It appears the Doug Mirabelli era in Boston is over, once and for all. That’s right, baseball fans, it appears the Red Sox have finally – FINALLY – come to their senses and sent the surly pantload packing. Were he just a backup catcher like your typical journeyman backup catcher who plays 20-30 games a year to give the starting catcher an occasional breather, it would be one thing, but relying on him to catch knuckleballer Tim Wakefield every five starts was giving him WAY too much exposure.

And, I might add – with all due respect to Wakefield – WAY too much respect.

Consider this: not only could anyone’s grandmother swing a bat better than Mirabelli ever could, but, looking back, it’s simply unfathomable that the Sox actually gave up on a young and talented catching prospect, Josh Bard, simply because Bard had trouble handling Timmy’s flutterballs. And to add insult to injury, the Sox actually traded Bard to San Diego to get Mirabelli back – thereby giving Sox fans the unique privilege of watching Mirabelli strike out three times on nine pitches every fifth day or so, regardless of who the opponents were.

The Padres GM Kevin Towers had it right, calling Mirabelli a “cancer” in the Padres clubhouse and swearing the SP would never be allowed to squeeze his fat ass into a Padres uniform again as long as Towers was GM. It’s unfortunate that it took the Sox this long to realize the same thing.