Red Sox' championship clouded critical thinking

BOSTON (Nov 12): Looking back at the 2005 baseball season, I should have been more concerned about the chances of the Red Sox making it to — and winning — another World Series championship.
We all know the story. The Red Sox always seemed to have enough talent to win the Series each year, but they would always come up short, sometimes in excruciatingly heartbreaking fashion. Most of us remained loyal to the team despite the devastating losses.
Many had to take out a second mortgage on their homes to finance their growing psychiatry bills, but they came back every year for more. In fact, in another example of just how disturbed many sports fans appear to be, the Sox fan base actually seemed to increase over the years.
I fell in love with the new Red Sox ownership and their young and talented general manager, Theo Epstein, very quickly after they took over. They embraced the Boston-New York rivalry, and did their part to add to its intensity.
They immediately began making a serious effort at developing their own talent for the future, while at the same time spending the money that could enable the team to win now.
Unlike the Yankees, who look more like a military unit than a baseball team, ownership allowed players to have facial hair and wear their hair any way they pleased. The policy, or lack thereof, sometimes had horrifyingly silly results, but it allowed players to develop their own individual personalities, and in turn the entire team has taken on a unique and extremely likable personality.
Even the new blood and the new attitude couldn't seem to break the supposed curse, as Aaron Boone's home run sailed out of the park, ending the 2003 hopes of Red Sox nation, and once again sending the Evil Empire to the World Series.
Then came 2004. The Red Sox took four games in a row from the Yankees after falling behind 3-0 in the best-of-seven series, and then won four in a row against the Cardinals to become world champions for the first time in 86 years. Longtime Sox fans were stunned. The curse — if there ever was one — was indeed broken.
I've been trying to figure out whether winning the World Series title made me overly complacent, or overly confident about this year’s team. Even Boston Globe writer Dan Shaughnessy predicted during the middle of the season that the Red Sox would run away with the Eastern Division title, words that close readers of the Globe's sports section never thought that they would see written by him.
Normally, I'm fairly critical of personnel moves by the Red Sox. I've managed to remain an optimistic Sox fan through it all, but that doesn't mean that I've agreed with everything they've done through the years. In fact, some of the moves they've made in the past have nearly made me physically ill. But coming into this year, it was like I was still in a state of baseball utopia, where nothing that the Red Sox did could possibly be wrong. After all, they were curseless. They were the champions of the world.
The bullpen turned out to be the team’s major weakness in 2005, but coming into the season, I saw it as a strength. Closer Keith Foulke was back after an excellent year, as were Mike Timlin and Alan Embree. I was excited about the possibilities when the Red Sox signed Matt Mantei and lefty John Halama to contracts. I didn't know who the heck this Blaine Neal guy was, but I was sure the team must have done their homework on him, and he wouldn't be with the team unless he was good.
Because my vision had been so severely clouded by the world title, I was still certain the Red Sox would find some magical way to make it to the Series again, even after 5/6 of the original bullpen bit the dust.
It wasn't until after the Sox were swept by Chicago in the first round of the playoffs that I realized how foolish I was to be so confident in the relief corps. The setup of the entire staff depended upon a healthy Foulke, and when he went down for good toward the end of the season, I should have known that Boston's chances of advancing far into the playoffs were slim.
The hitting, despite the downfall of Mark Bellhorn, and below-average years from Trot Nixon and Kevin Millar, was never a problem.
In my opinion, Boston's starting pitching wasn't as strong as last year, but it was still good. Even with Schilling's extremely disappointing year, the Red Sox may have had just enough starting pitching to appear in another World Series. But they needed a strong bullpen behind them to be able to pull it off.
So the Red Sox were swept 3-0 by the eventual champion Chicago White Sox, whose fans are now rejoicing in the fact that they one-upped Boston, and won their first series title in 87 years.
Now, Red Sox nation will go back to the life it had known for so long before October 2004 — a life in which Boston is not the champion of the world.
As it turns out, Boston has crucial off-field decisions to make, too. Epstein has turned down the Red Sox’ offer of a three-year contract valued at $1.5 million per year to return as the team’s general manager, and the search for his replacement is underway.
It hurts to leave baseball's promised land, and the loss of Epstein, who proved that he had one of the most creative minds in all of baseball, makes it a bit more painful for me. Let's hope that the new GM has what it takes to lead one of baseball's most storied franchises back to the top.

Source: http://belfast.villagesoup.com/