Just When You Think You Have Seen it All

Being a lifelong Boston Red Sox fan I have become accustomed to painful ways to see a promising season go up in flames. People often ask me Red Sox? Why them? My earliest childhood memory is of watching Carl Yaztremski hold the bat way over his head. I loved the character etched in his face. I loved the Green Monster in left field. Hell I had my own green monster in my front yard. Big tall trees, I mean really tall trees. Dont ask me what kind of tree they were but they were tall. And they were skinny. How tall you ask? Taller than telephone poles thats how tall. And as a youngster I peppered those trees with wiffle ball after wiffle ball. I would take that outside pitch over the moster or off it just like Yaz did. Or I would turn around and hit from the right side and imagine myself as Rico Petrocelli launching majestic fly balls over my Green Monster. Now I am too young to remember all the particulars of the '67 series. I knew the Cardinals had some guy named Gibson. And the Sox lost in seven but I remember people saying it was the impossible dream year. Then there was 1972 which by chance was a strike season. Boston went into the final series of the year against Detroit needing to win two out of three from the Tigers to win the pennant. They only got one out of three. Both teams finished with 70 losses. But Detroit finished with 86 wins to Boston's 85. Shouldn't Boston be allowed to make up that one game you ask? Nope. That's the rules they adopted when the 1972 strike ended. 1975 was an awesome season. Chants of Luis, Luis, Luis echoed throughout Red Sox nation for the loveable cuban Luis Tiant and his funky delivery. Who can forget Bernie Carbo's three run blast to tie it in the eighth of game six. Then of course Carlton Fisk standing at home plate directing a ball fair in one of the top five home runs in baseball history to beat the Reds in game six. But of course the Big Red Machine behind Joe Morgan's bloop single would win it all in game seven. 1978 saw Bucky "Freakin" Dent win it with a corked bat hitting one over the Monster in the "extra game" playoff. 1982 Boston raced to seven game lead at the all-star break but saw Milwaukee's Harvey's Wallbangers race from behind to win the pennant. 1986 and Bill Buckner. Enough said. 1988 and 1990 being swept away by the awesome Oakland A's in the League Championship Series. The rest of the 90s are a blur but promising teams turned out to be more bust than promise. 2003 and Aaron Boone hitting it out of the park to win an epic seven-game series for the Yankees. Of course all of this was erased and then some in 2004 with first the magical come from behind LCS win over the Yankees and then sweeping away the Cardinals. 2007 was a walk in the park in destroying the Rockies and provided validation that Boston was no longer that team in baseball lore that couldn't get it done. But that all changed this September. I remember sitting in a bar in Canyon Texas the night before CSU-P's big season opener with West Texas A&M and the Yankees and Red Sox engaged in another epic battle. Boston won that night and had reclaimed first place in the division. It was August 31st. September would be fun watching these two juggernaughts battle it out for the division title. September 1st saw the Thunderwolves win in dramatic fashion. It also saw Boston lose to the Yankees in a 4hr 20 minute epic that saw Boston pitchers deliver over 200 pitches in losing 4-2. The Red Sox never recovered. They never won back to back games in September. They lost on every Wednesday in the month as we did the John Wristen Show. In the span of two pivotal three minute periods the baseball ground shook. The Yankees were somehow ahead 7-0 despite throwing out every single AA and AAA pitching prospect they could find. The Rays were who we thought they were, a team with great young pitching but a suspect lineup that couldnt produce runs on a consistent basis. But then the "vaunted" Yankees farm club pitching imploded as I expected they would do about six innings earlier. In three minutes it went from 7-0 to 7-6. Somehow the Yankees put out the fire and we went to the ninth where a .190 hitter hits one out of the park to tie it....then the tenth....and eleventh. Meanwhile in Baltimore play resumed after a lengthy rain delay. And as they had done all night they couldnt take advantage of a glorious scoring chance in the eighth. Then again in the 9th with runners on 1st and 3rd no outs but failed to score again. No problem right? Johnathan Papelbon would have the ball in the bottom of the 9th. Yankees get lead off man on in Tampa to start the 12th. Papelbon retires first hitter he faces. Yankees now with runners on 1st and 3rd no out. They gotta score right? Papelbon retires second hitter. Two outs. One more out and Red Sox win and the we all watch Yankees score that one run they need then somehow get three outs and we all get ready to face the Rangers. Uh oh. Double down the line for the Orioles while at same time watching on my computer screen the Yankees manage to get runner tagged out at third base on ground ball! Are you kidding me? Last night a triple play with the bases loaded and tonight you do this Yankees? Are you kidding me? Drama building. Hoping against hope you pray Papelbon throws a split finger to end this thing. Dont groove that arrogant fastball thigh high over the middle outside of the plate that has hit me hard to the gap written all over it. No such luck. Papelbon is who he is. Tie game. Yankees make final two outs of 12th. Then came those three minutes that would decide five hours of baseball. Papelbon finally throws a splitter but he leaves it up and its ripped to left field. No problem because Carl Crawford is playing in. He's gonna make the catch..........oh my god he missed it! Game over! Meanwhile while this is happening B.J. Upton strikes out to start the bottom of 12th. But you see it was part of the script. ESPN needed time to switch the national audience over to Tampa. Up steps Evan Longoria. He looks lost on two offspeed pitches and the count runs 2-2. But then on the next pitch Yankees jouneyman 34 year old pitcher Scott Proctor misses his location by at least a foot and Longoria sends the inside fastball that was supposed to be off the plate outside over the fence in left. ( http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2011_09_28_nyamlb_tbamlb_1&mode=gameday ) Oh and did I mention that one of the quirks about Tropicanna Field is the height of the fence down the line in left? Yeah its about four feet high instead of 10feet the rest of the way around the outfield. You cant make up this stuff. Three minutes over....five hour games over.....162 game season over......Red Sox fans nightmare just beginning..........AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!