The Movie:

The 2011 Major League Baseball season was full of highlights and lowlights, and for two teams in particular, the season was especially painful. The Atlanta Braves and the Boston Red Sox both held presumably commanding leads and inside tracks to postseason appearances in the playoffs, only to blow leads of eight and nine games in September to find themselves golfing at home and watching baseball on TV. The Braves’ elimination might (and possibly should) be the more painful of the two, seeing as how the Red Sox (and Boston sports in general) have enjoyed a victory lap of unprecedented levels. Combined with the Boston Bruins’ Stanley Cup win, the Sox can take solace in their two World Series wins in the last seven years, especially with the help of Fall Classic at Fenway Park

The disc’s premise is very simple: Major League Baseball does official films that highlight and celebrate each team’s win in the Fall Classic, with the films usually being narrated by a famous fan. With the 2004 disc, Denis Leary (Rescue Me) got the nod, while Matt Damon (The Bourne Trilogy) handled voiceover for the 2007 installment. Each of the films follows the same style, with the first fifth or so of the feature looking at the regular season, with the rest covering the postseason and World Series games. The films themselves are fun and brief retrospectives on the Red Sox’ triumphs, clocking in at 1:31:21 and 1:12:03 respectively for the 2004 and 2007 films. Featuring a mix of highlights and a mix of interviews with the key players in the series and on-field microphone episodes, it does suck you into the drama of watching the Sox play out each postseason, even if you know what happened. In fact, with both World Series ending in four-game sweeps (’04 over St. Louis, ’07 over Colorado), the fact that the filmmakers were able to accomplish this suspense from anticlimax is commendable.

This isn’t to say neither accomplishment was boring: the 2004 American League Championship Series has become downright legendary already in a short amount of time. The Yankees had taken a three games to zero series lead, culminating in a 19-8 curb stomping of the Sox at Fenway Park. The Sox, who didn’t lower their heads in depression, rallied to win Game 4 6-4 behind an extra-innings home run from David Ortiz, and Ortiz returned to nearly duplicate his feat with a base hit in the fourteenth inning in Game 5. Game 6 brought us Curt Schilling and his heroic pitching performance on a bloody right ankle, willing the Sox to win 4-2, and in the decisive Game 7, Boston scored six runs in the first two innings, and the Yankees never had a chance afterwards, losing the game 10-3 and the Sox handing the tag of “chokers” over to the Yankees on their home turf. The road to the ’07 Series was just as dramatic yet goes virtually ignored, largely due to the win over the Yankees. The Red Sox were down three games to one against Cleveland and steamrolled them in the next three games to win that Series, disposing over Colorado in relatively easy fashion.

Throughout the films, Leary and Damon’s controlled enthusiasm for their home teams is commendable, though they do get a chance to toss in a moment of familiarity (and in Damon’s case, a clip of high watching a game at Fenway during the ’04 campaign). Moreover, the film footage itself is entertaining to revisit, if nothing else to see if any of the same fans who celebrated then are fretting now. Sox fans may be wondering what could have been if they limped into the 2011 playoffs, but the magic could not likely have been matched by what transpired in both ’04 and ’07, and Fall Classic helps the Boston baseball supporter relive that joy once again.

The Blu-ray Disc:
The Video:

Both films are presented in 1.78:1 widescreen and use the AVC codec . I have seen parts of both films in high-definition on sports channels in the past and when looking at both now, I’m reminded of how solid they look. Flesh tones are accurate and the disc has several different types of media in it, including handheld cameras, original game broadcasts and interviews adeptly. Colors are reproduced naturally and the films both look good on Blu-ray, being faithful reproductions of the original material.

The Sound:

DTS-HD Master Audio two-channel lossless for both films. Honestly there isn’t that much to be worked up over when watching either portion. The action sounds clear from the front of the soundstage and sounds clear without any channel panning or directional effects. Subwoofer engagement was flirted with though ultimately was fruitless. Both films juggle a variety of sound sources (TV and radio) rather easily and without issue, and the result is straightforward listening material.

Extras:

Extra footage is available for both films, with the 2004 feature (24:20) having a bit less film than the 2007 version (37:20). Each include the same general highlights, such as the clinching of the American League division and League titles, and some key moments that were part of the run, along with celebration footage in the locker room following each Series win. A nice, albeit brief, complement to the disc.

Final Thoughts:

I’m doubting the city of Boston is adding the 2011 collapse onto the mythology, considering their recent success in all of the major sports, but Fall Classic at Fenway Park is a nice consolation prize to help take the sting out of things. Technically the disc is fine and from an extras perspective is about as close to the same, and this should help warm the cockles of any Bosox fan during the coming winter months while a new team hoists the World Series trophy.

Posted: October 9
Updated: Today at 9:59 PM

Morning Sentinel Staff

In 2003, the Boston Red Sox fired Grady Little.

In 2011, Red Sox did not pick up the options on manager Terry Francona’s contract.

Was there a difference?

Yes and no.

Despite the wording and spin, the Red Sox got rid of Francona just as they did with Little.

But this was not a case of perceived incompetence, as it was in 2003, but of deteriorating effectiveness.

Fair? Absolutely not. But when is baseball ever a matter of justice? If it were so, then John Lackey would be fired, and Carl Crawford would experience a pay cut.

Francona is a superb manager. The fact that ownership thinks it can do better puts the pressure on them.

• Who will Boston hire to replace Francona? Several names have surfaced.

The following four, currently on other teams’ coaching staffs, could be four frontrunners:

Trey Hillman, 48, Dodgers: Has managed the Kansas City Royals (2008-10) and was a minor league manager in the Yankees system. Was Director of Player Development with the Rangers. Was a middle infielder in the Indians organization, but never reached the majors.

Tony Pena, 54, Yankees: Has also managed the Royals (2002-05), and has been with the Yankees the past six years, the last three as bench coach. Played in the majors for 18 years, a five-time All-Star catcher..

Pete Mackanin, 60, Phillies: A bench coach with the Phillies since 2009, Mackanin has also been interim manager for both the Reds and the Pirates. Has been a bench coach, third base coach, scout and minor league manager. Was an major league infielder for four clubs over nine years.

Dave Martinez, 47, Rays: Has been with the Rays the past six years, the last four as bench coach. Played outfield and first base in the majors for for eight different teams over 16 years.

Hillman and Pena make the most sense since they have managed over a number of years. Hillman has the resume bonus of being a player development director — something the Red Sox will be attracted to. Some may be concerned about his lack of major league playing experience, but he is a respected baseball man.

• Ron Johnson was fired by Boston this past week, ending a 12-year relationship with the Red Sox, which included two seasons as the Portland Sea Dogs manager, 2003-04.

Johnson, 55, moved on from Portland to manager Triple-A Pawtucket for five years. When it appeared that he might become a minor league lifer, the Red Sox hired him as the first base coach.

No reason was given for Johnson’s dismissal, but Johnson confirmed it with the media.

“Obviously, I’m disappointed,” Johnson told csnne.com. “I always considered myself a Red Sox for life ?But that’s baseball and things happen, and it’s time to start a new chapter.”

• The Arizona Fall League is only a couple of days old, and at least one Sea Dogs pitcher is hoping for better times.

Jeremy Kehrt, a reliever for the Scottsdale Scorpions, entered in the sixth inning of Wednesday night’s season opener.

The first three batters he faced all homered.

Kehrt was relieved with two outs in the inning.

Earlier in the game, Brock Huntzinger pitched two innings of relief. He gave up one run (on a wild pitch) and struck out four.

Caleb Clay and Will Latimer both pitched one inning on Thursday, giving up one hit apiece.

Offensively, four players with Sea Dogs connections are playing. Outfielder Alex Hassan, third baseman Will Middlebrooks and catcher Dan Butler each have one hit. Infielder Ryan Dent subbed in one game.

The Boston Red Sox completed their September of embarrassments by firing manager Terry Francona.

They’re a private company and can do whatever they want even though Francona, ever the good soldier, said it was his decision to leave.

Draw your own conclusions, but we think his “decision” was a case of “constructive discharge.” That’s lawyer talk for fired.

One truth remains clear: Francona deserved better.

This is the guy who won two World Championships during his eight-year tenure with the team, succeeding in a multiple-tiered, difficult process – in competition with 29 other major league clubs in both leagues each year.

And look at his winning percentage. Besides winning the World Series in 2004 and 2007, Francona’s win percentage was .529, the second highest in franchise history.

It wasn’t his fault that players got hurt and underperformed this year, or that some of the overpaid stars the front-office types brought in this year did less well than some of the overpaid stars they lost to other clubs.

Besides, Francona was an articulate, civilized and humane spokesperson for the Red Sox and the entire Massachusetts philanthropic community.

And let’s not forget that it was Tito and “his band of idiots” that brought the World Series trophy to Boston after an 86-year drought.

Getting rid of the manager whose leadership helped transform the Sox from perennial losers into a team to be reckoned with was bush league – the type of dumb move that isn’t exclusive to the Red Sox, however. The New York Yankees did the same thing to Joe Torre in 2007 when his players failed to measure up to their hype.

In this instance, being in the same league as the Yankees is far from a point of pride.

In case you missed it, here are the results of our paper’s reader poll on the best baseball movie of all-time.

We’ve seen over the past week just how demanding it can be to work in the Boston baseball marketplace. Terry Francona could have managed his team to a third World Series title this year had a few things bounced his way.

Instead, he’s now out of a job. GM Theo Epstein might soon leave the team as well, according to the latest reports.

Francona’s predecessor? That would be Grady Little, who came within five outs of going to the World Series in 2003, only to stick with starter Pedro Martinez a little too long in the famed Aaron Boone Game 7 of the ALCS.

Yes, the bar is raised pretty high in Beantown.

The folks in Boston are speculating about who will take over for Francona. It’s a lot like the New York speculation about how it’s inevitable any player in the top 10 percentile of league talent will make his way to the Yankees via free agency or forcing a trade.

You have guys like Joe Maddon being mentioned. The same Maddon whose Tampa Bay team looks like a favorite to advance to the World Series this year. Why would he go to Boston, again? Oh yeah, because it’s Boston. Or, so the thinking goes.

Eric Wedge, you might notice, is on the list as well. Is he going to go all Lane Kiffin on the Mariners after only one season? That’s highly doubtful. In fact, it’s not going to happen. Wedge has built a reputation as a lunchpail work ethic type of guy who finishes what he starts. If he bolted now, just one season into another complete teardown/rebuild of the Mariners, he’d be exposed as one of the bigger frauds of all-time.

Photo Credit: AP

That’s not going to happen. So, sleep easy. If any onetime M’s manager is going to take over the Red Sox, it’ll be Don Wakamatsu. But again, that might not happen. Wakamatsu’s handling of the whole Ken Griffey Jr. situation and his clubhouse’s descent into anarchy in 2010 in Seattle will likely be held against him.

If Red Sox pitchers really are drinking beer in the clubhouse on non-pitching days, that team will need more of a Jim Riggleman type of iron fist. Too bad Riggleman’s strong-willed ways will likely be held against him as well.

But the Red Sox need a warden, not a teacher, right now. That’s why tough guy/teacher Wedge is being mentioned (he’d let Boston have it both ways, clamping down first, then “teaching”). Again, it won’t happen. Red Sox or not, people aren’t going to throw away their reputations to go work in Boston. This isn’t college football, where teams can bribe coaches away with money piles. Kiffin got $4 million per year to leave Tennessee for USC after only one year and very little on his coaching resume other than scandal.

That’s about the same annual money Joe Torre got to go to the Los Angeles Dodgers after being one of the most successful managers of all-time with the Yankees.

Wedge is no Torre. The money won’t be good enough to make him consider destroying his image west of the Ohio River.

Sleep tight.

The demise of the Boston Red Sox had a very familiar ending Wednesday.

When the Red Sox lose, they don’t do it the conventional way. They do it in style. They make it excruciatingly painful for their ardent fans to digest.

In the aftermath, the players have to learn to make themselves accountable for the team’s hardships.

Multi-million dollar slugger Adrian Gonzalez reportedly stated the team’s late season woes were the result of a string of critical injuries.

For Gonzalez to make such a statement, even in the wake of a gut-wrenching loss, is an absolute disgrace.

Every team has injuries. It’s part of the game. Gonzalez needs to look at himself in the mirror. Sure, his numbers look extraordinary, but he repeatedly came up small in the clutch.

Simply put, the Red Sox choked, and Gonzalez needs to be man enough to step up and admit it.

I’ve been a die-hard Red Sox fan since 1968. I’ve seen all the failures unfold from one season to the next.

I remember the Sox losing the American League East Division title to the Tigers in the strike-abbreviated 1972 season.

I remember the sad and sorrowful fall of the 1974 team, which led the Orioles by eight games in late August before folding. 

And I won’t even get into what went down in 1978, 1986 and 2003.

Wednesday’s loss hurt me just as much as all the rest, but in a different kind of way. It wasn’t about me feeling sorry for myself. This team has broken my heart so many times that my body is immune to it.

It was about my 10-year old nephew, Zachary, a hard-core Red Sox fan who lives and dies with every pitch from April till October.

It ‘s painful for me to think of the wide range of emotions he went through Wednesday night. One minute  he was jumping  for joy with the Red Sox clinging to a 3-2 lead and Tampa Bay losing 7-0 to the Yankees in the eighth inning.

A short while later he was crying his eyes out when a night with so much promise had such a horrific ending.

I got a guilty conscience when I realized I’m responsible for funneling Zachary into Red Sox Nation, thus subjecting him to a lifetime of heartache and misery.

Why? Because being a Red Sox fan is like smoking cigarettes — once you’re addicted it’s hard  to quit.

The Red Sox have self-destructed many times, but  this one takes the cake.

Finally, the 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers and 1964 Philadelphia Phillies can rest easy.

The 2011 Red Sox just pulled off baseball’s biggest collapse — EVER!  

TORONTO — Ricky Romero reversed a string of rotten results against the Boston Red Sox.

Romero won for the seventh time in nine starts, J.P. Arencibia hit a three-run homer and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Red Sox 7-4 on Thursday night, Boston’s seventh defeat in 10 games.

“The one thing Ricky does, he doesn’t leave anything on the field,” Blue Jays manager John Farrell said. “He gives his all every single time he walks to the mound, and when you go up against opponents like tonight, you have to be at your best.”

Romero (14-10) came in 2-6 with an 8.08 ERA in 11 career starts against the Red Sox, including an 0-3 record and 10.62 ERA in five home starts. But the left-hander turned his luck around in this one, allowing three runs and five hits in 6 2-3 innings. He walked three and struck out seven.

“It feels good to beat those guys,” Romero said. “They’ve been on me for the past few years. I finally had a good outing against them and it’s definitely satisfying.”

Romero has lost just once since July 21, dropping a 6-4 decision at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 3.

“It looked like he could throw any pitch at any time in the count,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “That’s the way you pitch with success.”

Romero is 7-1 with a 2.71 ERA in his past 10 starts.

“He had good stuff, man,” slugger David Ortiz said. “He’s one of the good pitchers in the game. He wasn’t making many mistakes out there.”

Rookie David Cooper went 3 for 4 and had two RBIs as Toronto evened its record at 72-72.

“(Cooper) handled himself extremely well at the plate tonight,” Farrell said.

The Red Sox dropped to 2-6 in September and failed to gain ground on the Yankees, who lost 5-4 in 10 innings to Baltimore earlier in the day. The Red Sox are 2 1/2 games behind New York with 19 left to play.

“I don’t really get too concerned about what they’re doing,” manager Terry Francona said of the Yankees. “We try to spend our energy worrying about what we do.”

Still, catcher Jason Varitek called it “an opportunity lost,” while struggling second baseman Dustin Pedroia said the Sox need to improve.

“We’re trying to win the division,” Pedroia said. “Playing like this, it’s not going to happen, so we’ve got to play better.”

Despite the slow start to September, Ortiz hasn’t lost any confidence.

“That’s part of the game, that’s part of the long season,” Ortiz said. “We’re good at dealing with it. I’m pretty sure everybody is going to pull themselves together and fight for the rest of the season.”

Edwin Encarnacion and Eric Thames added solo shots as the Blue Jays won back-to-back games for the first time since Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 at Baltimore.

Casey Janssen replaced Romero and worked 1 1-3 innings before Frank Francisco pitched around Varitek’s leadoff homer in the ninth to finish it.

A two-out error by Kelly Johnson and a base hit by Marco Scutaro brought Pedroia to the plate as the tying run, but Francisco struck him out to end it.

Pedroia finished 0 for 5 and fanned three times. He went 1 for 20 in the series.

“He’s probably trying a little too hard,” Francona said. “He feels so much responsibility when we’re not clicking to do it by himself. That’s one of the characteristics we love about him.”

Toronto opened the scoring with four in the second against left-hander Andrew Miller (6-3). Johnson reached on an infield single, advanced to third on Brett Lawrie’s base hit to right and scored on a single by Cooper. Arencibia followed with a drive into the third deck in left, his 22nd and second in as many days.

“That one inning just really snowballed and I wasn’t able to stop it quick enough,” Miller said.

Encarnacion hit a one-out shot to right off Miller in the third, his 16th.

Miller allowed five runs and eight hits in five innings to lose his second straight start. He walked two and struck out three.

The Red Sox chased Romero with a three-run seventh. Varitek drew a one-out walk and Darnell McDonald hit a two-out single before Ellsbury scored Varitek with a double. Janssen came on and gave up a two-run single to Scutaro, then got Pedroia to ground out.

Thames homered to right off Michael Bowden in the bottom half, his 10th, and Cooper made it 7-3 with an RBI double off Felix Doubront in the eighth.

Varitek’s leadoff blast in the ninth was his 11th.

Notes: Ellsbury extended his hitting streak to 13 games. … Boston 1B Adrian Gonzalez and LF Carl Crawford got the day off. … Toronto 1B Adam Lind (right wrist) missed his second straight game but is expected to play Friday. … Toronto RHP Dustin McGowan will start against Baltimore Sunday. After more than three years out with injuries, McGowan returned to the majors Tuesday, pitching four innings of relief. … Boston RHP Tim Wakefield will start again next Tuesday. Wakefield is one win away from 200 for his career. … Toronto OF Colby Rasmus (right wrist) took batting practice Thursday and reported no pain. Rasmus has not played since Aug. 23.