But now that the NHL and NBA playoffs are over, the Red Sox don’t have to compete for affection. No more channel surfing between innings. No more checking in on a game in the middle frames. No more finding out the final score in the morning.
The Red Sox have New England’s undivided attention, and casual fans who haven’t been following the club as closely as in the past — who may have tuned out after the Red Sox got off to a slow start — will be pleasantly surprised to learn that the 2010 Red Sox are good. Really good.
They have the third-best record in the majors and are only two games out of first place in the AL East.
They lead the majors in runs, hits, doubles, RBIs, slugging percentage and OPS.
They are second in on-base percentage and home runs.
David Ortiz has 14 jacks. Kevin Youkilis has 13, and Dustin Pedroia has nine.
Adrian Beltre leads the team with a .337 batting average.
Victor Martinez in hitting .407 in June.
Clay Buchholz is 9-4 with a 2.67 ERA.
Jon Lester is 8-2 with a 3.13 ERA.
The defense has committed the fifth-fewest errors in the AL.
Rookies are producing.
And the pitching staff has a 3.88 ERA in June.
Everything is clicking for the Red Sox.
This might be news to some people. Since April, the Bruins and Celtics have dominated the headlines. The Red Sox weren’t treated like the kid in this video, but they weren’t treated like kings of the city, either.
A number of factors contributed to the Red Sox becoming a bit of an afterthought in Boston.
The Bruins gave everyone joy for a few weeks.
The Celtics made it all the way to a championship Game 7.
And the Red Sox looked like bums to open the season. They went 11-12 in April, got swept by the Orioles to begin May and got whacked by the Yankees at Fenway Park in two straight games. On May 8, the Red Sox sat in fourth place in the AL East, 7 1/2 games behind the first-place Rays and seven games behind the second-place Yankees.
Panic was setting in among some in Red Sox Nation. Fans were asking for Theo Epstein and Terry Francona‘s heads (what else is new?), and whispers of “Wait until next year” were turning into despair.
Add it all up, and playing regular-season games against the Royals didn’t seem as important as competing for a Stanley Cup or Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Nobody seemed to care about the Red Sox anymore. While it was still early, some fans wrote them off completely, and others didn’t give them much of a chance to do anything more than disappoint.
Then, a funny thing happened. The Red Sox beat the Yankees to avoid getting swept. The starting pitching started delivering. And the team started winning games in bunches — beating good, bad and average clubs — taking one series after another.
All of a sudden, the Red Sox were playing great baseball.
Now, they have the look of serious World Series contenders. And they’re only going to get stronger once all the injured players — Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jeremy Hermida — are healthy.
Rudy Tomjanovich said, “Never underestimate the heart of champions.”
The Bruins and Celtics weren’t able to turn Boston into Titletown again. But there’s still hope with the Red Sox.
Which team will bring another championship to Boston first?customer surveys
