NESN jumps on its own bandwagon:
The 2001 Mariners won 116 regular-season games to set the American League record for most wins in a single season and tie the 1906 Cubs for the major league record (though the North Siders accomplished the feat in 152 games). Both those teams failed to win the World Series. The Cubs lost to the White Sox in six games in the Fall Classic. The Mariners didn’t even make it that far, falling to the Yankees in five games in the ALCS.
The Red Sox have no intention of suffering a similar fate. The way they are constructed, they could surpass the 116-win mark, but nothing less than a World Series title will make Boston happy.
The 2011 Red Sox possess all the pieces to have a season for the ages. If everything falls into place and the breaks go their way, they could do more than set records and become champions. They could do more than take their place on Immortality Peak and end up being mentioned in the same sentence as legendary clubs of the past: the 1929 A’s, the epic Yankees teams of the ‘30s, the 1970 Orioles, the 1976 Reds.
The 2011 Red Sox could accomplish a feat that has never been done. They could unseat the 1927 Yankees as the greatest major league team of all time.
Why stop there? My understanding is that the Red Sox are odds-on favorites to be the next football team to go undefeated in the football season, upend the Miami Heat and lift Liverpool back to the top of the English soccer standings.
That's what happens when Dustin Pedroia plays second base.
6 replies on “Well, Duh”
Well if that isn’t the jinx I was waiting for I don’t know what is…Last year Bill something or other from Philadelphia proclaimed the Phillies to have the greatest infield of all time…How’d that work out?
I like what the Sox have done, I really do. They have made (on paper) all the right moves, but 116+ wins? That’s crazy talk. The Orioles are improved, the Jays could contend for 3rd place, the Rays are going to take a step back, but they still are a good team and the Yankees aren’t chopped liver…But hey if the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks can make the playoffs then I guess anything is possible.
Eh, it’s NESN, whose sole interest is in getting ratings for the team they broadcast. I can only imagine if the copywriter had advertised the Sox as a “potentially 96 win team”. That’s really juicy stuff!
This isn’t a jinx – don’t get too excited John! For it to be a true jinx it has to have plausibility.
Writing credit: “Eric Ortiz is the senior editor of new media for NESN. He previously worked as an MLB editor at ESPN.com. He graduated from Stanford University with a degree in English.”
I hope Mr. Ortiz gets some room in which to stretch his legs rather than pen this pap.
NESN continuously churns out this kind of dreck. They need to go out and hire some newspaper writers, a la WEEI’s hiring Bradford and Speier. Columns from Tom Caron and half-baked analysis by people no one’s heard of doesn’t drive me to their site, at all.
Of course, should NESN hire a newspaper writer, he or she would seek independence to report as a journalist, which might require the uncomfortable situation of the Red Sox’ own network breaking unflattering information about the team – or not even unflattering, just information the team wants kept under wraps for whatever reason.
I just thought this was too hilarious. I’m growing more comfortable with the Sox’ new status as the frontrunners in the AL East, but this is silly beyond belief.
> Theo Epstein has put together a roster that would make Branch Rickey proud.
Why would you invoke Branch Rickey when citing pre-integration baseball in general, let alone the Boston Red Sox?
GAH. You don’t need all that to say that Boston looks like a good team this year.
Actually, I suspect that Dustin Pedroia and Danny Woodhead are the same person. They may also be Nate Robinson.