It’s always fascinating to see people so desperate that any glimmer of hope transforms them into amazingly unrealistic individuals. Such is the case, just about every year, with the Red Sox Nation. This year, the hope was a little more justified, yet the response was again disproportionately unreasonable.
On Friday, Sept. 17 the Red Sox came from behind to beat the Yankees. The win was particularly inspiring to Sox fans, because they fought back from a 2-1 deficit in the ninth inning against feared closer Mariano Rivera. The Sox were two and a half games behind the league-leading Yankees, and Internet message boards were lit up with posts about how this was finally Boston’s year.
People were giving the Serm a hard time for its Yankees slant, predicting a humiliating demise in the coming weeks. Well, the Yankees fought back over the weekend to win the next two games by a combined margin of 25-4, putting the Red Sox Nation back in its place. Especially sweet was the shelling Pedro Martinez received in Yankee Stadium, solidifying his place as a guy who melts under the New York City pressure. And we couldn’t forget to mention Manny Ramirez, who was about as productive as a certain Serm writer last Sunday afternoon.
As Yogi Berra famously said to Bernie Williams, who was nervous about the surging Red Sox: “Relax, we’ve been beating these guys for 80 years.”
So relax, Sox fans, there’s no need to go maniacal. Your team will always be able to smell, but not touch, the championship. A cool head now will serve you well, especially when you’re trying to figure out what went wrong again in October.
