to ax him after the season, Bloom could argue that unlike Cherington and Dombrowski, he never had a chance to hire his own manager.

The owners made it clear in 2020 they wanted Cora back after his suspension and Bloom went along. Bloom could ask for another chance with his own manager and maybe the owners would go along with that. It’s unlikely. But given the volatility at Fenway, anything is possible.

One way or another, it feels like a decision between Bloom or Cora is coming.

I read this bit of silliness in Matthew Kory's latest edition of Sox Outsider. Kory also expressed surprise that Red Sox ownership had overruled Bloom and hired Cora for the 2021 season. I had assumed, as Kory did, that it was, at the very least, a mutual decision.

From what I had always heard, the hire was Bloom's. Supposedly he made the choice independently. Sure, the owners wanted Cora back, but Bloom went into things with an open mind and Cora convinced him that he was the best person for the job . . . 

Abraham seems to be saying Bloom didn't get to hire his own guy. . . . If Bloom had had autonomy he'd have picked someone else. . . .

I generally don't think owners should be in the business of making baseball decisions, especially when they've just hired someone with expertise they don't possess specifically to make those decisions. . . . Though you'd like to think they'd have learned their lesson when it comes to this sort of thing.

Indeed, though Cora is light years better in the dugout than Mr. I-Invented-The-Wrap.