luscious_purple (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
luscious_purple) wrote2011-09-29 10:59 am
luscious_purple) wrote2011-09-29 10:59 am
uugggghhhh....
Yeah, I stayed up last night and watched the historic Red Sox collapse. Aaarrrrrggghhhhh. I have to admit that, for fans of the Orioles, it must have been an utterly fabulous way to end an otherwise undistinguished season.
But for Red Sox Nation? Gaah, what might have been....
Seems as if a lot of people are now calling for the head of manager Terry "Tito" Francona, but I'm not one of them. I still think he's the best manager for the Red Sox. I don't know enough about baseball to assign blame, but I'd say the team HAS to get rid of Lackey, and probably Crawford too. I see Ellsbury, Pedroia, and Youkilis (when Youk gets over his injury) as the core of next year's team.
Baseball is such a funny game. It's like the opposite of football. The NFL has a 16-game season, so it is not that uncommon to have teams finish 15-1 or 1-15. But Major League Baseball is six months and 162 games. The best teams have a record around .600 and the worst teams are around .400. Regression toward the mean or something like that. Even the best teams have "off" nights when no one can hit or catch properly. Even the worst teams have flashes of athletic brilliance.
Funny, but at the end of the game last night, I was thinking about how I tried to make myself root for the Orioles back in the 1990s, when I was a new transplant to Maryland and DC had no prospects of getting an MLB team. After all, the O's still had Cal Ripken Jr., who I still think is an incredible class act. The O's led the AL East for the entire 1997 season, then lost in the playoffs (ALDS, IIRC) and then Peter Angelos fired Davey Johnson and the O's haven't had a winning season since. I can't stand Angelos as a team owner, and I guess this experience is one reason why I think the Sox should keep Francona. (Incidentally, Davey Johnson is now managing the Nationals, which gives me hope for the future of that team. I would really like to have a good NL team in DC.)
Guess I'll wrap this up with a couple of links.
Chad Finn: Red Sox did this to themselves
Nate Silver: Bill Buckner strikes again
But for Red Sox Nation? Gaah, what might have been....
Seems as if a lot of people are now calling for the head of manager Terry "Tito" Francona, but I'm not one of them. I still think he's the best manager for the Red Sox. I don't know enough about baseball to assign blame, but I'd say the team HAS to get rid of Lackey, and probably Crawford too. I see Ellsbury, Pedroia, and Youkilis (when Youk gets over his injury) as the core of next year's team.
Baseball is such a funny game. It's like the opposite of football. The NFL has a 16-game season, so it is not that uncommon to have teams finish 15-1 or 1-15. But Major League Baseball is six months and 162 games. The best teams have a record around .600 and the worst teams are around .400. Regression toward the mean or something like that. Even the best teams have "off" nights when no one can hit or catch properly. Even the worst teams have flashes of athletic brilliance.
Funny, but at the end of the game last night, I was thinking about how I tried to make myself root for the Orioles back in the 1990s, when I was a new transplant to Maryland and DC had no prospects of getting an MLB team. After all, the O's still had Cal Ripken Jr., who I still think is an incredible class act. The O's led the AL East for the entire 1997 season, then lost in the playoffs (ALDS, IIRC) and then Peter Angelos fired Davey Johnson and the O's haven't had a winning season since. I can't stand Angelos as a team owner, and I guess this experience is one reason why I think the Sox should keep Francona. (Incidentally, Davey Johnson is now managing the Nationals, which gives me hope for the future of that team. I would really like to have a good NL team in DC.)
Guess I'll wrap this up with a couple of links.
Chad Finn: Red Sox did this to themselves
Nate Silver: Bill Buckner strikes again