To Dan Shaughnessy:
Dan, I have to say you’re really getting boring. The crushing Pats loss on Sunday gave you an excuse to go over classic Boston folds-again. Naturally, you start at Fenway: “When it comes to mind-bending, catastrophic calamities, the Red Sox are the gold standard. They produce more agita than The Sopranos. No team does colossal flops like the local nine. They tortured the region in the latter half of the 20th century with the Bucky Dent game and the Bill Buckner game.” (I’m tired of people calling it the Buckner game. How about giving some blame to Calvin Schiraldi, Bob Stanley, and Rich Gedman? If they had done their jobs, there would have been no grounder to Buckner.) You continue: “They gave us the Aaron Boone game in 2003. Most recently, they perpetrated the biggest collapse in baseball history, blowing a 9 1/2 game wild-card lead in September.”
Yes, Dan, the Sox have broken our hearts many times. My first experience with one was when I was 13 years old and Johnny Pesky was manager. It was a fold from second place in July to seventh place in September, and has largely been forgotten I also lived through 1972, 1974, and 1978. But Dan, how would you like to be an Indians fan? Their last World Series win was in 1948, over the then-Boston Braves. In 1954, they won 111 games, a major league record at the time, then collapsed in four straight to the Willie Mays-led New York Giants. Most seasons since then they have been near the bottom of their divisions. Three times since 1980 they have lost more than 100 games. They made it to the Series twice in the 1990’s, once coming within two outs of a win before reliever Jose Mesa surrendered the tying run and Charles Nagy gave up the clincher in the eleventh on a hit by former Sox shortstop Edgar Renteria
to win it for the Marlins.
How would you like to be an Orioles fan? Their last postseason appearence was in 1997, their last World Series appearence in 1983. In 1988, they lost their first 21 games. A few years ago, they were beaten in a game by a 30-3 score. In 2007 at Fenway, they had a 5-0 lead with two out and none on in the ninth and found a way to blow it. It is remembered by Sox fans as the Mothers Day Miracle. Unless the Sox and Yanks are in town and bring their own fans, beautiful Camden Yards is nearly empty.
Dan, I realize you have become a celebrity and probably a millionaire by writing books like One Strike Away, Curse of the Bambino, and Reversing the Curse. But leave the team alone, at least until spring training starts. The Bosox have made the postseason six times since 2003, and a game at Fenway is still one of the most exciting in baseball-look at the attendance figures.
Dan, you’ve had a great writing career. But your act is getting old.
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