Nation Vexation?

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Mike from Cambridge, a.k.a. "Boston Mike" (a quick aside, the older you get, the more people you meet with certain names, like John/Jon, Steve, and of course Mike. Hence, you have to give them qualifiers, like I've done here, to distinguish Boston Mike from Mike'n'Vickie Mike, Mike the Russian, MadDog Mike, Mike the Builder, etc. All these people have last names, but somehow, this makes more sense. Don't ask me why. Anyhow...), sent me a message entitled "Nation Vexation". Here's what he said:

"Is it just me or are all Sox fans somewhat sated by success? In years past I would have been apoplectic about signing a washed up bum like Colon. Now its just like "meh" "

Ignoring the fact that Mike used "sated" and "apoplectic" and yet still summed up his feeling with "meh", he had a point. In a Red Sox off-season relatively devoid of controversy, we were able to sit back and soak it all in, perhaps for the first time in our lives. The news of Schilling's woes was largely greeted with a collective "kinda saw that one coming" and "hopefully he'll be back for the play-offs". OK, two things of note here. First off, when have you ever known Red Sox Nation to not panic at news like this? Second, we now regard the play-offs as a given. It wasn't that way after 2004. We were jubilant, yet there was a strange feeling of "what's going to go wrong now?". And it was a well-founded fear. Pedro left. D-Lowe and Cabrera, too. Schill and Foulke showed the wear and tear of the previous season, spending large chunks of the year on the DL. And Bellhorn, Millar and Embree all sucked in '05. The Caveman Johnny Damon would defect to the Yankees at the end of the season.

But that was then, and this is now. 2007 showed us what Baseball Ops and ownership really were building. 2004, for all of it's greatness, for all of its history, was a bit of a fluke. Or a miracle, more accurately. We were, to quote Manny, a team of destination. But in 2007, and now heading into 2008, we are a team built for the long haul. A perfect balance of young talent, veteran guile, consistent hitting, complete pitching. In essence, the team that won the World Series last year looks like the team that will win it this year. If anything changed, we got a bit better, Bartolo "Never Met a Chalupa I Didn't Eat" Colon not withstanding.

So it wasn't really a surprise this week when the news of Josh Beckett's back problems was met with little concern in Red Sox Nation. Even the usually fear-mongering sports talk radio hosts went so far as to dismiss it as a "phantom injury", a minor pain elevated in the inner circles to provide a plausible excuse to keep them from having to subject Beckett to the Japan trip- one that clearly doesn't sit well with players or management. Why put your ace through that? While there will be many smiles and "it will be a great experience" comments from Sox players and coaches in the days to come, I'll guarantee you that there isn't a soul in that clubhouse who is looking forward to this trip, Matsuzaka and Okajima included. These guys thrive on routine, especially in Spring Training and as they get their feet wet in the opening weeks of the season. And this folly for MLB is anything but routine. I was against it from Day 1, and remain so. I have no doubt the Sox will rebound from the trip and live up to expectations, but I still think it is an unfair burden to place on two teams out of thirty.


28 Days until I pass through the Gates of Fenway for the first time this season. Barstool Fridays return this week, I'll have more on the Sox and Celtics, March Madness stuff, and I'll break my silence on the never ending Arlen Specter Affair.




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