A long month

Neither Neil has had the energy to post in the last month - maybe because it has been a pretty uninspiring month of baseball from both teams?

The Yankees had surged since Neil M called the Yankees season over, but just as quickly found reverse gear and lost the ground that they had made up.

And since I last posted, the Sox have just been blah - a marginal losing record in June, means that the Sox remained at around 20 games over .500 at all times, and despite the first jitters that accompanied the Yanks pulling seemingly closer, a zen state has been re-established as they just as quickly retreated.

What has been evident in the last month though is that these Sox aren't quite the perfect team - but did anyone ever think they were?

When you are running out a rotation of Schilling, Beckett, Matsuzaka, Wakefield and Tavarez, you have one view of the world, when the rotation includes Wakefield, Tavarez and Gabbard, your view (or should that read my view) of the world is slightly less rosy.

When you look at a line-up on paper that includes Ortiz, Manny and Drew at its heart you have one view of the world, when you watch that trio on grass the last couple of weeks (albeit that Drew has been better, he has been better than he has been, not better than we expected), your
view of the world is less rosy...

When you take off on a seemingly difficult road trip and win series in Atlanta and San Diego, you have one view of the world, when you then get swept in Seattle (and have to search deep in your memory to think of the last win in Seattle) and then can only split a series against the Rangers (and proceed to make Kenny Lofton look like a dangerous threat), your view of the world is slightly less rosy...

And yet...

The Red Sox lead in the AL East has remained unchallenged, the best record in the AL has only come under threat by the Angels in the last couple of days... so who is complaining?

And when you look at the roster, what could Theo be looking at to improve? An upgrade at SS? In the OF? In the bull-pen? Well aside from the bull-pen, I don't really know that any of these are realistic positions to upgrade - when you look at how much better our players in these areas could perform, are we really going to get an upgrade at a realistic price?

Anyway, enough complaints from a guy whose team is 19 games over .500 as he types... I really need to learn how to be a relaxed Red Sox fan...

Perhaps I can learn that as I enjoy the sound of July 4th fireworks... on July 3rd... ? Any questions to Playland!

Happy July 4th!