Larry the K's Lineup

Here are a few thoughts on the end of the 60-game 2020 Boston Red Sox season: Ron Roenicke: The one-and-done manager got a raw deal, though it seemed inevitable that Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom wouldn’t stick with Roenicke after the season unless the team miraculously exceeded expectations by making the playoffs, and even then, he wouldn’t have been a lock to return. Roenicke, the 2018 and 2019 bench coach under manager Alex Cora, was the consummate gentleman all during this challenging season. The team closely followed the COVID-19 protocols, and didn’t have any major outbreaks under his guidance, and that was to his credit. But Roenicke was doomed to fail once the Sox traded Mookie Betts and David Price to the Dodgers (Price would later opt out with the Dodgers), and the Sox lost starting pitchers Chris Sale (Tommy John surgery) and Eduardo Rodriguez (COVID-19 and then a serious heart infection blamed on his COVID battle.)  As a result, Roenicke’s pitching opti...

  NOTE: This column, which was published in early May in The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, MA, discussed the at-then tentative plans to allow sports back. As it turned out, pro sports did make a comeback, but college sports have since been decimated due to the cancellations or delays of seasons, except for the bigger football conferences. But at the same time, thousands of athletes have been penalized by the pandemic with the elimination of sports at dozens of colleges such as cross-country, tennis, golf – and many of those colleges refuse to charge less for remote learning while giving students much less bang for their dollars. The result is that we see the big colleges trying to plow ahead and play competitive sports, especially football, during the pandemic; yet every time there are outbreaks of positive tests, activities are stopped and people seem surprised by the increased positive test numbers, so it remains to be seen whether those seasons will be able to be completed. Mea...

SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE: Anyone who chose sleep by giving up on the Patriots when they fell behind the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday night by 12 points in the fourth quarter missed out on a nice near-comeback by the Patriots. They had a chance to win on the final play, when they made it to the 1-yard line, but they couldn't punch the ball in with two seconds left. The Pats' defense had a tough game, but the offense --- notably quarterback Cam Newton and veteran receiver Julian Edelman --- had huge games in what would have been an unbelievable fourth-quarter rally had they won, and was still an impressive effort. The Patriots, so far, have been very entertaining to watch without Tom Brady, but the defense sorely misses the players lost to free agency and those who opted out of the season. CELTICS MUST BUILD ON GAME 3 WIN: It's imperative that the Celtics build on their Game 3 win over the Miami Heat when the teams resume their best-of-seven Eastern Conference Finals on Wednesday ...

NOTE: T his column was published in early April in The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, MA.  Many of the issues it addresses are still relevant, especially the negative effect of social distancing – as important as that is to limiting the spread of the virus -- on our collective and individual psyches and our overall well-being.  The longer the pandemic drags on --- due in large part to millions of Americans’ refusal to follow simple health guidelines, including masking and social distancing --- the longer this pandemic will last – and the longer that we will be going without any human interactions as we used to know it, such as hugs and warm greetings of old friends and relatives. The things that were being prayed for in April --- as outlined here before the spring festivals of Passover, Easter and Ramadan --- are also appropriate prayers for the Jewish New Year and High Holiday period, which started at sundown Friday night (Sept. 18) with the start of the Jewish New Year, and wi...

Twenty-three years ago today, (Sept. 19, 1997), 11 families from New England, New York and Florida were in a hotel in Hefei, China waiting for a chance of a lifetime: to become parents. We were all anxious as we contemplated starting our families by adopting girls ranging in age from 14 to 16 months. Now, those toddlers are all grown up, college graduates and working in various fields; they’ve all done well and have made their parents extremely proud. On the occasion of the 23 rd anniversary of those girls’ Adoption Day, I’d like to share this column that I wrote for my daughter --- and for all of her “sisters” --- on March 15, 2017. It was published in The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro: The March 2017 column follows: Twenty years ago, we got together in our “free” time over about two weeks in China to give the girls play dates. Twenty years later, the girls are in college and will graduate with the Class of 2018. In the years in between, the toddlers who became our daughters on Se...

What about the Celtics? Can the Boston Celtics recover from their disastrous 0-2 start vs. the Miami Heat in the NBA Eastern Conference Finals? The answer is yes, but it's not that likely as it will require a 360-degree turnaround from the way they've been playing. Basketball teams have recovered from 2-0 deficits in best-of-seven series many times in the past, so the history is there. But teams who blow big leads in the third and fourth quarters, as the Celtics did in Games 1 and 2 against the Heat, make that quest much harder on themselves. Watching the Celtics in the first two games has been frustrating for the fans, as the Celts seemed to coast after getting a big lead, and then watched helplessly as the Heat roared back. But the main reason why it's unlikely, that the Celts will be able to come back is that the Heat are the hungrier team right now; and their players are the ones who are making the big plays at crucial times.  Fans, though, should still embrace the seri...

Let's face it: We're all suffering from COVID-19 fatigue, and as the fall arrives, predictions and expectations that we're in it for the long haul --- possibly well into 2021 --- make us feel even more depressed and uneasy, Many of our psyches have been scarred and our nerves frayed by the endless worries and concerns about this novel coronavirus pandemic.  With that in mind, I thought it'd be instructive to take a look at how long this journey has been by sharing some of the columns that I wrote on the pandemic, starting in March, with the implementation of the lockdown. This review won't necessarily make you feel better about the nation's disjointed and dysfunctional approach to the pandemic -- with each state's confusing and conflicting regulations and no clear national consensus, but it's my hope that it provides you with some perspective on our never-ending battle with this virus. Stay safe and healthy! NOTE: This first column I wrote about the pand...

Celtics vs. Miami Heat: When the NBA's Eastern Conference Finals get under way later this week, expect another tough series. While it's true that the Celtics had been on the verge of a quick series against the Raptors in the conference semi-finals until the miracle shot with 0.5 of a second left by Toronto's  OG Anunoby gave the Raptors new life, that the Celtics hung tough at the end proves promising for the Celts' next series. And, anytime you win a Game 7, you have to feel good about yourselves. The Celtics have been fun to watch and have provided some positive moments for New England sports fans after the Bruins' early exit from the NHL playoffs, and with the Red Sox' losing season, which they clinched this weekend despite splitting their series against Tampa Bay. So enjoy the Celtics this week; even if they don't make it all the way to the NBA Finals, they've already proved a most entertaining team and have given the region's sports fans someth...

Typical game as of late: Today's Red Sox game was typical of the challenges that fans face following the Red Sox this year.Yet another early lead evaporated as soon as the bullpen entered the game. I dozed off for about a half-hour, and I awoke to a different game. The Sox were leading 4-1, and when I awoke, they were trailing 7-4 and very soon 10-4, before losing 10-8. They've, to date, won only 14 games. The Sox are lucky that there are no fans in the stands --- and that there are only 60 games on the schedule.. Rule changes: Fans of the PawSox the last few years will be familiar with two changes in Major League baseball this season: 7-inning doubleheaders and extra innings that start with a runner on second base. But MLB also should seriously consider adopting another popular Minor League feature: a 20-second pitch clock. There has been no problem with the clock, which has been used in the minors for a while now, and the clock does make the game move along. The pitch clock ...

Welcome to "Larry the K's Lineup."  As the name suggests, there will be a lot about sports, baseball and especially about the Red Sox included in these write-ups. But over the course of a long career in newspapers as an editor, columnist and writer before retiring from The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro in 2017, I covered a lot of ground in local news, features and sports. So, as suggested by the word "lineup" in the blog title, there will be many topics covered. I still write on various subjects as a freelance writer and columnist.  Enjoy. Thank you, and take care, Larry Kessler COVID-19 baseball: While many of us were glad to get sports, and baseball, back, the Red Sox season has been tough to watch. Even before the pandemic, the season started downhill with the salary-dump trade of Mookie Betts and David Price, and it only got worse with the loss of starting pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez, which left the Sox with a depleted staff, a situation that was exacerbated by t...