I'm sure there are many, many out there who are very happy at the Red Sox collapse but you have to admit that the Red Sox franchise has no equal when it comes to high drama and higher tragedy. I'd be willing to bet if you took a poll and came up with the 25 greatest baseball tragedies in the long history of baseball, half of them would belong to one franchise -- Buckner, Bucky 'Bleepin' Dent, Aaron 'Bleepin' Boone, Sept 2011, the '75 World Series, the '46 World Series and on and on. (add to this list in your comment if I left out something comparable). So while you revel in their demise, at least acknowledge what fun the BoSox have been for baseball fans of other teams.
Could you have scripted how last night unfolded? Even the most jaded Red Sox fan in the midst of his worst nightmare could not have conjured the last half hour of the Sox season last night. The Sox are up by a run and have the bases loaded in the 8th and cannot score an insurance run. They have an insurance run gunned down at home plate on a perfect throw in the top of the 9th. Leading up to this the Rays have erased a 7 run deficit against the Yankees by scoring 6 runs in the 8th and then getting a pinch hit HR from a guy who hadn't hit a home run since April to tie the score. But then a few innings later, while the Red Sox are one out and then one strike away from at the very least living to play another day, the Yankees have a runner on 3rd base with no outs and fail to score.
It is very difficult for most Sox fans, even with two World Series championships of late and THE MOST memorable comeback in baseball history, to still not feel doom and tragedy around every corner. So there I was last night channel flipping and seeing deliverance at our fingertips but not trying to get carried away because we just don't trust it. Again, it's in extra innings and the Yankees have a runner on 3rd with no outs in a tie game at the same time the Red Sox have started the 9th with their closer on the bump and a one-run lead. There was that moment when it looked like things would go our way, only to be viciously taken away in about a 10 minute span. The Yankees can't manage to get a run in but then Papelbon has taken care of the first two Rays hitters. Then all of a sudden with two strikes on the next hitter (a .240, #9 hitter at that), Nolan 'Bleepin' Reimold, hits a double, followed quickly by another double and a single -- Sox lose. And while I'm still in the midst of my heart attack, Evan Longoria stabs me in that throbbing heart with a game winning homerun for the Rays against the Yankees.
So while Red Sox Nation is grieving yet again, be thankful baseball fans for the team that brings this entertainment to you better than any other. If you have a heart though, root against the Yankees because them winning the World Series on the heels of the Sox collapse is the kind of cruelty we expect but don't deserve.
3 comments:
I just happened to flip channels last night and caught the ninth inning of the Sox game plus what happened in Tampa. I feel for you but on the other hand I don't have any love for teams that can buy a World Series and they stumble.
I wish it had happened to the Yankees.
No, I understand. My point was just how more boring baseball would be w/out the Sox because they don't just have the worst Sept collapse in baseball history, they top it off with last evening. Other teams have on rare occasion had tragedy in their history but no franchise has done it more often and with such flair. No one would've believed you if they hadn't seen it with their own eyes.
The Sox have certainly had their share of drama at the end of the season. Should be an interesting off-season too. Gives us something to talk about during the winter besides the weather.
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