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The Players Championship – Final Round Preview

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Lee Westwood and Bryson DeChambeau will play today’s final group together for the second consecutive week. In the Shotlink era, the only other time this has happened in consecutive stroke-play events was Adam Scott and Vijay Singh (2006 TOUR Championship, 2007 Sentry Tournament of Champions)

Tournament Notes

Lee Westwood is seeking to win in his 15th start at THE PLAYERS, which would match the most prior starts by a first-time winner in tournament history. Westwood would also become the tournament’s second-oldest winner (age on Sunday: 47 years, 10 months, 18 days).

In 2005, Fred Funk won THE PLAYERS at the age of 48 years, 9 months and 14 days,

Westwood owns 42 worldwide victories (most recent: 2020 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship presented by EGA) and two PGA TOUR titles: 1998 Zurich Classic of New Orleans; 2010 FedEx St. Jude Classic.

Bryson DeChambeau, (2nd, at -11) and the FedExCup leader, made a 12-foot putt for par on the 18th to remain at 11-under; posts a 5-under 67, matching his tournament-low score (2018/R-2). He went 30 consecutive holes without a bogey before making bogey on the par-4 14th hole.

Justin Thomas recorded the tournament-low round with an 8-under (64), his sixth round in the 60s at THE PLAYERS in 22nd round. His Saturday round marked the seventh time Thomas made four or more consecutive birdies to start a round on Tour. It was the second time he did so at THE PLAYERS (2015/R-3).

It’s Time!

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By TERRY LYONS

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BOSTON – These are the most important things in modern-day life in these United States.

  1. Health
  2. Family (and their health and safety)
  3. Shelter
  4. Friends and Good Neighbors
  5. Time
  6. Happiness
  7. Ambition and vision
  8. Fulfilling or rewarding work
  9. Money
  10. Luck

For the sake of this column, let’s assume nine of the 10 things listed are correct and each person can order them in any fashion they’d prefer. In some cases, the list may vary depending on a persons’ current situation and circumstances and where they were born and live. In other cases, the list and its order can change from day-to-day.

Of course, if one is born into poverty in the USA or many foreign lands and “third world” countries, all bets are off.

There are a few things on my list that don’t change for anyone on this earth. One of them is TIME.

Many of the sporting games we play and spectate are measured by time. Some are not.

Those measured by time, include:

  1. Football
  2. Futbol (and they hide the damn clock)
  3. Basketball
  4. Ice Hockey
  5. Lacrosse
  6. Many of the Olympic sports like swimming and downhill skiing
  7. You get the picture!

Other popular sports are not measured by time and, theoretically, you could play a single game forever and ever and ever. They include:

  1. Baseball
  2. Golf
  3. Tennis
  4. Just to name a few!

The past year (almost to the date of this column) taught us about the concept of time. The value of time was taught suddenly and with significant impact, probably more than any of the years of our lifetimes. For many, time was lost, along with jobs, money, happiness and other things we might’ve previously taken for granted.

The profound question and uncertainty?

How much TIME do we have? And, that is so over our full lifetime or in the case of athletics, maybe just over a relatively short career-length.

How do we manage TIME? What do we prioritize in our daily lives?

To start off the terrible Year of 2020, on January 1 – nonetheless – NBA Commissioner David Stern passed away. His time had come and so many were deeply effected by his incredible life and sudden death after suffering a brain hemorrhage in mid-December, 2019. During his time on this earth, in the words of longtime NBA front office guru and current President of the Golden State Warriors Rick Welts said Stern and his loyal staff pulled off the Sisyphus Act of all-time by pushing the giant boulder of the NBA uphill in very difficult times. The difference in that period of TIME, unlike Sisyphus, for the most part the rise of the NBA to its global prominence in sport was a joy-ride of hard work with th benefit of watching GREAT basketball, working with terrific people and having fun while we did it.

Stern was a master of TIME and enjoyed his career at the NBA so much that he named his post NBA private investment company, MicroManagement Ventures. It was a wonderful joke made together with his lawyerly friends put it underlined one of his own management mantras. “Everything is a priority.”

Stern’s passing was a sign of the time to come, although none of us quite understood it on January 1, 2020 or even at his service, held at Radio City Music Hall on January 21st. We were about to endure a year of crisis, botched crisis management, and then a full shutdown.

TIME would tell and the world and the sports industry pushed onward.

It started with a terrible game of televised and remotely produced H-O-R-S-E, then a golf tournament, called “The Match,” played in driving rain with Peyton Manning and Tiger Woods joining up with Phil Mickelson and former New England Patriots QB Tom Brady. After he struggled through his round of televised golf, who knew that by 2021, Brady would be hoisting the NFL’s Vince Lombardi Trophy once again?

Like that boulder going uphill, sports began to mark time and move forward, step-by-step.

PGA Tour Golf led the way, then some NASCAR, thoroughbred horse racing, the NFL Draft, and Korean baseball all filled vacant airtime. We coveted live sports action to pass the TIME.

Then, the big time, major sports made plans that took hold. The NBA built its bubble in Orlando, thee NHL situated itself in Toronto and Edmonton in Canada, and Baseball picked about labor issues before they finally opened up “Summer” training. We watched the New York Yankees take batting practice on the YES Network and eventually, on July 23, 2020, it was TIME to Play Ball!

Through the year, we wondered:

  1. How much TIME does Tom Brady really have to perform at such a high level?
  2. There’s the same question for Serena Williams in tennis and it was a question that was answered abruptly for the NBA’s Vince Carter when the shutdown ended his final year.
  3. We were shocked that a terrible helicopter accident took the lives of Kobe Bryant and his young daughter and their friends. TIME had come for Kobe and we only wish we could’ve Turned Back Time to warn him of the deadly disaster awaiting.
  4. The biggest sports story of the year came when the 2020 Summer Olympic Games were postponed. Hopefully, the Games of the XXXII Olympiad will be played in Tokyo this July. Once again, only TIME will tell.

How often have you asked for more time, wished we had more time, checked the time, cursed the time. Hell, we just lost an hour, right?

If you could only stop the clock, take time and get organized, prepared and be able to focus without the day-to-day distractions from such a busy lifestyle, created with smart phone devices, instant messaging, global business, real-time decision making at the speed of light. Try to get TIME on Your Side.

Yet, as TIME was stopped the past year, were any of us able to fully take advantage of the extra time?

Some found more time for family as young adult children returned home. Some were separated from family, especially concerned about the risk of exposing parent and grandparents to the deadly and contagious COVID-19 and now its emerging variants. we finally wised up, to some degree (ahem Texas, Mississippi and some other dim-witted, misguided States), and we began wearing masks.

TIME marched on.

Did we accomplish anything of note?

Some did, some didn’t. Some stayed safe and some of our loved ones passed away.

There is still TIME.

Signs of Spring are in the air and with them, growing optimism of three different and effective vaccines to ward off serious illness from COVID-19. with that and remaining guidelines for safety, State governments are gradually easing restrictions, as the Federal government purchases more and more of the vaccine doses with hopes to have the vast majority of Americans vaccinated by May or June. There’s a nice list of things to look forward to as March and its lioness windy ways turn to April showers and flowers.

Here are a few things to ponder for the near future:

  1. This weekend, Daylight Savings Time begins in most places and an extra hour of much-needed sunlight will inject some “Spring Fever” into our lives.
  2. The baseball bats are cracking line-drives in Florida and Arizona. Opening Day nears in Major League Baseball stadiums across the nation.
  3. March Madness will be staged once again, after the 2020 hiatus.
  4. The NHL and the NBA are pushing forward and their arenas are seeing partial capacity for live spectating.
  5. We’re all hoping Tiger Woods recovers from the terrible auto accident in LA.

It might take a few more months, and hopefully, there will be no more major setbacks (see Italy and Brazil, by the way), but THE TIME HAS COME.

Time Has Come Today to get our lives prepared for a new renaissance and re-opening. We’ll have struggles ahead, physically, mentally, and financially, as so many businesses were forced to close down- some temporarily and some for good. Remember as we go up against this virus in its second full year against us, we’re only as strong as our weakest links, whether those links are in our hometowns, Texas or Brazil.

But, we can and we will bounce back. It’s just a matter of TIME.

The Players Championship – Third Round Preview

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By TERRY LYONS

Note: The second round was suspended due to darkness at 6:36pm ET with only eight players left on the course. Those eight will resume at 7am ET Saturday.

Third-round tee times will go off the No. 1 tee in twosomes, approximately 7:55am ET to 2pm ET.

Tournament Notes

Lee Westwood leads for the second time in the last four rounds on Tour following his 54 hole performance at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. England’s Westwood (1st) and Matthew Fitzpatrick (2nd) top the leaderboard after the second round; with 15 different international winners of The Players Championship, noting no player from England has ever won the event.

Chris Kirk (T-3) shot his career-low round at The Players with a 7-under (65), his seventh round in the 60s in his 33rd tournament round here.

Bryson DeChambeau (T-5) seeks to become the fourth player to win The Players after winning the week prior (most recent: Tiger Woods/2001 Arnold Palmer Invitational).

Five players who finished in the top 10 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational are in the top 10 after round two: Lee Westwood, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Chris Kirk, Bryson DeChambeau, Charley Hoffman.

Rory McIlroy becomes the first defending champion to miss the cut the following year since Rickie Fowler in 2016. Other notables to mTC included: Tyrrell Hatton, Ian Poulter, Scottie Scheffler, Bubba Watson, Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland, Webb Simpson, Max Homa, Tony Finau, Xander Schauffele, and Ricky Fowler.

The Players Championship 2021 – R-1 Review/R-2 Preview

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The Players Championship 2021 – R-1 Review/Preview

Note: The first round was suspended due to darkness at 6:32 p.m. ET with 21 players left on the course and will resume at 7:30 a.m. Friday. The early Round Tee Times will go as planned (they started at 6:45am).

The 2008 Players Championship winner Sergio Garcia made two eagles and held a two-stroke lead, after partial completion of Round One. His (65) was a tournament record 25th round in the 60s.

Brian Harman stands in solo-second after a (67) that included four consecutive birdies on Nos. 9-12.

Matthew Fitzpatrick (T-3) at (-4) posted his second sub-70 score in 13 rounds at The Players (first: 69, R-1/2016).

FedExCup leader Bryson DeChambeau opened with a 3-under (69), his eighth under-par score in nine rounds at the event. DeChambeau is the only player to win multiple tournaments during the 2020-21 season (U.S. Open, Arnold Palmer Invitational).

Reigning FedExCup champion and World No. 1 Dustin Johnson recorded a 1-over (73) and stands T-60.

Defending champion Rory McIlroy recorded a (79), tying the second-highest opening round score of his PGA Tour career.

Coincidentally, the player in first place (Sergio Garcia) and in last place (Henrik Stenson) won The Players back-to-back in 2008 and 2009.

(Partial) First Round Leaderboard

Sergio Garcia 65 (-7)

Brian Harman 67 (-5)

Matthew Fitzpatrick 68 (-4)

Corey Conners 68 (-4)

Shane Lowry 68 (-4)

The first round was suspended due to darkness at 6:32 p.m. ET with 21 players left on the course and will resume at 7:30 a.m. Friday. The second round will begin as scheduled at 6:45 a.m.

Lawrence Featured by Topps Football

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BROOKLYN – (Official News Release) – Having just completed one of the most decorated careers in college football history and weeks away from the likely No. 1 selection in the pro draft, Trevor Lawrence has signed on with Topps in a landmark deal that will see the winningest starting quarterback in Clemson history featured in an exclusive box set of cards scheduled for release in April. The set will be created in collaboration with Trevor’s brother and sister-in-law Chase and Brooke Lawrence, professional artists who will create exclusive artwork of the decorated 2018 national champion and first quarterback ever to win three ACC Championship Games.

The series will include 50 cards, including autographs on select pieces and will feature a mix of oil paintings and digital depictions crafted by Chase and Brooke. To create the exclusive artwork, Chase and Brooke took inspiration from psychedelic period pieces from the 1960’s-70’s as well as classic comic book and graphic novel illustrations.

“Trevor Lawrence is one of the most popular and visible players in college football in years and we can’t wait to capture his talent and personality in this set,” said Jeff Heckman, Global Director of Ecommerce. “We look forward to revealing the unique designs that Chase and Brooke will develop, and we think football fans across the country will love the series.”

 

Celtics “Earn” a New Uniform

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BOSTON – The Boston Celtics unveiled their 2020-21 “Earned Edition” uniform, designed exclusively for the 16 teams that qualified for the 2020 NBA Playoffs. This uniform set, which was worn on March 19 vs. Sacramento, marks the team’s fifth and final combination for the 2020-21 season.

While this season’s Earned Edition uniform carries over a series of notable components from various uniforms throughout the team’s collection, including the traditional ‘Celtics’ wordmark, standard shamrock on the belt buckle, and the Vistaprint jersey patch on the left shoulder, it also features an enhanced version of the franchise’s iconic color scheme. Three separate shades of green are projected through the uniform body and trim, marking the first time the team has ever featured three shades of green on a single uniform. As an additional nod to the team’s pursuit of an NBA championship, the Earned Edition uniform is adorned with special silver insignias including a silver Nike swoosh on the top left front of the uniform, a silver Earned Edition jocktag on the bottom right front, and a silver NBA logo on the back, above the player’s name.

The Earned Edition uniforms will be available to fans at retail beginning on Thursday, March 18, 2021.

Opening Round at The PLAYERS

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The Players Championship 2021 – Opening Round

From 2007 to 2018, The Players Championship was staged in the month of May. The tournament has been played at Ponte Vedra Beach ever since 1977. From 2011-to-2014, the winning scorecard read (275) each year as KJ Choi (2011), Matt Kuchar (2012), Tiger Woods (2013) and Martin Kaymer(2014) all hit the winner’s circle with that magic score.

Golf Channel noted: The past five winners (and 11 of the last 13) have been in the early-late wave (Thur-Fri) to begin The Players. Some of the most intriguing guys in that group this year: Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy, Webb Simpson, Xander Schauffele, Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay, Tyrrell Hatton, Tony Finau, Lee Westwood, Matt Fitzpatrick and Scottie Scheffler.

The Top 10 Career Money Winners at The Players: (events) (money)

1. Sergio Garcia (20) – $5,466,153.43

2. Tiger Woods (19) – $4,724,366.90

3. Jim Furyk (23) – $4,081,763.72

4. Adam Scott (18) – $3,507,107.62

5. Rory McIlroy (10) – $3,333,787.50

6. Henrik Stenson (14) – $3,305,908.93

7. Matt Kuchar (15) – $3,097,894.27

8. Jason Day (9) $3,075,269.29

9. Phil Mickelson (26) $2,900,485.65

10. Stephen Ames (13) $2,781,333.34

The 2021 Players Championship marks the one-year anniversary since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down most of the USA 9and world), sports and professional golf for a solid three months. Hideki Matsuyama tied the course record with a (63) before the tournament was called-off last spring.

Rory McIlroy was nine strokes behind Matsuyama when the tournament was cancelled after the first round last year as the coronvarius pandemic gripped the world. “I think I feel a bit better about that than Hideki does,” joked McIlroy when asked on Tuesday (March 9) about not chasing nine shots to defend his title this year. McIlroy enters The Players Championship with consecutive top 10 finishes.

Last spring, Harris English, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Si Woo Kimwere T-2 behind Matsuyama after R-1 (65s). Keegan Bradley and Tommy Fleetwood were the first round leaders in 2019.

#DriveOutHunger – Five-time PGA Tour winner, 2014 FedExCup champion and Ponte Vedra Beach resident Billy Horschel once again will host his #DriveOutHunger campaign to help feed the people of Northeast Florida. He will donate $1000 for every birdie and $5000 for every eagle that he makes during THE Players to the fund.

First Look at The PLAYERS

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First Look at The Players

The 2021 Players Championship marks the one-year anniversary since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down most of the USA 9and world), sports and professional golf for a solid three months. Hideki Matsuyama tied the course record with a 63 before the tournament was called-off last spring.

Rory McIlroy is the defending champion from the 2019 Players Championship. World No. 1 Dustin Johnson is the favorite.

The 2021 Players Championship field will featured 48 of the top 50 in the world, with only Brooks Koepka and Matthew Wolff not scheduled to play. It is the PGA Tour’s “Fifth Major” and an “All-Star Game that Counts” all-in-one.

The 2021 Players will allow for 20% of capacity at TPC Sawgrass. Players volunteer chairman Troy Smith said the number of volunteers has been reduced from 2,200 to around 1,500. The Players will be only the fifth PGA Tour event to allow fans since golf resumed. Fans were permitted in Houston, Bermuda, Scottsdale, and last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in Orlando.

THIS WEEK on the PGA TOUR: The Players

COURSE: TPC Sawgrass, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

ARCHITECTS: Pete Dye.

YARDS/PAR: 7,189 yards/Par 72

PRIZE Money/First Place Winnings: $15,000,000/$2,700,000

DEFENDING Champion from 2019: Rory McIlroy  (2019 Leaderboard link)

PAST RESULTS: (link)

PAST CHAMPIONS of Event: (link)

FEDEx CUP Points Available/Winner Share: 3,375/600

SOCIAL MEDIA: #PGATour #FedEXCup @ThePlayersChamp

TV COVERAGE: Thursday, March 11 and Friday, March 12: 12:00pm to 6:00pm (ET) on Golf Channel. Saturday, March 13 and Sunday, March 14 – 1:00pm to 6:00pm (ET) on NBC.

STREAMING: PGA Tour Live will offer streaming coverage of Featured Groups on Thursday and Friday from 6:30am to 6:00pm (ET); and on Saturday (7:45am-6:00pm ET) and Sunday (7:45am-6:00pm ET), PGA Tour Live will stream Featured Holes on Saturday (3:00pm to 6:00pm ET) and Sunday from 2:30pm to 6:00pm (ET).

PGA Tour is also offering “Every Shot Live” on Thursday and Friday from 6:45am to 8:00pm ET and on Saturday and Sunday from 7:50am to 6:00pm (ET).

PGA TOUR RADIO COVERAGE: Thursday, March 11 – Friday, March 12 – 11:00am to 6:00pm (ET); then Saturday, March 13 and Sunday, March 14: (12:00pm to 6:00pm (ET)) on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. PGA Tour Radio is available on Sirius 208/XM 92) or online on PGATour.com.

Remember: Eastern Standard Time switches to Eastern Daylight Time on Saturday night. (clocks will “Spring Ahead” one hour.

TOURNAMENT SITE (link)

Brown, Tatum Named NBA All-Stars

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ATLANTA – (Official News Release) – Boston Celtics forwards Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum have both been named Eastern Conference All-Stars, the league announced today. It is the first career All-Star selection for Brown, and the second consecutive All-Star honor for Tatum, as the duo becomes the second pair of Celtics teammates to both receive All-Star honors prior to the age of 25 (Cousy/Macauley, 1953).

Brown, 24, has produced a career-high 25.5 points, to go along with 5.5 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 1.1 steals, 0.5 blocked shots, and 33.7 minutes in 28 games (all starts) this season. The Marietta, Ga. native has also recorded high marks in shooting from the field (49.7%), beyond the arc (40.9%), and from the free throw line (76.6%), and is one of five NBA players averaging 25.0 points while shooting at least 49.0% from the field and 40.0% on three-point field goal attempts in 2020-21.

In addition to increasing his previous career scoring high by over 5.0 points per game (20.3 ppg; 2019-20), Brown has already matched his career high of six 30-point games through his first 28 contests this season. He has produced the two highest scoring totals by any Celtics player in 2020-21, both of which were career-high 42-point outputs against Memphis on Dec. 30, and at Philadelphia on Jan. 22.

In 25 games played this season (all starts), Tatum has posted career highs in points (26.0 ppg), rebounds (7.1 rpg), and assists (4.6 apg), while leading the team with five double-doubles and eight 30-point games. The fourth-year forward is one of four NBA players averaging 26.0 points and 7.0 rebounds, while shooting at least 39.0% from beyond the arc this season.

Tatum opened the 2021 calendar year with 13 consecutive games of 20+ points and 4+ rebounds, good for the longest such streak by any Celtics player since Paul Pierce in 2002-03. He was rewarded with his second career Eastern Conference Player of the Week honor on Jan. 11, after producing 33.0 points on 52.2% shooting (52.0% 3-PT), 5.3 rebounds, and 2.7 assists during an undefeated three-game week from Jan. 4-10.

This is the second career All-Star selection for Tatum, who last year became the second-youngest Celtics player selected to an All-Star Game (Antoine Walker – 21y, 180d).

 

Deserving a Second Chance

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By TERRY LYONS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

BOSTON – Who amongst us, doesn’t deserve a second chance?

During the 1980s, NBA All-Star guard Michael Ray Richardson was thrown-out of the league for failing to adhere to the NBA’s anti-drug program but was later given another chance. A decade later, Richardson thanked the late David Stern who as Commissioner of the NBA was credited by the wayward star for saving his life by providing the tough love, then rehabilitation from a serious drug problem.

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In the ‘70s and ‘80s, substance abuse problems and the need for second chances became common place, unfortunately. New York Mets stars Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry each fell into drug dependency and abuse asa they were being built up by Mets fans as long-awaited superstars. They were given second chances by Baseball and New York fans and turned it around.

Former Celtics guard Chris Herren falls into the same category and now counsels youth against the pitfalls of substance abuse, as does basketball’s Vin Baker, who admitted to his fight against alcoholism and worked his way back, first taking a job as an assistant high school basketball coach in Connecticut in 2014. Afterward, he worked as a Starbucks coffee store manager in 2015, and now is back in the pros, working as an assistant coach with one of his former NBA teams, the Milwaukee Bucks.

Not all stories of rebounding for a second chance stem from drugs or alcohol abuse. Olympic speed-skater Dan Jansen was primed for possible medal contention in the 500 and 1,000 meter speed skating races at the 1988 Winter Olympics when – on the day of the 500 meter event – he received a call from his family home in Wisconsin that his 27-year old sister (Jane Marie Beres) was dying from leukemia.

Jansen attempted to speak with his sister by phone, but she was not able to respond. He was later informed of her death and he tried to compete but fell in the 500, distraught. Four days later, in the 1,000 he began with record-breaking speed only to fall again. Jansen left the ‘88 Games in Calgary with no medals and found himself unable to medal at the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville.

Jansen made good on his third chance, when he trained and won a World Championship in 1993 then took the gold in the 1,000 at the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer in one of the most heartwarming and remarkable stories of USA Olympic Games history.

Again, along the lines of the remarkable is the story of Seabiscuit, one of the greatest thoroughbred race horses of all-time.

“In 1938, the year’s No. 1 newsmaker was not FDR, Hitler, or Mussolini. Nor was it Lou Gehrig or Clark Gable. The subject of the most newspaper column inches in 1938 wasn’t even a person. It was an undersized, crooked-legged racehorse named Seabiscuit,” wrote Laura Hillenbrand in Seabiscuit, An American Legend.

In 2003, Seabiscuit’s story was transformed into an Academy Award nominated film (Best Picture), based on the best-selling book by Hillenbrand. Directed by Gary Ross and produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, among others, Seabiscuit is in my personal Top 3 and it is my No. 1 favorite “sports” motion picture of all-time.

As we’re delving into “second chances,” Seabiscuit leads the pack when you study the true-life story of an undersized and overlooked thoroughbred whose unexpected success made him “the people’s favorite” and a true sign of hope for the masses in the USA during the Great Depression.

Seabiscuit is also the story of how three men — Charles Howard, Tom Smith, and Red Pollard — overcome personal limitations, demons, and tragedies, as well as economic hard times to bring about Seabiscuit’s thrilling and inspiring victories. The horse was sold to Howard for $8,000 at a Saratoga auction after being trained to lose to would-be greater racehorses. And, lose he did to the point where he was disregarded and discarded.

“You don’t throw a whole life away because he’s banged up a little,” Seabiscuit’s owner Charles Howard said, echoing Tom Smith, then adding later: “Sometimes all somebody needs is a second chance. A lot of people out there know what I mean.”

“You know, everybody thinks we found this broken-down horse and fixed him,” said Pollard, the over-sized jockey played by Tobey Maguire in the film. “But we didn’t. He fixed us; every one of us. And I guess in a way, we kinda fixed each other too.”

That brings us to the 2021 Boston Red Sox baseball season and the second chance being provided to Sox Manager Alex Cora.

There’s “no rooting in the press box,” of course, but even “Tick Tock McLaughlin” would be making his “Lazarus of Bethany” references as it pertains to the vaunted Sox organization placing new trust in Cora after his dismissal and one-year suspension for his center stage effort in the Houston Astros cheating scandal.

In January 2020, the Red Sox and Cora mutually agreed to parting ways after the Astros scandal cost the jobs of Houston GM Jeff Luhnow and team Manager A.J. Hinch. In the COVID-19 limited 2020 season Ron Roenickefilled in nicely for the Sox, but on November 6, 2020 – not long after Mookie Betts and the LA Dodgers were crowned World Champs – Cora was re-hired and signed to a two-year contract by Boston.

While a 108-54 record with the Sox this season is not to be, Red Sox fans and the few veteran players left from the record-setting 2018 season will be supporting Cora in a big way.

The reason?

While Americans enjoy building up heroes then knocking them down, the story isn’t complete and a fan isn’t satisfied until that broken hero gets his/her second chance.

That’s the case this season with Cora and the Sox, although he must now help rebuild the club, rather than rejoice in 100+ wins alongside the likes of Betts, David “Big Papi” Ortiz, Chris Sale and Xander Bogaerts.

See While We’re Young Ideas for a Year-Long subscription and our March Madness Rate.