If there?s any team capable of breaking a fan's heart, it?s the Boston Red Sox
OPINION
updated 3:43 p.m. ET Sept. 13, 2011
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In the mid-'80s, psychologist Daniel Wegner did a series of thought experiments to research what he called ?the futility of suppression.? Whenever he told the participants not to think about a white bear, their brains filled with more polar bears than a box of Klondike bars. Wegner showed that the harder you try to shove a thought out of your cerebrum, the more impossible it is to do.
Wegner is now a professor at Harvard, where I imagine he has a virtual vending machine of Red Sox fans to analyze. After Boston?s ongoing September slump, everyone has told the citizens of Red Sox Nation not to panic, which means that, despite my best efforts, all I can do is panic.
Rationally, I know this isn?t 1978. Don Zimmer isn?t in the dugout spending nine innings testing the tensile strength of his overstretched uni pants and benching players because he can.
This is 2011, and the Sox are still a solid team who, despite their struggles, still lead the league in OBP, SLG and are second in batting average and runs scored. They?re still very capable of ?righting the ship,? as general manager Theo Epstein said Monday.
Rationally, I know this. But if I were rational, I wouldn?t be a Red Sox fan.
And as a Boston fan, I know that no fan base wallows in the yellowed pages of history like we do. As a group, we aren?t known for our optimism or sunny outlook; we?re more Bucky Effin? Dent than Norman Vincent Peale. But that?s because we know that if there?s any team capable of breaking our hearts, it?s the Boston Red Sox.
On Aug. 31, Boston led the AL East by 1.5 games over New York and had won seven of 10. Then they flipped to the next page on their J.D. Drew Scowl-A-Day calendar, they dropped nine of 11 and are slogging through a 5-game losing streak, baseball?s longest current Suckfest.?
Don?t panic? I?m not panicking, I always breathe through an empty Dunkin? Donuts bag.?
Boston hasn?t had a longer stretch of L?s since they went 0-6 to start the season, although they?ve had a lot of Most [Insert a Terrible Thing Here] Since April, including being on the wrong side of a 3-game sweep. Until Tampa Bay did it over the weekend, no team had taken three straight from Boston since they opened the year with back-to-back broom jobs from Texas and Cleveland.
Panic? Nooooo, I always sweat like this. It's a thyroid problem, OK? Stop staring!
Boston?s ERA for September (6.61), batting average (.262) and opponents? BA (.289) are also their worst since April. Boston has been outscored 73-54 this month, for ? say it with me ? their first negative run differential since April.
Panic? No, I always put a splash of Imodium in my coffee.
Not only are the Red Sox struggling, but Tampa Bay has signed Mr. Momentum in a late-season deadline deal. The Rays have been hot enough to steam Joe Maddon?s glasses, winning five straight and slicing Boston?s lead in the wild-card standings to three games.
Panic? No, Tuesday is always my Designated Weeping Day.
Two weeks ago, I spent the evenings watching Detroit and Texas games, taking notes on the backs of envelopes and debating which team would be a better first-round matchup for the Sox. I applied for the ALDS ticket lottery and Kayak-ed flights to Boston. And I made the critical mistake of counting my Muddy Chickens before they hatched.?
According to Baseball Prospectus, Boston still has a 97.1 percent chance of making the playoffs. Cool Standings gives them an 88.2 percent chance of clinching the AL wild card, before helpfully pointing out that if they did miss the postseason, they would?ve suffered the third-biggest collapse in major league history.
?We?re not getting very good starting pitching right now,? Epstein said. ?Our bullpen is in a downturn. We have some guys who are not having the kind of at-bats they have had in the course of the season. We are not playing great defense [?] It?s across the board why we?ve had a really bad couple of weeks.?
He?s right. Nothing is clicking for Boston, except maybe Kevin Youkilis? bursitis-swollen hip joint. While the Sox have been struggling in every possible way, the Rays have quietly gone 26-13 since the beginning of August; only Detroit has a better record in the AL during that span.? Tampa's team numbers haven?t deviated too far from their season averages, but sometimes there?s nothing more competitive than consistency.
And Tampa ? unlike Boston ? actually has a pitching rotation they can rely on, one that could get even better after calling up 23-year-old Matt Moore, the top-rated arm in Triple A.Meanwhile, the next trip through the Red Sox five-man rotation includes the one who hasn?t won since July 24 (Tim Wakefield), the one whose 6.30 ERA is the worst in both leagues (John Lackey), the one who lasted 1 1/3 innings in his last home start (Andrew Miller), the one with more ejections?one?than wins?zero (Kyle Weiland) and the one bright spot (Jon Lester).
Pani ... aw, you get it.
Boston and Tampa both finish the season against AL East teams, including four head-to-head games starting Thursday night at Fenway. Boston will play 10 straight at home, where they?re a combined 16-10 against their remaining opponents.
I keep telling myself that Boston HAS to get better, you know?? Because Josh Beckett and his sprained ankle had what Buster Olney called a ?good? side session yesterday. And Theo Epstein hinted that Clay Buchholz ? who hasn?t pitched since June 15 ? might be available out of the bullpen. And Dustin Pedroia won?t hit .097 over the next seven-day stretch. And John Lackey won't ? well, yeah, he?ll still be awful.
If ? When? When! ? Boston makes the playoffs, they?ll become just the third team to reach the postseason after such a lousy start to the season (0-6).
Uh, wait ... Tampa did too.
Can somebody get me Dr. Wegner?s number? There?s something I?m trying not to think about.
Jelisa Castrodale has learned a lot about life by making a mess of her own. Read more at jelisacastrodale.com , follow her on twitter at twitter.com/gordonshumway, or contact her at ?
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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/44500000/ns/sports-baseball/
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