Let’s Talk About Sox, Baby
It’s been awhile since I’ve talked about my most beloved sports team: The Boston Red Sox. But they’ve been on my mind lately. Let me tell you why:
Here we are, five games into the second half of the season, and we’re 2.5 games out of first in the AL East. And who are we trailing to? The Yankees. Just a month ago we were sitting pretty with a 5 game lead, and now, we’re holding on for dear life to the wild card? Are you kidding me?
The Sawx have the most dangerous pitching rotation in baseball, on paper. The Sawx have one of the most feared lineups in the AL, on paper. But now, as we come down the stretch of the season and no one can make excuses (“oh, it’s only April,”/”it’s a marathon, not a sprint”) everyone on the team has decided to go into some sort of slump. Or get hurt – I’m looking at you Tim Wakefield.
I understand, I know, that the Sox are prone to a swoon sometime mid-summer. It happens every year: a 10 or 12 game streak where the wheels nearly come off. Normally I can take it in stride, but this year they’re scaring me. Maybe it’s because it’s so late in the year. Maybe it’s because I have such high hopes for ’09. Maybe it’s because, of all years, this year we can not finish second behind the Yankees.
After they went out and spent half-a-billion dollars on three players, and $1.5 billion on that stupid thing they call a ballpark, I really want to see the Spankees come up short again. We need them to stay 0 for the Century. They can’t win this year, they just can’t.
Now, I’m not freaking out. I’m not one of those fans who goes nuts if we don’t win every night. I know that there are 68 games left in the season. I know that 10 of them are against the Bronx Bombers. I also know that if we don’t turn it around soon – like Friday when the Orioles come to town – this could get out of hand real fast. The Rays are only four games behind us, and we all know what they can do.
So come on guys, get it together. Let’s win some games. Let’s get back to first and show the Yanks that passion always beats payroll.
[IMG via Daylife]
