Early this morning I got this e-mail from a Red Sox pal of mine:
You’ll get the whole season recap from me tomorrow, but the short story is that I really did stop caring about this team about three weeks ago. In fact, I hate that I actually gave a shit again tonight, for about forty-five minutes. (Great baseball story, though.)
What happened is they stopped being any fun to watch sometime in late August, but I have to say, they weren’t that great to watch in the first place. (Something like 3-57 when trailing in the 8th inning this year.)
They were kind of like the loud guy at the party who’s having a great time, and you sort of keep your distance from him as the night goes on, and suddenly he gets WAY too drunk…a little funny, sure, but mostly pathetic.
Or think of those hammered guys on “Cops” that just got pulled over by the cute little PO-lice lady from Tennessee.
So what you do about it? If you’re at the party, you just get the hell away from that guy, maybe take off. But when it’s on TV? All you have to do is reach for the remote and change the channel…
They stopped be fun to follow when they stopped winning? Heart is breaking for you man.
I was rooting for the Rays all night long and when Scott Proctor came in, Joe's go to guy to lose a game, I knew the Rays would win.
When the O's won their game, I was jumping up and down with them and 3 minutes later I was jumping up and down with the Rays.
Do you think the Sox will be upset with the Yanks the way they played that game?
And now the Sox have the words "historic collapse and money can't buy you a playoff spot" added to their 2011 season for ever, YES!!!!
the curse of pete abe continues.
pretty crazy season for the sox though - horrible start and finish while having a great run sandwiched in between.
they are a good team but not a great team.
seemed like all the predictions systems and talking heads based their views on them at 100%.
as much as the sox are stuck with crawfish he is stuck with them - granted those checks help, but i bet he doesn't really want any part of rsn going forward.
[1] Not quite fair. I don't think he meant they stopped being fun because they stopped winning. There was something about the team that really pissed off RSN -- what they call "NO HAHT!". Anyway, it seems (to me, from reading the top Sox blogs and listening to the radio) that it's a common sentiment.
[3] They hate Crawford. But they really, really, really hate Lackey.
And Papelbon is going to become the highest paid reliever in baseball this winter.
[4] yeah they do seem to have some special hate for lackey.
i wish mlb would hurry up and announce saturday's game times.
[4] and the lack of heart showed up 3 weeks ago when they plunged into the awful losing September? As my brother pointed out, 29 teams have no heart, and the media and fans can spot the one that does right after the last out of the world series.
(2) The Sox can't be too upset with the way the Yanks played. They had a 7-0 lead. The Sox couldn't expect that the Yanks would send out their best relievers to try to save the Sox playoff hopes.
The Sox have to look in the mirror and realize they held the cards in their hand to at least get to a one game playoff, and they lost it to the O's.
I was saying yesterday that the Sox don't have the lightning rod guy to hate, but Cinnabun Papelbon comes close. To see him on the mound and lose the game with 1 strike to go to close it out was amazing. It also helped that the Rays won it minutes later saving the Yanks from wasting more time in a meaningless game to them.
A big part of me was hoping the Yanks would win it, and Boston and Tampa would have to duke it out today.
I am going to miss seeing the Yanks beating the Sox in the playoffs this year, but last night was pretty special in a hating on Boston sort of way.
Now we got to kick the crap out of the Tigers. Aargh!!!!! Verlander!!!!!!!!
My students suprised me with a Jeter jersey for my b-day last year. I haven't worn it until today. They earned a dress down day and I am rockin' it proudly and happily. i still can't believe all the goings-on of last night. Holy Cow!
2) the Sox were given a Proctor win a few days ago, and the Yankees owe them nothing. Good riddance, bitches.
[6] Well, yeah, lack of heart does show up when the chips are down. No?
Look, I'm not agreeing with it! I'm very skeptical of heart, chemistry, etc., much more skeptical than most. I'm just saying, there are other qualities of the team that RSN finds unattractive than their mere losingness and chokitude.
I've come around on it; yeah, didn't matter what the Yanks did in last night's game win or lose, it's what they have to do next that matters. And resting the guys you need going forward at the expense of losing the last game of the season, a winnable game at that, with your worst guy in the pen in order to preserve the guys you're going to win with is far more important than your pride about losing to the Rays or shoving them and Boston into a one-game sudden death. I just hope it works out. It'd just be nice to piss all over RSN with a title in our hands, no matter how much deserved it is.
the nutty lady at my job (the one who calls arod no-rod) just called me to complain about how bad girardi's bullpen management was last night.
of course if that was a game the yankees were trying to win i would agree, but what about that game would make you think girardi was actively trying to win.
Just think, though the collapse would not have been as great, the Red Sox would have been even further behind had the Yankees managed to play .500 ball against them.