What This Team Needs Is Leadership

Intangibles. I hate to use that term, but that's what the Red Sox need. Team leaders.

When you think of the 2004 team, they were loose. They didn't care about 86 years of ghosts or fictitious curses. They just played (and scored like crazy).

The 2007 team was different. It had lost Damon and Millar (clubhouse guys), but it had leaders, and it had sparks: young guys named Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury. Papelbon was thrilling.

By 2011, Manny Ramirez (a leader by default--few players will play with as good a hitter) was gone. Varitek was not his old self. The players could be taciturn (Youkilis), reserved (Adrian Gonzalez, it seems), or outright cranky (Ortiz -- not all the time, but more than usual). Papelbon wanted to be traded, and had said it more than once.

A potential dynasty had no chemistry.

Who's the guy everyone answers to? Can you imagine the look you got from Tek if you didn't run hard to first in 2003?

I happened to catch the Celtics owners on WEEI Wednesday morning, and they were asked about Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. "Those guys are natural leaders," came the answer. Yep.

Maybe part of the problem is that the Sox were too loaded -- they had too many great players, and everyone assumed things would take of themselves. But it just doesn't work that way. Group dynamics are really powerful -- if it's a group dinner, someone needs to make the call on which appetizers to order. Other people will wait for this, even people who might lead in other situations. Groups pick their own leaders.

All this said, maybe there are leaders on the Sox, and they're just quiet about it. But in the case of Pierce and Garnett, it's pretty obvious on the court who's taking charge.