Wednesday, October 27, 2004
An Anti-Red Sox World Series
The St. Louis Cardinals, last night, turned in one of the most pitiful performances in World Series history. Seriously, they looked miserable in game 3. Boston played a solid game, but St. Louis continually made mistakes common in little league that routinely diffused any number of opportunities they had to get back in the game. Pedro Martinez pitched a great game for Boston, surrendering only three hits, but he was helped out tremendously by the inept Cardinal batters. In the first two games, the Cardinals would routinely challenge the Boston pitchers, battling them through 10-12 -- sometimes 16 pitches per at-bat. Last night, with regularity, they all folded against Pedro on maximums of 5 pitches. That's disgusting. Then, of course, there was the biggest base-running blunder in the history of the universe in the third inning. I heard the first four innings on the radio before catching the rest on TV. When Suppan blew a golden chance to score for St. Louis, radio announcer Jon Miller said, "That's the biggest base running error of all time... (manager) Tony LaRussa must want to throw up right now." I couldn't agree more and I'm sure they were plenty of Cardinals fans keeled over at that point. St. Louis also left what seems like dozens upon dozens of base runners in scoring position, unable to knock any of them home. Big bats Scott Rolen and Jim Edmonds are a combined 1-22 hitting in the Series. Suppan was the first Cardinal starter to get into the 5th inning before finally leaving the game (which he probably should've an inning earlier, but LaRussa didn't wanted to try save his relievers an extra inning). Things look very grim for this club.
Oh irony of ironies. Wasn't it Boston who, a week ago today, completed the greatest comeback in sports being down 0-3 to the Yankees? Why yes. But here's the difference between the Boston that charged back all the way from the bottom of the ninth in game 4 of the ALCS and the Cardinals of this World Series: 1) offensive production, 2) decent starting pitching, 3) fight. I've already touched on the first two, but watching last night's game, you just didn't see any "fight" in the Cardinals. They looked more like the Yankees in the ALCS game 7. They looked beaten and they only had themselves to blame. With the exception of 5 innings in game 3 of the Boston/NY series, the Red Sox looked capable of winning every game. You don't get that sense watching St. Louis. Also, how guarded do you think Boston will be about even thinking of winning the Series? Incredibly.
That is notion common with every Boston fan I talk to (and there are a lot these days). People don't know what to think of their predicament. They've never faced such a scenario. They literally do not know how to act. This is a fan base characterized by whining and complaining. All of a sudden, they're in this alien situation where they have nothing to whine about and they're one win away from snapping the most talked about championship drought in sports history. Lately, I'm surrounded by them and they all have the following to say:
"I can't think about it."
"I don't know what to do."
"I can't get too excited."
"If the Sox win, I can happily die tomorrow."
But why all the confusion? Well, as I said, this fan base's identity is that of the angry loser. If they win the series, they cease to be that team. Yeah, they'll still have more history than, say, Florida, Anaheim, and Arizona combined, but winning the Series would put a sort of storybook ending ribbon on the team's quest to finally win. It's such an anti-Red Sox thought.
However, this all plays right into my theory. It might be a little out there and no Boston fan would concede to it if only out of sheer stubbornness, but... I believe that all Red Sox fans want to be Yankee fans. Read it again and tell me I'm wrong. You can't. If not for circumstances beyond their control (i.e. born in New England or raised in a Red Sox household) all Red Sox fans would rather have a tradition of winning and, while it be blasphemous to say that they desire to be their most-hated rival, the proof is their for all to see -- starting with the operation of the team itself. Boston has the second highest payroll in the league (behind only the Yankees) and, thanks to GM Theo Epstein, a "fantasy baseball" style mentality. Also, every free agent signing of theirs is nearly always made for the purpose of spiting the Yankees (who tend to spite Boston on far more occasions, but no matter). Point being, the Red Sox are starting to operate like and resemble the Yankees of the mid-90s (they have a glut of newly acquired stars supported by some key character guys) and I wouldn't be surprised if the unthinkable happened: Boston championships becoming a trend.
Of course, this is exactly the kind of talk that will get you killed in Boston. If they win, the city will go up in flames, the sky will fall, and hell would freeze over. Oh, and they'd also find a way to outwardly complain about winning and secretly relish in their inner-Yankee-euphoria of winning with consistency.
Personally, I think the Sox finish it off tonight. The Cardinals have given me no reason in the past three games to believe otherwise.
Additionally, as a last tack on, these last couple weeks have been littered with The Sports Guy's funniest articles and one-liners. Sadly, if Boston wins the Series, he'll lose 75% of his material. He's still an hilarious read, though. I'm not a Sox fan, but read this article and you'll begin to get a sense of what this historical event means to them.
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Oh irony of ironies. Wasn't it Boston who, a week ago today, completed the greatest comeback in sports being down 0-3 to the Yankees? Why yes. But here's the difference between the Boston that charged back all the way from the bottom of the ninth in game 4 of the ALCS and the Cardinals of this World Series: 1) offensive production, 2) decent starting pitching, 3) fight. I've already touched on the first two, but watching last night's game, you just didn't see any "fight" in the Cardinals. They looked more like the Yankees in the ALCS game 7. They looked beaten and they only had themselves to blame. With the exception of 5 innings in game 3 of the Boston/NY series, the Red Sox looked capable of winning every game. You don't get that sense watching St. Louis. Also, how guarded do you think Boston will be about even thinking of winning the Series? Incredibly.
That is notion common with every Boston fan I talk to (and there are a lot these days). People don't know what to think of their predicament. They've never faced such a scenario. They literally do not know how to act. This is a fan base characterized by whining and complaining. All of a sudden, they're in this alien situation where they have nothing to whine about and they're one win away from snapping the most talked about championship drought in sports history. Lately, I'm surrounded by them and they all have the following to say:
"I can't think about it."
"I don't know what to do."
"I can't get too excited."
"If the Sox win, I can happily die tomorrow."
But why all the confusion? Well, as I said, this fan base's identity is that of the angry loser. If they win the series, they cease to be that team. Yeah, they'll still have more history than, say, Florida, Anaheim, and Arizona combined, but winning the Series would put a sort of storybook ending ribbon on the team's quest to finally win. It's such an anti-Red Sox thought.
However, this all plays right into my theory. It might be a little out there and no Boston fan would concede to it if only out of sheer stubbornness, but... I believe that all Red Sox fans want to be Yankee fans. Read it again and tell me I'm wrong. You can't. If not for circumstances beyond their control (i.e. born in New England or raised in a Red Sox household) all Red Sox fans would rather have a tradition of winning and, while it be blasphemous to say that they desire to be their most-hated rival, the proof is their for all to see -- starting with the operation of the team itself. Boston has the second highest payroll in the league (behind only the Yankees) and, thanks to GM Theo Epstein, a "fantasy baseball" style mentality. Also, every free agent signing of theirs is nearly always made for the purpose of spiting the Yankees (who tend to spite Boston on far more occasions, but no matter). Point being, the Red Sox are starting to operate like and resemble the Yankees of the mid-90s (they have a glut of newly acquired stars supported by some key character guys) and I wouldn't be surprised if the unthinkable happened: Boston championships becoming a trend.
Of course, this is exactly the kind of talk that will get you killed in Boston. If they win, the city will go up in flames, the sky will fall, and hell would freeze over. Oh, and they'd also find a way to outwardly complain about winning and secretly relish in their inner-Yankee-euphoria of winning with consistency.
Personally, I think the Sox finish it off tonight. The Cardinals have given me no reason in the past three games to believe otherwise.
Additionally, as a last tack on, these last couple weeks have been littered with The Sports Guy's funniest articles and one-liners. Sadly, if Boston wins the Series, he'll lose 75% of his material. He's still an hilarious read, though. I'm not a Sox fan, but read this article and you'll begin to get a sense of what this historical event means to them.
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