Some closers get little or no press when they blow it--the angry mob saves their bile for weeks' long romps against only 1

Here are 2 different headlines about the same Red Sox story tonight: First, the AP story on The Sporting News website:

• "A's RALLY AS PAPELBON BLOWS SAVE" here

Next, the same AP story appearing on Newsday's AP wire website:

• "JOHNSON, A's, STOP SURGING RED SOX IN 10" here

The story itself does not mention Papelbon giving up the 2 run homer until the 3rd paragraph. Interesting how differently the baseball media reports closers' performances. If you're one of the luckier closers, your bad performances are kept out of the headlines, as you see above. The story itself was written by my guy Howard Ulman. I don't know who wrote the headlines.

• ***At 12:30 AM, 5/02/07, neither the story nor the headline about Papelbon, nor any mention of the Red Sox game--appears in the NY Times' listing of AP Sports Headlines going back 18 hours. Some people are lucky, I guess.

Then, the Boston Herald just writes it off to "the back end of the bullpen." Meaning, when their closer succeeds, he alone is responsible and a star. When he fails, he's just one of a group, not enough for separate headline or billing.

• "Sox Bullpen Lets One Slip: Papelbon, Donnelly Imperfect," by Jeff Horrigan

"Over the first month of the season, nothing was as dependable for the Red Sox [team stats] as the back end of their bullpen. Closer Jonathan Papelbon [stats] and set-up men Hideki Okajima [stats] and Brendan Donnelly combined to allow only one run on eight hits in 28 innings for a 0.32 ERA, while striking out 37. Last night, however, two of the three faltered for the first time this season, sending the Sox to a disappointing, 5-4 loss in 10 innings to the Oakland Athletics at Fenway Park [map]. Papelbon, perfect in April save opportunities during his two seasons as Red Sox closer (18-for-18, including 8-for-9 last month), blew Curt Schilling [stats]’s 4-2 lead in the ninth inning by allowing a two-run home run to Travis Buck. Donnelly (0-1) then saw his personal, nine-game winning streak come to an end in the 10th. (He) gave up a leadoff double to the left-center field gap to Mike Piazza. Dan Johnson knocked in Piazza by punching a double down the right field line." (etc.)

• (To further diffuse the situation, the photo at the top of the article is of Curt Schilling after one of his pitches was called a ball. Must be nice to have an empathetic press).

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