Leave all the legitimate reasons that Jacoby Ellsbury should be starting in center field aside. Don’t think about his superior offense, his need for at bats, or the fact that Crisp is trade bait walking. Don’t think about it. Don’t think about Crisp’s anemic on base percentage either.

Tonight the Red Sox have the perfect opportunity to make a decision based on their new dogma, Marketing. Why is this night different from any other night? Wait for it… it’s Native American Night at Fenway. Yes Jerry Phlemy has informed his loyal accolytes that tonight the Red Sox are honoring Native Americans and they’ve got their own version of a reservation for their own Native American – The Bench.

If they’re not working off of stats or baseball insight, and they’re not working off of marketing, what in the hell are they thinking? Could someone explain this to me?

Go ahead and say Coco’s defense… See if you can do it with a straight face.

Considering the litany of inane talking heads in the world of sports commentary and the general level of discourse (enough for a toddler to drown in, but seemingly not much more), I figure I may as well add my own thoughts to the Barry Bonds imbroglio.

Here’s my suggestion for how we as baseball fans should react when he hits No. 756:

Stop calling him Barry. If he’s taking a beloved record by dubious means, why should we even call him by name.

Now, what should we use instead? How about:

*

Let him and everyone else know that in our minds, Hank Aaron is still the king of the longball. For those of you who say that nothing has been proven, you’re right. He deserves all the due process that our legal system provides… as far as the alleged criminal activities are concerned.

But based on his silence in response to the countless allegations of cheating, in my opinion, he deserves to be shamed.

It’d be great to see this (a giant lone asterisk) on fan’s signs around the ballpark as he hits the last one out, but that’s probably wishful thinking.

I really hadn’t intended this to be a baseball blog or even a sports blog, and that intent remains. Still…

On a night where the Sox took a second straight game from the Indians

The Yankees drop to 14.5 games back when their only consistent pitcher on the season has home plate stolen out from under him

and The Mets pull a come from behind twelfth-inning win from the Giants on not one but TWO balks from Armando Benitez and a subsequent walkoff homerun from Carlos Delgado (his second of the game).

Life is Good. Much more to come. – reub