Bobby Valentine's career in Boston is on the ropes.  The Red Sox slow start is not entirely Bobby V.'s fault but he is on the hook for a couple of losses.  Red Sox Nation did not want Tito gone, and if he was going to be replaced they wanted someone without a lot of baggage.  

After today's devastating loss to the Yankees, Valentine said this:

“I think we’ve hit bottom.  That’s what I told them after the game. You have to sometimes hit bottom. If this isn’t bottom, then we’ll find some new ends to the earth or something.”

After the implosion at the end of last season and the fallout that followed I wrote a post saying the Red Sox had reached rock bottom but I added an update on twitter that I may have been mistaken after the news broke that Bobby V. might get the job as Red Sox skipper.   Some people never get welcomed into the Nation (think Edgar Rentaria or Byung-Hyun Kim) and it is just a matter of time before ownership joins the fan base in this realization.   Valentine still has a chance to be welcomed into the Nation but the door closing quickly.  A win tomorrow and a couple of good series will buy him some time but a loss will likely spell the beginning of the end.  Valentine will NEVER gain the support of Red Sox Nation if the Sox get swept by the Yankees tomorrow.  The team would have a 4-11 record, possibly the worst record in the AL if the Royals win, and more importantly they will have lost six in a row at home, three to their biggest rival including the 100th anniversary of Fenway game. 

Today's game was everything Valentine needed...until the seventh inning.  Now he is hanging on by a thread and his fate will play out on national TV tomorrow night.

The Red Sox and Cubs have worked out a deal which sends Michael Bowden to Chicago in exchange for outfielder Marlon Byrd and a player to be named later.  The Cubs will pay all of Byrd's salary.  The move gives the Red Sox a healthy outfielder until Jacoby Ellsbury returns.

Aviles SS
Sweeney RF
Pedroia 2B
Gonzalez 1B
Ortiz DH
Youkilis 3B
Saltalamacchia C
Ross CF
McDonald LF

Doubront SP

Fenway Park celebrates its 100th birthday today.  Those 100 years are filled with some of the greatest moments in baseball history but none better than being a kid and seeing the field for the first time.

From John Updike's Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu:

Fenway Park, in Boston, is a lyric little bandbox of a ballpark. Everything is painted green and seems in curiously sharp focus, like the inside of an old-fashioned peeping-type Easter egg. It was built in 1912 and rebuilt in 1934, and offers, as do most Boston artifacts, a compromise between Man's Euclidean determinations and Nature's beguiling irregularities. Its right field is one of the deepest in the American League, while its left field is the shortest; the high left-field wall, three hundred and fifteen feet from home plate along the foul line, virtually thrusts its surface at right-handed hitters.

Last week, I wrote that with the Sox pitching situation, it would be a case of "get a lead and pray". It hasn't worked. In the team's first 11 games, the ERA's are so bad that there have been very few leads, and those that they have disappear quickly. Following the embarrassing 18-3 loss to Texas, the pitching stats are incredibly poor.

As of Wednesday, the hurlers that I recently suggested were among the top three starters in baseball-Jon Lester, Josh Beckett, and Clay Buchholz-had a combined ERA figure of 6.84. When you merge them with the number 4 and 5 men- Felix Doubront and Daniel Bard- it is a bit better, but still over 6. The relievers are not quite so bad, but Marc Melancon is back in the minors after compiling a figure of 49.50 in just two innings pitched. It is not surprising that Bobby V is booed every time a pitching change is made.

The Sox hitting has been erratic, but even the 27 Yankees could not overcome these stats. If by some miracle Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig suddenly walked through the clubhouse door, the Sox would still be losing.

My question is: Who are the real Red Sox? Are they the team that lead the AL East most of last season or the club that has lost 28 of 39 over two years? It it's the latter, the summer will be a long one on Yawkey Way.

Injuries to Andrew Bailey, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Carl Crawford have hurt a lot, but it shouldn't affect them to this extent. No team can win without pitching. Giving up a 4-spot in the first couple of innings, as has often happened, doesn't do much for the squad's confidence. In the first Texas game, for example, it was already 7-2 by the third.

I don't know the reason that the "big three" starters have suddenly gone sour. But if things don't change soon, the 2012 Sox will be battling with the Orioles for fourth place.

Here is today's lineup for the 100 Anniversary game vs. the Yankees:

Mike Aviles SS
Ryan Sweeney RF
Dustin Pedroia 2B
Adrian Gonzalez 1B
David Ortiz DH
Kevin Youkilis 3B
Jarrod Saltalamacchia C
Cody Ross LF
Jason Repko CF

Buchholz SP

Game time is at 3:05pm (Be prepared for the game to start late with all the special ceremonies and what not).  The game is carried by NESN, YES and MLBN. 

As part of the celebration of 100 Years of Fenway, the Red Sox opened up the park yesterday to fans all day long.  It was open from 9am to 7pm.  You could walk around the warning track, peek into the Green Monster, get signatures from current and former players, go up into the press box and go down by the clubhouse and out to the field through the tunnel to the Sox dugout. 

I got the Fenway about 2pm.  There were TONS of people there.  It basically was full like it was a game day.  Everything had a line that went on for days, but for a free event to be able to walk around Fenway...I was in heaven.  When they brought us by the clubhouse door, someone opened it up and I was able to quickly take a peek.  All I could see was Kelly Shoppach's locker.  Still.  I got to peek in.  Then seeing the Sox batting cages and out to the dugout.   I didn't end up waiting in the huge line to see the players that were signing, but I know people were there all day long. 

All in all, it was a great day.  I love that the Sox do some really nice and fan friendly events such as this.  We are able to experience the park in a way that I am not sure the fans of other teams are able to do. 

Here are a few photos from the day after the jump:

"I've been around this park when it was just a vacant lot and it was under water.  I used to hunt ducks here when I was in India and I had a canoe that used to come in here and park all the time and I dreamed that there would be a ballpark here."

-Bill Lee on his foggy memories of Fenway Park.

Wally was in Manhattan yesterday to get some New Yorkers on board with celebrating the 100th birthday of Fenway Park.  Watch below:

As part of the 100th birthday celebration of Fenway Park, the Red Sox and Yankees will wear 1912 era throwback uniforms.  There will also be a stadium toast by a fans in attendance in attempt to break a world record.  Friday should be an exciting day at Fenway for sure.