Should Red Sox fans be worried? -- UPDATED
Posted: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 6:41 PM
I’m trying to think of reasons to tell Red Sox fans not to get too smug just yet. It’s been, after all, not even three years since they buried the 8,000-pound gorilla that had been leaping out the shadows every time the team was in danger of doing something grand and beating their hopes and dreams to a bloody pulp. Has anyone checked to make sure the beast is really dead?
In some quarters, the AL East is already being conceded to the Sox. And no matter where I look, I can’t find neurotic Sox fans huddled around a flat screen sucking down Sam Adams and worrying about how their team is going to blow it again to those loathsome Yankees.
The New York tabloids haven’t given up yet. The New York Post led off Wednesday’s sports section with this headline: “Yanks: It Ain’t Over Yet: Jeter ‘No Question’ We Can Catch Bosox.” The Sporting News isn’t quite as sanguine, but concludes that, yes, if all the planets are in alignment and the omens are right and the creek don’t rise, the Yankees can make run at it.
Then there’s an entry at yanksfansoxfan.typepad.com pointing out that this is the third time the Red Sox have reached the 87th game of the season with a record of 53-34, the last time being last season, when injuries ravaged the team in the second half and the Yankees ran them down.
And remember, the Yankees have pitching help on the way in the form of enormously talented rookie Philip Hughes and lefty reliever Jeff Karstens, both working their way up through rehab assignments in the minors. They’ve also got 25 straight games coming up against teams with sub-.500 records. (Of course, the Yankees are sub-.500 themselves, but let’s not bring up facts that disagree with the premise.)
Anyway, the Red Sox don’t have the toughest schedule ahead of them, either. From now until the finish line, they have just 22 games against teams that were over .500 at the break.
Having already written off the Yankees myself, I can understand why it’s hard to work up a good anxiety if you’re a Sox fan and hard to feel confident if you’re a Yankee fan. But I’m not a fan of either team, just of the game. And the one thing that made Boston such a great story over the years was their fan base. These were people who had suffered on such an epic tale, people who had been struck by lightning out of clear blue skies not once but dozens of times. They knew better than to be smug.
You can bury an insecurity, but it doesn’t go away. And I have to wonder if there still isn’t just a twinge of worry in Red Sox Nation that somehow the Yankees will put on another of their patented second-half surges that will be fueled by Boston misfortune.
The news that David Ortiz may need knee surgery should be a little troubling. Curt Schilling has already gone on the DL and may not be back until August. Is this the start of another run of injuries? Is this the beginning of the end?
It shouldn’t be. And here’s why it’s hard not to be smug. Ortiz hasn’t been belting the ball out of the park as he has over the past three years, and neither has Manny Ramirez. And yet the Sox have that 10-game lead and the best record in the majors. The reason is that Mike Lowell has been having a great year, and Jason Varitek, Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia have also more than picked up the slack.
So the Yankees will have Hughes in a couple of weeks. The Sox will have Schilling. So the Yankees get some lefthanded bullpen right-handed depth help when Karstens comes up. The Red Sox already have a better bullpen than the Yankees can hope for.
Just the same, I hope Red Sox fans don’t surrender to smugness. It takes some of the joy out of the process when winning is a foregone conclusion. As long as the Yankees are breathing, there’s always cause for concern.
Isn’t there?
