Okay, I'm back. After somewhat of a hiatus, I am back to blogging. It was pretty frustrating not being able to post while in China. All those great thoughts about baseball and saving the world all went to waste, as I only have a short-term memory.
Anyways, baseball season is over. The Chicago White Sox have won the World Series for the first time in 86 years. Their road to becoming champions was much less dramatic than that of the 2004 Red Sox. They took a huge lead in their division from the start. Something ridiculous like a 30 game lead. Then they lost that lead while crazy-genius, Ozzie Guillen, decides to experiment with the lineup. Essentially tossing their lead out the window, but giving the team a huge advantage in the post season. So congradulations, Chicago. Congradulations, Crazzy Guillen. I don't really care that you won, but as a Red Sox fan, I feel your joy.
So, I've been wanting to ask for a long time, but really too tired to do so. What happened to the Red Sox? I suppose the question has been beat up many times already considering the size of the Red Sox fan base. However, I feel that in order to get some closure this season, I have to let it out of my head like everyone else.
To be honest, I'm still too happy about 2004 to be sad about 2005. Plus, like many others, I secretly understand that there will never ever ever (at least in my lifetime) be another season like 2004. It really snuck up on us too. 2004 Red Sox baseball was disguised as "another disappointing season" with one event after another. Not getting A-Rod, Pedro being sad, Lowe pitching like crap and crying afterwards, Arroyo's ups and downs, Byung Hyun Kim, Nomar's departure, and the shadow of 2003 ALCS. That surge at the end to get us the Wild Card was awesome, but big whoop, we do that every year. Then of course being down three games in the ALCS, some of the unfaithful thought it was all over.
I was disappointed from the start of 2005. It just felt like so many of our heros were gone. Letting go of Lowe was a smart move. He wasn't doing too well, and that was a decision that I agree with the most. He is still a Red Sox hero in my mind, but he's probably better off somewhere other than Fenway. Despite Pedro's subpar performance in 2004 regular season, it was really sad to see him go. The drama and performance he gave us was priceless. Also, it is reported that he keeps the mood light in the locker room; a huge morale booster. I'm happy that Pedro is doing well with the Mets, and that he has resolved "paternal issues" with the Yanks.
Okay, so that's the bad news. Here's the sad news: they broke up the team. Yes, of course they kept Schilling, Varitek, Damon, Manny, Papi, all the "stars" of the team. But they through some sort of brain fart, decided to give away all the guys who got us there. Any Sox fan will know that I'm talking about O-Cab, Dave Roberts, and Pokey Reese! These guys got it done when it mattered. Aside from Big Papi, Dave Roberts basically saved our WS hopes with clutch hitting and running scoring the tying run against the Yankees in do or die game four. Perhaps his amazing performance was overshadowed by Papi's clutch game tying, game winning hits, and Schilling's bloody sock performance in game six. You see, that's exactly what I'm talking about: everyone had a huge hand in winning it all last year. Management made the modern baseball mistake of just looking at the numbers. Its almost as if they were clueless as to how much 2004 meant to Sox fans. 2004 means the team and the players. So for me it was a sour beginning. But what was I to complain about, I was still reeling in joy from 2004. To see the World Series banner go up on home opening (on TV of course) brought tears to my eyes.
The season goes on as we see Baltimore play extremely well, and the ChiSox play extremely well. Sox and Yanks were at the bottom for once. The Sox grab a huge lead only to falter to poor pitching and the surging Yanks. They Sox played okay, but just okay. Schilling has trouble coming back, Foulke is unable to come back. Meanwhile, the stupid media and a small group of ungrateful fans start calling Schill and Foulke selfish.
Listen up: these two men risked their careers for our 2004 World Series Championship, HOW DARE YOU CALL THEM SELFISH.
My blood is boiling as I type this. These are the evil fans that Bill Simmons talks about. All they do is whine. Screw the media for drumming up hate and disappointment just to sell another article. Bullshit.
Anyways, as the season died down, injuries, lack of bullpen consistency, and poor defense (should have kept Reese, O-Cab, and Mientkiewicz) turned our monster lead into a one game deficit against the Yankees. We limped into the playoffs thanks to the dominant ChiSox and the self-destructing Indians. The ChiSox sweep came as no surprise to me, and don't give me that keep the faith crap now cause I kept the damn faith after game three 2004 ALCS thank you very much.
As I said, I'm happy cause the curse is over, we're still 2004 World Series Champions, we still made the playoffs, and the Evil Empire didn't make it past the DS either. We were playing hurt, and we still made off pretty well. What makes me sad is that management decided not to try to keep our championship team in one piece. Some departures were inevitable, but some guys they didn't even try to keep. Well, one amazing thing about 2005 that carried over from 04 was clutch clutch clutch batting from David "Big Papi" Ortiz. It is uncanny how good he is late in the game. If you kept up with Red Sox baseball, you would have been shocked and wide-eyed at how Ortiz's late game heroics just happened so often. Towards the end it just felt like a regular occurance. I wasn't even surprised anymore when Ortiz tied the game or hit a walk off homer. I was still happy, but I was almost confident that Papi would get the job done. He probably felt that way too.
Anyways, baseball season is over. The Chicago White Sox have won the World Series for the first time in 86 years. Their road to becoming champions was much less dramatic than that of the 2004 Red Sox. They took a huge lead in their division from the start. Something ridiculous like a 30 game lead. Then they lost that lead while crazy-genius, Ozzie Guillen, decides to experiment with the lineup. Essentially tossing their lead out the window, but giving the team a huge advantage in the post season. So congradulations, Chicago. Congradulations, Crazzy Guillen. I don't really care that you won, but as a Red Sox fan, I feel your joy.
So, I've been wanting to ask for a long time, but really too tired to do so. What happened to the Red Sox? I suppose the question has been beat up many times already considering the size of the Red Sox fan base. However, I feel that in order to get some closure this season, I have to let it out of my head like everyone else.
To be honest, I'm still too happy about 2004 to be sad about 2005. Plus, like many others, I secretly understand that there will never ever ever (at least in my lifetime) be another season like 2004. It really snuck up on us too. 2004 Red Sox baseball was disguised as "another disappointing season" with one event after another. Not getting A-Rod, Pedro being sad, Lowe pitching like crap and crying afterwards, Arroyo's ups and downs, Byung Hyun Kim, Nomar's departure, and the shadow of 2003 ALCS. That surge at the end to get us the Wild Card was awesome, but big whoop, we do that every year. Then of course being down three games in the ALCS, some of the unfaithful thought it was all over.
I was disappointed from the start of 2005. It just felt like so many of our heros were gone. Letting go of Lowe was a smart move. He wasn't doing too well, and that was a decision that I agree with the most. He is still a Red Sox hero in my mind, but he's probably better off somewhere other than Fenway. Despite Pedro's subpar performance in 2004 regular season, it was really sad to see him go. The drama and performance he gave us was priceless. Also, it is reported that he keeps the mood light in the locker room; a huge morale booster. I'm happy that Pedro is doing well with the Mets, and that he has resolved "paternal issues" with the Yanks.
Okay, so that's the bad news. Here's the sad news: they broke up the team. Yes, of course they kept Schilling, Varitek, Damon, Manny, Papi, all the "stars" of the team. But they through some sort of brain fart, decided to give away all the guys who got us there. Any Sox fan will know that I'm talking about O-Cab, Dave Roberts, and Pokey Reese! These guys got it done when it mattered. Aside from Big Papi, Dave Roberts basically saved our WS hopes with clutch hitting and running scoring the tying run against the Yankees in do or die game four. Perhaps his amazing performance was overshadowed by Papi's clutch game tying, game winning hits, and Schilling's bloody sock performance in game six. You see, that's exactly what I'm talking about: everyone had a huge hand in winning it all last year. Management made the modern baseball mistake of just looking at the numbers. Its almost as if they were clueless as to how much 2004 meant to Sox fans. 2004 means the team and the players. So for me it was a sour beginning. But what was I to complain about, I was still reeling in joy from 2004. To see the World Series banner go up on home opening (on TV of course) brought tears to my eyes.
The season goes on as we see Baltimore play extremely well, and the ChiSox play extremely well. Sox and Yanks were at the bottom for once. The Sox grab a huge lead only to falter to poor pitching and the surging Yanks. They Sox played okay, but just okay. Schilling has trouble coming back, Foulke is unable to come back. Meanwhile, the stupid media and a small group of ungrateful fans start calling Schill and Foulke selfish.
Listen up: these two men risked their careers for our 2004 World Series Championship, HOW DARE YOU CALL THEM SELFISH.
My blood is boiling as I type this. These are the evil fans that Bill Simmons talks about. All they do is whine. Screw the media for drumming up hate and disappointment just to sell another article. Bullshit.
Anyways, as the season died down, injuries, lack of bullpen consistency, and poor defense (should have kept Reese, O-Cab, and Mientkiewicz) turned our monster lead into a one game deficit against the Yankees. We limped into the playoffs thanks to the dominant ChiSox and the self-destructing Indians. The ChiSox sweep came as no surprise to me, and don't give me that keep the faith crap now cause I kept the damn faith after game three 2004 ALCS thank you very much.
As I said, I'm happy cause the curse is over, we're still 2004 World Series Champions, we still made the playoffs, and the Evil Empire didn't make it past the DS either. We were playing hurt, and we still made off pretty well. What makes me sad is that management decided not to try to keep our championship team in one piece. Some departures were inevitable, but some guys they didn't even try to keep. Well, one amazing thing about 2005 that carried over from 04 was clutch clutch clutch batting from David "Big Papi" Ortiz. It is uncanny how good he is late in the game. If you kept up with Red Sox baseball, you would have been shocked and wide-eyed at how Ortiz's late game heroics just happened so often. Towards the end it just felt like a regular occurance. I wasn't even surprised anymore when Ortiz tied the game or hit a walk off homer. I was still happy, but I was almost confident that Papi would get the job done. He probably felt that way too.
