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honky cracker: Here's Hoping They Have Better Luck Than I Had Down Here With You
Two things:
1) The Boston Red Sox clinched the best record in the major leagues.
2) The Mountain Goats are playing Monday and Tuesday night right here in NYC.
They kind of go together.
For the record, the Red Sox have never had the best record in the major leagues as long as I've lived. Good for them! That's great. 2004 was awesome, and nothing will ever top that. I'm prepared for this, and that's OK. The Red Sox did not win the division in 2004. They were the wild card. And the run after that was just... well... yeah. Nuff said. Yay wins.
That happened. Yay. And this is the last time I'll talk about baseball til the World Series is over. That said... Jesus H on a freaking stick, this has been one of the most trying years as a Red Sox fan I've had. The Sox signed some players for big money that were really kind of shitty for 2/3 of the year in Julio Lugo and J.D. Drew. Then ath the trading deadline they traded for a relief-pitcher with an awesome but injury-marred track record in Eric Gagne, who putting it nicely has literally BLOWN. I liked those signings. I loved the Gagne trade. Still do. But people left and right crapped on 'em all year. Sox fans. My ilk. My brethren. And me being 1) a giant Red Sox fan and 2) one of those internet people... yargh. The Red-Sox-Fan-on-Red-Sox-Fan violence has been nuts.
And I haven't even started on the Yankees fans, and their Joba (pronounced like "Jabba the Hutt". Seriously. Google image search the dude. He looks like Jabba the Hutt.) Chamberlian and Ian (there's a dood named Ian in the majors? I have a problem with people born to non-UK residents named 'Ian'. Long story.) Kennedy love and the "1978!!!!!" cries left and right. Maybe I will start in on them. Maybe I won't. Maybe I should wait til all is said and done.
But F them.
But back to what I said a little while ago about this being one of the most trying years for me as a Red Sox fan... Geez, I've been a fanboy of "wonderkind" (I HATE that word) GM Theo Epstein since he delivered a World Series championship in 2004. And as much as I like to think I'm a baseball genius, the dude delivered. And because of that, I've given him every benefit of the doubt. I backed those Lugo and Drew signings. I even backed him when he let my favorite Sox of all time – Pedro Martinez – walk over to the Mets. In Theo I trusted. And those signings paid off. Lugo's been good. Drew's been out of his mind in September, now that his 18 month old son is out of his full body cast.
Red Sox fans have been hating me all year for sticking up for those guys. But F that. The roster Epstein thought would make them one of the best teams in baseball FINISHED THE YEAR WITH THE BEST RECORD IN ALL OF MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL. So fuck the haters. You wanna hate on Drew? Fine. It's been a down year overall for him. You wanna hate Lugo? Go ahead. You want Alex Gonzalez back as shortstop? Understandable. You wanna refute that Gagne trade? All I can say is they gave of nothing of value, and I believe in the guy. He's adjusting to a new role, and I'm still behind him. But, BEST RECORD IN BASEBALL, MOTHERFUCKERS. I think he made the right decisions. And if you wished for a different outcome than this on Sep. 30th, then what did you want?.
That said. Yeah. It's September 30th. It's the postseason, and 3 series is a small sample size. Anything can happen Hell, the 83-79 St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series last year. But don't shit on me for saying the Red Sox did a pretty damn good job figuring out how to have a competitive team in the offseason. And don't shit on me for saying that the Red Sox fron office knows how to use their resources to build a winner. Clearly, they fucking did.
THAT SAID...
The Sox came sooo close to blowing their lead so many times. And manager Terry "Tito"/"FranCOMA" Francona insisted on throwing bullshit lineups out there every 4th or 5th day to keep everyone rested.... he tried my patience, especially when it came to stud Japanese import Daisuke Matsuzaka and not-so-stud Japanese import Hideki Okajima... it felt like he was just giving games away. I hated that they let it get so close, to the point where I'd be out having drinks with my girlfriend and her friends and I'd say "you all are great, but I gotta go watch the Sox at a Sox bar right now. I'll be back when it's over."
The title quote is a stretch. But I'm psyched about the Sox going into the playoffs with home-field advantage and shutting up the haters, and I'm psyched about seeing the Mountain Goats. That line is for all the doubters, the haters, the people that thought the Sox might not make it. Here's hoping, for the Sox, that they have better luck down there in the playoffs that I had down there with them during the shit times, when we all looked bad and we were getting shit on left and right. When we watched the Yankes come back down 7-2 against the Sox bullpen.
In 2004, a Sox message board compiled a book called "Win it For" out of a bunch of message board posts about why the Sox should win it for a ton of dead people. And in 2004, that's cool. But this is 2007. And in this case, win it for ME. Win it to STFU the hell out of people. Win it for Jeff in New Hampshire, who I've never met, but when it counts, we fuckin' celebrat and when it doesn't, we bitch.. Win it for Matt the Tank in Glastonbury, CT who gives me score updates when I can't get 'em. Win it for my girlfriend who doesn't care that I disappear for 2 hours to go to a Sox bar.
Win it for,,, here's hoping the Sox have better luck than I had down there with 'em. Win it for making all the bullshit pointless.
