Doug Mientkiewicz Comes To Town

Ah yes...hot on the heels of a bad weekend series and just when you thought that the unsavory little story about "The Ball" that ended the 2004 World Series had run its course, Doug Mientkiewicz comes to town.

Boston.com reports that Mientkiewicz has a "speech planned out" that he will deliver to the Red Sox organization while he is in Boston this week as a member of the Kansas City Royals. Mientkiewicz has promised that a Red Sox CEO will get "blasted [for what] he put me through." To help get his point across, Mientkiewicz has hired the writer who penned Bill Clinton's White House acceptance speech. Wow.

To add another bizarro twist to "The Ball" saga, the Herald reports that Keith Foulke actually asked Mientkiewicz for the ball and was refused:

"It was, I reckon, the day after the World Series, after we got back, and I blatantly asked (Mientkiewicz) for the baseball and his remarks were that I didn't want any of the other baseballs, so why would I want that one," recalled Foulke. "I happened to mention, because I didn'’t know if he remembered, that it was just the one that ended the World Series and, yes, I wanted it. He said, no, he was going to put his kids through college or something like that. I don't know what else I'm going to do."

To me, if Mientkiewicz did refuse to give "The Ball" to Foulke, that is more unforgivable than his withholding it from the Red Sox organization.

We had plenty of time to ponder Johnny Damon's return to Fenway and we prepared for Pedro's homecoming for over a week, but this one sort of crept up on us. Here is my question: does Doug Mientkiewicz deserve a round of boos tonight at Fenway for withholding "The Ball" or do we just collectively drink some gin and get revenge by coming up with as many misspellings of his name as possible?

Tonight: Tim Wakefield vs. Luke Hudson 7:05/4:05 PT

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