After the bizarre night when the Red Sox completed the collapse of '11, Ray said that he had never seen anything like this in 35 years of watching baseball. I agree, it was a surreal experience with both games that would have continued our season going to 2 outs, 2 strikes in the ninth before they crumbled, along with our playoff hopes. It was a tough night for sure. I smashed a nearly new bag of Tostitos into submission (the scoop kind that hold the salsa), got a restless night of sleep, and endured some razzing from my Yankee fan associates yesterday. But a day removed from that mess, I have pretty much left it behind.
Conversely, the collapses of 78 and 86 are permanent scars on my soul. This is not even close. I think the difference is that none of us realistically thought that this team had a snowball's chance of winning a WS. Sure we all wanted the season to continue, but we knew it would be a short lived playoff season. In fact, I'd say there are a number of Red Sox experiences that I can think of that would rate much higher than this one on the pain meter. Here's my top 5 ranked list: 1) 86 World Series - A Red Sox fan nightmare that can just never be topped. 2) '03 Aaron Boone - I was holding a ticket to game one of the World Series in my hand when this one went down. It was a WS series that I really thought I could win. Plus this was the first Red Sox disappointment that took my family down too. I put kids to bed that night crying their eyes out. I was ready to turn myself over to DSS for making Red Sox fans out of my children. (However, this made the redemption of '04 all the better). 3) Game 7 in '75 - I was only 13 for this one, but I will never forget it. Not exactly a collapse since we lost to the Big Red Machine, but after the Euphoria of Fisk's HR in game 6, it was a huge letdown. 4) '78 Bucky Dent - This was a true collapse. A team made up of my baseball heroes that should have won the World Series. It was heart-breaking to see that opportunity slip away - especially to the Yankees. 5) '08 ALCS game 7 - We tend to forget about this one, but I had attended one of the biggest comebacks in Sox history in game 5 of the series at Fenway. The Sox were facing elimination down 7-0 in the 7th and rallied to win in the 9th. The Sox used that momentum to take game 6 and tie the series in Tampa, but could not prevail in game 7. Probably a few more before I get to this year's debacle... From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ray Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2011 4:57 PM To: [email protected] Subject: This is not 1986 or 1978 for that matter I was poking around boston.com's sports page for the first time this year when I came across this Obnoxious Boston Fan guy: http://www.boston.com/sports/blogs/obnoxiousbostonfan/2011/09/this_should_set_red_sox.html Oh my God, this guy is ridiculous. He claims that this 2011 collapse has taught a younger generation of fans what it was like to be a Sox fan. This collapse was horrifying and memorable, but it was not as bad as the collapse in 1978, or was it as bad as 1986. In 1978 the Sox played in a league where you had to win the division to get into the playoffs, and we never were able to beat the Yankees and win the division. We would routinely have the second best record in the American League and watch the playoffs from home. So when we had an insurmountable 14 game lead at the All Star break, this was our chance to finally break through. Then we blew the lead and were 2 or 3 games back with a week or so to play, and then we came back from that to force a playoff game that we lost with men in scoring position and Yaz hitting (popped out to third, not that it preys on my mind). In 1986 the Sox had barely escaped Anaheim thanks to Hendu and were about to steal the World-Freaking-Series from a team with 108 wins. 108 wins and we were going to beat them. And then, of course, we know what happened. The Red Sox hadn't seen the playoffs since 1975 and 1967 before that, and every decade we played the decade's strongest NL team for the WS. That my friends was collapse. In those days we only made the playoffs when historic and mystical forces combined to create a Black Swan event that rocked our world. This year? Yeah it was bad and frustrating given that we had this all-star lineup. But, really, do we have any doubt that we'll be right back in the thick of it next year? Was this year a fluke that we somehow let slip through our fingers. There was a time when the Red Sox were Tampa Bay and we got in only by the skin of our teeth after God Himself reached down and anointed us. So it seems to me that the obnoxious Boston Fan is being a little self-serving to suggest that he has suffered through anything like real angst. It would take at least 20-years of futility for us to feel that way again. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Red Sox Citizens" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/redsoxcitizens/-/RQojWzLPliAJ. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/redsoxcitizens?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Red Sox Citizens" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/redsoxcitizens?hl=en.
