According to the BBC, the Boston Red Sox are buying Liverpool FC. John Henry, the Sox's principal owner, is buying out the Hicks family if one or two financial niggles can be sorted out. As much as the Hicks clan is despised in Liverpool this isn't great news for Scousers. Henry has shown little previous interest in association football. Its pretty much all been baseball until now. He grew up a fan of the St Louis Cardinals, then purchased a stake in the New York Yankees before helping launch the Colorado Rockies. He bought the Red Sox from The New York Times in 2002 with the express purpose of "reversing the curse" of Babe Ruth and winning the World Series. That he did just two years later in 2004, with - according to the completely unbiased Mitchell Report - a team that was utterly free of steroids. Cough, cough. ...
I grew up a fan of Liverpool FC back in the glory days of the 70's and after living in Harlem for 7 years in the 1990's I naturally became a New York Yankees fan and thus a mortal enemy of the Red Sox. I have worn a Yankees cap at Fenway Park and endured the abuse. There is however one thing I like about the Red Sox and that is Theo Epstein, the Sox's wunderkind General Manager who is generally acknowledged to be the smartest man in baseball. It was he, not Henry, who put together the team that reversed the curse of the Bambino and most of his moves since have proved to be winners. Smarts runs in Epstein's family. His father is head of the creative writing programme at Boston University and his grandfather wrote a little movie you might have heard of called Casablanca. The Red Sox's season ended last week and Epstein is going to have nothing to do for a couple of months until the winter meetings, so I'm thinking that maybe John Henry could send him over to Liverpool to sort out the Reds. We need a new manager and a new attitude. Last Saturday discontented Liverpool fans were calling out the name of Kenny Dalglish who was a star player and manager of Liverpool and has expressed interest in managing again. Before coming to Liverpool, Dalglish got his start at Celtic FC. According to the bookies the favourite to take over Liverpool is in fact Northern Irish World Cup legend Martin O'Neill who replaced Dalglish as manager of Celtic and complied an impressive record there of 219:29:40. Purely coincidentally, I'm sure, a few months ago Celtic FC played Sporting Portugal in a friendly at none other than Fenway Park, Boston.
33 comments:
Yeah I think Epstein is key to all things modern Red Sox. But tell me, how does your North Shore hailing wife think about you being a Yankees fan? She must not be a sports fan?
Also heard from various Montrealer peeps that Leslie Epstein, head of BU creative writing program, is, shall we say, an old fart. I have never read anything of his. Worth a shot?
Sheiler
Leah's situation is complicated. She was born in New York, and spent her childhood in Africa and Maryland before finally Boston and the N Shore. And I've dragged her to dozens of Yankees games (and Rockies games) so I think now she has a foot in both camps.
Her brother Aaron teaches philosophy at BU but I dont know if he knows Leslie. I read a book of Leslie's called, I think, Pandemonium (?) which wasnt bad.
I take it that the Red Sox have lots of their own money? The fact that American businessmen can buy English football clubs with huge British bank loans truely sucks ass.
Id love to go to a baseball game though, maybe the red sox in Boston would be good. I went to a college football game in Phoenix but didnt know what the hell was going on and it felt like it took forever to finish.
Too bad he would't buy the New England Revolution and move them into Boston. It's okay for the Pats to play way out in Rhode Island (or wherever that is) but the soccer team needs to be closer to town.
Steve Nicol is still managing the Revs, for your Liverpool connection. They could do a joint deal, like "Real" Salt Lake has with Madrid.
And Sheiler, I'm intereted in the Montreal connection - I grew up there and did a Creative Writing degree at Concordia. Poor English Montreal sometimes doesn't realize it's a very small town and thinks it's part of the city ;)
oh yeah. I forgot about Leah's complex life. Kind of similar to Maria's. Leah has the kind of resume that would make a poor immigration guard at the US border do a hummanah hummanah.
Which they frequently do when I drive peeps to and from Montreal / Boston.
John - The Pats are in Foxborough or Foxboro. Not truly Rhode Island. But yeah, it's far out there. I used to live 2 blocks away from Fenway park on Comm Ave...and boy was there / is there sheer mayhem when there's a Red Sox home game. Imagine the Pats bringing their stadium closer...ugh! But I actually do prefer football as a voyeur than baseball.
I'd say for anglophones Montreal and concordia is indeed a small town. But the same is somewhat true for francophones since it seems the only way people can get the cool jobs is to know a certain Guido or his brother Guido.
But then I remind people, usually Americans, that Montreal's more than double the size of Boston. Boston just has more bravado I think. Venture capital, too.
I thought you might have used the blog to call for poor old Roy Hodgson's removal before now (perhaps seconds after the hilarious home loss to Blackpool?). I see Hodgson has been promised transfer cash in January but I think you're right, Martin O'Neill will be the man spending it. Which will mean a former Villa manager at Anfield and a former Liverpool manager at Villa Park. Two smart men in charge of clubs whose glory days are past, I suspect. The game has changed and not for the better.
Frankie
The Red Sox have a ton of cash, yes. They make a big profit every year.
I dont understand the legality of what Hicks did. Couldnt anyone just borrow a lot of cash and buy any UK club, hoping to sell it on for profit?
John
That would have been the more logical move. Why get involved in English soccer when clearly you have no interest whatsoever?
I can't see any logical link between Boston and Liverpool except for a large Irish diaspora.
David
If the sale goes through I think poor Hodgson has to go.
I like Martin O'Neill but I want him as Northern Ireland manager. I'd take King Kenny back at Liverpool any day.
O'Neill is smart enough to have seen that Hodgson wouldn't last and left Villa in anticipation of a push for the Liverpool job. I interviewed him a couple of times when he was at Wycombe - he's intensely ambitious and I think he'd see the Northern Ireland job as semi-retirement.
Don't you think it's odd that there are so many American owners of English clubs? Most of America has always been at best dismissive and at worst contemptuous of football and yet many of the biggest clubs are US-owned. Business not pleasure, obviously.
I think thats exactly the problem, you can. It helps if you are a Sheik, just calling yourself a Sheik does the job, it implies oil money, you could be a totally skint one for all anyone knows.
David
He would see it as a step down and as a part time job, but there's amazing potential there. If Northern Ireland could somehow win the European Championships or get to a World Cup final it would be up there with the greatest achievements in world football.
To go back to baseball for a moment...I think if the Yankees win the World Series this year Joe Girardi will not resign as Yankees manager and instead will take the Chicago Cubs job. He grew up a Cubs fan and the Cubs havent won a WS since 1908. Reversing that curse would put your name in the history books.
Frankie
Actually my name is Sheikh Muh Kan Tee and I want to buy Liverpool. Actually I want Everton and Tranmere too. I'll amalgamate them into one superclub called Livertonmere.
Total pipe dream. Martin O'Neill would only take the Northern Ireland job on his seventieth birthday and he was bored out of his mind.
Keith
You're probably right. I think he'd think it was an insult at this stage of his career. Liverpool or England that's what he's after I suspect.
Northern Ireland should take a look at Colin Clark - he's doing a good job with the Puerto Rican national team and he has the Puerto Rico Islanders playing very well in the CONCACAF Champions League.
John
Hmmm interesting guy. I imagine baseball is still the #1 team sport in PR.
Not sure if baseball is still #1 - all I know is that when the PR Islanders eliminated Toronto from the Champions League last year they were playing in a converted baseball stadium. I don't know if the baseball team has new stadium or if the sport is on the decline.
Speaking of Reds, think the Halladay deal has worked out well for the Phillies?
Wow, Theo's grandpappy was Julius?
Since my newspaper has been through two bankruptcy sales in the past month on its way to eventual death, I have a certain affinity for the current Liverpool ownership, one of whom once owned the, er, Montreal Canadiens.
And oh, the connections. I lived in several places right off Comm(onwealth) Ave(nue) in Boston.
Did someone say Villa Park? And Marco has not shown up? I guess he really has left the blogosphere behind. I hope he's alright.
Yes, that is my total contribution to this conversation.
Seana, I was wondering the same thing about Marco after he did not comment on my recent post about Giorgio Scerbanenco.
john
it would take a lot to kill baseball in PR or the DR.
Peter
The Phillies are the team to beat now surely.
Seana
Just got himself a real life rather than a virtual one I imagine.
I'm not against it, but I miss him.
Yes, that is my total contribution to this conversation.
Nice job!
Here you go Seana..
sports magazine cover
Thank you, Glenna. I'd say if only it were real but I probably couldn't be bothered to actually read it anyway.
I do know that the Giants are in the playoffs, but that's only because everyone around me keeps saying Go, Giants! I asked a friend who gave me a ride home today who they were in the playoffs with because her girlfriend is a baseball nut, but unfortunately, she didn't know either.
Your post has lead me to reminisce. I grew up in Newton, MA and my father (who also taught at BU) took me to games at Fenway back in the days of Yaz and Pudge Fisk and that's when I learned to hate the Yankees. I have lived in New York now for 16 years and I am still a Sox fan so I know what it's like to be in enemy territory. You can't imagine how gratified I felt when the Sox finally won the World Series and the satisfaction was in large part due to the fact that my long suffering father was alive to see the day. Anyway, I do credit Theo Epstien for turning the tide for the Sox and I was also impressed that he used to invite Howard Zinn to watch the games with him.
PS Looking forward to your next one.
Adam
I may have mentioned this before, but my wife went to high school in Newton, Mass, a couple of years behind Matt Le Blanc and Louis CK.
Right! I knew you had a Newton connection. I used to hang out with Louis when I first moved to New York. He was dating a friend of mine who he eventually married. I ran into him recently at Whole Foods. He had moved back to NYC for his new show which is darkly funny and sometimes hard to watch. I recommend it.
Oh, I just figured out what Louis you guys were talking about. Brian O'Rourke who sometimes checks in here put up a blog post about the show a few weeks ago, and I checked it out. Yep, funny and disturbing pretty much covers the range.
Still love Martin O'Neill. If he does go to Liverpool, I may just end up forgiving them for taking King Kenny from us. I was ten years old at the time (1977) and it totally broke my heart. Still not entirely over it.
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