Bob Lobel: A Red Sox Revival

By Bob Lobel

The unexpected but very appreciated Red Sox Revival has become a show…a reality show. 

Even though Andrew Miller is out for the season with ligament damage in his foot, the resurgence of the local 9 has been nothing short of miraculous. It’s almost impossible to do what they have done in less than a year. Think back to those dog days of last summer when a pack of dogs were impersonating the old towne team. 

Dogs, I say. 

Yet, less than a year later, here we are sitting atop the league with close to the best number of games above .500.  I don’t pretend to know how it all happened, but if there was a plan instead of just dumb luck, it should be applauded for everything its worth.

Baseball is anything but a team sport, it’s about as individual as it gets, while masquerading as a team of 9 at a time. It must be dumb luck because what plan could ever work this well? Yes, there have been crushing defeats, like last Saturday night/Sunday morning in Anaheim. Those kind of losses can ruin a season if you're not careful.

But, I somehow believe this team will not be party to any of that. Injuries, like the one to Andrew Miller, will not be a deal breaker but an opportunity maker yet unseen. This group will figure it out. Mark my word on that. 

You’re hearing that from a long time critic of this franchise who reserves the right to go right back to the bad old days of bad karma, but not now.

In the midst of the evil that has surrounded us since the Marathon, taking the form of Aaron Hernandez, or showing up in more benign forms when Doc took a walk and the Bruins took the pipe, followed by Seguin failing his Twitter test, there has been remarkable, unheard of rebuilding. Done in record time for any city, let alone ours. 

It appears “Boston strong “ is more than a slogan, it is a culture in action. So, after applauding the Red Sox for a record return to winning and the fun that goes with it, others need to be recognized as well. The Celtics are in the midst of a total make over. They have jettisoned long time stars and hired a coach who still has to show his ID to get into a bar. The Danny Ainge out of the box stuff could not have been better. Amazing stuff.  

The Peter Chiarelli/Cam Neely machine has done an equally magnificent job, dumping a stupid kid with superior skills and signing a player (Iginla) who a month ago said, no thanks, to the chance to come here. Both moves were gutty and brilliant. 

The Bruins are already a better team than the one that lost to Chicago in game 6. So there, three of our franchises, Sox, Celtics, Bruins, who have seen the error of their ways and wasted no time in doing what they thought they needed to do to live up to being “Boston Strong.” Guess who now, has to figure it out? 

We always gave the Patriots credit for being the smartest guys in the room. They may still be, but its going to be very difficult to keep pace with the three other teams who simply would not accept anything but trying to be better. You just can’t ask for more than that.