Broomtown turnaround
Just as silly as it was to get all worked up over a 2-6 start, it’s impractical to regard this current 10-game winning streak as the end-all, be-all in determining the ultimate fate of these 2009 Red Sox.
But it’s a lot more fun.
After this past weekend’s sweep of the Yankees at Fenway, I’ve forced myself some due penance. Never again will I precede a weekend series between these two teams as anything less than special. Never again will I make snide remarks about an early-season meeting lacking in intensity. Never again will I feign indifference over those who remarked that Friday began the real regular season for baseball.
We’ve only got 18 to choose from, but the list of the four best games of this Red Sox season goes like this:
1. April 24, Red Sox-Yankees
2. April 25, Red Sox-Yankees
3. April 26, Red Sox-Yankees
4. The other 15
From Kevin Youkilis’s walk-off home run Friday night, to Jacoby Ellsbury’s steal of home last night, it was a summer-like weekend full of vignettes that seemed to knock us over the head with the reality that baseball season is finally here after three weeks of extended spring training.
It was a weekend filled with any number of special moments that will go into the video yearbook at season’s end. How many do you remember before Friday? Tim Wakefield’s near no-hitter? That’s about all I got.
It was also the sort of weekend that can make a man jump to any number of conclusions. The premature panic in these parts after the Sox started the year 2-6 was somewhat reminiscent of similar angst in New York way back in 1998 when the Yankees began April with a 1-4 mark. That team went on to win 16 of the final 18 games in the month, the catalyst to a then-record 114-win season.
If there ever were a team that was Exhibit A in the case against panicking within the first 10 games of a 162-game season, the ’98 Yankees may be it.
If the Red Sox sweep the Indians this week, they will finish April with the same record as that team in the season’s first month. Some rough start. Ten days ago, the revisionists missed Manny Ramirez. Now they’re hailing Ramon Ramirez as one of the team’s MVPs.
As entertaining as it was to witness fans and media alike trying to pinpoint the Red Sox’ shortcomings on, oh, April 11, we shouldn’t start painting the World Series logo in the Fenway grass prior to May Day. After all, the last time the Red Sox went on a streak this long was when they ripped off 12 straight in June of 2006, the one season since 2002 that they have failed to reach the postseason. And it would be nice if David Ortiz would hit a home run before we start getting all jazzed about potential playoff partners, no?
But still, despite the valid, yet not surprising, concerns surrounding Ortiz and Jason Varitek, and the true depth of the starting staff as constituted (the best to be said for Josh Beckett thus far is that he’s less painful than watching Daisuke Matsuzaka every fifth day) it’s difficult not to get excited about the lights-out bullpen and the long-term prospects of one of the most diverse lineups the Sox have seen in some time. Which is another way of saying it’s officially time for the Ellsbury coming-out party, delayed one season. The kid’s on pace for 90 steals this season, which would nearly double Tommy Harper’s long-standing club record of 54.
Heck, Youkilis could hit .400 before all is said and done with by the end of September.
Or . . . not. But like we said, it’s a lot more fun to get caught up in the long-term prospects of the positive than to get drawn in over the negatives of six whole games. No team in baseball is hotter than the Boston Red Sox.
Let the season begin.
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