Wednesday night was arguably the most incredibly, heart-wrenching, adrenaline-packed 30 minutes of baseball in the history of the sport. When the dust settled, probably the two greatest collapses in it's more than 100 year old history were completed. The Atlanta Braves blew an 8.5 game lead in the Wild Card giving the St. Louis Cardinals a chance to make some noise in October like some expected. Meanwhile, the Boston Red Sox, one time locks to win the AL East, stumbled over everything and gave away a nine game advantage over Tampa Bay in the Wild Card to turn what many dubbed the best team assembled into the greatest disappointment ever. But how did this happen? Since nobody outside of Atlanta will acknowledge the debacle at Turner Field (cause they aren't the high-profile team of the Sox), and because the Red Sox are the thing I love most, outside of family, let's look at how a promising New England domination turned into the Boston team of yore. Here is how I think it happened, who to blame, what to do about it:
Terry Francona: Look, as much as I love him, he has to be held at least a little bit accountable. In sports, it's the job of the head coach (manager) to get his team playing the right way. In the month of September, the Sox were God awful. They couldn't hit, couldn't pitch, and couldn't beat teams they had all summer. Tito's job is to manage the game. He did not do that well. He put in terrible lineups when you needed your best guys at the plate. He continuously went with Andrew Miller and Kyle Weiland instead of using Alfredo Aceves as a starter. He left Beckett, Lester, and Lackey in one inning too long on multiple occassions, envoking memories of Game 7 in the 2003 ALCS which ultimately led to the demise of Grady Little in Beantown. Terry was not a manager in September. When the team, and fan base, was panicking, he did the same instead of being a leader.
What to do about it: The easy answer would be to let Tito go and try to find someone new to take the reins, which may be what happens later today. My answer is no. Sure, he's gonna get the majority of the blame (because managers/head coaches always do) but who the hell are you gonna get? Is there honestly a manager-in-waiting that can handle the pressures of managing the second highest payroll in the bigs and do it in a baseball-crazed town like Boston? I don't really see one, unless you want to give Alex Cora his due or convince Jason Varitek his days of actually playing are over. Yes, the honeymoon period is over for Terry, but just because the best times are in the past doesn't mean you start looking for a new spouse. There's a loyalty aspect in baseball that's awesome and two World Series in 7 years for a franchise that was tortured for 86 seasons deserves some extra leash. Which brings me to...
The Players: As much as the manager/coach is going to get blamed for this epic embarrassment of a beautiful sport, it's ultimately up to the players to get it done. In the month of Spetember, the Sox top MVP candidate (Jacoby Ellsbury) disappeared for about two weeks. David Ortiz couldn't hit himself with a bat, epitomized by that weak grounder with runners on first and third Wednesday night. Carl Crawford proved his contract was third worst in baseball history (Still putting Barry Zito in SF and Diasuke ahead of him) by becoming a faster JD Drew swinging at every pitch in the dirt, never coming out of a slump, and overall being terrible. Marco Scutaro was your best player the entire month. MARCO SCUTARO!!! The guy every "expert" wanted to bench in favor of Jed "still haven't reached my potential despite years of investment oh hey Lars Anderson" Lowrie. Meanwhile, the pitching was atrocious. When Diasuke Matsuzaka got hurt I jokingly tweeted that it was best thing to happen to this staff. On second thought, it was our downfall. Say you want about the real life Fifel the Mouse, the guy gave you innings and was just as good at getting out of trouble as he was getting in to it. John Lackey couldn't figure out how to leave his personal life in the clubhouse and perform (that's all I'll say about him cause the guy has been through hell this year). Lester and Beckett were great, but couldn't find that extra gear when needed late. Not to mention the heir apparent, Daniel Bard, looked more like Nuke LaLoosh before Crash Davis showed up, and Paplebon blew two HUGE saves in a week against the Orioles after only blowing one save all year prior. When Kevin Youkilis got hurt, the guys behind him didn't do squat to fix it while Youk turned into a cynic and critic rather than a motivating force like Pedey did last year. Speaking of Pedroia, I love the guy, he's my idol. But he wasn't a leader. In sports, you always hear about "the leader of this team" and it's never the guy on the sidelines. It's the on the field/court/ice that motivates his guys to play better. Dustin didn't do that. America runs on Dunkin' and the Sox run on Dustin, but he was decaf all month.
What to do about it: I honestly don't know. You've spent too much money on Crawford, Gonzo, Lackey to justify cutting your losses this early. It's apparent players like Jed Lowrie and Josh Reddick aren't ready for the rigors of a 162 game season in the pros, but they do need to be there in case. What I think should happen is a focus on two things: player rehab and fiscal responsibility. Whatever it takes (within legal bounds) to get players healthy quick needs to be done. For two straight years, injuries have played some role in poor play. Without Clay Buchholz and Youk, the Sox couldn't find a rythym in the pen or at the plate. Not saying those two guys would have changed it all, but they would have helped. In 2012, Daisuke, Buchh, and Youk will all be back healthy. Whether that changes anything will depend on the other thing needed: Fiscal Responsibility. Oh yeah....
Theo Epstein: As the General Manager, it is your job to put a winning team on the field so that your manager can use them to win games. Theo, in February, did that. $400 million given to possibly the best guys at their position (Gonzo and Crawford) had the Sox poised. But, what Theo forgot is that baseball is 162 9-inning games long. You need players to be there for all 1,458 innings. That includes reliable bench players and strong relief pitchers. Both of which were forgotten about this year. Remember 2004, Theo? A really good defense with an incredible bullpen but only three "true" superstars (Manny, Pedro, Schilling). The rest of the team were role players. Orlando Cabrera, Mark Bellhorn, Kevin Millar, Alan Embree, Keith Foulke, Bronson Arroyo, Derek Lowe, CURTIS LESKANIC (yes, he was on that team). All of them weren't standouts at their positions/roles. Hell, some of them weren't top-10. But they played together. They got along, they had chemistry, and they wanted to play. Something that doesn't happen with $100 million contracts at every position. It's funny how money talks yet falls silent when asked to give back.
What to do about it: Get your head out of your ass. Stop trying to win arms races with the Yankees, Phillies, whoever. Look, the Sox have the best team in baseball (on paper). This issue, that best team is only good for about 7 innings. The sport is, and always has been, about pitching and defense. That's what truly wins championships. Theo, you need to stop spending millions on two high-profile "superstars" and use it to get 5 above-average relievers/defensive replacements that get the job done when called. Remember that whole "Moneyball" theme that you used in 2004? Get back to it. There's a reason I find Herb Brooks (1980 USA Hockey Coach) to be one of the top-3 coaches of all-time. On the first day of tryouts, Herb handed his final roster to his assistant. When his assistant said, "Herb, you don't even have some of the best players on here," Brooks responded with, "I'm not looking for the best players, I'm looking for the right ones." That's what you need Theo. Then again, I shouldn't be too mad, he was kind of baited in to getting the "best" players.
Boston Fans: Look guys, I get it. Winning is awesome. There wasn't a happier day in my life than October 27th, 2004. I cried that night and I cried again on Wednesday. I love this team more than anything. My life revolves around what those guys do for 8 months out of the year. That obsession has ruined relationships, friendships and my health (mental and physical). I didn't watch any sports show or go to any sports website yesterday because I didn't want to see confirmation that what happened actually happened. But you know what? We asked for it. We forgot who we really were. In 2003, there was one champion, the Patriots. Then came the Sox, pretty soon after the Celtics and then finally the Bruins. Boston became cocky. They became arrogant. We became...(gulp) the Yankees.
What to do about it: Stop acting like we deserve to win every year. I love winning, it's awesome. But I also like not being hated outside of New York. For Christs sake we had Oriole fans praying to ruin us like we were the Goddam Yankees!!! We became what we hated. And it began with that stupid ass ad slogan this year. "We Won't Rest". When I first saw that commerical I said to good friend Glista that we are asking for trouble. She, being the true fan she is (not a cynic realist like me) told me to shut up it's awesome. We Won't Rest, Until Every Base Is Stolen; Until Every Fly Ball is Caught; Until Every Strike Is Made; Until Order Is Restored. That last one got me most. Until order is restored. Remember, we were the laughing stock of baseball. The Curse, '75, Bucky Dent, Buckner, Aaron "Bleeping" Boone. Remember them? That's our history. Not championships. There is only one team in Boston that "deserves" to constantly win titles and that's the Celtics because that is their history. I'm convinced that in baseball, there is some sort of outside force that contributes to every season. Call it fate, destiny, luck, whatever. But this collapse was fate reminding us who we are, the hard luck losers. We were the losers who won it all and then became too big for our britches (sounding a little familiar, Philly? It will soon.) Until order is restored. Guess what Sox fans, order has been restored. In the words of Rob Schneider in Waterboy, "We suck again."
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