So Long Tito

[Strike_King]

I think that was one of the most glaring examples of a team quitting on its coach/manager that I've ever seen. Francona stuck his neck out for those guys,much to his detriment,and in the end it got him canned. Hope they all remember that.
In regard to Theo,people forget that the 04 team was in large part signed/drafted by Duquette. I don't consider signing Shilling a genius move. The list of FA busts is amazing,if you look at it.
Ownership knew all along what they were doing. Not picking up his option all year,even when the team was rolling during the summer? Then last week,releasing a story through their hit man Peter Gammons, that Francona lost the clubhouse. That set the wheels in motion for his exit.Pretty bush league move IMO...

[Backbeach Jake]

I think that the players should be investigated for gambleing on games. Sure looks like they threw a few. Start with the pitching staff.

[afterhours]

from what's coming out the inmates ran the asylum. wonder how they treated crawford? eff these bad eggs which there are more than a few. beckett, lester, bucholtz and a few more starting picthers had thier own tight clique and they would hang around drinking in the clubhouse during games, beckett is the leader and it seems to have rubbed off on lester *&&^%$... gee no wonder the rotation SUCKED! bad chemistry here- gonna cost a ton of henrys $$ to get rid of these overpaid jerkoffs who have slapped the fans in the face.

[Strike_King]

Jackie MacMullin wrote a great article on the Sox clubhouse. Real good read: Underachieving Boston Red Sox flunked chemistry - ESPN Boston

Unlikable Red Sox flunked chemistry
Somehow the team became what it once abhorred -- arrogant, complacent and entitled
While the Rays were young, hungry and edgy, the Red Sox were arrogant, complacent and, worst of all, entitled.

They took their baseball gifts for granted, and when those gifts abandoned them, as they almost always do during a long baseball season, they were either too lazy or too cocksure to recognize what was required of them to maintain the consistency that is so vital in baseball.
Ellsbury is a 2007 alum and an MVP candidate, a magnificent player with the brightest future of them all. His teammates like and admire him, but he keeps to himself, confides only in Jed Lowrie.

Can you blame him? His teammate two or three lockers to his left continued, as recently as two months ago, to publicly question Ellsbury's decision to retreat to Arizona last summer for treatment for broken ribs. Kevin Youkilis has always been a hot button. On occasion, his intensity and his honesty were his biggest assets, but not this season. The injured Youkilis showed up every day the way he wanted Ellsbury to, but he turned so sour and cynical that his carping and insistence on inserting himself into other people's affairs turned him into a detriment.