Obstructed View

OBSTRUCTED VIEW

OBSTRUCTED (RE)VIEW 2007

By John Terra January 2, 2008

And so the year winds down at last. As the seemingly unending snow piles up and at least two other Boston sports teams remind us that the Red Sox aren’t the area’s only success story, we nevertheless resolutely turn our faces backward (painful, if not done properly) to the year that was, and how things fell into place for the Boston Red Sox.

Yes, the ultimate end-of-the-year cliché is here: the year in review. So sit back, pop a champagne cork, wave a Red Sox 2007 World Series Champions banner, make an obscene gesture at the weather, and read on. Bask in the wonderful memories of our team, and please forgive a few personal observations and anecdotes along the way. Oh, and marvel at how “not for another 86 years” somehow only took three years.

1. We Get Dice-K. All the talk about the Patriots missing the Super Bowl by one touchdown were lost by something far, far more important to the Fenway Faithful: the signing of Japanese superstar pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka. In what now can be called The Year Scott Boras Didn’t Always Win, the Red Sox management manage to get a deal hammered out that brought Japan’s baseball hero to Fenway, out-negotiating Boras. And the fans began salivating in anticipation of the new season. Well, more than they do normally, anyway…
2. The Hero In The Shadows! Even after the end of the season, some journalists STILL continued saying that Okajima was signed in order to be Dice-K’s buddy. Nothing could be farther from the truth. But signing motives aside, Oki won the hearts of Red Sox Nation with his amazing relief work, including an impressive shutting down of the New York Yankees, which rated him a bow from Big Papi.
3. BackToBackToBackToBack. What’s better than beating the Yankees? How’s about four home runs in a row? Manny, Drew, Lowell, Varitek….And during the last game of a three-game sweep of the Yankees, no less!
4. Happy Mother’s Day (or, Thanks, Baltimore Part 1). It was May 13th, Mothers Day. Yeah, the Sox were done. Over. Finished. O’s pitcher Jeremy Guthrie had schooled the Sox, dominating them into a 5-0 submission. Then, O’s manager Sam Perlozzo pulled the pitcher, and everything changed. Talk about last-inning heroics! Final score: Boston 6, Baltimore 5.
5. Rawjah is baaaaaaack! Ohhh gaaaawd, he’s baaaaaack! Roger Clemens makes his announcement at Yankee Stadium that he’s coming back to the Yankees, thereby creating the most embarrassing instance of a sportscaster climaxing on the air, AND officially sealing his reputation in Boston’s eyes as a complete mercenary tool. Naturally, this signing proved to be a real winner for the Yankees.
6. It’s Not A Blister! It’s an “avulsion”, and don’t you forget it!
7. No NoNo. Curt Schilling almost gets a no-no in his outing against the A’s on June 7th. The excellence was broken in the ninth, with two outs. So close, and yet so far. Later on, it’s revealed that the Yankees were cheering when he missed it, which only goes to show what great sports they are.
8. Is This June or January? My son StartedJr and I take in the Red Sox/Colorado interleague game at Fenway on June 13th, where the temperature outside was unseasonably freezing. Also inexplicably, the Rockies smack Beckett around. This is not forgotten when the Sox meet the Rockies in the World Series.
9. Oh Johnny, Did YOU Back The Wrong Horse. The lovely MrsStarted and I attend a Sox/Orioles game on August 2nd, where Tim Wakefield puts on an amazing performance. New acquisition Eric Gagne has an unremarkable yet scoreless inning of relief, causing me to turn to my wife and say “You know, I really think this guy’s gonna work out for us!”
10. NoNo At Last (or Thanks, Baltimore Part 2). The scene: Anniston, Alabama. The event: Family reunion on Mrs Started’s side of the family. Dinner talk is dominated by the subject of the Crimson Tide vs Auburn. Our daughter, tired, needed to be brought up to our room, so I escorted her there, and noticed my cel phone, charging on the nightstand, with a Voice Mail Message outstanding. Accessing it treated me to a hysterical, screaming StartedJr. What was going on? Was the house on fire? Or perhaps attacked by home invaders? A text message followed, saying “Ignore call, everything’s ok”. Unable to contain my curiosity, I dialed home, and was informed, in tones mimicking those from the Voice Mail message, that Clay Bucholz had pitched a no-hitter against the Birds.
11. “It’s Not 1978, Dammit!” Panic talk sweeps through Red Sox Nation as some fans labor under the misapprehension that this is 1978. The Red Sox 14 ½ lead was whittled down as the “resurgent” Yankees, well, resurged. Suddenly, from all corners, an army of Paul Reveres wearing Red Sox Red were galloping through the night, shouting “The Yankees are coming! The Yankees are coming!” Even though the Yanks would get a fingernail-chomping 1 ½ games behind the Sox, our boys in Red prevailed.
12. “HAH!” Honestly, A-Rod…were you born a jerk or did you have to work at it?
13. Clinching AL East (or Thanks, Baltimore Part 3). For the first time in TWELVE years, the Red Sox win the AL East, thanks to the one-two punch of a Sox win over the Twins, and a very VERY late night come from behind win for the Baltimore Orioles over the Yankees. Never have so many Red Sox fans loved the Orioles so much than at that moment.
14. Lord of the Flies. Ok, so it’s not a Red Sox moment. Who cares? Seeing Joba Chamberlain get swarmed with midges (funny, the Tribe’s pitchers never seemed to have this much of a problem with them) looked almost as if the past sins of the Yankees were being paid back by them getting the Biblical plague treatment.
15. Down 3-1? Not a Problem! So it wasn’t the 2004 ALCS, but geez, it sure looked like the Sox number was up this fall when The Tribe went up 3-1. But remember, this is the Red Sox, who, like an army of zombies, don’t fall down easily and in fact will keep coming at you relentlessly. And one of the heroes of that comeback? Well, remember the much-criticized JD Drew?
16. He Hit A WHAT!?!?!?! Expensive right fielder J.D. Drew shows that he may be at last warming up to Red Sox baseball by hitting a Grand Slam against Cleveland in the ALCS Game 6. Rumor has it he also cracked a smile and raised a fist in triumph.
17. Oh, Look! He Can Hit As Well! Dice-K shows in Game 3 of the World Series that not only can he pitch and field, he also can smack the ball. He gets his first hit of his MLB career, it was also the first hit from a Red Sox pitcher in a World Series game since “The Spaceman”, Bill Lee did it in the 1975 Series. As if that wasn’t enough for the record books, the hit was also the first time a Red Sox pitcher had a two-run hit in a World Series game since Babe Ruth's two-run triple in 1918. Oh, and it was also the first time a Japanese pitcher started a World Series game.
18. PapelPickOff. Game 2 of the World Series. Papelbon picks off Matt Holliday. His first pickoff since joining the majors in 2006, it was a big one.
19. Attack of the Rookies. Dice-K, Oki, Bucholz, Pedroia, Lester, and Ellsbury. Nuff said.
20. A Comeback Story Straight Outta Hollywood. In 2006, Jon Lester was diagnosed with cancer, which cut his playing year short. He fought it and won, got himself back into shape, and made his comeback on July 23, a 6-2 win. But the drama gets ramped up in October, when he’s the winning pitcher in the last game of the World Series. Can the story get any more inspirational than that?
21. He Can Dance If He Wants To. Jonathan Papelbon shows that he can do a jig almost as well as he can close a game. Papelbon’s dancing charmed a Nation, and also guaranteed that the Dropkick Murphys will continue to have a career for the foreseeable future.
22. Excuse Me, Can The Games Start Any Later, Please? Red Sox Nation became experts at sleep deprivation, thanks to the late starting times of the World Series games. I think more fans wanted a sweep by the Sox for no other reason than being able to finally get a good night’s sleep, than any other reason.
23. Class Personified. It’s the end of Game 4 of the World Series. Hard to believe, but the Red Sox are champions again, so soon (at least relative to baseball). The team is partying in the clubhouse, and Tim Wakefield, who stepped aside due to being less than 100% physically, is being interviewed. After a few moments, Mike Timlin ambles on-camera, and says that the Sox won this one for Tim, who showed a lot of guts and selflessness by giving up his spot on the rotation. Wake is practically in tears. He wasn’t the only one…
24. Bobby Who? Gee, it must be nice to be rescued from the scrapheap where the A’s tossed you, get picked up by a World Series contender and then….hitting what turns out to be the home run that made all the difference.
25. There’s A Lot to Love About Lowell. He could’ve gotten more money, but he wanted to stay. Mike Lowell re-signs with the Red Sox for less money, thereby demonstrating not by words but with actions, that he loves being a part of Red Sox Nation. The perfect cap to a great season!

You can comment on this and other "Guest Columns" by going to the message board. A thread for this and other "Guest Columns" has already been established and is waiting for your commentary.

RED SOX REASONS TO BE THANKFUL!

By John Terra November 21, 2007

Obstructed View: Red Sox Reasons to be Thankful

Well, here we are, at the time of year where we demonstrate our thankfulness by loading up on triptophan and pie, and pass out on the couch in front of the television, while the children of relatives you’ve forgotten about run around the house, hunting down the family dog with SuperSoakers.

Here at Obstructed View, there is much for the Fenway Faithful to be thankful for, so let’s just dive right in.

• Another World Series win. Let’s start with the screamingly obvious. A second World Series win in four years? From the Red Sox? Come on now! But yup, they did it, and nary an idiot among them. God bless ‘em, they done it, demonstrating to everyone that the taunt “not for another 86 years” was actually a secret code for “within three years”!
• Mike Lowell. If there was ever a player who’d be considered the Man of the Hour for Red Sox Nation, it’d have to be Mikey. Helping take up the slack in our offense during the regular season, his post-season performance earned him the World Series MVP. Add to this his classy comments about choosing less years (and consequently less money) to come back to the Red Sox, and you have a player who’s on his way to achieving a permanent place in the Fenway Fans’ Adoration Hall of Fame. Not bad for a guy who was thrown in as a condition for us acquiring Beckett.
• Terry Francona. Behold, the man who doesn’t get nearly the amount of credit that he should. Sometimes his decisions didn’t make sense to us, but then again, we didn’t have all of the information he had, which is as it should be. But with Tito, you have arguably the best manager in Red Sox history, especially if you take post-season performances as a major factor. Not obnoxious, loud, or egotistical, he’s a manager who is loyal to his veterans, who believes in his players when others give up, and knows how to handle the big-name players on his team. He’s truly an RSN treasure. Perfect he’s not, but he’s the perfect man to run this team.
• A-Rod Is Back With the Yankees. This is a great source of much gratitude. Had A-Rod signed with the Red Sox, Obstructed View would’ve found itself in a great moral dilemma. Consistently ragging on Red Sox players is a no-no in Obstructed View, and if anyone presents himself as a target-rich environment for satirical sniper fire, it’s A-Rod. His Red Sox uniform would’ve been a bullet-proof vest, so there is much joy here that he’s not one of us.
• Hank Steinbrenner. What’s that? You can’t believe this column would praise an owner of the Yankees and be thankful for him? Au contraire, mon frere, this man is indeed a reason to be thankful. Oh yes indeed. See, it’s kind of difficult to make fun of a man clearly in his decline, losing control of his faculties, losing that fire which, obnoxious and rude as it was, at least set him apart as a personality. With George doddering, what’s left? Making fun of George right now borders on the cruel. How to keep vilifying Yankee ownership? Well, fortunately, like father like son, and Hank has already demonstrated the capacity to be a loud-mouthed jackass. Thank you, Hank…really.
• The Yankees Pretty Much Are The Same Team Again. Thank you, Yankees. Sure, some of the newbies will improve the pitching picture, but overall, it’s the same team. Yeah, Torre’s gone, and Clemens is the old joke whose punchline has finally come. But otherwise, it’s the same old gas. This is a team in decline, clinging desperately to its aging veterans, foolishly thinking that if they keep doing the exact same thing over and over, the outcome will somehow be different. CONFESSION TIME: For a small stretch of time, late in the season, when the Yankees were barreling through all of their opponents, I had this sick foreboding that they were going to pretty much smash their way right to the World Series and utterly decimate their National League opponent. I could picture it all too clearly.
• The Baltimore Orioles. Thanks for your part in the Mothers Day Miracle, for bolstering Clay Bucholz’s confidence with his no-hitter, for helping us clinch the Division by taking down the Yankees, and of course, for lending us Millar to throw out that first pitch. You guys are all right. Crab cakes for everyone!
• RemDawg and Don. Sure, they’re homers and sometimes their banter comes up lame, but they have a level of objectivity that a lot of national sportcasters (especially on a network that rhymes with “crocks”) would do well to emulate.
• The Red Sox ownership. The Yankees have shown us that having the biggest payroll doesn’t guarantee a championship. The Red Sox show that throwing a lot of money around, but doing it wisely, coupled with supplementing from our up and coming rookies, is a formula that’s hard to beat. The ownership has equipped the team for the long haul, ensuring that we’ll stay competitive for years to come. And they did it their way!
• Curt Schilling’s Return. It got to the point where it was maddening to hear the announcers frame all of Schill’s post-season appearances as “the last time he may be pitching in a Red Sox uniform”. Enough already. We got the message. And the message was WRONG! Schill’s back for one more year, and it’s not unreasonable to believe that he’s going to want to go out on a very high note. Way to go, front office, for bringing him back. And thanks, Curt, for all you’ve done, and for that which we’re sure you have yet to do!
• Gagne’s Gone. Au revoir, m’sieu Gagne! It was a great idea, a noble experiment, but it didn’t work. Enjoy your next team, enjoy the World Series ring, and we wish you all the best. Thanks for…er…um…eating up some innings so that Papelbon didn’t get overused?
• Okajima. Nuff said!
• Papelbon’s Dancing. It’s just this sort of zaniness that’s a valuable element in the makeup of the team. In fact, Papelbon can be said to be a good representation of the Red Sox team as a whole: scary contenders with the ability to have fun.
• A World Series Sweep. Yes, yes, it’s an impressive record and all that. But the real excellent thing about the sweep was that we didn’t have to deal with Fox’s psychotic schedule for another night more than we had to.
• Papi and Petey. For playing through the pain.
• Tim Wakefield. He was the most valuable Red Sox player who didn’t play in the World Series. May he play an active role in the next Red Sox World Series appearance.

Well, that’s it for now. There’s a lot that’s been left out, but these things are the ones that show up high on the OV Radar this time around. Now pass the turkey and get the Truck Day Countdown started!

You can comment on this and other "Guest Columns" by going to the message board. A thread for this and other "Guest Columns" has already been established and is waiting for your commentary.