Red Sox Fans Brace for Race

" ..the team had hit the skids. But they sounded attack and came battling back. They called them The Cardiac Kids." - from the "The Impossible Dream" album (1967-Fleetwood Records)


At this point, it would be stone foolish to expect this Red Sox team to come "battling back" in any game too soon. These are not your fathers Red Sox. Or your grandfathers. And they certainly are not your kids '04 Red Sox (you know, the team that coaxed you to like them and buy that pink hat). They may induce cardiac arrest but not because of 9th inning glee or rapid fire rallies. These Red Sox create a ménage of angst from the observance of horrible pitches at the absolute wrong time, failure to get clutch hits anytime during the game let alone in the 8th or 9th. Other than the "Mothers Day Miracle", can anyone name another time the Red Sox won a game in the 9th inning? By comparison the Cleveland Indians have come from behind to win 15 times in their last at bat so far.

(In the 1970's, the Boston Bruins held something like an 18 point lead with 10 or so games to go. They rested key players (Orr, Esposito, etc.) without dressing them, the rest played like shy wimps so as not to get injured and in the end, even though they won the division, they were smoked in the playoffs. They realized that they sat back in the foggy reality that they were so good that they could turn it on when ever they wanted. WRONG!) This is what you are seeing right now with your Boston Red Sox. The problem is that the Red Sox have nothing sewn up and it would not be a surprise to me to see them show the 3 million recent additions to the Nation what an August collapse is. Given the murderous schedule they have next month and the absolute moribund lack of emotion they are playing with against even weak teams currently, it is likely.

"Home field in the World Series". "This team is built for the long deep run". The Yankees can't catch them". The media analysis is indefatigable in their nature of pretending they are a "power house" of any sort. The Red Sox are so far from it. While the home field statement is true, it doesn't mean squat if the players keep playing like they already have an invitation. Curt Schilling went down and this awesome "loaded starting rotation" has faltered big time led by rollerball Julian Tavarez but victimized by the anemic, soft approach bats.
Don't confuse this observation with any criticism of physical effort. We see the hard playing for the most part. We see the emotional outbursts at umpires, albeit sometimes a little too much. We see the apparent glee during a rally. What we don't see is apparently what is killing them. Poor emotional preparedness. David Ortiz is visually exhausted by the time the game rolls around from his daily 4 stop tours to play with city kids, sign books or make a shuttle cock commercial. This is indicative of the attitude that in the end, for the entire team, will have us believe that to them the game is secondary when you are playing with literally no urgency.

What the "pink hats" need is a little disappointment for their pony tails anyway. They need to realize the Fenway seat they take up is supposed to be for long suffering fans, not pre-soccer mom morons on cell phones sipping dark beers. They need to look past the facade of these Lex Sox and stop cheering Jason Varitek for his ass and but rather because you really believe that he will get a clutch hit even once in 10 tries. (but he won't.) He is a great catcher, but not even a good hitter most of the time. He has never even touched a breaking ball on the inner half of the plate when batting left handed. JD Useless is another who will never get clutch. He has too "pretty" a swing to make anything more than 2 for 10 status quo. Manny doesn't seem to have ever really had a flare for the dramatic clutch but I will take him day in and out. There just seems to be no one on these 2007 Red Sox right now that you really WANT to have up with the game on the line. There is no '04 Papi. No '67 Yaz. No '75 Lynn or Rice. No Joe Lahoud or Bernie Carbo off the bench. While Josh Beckett is seemingly the real ace of the staff, Curt Schilling, Dice-K and Tim Wakefield are all gambles game to game with Wakefield being the poster child: win one, lose one.

Remember back to a time if you will, when the Red Sox played the Yankees this Spring. There was excitement. NESN had field microphones so you could actually hear the fans din. Jerry and Orsillo stayed focused for more than 2 minutes at a time. There were 4 home runs in a row on a Sunday night at frenzied Fenway. There was the urgency of a slim lead. Then the Yankees and Red Sox took different paths in the schedule and in the loss column. The Red Sox built a lead of 14 over New York at one point but that was cut to 10 before hovering at 12 or so for a month. The turning point came just as they parted ways.

On a Sunday night, the very last time we saw the pinstriped pin-heads, we saw an Ass Rod home run land in the Red Sox bullpen for a New York win. The Red Sox left Logan after midnight for the Left Coast. They had to start a 4 game set against the Oakland A's that night and looked not bad in barely losing 5-4. But since that time they are 18-17 and basically playing average ball for a team of this talent level. (Talent does not equal payroll. See: Lugo, Drew, Clement, etc.). They have lacked spunk, fight, urgency and excitement. I certainly do NOT believe this team has the potential to be called a power house or World Series contender with its current attitude or make-up. I gave it 5 weeks to see if I was wrong in my opinion and now I have no doubt.

So as of today, the lead over the Yankees is 6 in the loss column. Only 38 more US military deaths are likely to happen before they catch the laid back Bozo's of the lyric Bandbox. John Lester will still be in rehab. That speed demon Ellsbury will still be in Pawtucket. Josh Beckett will get another blister. Wakefield will go 2-2. Manny will pick the batting glove out of Julio Lugo's back pocket as Dice K delivers a gyro ball to the plate. Theo will say "Where would we play him" and then Curt Schilling will say "We don't need him". Roger Clemens will still be robbing that old man Georgie in the Bronx ghetto. And Ass Rod will have 50+ homeruns. Here we go Red Sox, here we go.... again. (NOTE: Since this writing the Sox have won 4 in a row, Jon Lester was called up, Beckett won his 13th, Wakefiled won another, Manny plays deeper and Schilling welcomed Lester with plomb accolades).

A playoff race is what WILL happen this year in the East. The Yankees WILL catch up and scare the bejesus out of us. The media will instill the usual annual commentary ad nauseum about Bucky 'Fuckin' Dent, etc. Bring it on... Red Sadistic Nation needs a President!


A CapeAnnMass.commentary from our 2007 Boston Red Sox page....