These Red Sox need a reboot, and it starts at the top, says John Rooke

Thinking out loud … while wondering if the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off because of budget cuts …

Sell the Sox, Mr. Henry.

This is usually the time of year when hope springs eternal, when we look forward to winter's thaw and you know baseball season around the corner is full of promise — but not this year.

No, this year Red Sox management is ruining our summah before spring training starts. How do we know this before a single game is played?

They’ve told you so. Through their actions, or lack thereof, and their words. Payroll likely won’t even reach last year's level. Ticket prices will increase over last season’s last-place finish and have jumped more than 100% since 2019, says Front Office Sports.

More: The rebuild begins: Here's what the Red Sox need to do for 2024.

And they have three last-place finishes in the past four seasons to show for it. This isn’t bang for the buck. It’s the buck should stop — right here.

Don’t we fire coaches for losing? Didn’t the Patriots just let go of some guy named Belichick for the same thing?

Owners should also be held accountable when they contribute to losing.

It’s clear to this baseball fan, and to perhaps others like me, that Fenway Sports Group is more than content with the four World Series titles they’ve claimed since 2004. And, yes, for that they should be appreciated. But where is the competitive fire in reaching for more? Where is, dare I say it, the Yankee attitude of you can never win enough? So, why do we play the game, to win or to sell swag?

You can do both, ya’ know.

Here’s the thing: The curse is over. Yes, Fenway has had a facelift and more improvements to its structure than Dolly Parton has had. They sold out a major league record 820 straight games. They are baseball’s third-most-valuable franchise, valued at $4.5 billion.

FSG has done quite the job making chicken salad out of chicken, um, feathers. And they’re now acting like the Oakland-soon-to-be-Las Vegas A’s. A big-market team with a small-market mindset. There have been no signings of significance or trades of note for the roster.

So, if you must, go and enjoy your $15 beers and soggy Fenway Franks in those smallish seats that face the wrong way … pay big bucks to park after fighting that traffic … buy your pink hats and ski caps (or worse yet, those ugly yellow-and-blue jerseys) and sing “Sweet Caroline” until you make Neil Diamond wish he’d never written that song.

The Fan Cost Index still has Boston as the most expensive game-day experience in baseball. So, nope, not gonna do it. Not me, not this year. Ownership insists the Red Sox are the cornerstone of their sports holdings. They need to prove they are, instead of a gravestone.

Here’s your out, Mr. Henry, Mr. Werner. Go make your $$$ on Liverpool, or F1, or the Pittsburgh Penguins. You’re losing the soul of New England through your actions, and you’re losing fans who don’t care about "the experience" at Fenway.

Even the Orioles have turned it around. The Sox have been out-Baltimored. And more fans of visiting teams will invade your beloved ballpark.

It’s gonna happen … just like hope springs eternal.

I’ll have “Greatest sports tales ever told” for $1,000, Ken.

And the answer is: “We want to get back. Forget the championships of the past. We need to focus on what’s in front of us, and we want to get that feeling — our fans deserve that, so we’re going to have to do what it takes to get there, and that’s what we’re committed to do.” — Sam Kennedy, Red Sox president, October 2023.

Not wowed by the Baseball Hall of Fame voting. Congrats to the winners, including the one-time, one-year Red Sox resident Adrian Beltre. But with all of baseball’s involvement today with gambling entities, Pete Rose needs to be in Cooperstown, too. It’s time.

• My buddy “Big E” says maybe if we start calling the brain an “app,” people will use it.

• X post of the Week I, from @DanKelley66: “5 defunct franchises won an NFL championship: Akron Pros, Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Bulldogs, Frankford Yellow Jackets & Providence Steam Roller. 9 current franchises haven’t: Bengals, Bills, Chargers, Falcons, Jaguars, Texans, Titans, Panthers & Vikings.”

• ICYMI, the Providence Steam Roller reigned supreme over the NFL 96 seasons ago, in 1928. They are the last team not currently in the NFL to have won a championship.

It is true — the Detroit Lions haven’t won, or even participated in, a Super Bowl. Their last NFL title was won in 1957 (they’ve won four), about the time Sputnik became a satellite, but before the Patriots and the Super Bowl were even a thing.

The Steam Roller played their games at the 10,000-seat Cycledrome, located where the current Peter Pan Bus Terminal north of downtown is located, and built in 1925 when the team joined the NFL. The original field location of Kinsley Park was at Kinsley Avenue and Acorn Street.

Originally built for bicycle racing (a velodrome), the Steam Roller played their games on the infield, and hosted the NFL’s very first night game in 1930 (Monday Night Football wouldn’t come along for 40 more years) when floodlights were installed.

The opponent in that game? The Chicago (now Arizona, by way of St. Louis) Cardinals.

The other “first” for the Steam Roller was playing four games in six days during the 1929 season. Providence went 0-3-1 in that week. Maybe that’s where Bill Belichick went wrong with the whole “No Days Off” thing. Too soon for age jokes?

Wait, what? Bicycle racing was a thing 100 years ago? And the general manager for each season the Steam Roller played was a guy named Pearce Johnson, who was also a part-time writer at The Providence Journal.

Hey, Patriots? I’m available if ya’ wanna go back to the future … and consider me for the current opening.

• X post of the Week II, from @PatrickPass35 on Mike Tomlin being retained in Pittsburgh: “He’s won 3 playoff games since 2011 and gets extended. Belichick won 3 Super Bowls since 2014 and gets pushed out the door.”

• DeMarcus Covington, who has been coaching the Patriots'defensive line, would be a solid choice at defensive coordinator for new head coach Jerod Mayo. If you’re really going to "turn the page" from old school to new school, the young and talented need the opporunities to prove themselves.

• Patriots receiver Kayshon Boutte might have blown his chance to stick around — not just with New England but in the NFL — thanks to his arrest this week on illegal gambling charges in Louisiana as a collegian. Wanna bet on it?

•Get used to the whole “peacock flap.” More streaming services are moving into sports, and there may not be any going back. Netflix this week made its big move with a 10-year deal to show WWE’s "Monday Night Raw," beginning next year.

•X post of the Week III, from @JonRothstein: “The Big East, in a lot of ways, is like free pizza at 11 o’clock, you can’t get enough of it.”

• Anybody heard that this guy Ed Cooley is coming back to Providence this weekend? To coach basketball for Georgetown?

• Have the Friars truly reinvented themselves following Bryce Hopkins’ knee injury? Now’s the time to show it — and for the NCAA Tournament selection committee to know it.

• The Seton Hall game Wednesday proved one thing for this Providence team — they have intestinal fortitude. Grit and guts. Two necessary qualities to get where they once hoped to go this season. But taking care of the ball and rebounding are must-have traits.

• UConn remains the top-ranked team in the nation, as they have now climbed to the top of the ladder in a rugged Big East. Has it ever been more clear — the Huskies needed the league, not the other way around?

•TWITBE (This Week in the Big East) Episode 3 will feature UConn’s Dan Hurley, Georgetown’s Jayden Epps and the 50-year Voice of the Hoyas, Rich Chvotkin. Find us on your favorite pod site or live on a Westwood One affiliate; Sirius 160, XM 201, Online 964 Saturday at noon, and online anytime at bigeast.com.

• It has been a largely underwhelming season for younger players (freshmen) in the Big East, thanks to the emphasis on older players and the transfer portal. But one of those beginning to show he belongs is PC’s Rich Barron, who earned Big East Rookie of the Week for his game in Chicago against DePaul — in front of about 100 family and friends, or two-thirds of the total attendance in the stands.

Which is certainly one of the reasons why DePaul made the rare, in-season move to dismiss coach Tony Stubblefield this week. Can’t win? Can’t draw crowds, can’t raise NIL money, can’t do much these days. The pressure to have success is as strong as it has ever been.

•Bryant’s Earl Timberlake seems to have found his niche in Smithfield. He won his third America East Player of the Week honor this week, and the Bulldogs are hosting perennial America East bully Vermont Saturday afternoon in a first-place tussle.

•Rhody? Wherefore art thou, Rhody? Deny thy fans and refuse thy game … means three straight defeats crushing all the same.

•ICYMI, Part II: Last year’s Northeast Amateur golf champ, Alabama’s Nick Dunlap, became the first amateur golfer to win on the PGA Tour in 33 years this past week. He can’t claim the $1.5-million purse because he’s an amateur/college kid.

•The news this week of Sports Illustrated laying off almost all of its staff wasn’t just a shock — it was a reminder that the industry of reporting, journalism and creating content continues to change, often not for the better. I was a 45-year subscriber myself.

•It’s up to all of us, somehow, to keep “truth” relevant today. Tightwads who think they run things will always come and go — but the truth will always be the truth. Won’t it?

Interested in having your questions on Rhode Island sports (and yes, that includes the Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics) answered in a somewhat timely fashion? Think out loud and send your questions, comments and local stories to jrbroadcaster@gmail.com. We’ll share mailbag comments/Facebook posts/threads right here! Join me on Twitter/X, @JRbroadcaster, on Facebook, www.facebook.com/john.rooke, and on Instagram and Threads @JRbroadcaster.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: John Rooke says it's time the Red Sox owners sell the team