Well, what a year that turned out to be! Remember how warm it was at New Year’s? And the Blizzards that followed? I think my arms still ache from all the time spent with my shovel. And remember all the angst over who would close games back then? Who could have guessed that Sox fans, and a certain young pitcher, would spur a fitness craze throughout New England? Or that Manny Ramirez himself would now be known as the Hardest Working Man In Baseball? So many odd things came together this year, let’s look back for a moment.
It was the day after our implosion during the home opener when the biggest moment of the year took place, and without a silly technical breakdown none of it would have happened at all. Tavarez turned into a fantastic set up man this season, perhaps one of the best in the AL, but on that first drizzly day at Fenway it seemed like a disaster in the making. He not only blew what should have been an easy save, and a chance to let Pedroia’s Grand Slam (!) be the story of the day, but also brought back fears that he was, indeed, the hot-headed nutjob we had all been warned about. His second pitch that inning clanged off of the batter’s helmet, and the third off of the next batter’s foot. After a tense mound conference and what seemed like some sort of a primal scream he threw two amazing fastballs, and then hit the third batter, loading the bases. The homers he then gave up may still be flying somewhere and the crowd left the park that damp afternoon thinking dark and awful thoughts.
But it was the dampness itself that turned things around. Somehow overnight some water leaked into the park’s internal phone system and the bullpen phones became inoperative after the third inning the next day. When in the ninth, after several members of the ‘pen had been warming up in case Dice-K needed some help, it seemed that our new Ace had hit the wall. Tito went to the mound and seemed unsure of who to go to as he looked out at the relief corps. That was when the signiture moment of the season took place. Manny DelCarmen, feeling primed and desperately wanting to come into the game, began waving his arms over his head, and jumping up and down to attract Tito’s attention. It looked like he was doing jumping jacks out there and Tito, not having a better idea at the time, simply pointed at him and waved him in. MDC all but bounded his way to the mound, that crazy and now famous grin of his leading the way, and a phenomenon was born. That he struck out the last two batters on seven pitches was fresh on the minds of the Nation the next day when Timlin faltered in the beginning of the ninth it was first the fans in standing room above the Green Monster, and soon then many others, who started doing jumping jacks. Hundreds of us, jumping and waving our arms like crazed idiots, telling Tito just who we wanted in the game. When the call went out for MDC to come in and he did a quick JJ himself in return the crowd went nuts. Within days other guys on the team were doing jumping jacks before games, while warming up between innings, whenever Dirty Water was played after another win.
We had become Exercise Nation. Now we have High School football teams doing jj’s, as they have come to be known, to psyche themselves up for games, Governor Patrick has been visiting schools and leading the kids in workouts to go along with his new Fitness Initiative, the jj is everywhere.
And then the other Manny, still hitting the ball and grinning his goofy grin and being as distant as ever, turned a bit of a corner himself. When he saw the courage of young Jon Lester, working as hard as he was in Spring Training, and his first two trips up to Boston from Pawtucket, to overcome his illness, he was stirred to find something new in himself. He has always been one of the hardest working players on the team, spending long hours working on his swing and studying his craft, but never got as much attention for his work off the field as he did for his lapses on it. It was when he approached Lester to tell him how much he admired his resolve to come back that Lester simply told him that everyone on this team works just as hard, but that leaders like Manny need to let the fans know it. Within a week Manny had allowed a camera crew to follow him around on his daily routine, and he even smiled and answered questions. Even to Dan Shaughnessy. When the piece aired on ESPN, and other bits on the local channels, and when he did a few jj’s after a nice catch up against the wall, the world seemed to turn for him. He even started tearing down the baseline to first on all grounders, even creating that famous error by Giambi that now has him suffering the ‘Here Comes Manny’ chant every time he takes the field at Fenway.
The rumors that Varitek had learned hypnosis during the winter continued to swirl, as he seemed able to suddenly focus pitchers on the job at hand, their body language changing abruptly after mound visits where he was rumored to use ‘trigger words’ to put pitchers into a form of trance. After a few months it even seemed to work on Tavarez, who would find his control and seemingly relax after so many mound visits from ‘Tek. More than a few took to calling him ‘The Strike Whisperer’. Whatever the truth was it seemed to work, as our staff had two 20 game winners and the best ERA in the league. Maybe Manny could hypnotize ‘Tek into rediscovering his power, but that’s just being greedy.
My favorite moment was being there on 9/25 to see us clinch the AL East and end the yankee run of titles. Papi’s moon shot towards the Turnpike in the 4th, Dice-K’s 250th K of the season, MDC’s 37th save, and the news that Steinbrenner had announced the firing of Torre earlier in the day, combined to make it a wonderful time at the park.
I won’t even bother going into what happened in October, we all remember it clearly enough. Anyone else with a favorite moment? Feel free to add to the legendary tale. And raise a glass to 2008, here’s hoping it is just as much fun! (Does jumping jack to celebrate finishing this column)
-Chris Curtis; FenwayNation.com columnist