Monday, September 29, 2008
Daylight
I finally snapped my personal Dodger losing streak at Mays Field yesterday, as the Giants beat L.A. 3-1 to give Tim Lincecum his 18th win in a very fun game. It was about as thrilling as any game could be when it's the last game of the season and everything is decided. Knowing that the Cy Young was at stake, everybody was hanging on Nate Scherholtz's at-bat in the seventh inning, praying he'd knock in the run and give Timmy the chance for the win. Fortunately for us all, Nate came through and Lincecum ended up earning the victory. Lincecum solidified his Cy case by absolutely dominating for seven innings. The first nine outs he got were all on strikeouts, the first time that's happened since 1986 (when Sid Fernandez did it for the most awesome team of all time that year).
I am also happy to announce that I am the proud owner of a Tim Lincecum Giants shirt. Walking around Mays Field yesterday, I was just overwhelmed by how pumped up everybody was about Lincecum and the season he was having. In a 90-loss season, it was great to see Giants fans revved up about something. When they could have just stayed home and watched the, ugh, Raiders, they turned out en masse to watch and root on the most exciting Giants pitcher in a long time. With the Lincecum love so infectious, I decided I just couldn't leave the stadium without dropping 25 bucks on a Timmy shirt. Needless to say, there won't be any disparaging photos involving the Lincecum jersey on this site any time soon.
The 2008 season ends on a high note, and honestly, how many of us would have ever thought that coming out of Spring Training? If you're a Giants fan and, at the beginning of the season, you told me that you'd be excited about the team on this day, September 29, I've have called you either a liar or assumed you were perpetually high on pain killers. I think most of us just assumed that by this time Lou Seal would have hanged himself from the Coke slide and we would have all developed writer's cramp from the endless hate mail we were sending Brian Sabean.
No such misery, though. As opposed to last year, when the roster was stocked with a bunch of boring veterans with seeming death grips on starting jobs in 2008, now we have a group of young players who might actually be good major league players. Pablo Sandoval can rake, Fred Lewis is fun, Sergio Romo looks freaking awesome, Emmanuel Burriss is an interesting find, and Eugenio Velez is...well, a pretty bad player. OK, I guess all the young guys can't be good, but there's suddenly a lot of promise in the Giants organization, especially with Tim Alderson, Madison Bumgarner, Buster Posey, and Conor Gillaspie not too far away from the bigs. I can't believe I'm saying it, but I think I'm almost excited to be a Giants fan again.
Leaving the ball park yesterday, it became clear that I'm not alone. On the way back home, I was listening to Michael Urban's show on KNBR, and caller after caller chimed in raving about the team and the positive direction it was going. Most of the comments were typical mindless sports talk blather, with the usual ridiculous trade scenarios thrown in for good measure (someone proposed an asinine trade involving Aaron Rowand for Brandon Phillips, illustrating why I just refuse to listen to sports talk anymore), but whatever. It was just cool to hear such enthusiasm from so many people about the team, a far cry from the days when listening to KNBR post-game shows would only get you Larry Kruger making racially insensitive comments about the team's collection of bad hitters. One caller basically professed his undying man-love for Urban on the air, so things got a little, uh, carried away, but the fun never stopped.
Urban did drop one little nugget of insanity during the proceedings, though. Perhaps he was still high from the Lincecum 13-K performance and scintillating win, but at one point in all the post-game revelry, Urban said that he expected the Giants to improve by 15 games next season. Whoa, there, buddy. I'm excited about the Giants in '09 too, but let's not start waxing each other's bikini zones just yet. 15 games? I'm not sure Urban realizes how drastic an improvement that is. That essentially means that the Giants would be strong playoff contenders next season and, brother, I don't see it.
The Giants aren't the Tampa Bay Rays, a team overloaded with talent that just needs a tweak here or there before they become a title contender. There are still a lot of problems here. Even when the youth movement gained steam in August, the team offense still wasn't very good. The team OPS was just .720 in September and was only four points higher in the second half of the season than it was before the Break.
There are still a ton of lineup questions to be answered. I'm not convinced Travis Ishikawa is the answer at first at all, Sandoval seems like a stretch playing third base every day, no one knows if Burriss's plate patience is for real, and the team is kidding itself if it thinks Velez is an everyday player. They need to find some room for Nate Scherholtz, but that would involve trading Randy Winn and how easy is that going to be? Will Aaron Rowand find the bat that he lost in May?
Behind Lincecum and Cain, there are just as many worries with the pitching staff. Is Zito going to put it together? Is Jonathan Sanchez anything but an injury-addled tease? Kevin Correia was a mess this year and the fifth starter spot is wide open with no appetizing in-house options. The bullpen is basically a Magic Eye poster; look real hard and maybe something is there, but it certainly just looks like a big jumble of crap at first glance.
Expectations should be tempered a little, is all I'm saying. The Giants made it clear in the second half that they're committed to building the next winner through their system and not with crappy short-term fixer-uppers, and that's all we really asked for in 2008. If the Giants can improve to 80 wins next year I'd say that's a reasonable goal. With a little luck, they might outwit ol' Pythagoras and sneak into the playoffs in a poor NL West.
What I don't want to see are misguided moves to acquire veteran stopgaps, led on by the idea that the Giants are a hairsbreadth away from being a contender. This only sets the franchise back, but it seems that the front office has finally learned from its mistakes and won't go that route. If the Giants stay good on their commitment to developing the young guys and don't make any dumb free agents signings this offseason, then it's clear that 2009 will be the most anticipated Giants season since 2004.
--Omar Vizquel was brought out of the sixth inning yesterday and received a huge ovation. I have to admit, he wasn't my favorite Giant. In the last two of the four years he was here, he was flat out awful, and in 2005 he didn't exactly set the world on fire either. You can make a great argument that signing him wasn't nearly the priority that the Giants made it out to be.
All in all, though, he was a Good Giant. His defense was still good and his acrobatics were fun to watch, and it's always neat to have a guy finish up a terrific career with your favorite team. He was loved by fans and teammates alike, and it's easy to root for a player like that. I certainly stood up and joined in the thunder.
I am also happy to announce that I am the proud owner of a Tim Lincecum Giants shirt. Walking around Mays Field yesterday, I was just overwhelmed by how pumped up everybody was about Lincecum and the season he was having. In a 90-loss season, it was great to see Giants fans revved up about something. When they could have just stayed home and watched the, ugh, Raiders, they turned out en masse to watch and root on the most exciting Giants pitcher in a long time. With the Lincecum love so infectious, I decided I just couldn't leave the stadium without dropping 25 bucks on a Timmy shirt. Needless to say, there won't be any disparaging photos involving the Lincecum jersey on this site any time soon.
The 2008 season ends on a high note, and honestly, how many of us would have ever thought that coming out of Spring Training? If you're a Giants fan and, at the beginning of the season, you told me that you'd be excited about the team on this day, September 29, I've have called you either a liar or assumed you were perpetually high on pain killers. I think most of us just assumed that by this time Lou Seal would have hanged himself from the Coke slide and we would have all developed writer's cramp from the endless hate mail we were sending Brian Sabean.
No such misery, though. As opposed to last year, when the roster was stocked with a bunch of boring veterans with seeming death grips on starting jobs in 2008, now we have a group of young players who might actually be good major league players. Pablo Sandoval can rake, Fred Lewis is fun, Sergio Romo looks freaking awesome, Emmanuel Burriss is an interesting find, and Eugenio Velez is...well, a pretty bad player. OK, I guess all the young guys can't be good, but there's suddenly a lot of promise in the Giants organization, especially with Tim Alderson, Madison Bumgarner, Buster Posey, and Conor Gillaspie not too far away from the bigs. I can't believe I'm saying it, but I think I'm almost excited to be a Giants fan again.
Leaving the ball park yesterday, it became clear that I'm not alone. On the way back home, I was listening to Michael Urban's show on KNBR, and caller after caller chimed in raving about the team and the positive direction it was going. Most of the comments were typical mindless sports talk blather, with the usual ridiculous trade scenarios thrown in for good measure (someone proposed an asinine trade involving Aaron Rowand for Brandon Phillips, illustrating why I just refuse to listen to sports talk anymore), but whatever. It was just cool to hear such enthusiasm from so many people about the team, a far cry from the days when listening to KNBR post-game shows would only get you Larry Kruger making racially insensitive comments about the team's collection of bad hitters. One caller basically professed his undying man-love for Urban on the air, so things got a little, uh, carried away, but the fun never stopped.
Urban did drop one little nugget of insanity during the proceedings, though. Perhaps he was still high from the Lincecum 13-K performance and scintillating win, but at one point in all the post-game revelry, Urban said that he expected the Giants to improve by 15 games next season. Whoa, there, buddy. I'm excited about the Giants in '09 too, but let's not start waxing each other's bikini zones just yet. 15 games? I'm not sure Urban realizes how drastic an improvement that is. That essentially means that the Giants would be strong playoff contenders next season and, brother, I don't see it.
The Giants aren't the Tampa Bay Rays, a team overloaded with talent that just needs a tweak here or there before they become a title contender. There are still a lot of problems here. Even when the youth movement gained steam in August, the team offense still wasn't very good. The team OPS was just .720 in September and was only four points higher in the second half of the season than it was before the Break.
There are still a ton of lineup questions to be answered. I'm not convinced Travis Ishikawa is the answer at first at all, Sandoval seems like a stretch playing third base every day, no one knows if Burriss's plate patience is for real, and the team is kidding itself if it thinks Velez is an everyday player. They need to find some room for Nate Scherholtz, but that would involve trading Randy Winn and how easy is that going to be? Will Aaron Rowand find the bat that he lost in May?
Behind Lincecum and Cain, there are just as many worries with the pitching staff. Is Zito going to put it together? Is Jonathan Sanchez anything but an injury-addled tease? Kevin Correia was a mess this year and the fifth starter spot is wide open with no appetizing in-house options. The bullpen is basically a Magic Eye poster; look real hard and maybe something is there, but it certainly just looks like a big jumble of crap at first glance.
Expectations should be tempered a little, is all I'm saying. The Giants made it clear in the second half that they're committed to building the next winner through their system and not with crappy short-term fixer-uppers, and that's all we really asked for in 2008. If the Giants can improve to 80 wins next year I'd say that's a reasonable goal. With a little luck, they might outwit ol' Pythagoras and sneak into the playoffs in a poor NL West.
What I don't want to see are misguided moves to acquire veteran stopgaps, led on by the idea that the Giants are a hairsbreadth away from being a contender. This only sets the franchise back, but it seems that the front office has finally learned from its mistakes and won't go that route. If the Giants stay good on their commitment to developing the young guys and don't make any dumb free agents signings this offseason, then it's clear that 2009 will be the most anticipated Giants season since 2004.
--Omar Vizquel was brought out of the sixth inning yesterday and received a huge ovation. I have to admit, he wasn't my favorite Giant. In the last two of the four years he was here, he was flat out awful, and in 2005 he didn't exactly set the world on fire either. You can make a great argument that signing him wasn't nearly the priority that the Giants made it out to be.
All in all, though, he was a Good Giant. His defense was still good and his acrobatics were fun to watch, and it's always neat to have a guy finish up a terrific career with your favorite team. He was loved by fans and teammates alike, and it's easy to root for a player like that. I certainly stood up and joined in the thunder.
Labels: dodger hating weekend, finding solace in a bad season, season postmortem, Tim Lincecum
Friday, September 28, 2007
Mission: Don't Lose 90
That should be the goal this weekend. Sweep the Dodgers, in their house (payback for last season's final series), and prevent a 90-loss season, which just seems to carry a sort of bad stigma forever and ever. An 89-loss year stinks, but somehow it doesn't look so bad when you flip open the Baseball Encyclopedia twenty years from now and reminisce (ha, yeah right) upon 2007.
I'd love to watch the games this weekend, but the they aren't being televised either today or tomorrow and the Sunday game interferes directly with my football enjoyment. Giants-Dodgers, classic rivalry, yet not on TV. If both of these teams were in contention this season and we couldn't watch them play on FSN or anywhere else, I'd be pissed.
-Not much to yak about this week, as I've been busy with a new job and other assorted life things. Next week I'll cobble together my usual hilariously inaccurate playoff previews and do some Giants postmortems. Yeah, that means it's going to get ugly.
Here's the TGIF random video for you. It doesn't really need any introduction. Have a great weekend!
I'd love to watch the games this weekend, but the they aren't being televised either today or tomorrow and the Sunday game interferes directly with my football enjoyment. Giants-Dodgers, classic rivalry, yet not on TV. If both of these teams were in contention this season and we couldn't watch them play on FSN or anywhere else, I'd be pissed.
-Not much to yak about this week, as I've been busy with a new job and other assorted life things. Next week I'll cobble together my usual hilariously inaccurate playoff previews and do some Giants postmortems. Yeah, that means it's going to get ugly.
Here's the TGIF random video for you. It doesn't really need any introduction. Have a great weekend!
Labels: dodgers suck, finding solace in a bad season
Monday, September 10, 2007
Spoiler Alert
Poor Jonathan Broxton. After giving up only two home runs all year, he surrendered two game-winners this weekend, to Dan Ortmeier and Ray Durham, respectively, to drop the series against the Giants. Now the Dodgers' once-promising playoff hopes are nary a flicker. Broxton certainly hasn't reached Niedenfuer levels of choke-a-tude, but nearly killing your team's postseason hopes in the span of three days has got to suck.
Not that I, or any, Giants fan should feel much sympathy. Since our team is going nowhere this year, the best thing to cling to now is that sweet sense of schadenfreude as the Dodgers' season goes up in flames. After dropping the series this weekend, the Dodgers are now five-and-a-half games back of the Diamondbacks in the NL West, and two-and-a-half back of the Padres for the NL Wild Card. Our old buddy, BP's Playoff Odds Report, saw their playoff odds sink from 33% at the start of Friday's game to 23% at the start of today. They aren't done, per se, but it doesn't look good. Again, to paraphrase Pete Townshend, schadenfreude, reign o'er me!
What the Giants' series win also accomplished was it ended the Dodgers' unacceptable dominance at Mays Field, a winning streak that extended to 11 games. Instead of meekly rolling over in a potential spoiler matchup like in the final weekend of last season, the Giants made their stand. The 1982 incarnation of Joe Morgan would have been proud.
With the Diamondbacks coming in, the Giants have the opportunity to play the party pooper once again. Funny thing about the DBacks: they lead their division despite a horrible run differential. They sport a shiny 81-63 record despite being outscored by their opponents by 29 runs. Usually that's an indication that a team sucks (Arizona's Pythagorean Record is 69-75), but somehow the Snakes are getting it done this season.
Remember another team that ran into the playoffs despite being outscored by other teams? That's right, the 1997 Giants, a team that would get crushed 19-3 one day, then come back and win a few 2-1 games in a row. As we all sadly know, that team didn't fare too well in the postseason (Wilson Alvarez, meet Devon White), so perhaps it's a bad omen for the DBacks.
Not that I, or any, Giants fan should feel much sympathy. Since our team is going nowhere this year, the best thing to cling to now is that sweet sense of schadenfreude as the Dodgers' season goes up in flames. After dropping the series this weekend, the Dodgers are now five-and-a-half games back of the Diamondbacks in the NL West, and two-and-a-half back of the Padres for the NL Wild Card. Our old buddy, BP's Playoff Odds Report, saw their playoff odds sink from 33% at the start of Friday's game to 23% at the start of today. They aren't done, per se, but it doesn't look good. Again, to paraphrase Pete Townshend, schadenfreude, reign o'er me!
What the Giants' series win also accomplished was it ended the Dodgers' unacceptable dominance at Mays Field, a winning streak that extended to 11 games. Instead of meekly rolling over in a potential spoiler matchup like in the final weekend of last season, the Giants made their stand. The 1982 incarnation of Joe Morgan would have been proud.
With the Diamondbacks coming in, the Giants have the opportunity to play the party pooper once again. Funny thing about the DBacks: they lead their division despite a horrible run differential. They sport a shiny 81-63 record despite being outscored by their opponents by 29 runs. Usually that's an indication that a team sucks (Arizona's Pythagorean Record is 69-75), but somehow the Snakes are getting it done this season.
Remember another team that ran into the playoffs despite being outscored by other teams? That's right, the 1997 Giants, a team that would get crushed 19-3 one day, then come back and win a few 2-1 games in a row. As we all sadly know, that team didn't fare too well in the postseason (Wilson Alvarez, meet Devon White), so perhaps it's a bad omen for the DBacks.
Labels: dodgers suck, finding solace in a bad season, playing the spoiler
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Excitement For Naught
If tonight's 7-5 loss to Atlanta illustrates anything, it's that even if a season is completely lost and all hope for organizational competence has been abandoned, there are still reasons to get excited over a fun baseball game. The Giants' comeback from down 4-0, with two out in the ninth, no less, was scintillating, even if the eventual result was that all too familiar "L".
In the ninth, I started out thinking, "Well, let's at least avoid a shutout." Moral victories always provide a sort of weird placebo for the depression of a 95-loss pace. When the first two batters walked, I pumped my fist, as Tim Hudson's shutout bid came closer to ruin. When Barry Bonds and Klesko made outs, though, I threw up my hands, muttered an F-bomb, and made a dash for the radio dial. However, Rich Aurilia and Pedro Feliz, two of the most awful hitters in baseball this season, got back to back clutch hits (who'da thunk it?), and good ol' "two out" Bengie struck again to tie it.
The comeback was fun because 1) it was a two out comeback from four runs down against a seemingly invincible pitcher, 2) it tied the game, obviously, and a Giant win, however much of a rarity these days, always makes the day brighter, and 3) it prevented Matt Morris from getting a loss for my fantasy team. Yeah, yeah, real team before fantasy, but you have to take everything into account here.
The Giants lost it in the 13th when Jonathan Sanchez was all over the map, but almost made another comeback in the bottom of the inning before Freddy Lewis struck out with the bases loaded. Sucky, yet still exciting. If the Giants are going to lose, let's at least see some fight like they showed in the 9th and 13th innings of this game.
On a related note, around the 5th inning, about the time when Chipper Jones (who is having a remarkable season) launched his 17th home run, I sent a text message to my friend that said, simply: "Matt Morris is horseshit." Not only is he killing my fantasy team, he's effectively destroyed whatever trade value he may have had with his awful pitching over the past month.
I could see maybe another GM being crazy enough to take on the remainder of Morris's bloated salary when he was keeping his ERA under 4. Now that his peripherals have caught up to him and he can't get anybody out, what could the Giants seriously get for him besides like the second coming of Alfredo Simon? I mean, the pitching market is absurd, but not that absurd, not to the point where a team will give up a high-potential player for a pitcher who is rapidly approaching Jamey Wright territory. You could practically see the advance scouts dashing for the exits about the time Kelly Johnson ripped a single to plate two runs today. Ick.
In the ninth, I started out thinking, "Well, let's at least avoid a shutout." Moral victories always provide a sort of weird placebo for the depression of a 95-loss pace. When the first two batters walked, I pumped my fist, as Tim Hudson's shutout bid came closer to ruin. When Barry Bonds and Klesko made outs, though, I threw up my hands, muttered an F-bomb, and made a dash for the radio dial. However, Rich Aurilia and Pedro Feliz, two of the most awful hitters in baseball this season, got back to back clutch hits (who'da thunk it?), and good ol' "two out" Bengie struck again to tie it.
The comeback was fun because 1) it was a two out comeback from four runs down against a seemingly invincible pitcher, 2) it tied the game, obviously, and a Giant win, however much of a rarity these days, always makes the day brighter, and 3) it prevented Matt Morris from getting a loss for my fantasy team. Yeah, yeah, real team before fantasy, but you have to take everything into account here.
The Giants lost it in the 13th when Jonathan Sanchez was all over the map, but almost made another comeback in the bottom of the inning before Freddy Lewis struck out with the bases loaded. Sucky, yet still exciting. If the Giants are going to lose, let's at least see some fight like they showed in the 9th and 13th innings of this game.
On a related note, around the 5th inning, about the time when Chipper Jones (who is having a remarkable season) launched his 17th home run, I sent a text message to my friend that said, simply: "Matt Morris is horseshit." Not only is he killing my fantasy team, he's effectively destroyed whatever trade value he may have had with his awful pitching over the past month.
I could see maybe another GM being crazy enough to take on the remainder of Morris's bloated salary when he was keeping his ERA under 4. Now that his peripherals have caught up to him and he can't get anybody out, what could the Giants seriously get for him besides like the second coming of Alfredo Simon? I mean, the pitching market is absurd, but not that absurd, not to the point where a team will give up a high-potential player for a pitcher who is rapidly approaching Jamey Wright territory. You could practically see the advance scouts dashing for the exits about the time Kelly Johnson ripped a single to plate two runs today. Ick.
Labels: finding solace in a bad season, Matt Morris
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
A Reason To Cheer
As is painfully clear by this point, the Giants don't have a very good team. Unfortunately, the easiest thing to do during a miserable, go-nowhere season is to just turn the station and focus on your fantasy team. Perhaps if the Giants had a lot of young guys with some potential taking the field, the losing would be tolerable. For example, if the Giants and Devil Rays switched rosters right now you can bet that I wouldn't miss a game.
Sadly, this team is old, hurt, crabby, sucky, and just loathsome to watch or even listen to on the radio. Even the normally exuberant Jon Miller sounds like he's preparing a noose for himself on the KNBR broadcasts. Except for the days when Matt Cain or Tim Lincecum pitch, this team is the most gawdawful boring bunch of Giants that I've ever seen, and yes, I was a fan during the Desi Wilson/Dax Jones period.
So as we Giants fans join hands and wallow in our Sabean-made misery (it loves company, you know), we have to scrounge for our bright spots and take them wherever we can get them. Luckily, this weekend, I found one, with a fun story from a place where Giants fans are normally not welcome.
I was in enemy territory this weekend, as I took a trip to LA and San Diego with some friends to catch the Angels and Padres. The Angels game was your typical nondescript, "who cares?" interleague matchup, as the Halos beat the Pirates in extra innings. I must say though, that the energy level at Angel Stadium is impressive, much more electric than anything I've seen at Mays Field in a long while. Maybe that's a product of the Giants losing so much, or maybe it's that damned Rally Monkey, but the atmosphere at that ballpark is just so much more fan friendly. It's quite a contrast.
Anyway, the Boston-Padre game, well, it was quite an experience. As per usual, drunk, obnoxious Red Sox fans descended upon downtown San Diego in droves, filling up the bars, starting their chants, and drinking copious amounts of alcohol. The typical routine for a group of Red Sox fans was this: walk into a bar, talk loud shit, order shots, talk shit to the stewing bartender, pound shots, talk more shit, then walk out and look for another bar. Rinse, lather, repeat. And they wonder why we west coasters love them so much.
A few hours before the game began, my friends and I were down in the hotel bar, er, "warming up" for that night's contest. The Giants-Yankees game was on the television (luckily the sound was down so we couldn't hear the latest moronic Thom Brennaman sermon), and I had more interest invested than usual because I hate the Yankees (and don't we all?). Likewise, all of the Red Sox fans in the bar (and there were plenty) were rooting for the Yanks to lose.
Naturally, when Nate Schierholtz's blooper fell in to plate the winning run, the place went wild. I cheered, my friends cheered, I slapped hands with the Red Sox fans. It was quite a moment. For that little speck in time, we, the smart, articulate, well-read Giants fans could see eye-to-eye with the drunken, hairy, brain cell-deprived Sox fans. Giants fans and Red Sox fans living in harmony? Has this world gone mad?
Of course, all of that goodwill was wiped clean when the game started, and despite their division rival status I rooted hard for the Padres, because our section in the nosebleeds was filled to the brim with more of those loud morons cheering on the Sox (I hope I'm not denigrating an entire fan base here, but from what I understand this is sort of the norm). It took only ten minutes, I kid you not, for a Padre fan to challenge a Sox fan to a fight. And don't even get me started on my seventh inning trip to the Sox fan-infested restroom.
The Sox ended up getting their asses handed to them, and two pivotal calls by the third base umpire were overturned to go against Boston, which, to my never-ending glee, sent the drunken bastards in our section into a frothy, alcoholic rage. So by the end of the night I was exchanging emphatic high-fives with Padre fans. I was having a very diplomatic (or traitorous, you choose) day at Petco.
Anyway, going back to the Giants-Yankees, it goes to show that even in the worst, most depressing seasons, there's always something to cheer about. There's never any excuse to just stop watching. If you stick with it through the bad, the good is just that much better. That's what I learned during the amazing 1997 season. And the best way to make it through the bad stuff is to find stuff to cheer for, even if it means you have to share a tender moment with a boorish Red Sox fan.
-Anyways, just because, here is a picture I took of Petco Park from our seats (waaaaaay up there). Downtown San Diego is in the background. It's just a lovely sight, and a wonderful experience. Also notice the smattering of red shirts in the seats. It makes me cringe every time.
Labels: drunk red sox fans, finding solace in a bad season
