In my 32 years, I’ve seen a lot of highs and lows in Boston sports, but this September might have been as low as it got. With a 9-game lead in the Wild Card standings on September 3rd, the Sox looked like they were destined for the playoffs and an eventual showdown with the Evil Empire in the Bronx. But, they somehow managed to blow it. Was it pitching? Was it hitting? Was it coaching? Maybe the GM? Or were the players just complacent and not “hungry?” We’ll probably never know. What we do know is that it most likely is going to cost Terry Francona his job (dumb move in my opinion) and may be the catalyst Theo Epstein uses to leave Boston for greener pastures…if you call a franchise that has an even bigger World Series drought than the Red Sox ever had (103 years for the Chicago Cubs for those of you not in the know) greener pastures.
But, we’re Boston sports fan. We’ll endure. We always do. We’ve made it through much worse times than these. And, really, is this a bad time? Our football team is playing like a Madden video game team (all offense and no defense), our hockey team is coming off a Stanley Cup championship and our basketball team…did I mention our hockey team won the Stanley Cup? We’ll get through it. We have a long way to go to get back to the dog days of Boston sports. But, sometimes it’s good to get kicked in the teeth to remember how good you have it.
I’ll end with a text message I received today that sums it up pretty accurately:
The rumor is Francona lost this team and he covered for them all year. I watched his press conference on Wednesday. He looked like he was ready to be done with them. Either way, it’s nice to have the choking Red Sox of yesterday back. The youth of NE needed a kick in the nuts!!! F those kids. We had Buckner, Samuelson, Reggie Lewis and Len Bias. We earned these titles. But these kids have seven championships in under a decade…time for some pain!
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