What Can You Say? Wake Me Up



I haven't written for a long time. There's a simple answer...superstition. Don't interrupt karma.

How do you win a World Series with less talent and more panache and character than the 2013 Red Sox? I don't think it's (to paraphrase Jonny Gomes) possible to explain it with words.

From the Boston Marathon tragedy (much like 9/11 culminated in a Patriots' Super Bowl), a spirit arose that meant walkoff wins and unlikely heroes.

The Sox finished with a closer who was never meant to close, a backup catcher who missed more than a third of the season on the DL, a first baseman who almost was never here because of a hip problem, a third baseman from Aruba via a late-season call-up, and a reserve left fielder who started games 10-1 in the postseason.

They won with two dominant starters (chicken and beer redemptions) and unlikely bullpen stalwarts including two Japanese pitchers, a left-handed molecular physicist, and another tall Texan who began his major league career as a starter threatening no-hit immortality.

Their number one third baseman sat most of the post-season and got called for obstruction to end game three, their top catcher was displaced, and they overpaid (according to most, including me) for a right-fielder on the downside of his career who won a Gold Glove and delivered key hits in the ALCS and the World Series.

What can you say? Superstition pays. Wake me up.

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