But start most of them each game. That is how you balance the fan needs per game with the team resting need. You do not blindside fans like Francona did Wednesday night.

I will just have to agree to disagree with those trying to justify what Francona did Wednesday night. Try telling that to the kids whose parents paid big bucks so theirr kids could see their Sox heros and instead got suckered! Winning the playoffs is not everything. Process on how you get there means a lot!

If I buy Sox tickets in February for a game in late September, should I get a refund or discount if the team is eliminated from contention by then? How about if I have tickets for a game Lester or Beckett was scheduled to pitch and the Sox decide to push either back for rest or someone like Bowden starts instead, am I due a refund?

NG fails to realize that sports and other forms of entertainment, like Broadway shows, are different. Sports are goal-oriented, with teams trying to win a championships. In football, this means limiting the snaps your starters will get in the meaningless pre-season games they force season ticket holders to buy. In the other sports with longer seasons than the NFL, you periodically rest players—especially after a team’s playoff berth is secure and post-season seed cannot be changed.

Baseball has a very long season and few teams make the playoffs. Managers who treat every game—from April to September—like playoff games are idiots. All good managers rest their players periodically to keep them sharp. The Red Sox have not had an off-day since September 14th. Once the division was out of reach and the Sox clinched the Wild Card, it didn’t matter how many games they won. Even if the Sox finish with a better record than the Angels, LA will have home field.

Fans that rant and rave about stupid things are annoying. Fair weather fans like NG are the worst. Since they only watch when their team is winning, they can’t enjoy the fact that their team has just accomplished something that roughly 75% of MLB teams don’t—making it to the post-season. That, in and of itself, is a huge accomplishment. I’ve been a fan long enough to know that playing the post-season is a privilege, not a birthright. I don’t expect to get there every year, and I’m very happy when the Sox make the playoffs. Since 2003, this organization has succeeded far beyond anything Sox fans could have imagined during the Yawkey, Harrington, etc. years. Theo Epstein is a very good GM and Terry Francona is a very good manager. They are, by far, the best Sox GM and manager in my lifetime and I’d like to hear some of the doubters name anyone better. They don’t owe us anything.