Calm Down People!
Uncle Joe says it's going to be all right.
(New York, September 23, 2005) BLOHARD SVP for homeland security Joseph Cosgriff today administered a calming dose of rationality to the fevered corpus of Red Sox nation in the form of an encyclical, the text of which can be read below:
Keeping The Faith: Not Just Another Bad Billy Joel Video
It's time to open the windows and come back in off the ledges. Sure the Sox are a game behind the Yankees with exactly ten games to play. We would all do well to look at this as a snapshot instead of as a moving picture. Block out Wednesday night and some of the places where we have been this season, and think where we are going. The Sox are a game out with three left against the Yankees at Fenway. In the words of Jim Powers under similar circumstances in the past, "We have them right where we want them."
Let's take a deep breath here. Since the Yankees' 19-8 win over the Sox in Fenway last October to go up 3-0, the Sox tore up the familiar Yankees' script with four straight wins, then stomped out all the curses by finishing off the Cardinals. Think "DUCK BOATS"; it was not all that long ago.
The Yankees have made up four games on the Sox by going 9-1 in their last ten games, while the Sox have gone 5-5. A team with a payroll of $208 million that carries $15 million pinch-hitters always has the potential to go on such a winning streak against teams that spend less on middle relief than New Yorkers do for premium cable. The Sox, playing with a payroll that is $85 million less ($85 million is greater than or equal to the total payroll of twenty MLB teams!) and without their ace and closer for essentially the entire season, have matched the Yankees stride for stride by scoring six or seven runs on every non-Wakefield night.
Also note that the Jeter/Bernie/Rivera/Posada Yankees are not used to pennant races, especially ones in which losing the division might result in their being left out of the postseason. Even their single-digit final margins over the Sox were never really akin to this season's expected photo finish. This is a team that has traditionally spent the season's final week tweaking its playoff pitching rotation, not fighting for a spot in the playoffs. How will the Yanks react to a scenario in which one bad week could make the Sunday game in Fenway their final October game of the season?
In 1949 the Sox held a one-game lead over the Yankees when they visited Yankee Stadium for a two-game series. The Yankees calmly won them both, then took out Brooklyn in the World Series. And we all know what happened in 1978. Well, that was THEN and part of the what was. THIS year will be our turn. After winning it all in 2004 the Sox are playing with house money. Last year they broke the Yankees' stronghold and broke THE CURSE. This year, by giving late September hope and expectations to the Yankees and their front-running, foul-mouthed fans, the Sox' September swoon has merely served to put them in a better position to break the hearts of the Evil Empire......again.
September 23, 2005
BACK