And I don’t care what you say about me

Some folks would have him burned at the stake. I prefer acknowledging that he's human and obviously feels awful about the whole thing. (Grabbed from NECN video.)

So I spent most of yesterday with a large portion of my family.  We had a funeral mass for my uncle who passed away over a month ago, so while it was sad the sting of it all was off and we got to enjoy each other’s company for the day.  Except when the subject of the Red Sox came up.

My father, by most accounts, is an even-tempered, Irish Catholic, Red Sox fan.  Tough to find if  you believe the stereotypes.  We watch a lot of baseball together but we didn’t watch Sunday’s game because I was at the park and he was at a Christening (yes, I was supposed to be there.  The fates made sure it was held at a place it isn’t good for me to go into so it all turned out okay!)…so I didn’t get to see his reaction when the end came (there was a tv at this restaurant they were at).  We didn’t even really talk about it much yesterday.  But after everything was over and it was just the two of us he admitted to me that there were a few times he cursed Tito during the game on Sunday (Tito usually bears the brunt of any of my dad’s wrath) but that he, really, didn’t feel all that terrible about the Sox losing.  What was bothering him were the “naysayers” and all the negativity.  Must be genetic.  :)  For the record, while everyone can acknowledge Papelbon’s huge part in the loss on Sunday, like me my dad agrees that one lost game by the closer was not what really brought this team down.  The did it together.  Just go back and read the box scores for the first two games of the series.

I took my dad to a game in 2005 where a good portion of the fans booed Mark Bellhorn’s every at bat.  In 2004, Bellhorn was the recipient of my father’s baseball anger – from the comfort of my dad’s couch.  When he is at the park, my father doesn’t believe in booing your own players (hell, he doesn’t even boo opposing players and he’s said things about some of the Yankees that I don’t dare print here!) and when he heard supposed fans giving Bellhorn hell it really upset him (not coincidentally, 2005 was the last year my dad went to Fenway.  He’s getting older and the trip in and all the walking sometimes gives him a little bit of a hard time the next day.  But I KNOW the main reason he doesn’t go through all the trouble of getting to Fenway is the fans.  The negative ones.).

So last night he waves the Boston Herald in front of me and asks if I saw the headline.  I hadn’t.  “‘PapelBOMB'”, he shouted at me, pissed.  “Can you believe, after all he’s done, the local paper calls hims ‘Papelbomb’?”  (It’s really a good thing my father doesn’t hit the Internet for his Red Sox news.)  He also went on to ask me if I heard the fans booing Paps.  Here’s the thing…I didn’t.  Now, usually when I say I didn’t hear booing people come back and tell me I’m either lying or I wasn’t paying attention.  So when it came out that there was booing I told some folks that I must have been so upset that I blocked it out.

Maybe that wasn’t the case?  According to Jon Lester, former Sox manager Joe Morgan and even Kevin Youkilis – a guy who in the past has gone out of his way to berate the fans for booing – all said that the booing wasn’t that bad and was somewhat understandable.  Out of a full house at Fenway maybe a “couple of thousand” people booed our closer.  (Incidentally, if you were one of those 2000, in today’s Herald Steve Buckley defends you.  Steve Buckley is on your side.  If that doesn’t make you want to scrape off your skin in an industrial shower than you have no soul.)

Yesterday, Theo was asked if the Sox were going into a “downward trend” (I’m guessing this question came from Tony Massarotti).  World Series in 2007, ALCS in 2008, ALDS in 2009.  Tell me that whichever reporter asked that question he/she wasn’t trying to bait Theo?  Theo’s response:

“No. The way I look at it, we’ve had sort of two three-year runs in the postseason. We swept the World Series twice. We’ve been eliminated in the ALCS Game 7 twice. And we’ve been swept in the first round twice. We couldn’t have predicted it any time. We were prepared to go on a nice long run.”

This isn’t just wishful thinking. The guy runs the team and knows what needs to be done to make them win.  A ‘downward trend’?  In 2004, the Red Sox won the World Series.  In 2005, they got swept out of the ALDS.  In 2006 they didn’t even make the post-season and then they won it all again in 2007.   Yeah, the team that  spent more time in the last 10 years in the playoffs than not is a team we should be worried about because they “only” made it to the ALDS this year.  Sorry, I’m not biting.

The teams I wanted to win in the LDS?  The Red Sox, of course, the Twins (of course!), the Rockies and the Cardinals.  What do all these teams have in common?

No one damn one of them is moving on to the LCS.  Not one.  THIS is why I don’t make predictions on this blog.  🙂

So now I have to root for the Phillies and the Angels.  Because if we get a Yankees/Dodgers World Series the smugness of the baseball world just might suffocate us all.

It’s raining today.  Gray and lousy out.  Somehow, though, my attitude isn’t reflected in the weather.  I’m still bummed.  I’ll miss watching my team.  But it’s far from over for this franchise, ultimately.  All losing so quickly in the first round has done is given Theo more time to work on next year’s team!