Red Sox didn’t bobble with David Ortiz decision

Say what you will about the Boston Red Sox, the team acted decisively in not distributing David Ortiz bobblehead dolls before Tuesday night’s game against the New York Yankees.

Ortiz, who announced before the season that this would be his last, long ago earned a spot on the Red Sox’ version of Mount Rushmore for his clutch hitting, leadership and outsized personality. His iconic status was further solidified by the fact that he is the only player to have played on the 2004, 2007 and 2013 championship teams.

So when the team announced it would give away 15,000 Ortiz bobblehead dolls, fans took notice and were looking forward to it.

It’s understandable, then, that they were disappointed when team president Sam Kennedy announced five hours before the game that the dolls would not be handed out.

Kennedy said they didn’t look much like Ortiz and he thought they were racially insensitive.

Some commentators referred to them as "minstrel-y," which seemed an accurate characterization.

In a city that has long struggled with racial issues, a franchise that has had its own racial struggles made the correct decision to do right by a man of color who has helped, in at least a small way, bridge the region’s racial divide.

Playground build could
heal old wounds in Nashua

For months, a proposal by Leadership Greater Nashua to build a playground – the Legacy Playground – was hotly debated.

It was finally decided that Labine Park, near Fairgrounds Middle School on Cleveland Street, would be the location.

Most of the work will be done by a contractor, but this weekend, Aug. 13-14, is designated specifically for volunteers to come out and help assemble much of the playground equipment, plant trees, lay out wood chips and paint the bathroom house. The volunteer shifts will run from 8 a.m.-noon, and from noon- 4 p.m. on both days.

We hope a lot of those who had such strong feelings about the playground months ago will turn out to lend a hand. It’s a chance for an issue that deeply divided the community to unite it this weekend. Opportunities like that don’t happen all the time.

Here comes the story of more hurricanes in 2016

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has revised its forecast on the 2016 Atlantic hurricane season. Not surprisingly, they expect more activity than they had previously estimated.

"NOAA calls for a higher likelihood of a near-normal or above-normal season, and decreases the chance of a below-normal season to only 15 percent, from the initial outlook issued in May. The season is still expected to be the most active since 2012," the agency said in a statement.

You may remember that 2012 was the year that Hurricane Sandy ripped through the East Coast and the year before that New England was visited by Tropical Storm Irene, which caused billions of dollars in damage along the eastern seaboard.

NOAA expects 12-17 named storms and five to eight hurricanes, with as many of four of them falling into the category of major hurricanes, meaning category three or higher.

Located as we are a little inland, Nashua-area residents don’t have to worry about coastal flooding and storm surges, but neither should people ignore a tropical storm or hurricane if one comes our way.

It used to be an extreme rarity, but with two storms having hit the northeast in five years, residents can no longer take anything for granted.