It is "clear" that Fenway Sports Group's involvement with EPL club Liverpool and Roush Fenway Racing, along with Heat F LeBron James, "are as important as the Red Sox,” according to Dan Shaughnessy of the BOSTON GLOBE. For FSG co-Chair and Red Sox Owner John Henry, the London Games “were more important than being here for the trading deadline.” That does not make him “a bad guy, but it indicates the Sox are not as important to the owner as they once were.” Henry said, “Our commitment to winning is unabated. That is our focus. We continue to have the 2nd highest payroll among the 30 clubs. We have been at this for more than 10 years in Boston, and winning is just as much our focus today as it was when we took over.” Shaughnessy wrote the Red Sox are in the top-three in MLB payroll, "because of bad decisions regarding pre-existing contracts. Henry on Monday issued a “vote of confidence for his beleaguered manager” Bobby Valentine. But his proclamation “did not stop with the backing of the manager.” Henry said, “The notion that we are not present and attending games is misleading to the public. [FSG co-Chair Tom Werner, Red Sox President & CEO Larry Lucchino] and I seldom miss a telecast when on the road if we aren’t there.” Shaughnessy wrote it is “little comfort for Red Sox fans to be told that Boston’s ownership trio ‘seldom misses a telecast.’" Bruins Owner Jeremy Jacobs "always told us he watched the Bruins on TV when he was home in Buffalo" (BOSTON GLOBE, 8/7).
HARD SELL? In Boston, Eric Wilbur wrote, “Time to sell. … It’s clear as Windex that the Red Sox are no longer John Henry’s priority." Wilbur: The disaster that the Red Sox have eventually become as a franchise, a brand growing more unlikeable by the day, is on Henry's hands. And it needs to end.” Wilbur wrote, “Sell the team, John. It will make you lots of cash. We know you care about that at least. It was nice when you could say the same about your baseball team” (BOSTON.com, 8/7).
