Friday, July 29, 2011

Is it Springtime?

I was talking to a fellow Red Sox fan recently. He said he couldn’t get too worked up about the Sox. He couldn’t find anything to yell and scream about. He wasn’t plastering blogs with comments. The Sox juggernaut was just too good to worry about. I couldn’t agree more.

It feels like Spring Training. I can’t bring myself to hang on every game. They lost tonight? Oh well. They’ll probably win tomorrow. The Yankees gained a game? The Sox will get it back in due time. Their fifth starter had season ending surgery? Who needs a fifth starter? The trade deadline is approaching? Who cares? They don’t need any help anyway. The Yankees might get another starter? They’re still not as good as the Sox. It’s very unsettling. I’m going day by day hoping for no injuries, just waiting to play the Phillies in October. It’s quite unsettling.

Am I alone in this? Is there something wrong with me? The other night, Andrew Miller got roughed up. The Red Sox won the game. Lackey got beat up on. He still got the victory. Why would I worry about them? Why would I stress over them? It’s almost more fun to see how many runs a pitcher can give up and still qualify for a win.

Sure, this is just a hot stretch. You never get an entire line-up rolling at the same time like these guys are. But, can I bring myself to worry about a slump? I’m sure they’ll have another stretch where they lose six in a row. Although, it wouldn’t shock me if they didn’t. But, with a commanding lead in a potential wild card race, even that isn’t anything to get worked up about. It will pass, and they’ll make up whatever ground they lose.

I could worry about a season-ending road trip. But, the way it’s going, those last six games are going to be meaningless anyway. I got nothing.

I’ve always said that the big difference for me between 2004 and 2007 was my attitude during the playoffs. When the Sox were up 3-0 in the 2004 World Series, I was worried. Part of me just knew that the only reason they had historically come back from a 0-3 hole was so that they would blow their own 3-0 lead the very next series. In 2007? They were the favorites. The best team in the league. Of course they would come back when they were down 1-3 in the ALCS. It was just a matter of playing the games. It was breezy. It was easy. I could just sit back and enjoy the ride. That’s the way I’m looking at this season.

I’m just enjoying the ride.

4 comments:

  1. You're not alone. I don't enjoy the losses, but I'm not dwelling this year.

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  2. To me it's relative to how the other teams are doing, namely the Yankees.

    If we were playing exactly at this rate, but the Yanks were 10 games ahead of us, you wouldn't be feeling the same. But regardless of whether we're on fire or mediocre, the number that matters is 2.5. For that reason, each loss when we should have won, or Yankee win when they should have lost, makes me wanna kill stuff. (However, the wild card also affects it of course--even though we have a 2.5 game division lead, we've got almost a 10-game lead on the 2nd place wild card, so it's a much safer situation than if the 2nd WC team was 3 behind us or something.)

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  3. That Red Sox fan you were talking to is a genius. Well, except maybe in fantasy baseball. This year, at least.

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  4. Genius might be stretching it...but it was a good thought.

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