Wake Me Up When September Ends

One more win in September. That's all it would have taken to get the Sox into the playoffs. They'd likely have lost the first round, but that would have been (largely) OK. Then we wouldn't get the investigation of the collapse. We wouldn't get the poisonous leaks, and their continuing fallout.

There were signs, over the winter, that some sort of shift had taken place. People didn't want to be here. There were others who did -- notably Jason Varitek and Tim Wakefield -- but they were veterans who knew how to navigate the system. Other experienced players -- Roy Oswalt, Edwin Jackson, even Grady Sizemore -- never came close to Boston. Who could blame them?

I remain fairly confident that this team can win. The September comparisons (some of them anyway) have been unfair. But the collapse threatens to loom as large as the 1986 series loss if they don't start turning it around.

Besides, we're not here for a soap opera. Let's have some baseball. Winning baseball, please.