No, I am not even talking about the Mike Lowell deal (which is not official, yet). 

Yesterday, when I got home from work around 3pm, this email was sitting in my inbox:

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Everyone, 

I
know this is extremely late notice but the Red Sox have just invited all ARAMARK
employees to come on down to the yard sale today.  You can enter through Gate
E.  They are selling a number of different things ranging from $10-$700+. 
Please forward this along to your distribution lists if
possible.

Thanks,

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This, of course, was the first I ever heard of it.  What notice!  This would have been awesome to go to.  However, apparently, the Red Sox weren’t too keen on promoting this event.  I did a google search for “Yard Sale at Fenway Park” and didn’t really see much pertaining to 2009 except for this, a post Fenway neighborhood blog: 

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1:22 PM


Posted by
Stephen Brophy

Dear Fenway Neighbors,

Please join us for a
great opportunity to finish up (or begin!) your holiday shopping at the
Great Fenway Park Yard Sale today at Fenway Park until 5pm!

Items for sale include unique Red Sox memorabilia and one-of-a-kind items from Fenway Park.

Please enter through Gate E and let them know you’re a Fenway neighbor.

Hope to see you there!!!

Happy shopping!!
Beth Krudys

---

Interesting to find out how many people knew about this and how many people were there.  However, apparently it was quite successful because today the Red Sox have agreed to a 5 year contract with form Los Angeles of Anaheim Angel John Lackey and have made an offer of $15.5 million to Cuban defector Aroldis Chapman and are close to a deal with perennial Gold Glove outfielder Mike Cameron.

While Lackey is a quality starting pitcher who has won quite a few big games in his career, I cannot say that I am truly enamored with this signing.  This does make a strong rotation for 2010 with Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Clay Buccholz, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Tim Wakefield, and now Lackey.  However, with this contract being reported as a 5 yr / $85 million contract, you have to wonder how this signing is going to affect the Josh Beckett negotiations.  Beckett will become a free agent at the end of 2010.  Beckett will command a contract AT LEAST the length and size of Lackey’s deal.  With the Red Sox’ history of re-signing their own free agents (case in point Jason Bay right now; hence the news of an impending deal with Cameron), this has got to put up some red flags that this is Beckett’s last season in Fenway.  Besides Varitek a few years ago, I can’t really remember a premier player that the Red Sox re-signed once the player filed for free agency.  I hope this will not be the case, as Beckett still has quite a few years of top of the rotation pitching left in his career.  Time will tell.

This has not only been a busy Monday for the Red Sox, but a busy Monday baseball wide.  The big news of the day is the big Roy Halladay / Cliff Lee trade that is on the verge of being finalized.  This is a 3 team trade in which Halladay goes to Philadelphia (pending a contract extension being signed), Cliff Lee heads off to Seattle, and a bunch of prospects will go to Toronto.  This will be exciting to hear about the finalized deal.

A lot of times, the MLB “Hot Stove” season is a bit over-hyped and over-rated, but today has been an exciting day.  It has made me tune back into the MLB Network today after their rude programming where they replayed the Bucky “Bleeping” Dent game.  Gahhhhhhhh!

Go Sox!!!!