Red Sox pitcher Garrett Richards is battling through MLB’s crack down on substances. (Photo by Billie Weiss/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

By BUNKY McCOY

Remember when Garrett Richards was touted as a great free agent signing by Red Sox
baseball boss Chaim Bloom?
What a difference a few weeks make.
As quickly as Major League Baseball pulled the plug on Spider Tack and other substances that
supposedly tipped the scales in the pitchers’ favor, Richards fell from a stabilizing force to
a wet blanket and someone the Red Sox may need to make a call on sooner rather than later.
Little Bo Peep didn’t lose her sheep as quickly. It took a little bit of time for the Wicked Witch of
the West to melt. Stella didn’t lose her groove in the same unraveling fashion as Richards has
when it comes to getting outs.
The 63-mph curveball he allegedly threw last week against the Royals tells us that
Richards has been stripped of his spin-rate prowess – like Superman whenever he’s around
kryptonite.
Granted, Richards is far from the only pitcher that’s needed to figure it out on the fly after
MLB’s sticky-stuff crackdown. Whatever the case, Richards better have a heart-to-heart with
the baseball gods and fast. For the Fourth of July is coming up and the Red Sox are doing their
part to make sure we care about them this summer.

• In case you missed it, the Red Sox are 6-0 against the Yankees this season.

• Speaking of the Bronx Bombers, they now sit in fourth place in the AL East. All that money?
For what?

• You know someone with a Bronx work address would have lost their job if Boss Steinbrenner
was still alive.

• There’s no truth to the rumor that the Red Sox asked Dustin Pedroia to give back some of his
salary prior to last Friday’s ceremony at Fenway Park. Between 2018 & 2019, Pedroia appeared
in nine games for Boston. Between those two seasons, he pocketed a cool $31 million.

• LINE OF THE WEEK comes from the introductory press conference of new Celtics head coach
Ime Udoka, who basically threw Brad Stevens under the bus when he said the following: “Sorry
to mention this, Brad, but 27th in assists last year, we want to have more team basketball
there.”

• Memo to Udoka: getting Jayson Tatum to pass more is no easy task.

• QUIZ OF THE WEEK: Since Ted Williams won two MVP awards in the 1940s, seven Red Sox
players have won the MVP. How many can you name? (Answer near the bottom of the
column.)

• Is there a reason why the Red Sox keep sending Danny Santana and his .151 batting average
out there?

• Then again, Santana would probably have no problem fitting in with the General Assembly. They specialize in Dead Weight.

• You know the dog days of summer truly here when WPRO sports talk show guru Kevin
McNamara is tweeting out that he’s watching soccer.

• It’s been a while where a sports moment has captivated me, yet those eight playoff holes that
Harris English needed in order to decide last weekend’s Travelers Championship was time well
spent in front of the TV.

• The Canadiens better figure it out and fast. Otherwise, Canada’s near-three-decade-long
drought of winning the Stanley Cup will continue.

• QUIZ ANSWER: Jackie Jensen, Carl Yastrzemski, Fred Lynn, Jim Rice, Roger Clemens, Mo
Vaughn, Dustin Pedroia and Mookie Betts.

• Summertime traffic is no one’s friend.

• Nothing is more annoying than reading two-day old news in a daily newspaper.

• RIP Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense for two presidents. He was 88.

• This column would have been longer, but per the recommendation of my good buddy KMac,
I’m going to give this soccer thing a try. Can’t wait for the day when he and his co-pilot
at WPRO Brett `Rooch’ Ferruccio break down the 2022 World Cup.