Town Hall Tango

If you’re implying they need the town hall to do this I disagree. They could do an interview or press conference any time and answer the questions more effectively than in that format.

True, but they're not doing that either.

Also, the Town Hall was a unique opportunity for the fans and upper management to converse. It was fun and informative. Last year, they took criticism at the event and aired a sanitized version on NESN. This year, they killed it. The principal owner won't show up at an event that costs $95 to attend and that draws the people who line his pockets by paying the highest ticket prices in the sport. 

I'd rather they answer me personally than have to hope a reporter asks exactly what I want to ask. Reporters are there to get quotes and file their stories. Their motivation is different than you or I.

They're used to give and take with the press but I think it can be different facing your paying customers. I haven't gone to one of those things but will for the first time and am damn disappointed at their lack of accountability. Unlike the press I actually care enough about the team to pay my way in.

Paying customers have a right to have their questions answered too.

As a consumer I have the right to tune out, etc, but sports is a bit different. I cant shut off 44 years of devoted fandom and caring. Oh, I have no plans to buy tickets this year. I have my own budget and they're a luxury tax I refuse to pay until I'm convinced they're worth it.

At this point I'm paying for nostalgia, to hear about 2004, see star players like Papi and Pedro and the guys I grew up with Boggs, Fisk, Lynn, Eck, and Tiant.

I'm trying to say this in the least snarky way humanly possible, and I apologize in advance if I'm failing at this, but billionaire owners dont need the protection and backing they get around here sometimes.

It's really bad optics to not want to interact with the fans who care about your product.

I do wonder if this would have happened had Lucchino still been here. He had his faults but caring about his consumers wasnt one of them. I attended an event in Baltimore about the 30th anniversary of Camden Yards. Afterward Lucchino saw my 2004 Red Sox World Champion shirt and he reached down for something and gave it to me, a 2004 Red Sox World Champion cap to match.

Small personal example. But he knew his fanbase and I'll forever have a soft spot in my heart for Larry just because of that exchange.

Ownership could take a lesson.

Not a promise, but it had become an expectation. 

Did you attend last year? As I've said, posters who are going to characterize last year's event should disclose whether they were there. I was and I found it productive and interesting.

The fans' reaction said a lot about their frustration with the way things were/are going. Some of Bloom's comments were productive and interesting. For instance, I walked away encouraged that he said he wanted to sign young guys to extensions before FA. I thought he did a good job of explaining why they didn't sign MB and why they gave $300M to Raffy (though I disagreed with his reasoning on Raffy).  

It's a testament to the SP crowd that the characterizations of last year's event are not remotely in the same universe as some of those on SOSH. Posters over there have raised the possibility of violence as a legitimate reason for cancelling. That's hilarious. About 70 percent of the audience is older dudes, women and kids. They're not the type to throw chairs. These are frustrated BB fans, not a bunch of loons gathering in front of Ruby Freeman's home.

At least one guy on SOSH accused the critical fans as being drunk at the event. Yeah, they sell beer but I don't ever recall anyone there slurring their speech or stumbling into a wall in the concourse. It's also not like a BB or FB game where some people are back and forth to the beer stands the whole game. People at the Town Hall get their seats and sit through the event. That SOSH poster is talking out of his ass.

Referring to fans who are sick of last place finishes and looking for answers as mouthbreathers, blowhards or whatever is just plain homerism. (I'm not saying that's you, SS.)

Maybe Tom Werner should answer that question instead of Breslow. After all he was the one who uttered those words.

I think this is largely correct, but saw some other poster mention a decent solution - put a couple guys like Trevor Story and Andrew Bailey up there. Easy for them to avoid any larger questions, and the easiest way to get the hardcore fans to talk about the guys we acquired or have instead of the ones we haven't signed is to have someone talk positively about the guys we acquired and have! Even if Bailey just stuck to general terms about how he thinks some pitchers here can improve, or which ones can stretch out, and Story can give some positive nuggets from his fielding camp about Grissom, or Casas, or even the young guys potentially on the way it gives fans some positive things to talk about and hope on. "We're always looking to add more pitching - everyone is! - but we think Nick Pivetta will be good because ___,we have faith in Kutter Crawford because he did ___, we think Houck (or whoever else) can step up into this role if we need them to." etc I love the secrecy and lack of leaks from Breslow and the FO when it comes to trades and offers, but the complete silence elsewhere let's the narrative build on itself.

What does this, and all the subsequent replies, have to do with FREE AGENCY, the purported purpose of this thread?

Can't y'all open a DISSATISFACTION thread and rehash there all the latest sports talk radio arguments?

Seriously, I ask: Is there no place on this board where the talk is predominantly about the players?

I'll hang up & listen. 

Which player did you talk about in this post, BOB?

You actually have a point in that the FA thread has become a catch-all for all off-season talk. That's nobody's fault. Threads usually do meander a bit because it's just the nature of conversation. It's actually occured to me that it would be worthwhile to have a thread on overall Red Sox FO strategy, since that is the topic of so many posts in this thread, and one on Winter Weekend.

It's intellectually dishonest and lazy to reflexively dismiss criticism of the FO as talk radio stuff or to dismiss the critics as mouth breathers, idiots or any other kind of bozo. Those comments are intended to avoid honest discussion. 

I used to review restaurants for a local weekly. One assignment was a great Cajun restaurant that, unfortunately, was in severe business decline, likely because the city had decided to tear up the street in front of the restaurant. It really took some doing to navigate in, then out, of the parking lot.

In my column I made mention of the access issue but did not dwell, or editorialize on the unfairness of it, because readers came to read about my thoughts on restaurants, not local politics. Plus, I was not a reporter. And it wasn't my battle to fight.

I view these boards in much the same way. I speak when I feel I have something that adds to the conversation. When I have nothing meaningful to say, or only what has already been said (and likely better), than I say nothing.

I have no good opinions on Free Agents or Free Agency. That is why I hope to enjoy, and educate myself, in this particular thread. I do not enjoy, every time there is a new rumor or signing elsewhere, reading about how this is definitive evidence the Red Sox or JH or FSG are not committed to Boston, the fans, the team, me, you, the unborn, etc., etc.

I reference it to sports talk radio because that is what they do -- repeat repeat repeat. Whatever sells. Hours of airtime to fill.

I mean if we took all of the comments on JH et al, I'd guess several posters have made the same basic claim 10+ times in this thread alone. I mean if you believe it, say it. But on a loop?

As I mentioned upthread, if the posters were singing JH's praises relentlessly I would feel much the same way: B O R I N G.

I also mentioned upthread (or in another thread) that I was taught when putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, to first consider the reader. If what I post offers no value to any but myself then it's surely better I keep it to myself. Many keep a journal for this very reason.

Also I find the constant negativity toxic. I don't follow sports to be miserable or angry or depressed. I enjoyed athletic competition as a young man & still enjoy other forms as an older man. I like watching the pros play & I like thinking about strategies & teambuilding. I don't like incessant griping and complaining -- complaints that alter inequities are valuable. Complaints on this board will change nothing (but perhaps limit the pool of readers).

Btw, I was a fan when Tom Yawkey owned the team. So John Henry is golden with me. When the Yankees or Orioles or Rays or Jays hang their 5th banner this century then I'll start to look askance at him.