Red Sox Less Idiotic, Better Communicators

The Idiots are gone. Only two seasons after finally winning a world title, the Boston Red Sox already need a completely new nickname to go with their radically altered team.

The moniker can’t be catchy or cool. Most of the crazy guys with the goofy hair, like Johnny Damon and Bronson Arroyo, are gone. The fellow who invented that “Cowboy Up” catch phrase has left town too. Pedro’s barely a memory.

Everywhere you look there’s a new face, such as rookie closer Jonathan Papelbon or top-tier starter Josh Beckett. The infield is all new this season, with Kevin Youkilis, Mark Loretta, Alex Gonzalez and Mike Lowell.

Yet with all the change and the continuing search for a new identity, Boston still finds itself in first place. Somehow, these New England dudes abide. Shake them up, shuffle the roster, misplace General Manager Theo Epstein, then coax him back into the fold again and yet, at least for the moment, the Yankees still aren’t in front of them. Every day, the way the Red Sox see it, New York seems to find more problems, like Hideki Matsui’s broken wrist or Randy Johnson’s imitation of the Lost Unit, while the team from Fenway Park learns more about itself and begins to discover its future.

“We’re getting a personality. We’re developing loyalty toward each other,” Manager Terry Francona said of his 23-15 team. “You’ll see eight or 10 guys go to dinner together. When you have players who want to do it, when they want that atmosphere, it’s a big part of becoming a team. I saw six or seven of them in a bar together last night. That’s good.”

Cover your eyes, kids. It was probably the hotel bar, before midnight and they were all drinking diet sodas.

The Red Sox were once the team that was famous for leaving the ballpark in 25 separate taxis. Now they bond, they communicate, they talk things out. Boston is one place you go if you want to see a true team in the making. Who are the keys to that process? Several players all qualify, but none more than catcher Jason Varitek and David Ortiz.

“Jason is our leader. David has one of those unique personalities that pull people together,” Francona said. Though it’s seldom mentioned, baseball is at least as cliquish as it was 30 years ago. These days, no ill is generally intended. But no good purpose is served, either. “We’re in good shape there,” Francona said. “Ortiz transcends races, cultures, languages.”

So where are Varitek and Ortiz, the linchpins, the leaders? Two hours before playing the Orioles, Ortiz can’t find just the proper bat and Varitek thinks he has just the right model. Together they scrounge the clubhouse and come up with the perfect implement. “Look, it wobbles,” says Ortiz, rolling the bat on the concrete floor. “It’s not perfectly straight.” And the pair of sluggers are off on a discussion of why maple bats often seem just an iota warped while their ash bats roll properly.

Now, if you are going to have a club that breathes the game, you need core players who consciously fight all the forces of wealth, modern distraction and cultural division that turn teams into mildly dysfunctional mini-corporations.

“Communication is the key. Before the ’03 season, I started to make a conscious effort,” Varitek said. “Terry’s right, we’ll get a bunch of guys to go out to dinner tomorrow [on a day off]. We’ve learned that you need to know your teammates better. Get to know them as people. I once heard Bill Russell talk about that,” meaning the team unity of the old Celtics.

“But the point really got across to me watching the U.S. women’s soccer team [in 1999]. They’d played together so long and knew each other so well. They hung out together and enjoyed playing together. Their communication with each other led to their dominance of their sport,” Varitek said. “I listened to Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain when they were interviewed. Before I ever met Mia [who married Nomar Garciaparra, the former Red Sox shortstop], I knew women tended to be better communicators than men.”

Those who watch the Red Sox from the outside think this season has gone well because the back end of the Boston bullpen has been spectacular, with Mike Timlin (1.08 ERA), a rejuvenated Keith Foulke (three walks to 18 strikeouts) and the dominant, confident Papelbon (one run in 21 innings) slamming the door whenever Boston has a lead after six innings.

Actually, another kind of door has mattered too. “We’re learning to get to know each other,” Varitek said. “You have to reach a point where those doors of communication have been granted.”

Not opened, but granted. No, these definitely aren’t Idiots. In recent years, the Red Sox, even with changing personnel, have tried to develop a culture where everybody has each other’s back. It’s subtle. Mention Manny Ramirez, often seen as the ultimate absentminded free spirit, and Varitek says: “Manny gets scrutinized. He plays that Fenway wall better than anybody. He’s a way better baserunner and outfielder than he was when he came here from Cleveland. He wants to be a total player.”

The Red Sox clearly have learned that one of their advantages over the Yankees of recent times has been superior cohesion. Varitek speaks with respect of the eternal New York foes. “Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams were always up the middle of those teams,” he says. “They bred success by the way they carried themselves and went about their business.”

Yet, perhaps unintentionally, Varitek uses the past tense for those teams. The close-knit, less-talented, more-successful Yankees clubs from 1996 through 2000 with team-first types such as Paul O’Neill, Scott Brosius and Chuck Knoblauch are just historical artifacts.

The Red Sox will need their culture of camaraderie -- maybe that’s the new nickname, the Comrades -- because much of their baseball identity of ’04 is gone. Curt Schilling (6-2, 4.17) is having a fine season but isn’t as overpowering as he once was. Beckett may have to share that role in October. However, the biggest change is that the Red Sox have hit fewer homers than their foes this season. They’re not the offensive war wagon of recent seasons.

The Red Sox’ 4-3 loss to the Orioles on Wednesday night was an illustration. On one hand, Baltimore was merely ending a streak of 13 straight losses to Boston. But on the other, Baltimore’s Erik Bedard showed that Boston can be shut down, holding the Sox to two hits through seven innings. After Ortiz’s two-run homer in the ninth made the game close, there was no more Red Sox thunder. The final Boston out was made when a pinch runner was thrown out stealing.

The Idiots, deep in power, might have waited for an extra-base hit to tie the game. This new Boston bunch still has a lot to figure out about its baseball identity. At least they’ll have plenty to talk about at dinner tomorrow night.