Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
April 01, 2003
More On Sox Closers

Ben Jacobs writes:


I just wanted to give you my two cents on the Boston media's reaction to the Red Sox bullpen. The story you linked to (Case Isn't Closed) opens with a very amusing paragraph about how they can't succeed without an "established" closer. Maybe Bob Hohler has amnesia or maybe he just goes to too many Red Sox games every year to remember all of them, but I do not have amnesia and I only get to go to a few Sox games a year. So I remember Tuesday, August 23, 2002 very well.

I was in Massachusetts for a few days and my dad and I decided to go up to Boston for the first game of a doubleheader against the Devil Rays. The Red Sox blew out Tampa Bay 22-4 in that game. Since Derek Lowe was pitching the nightcap, I decided to stay and watch the Sox move right behind the Yankees in the standings. Lowe was masterful (as he often was last year) and left after seven innings with a 4-0 lead (similar to Pedro leaving after seven innings with a 4-1 lead). Chris Haney came on and got the side in order in the eighth (similar to Mendoza retiring the side in order in the eighth last night). However, Haney ran into trouble in the ninth and left after he loaded the bases with no outs.

Enter "Established Closer" Ugueth Urbina. Urbina gives up a double and a homer before retiring the next three batters and the Red Sox lose. It would be a month before the Red Sox won three games in a row (I should point out that this was just two days after the Red Sox and their established closer twice blew late leads to lose 9-8 to the Yankees). As you know, the Red Sox did not make the playoffs with their "Established Closer" last year.

I guess my point is that the Boston media hates being happy. If Embree had retired the side in order in the ninth, the Boston media would have written that the new OBP offense is a flop because it could only score four runs. If the offense had scored more than four runs, the writers would have written that it was only the Devil Rays so it wasn't important. If it had been the Yankees and the Red Sox had won 25-0 with Pedro pitching a perfect game, they would have written that it's just the first day and they'll still blow it.

New York may be the media capital, but no writers love saying bad things about their team more than the Boston writers.


Meanwhile, Bambino's Curse isn't worried.


Posted by David Pinto at 09:39 AM | Fan Rant | TrackBack (0)