Media Like Management

In yesterday’s Globe “Quick Shots”  sports feature, all five folks queried essentially agreed that the Patriots did the right thing in letting talented receiver David Givens – who just signed a lucrative deal with Tennessee  -- walk away. John Stone from Connecticut put it this way: “The Krafts are an excellent business family. They manage and hire well…All teams have a salary cap and must manage within it.” There didn’t seem to be too many tears shed either when veteran venerable  linebacker Willie McGinest, a man apparently improving with age, recently signed with Cleveland after a dozen years here.

My guess is that even if the super clutch Adam Vinatieri -- a hugely key component of the Pats’ Super Bowl success -- heads for greener (figuratively)  pastures, the mourning period will be quite brief and very restrained. (In what was clearly psychological preparation for a possible departure, I already heard one WEEI caller complain that he wasn’t getting the ball deep enough on kickoffs anyway.)

From McGinest to Pedro, from Johnny Damon to maybe Vinatieri, Boston sports fans these days seem to react to the loss of key players with a sober and often sophisticated understanding of the complex economics of sports that ends up leaving them more considerably more sympathetic to management than the players.

There are a couple of obvious reasons for that. First, in the era of free agency, people inevitably learn to root for “laundry” more than the individuals wearing it. It’s also true that nothing succeeds like success, meaning that three Lombardi trophies and the inspirational 2004 World Series win have soothed long-smoldering frustrations and instilled fans with considerably more respect for and patience with the management worldview.

I also think the sports media in this town has largely bought into the idea that ownership and management should be lauded for fiscal restraint in deciding that some of their own key players are too rich for their blood. Nowhere is this more obvious than on WEEI, which has kind of reinvented street-level sports populism to mean a nearly full-throated endorsement of most ownership moves and prerogatives. (In the case of Dale Arnold, this can even mean defending the abjectly mediocre stewardship of the Bruins.)

It’s funny. For years, the Globe’s Will McDonough was ripped for being more in sync with the old multimillionaires who owned ballclubs than the young millionaires who played for them. Now, that’s become the norm.  

One does wonder whether WEEI’s attitude toward the Sox management crew will change if the team, as speculated about, decides to take its radio contract elsewhere, perhaps to a station that it co-owns. For example, the Globe reported on Saturday that the team might look for an ownership stake in WBOS . (P.S. – Although the sound quality is frustratingly bad at times – and I wish he’s slow down his syntax – I continue to find ESPN radio afternoon drive host Michael Felger a refreshing diversion from the conventional wisdom in this town.)

 The other point worth making is that given fandom’s growing acceptance of hard-headed “business realities” that dicatate management actions, it’s hard to criticize ballplayers for doing the same thing when they take more money to play elsewhere.