El Guapo's Ghost Rambles on about the Red Sox

BEING KEITH FOULKE

"When everything is peachy and going well, sometimes success allows you to deal with things a little easier," said Foulke, who is 5-5 with 15 saves and a 6.18 ERA in a season in which he also missed 50 games because of the surgery. "But after a while you get tired of hearing everybody's opinion on what you're doing wrong."

Foulke should have expected this type of attention. During his Boston courtship, we gave him a loud round of applause at a Celtics game, but put yourself in his shoes, I tried and it goes something like this…

8:00 a.m. – I leave my apartment and run into a neighbor in the parking lot. She says, “Saw your memo on the proposed lease renewal and it sucked. As it is written now, we could be relocated without warning to stab and kill Detroit!” I smile, wave and drive off.

8:15 – I stop for coffee while being rung up, the counter person says, “Did your five-year sales forecast incorporate a population influx into the surrounding counties? I ask because the projection looks a little off, which limits the usefulness of the entire proposal.” I politely say thanks.

8:30 – Noon – I sit in my cube trying to work as co-workers come by every now and then telling me to keep my chin up.

12:15 – Decide on pizza delivery for lunch to escape further comments on job performance that lunch at Hooters would certainly occur. I do love their wings.

1:00 – After paying for the pie, the delivery guy demonstrates a better way to auto-fill in Excel. Everyone is a critic. Note to self: brown bag it from here on out.

2:00 – The regular meeting with EPA officials and they ask again about our greenhouse gas levels. At this point, I say, “We are big polluters, but we are legally buying our way out of complying with federal standards. We purchased plenty of greenhouse gas credits!” After that outburst, I’ve been reassigned to eight hours of data entry.

If I had to deal with this type of scrutiny, I would be a little testy too, but some of it (i.e. EEI gig) was avoidable. Plus, you can always pull a Pedro or Manny and not speak with the press, and you can move to the ‘burbs today. But I could careless about your PR skills; I want the 2004 Foulke back ASAP.