Nothing serves notice that we've embarked on a new season better than a reinvented Curt Schilling holding Angels bats in check with mocked ease, or the tandem of David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez launching back-to-back home runs through the California sky. Put them together and the Boston Red Sox have kicked off the 2007 playoffs on a decidedly clearer mission than with which they ended their regular season.
Only two weeks ago, Red Sox Nation was enduring comparisons to the 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers, who gave away a 13-game lead, the most philanthropic in Major League history, but just one larger than Boston's advantage back on July 5. And to the 1934 New York Giants and 1938 Pittsburgh Pirates, the only teams to lose divisions after leading by seven games during September before the Mets joined them last Sunday. Around The Hub, it was free game to openly discuss 1978 and speculate on what it would mean for New York to win the East. After all, only one team since Abner Doubleday ever dug out of deeper than the 14½–game hole facing the Yankees on May 29, that being the old Boston Braves way back in 1914, who trailed by as many as 15 games.
In retrospect, this year's Red Sox did not make things easy for themselves. Once they reached their high-water mark in May, their 2007 season was by-and-large 1978-proofed. But a 54-48 record over the next 102 games — capped by a three-game sweep in Toronto that left them a scant game and a half on top by mid-September — fueled fears of its reincarnation. For most of the summer, the Red Sox displayed all the enthusiasm of a shackled Sean Penn as they made their way down the bright corridor to a fate of historical proportion. Meanwhile, the Nation could only console itself from behind the glass pane like a helpless Susan Sarandon, clutching their wild card binky with ever-tighter fists. Fortunately, the now kinder and gentler ghost of the Bambino showed its mercy for the second time in three years.
Nevertheless, as Boston stood on the threshold of this postseason, considerable conjecture arose over which team would greet the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim last Wednesday night — the invincible boys of spring or the dead men of summer. Yet, if history has taught us anything, it's that the postseason never tips its hand until that first Josh Beckett 94-mph two-seamer is thrown.
Take last year. The Detroit Tigers' stretch drive made up in superlatives what it lacked in intensity or success. Losers of 31 of their final 50 regular season games and the AL Central after being swept by Kansas City, they may well have been the deadest on arrival of any postseason team ever. Nor were their eventual World Series opponents better. The St. Louis Cardinals closed out at 25-36 and, with only 83 wins on the season, were the uninvited guests who assumed the throne.
By contrast, the Minnesota Twins certainly expected an invitation to last year's World Series. Thieves of the AL Central on the last day of the regular season after Detroit held it nearly wire to wire, the Twins played a major league-best 71-33 since June 7. And their efforts were handsomely rewarded with the greatest postseason benny of all — the Oakland A's, baseball's Black Monday. Back in 2001, after a 66-18 bull run to capture the AL West and gain a 2-0 advantage in the ALDS, the A's crashed and burned. So, too, in 2003 when their 83-33 regular season finish and another 2-0 ALDS lead fell carnage to the bears. Yet, in 2006, the A's managed to avert their historical tendencies, sweeping the Twins in three.
The 2007 divisional series may not have had the shock factor of last year, but they provided their share of surprises. Boston awoke in convincing fashion after a lackadaisical four months while the Angels, who managed only a 14-14 record in September, hit the snooze alarm once too often. Meanwhile, the Yankees, who finished 73-39 since May 29, 57-27 since July 1, and 23-9 since August 27, seemingly earned this year's door prize with the Cleveland Indians, whom they swept in the 2007 regular season. But the Indians, who also closed strong by winning 27 of their final 37, executed a full table-turn on the Pinstripes, unceremoniously dumping them in the Bronx on Monday night and depriving the networks of another fabled Red Sox/Yankees matchup.
In the National League, the Philadelphia Phillies' wild 13-4 finish that capped a seven-game comeback over the last 18 days of the season fizzled when they were swept by the hotter Colorado Rockies, winners of 14 of their final 15, including a tie-breaker last Monday night. They'll meet the Arizona Diamondbacks, who shook off a 19-19 finish to sweep America's sweetheart, the Chicago Cubs. The trends heavily suggest the Rockies will make it to their first World Series, but home field advantage in this matchup is enhanced by climatic considerations like no other before it and Colorado will have to win in the desert.
For now, the Red Sox, along with the rest of this year's League Championship Series field, can enjoy the extended celebration offered by an unprecedented layover. Meanwhile, the intelligentsia who've stood graveside through the last fortnight ready to empty shovels over Boston's final resting place may have a wait. Who knows? It wasn't that long ago when the 2005 White Sox watched their own sizeable division lead — 15 games in early August — dwindle to 1½ in the final week of September, only to run an 11-1 postseason. That Red Sox casket that lay in state may be empty after all.
Leave a Comment