The Red Sox physically traveled to Cleveland on Monday. Emotionally, however, they haven’t left Boston.
Manager John Farrell spoke during his weekly WEEI interview about the role the Red Sox can play in helping Boston get past Monday’s marathon tragedy. Farrell said the team had dinner together on Monday night, and the players used their time to figure out how exactly they could pay tribute to those impacted by the day’s heartbreaking events.
“There’s just a lot of conversations going on, not just on the concern and genuine care that the guys have for the city, all those that live there, but how could they do something to at least lend some sort of strength or spirit back to those who are affected by this,” Farrell said on WEEI’s Salk & Holley Show.
The Bruins’ game on Monday was postponed, and the Celtics’ Tuesday night game was cancelled completely. Both of those were home games — making it logical to alter the teams’ schedules — but the Red Sox faced a strange situation. While they were in Cleveland to kick off a three-game series on Tuesday, it was obvious that the players’ minds were elsewhere, yet the game went on, and the Red Sox managed to pull out a road victory over the Indians.
“There wasn’t really any talk of not playing the game. As we live in a world now that there are terrorism acts … terrorism works best when it interrupts your daily life and takes you away from things you do in a normal routine,” Farrell said. “We’ll certainly pay our respects and give what we can to help lift up the spirit of community. I think that our sport, because of the time of the year, maybe does provide some small vehicle to get back to some normalcy and to carry on. By no means does that mean we leave people behind or not think of them, because while we’re not there in Boston, they’re in our minds as we go about our workday here.”
The Red Sox will return to Fenway Park on Friday for the start of a 10-game homestand. Friday night’s contest will be the first home game since Monday’s devastation, and one assumes it’ll be an emotional time at America’s Most Beloved Ballpark. According to Farrell, the players are anxious to get back to their community.
“We look forward to getting back and sharing and contributing as best as we can, to continue to move forward from this,” Farrell said. “This is a good group. I think people are starting to recognize the individual personalities that are here, but more importantly, we’ve come together pretty quick as a unit. I’m not saying we’re all the way there yet, because we’ve got some guys who are on the mend, who are going to come back to this team. But it’s a good group to watch and I think it’s a fun team to pay attention to.”
Perhaps the new-look Red Sox can help boost morale throughout the city of Boston. After all, they look to be a resilient bunch, and no one knows more about resiliency than Bostonians.
Have a question for Ricky Doyle? Send it to him via Twitter at @TheRickyDoyle or send it here.
