10/11 - Through the first three quarters of the year we knew Pap was a high-wire act. Tons of base runners but only a couple blown saves. He had gone from killer to thriller and not in a good way. When he seemed to right the ship in the last month of the season there was definitely more confidence there, but still, doubt had crept in, and today, that doubt gave way to a sickening horror the likes of which Red Sox fans have not witnessed since a certain late Bronx night in 2003.
The aching hurt aside, our beloved boys of B deserved to lose this series. Not in this way, mind, but the Angels were/are the better team, lacking only the confidence to bust the ghosts of play-offs past. The seeds of that confidence were planted the night of the Sox amazing Ump-enhanced comeback in the middle game of the last regular season match-up. After that game Torii took it to his teammates for playing scared, and the next night, the Angels came from behind to avoid the sweep.
Today those seeds bore fruit. Choke Monkeys no more, these dudes from the O.C. finally got out from under a seemingly endless dark cloud of dread; a cloud that now will settle in over New England for the long cold winter to come.
Yeah, this one hurts. Way more than the ALCS game seven loss last year, way more than the White Sox sweep in ‘05. Put Bobby A and Vladdie G up there with Aaron “bleepin’” Boone. They deserve it, and so do Pap and the Sox, really. They had it coming.
Only 127 days ’til pitchers and catchers. We’ll have a season wrap up ‘cast in the next few days once the pain killers kick in.
Yours in baseball,
Dante + Todd Bisson
Categories: 2009 Season
Comments Off
