Terry Francona

After the Red Sox won the first game in Tampa, 3-1, behind a solid effort from Jon Lester (even with his three wild pitches) hope had begun to spring forth that they could overtake the Rays and still get the wild card.

I am not counting them as "dead" yet, but last night's 3-2 loss in extra innings may have been the straw to break the Sox's back.

In honour of the great hostile manager Lou Piniella retiring this weekend, we here at MWS have decided to count down ten of the best baseball manager ejections.

10. Terry Francona (Boston Red Sox, MLB)—2010 VS Toronto Blue Jays


Nothing too crazy here, though it is pretty funny to watch the usually collected Francona get tossed in Toronto, then sort-of mimick the umpire's tossing motion.

There are several managers in Major League Baseball who have put together a solid case for Manager of the Year. I have selected my top three front runners for the award.

The brooms were out in St. Petersburg tonight as the Boston Red Sox rocked the Rays 11-3. This was an impressive series as the Red Sox completed the first sweep of the Rays at Tropicana Field since 2002.

Completing the sweep was important and all, but now the Red Sox have climbed back into the AL East, sitting only 5.5 games behind the Rays and now six games over .500. 

Throughout the series the themes were run prevention and solid, quality pitching, the two themes this ball club is built on.

Alright, I'm finally ready to talk some baseball.

Not that I haven't been paying attention, quite the opposite actually. Because of my line of work, I find myself watching more baseball than ever before—on Mondays and Thursdays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, not to mention the nationally televised games on Saturday and Sunday.

I see more of Buster Olney and John Kruk then I do of my own family. I even hear Tim McCarver and Joe Morgan's voices in my dreams, which as you might guess, very quickly become nightmares.

With Daisuke returning to the Boston Red Sox’ starting rotation, Tim Wakefield was relegated to a long relief pitching role. He has experience in the bullpen, and had been the team’s fifth starter.

This move is very dangerous for two reasons.

First, it upsets Tim Wakefield, who was just 17 wins away from the club record in career wins. An upset Wakefield means lower overall team chemistry. To add, a disgruntled player is never one that a team wants to have in a locker room.

With the 2010 season less than two weeks old, this seems kind of premature, well, unless you're me than you're chomping at the bit to put a list together like this.

There are several managers that should be on this list, maybe more than 10 but we'll stick to 10 and see where that leads us.

Red Sox third base coach Tim Bogar made a dunder-headed decision last night when he sent 1B Kevin Youkilis home on David Ortiz’ sixth-inning double into the right field corner. I don’t care how he tries to rationalize the decision, the fact of the matter is that there was NO reason to gamble in that situation.

In a poll currently running on Boston.com, 77 percent of respondents have said they think Red Sox manager Terry Francona should be utilizing 3B Mike Lowell as designated hitter.

At the outset, let me start by stating that the Boston.com poll is flawed. The site gave voters only two responses (play Ortiz, play Lowell) when there are really three options available—Tito also has the choice of platooning the two depending on whether a right-hander or left-hander is the starting pitcher for the opposing team.

Well, we’re twenty games into the college baseball season, and the TCU Horned Frogs are now No. 4 in the nation.  I was watching them sweep Texas Tech last weekend shredding on a nice mid 70’s Tejas spring day with my bud Mexican Joe, and we agreed that the scene was quite idyllic.

'Cept for the dang ping of those stupid aluminum bats.