I have had a good life as a sports fan. From the humble beginnings of getting my first baseball hat when I was a kid, I have seen my local baseball team break an 86-year curse, win a second title and become a perennial contender. My favorite football team has become the model franchise in the NFL, led by possibly the greatest coach in football history, winning three Super Bowls. And even the local basketball team, which I have become a comfortable pink hat for, has one a 17th title. In there, I have also seen Tre Kronor storm to an Olympic Ice Hockey Medal (while I was actually living in Sweden, no less), as well as the cricket team I have adopted as my own win the 2003 and 2007 World Cups, without losing a single match in that span. In college, I saw my Middlebury Panthers win the 2004 NCAA Division III Ice Hockey championship for both the Men's team and the Women's team, and contend every single year I was there as well. Only my beloved Boston Bruins have come up empty, though we'll get to them in a minute.
I bring this up mainly to illustrate that I really have nothing to complain about, and sports fans in other cities like Cleveland or Minneapolis would kill to switch places with me. But part of the reason that sports are so much fun to follow is the fact that they are ever moving and changing, and all success us ultimitely fleeting. The events of the last year have made me wonder if the Salad Days of Boston Sports are over, and if with the close of the first decade of the 21st century, the jig is up.
This is not to be totally pessimistic about the current state of Boston Sports, but since my last entry, the Red Sox were flattened by the Angels in three games in the ALDS, the Yankees reclaimed supremacy in our Athens-Sparta war by winning the World Series, the Colts nabbed a last-minute victory against the Patriots with a stunning 4th-quarter comeback (aided by some questionable clock managment by the Patriots), the Celtics are beginning to look their age against hungrier, faster teams, and the Bruins have shown that at best they're a middle of the pack playoff team, and at worst they are an also-ran. Eep.
First, the Red Sox ended their season looking terrible; a team that had decent pitching but could hit their way out of a paper bag. The days of the 2003-2004 mashers are over, with Manny gone and Ortiz's supplies of steroids no longer making him an elite hitter. I am eagerly awaiting the day that the contracts of Ortiz and Mike Lowell expire, and there's a chance that 2010 will be Josh Beckett's last in a Red Sox uniform. In 2007, if you told me all of these things I would have said you were crazy, but now? I dunno if I'll really miss any of these guys in more than a sentimental capacity. Papi recovered to have a decent-to-mediocre season, but his power is simply GONE, and he cannot be counted on to produce. Lowell's bat still has some pop, but his range is somewhere in between Zombie and Marble Statue at third, and there's no way he plays more than 110 games next year. Beckett has shown himself to be very streaky, and apart from that run in 2007, really kind of hittable.
All of this leaves little margin for error for people like JD Drew, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and whoever the hell is playing shortstop next year. The Red Sox have too much money committed to players who don't produce (a problem shared by a certain local hockey team), and there is they very good chance that they will take a step back in 2010 to try and regroup for 2011. I can understand that in theory, but the reactionary sports fan in me who just saw the Yankees efortlessly win the 2009 World Series is panicking.
The Patriots beat the Jets this evening, which makes me feel good, but my psyche is still stinging from the 35-34 defeat they suffered at the hands of the Colts last Sunday. Leading by 6 at the two minute warning, Belichick (as you might have heard) went for it on 4th and 2, getting a yard and a half. Colts take over on the Pats' 28, game over. I have less of a problem with Belichick going for it than with the squandered chances the Pats had time and again late in the game to put it away, and the fact that the defense couldn't come up with a big stop when needed. The Patriots' MO recently seems to be to lose crushingly in the 4th with the game on the line, when they had a chance to win. 2006 AFC Championship Game, Super Bowl XLII, Colts regular season last year, Broncos game this year, now the Colts. I have little doubt the Patriots will win the division and maybe even make some noise in the playoffs, but I have to wonder if we've seen the last Super Bowl out of the Belichick-Brady tandem. Which, for all their talent and reputation, would be a disappointment when you get right down to it. It also doesn't help that both the Colts and the Saints are sitting at 10-0, with schedules remaining that seem to indicate that either one (or even both) might go 16-0. Which would undo the only semi-good thing to come out of the 2007 Patriots season, and would make me die a little inside. Ok, maybe a lot inside.
And then we come to the Bruins. Coming off their 116-point dissapointment in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last year, excitement and expectations for the Bruins in Boston could not be higher. This was finally the year they were going to carve out a place for themselves in Boston's crowded sports scene. How did they respond? By faltering out of the gate, failing to win 2 consecutive games until November, and failing to win 3 consecutive at all, at least at time of print. They can't get all parts of their game going at once, either not being able to score with stellar goaltending, or scoring 5 goals with terrible tending, falling 6-5. Krejci was out with Swine flu, and both Looch and Savard went down for 6 weeks in October with broken bones, forcing the Providence Bruins to fill in for the big club with middling success. The Bruins are still only 3 points off of the division lead, and have looked good in Looch's first couple games back, but they have forced the fickle fans of Boston to see them as underacheivers again, and have played themselves out of the discussion when it comes to Boston sports. of course, perhaps it was a little unfair of us to expect a Stanley Cup from this bunch. But we'll see.
They don't look bad, per se, but they can't score to save their lives, after letting Phil Kessel go. All of the 20 goal scorers that they thought would step it up to fill his shoes have come up woefully short, and though Patrice has looked very good of late, he can't do everything on his own. The defense has looked better, to help things, and Chara and Morris have started to play up to their skill level, which is good because Wideman and Ference have taken turns in the "Who Wants to Completely Suck Tonight" Department. The tending has been, as mentioned, pretty solid, with Thomas being the tough luck loser more often than not, and with Tuukka filling in quite well in Tim's stead, especially lateley.
Savard is due back tomorrow against the Blues, and the Bruins, on paper, have a good chance to win both tomorrow against the Blues, and later this week against the Wild as well. Though I can't count on them for anything, which is too bad, as last year at this time they were tearing things up and able to protect a late lead. At the moment, it seems like whenever they're up one with a minute to go in the third, they can't handle the 6-on-5 with the empty net, which is odd as the PK has been quite good, and there's A GAPING EMPTY NET TO AIM AT WHENEVER YOU HAVE THE PUCK. But alas. Ask me what I think of them once Savard is up and running again; at the moment I'm not sure what to make of them.
So, it's possible that the best times in my life as a sports fan are behind me. There's still that Stanley Cup to dream about, as well as a Patriots Retribution Title, but those things are far from likely, exactly. It should be an entertaining season, if nothing else. That is, after all, why we watch.
-M
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