Let’s Try This Again
Welcome back, Jac! (Photo from last Sunday at Pawtucket taken by Kelly O'Connor and used with permission)
I’m am sick to death of all the “OMG THIS TEAM SUCKS THEY SHOULD TRADE EVERYONE, FIRE BOBBY VALENTINE AND THEN SELL THE TEAM TO OWNERS WHO WILL CARE” crap that keeps coming across my email and Twitter feeds. I get it, the team is lousy and you are frustrated watching. Who isn’t right now? Being frustrated with an wildly under-performing team is natural. All the genuine hatred that seems to be getting spewed on a regular basis is ridiculous and boring.
I want my team to win. That’s it. Nothing else. Sure, I’d love it if they all got along and everyone loved being in Boston and Bobby Valentine was looked upon as some noble father figure by players, fans and media alike…but that isn’t happening. At least it doesn’t seem to be. If the team can win the rest of it won’t matter. No team is happier than a team that’s winning, right?
That isn’t to say I don’t get being frustrated. Of course I do. What I don’t get is painting Bobby Valentine as the source of all evils with the team, as many are doing, given this team is essentially doing what they did last September (and April of 2011 as well). People can complain all they want about how much they wish Tito was still with the team but the fact is this team either quit on Tito or Tito stopped being effective for other reasons and he is not the answer to this team’s problems. I also don’t get pinpointing one player, let’s say Josh Beckett, and putting the blame all on him and his attitude. Beckett’s been on the team for plenty of time when there wasn’t talk of cancers on the team and totally disharmony in the clubhouse. He’s basically who he has always been, maybe now with a few minions, but, really, blaming this entire season on Beckett doesn’t wash with me either. And folks can go on and on about how out of touch they think the owners are but these are the same owners who brought the team two World Series championships, the same owners who let their General Manager trade, at the time, one of the most popular Red Sox players of all time for guys that, on paper, seemed unremarkable. This ownership certainly has had their share of missteps, there is no denying that, but if anyone genuinely believes this group doesn’t care about winning, I’d like to know where they’ve been all this time.
Tonight the second half of the season begins. The Red Sox will get Jacoby Ellsbury back and hopefully by next week Carl Crawford will have joined him. They’re tied for last place in the AL East, 9.5 games behind the first place Yankees…and there is 2.5 months of baseball left. Sure, things could continue to go downhill for the Sox. They could very possibly spend the rest of the season in the cellar. Then again, they could start playing to their potential and actually make the rest of this season pretty damn exciting.
I’m willing to stick it out to see how things work out.
You are so right. This is my team and I’m always looking for the next game. If any defense is needed, I remind myself that Pedroia has been injured, Ellsbury is just now returning and Crawford has also been out. The luster of those who played five seasons or eight seasons ago has vanished or diminished. Beckett has not been as uniformly reliable as he was before his injury and surgery–at least in my opinion. The big changes this year have shaken things up and I think we are all in a state of panic as if ball players should never age or teams change composition. The team is always in a state of flux and, like the game itself, sometimes it’s magic and sometimes you just can’t win for losing.