| 11 May 2010
Alright, I'm finally ready to talk some baseball.Not that I haven't been paying attention; quite the opposite actually. Because of my line of work, I find myself watching more baseball then ever before. On Monday's and Thursday's, Tuesday's and Wednesday's, not to mention the nationally televised games on Saturday and Sunday. I see more of Buster Olney and John Kruk then I do of my own family. I even hear Tim McCarver and Joe Morgan's voices in my dreams, which as you might guess, very quickly become nightmares.
But the real reason I haven't talked much baseball is that I haven't had a really good feel for my team, the Boston Red Sox.
Ok, I take that back, I do have a good feel for the Red Sox. And to quote the infamous words of former Arizona Cardinals football coach Denny Grenn, "They are who we though they were." To me, that was never a playoff team.
In my season opening podcast with my buddy Tom Finn, I made the case that I thought the Yankees would win the AL East and Tampa Bay, the wild card. When it came to the Red Sox, "pitching and defense," was a cute mantra, with many Boston fans claiming it to be the "Moneyball," of 2010.
Except as I contended, that's all well and good, except, umm, you still need to score runs to win in the regular season. You need to score when Jon Lester or John Lackey has a bad outing, or when the bullpen ruins a starters good one. You can't expect to win every game 3-1 or 2-0 or 2-1, that just isn't reality over a 162 game season.
And although the Red Sox are scoring a reasonable amount of runs early in the season (5.21 per game), there never seems to be a rhyme or reason, or any consistency to when they'll come. The Sox might get nine today, but then score four runs total the next three nights. They'll follow it up with 12 against some hopeless schmuck from Baltimore, and then go cold the next night. Watching the Red Sox, their offense really is a case of there being, "lies, damn lies and statistics."
It was with that semi-pessimistic (but ultimately realistic) outlook, that I headed to Fenway Park on Sunday night for the Sox-Yankees tilt. Truthfully, I was expecting the worst. And when I say the worst, I'm not just talking about the play on the field, but everything off of it too.
I live an hour and change from Boston, but in this technological world we live, I feel like I get as much information about my team, as anyone actually living on Yawkey Way. The early returns weren't so good.
From what my friends were telling me, things weren't pretty in Boston when it came to the Red Sox. I heard that fans and the media had turned on certain underperforming players (cough...David Ortiz...cough), and were relentless in their hounding of manager Terry Francona. That some fans had already given up on 2010. That tickets to Sox games- arguably the toughest non-NFL ticket in professional sports- were suddenly flooding the market, the way you might find a bunch of available copies of Catcher in the Rye at a used book store.
It was with this trepidation that I headed up to Boston Sunday night. For the first time in recent memory, I wasn't sure to expect.
After all that anxiousness, I've got to be honest, I was surprised by what I found. In a good way.
The atmosphere felt like any big game. This despite the team being .500 and coming off a Saturday afternoon beat down of epic proportions. Despite the fact that winds Sunday night, made the game feel like it was being played in the Yukon Territory. Despite the fact that on a Sunday night, in May, with the team struggling, fans had a ton of reason to get to the ballpark late, and leave at the first sign of trouble.
Instead, it again felt like, well, Boston before a game with the Yankees. The Cask and Flagon (One of the seven wonders of the modern drinking world) was buzzing, with oversized guys in undersized Dustin Pedroia jerseys mingling with cute girls in pink and green Boston hats. Yawkey was brimming in typical fashion, sons holding the hands of their fathers, wading through a sea of vendors selling anything and everything that they could fit a Sox logo on.
Inside Fenway, it was much the same.
I'll be the first to admit that my friends and I got into the stadium just a minute or two late, while waiting for a buddy to meet us. But as we made our way to our seats, we were the exception, not the rule, as just about everyone was seated and in mid-game, and mid-season form. The crowd was great as always, getting on their feet at any sign of trouble, and clapping twice as loudly whenever Jon Lester was about to close the door on a potential Yankees rally. There were even more cheers than boo's for Ortiz, which was a pleasant- even if slightly unexpected- surprise.
Overall, the game proved to be another fantastic experience at Fenway, in a lifetime that has been full of them. And you know what? It gave me a new lifeline and perspective on my team.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm still more of a realist than I am hopeless optimist. It's going to take a minor miracle to catch the Yankees or the Rays (Let alone both), and get back into this playoff race. That's the reality of the situation.
Looking at this objectively, Tampa is in my mind the most complete team in baseball, one with five, young, hard-throwing pitchers, flanked by an athletic, extra-base-taking offensive juggernaut. The depth and versatility that Ben Zobrist and Reid Brignac provide (Each played two different positions in Monday night's loss to Anaheim), means that the Rays are the one elite team that won't crumble from one big injury. The Cardinals can't lose Albert Pujols. The Phillies Roy Halladay or Ryan Howard. The Yankees wouldn't have a viable option at third if A-Rod went down. The Rays? Lose Evan Longoria or Carlos Pena, plug the next guy in, and keep rolling.
Speaking of the Yankees, they're the exact opposite of the Rays. They aren't young or particularly versatile, but have just the right blend of being veteran, without just yet being old. They can score a ton of runs when they need to, and win games 2-1 if they must. Offensively, their two best players- Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira- are juuuuuust starting to heat up as we speak. And maybe the scariest part in New York, is that you could make the case that their best pitcher hasn't been C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett or Andy Pettitte, but Phil Hughes. Just hearing my buddy Frank (A Yankees fan) gush over Hughes the other night, reminded me of my 14-year-old cousin getting ready to attend her first Justin Bieber concert a few weeks ago. Only worse. The problem is, that having seen Hughes pitch a handful of times , I can't disagree with anything he said.
The Red Sox schedule is only going to get tougher, as after the series they're playing with Toronto right now, they go to Detroit and Yankee Stadium, get Minnesota at home, and then go back on the road to take on the Phillies and Rays. Ouch.
So it's with all that, where my concern with the Red Sox lies. Not so much in anything they're doing, because truthfully they're probably one of the 7-8 best teams in baseball. Unfortunately they're playing in a division with maybe the best two, and have virtually every other elite team coming up on the schedule. Whether any Red Sox fan wants to admit it or not, catching the Rays or the Yankees to even claim a Wild Card, let alone the division, just doesn't seem realistic at this point. Again, not because of anything the Sox aren't doing, but because of what everyone else is. Sorry, but I just can't see either the Rays or Yanks losing 8 out of 10, or going 9-20 over the course of a month. It ain't happening.
But that doesn't mean I'm ready to give up.
Not after Sunday night, when Lester made his third really good start in a row, and Jeremy Hermida and Darnell McDonald proved they can add needed depth, in spots, while filling in for their injured teammates. Not as Clay Buchholz continues to mature before our eyes, and John Lackey continues to pitch well every time he's handed the ball, Monday night not withstanding. Not as Kevin Youkilis and Pedroia try their hardest to carry this team on their backs, even though they're not surrounded by the talent around them they once were. Not as David Ortiz continues to battle, even though his best days are clearly behind him. Not as the fans continue to cheer, even though they haven't had nearly as much enjoyable baseball as they're accustomed to.
Nope, I'm not ready to give up on the Red Sox just yet, even though their backs are against the wall, and have virtually no margin for error, even with 3/4 of the season still to play. Boston may be down, but they're certainly not out.
Hard to believe, but it took just one trip to Fenway to make me see that.
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