Written By Barry M. Bloom at MLB.com
The job of managing the Red Sox is a beast of its own. No matter how well that man has done, it’s very much a “what are you doing for me now?” position. John Farrell certainly has been hearing all the moaning and groaning this season.
For the naysayers in Red Sox Nation and the local media, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski had this to say Tuesday night before his club took on the Orioles at Camden Yards:
“He’s done a great job. We’re in a pennant race. I didn’t know there was a problem.”
In other words, leave him alone. Farrell needs support, not derision.
Farrell led the Red Sox to victory over the Cardinals in the 2013 World Series and last winter survived a tough bout with cancer of the blood system called Burkitt lymphoma. It’s a form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma that starts in the B-cells and attacks the immune system.
Farrell, now 54, underwent six months of chemotherapy this past offseason in a period of just seven weeks. To accomplish that, the debilitating treatment was administered three times a week for 12 hours a session. He endured it so he could be healthy enough to manage the Red Sox this season.
As any cancer survivor knows, chemo is enough poison to eradicate the cancerous cells from the body but not enough to kill the patient. And last week, he received full confirmation that the path to recovery has so far been successful. His latest blood tests came back negative.
“Nice and clean,” said Farrell, who goes in for his next tests in November.
How did Farrell get through it?
“I don’t know,” he said. “All I know is that I’m better for it.”
Farrell is a good baseball man committed to return to the helm in Boston. Now everyone should give him the benefit of the doubt.
The Red Sox are in the thick of it again in the American League East with 44 games to go after back-to-back last-place finishes. Farrell has had to shuffle the starting rotation and overcome numerous injuries. David Price at the front end of the pitching staff and Craig Kimbrel at the rear haven’t nearly been at their best.
In just about every game, there are moves to question and complaints to lodge. But that’s really not the measure of this man. He is a person of incredible character.
“We’re always trying to make an assessment of where we are,” Farrell said. “The best way I can say it is that there’s a real reason why they pop champagne when this is over. Because it isn’t easy, and we’re in the thick of it. And that’s what we want to sign up for every year — be in the hunt, be in the race. Hopefully [at the end] we’ll be dumping champagne.”
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