September 14, 2007
Hanging Tough
As the Yankees and Red Sox meet for their final series of the season, Gordon Edes looks for a term to describe this Boston club:
So, what are we to say about a team when it doesn't collapse, fold, choke, fall apart, crumble, disintegrate, melt, break down, crash and burn, fizzle, flop, or fade?
The language is rich in words to describe failure. The Red Sox have had most of those terms applied to them at times throughout their history. So where are the words to describe what these Sox of 2007 are doing, in the face of the best second half the Yankees have had since Joe Torre became manager in 1996?
Somehow, "hanging on" doesn't quite cut it, not when history's most expensive team rolls into town on an 8-1 tear and has run off a record of 40-20 since the All-Star break, a .667 clip that conjures memories of the .684 pace (54-25) the '78 Yanks played at in erasing a 14-game deficit to overtake the Sox. All that winning, and the Yankees arrive 5 1/2 games behind and needing more than a three-game sweep this weekend to catch the Sox.
How about playing like champions?
As well as the Yankees have played, they could have made up all of the ground they had to if the Red Sox have let up at all.
They have played .600 since the break and .607 before, which is impressive no matter what the schedule is. From what I can tell from the players' comments, they have taken the attitude that all they had to do was continue to win series and they have done that for the most part.
Man, I hope someone actually beans a batter in this upcoming series. It would be a refreshing change from getting suspended for looking at them funny. "Chip on the shoulder" doesn't even begin to describe the Sawx. You'd think that with those numbers they could behave like winners too.