Playoffs!!!????

"Playoffs! Playoffs! I don't want to talk about playoffs!!!" (or something like that...) That was the old Colts coach back in the day when Indy couldn't win a game. (Pre-Manning).

On Tuesday Boston clinched the AL Wild Card. (Let me emphasise PERIOD). How did we accomplish this great feat you ask? Oh, only by losing 5 in a row and 7 out of the last 10. That's not what I would even call "limping" into the playoffs, that's what I call, "being dragged in kicking and screaming by the Texas Rangers!" How do the Rangers figure in this mess? Well, they're the team that allowed us to roll over and play dead while we waited for them to either catch us and clinch, or lose and give the Wild Card to us. (Thankfully they did the latter.)

Want to know what's poetic about all this? The Rangers lost to the Angels last night... the team we'll be facing in the first round. The Angels may have just punched their own ticket out. (Again, no ! point here). The Sox have played the Angels 3 years in a row now, 4 out of 5 years. We pound them every year and make sure they know "Who their Papi" is.

So you would think that I'd be excited about playing them... yet again... but I'm not. I mean, we've had this teams number over and over again. Its starting to look like the Red Sox Yankees of old... we finally got the Yankees in 04, remember... the Angels have to be due.

So am I happy we made the playoffs? Of course! But there is a lot to be done before we get there. Yeah, the goal is our 3rd World Series title in 6 years, but first we've got to get our rotation healthy and set, and make sure Papi and the rest of the Bashers are at full strength, locked and loaded.

Can we beat the Angels? Absolutely. Do we have more passion then the Angels? Hmmm. That's what I want this team to prove to me. Show me some love... show me that you care. I'll also be interested to see how Lefty, Jon Lester responds in his next start, after a poor showing in NY, Lester had to leave the game after a line drive looked to shatter his knee cap (apparently it only hit his right quard). Word on the street that its still sore, but hasn't gotten any worse. Good news, I guess.

So the Sox are in the playoffs. Despite having a better record than Milk's St. Louis team, we squeaked in, while the Cards put the Cubbies in their place. Hey, whatever works. There is still the chance these two teams could meet in the World Series and that would make this short lived blog all the worth. (Milk and I probably won't be friends if it happens... but, hey sometimes you've got to make sacrifices for what you really want) - just kidding Milk...

Go Sox!