There go the Sox, here come the Cats

Sunday 6/9/24

Having lost fourteen games in a row, the Chicago White Sox are now on a two-game winning streak thanks to the Boston Red Sox.

You can't be losing to the White Sox. And you have the Phillies next? The White Sox are going to lose 110 games. They could make a run at 120 losses and the 1962 New York Mets, the unofficial kings in the annals of baseball futility, but at least the Mets were an expansion club (and one that would win the World Series less than ten years into their existence).

I don't think Brayan Bello is any kind of long-term asset. I'm not seeing it. The talent, the make-up. The stuff. Maybe it's just not come together for him yet, but the signs--like what he slapped out there on the mound yesterday--are not encouraging. I'm surprised people were at that game and participated like they did. The crowd--whatever it was--was pretty audible on the broadcast, given that you have a terrible team and an at-best mediocre team. The tickets could be cheap.

The Red Sox move a game or two over .500, but then they drop back down. Teams like this, going by the returns two months in, either stick at .500 the whole season, or they reveal that .500 was their ceiling, and they drop back to "normal" for them, which means ten or twelve games under .500 when it's all said and done. You may see that very thing in effect starting with the Phillies series. If the Red Sox sink to five or six games under .500, I'm not sure they get back to it again.

Seeing Alex Cora as the manager underscores what a joke this is. He's gone. Everyone knows he's gone. Team, ownership, Cora, fans. He's like this babysitter who'll be leaving at ten and won't be coming back. They just wanted to save money. How committed can he be? How invested could you get? How attached? Determined? And what a message this sends. Attention, Red Sox employees and players: We are not here to win. Just show up and do the games. Thanks.

Not that this matters, the Sox having dropped two in a row to Chicago. This isn't a good team and it's another throwaway year thanks to an ownership group that has no urgency or desire to put a winning team on the field. These are lost years for the Old Town Team. Non-years. They're just being pissed away. It's sad. And it takes so little to make the postseason now. If you invest at all, you should be able to do it. It's really whether you want to or not, and Red Sox owner John Henry--that desiccated ghoul of a man--has no interest in that.

The Florida Panthers blanked the Edmonton Oilers 3-0 last night in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Team on a mission. This team is the one I admire the most in any sport since the 2013 Red Sox. The Oilers can win this series. But talk about having your head screwed on straight. That's the Panthers. They are so many of the things that my Boston Bruins are not.

I'm thinking again about how Sergei Bobrovksy's career looked to be over. He could win the Vezina this year, a Cup, and the Conn Smythe. Again: Sports remind us how quickly things can change. The greatest value of sports is what they teach us, or call our attention to, in real life.