Don't look now Red Sox Nation, but we have become the fan base of the Kansas City Royals, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Chicago Cubs. We just show up to enjoy the beautiful weather, gape at the cool ballpark and revel in the mediocre play on the field. The Pink Hats, and the ownership that spawned them, have won.As a paid attendee at yesterday's debacle (that effectively ended the season), I was dismayed at how happy everyone was among the 38,000 co-suckers who jammed into the nearly 100-year old relic on Yawkey Way. It was a perfect warm late summer day, the $8.00 beer was cold, the $4.50 popcorn was fresh and the quality of baseball was Double A at best. So Papelbon blew his 7th save of the year, who cares? The crowd's rendition of Sweet Caroline was so inspiring!
Even the potentially epic confrontation between Papelbon and Manny went sour. The former closer nicked the former slugger on the shirt on a 2-2 pitch. Boring! Even a home run would at least have been memorable.
With each passing loss, it becomes clearer and clearer that the Bridge Year paradigm was in effect from the first day of Spring Training. The outrageous number of injures (which should still call into question the quality of the medical team) just made the ultimate result more inevitable.
One good thing: next year, tickets won't be so hard to get.
