[louiskaty2]

The Red Sox and Major League Baseball have dispatched security teams to St. Petersburg, Fla., for the next three days due to a recent threat made against the club's players.

According to sources, the Sox recently received a mailed threat, believed to be postmarked in Memphis, Tenn., which targeted black and Latin players, citing at least two by name. The named players have been informed about the threats and will likely have security accompaniment away from Tropicana Field, including at the team's hotel in St. Petersburg.

The Sox play the Tampa Bay Rays tonight, tomorrow and Wednesday.

The Sox are sending at least two of their top security officials, while another security team is due from MLB's office in New York. The FBI and police departments in St. Petersburg, Boston, Memphis and Baltimore have been apprised of the threats, which are a federal crime.

According to a source, law-enforcement authorities have been looking for a suspect believed to be from Baltimore but living in the Memphis area. By all indications, he is not in custody yet.

From the: http://www.bostonherald.com

You know when Henry Aaron received all the death threats and bags of hate mail in the 70s, you thought we as a nation had moved beyond this type of thing.

[sevnson_71]

That is right, you guys are a National League town. It likely has less to do with race than the fact the last two series they played this season have ended in hit batsmen, brawls and or suspensions. They have been absolutely brutal the last couple years, and now that Tampa is actually a serious divisional rival in the AL East and not just a cakewalk team before the break they have been even more heated outings. The players named were likely involved in the last slugfest they had at Fenway.

Nothing lost on Hammering Hank and what he dealt with as a player, but I really don't see this to be the case. If you see some articles in other publications pointing to the contrary, please feel free to post them though.

[louiskaty2]

sevnson_71, on Jun 30 2008, 01:51 PM, said:

That is right, you guys are a National League town. It likely has less to do with race than the fact the last two series they played this season have ended in hit batsmen, brawls and or suspensions. They have been absolutely brutal the last couple years, and now that Tampa is actually a serious divisional rival in the AL East and not just a cakewalk team before the break they have been even more heated outings. The players named were likely involved in the last slugfest they had at Fenway.

Nothing lost on Hammering Hank and what he dealt with as a player, but I really don't see this to be the case. If you see some articles in other publications pointing to the contrary, please feel free to post them though.

Here is just my humble opinion
Black players: probably Coco Crisp
Latin players: probably 'Pappi' David Ortiz & Manny 'longest dreads in the Majors' Ramirez or = essentialy more black players.
No one is threatening J.D. Drew I notice...
The 'gentleman' they are investigating has Memphis and Baltimore ties. Not Tampa or NY.
We may get the actual names at some point, until then we can only speculate.

Thank you for your consideration.

[sevnson_71]

These were the suspensions from that one incident that started by Shields hitting Crisp and then trash talking, causing Coco to charge the mound and ending with both benches clearing.

7 games
Coco Crisp, Red Sox
6 games
James Shields, Rays
5 games
Jonny Gomes, Rays
Edwin Jackson, Rays
Jon Lester, Red Sox
4 games
Carl Crawford, Rays
3 games
Akinori Iwamura, Rays
Sean Casey, Red Sox

VIDEO

Also involved were Manny Ramirez, Dustin Pedroia and Julio Lugo
They'd have a hard time getting to Pappi because from what I know he isn't even traveling with the team because he is rehabbing an injury.

[louiskaty2]

sevnson_71, on Jun 30 2008, 02:45 PM, said:

These were the suspensions from that one incident that started by Shields hitting Crisp and then trash talking, causing Coco to charge the mound and ending with both benches clearing.

7 games
Coco Crisp, Red Sox
6 games
James Shields, Rays
5 games
Jonny Gomes, Rays
Edwin Jackson, Rays
Jon Lester, Red Sox
4 games
Carl Crawford, Rays
3 games
Akinori Iwamura, Rays
Sean Casey, Red Sox

VIDEO

Also involved were Manny Ramirez, Dustin Pedroia and Julio Lugo
They'd have a hard time getting to Pappi because from what I know he isn't even traveling with the team because he is rehabbing an injury.

I amend my last post... Swap out J.D. Drew for Sean Casey.

sevnson_71 are you a baseball fan? I manage pack the family into the SUV and get to at least one game per year... Great fun.

[sevnson_71]

Die hard Sox fan as you can tell by how often I rib Trekkin about her Yankees. I watch nearly every game. If I could afford Fenway or even better won a pair of tickets I'd happily go in again. It has been a few years for me. But it is by far the coolest ballpark in the Majors. Home game tickets are difficult at best to get hold of as any New Englander will tell you and are treasured like gold.

I try to make it to a couple AA games per season (The Fisher Cats are a Toronto Affiliate, but they play Boston's club from Portland, Maine regularly). You never know who is going to get called up, Justin Masterson just came up this year and he is just dominating batters. They have so many talented kids in the system it isn't even funny.

[louiskaty2]

sevnson_71, on Jun 30 2008, 03:27 PM, said:

Die hard Sox fan as you can tell by how often I rib Trekkin about her Yankees. I watch nearly every game. If I could afford Fenway or even better won a pair of tickets I'd happily go in again. It has been a few years for me. But it is by far the coolest ballpark in the Majors. Home game tickets are difficult at best to get hold of as any New Englander will tell you and are treasured like gold.

I try to make it to a couple AA games per season (The Fisher Cats are a Toronto Affiliate, but they play Boston's club from Portland, Maine regularly). You never know who is going to get called up, Justin Masterson just came up this year and he is just dominating batters. They have so many talented kids in the system it isn't even funny.

Here's some pix of a die hard fan

[sevnson_71]

Oh nice a Cards fan, they are a good team. You should talk with Shlomi, he's a Redbirds fan too.

[louiskaty2]

sevnson_71, on Jun 30 2008, 08:47 PM, said:

Oh nice a Cards fan, they are a good team. You should talk with Shlomi, he's a Redbirds fan too.

I was watching Baseball Tonight about two years ago and Peter Gammonds was going on and on about how much he liked Ken Griffey Jr. personally and professionally. He mentioned how private Jr. was and he explained he was sooooo private due to all the death threats against him, his wife, and his chlidren. That type of thing is what leads me to believe what I said about the Red Sox players threats to begin with. I'm not sure why Jr. would draw a lot of negative attention. Other than being born the way he was.

I used to live on Florida's space coast the Marlins had a spring training facility there named Space Coast Stadium. They had a single A team there too, the Manatees. Great fun! Now the Nationals train there and the single A team is with the Brewers. Minor leaugue ball is certainly pretty cool too. I watched many games of the Manatees playing the Red Sox single A club and Trot Nixon going up against the Marlins single A team. Edgar Renteria was with the Marlins single A club do there for an entire season too.

Play ball!

This post has been edited by louiskaty2: 01 July 2008 - 08:02 AM

[Cougar]

I hate the Cardinals....after all they beat my Tigers in the World Series

[louiskaty2]

Cougar, on Jul 1 2008, 10:23 AM, said:

I hate the Cardinals....after all they beat my Tigers in the World Series

And with that 2006 World series title, the Cards reached double digits in World Series titles!!!

Yooo Hoooo!!!

This post has been edited by louiskaty2: 01 July 2008 - 10:35 AM

[Cougar]

louiskaty2, on Jul 1 2008, 10:34 AM, said:

And with that 2006 World series title, the Cards reached double digits in World Series titles!!!

Yooo Hoooo!!!

That phlox David Eckstein is now playing for my other favourite team, the Blue Jays. *sigh*

[louiskaty2]

Cougar, on Jul 1 2008, 11:53 AM, said:

That phlox David Eckstein is now playing for my other favourite team, the Blue Jays. *sigh*

Eckstein is 'the little engine that could' all 5' 6" of him... Amazing!

Both he and Rolen former Cards now with the Jays.