LOYALTY. It's a fine virtue. But loyalty to an obstinate loser crosses that fine line into stupidity, and there's no bigger loser than Don Zimmer, this gourmand wedging his cetaceous bulk into the helmsman's chair and running the Red Sox aground. Remember Ed Brooke? He endorsed Zimmer....

The Red Sox have the best hitting team in all of baseball. The Red Sox are also in third place in the American League East, 12 1/2 games behind Baltimore and eliminated from this year's pennant race. Admittedly, the pitching is weaker than some, due in part to the refusal of the owners to buy arms and in part to the exile, at Zimmer's insistence, of Bill Lee, who now stands out among the high-powered hurlers of Montreal. Frustration is not pleasant. Someone's head must roll, and Zimmer's, one might surmise, would roll quite nicely.