Who cares about the clouds when we're together...

Does anyone else want to join me in a rousing rendition of "Happy Trails?" This seems to be the song of the day in Red Sox Nation. As we approach the last games of the year, it becomes clearer that we are seeing several members of the team in Red Sox uniforms for the last time. There are a couple of obvious ones- Trot Nixon, Mark Loretta. Probably Mike Timlin. Maybe Gabe Kapler. Probably Matt Clement.

Matt Clement is a sad story, really. After everyone was questioning his mental and physical toughness, it turns out that he was trying to pitch through the pain of a significantly torn rotator cuff and a torn labrum. That's real toughness. The problem now is that Clement is almost certainly a sunk cost for the Sox, and one of the costliest mistakes this front office has made. He's got zero trade value, as he's facing at least a year's worth of rehab and he's only got a year left on his contract. The Sox will eat next year's $9 million. I hope that he can come out healthy on the other end, but this is probably the last we've seen of him in Boston.

I'll miss Trot- he's one of the original Dirt Dogs, and one of the last (is he the last?) of Dan Duquette's draft guys. He might have even been drafted by Lou Gorman. He'll just not warrant re-signing. I can see him going to someplace like Pittsburgh, Colorado, or even Atlanta who could use a little outfield pop and some veteran leadership. The question for the Sox is who replaces him. There's no way in hell you're playing Wily Mo in right field at Fenway. Could you switch Manny back to right and put Wily Mo in left? Then you've got three outfielders playing at positions that aren't best for them. Wily Mo's best position is probably DH, but that's taken.

There's a lot of talk about bringing in someone like Gary Sheffield for a year or two. Alfonso Soriano, I can accept. But Sheffield? Please, please, please, don't bring in Gary Sheffield. I want to be able to cheer for the players on my favorite team. I am a totally hopeless Sox fan, but I would never cheer for Gary Sheffield. Aside from his general surliness and history of selfish behavior, I will never forget how he escaped from Milwaukee. He came up as a shortstop/third baseman, and could have been one of Milwaukee's all-time greats. But he tanked it. On purpose. He sucked on purpose so he could get out of Milwaukee, and then he admitted (or bragged about) it. Just so no one would think he was really actually lousy. Shortly thereafter he almost won a triple crown (and did win a World Series ring) with the Marlins. Thanks, Gary. Stay the hell out of Boston. On the subject of Milwaukee, I noticed that they have a season-ending series against St. Louis. Milwaukee is probably three months beyond contending, but with the Astros so close in the Central and the Cardinals nearing an epic collapse, it'll be fun to see the Brewers having some relevance in the hunt for the playoffs. I wouldn't mind them playing the spoiler. That would be good for our Brew Crew.

Topic change.

On the radio today, Curt Schilling pulled back from his comments of yesterday that hinted that he might ride off into the sunset after this season. He'll come back. The Sox will make some good moves, some big moves in the offseason, and Schilling will be back. He's still got a bunch left in the tank. It was good to see him finish the season strong, especially after his injuries this summer. Seeing him strike out that thug-in-training Delmon Young three times was a thrill. That's how major league pitching is, kid. That's how it's done.