Larry the K's Lineup

Your Boston Red Sox were finally officially eliminated from the Wild Card race after yesterday's (Wednesday, Sept. 20) 15-5 drubbing at the hands of the Texas Rangers, but they were cooked weeks ago, likely after the trade deadline when now former Chief Baseball Operations boss Chaim Bloom did nothing at the deadline except add yet another castoff, the below-the-Mendoza line second baseman Luis Urias. (Yes, Urias did hit grand slams on consecutive at-bats over two days in August, but he should be among the many players let go after the season.) My Aug. 29 post declared the Sox kaput in 2023, and their play in September has been simply horrendous, as they've fallen to a comfortable last place at this writing. With a day off before the Sox play their final nine games --- five at home (3 against the White Sox and two against the Rays) and their final four games at Baltimore against the surging Orioles next weekend --- here are nine challenges for the Red Sox' next baseball bos

With the just-concluded Rosh Hashanah or Jewish New Year holiday, I’d like to share this column, which was published in the Sept. 16-17, 2023, Weekend edition of The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, MA. The column represents my sincerest wishes for a much better world as we start the Jewish year of 5784. I wish all of my readers a sweet, healthy and very Happy New Year! The link to the column, as it appears on The Sun Chronicle’s website, follows: https://www.thesunchronicle.com/opinion/columns/larry-kessler-my-wish-for-the-new-year-we-all-are-kinder/article_17132a68-e491-5a55-a503-76a4e7dc5935.html ******* “On Rosh Hashanah their decree is inscribed (in the Book of Life), and on Yom Kippur it is sealed. How many will pass away and how many will be created; who will live and who will die; who will come to his timely end, and who to an untimely end; who will perish by fire and who by water; who by the sword and who by beast; who by hunger and who by thirst; who by earthquake and who b

Larry and Lynne enjoyed seeing Niagara Falls while on vacation in July. (Howard Solomon photo) This column, which was published in the September 2023 edition of Jewish Rhode Island of Providence, celebrates the joy of having a carefree summer vacation for the first time in four years --- which my wife and I enjoyed in mid-July. I also expressed a strong wish that the U.S. government would expedite the vaccines against the latest COVID-19 variants, and at this writing, the latest word from the CDC is that the latest booster should be available by the end of next week. (Approval was supposed to come at a Sept. 12 CDC meeting.) Meanwhile, with COVID cases rising yet again, there’s talk of bringing back some mask mandates, but that would be a mistake, because there is neither the will nor the appetite among Americans to be forced to wear masks. Mind you, I do still wear a mask in some crowded indoor places, though I didn’t last week when I took the commuter rail train into Boston in th