ALCS series

“Baseball isn’t a life-and-death matter, but the Red Sox are.”

-- Mike Barnicle, Boston Globe, 1977

Let it be known that I am a serious Red Sox fan. You're probably thinking, "Yeah, you and about a million other people." Unlike many "Red Sox fans," I am a legit, hard-core, through and through fan. By this I simply mean, I'm not a fair-weather fan. I've loved them since I moved to NH, which I know sounds bad but when you live in Nevada, you can't be much of a fan of anything but the Jazz (ehh.....no thanks. I'm a Celtics fan and have been since '97 before I moved so take that!). The '04 World Series was nothing short of magestic and incredible. I had teachers move back tests, my AP History teacher really did, so we could watch the playoffs. We New Englanders take the Red Sox seriously, most of us anyways.

The motto "We Believe" has stuck since that thrilling year and every spring I become wicked excited to see what the next season will hold. After the whole Manny soap opera I wasn't quite sure what was going to become of my beloved Red Sox. Jason Bay has been spectacular. Might I also point out that his stats are nearly identical to Manny and he's younger and he's faster and he's not as dramatic. All good things. The Angels series was exciting but I became anxious knowing we would be up against the Rays, a team that has blown the MLB world away this year. They are good--I can't lie. After last night's game I have to say, I'm a little heart broken. This is not the team I watched for the past 9 months. Lowell, a crucial part of our offense, is out for the rest of the season. Great. Tim Wakefield hardly lasted 2 innings last night. That was painful. Big Papi is not hitting. What is happening??? All I have to say is despite what the sportscasters on foxsports and ESPN say, I believe that they can come back. It's gonna be a long shot because the teams we had in '04 and '07 are a lot different than this team but we can do it.

You just gotta believe.

"The Yankees belong to George Steinbrenner and the Dodgers belong to Manifest Destiny, but the Red Sox, more than any other team, belong to the fans.”

-- Steve Wulf, Sports Illustrated, 1981