Thank you Curt

For 2004 alone we should be grateful, but there are so many more things worth mentioning...some other time.

Thank you again #38.

Smoke clearing

As we all know what happened with Mr. Angels/Rangers/Braves, it's time to take another look at the line-up:

As it stands now, after last nights pleasing news, Red Sox would open in April with this:

1. CF Jacoby Ellsbury
2. 2B Dustin Pedroia
3. DH David Ortiz
4. LF Jason Bay
5. 1B Kevin Youkilis
6. 3B Mike Lowell
7. RF JD Drew
8. SS Jed Lowrie
9. C Josh Bard

RH Josh Beckett
LH Jon Lester
RH Daisuke Matsusaka
RH Brad Penny
RH Tim Wakefield
(RH John Smoltz)

CL Jonathan Papelbon
SU Hideki Okajima
SU Ramon Ramirez
MR Manny Delcarmen
MR Javier Lopez
MR Justin Masterson
LR David Aardsma

Bench:
OF Rocco Baldelli
IF Julio Lugo
1B Jeff Bailey

With the signing of Baldelli, the Red Sox have found their 4th outfielder and potentially a power bat if the doctors can indeed improve his rediagnosed medical condition to allow him to get 350-400 AB per season.

John Smoltz also gives the front office a lot more flexibility with their prospects, and Buchholz seems to be trade bait for a new bat (potentially a C). Apart from he-who-shall-not-be-mentioned-but-we're-all-laughing-our-asses-of-at-his-non-existant-market, there are no top tier big bats on the free market, which means that if the Red Sox will add one, then they will have to trade.

Some rumours (or perhaps wishful thinking) have mentioned Joe Mauer, but I suspect that he is untouchable, even if we throw Buchholz and other top line prospect. I get the impression that the front office rates Michael Bowden higher, thus making Clay tradeable. However, with Epstein and co thinking long term, they know that most likely there is a power bat available from the minors towards the end of 09 or early 2010 in the shape of Lars Anderson, 1B extraordinaire, who has been tearing up A and AA, and will probably start 2009 in Portland before moving up to Pawtucket in the late spring/early summer.

Obviously a blockbuster deal with the Rangers for Josh Hamilton and Jarrod Saltalamacchia/Teagarden/Ramirez for Ellsbury, Buchholz and perhaps Daniel Bard might be difficult, as neither of the Rangers players have any large contracts the Red Sox could take on. Still, it would make the Red Sox lineup a feared one, with better back end rotation, defense and bullpen than the Yankees:

1. 2B Dustin Pedroia
2. RF JD Drew
3. DH David Ortiz
4. CF Josh Hamilton
5. 1B Kevin Youkilis
6. 3B Mike Lowell
7. LF Jason Bay
8. C Jarrod Saltalamacchia
9. SS Jed Lowrie

Looks good to me :)

Love/hate relationship

Being a relative newcomer to baseball (7 years) and as a Red Sox fan (almost 6 years), plus not being a Boston native, I have yet to develop the “standard” love/hate relationship to the Red Sox that many long time fans seem to have. At least those who became fans prior to 2004.

When I started following the Sox in 2002/2003, the general atmosphere was one of extreme loyalty, but also combined with the somewhat fatalistic view honed by decades of nearly-rans.

Sure, the Sox are great in June-July, but come September they’ll slump.

As I was not following baseball during most of the horrible 86 years between 1918 and 2004, (apart from witnessing my own obvious horror show hosted by Aaron Boone at 5am one October morning in 2003) I have had to understand history by reading many a book on baseball and the Red Sox. It is painfully obvious that being a Red Sox fan prior to 2004 was like being a sucker for punishment. Every opening day was filled with new belief, but also a little bit of trepidation of the inevitable letdown that will come at some point. You would love the Sox, but they would also break your heart every year.

Personally, the City of Boston nowadays holds a similar emotion in my psyche. Boston is without a doubt one of my favourite cities in the world. One snowy February night 5 ½ years ago I proposed to my then girlfriend there, and for years that amplified my attraction and love for Boston. Finding out years later that some horrible things affecting me personally had happened in the very same city shattered my love for Boston. I struggled very much just watching my beloved Sox on television, knowing what Boston now represented for me, looking in the crowd on the TV feed for people I loathed, and loathing even more that people I hated with a passion were also supposedly Red Sox fans.

How could I reconcile these conflicting feelings in my head? How could I love the Sox while having such a love/hate relationship with the concept of Boston itself. Only then did I realise a little what the long time Sox fans had been going through. Falling in love with the Sox, only to have your heart shattered. I truly felt like a “proper” Red Sox fan….

Today the atmosphere is very different. I returned to Boston, found love again, not only for the city, but also for people there. Like my love returned and healed my heart, Bostonians now encounter different emotions for the Sox than before.

8 games behind the AL East top? Doesn’t matter, we can catch them!

As strange as it might seem, there are young Red Sox fans who think that the team always wins in the end. There are new “fans” that came to the Nation after the 2004 glorious (yet for me personally with hindsight very difficult) win, certain people without any baseball interest paying fortunes for World Series tickets so that they can say “I was there”. Whilst I’m of course happy that people flock to the gorgeous temple that is Fenway, like with any other successful team there will be bandwagon jumpers (see: Manchester United). Although I do not feel that the pink B caps are an abomination like Kristen does in her great Basegirl blog, (in fact I got my girlfriend a pink cap – sorry…), I feel more annoyance towards the bandwagon fans who think the Sox will do no wrong.

Similar to my personal life where I am now a little bit guarded, I follow the Red Sox with a smidgen of concern, knowing how fragile a team ultimately is. A season ending injury (god forbid) to Lester or Beckett would have serious effects on any post season chances.

However, I still find myself opening up and allowing old battle scars to fade, knowing that life will go on even if the Sox lose, but life will be just that little bit better if they do win.