We'll get 'em next year, Red Sox

Like a lot of my fellow New England-ers, I’m a longtime fan of the Boston Red Sox. Unfortunately, their season ended Sunday night in Tampa Bay. There were times throughout the 162 game season when I thought they’d never make it to the postseason and other times when I thought they'd be world champions again. There were so many ups and downs throughout the year - losing Schilling, Beckett got hurt, Julio Lugo was out, the whole Manny fiasco, Mike Lowell’s hip...whatever the setback, they battled through it and made it into the postseason as the wild card, 2 out behind the Rays. It was great to see some of the younger players come up and play such a huge role for the team. Whether it was Masterson, Lowrie, Ellsbury or other young guys like Pedroia and Papelbon - they made a great team.

They then beat what I thought was the best team in baseball - the Angels. Mike Lowell was hurt, Beckett didn't look like his usual self and Pedroia wasn't hitting, but the other players picked everyone up. That’s what great teams do. Jason Bay was amazing, Lester was fantastic, JD Drew came through like he does in the postseason and they beat the Angels 3-1. From there it was on to Tampa.

The Sox have been battling the Rays all season long. Back on September 10th, we’d been touring England and I was on a 27-hour bus drive from Germany to Ireland and the Sox were playing Tampa at Fenway. I kept checking my phone for the score. We got to our hotel in Belfast around 2:30 am and back in Boston the game was in the 8th inning. I got to my room, hooked up the computer to the Internet and started my slingbox so I could watch the game. It was tied 1-1 and stayed that way until 5 am. In the 14th inning, Mike Timlin came in and gave up a 3-run blast to Carlos Pena. Clearly, the Rays were no joke. It seemed that way all season but I expected them to fold at the end. They never did. There was a glimmer of hope before the All-Star break when they lost 7 games in a row and the Red Sox got back into first place. That was the last time they'd see it, though. Fast-forward to the ALCS and the Sox were playing the Rays again.

Game 1 was awesome!! Matsuzaka pitched better than I’d ever seen. I thought if the Sox win 1 game in Tampa they’d have a shot at taking it all. I was lucky enough to have a day off in Orlando for game 2, so with the help of some friends I was able to score 4 tickets. It turns out that Eric Hinske (who played for the Sox last year) is a fan of the band and he totally hooked us up! Field passes, great seats and the game was amazing—except, of course, for the outcome. Again it was an extra innings game and again Timlin came in and allowed a run. The series was tied. One interesting thing happened at the game: getting tix from a Rays player - I was sitting in the family section for the Rays rooting for the Sox. It was all good until the 8th inning, when Dan Wheeler threw a ball to the backstop and Dustin Pedroia scored to tie the game and I went crazy. The gentleman in front of me suggested that I "take a chill pill.” I didn’t understand; I’d been talking to him throughout the game and he knew I was rooting for the Sox. Then the guys behind me told me who he was: Dan Wheeler's father. Oops!!

Despite the loss, we were going back to Boston and Lester, who'd been awesome for us, was scheduled to take the mound. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out so good. In fact the Rays took games 3 and 4 in Fenway and the team looked flat. They couldn't generate any offense and were getting beat by what seemed like a better team. Tampa kept hitting home run after home run, taking early leads and knocking the crowd and the Sox out of it. Then came game 5.

We had a day off in Orange Beach, AL, and tried to find anyplace that had the game on. We called a few spots and one said they had a big screen TV and would put the game on for us. When we got there, however, they failed to tell us that there would be a guy playing country and western music on an acoustic guitar that was louder than the Discovery taking off. Needless to say, we left there and headed back to the hotel bar. There wasn't a country and western guy there, but a piano player that was also unbelievably loud. The bartender was nice enough to turn up the volume in between Piano Man’s sets and we sat there and watched what seemed to be a repeat of games 3 and 4. Then the Red Sox came to life in the 7th. It was AWESOME!!! I was going crazy!!! Papi goes yard in the 7th, JD in the 8th, Coco ties it and JD gets the game-winning walk off in the 9th. We were back in it.

I seriously felt, as I think a lot of people did, that if the Sox could win game 6 they'd be going to the World Series. Well they did, and they're not. Beckett did great in game 6. He wasn't his usual self, but he did what he had to do to grind out a win against an awesome lineup and the Sox turned to Jon Lester, arguably the best pitcher they have, to win game 7. Lester threw a good game, but unfortunately not good enough. When I walked off stage on Sunday night, I went straight to the bus to catch the rest of the game. It was 2-1 Tampa in the 7th. I made it just in time to see Willy Aybar hit a homer to make it 3-1, where it would stay. The Red Sox had a lot of opportunities to win this one but just couldn't re-create the magical comebacks of ’04 and ’07.

It stinks that it's over but I'm glad it went to game 7. The comeback of game 5 and the way they played in game 6 gave me so much hope. Now we wait for April, and if we’re not touring, I’ll try to make Opening Day and begin another 162 games with the hope that the Sox will once again be playing in October.

I gotta admit that I do admire the Rays’ story of last-place-losers-to-AL-champs, and if they weren't in the same division as the Sox I’d find it easy to root for them. And even though they beat my favorite team, I think I’m cheering for them. But it’s okay—we’ll get 'em next year.