Pete’s Rose Writes Again! Thank you Red Sox!
After a long dormant spell of around 11 months, Pete’s Rose is once again heard on Baseball Reflections and it took the second best comeback in baseball playoff history to do it.
I woke up this morning realizing that I don’t have what it takes to be a Red Sox fan. And I have the feeling I’m in very good company, although most people won’t admit it and will claim that they never doubted for a moment. After seeing the Sox get pounded two games in a row at home and observing the lifeless bats for the first 6 innings last night, can you blame me for telling my 8-and 10-year-old daughters that they could watch the Red Sox bat in the bottom of the 7th and then it would be time to head to bed? They can thank Big Papi for getting to stay up past midnight once more!
What a statement to the Rays. It’s as if Boston scripted the best let-down possible: “Okay, let’s let them beat up our starting pitching 4 straight games to the point where they can picture the locker room party and taste the champagne. Let’s get them imagining how it will feel to defeat the defending champions in their beloved Fenway Park. Then, we’ll reel them back to reality pitch by pitch, inning by inning until the momentum has swung slowly but decisively back to the Red Sox dugout.” Could you have written that story (again)? Not me!
So when did the momentum shift, exactly? When Pedroia drove in the first RBI with 2 outs and 2 strikes, eliminating the shut out possibility? Well, maybe a little momentum blinked its eyes and glided out of the Rays dugout over to the home team’s. But, one run? This team had 7 outs left and still needed 6 runs to tie. I guess that’s when Big Papi thought of the pre-printed ALCS champion hats and t-shirts emblazoned with the Rays’ logo. He knew they were there in Fenway lurking somewhere. He realized it was going to be his last at-bat of the season if things didn’t get going. It was truly do-or-die time and finally, finally his bat came to life. He dug in and pulled out yet another clutch impossible-to-believe homerun. The Fenway Faithful went wild. And the momentum stood up, packed its bags, and marched from the visitor’s dugout across the diamond to stay.
Who knows what will happen on Saturday. Maybe those t-shirts and hats will be matched up with rightful owners. But, they’ll have to wait in their boxes until they’ve been earned, and last night, the Sox’ bats rose up and said “Not at our house”! I was fan enough to stay up and watch their demise. I have to admit, I didn’t expect to see their triumph. But I’ll take it! As a dubious fan I don’t deserve it, but I’ll take it! Thanks again, Boston, for something to jump up and down and scream for. I guess that’s why I love baseball.
2 Responses
As a Cubs fan since birth, I do not want to hear any Red Sox fan talk about being unsure if they can still be a BoSox fan. You guys have fixed your “curse” and are able to live up to your pre-season hype.
Every spring through early fall, millions of Cubs fan watch their team and get hopes so high that they can only be brought down by a monumental crash. Although you used to have The Bambino, Bucky “F&*^#$!” Dent, and a few other bad regular and post season screw-up’s, you also have the 0-3 comeback and last years 2nd championship team in 4 years. We have to deal with Alex Gonzalez and Leon Durham not being able to field routine ground balls, Steve Garvey, and the Amazin’ Mets of 1969.
While the two teams have supplied some of the most lovable and liked (redundant maybe) players in MLB history (Ernie Banks, Ted Williams, Billy Williams, and Carl Yastrzemski), and also some of the most disliked (Sosa and Manny being Manny). Boston has learned how to play in the post-season, whereas the Cubs have only learned how to lay down and take a beating like few other franchises in any sport has ever known (my greatest sympathies to Arizona Cardinals, Houston Astro, and New Orleans Saints fans).
But to give up on the Red Sox for being down by 7 in a playoff game in a year in which they are the defending World Series champions tells me how spoiled New England is right now with the Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox (the Bruins spoil no one). Get over it and realize that you are living in one of the most dominant sports cities in recent memory and if you have one bad season, big deal you still have football (oops, no Brady), and if that doesn’t go well, then you still have the boys that play in the House that Larry Legend built
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