Really, if it weren’t for the fact that I had only until 6:00 to buy the items for a gift basket to be raffled off for charity, I wouldn’t have missed the last couple innings of today’s game. When I left, the Sox were down 5-0 to Baltimore. The Triumphant Mama called me on the cell as I was checking out at the Christmas Tree Shop to say the Sox had the tying run at bat. After a quick stop at Jo-Ann Fabrics, I got to my car just in time to hear Dave O’Brien doing a post-game interview with Julio Lugo about the dramatic come-from-behind victory for which Orioles manager Sam Perlozzo’s brain fart is at least partly responsible.
Not that any old team would have been able to take advantage of such an opportunity. Most players would have a hard time getting themselves pumped up enough to put together a game-winning rally with two out in the bottom of the ninth and trailing by five runs. But through 36 games, this isn’t any team and these aren’t most players. As Lugo put it, these players on this team believe they have the ability to win any given game.
Is it too early to start drawing comparisons to 2004? Probably, but I’m not the only one doing it. O’Brien and Joe Castiglione remarked about how this team right now feels like they can come from behind to win—and at least for now, they probably can. Even the Triumphant Mama said, "This is just like what they did in 2004, isn’t it?" And I can’t disagree.
The difference in 2004, of course, was that the team really didn’t start to gel until last July. On this date in 2004, Boston was five games over .500, not 14 over like they are now. They had only one win in their last five games and had been through a five-game losing streak earlier in the month. They were in second place a half game back, not eight games ahead. We fans weren’t feeling especially comfortable. It would be another two months before Bill Mueller’s walk-off homer against Mariano Rivera and the Yankees, two and a half months until the Nomar trade and the beginning of a red-hot August. Hell, on May 13 last year, many of us were still smarting over the 2003 ALCS.
My only point is that what goes on in May doesn’t necessarily portend what will be happening in October. I realize that, as I’m sure the Red Sox themselves do. But as I have said over and over in the last few weeks, they are making hay while the sun shines, a metaphor that implies the rainy periods all baseball teams weather at one point or another during the long season. The bigger the cushion the team builds for themselves now, the better prepared they will be to weather whatever rough patches they’ll hit later on. And rest assured, the entire rest of the American League East won’t be under .500 for the whole season.
Just as the team is storing wins for a rainy day, I suppose I should get all the enjoyment I can out of all those wins, because before the 2007 season is finished, there will be at least a few games I will need to walk away from. It will be then that I’ll drive out to Borders or go window shopping for shoes or find comfort in some Kentucky Fried Chicken. Not now. No more thinking I can make better use of my time by doing something else. Until further notice, I’ll be glued to the TV or radio until the 27th out.
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