October 20, 2008
Quiet Homecoming
The Red Sox returned to Fenway early this morning, no fans to greet them:
Most players quickly climbed into cars and drove away, preferring not to reflect any further on the disappointing finish.
Center fielder Coco Crisp did tell reporters that the team put up a good fight and almost pulled off a miracle finish, adding, "there's always next year."
They did put up a good fight. They pulled off an amazing comeback in game five, got a gutsy performance from Beckett and the bullpen in game six, and pitched well enough to win in game 7. They just ran into someone better in Matt Garza. Compared to the way the Cubs went out, the Red Sox played like champions. There's no shame in that.
No fans? Really?
Wow. That's kinda crummy. :-(
re: no fans isn't quite right
(1) i agree the red sox played like champions. if there's a legendary comeback in all of baseball i distinctly remember, its the 1929 A's coming back from 8 runs down in the 1929 world series vs. the cubs and taking down that vaunted powerhouse team. That was quite a team. To be in company with that team by coming from 7 runs down in a postseason elimination game is really, truly something.
(2) there may have been no fans at the particular time the 2008 bosox hit town, but i can guarantee you two things;
(a) almost no one will be watching the world series to see the tampa bay rays; and
(b) a lot of people would have tuned in to see the Red Sox play in the world series again.
also,
(3) A lot of people will tune in to see the Phillies play, and a lot more would have tuned in to see the Phillies play the Red Sox, in a repeat of the 1915 World Series of nearly 100 years ago. Babe Ruth was on the Red Sox then, I think.
(4) i give credit to the Rays and Matt Garza, but the Red Sox deserved to win and defend their title. It's hard to take a team seriously that didn't even exist the last time your team was in the world series (1993) because it was an expansion team created in 1998.
--art kyriazis, philly
Sure, Art.
Maybe the league should spot the Red Sox a run per game, right? For ratings sake? Don't those other teams realize that they're NOTHING without the Sox and the Yankees?
One of the more entertaining things about baseball is watching young players become stars. Even The Babe was nobody at some point.
Hard to take the Rays seriously? I'm finding it hard to take your eastern-centric bs seriously.
