There are so many ways of thinking about Jon Lester’s no hitter against the Royals last night. Most obvious is the angle of the cancer comeback. And if Lester’s World Series game 4 didn’t do it, his no-no must certainly label that comeback officially complete. Let this be the last time that the phrase “Jon Lester, cancer surviving major league pitcher” be typed anywhere.
But the most interesting angle to me is how Jon Lester was almost traded away for Johan Santana. And if so, this no-hitter and the all good feelings that are coming with it never would have happened. Crundy and I debated that trade over countless emails and instant messenger sessions. In all honesty, we both came to the conclusion that the Theo proposal Lester, Coco, and Bowsden/Masterson for Johan Santana deal was one that was indeed in the best interested of the Red Sox. After all, we’re talking about Johan-freakin-Santana. Easily one of the five best pitchers in baseball. Combining Santana with Beckett simply made the Sox an unstoppable force at the front of the rotation.
But it wasn’t a conclusion I truly loved. As much as I crave the Sox being a world series contender year after year, there’s no question that it’s much more satisfying when those victories come with the young talent that is result of a fantastic organization. One of the things I love most about Sox fans is that we’re not only interested in how players like Daniel Bard are progressing in Single A Greenville, but as Sox fans we can actually have that discussion. We’re not just obsessed fans of the current 25 man roster. We’re obsessed with every single aspect of the organization. From how our beloved Fenway has improved year after year to how our recent draft picks progressed in the Cape Cod League. Yes, there are more discussions about a 3 day weekend series with the Yankees, but the the evolution of Justin Masterson’s off speed pitches gets its fair share of air time.
The contributions of players that came through the Sox farm system on last year’s championship team was certainly one of the most rewarding elements of 2007. And Jon Lester winning game 4 made it even more special. And now the beat goes on. Jon Lester throws a no-hitter and the defensive play that makes it happen comes from Jacoby Ellsbury. Tonight, Justin Masterson makes his second major league start. It all feels so good and, among other people, we have Theo to thank for keeping them around.
Because admit it, a no-hitter thrown by Jon Lester at Fenway is 100 times better that the same performance by Johan Santana in a Sox uni.
2 Comments
Agreed on all counts. Another interesting angle to the no-hitter is that ‘tek has no caught more no-hitters than anyone in mlb history-four-and all four were with different pitchers.
Even more impressive, two of them were with young pitchers who were no doubt leaning more on his expertise (Lester and Bucholtz) and one of them was (I think) his first regular season game catching Nomo. The fourth I’d say he had very little to do with b/c Lowe is a sinker baller who when he is on gets ground ball after ground ball…Not as much of a mystery as to what he is going to pitch in any given count as the rest…
The other moments I’ll remember about the post game~
1. The moment between Lester and Francona-embrace on the field while Francona said something very personal and very moving to Lester. You could see in Lester’s eyes as they pulled away that whatever Francona said really hit home for Lester. Fancona was obviously proud of Lester and Lester was obviously very happy to make him proud.
It was amazing - it changed my perception of Francona from a good coach/bad game manager into - an amazing coach who cares more about his players lives than how they perform, but derives tremendous joy when they are able to put it all together.
2. 1 minute later a NESN reporter asking Lester what Francona said to him when they embraced. I felt like reaching through the set and telling her to think really hard next time before she tries to ruin the moment for someone who has worked so hard to gain this experience.
3. Post-game press conference Lester is asked how it feels coming back from last season all the way to this point…His answer, “Gee, I thought I pitched pretty well last year”. So awesome…so the reporter is forced to say, “Ummm… i meant coming back from the ummm…..illness”. No der dip shit. Lester knew it but in a very mature way he made it clear he is not cancer-boy. He’s a young pitcher with a lot of potential and he should be treated that way. Hell, he won game 4 of the world series last year and pitched a no hitter this year! Schilling hasn’t done that! Clemens hasn’t done that either! Ditto Pedro!
4. The Eck in the studio couldn’t contain how happy he was for the kid. He was a babbling fool and it was the most real reaction i sawthat night. Eck should be in the box with Rem and the other guy. It would give a second excellent perspective to riff off rem and it would probably kill the overdone rem and the other guy giggle fest.
You think (or thought) Francona is a bad game manager? I always felt he did a decent job of putting his players in a position for them to truly succeed. Which i think is the primary responsibility of a manager. Plus, I think how he has incorporated some NL style managing into the sox the last few years has been impressive.