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September 17, 2005
They Think It's Coming
From The CHB:
Today marks the 60th consecutive day that the Sox have been in first place. They have led the American League East for 84 of the last 85 days. What the Sox did to the Yankees in 2004 should be enough to keep panic at a minimum around here. But the idea that the ancient rivals may be playing a winner-take-all series here on the final weekend is suddenly very real.
The stress of September has risen to the highest levels of Sox management, though the holy trinity of Sox executives said before the game that there is no reason to panic.
"I'm looking forward to the second half of September," said principal owner John Henry. "How could you not want to be in a pennant race with the Yankees?"
Tom Werner added, "Obviously, this is better than seeing the Yankees in the standings above us. This is where great players have to step up and be at their best."
As an official cartel representative of the New York Times Company's 17 percent interest in the team, I felt obligated to protect our interests and inquire about the loss of the big lead (5 1/2 games Aug. 11, four games last Sunday morning) the Sox once enjoyed. Anybody upstairs getting nervous about this?
"Not that I'm going to admit," said CEO Larry Lucchino. "Once again, we're going down to the wire. We anticipated this. But that's all I want to say. I learned a long time ago that you can only get into trouble when you talk to the media during rain delays."
So how do you guys feel about your position? Are you as nervous as some of your fans?
"We're almost as nervous as when we were down, 0-3, in the ALCS last year," Henry said.
After dinner, they heard applause from the stands, and looked out to see the tarp coming off the field. That's about the same time Lucchino's cellphone rang. He took the call, then announced, "For those of you who follow this sort of thing, Randy Johnson just got ejected in Toronto."
This news sent Henry scurrying to his computer to investigate events at the Rogers Centre.
We're almost as nervous as when we were down, 0-3, in the ALCS last year.
Yeah, meanwhile, we know that when they were down 0-3 that the Sox were busy writing a concession speech.
It's so easy to be cool after the fact.
Hopefully, they can re-cycle that speech and use it this year.
Posted by Steve Lombardi at September 17, 2005 11:04 AM
Comments
Looks like first place for at least another day or so for the Bosox. Yanks down 4-0 after two innings.
Posted by: Don at September 18, 2005 01:53 PM