AGRI Biz

I was married on May 31, 2008, the same day Manny Ramirez clubbed his 500th home run at Camden Yards in Baltimore.For that reason, it’s one of those baseball moments forever ingrained in my mind, as the replay was still dancing across the televisions in the hotel bar as our wedding party meandered in.That historic feat took place in the same stadium that, barely more than two weeks earlier, Ramirez ...

J.D. Drew hit a home run Sunday afternoon. While I'd usually make some sort of snarky comment about how difficult it is to hit balls out of the park without the use of a human heart, that turn of events this time instead brought home the reality of how upside down this season has been so far in Boston. J.D. Drew has been the Red Sox's most durable outfielder. Think about that phrase ...

Boston has long since had a reputation for jumping the gun when it comes to burying its sports teams. Historically speaking, patience in the Hub has been anything but a virtue. So when the media vultures starting circling David Ortiz after exactly two games this spring, I was quick to defend the veteran slugger, asking for everyone to hold their horses before rioting in the streets. But now? Hit the panic button. ...

That Clay Buchholz was battered by the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday will raise few red flags in the Boston Red Sox clubhouse, as the lanky right-hander suffered the thumping during an admittedly sleepy spring training tune-up. The Calendar still reads March, which is to say the numbers don’t matter yet. But the Red Sox need to hope the numbers are impressive when they do. Not just because ...

While questions regarding Tim Wakefield's age and Daisuke Matsuzaka's durability continue to swirl around the Boston Red Sox during the middle stages of spring training, new acquisition John Lackey has quietly gone about his business. Putting up goose eggs. Lackey arrived to much fanfare but has managed to slide into the background during a spring training where the hot topics have included a perceived lack of punch on the offensive side ...

The Boston Red Sox enter Spring Training with the starting lineup and pitching rotation essentially squared away. With the addition of players like Adrian Beltre, Marco Scutaro and Mike Cameron to the starting nine and the likes of John Lackey to the rotation, the major pieces have fallen into place. But baseball is most certainly a marathon and not a sprint, and by the end of the season roster spot No. ...

Few teams in Major League baseball enter Spring Training dealing with both sky-high expectations and lingering scrutiny . But after an off-season makeover eschewing thump for pitching and defense, the Boston Red Sox begin their quest to return to the top of the Major League mountain with plenty of uncertainty. Do they have enough to overtake the Yankees?Begin Slideshow

In the interest of full disclosure, IÆm the same guy who said heading into last season that I thought the Red Sox had made enough savvy moves to challenge the Yankees for the pennant. Not quite. My prediction that cost-effective reclamation projects such as John Smoltz and Brad Penny would pay serious dividends landed somewhere between woefully off base and numbingly stupid. So take what you will from ...

This wasn't the kind of breaking news I anticipated at baseball's Winter Meetings. It was announced today, in somewhat stunning fashion, that ESPN baseball analyst and Baseball Hall of Famer Peter Gammons would be leaving the sports media empire, effective immediately after baseball's winter meetings wrap up this week. It's an odd announcement at an odd time, leading me to believe something under the surface is going on here. Given Gammons' lifetime ...