The Big Story – Baseball at the Quarter Turn: It has not been pretty for your Boston Red Sox. They’ve been getting killed for their weak offense, no power and lack of spending, leading an enterprising pilot to fly over Fenway one day pulling a banner behind begging the owners to sell the team. Other than that, the start’s been great.
Sports 101: Name the three second basemen to hit 300 career homers.
News Item – Patriots Schedule Out: For those outraged at the toughness of the Pats’ 2026 schedule: What did you expect? They got the easy one last year because they finished last twice in a row. Now they get the first-place schedule. That happened annually for 20 years, so what’s the big deal?
News Item – Rumor Mill: For those still whining about losing Raffy Devers: after hitting .207 with two homers and 11 RBI in April word is SF is having buyer’s remorse over his declining production vs. his massive contract. And while the numbers jumped to .240-5-18 by mid-May they are hardly game-changing. So with the record at just 15-24 whispers are growing that the West Coast G-Men are about to dump payroll with Raffy headed out the door again.
News Item – Red Sox at Quarter Turn:
Good: WithCeddanne Rafaela hitting .281 with four homers and 20 RBI it appears he’s taken the next step. Plus new starters Sonny Gray and Ranger Suarez have been solid, as have surprising young’n Connelly Early and Payton Tolle.
Bad: They were 17-23, 11 out. In 2025 it was 18-22 and they still won 89 games.
Ugly: Jarren Duran, Trevor Story, Marcelo Mayer and Caleb Durbin all hit under .200 as the Sox scored MLB’s second-fewest runs.
Injured List: Think Red Sox owner John Henry is down on his knees looking upward and saying please don’t be another Chris Sale? As the next lefty Henry gave big bucks to after the $150 million Sale fiasco was Garrett Crochet. He’s on the DL with inflammation in his left shoulder after pitching a career most 203 innings last year. Hmmm.
Noteworthy baseball things after 40 games:
NL Central: Every team was playing over .500 baseball, from the 27-15 first-place Cubs to last-place Cincy at 21-20.
Billion-Dollar Dodgers: Tied with Padres at 24-16 instead of running away with everything with their pricey team. The Sox had a second-worst 31 homers and 161 runs scored in 45 games.Worst in homers was Milwaukee’s 27, but they’re ninth in runs with 209 and were 24-17 while the Sox were 17-23. Milwaukee has just the 20th-highest payroll at $127 million. Boston is 12th at $197 million, while the team with the worst record after, the 15-25 Mets, has baseball’s highest at $335 million.
Free Agents That Got Away:
Pete Alonso — 8 homers, 22 RBI, .306 avg.
Alex Bregman — 3 homers, 13 RBI, .233 avg.
Xander Bogaerts — 7 homers, 22 RBI, .267 avg.
The Numbers:
11 – percent increase in fouls during NBA playoffs vs. the regular season.
16 – astonishingly few pitches thrown by Zack Wheeler to get the first nine Red Sox batters ou in Philly’s 2-1 win last week. According to published reports it’s the least needed to do that since 2000.
20 – “thank you very much Chaim Bloom” MLB-leading homer total (including two last week at Fenway) by Kyle Schwarber, who the power-poor Red Sox let walk 207 homers ago after 2021.
Sports 101 Answer: The 300-homer second basemen are Jeff Kent (354), Robinson Cano (335) and Rogers Hornsby (301).
Final Thought –RIP Award – Ted Turner: The CNN founder and Atlanta Braves manager for one game died last week at 87. His run as Braves owner produced 14 straight NL East titles, five NL pennants and a 1995 World Series title. He also owned the Atlanta Hawks, skippered the 1977 America Cup winning sailing team and founded the Goodwill Games. All while eventually revolutionizing cable TV and USA viewing habits. And he still had time to marry Jane Fonda.
Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.