Red Sox players and manager felt, “It was an honor just to be nominated”
The Red Sox entered the 2016 postseason similarly to that of a Grammy Award nominee who did not win the Grammy. Whereas the Grammy nominee states, “It was an honor just to be nominated,” the Red Sox conveyed a similar sentiment via their actions and performance: “It was great just to qualify for the playoffs.”
Ultimately, securing home-field advantage against the Indians was of little significance to John Farrell and the Red Sox players, as both played major roles in ensuring that the Red Sox would open the postseason in Cleveland. Given the incalculable advantage that playing at Fenway confers upon the Red Sox, especially in the postseason, I find such a blatant miscalculation indefensible.
John Farrell knows all about “Fenway Magic.” What could possibly be his reason(s) for entering round one of the 2016 postseason as the “Road” team? The only possible answers that I have been able to come up with are, overconfidence, lapse-in-reasoning, or, after two last-place finishes, maybe there was a sense of satisfaction in merely qualifying for the playoffs.
I like Farrell, I really do. He seems like a very likeable man. However, he is the captain of the ship, and when the ship goes asunder, one does not blame the cook; the captain is always culpable.
Next: Red Sox may revisit Napoli experiment
The Red Sox’s celebration after the September 28 walk-off loss to the Yankees, courtesy of Craig Kimbrel and Mark Teixeira, was not indicative of a team that was “all in.” Nonetheless, perhaps the greatest harbinger of our postseason nightmare was the Little League line-up that John Farrell sent out the following night, in what I felt was a “must-win.” I hope that John Farrell recognizes that it is decisions of that ilk that often result in unemployment.