This year's Red Sox

[yendi]

Bill Simmons, author of Now I Can Die in Peace : How ESPN's Sports Guy Found Salvation, with a Little Help from Nomar, Pedro, Shawshank, and the 2004 Red Sox has a superb piece up at ESPN talking not only about the near-disaster that the Sox season has turned into recently (with three days for them to stop the damage, of course), but lambasting the reactions of the local media, some fans, and the actions of the team's management itself. Highly recommended reading.

Comments

[jerel.livejournal.com]

It's obvious what happened. Last year, the laws of the universe decided to take a break, so the Sox didn't have their annual August meltdown. This year, the universe has been pretty busy, so the meltdown was moved to September.

The Sox management has a history of making bad decisions after great years. After the '86 series, they went to a lot of trouble to break up the band. And Simmons is right that the papers have to sell themselves; they've always done so by criticizing the Sox (and the Celtics, and the Patriots, and the Bruins) (when the NHL actually has a season.) But the Sox are always an easy target.

Am I disappointed? Sure. But after 20+ years living in the Red Sox nation, I'm used to it. :)

[sainthuck.livejournal.com]

Update: they clinched the wild card with a win today.

And I love the Mr. Met icon.