It’d be really easy to be negative right now. The Red Sox have managed to blow an unthinkable nine game lead over the past 24 days, going a brutal 6-19 in the month of September. Everything that could have gone wrong for this team has gone wrong. Every bit of momentum they build gets torn down an inning or two later. To be quite frank, I’ve never seen anything quite like it. While there are certainly logical reasons that exist for their precipitous downfall, this goes beyond logic and rationality.
Still, like Charlie expressed so perfectly in his article this morning, I’ve retained hope. I don’t know how or why, but I have. Maybe I’m stubborn or in denial, but I refuse to give up on the Red Sox. I didn’t give up in 2004 when their backs were to the wall, and I’m not going to give up hope now. I guess that’s the point. It’s time to get past our negativity and rally the troops.
To rally the Red Sox, I’m starting a Twitter campaign. Currently, there are five Red Sox using Twitter to reach out to their fans: Jon Lester (@JLester31), Jacoby Ellsbury (@JacobyEllsbury), David Ortiz (@DavidOrtiz), Carl Crawford ( @CarlCrawford_ ), and Jarrod Saltalamacchia (@Jarrod_Salty39). I’m calling on all Red Sox fans to get on Twitter to reach out and cheer on our guys. If you don’t have a Twitter account, sign up for one today. After we get through the next few days, you can delete your account for all I care. The important thing is that we show our support for the Red Sox during this tough stretch. All you have to do is send a short supportive message to each player with the hashtag #keepingthefaith tacked on at the end. It will take 5-10 minutes of your time.
We can still win this thing! The Red Sox players need our support. If you can’t be at the game tonight in Baltimore, this is the least you can do.
Onto the links! (After the jump…)
- Denton at Surviving Grady is FREAKING OUT! While I continue to not be in full out panic mode, my mood has clearly changed from “cool as a cucumber” to “gravely concerned.” I think he’s overstating himself a little when he says that Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia are the only ones interested in playing in October. Marco Scutaro and Carl Crawford have both played incredibly well this month. (Well, Crawford at the plate anyway.) Still, I think he captures the tone of Red Sox Nation pretty well.
- Adam Morris of Lonestar Ball takes on Jeff Passan and Jon Heyman for jumping to conclusions yesterday with regards to the John Lackey divorce case. He does a pretty spectacular job is deconstructing their weak statements.
- Over at the Platoon Advantage, Bill and The Common Man return with a blogfight on the movie Moneyball. Like the movie and the book, this article is definitely worth checking out.
- Bill Petti of Beyond the Boxscore takes a look at the Saber-triple crown.
- Over at the ESPN Sweet Spot, David Schoenfield marvels at the Red Sox meltdown. As he says in the piece, “$161M just doesn’t buy you the joy it used to, does it?” He’s right. It doesn’t. Then again, money doesn’t buy championships.
Those are all the links that are fit to print today. Hopefully, this evening will be more enjoyable than last night.