Last night the Red Sox completed another big comeback in the American League Championship Series by defeating the Cleveland Indians in Game 7 after falling behind in the series three games to one last week. While I was nervous after the Red Sox lost Games 2, 3 and 4, I did still have a fair amount of confidence that they had at least a decent shot of pulling it off for a few reasons. Josh Beckett pitched in Game 5 and it's getting to the point that whenever he pitches for the Red Sox it's almost a guaranteed win as none of the games he's pitched have really even been close and he is so consistently dominant that any mistake at all is really a surprise. So if the Sox could pull off another win behind Beckett in Game 5 then they would have recaptured Home Field Advantage with Curt Shilling pitching in Game 6. Shilling has the best winning percentage of any pitcher in MLB history in the postseason and is undefeated in elimination games so I liked the Red Sox's chances there, especially back in Fenway Park. If those two were both Red Sox wins then it would come down to a Game 7 in which the Red Sox could throw every pitcher out there if need be (Beckett included). So even down 3-1 I still had a lot of hope. Well it turns out I was right to have that hope and confidence because the Red Sox did in fact win the final three games by a combined margin of 30-5, sending the Indians off into the summer, and that's what I'd like to talk about.
See, back in 2004 when the Red Sox defeated the Yankees to advance to the World Series, it was doubly sweet not just for finally beating the MFYs but for doing it in such a historic fashion that forever will have them labeled as the biggest chokers in the history of sports. The Yankees were up three games to none after having just beaten the Red Sox 18-9 in Game 3 in Fenway and were poised to add yet another notch in their belt, so to speak, with an assumed sweep of the Red Sox, the team they always beat. But the Red Sox became the first team to come back from 0-3 in a series and even force a 7th game, and then in that Game 7, in Yankee Stadium no less, they blew out the Yankees and celebrated on their field. It was, bar none, the sweetest thing that Red Sox fans could have asked for because finally the Yankees and all their arrogant fans got to be on the other end of a humiliating loss that feels like a punch in the stomach.
But this time the victory is very much bittersweet because the Indians are most assuredly not the Yankees. In fact, the Indians are in many ways the antithesis of the Yankees. The Indians are really very much like what the Red Sox were back in 2003: a team that hasn't won anything in a long, long time. Now watching this series I certainly hated the Indians and didn't like hearing their first baseman, Ryan Garko, say that champagne would taste just as good in Boston as it would have in Cleveland (after the Red Sox won Game 5), and I don't have any sympathy for the Indian players who got to wake up today multi-millionaires and who probably only have any allegiance to the Indians as long as they're getting paid; but that's not really what this is about. Today, as good as I feel about the Red Sox making it back to the World Series for the second time in 4 years, I feel really horrible for Cleveland fans.
See, Cleveland sports fans arguably have had more heartache in the last 50 years than sports fans in any other city, and while Bostonians may have been long-suffering Red Sox fans for decade after decade at the very least they had the Celtics (16 World Championships) to root for for many years, and more recently had the New England Patriots dynasty to help them with their problems. Cleveland, on the other hand, hasn't had a championship of any kind since 1964 and has had its most famous sports moments come to be known for their infamy. Things like The Drive (in which the Broncos mounted a last minute comeback to defeat the Browns) or The Shot (in which Michael Jordan nailed a season-ending jumper over the Cavaliers) are what have defined Cleveland sports for the last few decades; and now after blowing a 3-1 series lead this week reporters have decided to add The Collapse to that list.
While I would never have considered myself a "long-suffering Red Sox fan", my Dad and my Grandfather most certainly were, and as someone who has seen that kind of heartbreak over and over and felt for those who had to endure it, I know how miserable that can be. So my heart really goes out to Indian fans. The only consolation I can give them is that Red Sox fans everywhere felt probably even more dejected following Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS, but look at how quickly fortunes can change.
Thankfully the Rockies haven't even been a franchise long enough for anyone to feel sorry for their fans if they lose in the World Series to the Red Sox :)