Sunday, April 29, 2001
These are the Red Sox?
Since I've been following the Sox, I can't recall a time when the team persona was as loose as it appears to be now.
Yesterday the Red Sox committed 5 errors in one game, nearly tying the 100 year franchise record of 6 in a game. In the past, such lousy play would be expected to be met by extreme negativity from the players who might blame the media, blame each other, blame someone.
However, this year so far things are very different. (The following quotes from The Boston Globe.)
''I don't think we'll ever have another game like that,'' said Trot Nixon, one of the quintet of defensive culprits. ''This was a nasty game, a weird game.''
''This was just one of those games,'' manager Jimy Williams said. ''We move on. We've been playing good. It'll happen sometimes.''
''You never want to say a team is due for this,'' Varitek said. ''We just flat-out didn't get it done.''
''They were aggressive mistakes,'' rookie Shea Hillenbrand said. ''I'd rather have that happen than have someone being lackadaisical and not being in the game.''
''It's a weird game and the bounces aren't always going to go your way,'' Nixon said. ''If they did, your record would be 162-0.''
Now that's what I call good attitude. I much prefer this to some of the uglier moments in Sox history. Heck, you only have to go back to the escapades of Spring Training to see how a negative attitudes can really take their toll on a club.
61*
Saw the movie 61* on HBO last night. It's a very good baseball movie. Learned much about Yankee history that I did not know. For instance, I never knew the Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle didn't get along. I guess, as a Red Sox fan, I've always viewed the Yankees from an odd perspective. It always seemed to me that, with the exception of the Steinbrenner hi-jinx, the Yankees had none of the clubhouse turmoil typical of other clubs like the Red Sox.
