What Happened?

When the Dream Team 1992 USA Basketball team was getting ready to qualify for the Olympics, the first game they played together as a team was against a collection of college stars. 

The college kids smoked them. 

There are some reasons why this might have happened. The Dream Team was just coming together as a "team". Maybe they took it lighter than the college kids who had something to prove. Some people think that the Dream Team coaches threw the game, as a way to get the team's attention and tell them not to take any team lightly. The main factor supporting this theory? Michael Jordan didn't play much is the second half. With the game on the line, team USA's best player was on the bench. Now, in a regular season game, I might buy that theory. If the Celtics don't play their best player, that might be a reason for them to lose the game. But, this was a collection of hall of famers...playing college kids. Jordan would have made that much of a difference? Bird and Magic and Malone and Robinson and the other guys on the team weren't enough? 

Which brings me to this last Red Sox homestand. Mookie Betts is still on the DL, so the Sox are without their best player. So, I can understand them struggling against Houston on the road. But, Detroit and Chicago? Even without Hanley, JD and Xander and Benintenti and Moreland can't carry it out? How much better would Mookie have been? Maybe an extra hit a game? Was that the difference? I mean, JBJ hit a home run, so it's not like they were expecting Mookie's pop and didn't get it.

Or, maybe it's like the Dream Team missing Jordan. It just shifts everything out of order, and everyone it playing catch up from there. Maybe they just need to get things back to normal.

Hopefully Mookie is back soon so we can find out!