Give Thanks Your Team Is In It

So your team got shellacked last night by their arch rival; embarrassed, drubbed, humiliated. Their closest rival, the Tampa Bay Rays have started to pick up the pace again after a simultaneous stumble last week with your guys and your team’s lead is again down to one game. The serious nail biting, hand wringing, second-guessing and howling at the moon has begun in earnest. Sox fans are waking up in the middle of the night with that cold feeling running through them. Take heart Nation. A countdown to ecstasy has begun.

Aug 16, 2013; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Red Sox second baseman

(15) reaches for a ball thrown by shortstop

(not pictured) during the third inning against the New York Yankees at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

OK, it actually may turn to agony. I get it. The point is, your team is in a pennant race. They have made the turn for the final lap of the season with a razor thin lead over the Rays (1 back) with the Orioles (5 1/2 back) and, dare I say it, a surging Yankee club (7 1/2 back) starting to make every game count. This is why we watch. This is what you prayed for after last season’s train wreck. In actuality this Red Sox team has given you more than you ever asked for after suffering through the Bobby Valentine 2012 Circus of the Stars.

If New York sweeps the Sox this weekend, Boston will likely be in second place come Monday morning and the Yankees will be only 5 1/2 games behind them.

"Is Lucy again going to pull the football away from Charlie Brown as he tries to kick the winning field goal or will the Old Towne Team be able to hold on down the stretch? Feel lucky you are even in the debate."

You could be an Astros, White Sox, Marlins, Brewers or Padres fan who has long since given up hope for respectability since before the All-Star break and who has turned their attention to the Texans, Cowboys, Buccaneers, Packers and Chargers. Your team is in it. Yes, it’s both infuriating and delicious all at the same time. But you’re in it – ALL in it.

Of the 38 remaining games on the schedule, 23 are division contests. In September alone Boston faces a murderer’s row of back-to-back series with the Yankees (twice), Rays, Orioles (twice) and Blue Jays starting on September 5 before they play the last three games of the season over the weekend in Baltimore at the end of the month. Only a two game set against the Rockies, mercilessly in Colorado, interrupts the AL East drama.

Get your beer and hot dogs ready. Put your Sox on. Get ready for a bumpy ride.