FRS

A Red Sox loss and a Yankee win last night put the FRS into their usual American League Eastern Division spot, 2nd place. The past couple of years that was still OK because they had a good enough record to get into the playoffs via the Wildcard route. This year that may not be the case because the Cleavland Indians have a better record than the Red Sox and if the season ended today the BoSox players could break out the fishing gear.

It is not over by a long shot (I tell myself), there are still 10 games to play in the season and ten games ago the Red Sox were in 1st place by 4 games. A turn around is possible, we only trail the Yanks by a 1/2 game and Cleavland’s hold on the Wildcard is only 1 game…

But the long-time Boston fan in me is absolutely positive we are out of the playoffs now though. A co-worker brought me in his copy of the DVD Fever Pitch and I figured what better way to drown my sorrows than to watch a romantic comedy movie that uses the Red Sox’s glory year as a backdrop. Well, it was a nice thought, but I left the movie on my desk…

The FRS have an night off, so their is no game on the radio to listen to, so I guess I will have to make do with listening to the Baltimore broadcast of the Orioles-Yankees game and rooting for the birds.

Well, the FRS managed one out of three at the Stadium and ended up the weekend with a 3 game lead in the East. There are 20 games left to go in the season, so it is not over by a long shot, but the Sox are probably happy with their position right now. Of course us die-hard fans just know that a collapse is coming, I can feel it, a 2 game lead over the Yankees entering the final weekend of the season and needing to win just one game against the Bronx Bombers to clinch and they get swept at home. To make matters worse it will be on a Mark Bellhorn homer and Alan Embree will pitch a masterful 2 innings of relief to finish the game.

Although dead since 1986, I fully expect it to actually be Kate Smith singing “God Bless America” during the 7th inning stretch the way Bob Sheppard the Yankee Stadium public address announcer says, “Ladies and gentlemen, Kate Smith.”

Because the FRS are playing two teams this week from the top two TV markets in the country national sports coverage will be heavy for the next week. The Angels from the left coast are in Boston for a three game set mid week and Wednesday night’s contest will be ESPN. ESPN will also show Friday’s game from the House That Ruth Built. Fox has the Sox – Yankees tilt listed for Saturday broadcast, but I may not see that as they also list the Braves – Nationals and they try to regionalize their coverage.

As a bonus it looks like ESPN is going to show tomorrow’s contest between the White Sox and the Red Sox which is a make-up from a rained out August 14th game. I thought I heard one of the FRS’s broadcasters say last week sometime that Chicago was thinking of forfeiting the game because they didn’t want to fly into Boston, play a game and then have to fly back home on what was supposed to be an off day.

So I’m either in for an exciting TV week or a very disappointing one. I’ll let you know.

So I’m going to too.