Break out the cliches: home cookin’, friendly Fenway, while the cat’s away…OK, that last one doesn’t make any sense but you know what I mean. One old-fashioned-take-’em-to-the-woodshed beating of the Baltimore Orioles will be enough to swing the pendulum back to the positive side for RSN. Boomer goes seven strong, the offense bats eternally in the third inning putting up a 7-spot, the Yankees lose, and suddenly this team is right back in it.
The more rational fans see it differently. The team was never out of it. Sure, having KC fans show up with brooms for the series sweep is like getting dumped by your ugly girlfriend after she tells you she may have given you a little something more than a good time in the sack, and oh-by-the-way she also smashed up your car on her way over to dump you. But the reality is, they lost three games in a row. The bats fell asleep for a few days, Tito had a Grady moment in the finale and lost faith in his entire bullpen, and the ball got suddenly slippery in the field and the guys made a few bobbles, and the game’s best closer got a little tired.
Maybe that is a little too “my rose-colored glasses are half full” or whatever that expression is, but as my man Red said, after 2004 you are an ass if you give up on these guys. With the rare and compelling 5-game weekend series against the Yankees just a few days away, anything can – and probably will – happen.
Sure, I may be throwing shit around in a vodka-induced rage if Johnson craps himself on the mound today, but that will pass just as my hangover will. My request to you is simple – keep the faith. Go to the games and cheer your asses off. When Gary from Accounting shows up at the water cooler to bad-mouth your team, don’t nod your head in agreement, kick his chestnuts into next week, smile, and walk away. Not to go all Zen-Buddha-Tom-Cruise on you, but create some positive energy. It can’t hurt. Well, it’ll hurt the guy at the water cooler, but f-ck him.
At great risk to myself, I am throwing a tease out there. Red may very well kill me and bury me in a shallow grave along side a few others, but here goes. Stay tuned for Red’s post on Monday. And that’s all you’ll get out of me.
