Larry the K's Lineup

  Despite my previous post today (Aug. 29, 2023), complaining about the Red Sox’ fortunes, I am an unabashed and enthusiastic supporter of the Red Sox when it comes to their unwavering and incredible support for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund. With the Jimmy Fund WEEI-NESN telethon ongoing today and tomorrow (Aug. 29-30) on both WEEI and NESN --- as well as at Fenway Park --- it’s a pleasure to lend my support to the Jimmy Fund. Growing up, the Jimmy Fund was always my father Ike’s favorite charity and we never went to Fenway Park without donating money, always saving coins to deposit in the coin boxes that dotted the concourse of the park in the 1960s and 1970s. I annually support the Jimmy Fund by donating to friends who participate in the Pan-Mass Challenge in August and the Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk in October. But with the telethon occurring now, I thought I’d reprint this column that I wrote 10 years ago this week ---- on Aug. 28, 2013 --- as pa...

I hesitate to write this the day before I'm heading to Fenway Park to see my only game of the year on Wednesday, Aug. 30 against the Houston Astros --- a scheduled 4:10 p.m. game that, based on the wet forecast, could turn into a lengthy rain delay --- but the Sox' season is over. Finit! Kaput! Toast! Thank you Chaim Bloom! I hope you're wicked happy with the "value" you're getting for all those castoffs like pitcher Kyle Barraclough that you've forced manager Alex Cora to use this season. Though I must say that I suspect Cora's use of journeyman castoff, righthander Barraclough in the sixth inning (after pitching a scoreless fifth) just after the Red Sox had regained a 4-3 lead over the Astros thanks to Adam Duvall's towering two-run homer over the Monster seats was possibly a way to get back at Bloom for leaving him so few mound choices. But I digress. The fact is that Barraclough gave up 6 runs in the sixth and the Astros turned the game into a ...

My friend and I --- who enjoyed going to several Pawtucket Red Sox games a year --- will attend our first Worcester Red Sox game of the 2023 season next week, and by that time, all of the so-called "reinforcements" for the Boston Red Sox (rehabbing players) should be back with the big club. But having pitchers Chris Sale, Tanner Houck and Garrett Whitlock rejoin the Red Sox after shortstop Trevor Story's return on Tuesday night (Aug. 8), will be moot, because the Red Sox aren't going anywhere fast. Indeed, by the time that my friend and I travel to Boston for a Wednesday afternoon game against the Houston Astros two weeks later, chances are good that the team will have been going through the motions for a while, because the season is all but over as I write this on Aug. 9. Once again, under the regime of Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom, the Red Sox waved the white flag at the trade deadline and are apparently content to finish last place yet again. Before last week...

  I wrote this feel-good story on an Attleboro couple this week for The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, MA. It appeared in the Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023, edition of the paper. The story provides a good break from the drumbeat of negative news stories that inevitably dominate the news cycle. Photos of the couple --- who have been married for 67 years and who both are 90 and in good health --- appear with the story on the newspaper’s website at: https://www.thesunchronicle. com/news/local_news/larry- kessler-staying-active-key-to- attleboro-couples-long- healthy-life-together/article_ 9f3636f3-4957-5392-a05e- fa47b30d7288.html#tncms- source=article-nav-next ********** In our fast-paced, tweet-a-minute news environment where some national stories, at times insufficiently vetted, are posted to social media under the guise of “breaking news,” stories such as this one are often overlooked. That’s a shame, because this story can do something that many of those more serious ones can’t do: Li...