Hold Up Just A Moment, Chicken Little
The sky is not falling. Repeat: the sky is NOT falling.
There is no need to panic, to call for the heads of managers or demand that pitchers be permanently sidelined. That’s the beauty of an off day: rather than working yourself up into a tizzy (cough, cough), you can kick back and mentally reload and refresh for the next game.
Questioning decisions, discussing alternate strategies, and pondering possibilities are one thing – sounding the proverbial death knell is another.
In times like these, I turn to the great philosopher Jose Melendez, whose deep thoughts serve as a guiding light even in the darkest corners of a crappy domed baseball stadium:
[W]e look forward to this. We crave the opportunity to feel. We are addicts. And like any addict we have built up tolerance. It is no longer enough to enjoy the elation of victory. We need it to hurt, to drag us through excruciating pain to create an ever-sharper contrast with the pleasure. We came back from 3-0 against the Yankees. We came back from 3-1 against the Indians. We will not feel truly alive in this series until we have to come back from down four games to the Rays. And that is where the danger lies. You can’t go down by four games. It is against the rules. It is up to the Red Sox to remember that in the relentless pursuit of thrills, of greater and greater highs, getting down four games is the overdose of playoff baseball–exciting but fatal.
The Sox are determined to give us a jolt of agony, because without that the ecstasy of victory is just not as sweet. And that performance Saturday night was nothin’ short of a quadruple-shot of stomach-churning letdown. Which should make Jonny “What’s Better Than An Ace? OK, Then Call Me Royal Flush” Lester’s return today that much more full of kickassosity.
Yeah, I said it: KICKASSOSITY.
be fair, BDD makes some good, not great points.
Like I said above, “Questioning decisions, discussing alternate strategies, and pondering possibilities are one thing – sounding the proverbial death knell is another.”
Running around like a chicken with its head cut off at this point is more than a little ridiculous.
Running around like a chicken with its head cut off at this point is more than a little ridiculous.
Hear, hear.
Especially with Lester on the mound today.
KICKASSOSITY
Oh yeah.