Page 2
Draping the huge banner over the Green Monster was terrific. Having Yaz and Johnny Pesky raise the championship flag was a classy touch. Bringing out Bill Russell, Bobby Orr and Tedy Bruschi to throw out the first pitch undoubtedly brought tears to the eyes of many Bostonians.
After 86 years without a World Series title, the Red Sox and their fans deserved such a great ceremony.
But, seriously: Enough is enough.
Enough with the Red Sox.
You won. Excellent. Better you than the Yankees, that's for sure. Still ... it's become just a little too much for the rest of us.
We're starting to dislike the Red Sox. In fact, here are 86 reasons why ...
| All Sox, all the time |
|---|
|
Too much Red Sox? Page 2 has some thoughts: Hruby: Put the Sox away! The Red Sox are special, points out Patrick Hruby -- but only to Red Sox Nation. Caple: Why not us? The Red Sox aren't the only franchise to suffer pain. Jim Caple has the stories of other teams waiting for a World Series win. |
1. We still have 15 more Red Sox-Yankees games, full of inane hype and ridiculous amounts of attention, left this season, not including a potential playoff matchup.
2. Manny Ramirez's sudden and magical October transformation from absentminded, dim-witted slugger who makes costly baserunning gaffes to lovable, dreadlocked slugger who just plays the game with a little flair.
3. Johnny Damon's hair.
4. Johnny Damon. One .300 season out of four does not make you a star. Enough with the book, the ripping of the ex-wife, and the Page 3 photo galleries.
5. Curt Schilling's bloody sock. Hockey players mock this.
6. 2004 payroll: $127 million.
7. 2005 payroll: $123 million. So far.
8. Carlton Fisk's home run. Here's the deal: YOU LOST GAME 7.
9. Cowboy Up.
10. Ted Williams. The best hitter of his day. But a bad apple. In other words, an old-school Barry Bonds.
11. Derek Lowe's crotch grab in the 2003 playoffs.
12. Jason Varitek's "C" on his uniform. (OK, I admit: I'm still bitter over the Mariners' trading those two guys for Heathcliff Slocumb.)
13. Pumpsie Green. Not Pumpsie himself, but what Pumpsie's playing for the Sox finally meant. If you don't know what I'm talking about, look it up.
14. Butch Hobson, the reckless, error-prone player who was instrumental in the collapse of the '78 Red Sox.
15. Butch Hobson, the coke-sniffing manager of the Red Sox.
16. Hating Bill Buckner for 18 years.
17. Suddenly forgiving Bill Buckner, as if you haven't loathed every fiber of his soul for the past 18 years.
18. Bob Stanley blaming Rich Gedman.
19. Rich Gedman blaming Bob Stanley.
20. Everybody else blaming Calvin Schiraldi.
21. Or John McNamara.
22. "Yankees suck" chants. It's pathetic, lame, embarrassing and not funny. Give it up.
23. "Yankees suck" T-shirts. Even more pathetic, lame and embarrassing.
24. Theo Epstein's genius. Hey, didn't he put Manny Ramirez through waivers before last season?
25. We love Nomar. We hate Nomar. We love him. No, we hate him. Really. But we used to love him.
26. "Put Jim Rice in the Hall of Fame!" Red Sox fans are hollering, but Rice's career falls just short of Hall of Fame status. He received a huge bonus from playing in Fenway Park – for example, during 1977-79, he hit .350 with 82 home runs at Fenway, but just .290 with 42 home runs on the road. He grounded into a ton of double plays, which meant an extra 25 to 30 outs a year not measured in his batting average. And he had his last good year at age 33.
