Soxy thing

Contributed by Auggie
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In golf it’s called “scrambling”. Player A splits the fairway with his drive, knocks his second shot 15 feet from the pin and two putts for a par (ho-hum). Player B, the scrambler, hits a drive into the woods, punches out to the rough, hits his third shot to the fringe and drains a 30-footer for par. Player A is demoralized. High level scrambling is not for the weak, it requires perseverance, determination, heart and an unwavering will to win. Ladies and gentlemen, meet your 2010 Boston Red Sox. To use the golf analogy, this team is definitely scrambling.

I’ve heard it said that the 2010 Red Sox are boring. I don’t disagree. They are not the lovable losers they were during the curse era, they don’t have the outsized personalities of the idiot era (Ramirez, Damon, Millar), and they don’t really have a superstar as the face of the organization. What they do have is resilience. As a baseball fan it’s hard not to respect what they have done so far this season.

Lets review. Due to an aberrant rash of injuries this season, the Sox have been winning with players named Bill Hall, Daniel Nava, Darnell McDonald, Elvis Patterson, Eddie Haskell, Felix Doubront and Jarrod Saltalamacchia. (I only made up one of those). Meanwhile, established stars like Pedroia, Youkilis, Ellsbury, Martinez, Drew and Varitek have spent considerable time on the disabled list while other players they were counting on have not lived up to expectations - the prize offseason acquisition (Lackey) has lived up to his name, Josh “overrated” Beckett continues to be a non factor and Jonathan “extremely overrated” Papelbon hasn’t thrown a 1-2-3 inning since sixth grade. Today they sit 3.5 games out of the wildcard spot and I honestly don’t know how. Terry Francona must be a good manager.

I don’t know how the season will end (unless I’ve jinxed them, and then I do know) but it’s been an exciting ride for a boring team.