Just in - Duquette fired Jimy Williams...

[JohnR]

http://www.boston.com/sports/redsox/news/081601_williams_fired.htm

[ragfly]

It's about time he opened his eyes!

[Marc Z]

I dont like it!
Williams has done the best he could with the devastating injuries his team has had (Nomar, Pedro, Varitek etc), along with the cancer he has in Everett.
Duquette is who needs to go!
But in the other respect, maybe it'll fire them up and get them off this slide they're in.
GO SOX!
MZ

[JohnR]

Mark - my thoughts too. Would anyone else have gotten them this far? Probably not. But the change probably can't hurt for the stretch run...

[Slipknot]

Too bad it wasn't the other way around. Jimi firing Dan....

[jettyjockey18]

its no secret the two didn't get along...duquette has been waiting a long time to fire him but you can't fire a manager when the team is in first place (up til early july)...so you wait till the team hits the skids, falls a couple games back for the wildcard...

[JohnR]

I just hopr that the players somehow become inspired. That with some luck for a change could get things moving again.

The good news? They're only 2 games back in the Wild Card and 5 behind the Yankess. They have a few games still against the Yankess to play and could potentially pull ahead an maintain a lead... Get Martinez back - even at 90% he's better than 95% of the league - Cone is finding ways to win, Wakefield has been pretty consistant in every role he stuffed in, including starter, Casey Fossom has looked good in his limited appearances...

The bad news? They have a few games still against the Yankess to play - that could turn things south... The Yanks have an easier schedule through the end of the season and the Sox have the tougher. And the heat in the Wild Card is turned on high...