Brandon Workman, on the mound today, gets his World Series ring. Remember when the Red Sox won the World Series in 2013? (Photo courtesy of Kelly O’Connor/sittingstill and used with permission)
(This post will seem like it isn’t related to baseball…but I promise it’ll get there!)
I get bored easily. And I mean RIDICULOUSLY easily. Been this way my entire life. If I start a book and it doesn’t grab me, I’m quickly on to another. Same goes for movies and television shows. I don’t know what the magic concoction is for something to keep me connected to it, but very few things actually fit the bill.
Some might think this blog is a good representation of that but it really isn’t. My neglecting of the blog comes now more from there really just not being enough hours in the day for me to do everything I really want to. Being employed full-time (after not having been for quite a while) is a big part of that. Twitter is as well. (I get to say a lot of what I’d say here in a briefer format.) There are plenty of times I draft these amazing blog entries in my mind and when the time comes to sit down and start typing I either can’t find the time or the energy.
In 2004, literally the day after the Red Sox won the World Series, I was officially diagnosed with ADHD. This came as no surprise to anyone who knew me for any decent amount of time but having a name for the way I always had been was a great relief to me. I accept who I am and the shortcomings that often come with me being me.
Which I guess is why I try my best to be accepting of the shortcomings of others. I genuinely try to see the best in all that is around me. I tend to think that there are more good people than bad in the world and I give almost everyone the benefit of the doubt. This, of course, doesn’t always reflect in my passions…especially baseball.
I can hate with the best of them. Listen, in spite of the fact that I told anyone who would listen that I was going to give A.J. Pierzynski a chance, I really haven’t. I am genuinely annoyed whenever I see his name in the lineup and his at-bats are either completely ignored by me or met with much sighing and eye-rolling. I just can’t cheer him. (I’ve been to two games at Fenway this year and consider it a major accomplishment that I haven’t booed him.)
But the Red Sox are a different animal than AJ Pierzynski. I love them. I’ve loved them since I was old enough to realize they existed. If you love someone or something you forgive their shortcomings, right? Their faults can be annoying but you put them into perspective. The bad doesn’t create the whole because if it did you wouldn’t love them. Maybe it would be different if the bad came in great waves and you never saw good coming through the cracks. But how often does that happen?
Right now the Red Sox suck. Actually, to say they suck is an insult to things that suck. I get this. I’m watching the games. I’m shutting off the tv when the last out is finally made (or the next walk off happens) and go to sleep relatively annoyed. I GET how miserable it is to watch a game that is supposed to make you happy and have it do nothing but aggravate the hell out of you. I absolutely get this.
What I don’t get is how so many people have forgotten that seven months ago their Boston Red Sox won the damn World Series. And apparently they forgot that since 2004 their Boston Red Sox have won three damn World Series championships. Three. After an 86 year drought the team has three championships in their back pocket.
Does that change how God-awful this team is playing right now? Hell no. Of course it doesn’t. But it should help put things into some kind of perspective. When the Red Sox won it all in 2004, Bill Simmons and just about every other fan promised a five-year ban on being a miserable fan. Now no one really thought they’d have to be afforded those five years. 2004 was so freaking amazing that people thought the magic would be never-ending. But guess what? So few teams win back-to-back championships for a reason – because it’s freakishly difficult to do. (Sure that doesn’t mean the reigning World Series champs should immediately dive to last place but, still, it’s really difficult to keep up that momentum.)
So be frustrated. Be bummed. Be sad. Take a break from watching a game or two. All of this, for me, is completely understandable. But I will never understand the anger. These guys aren’t playing terribly on purpose. They don’t want to lose games. Andrew Miller doesn’t take the mound with “let’s see if I can break the record for walk offs” on his mind. If you think you aren’t having fun…imagine how much fun your Boston Red Sox are having right now. No one is having fun right now and the answer isn’t to get pissed about it.
Truthfully, I have no idea what the answer is aside from stop giving up so many runs and get some hits with runners in scoring position. But those suggestions are about as helpful as the folks who yell “Throw strikes!” at the pitcher. The Red Sox know what they are supposed to do. They want to do what they are supposed to do. What they don’t want to do is stink and, sadly, that’s what they’re doing right now.
But they can’t stink forever. Well, actually, I suppose they COULD stink for the rest of the season. But if we have learned nothing from the 2000s version of the Boston Red Sox it is that somehow this team always ends up bouncing back. Sometimes it happens within the season and sometimes we have to wait a little while. So far, waiting has brought great gifts to the Red Sox fans.
I originally was going to rant about the fans who have almost destroyed my Twitter feed with their anger toward the team but I think gearing my anger to them because of their anger really makes no kind of sense. We’re all crabby. A few wins will help ease our tempers.