2004 ALCS Preview: A Boston Team With No Soul
October 12, 2004
by David Brown

It’s October 2004, and I’m not sure I can take another Yankees-Bosox postseason series. I’m a Yankee fan, and this just might kill me. Imagine how Red Sox fans must be feeling about now. I wonder what the mood in Boston is. Excitement? Fear? Nausea? There must be more than a few sons and daughters of lifelong Sox fans who are euthanizing their elderly parents to spare them a potentially excruciating and fatal disappointment.

But surely many of them must be feeling that “This is the year” excitement. Because this might be the year. As a Yankee fan, I am deeply concerned. This Sox team was left for dead in July, and they came back to play the best baseball of any team down the stretch. Since coming back against Mariano Rivera in the 9th inning of a game that started as a Yankee blowout and ridding the clubhouse of Nomar’s negative vibes, the Sox have come together like no other team in baseball. Their lineup is not quite as potent as last year’s, but everyone is hitting right now. Their bullpen is solid, though far from invincible, and their starting pitchers are potentially dominating.

If the Sox do win this series, Curt Schilling will likely be the difference. He was the guy the Sox most needed to land in the offseason, and they got him. Had Young Theo failed, Schill certainly would have gone to New York, and Sox might not have even made the playoffs.

But Pedro Martinez is vulnerable to the Yankees, although if he throws 95 like he was last week in Anaheim, he’ll be very tough to beat. Derek Lowe has stunk this season, but Bronson Arroyo has picked up the slack. And Tim Wakefield always gives the Yanks fits, as all knucklers do.

If it sounds like I’m preparing myself for a Yankee defeat, it’s because I am. I think this Boston team is better right now, the difference being starting pitching. I think it will be a good series, and I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if the Yankees won. But I need to start getting ready, emotionally and spiritually, for a Red Sox victory. It’s the only way I’ll be able to maintain any sanity over the next week and a half.

So here’s what I’ve come up with. If the Red Sox do win and go on to win the World Series, it will be a hollow victory. That’s right, I just wrote that sentence. Take a minute to reread it. OK, now I’ll explain.

First of all, there’s the whole loser mentality in Boston that will be thrown into chaos. It just wouldn’t be the same anymore for Boston fans if they won (see Michael Walls' Why The Red Sox Can Never Win A World Series).

But here’s the bigger issue for me. If they win it all, it will have been with a bunch of guys with no real true connection with Boston. If the Sox win, it will have been because of the Nomar trade. And ironically, that will be the very reason the victory would be hollow.

New England sports fans are as rabid as they come. And the great sports figures in Boston history have had long, complicated relationships with the fans and media there. They became mythic heroes, forever citizens in the Pantheon of Boston greatness. Heros like Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, Larry Bird, Bobby Orr, Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, and Tom Brady (not on that level yet, but on his way).

These athletes are forever beloved in Boston. They started their careers in Boston and stayed until the end (except for Orr). They all won championships (except for Teddy Ballgame and Yaz, of course). They are deeply embedded in the fabric of New England’s history and culture. They all had a particular style or grace or ferociousness with which they played the game. They are legends and have a lifetime pass in Boston. Nothing could ever sully their image.

Then there are the Traitors, the players that started out in this mold before defecting to other teams and ending up on the Yankees. These would be Roger Clemens and Wade Boggs. They are respected in Boston, but largely hated and will never get the level of respect of Bird and the others. They never won in Boston—they won in New York. Ultimately, that’s unforgivable.

Nomar was on track to be in the Pantheon. He was the next in line, a direct descendant of Williams and Yaz. Sportswriters in Boston constantly waxed nostalgic about the similarities. Nomar was the foil to Jeter in New York. They were the Bird and Magic of baseball, fueling the rivalry, making each other better through competition. And for a long time it was a great debate about who was better.

And then came the A-Rod trade debacle. Things with Nomar were never the same after that. The capper was the extra inning game in New York, when Jeter dove face first into the stands at full speed while Nomar sulked on the bench alone, his teammates perched along the railing, caught up in the excitement of the game. That was the day that Nomar was dismissed from the Pantheon.

This Boston team in October is left with three guys who came up with the Sox: Derek Lowe, Jason Varitek, and Trot Nixon (I’m not including Kevin Youkilis because he’s only been around a year). These are the great sons of New England? None are Pantheon material.

The guys who have the resumes can never assume the throne. Pedro and Manny have long had love/hate relationships with the fans and media in Boston, and both were stars on other teams before ever coming to Boston. What’s more, Pedro could well end up a Yankee next year, and Manny probably isn’t even aware of what team he plays for. Schilling has been lovingly embraced since the day he signed, but he’s a hired gun in his twilight years. He’s still far more associated with Philadelphia than Boston.

For Boston’s championship to be the meaningful event it should be, the team needs somebody who New England can embrace as one of their own, for life. This team doesn’t have anybody to fit that mold. It should have been Nomar. He was the heart and soul of that team. Not necessarily in the clubhouse, but among the fans. But the team had to sacrifice him to win. That sacrifice is why a Red Sox championship would be somewhat unfulfilling and less momentous that it might have been.

Sure, these are just the confused and nervous ramblings of a die-hard Yankee fan. But admit it, Bostonians: deep down, you know it’s true. A World Series win this year would still leave you yearning for something more.

(David Brown is a volunteer staff writer for 2 Walls Webzine)

Response from: Brandon Copple
October 14, 2004

The notion of the Red Sox as 'soulless' is preposterous. True, but preposterous. Especially coming from a Yankee fan. As if any baseball team has soul these days. Who got soul? The losers, maybe. The small-market teams who scrap it to the playoffs. The Twins might have a little soul: Johan Santana and a bunch of guys who bust their ass. But please don't take it any further.

The Yankees? The Yankees have about as much soul as Citbank. As much character as Exxon. Derek Jeter came up through the system, sure. Bernie Williams. Rivera. Everybody else is bought and paid for, superstars playing for the team that can afford to shell out the most.

If you consider Microsoft righteous when it sues other software companies, you should root for the Yankees (or the Red Sox; same difference). If you think Haliburton gets a bad rap, I've got a ballclub for you.

Choosing a team based on soul is dicey in modern baseball. Choosing the Yankees is idiotic. The Cardinals (whom I have a hard time rooting for) may be vested in the same system. But it's not so up-front obvious that they're just a collection of mercenaries brought together to win a trophy for a rich guy.

I'm going to watch this because I like watching baseball. Yankees-Red Sox? Who gives a fuck.

(Brandon Copple is a volunteer staff writer for 2 Walls Webzine)