Can the 2021 Boston Red Sox surprise us like they did in 1967?
Let the hyperbole for the 2021 edition of the Boston Red Sox begin! The word from down south is this team could surprise just like the 1967 team. The Impossible Dream. The resuscitation of the franchise. The cornerstone for 50 years of good times.
In 1966, the Red Sox finished ninth and barely being edged out of last place by the New York Yankees. The number of games the Red Sox finished behind to the Baltimore Orioles looks like the national debt. Manager Billy Herman was gone. The squad was uninspiring, sloppy, undisciplined, young, and all set for another battle to avoid the cellar. Like 2021, they had a new, or in this case a refurbished manager.
As in 1967, not much is expected. But they had youth and plenty of it. Hungry youth and in the case of third baseman Joe Foy, too much of a hungry appetite. The senior citizen among the regulars was Carl Yastrzemski at 27-years-old.
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The 2021 Red Sox have almost an equal share of those with youthful exuberance. As with 1967, they are coming off a forgettable season. The 2020 and 1966 teams have a parallel with the performance of pitching. Everything circulates around the little bump and in 2020 that staff was a disaster. In 1966 the Red Sox staff was dead last in the American League in ERA with 3.92.
I could traverse into a player-by-player comparison but will avoid that. The real similarity is little was expected. I would apply the same to the 2021’s squad. The 1967 team had “promise” but in a 10 team American League and no wild cards the route to the promised land was a formidable one. The optimism was an incremental improvement and possibly winning more than you lose.
Redemption after 2020 is not a given. The division is starting to resemble the famed “Beast of The East” that so dominated. This year it is three – the New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, and Toronto Blue Jays. The one nugget is the ever-expanding playoff structure. That was omitted from the equation in 1967.
In the first half of the 1960s, Fenway Park was a dreary, unoccupied mausoleum. Attendance and interest had waned. Fans had become disinterested but under the surface that “Old-time baseball religion” still percolated. In 1967 it exploded. That is not apropos to 2021.
I do notice on social media and in the ever voracious print/electronic media a more positive outlook as spring training bounces forward. The “Fellowship of the Miserable” is far less noticeable. Some most certainly can be attributed to the COVID-19 light at the end of the tunnel. A return to normalcy and baseball is representative of that.
The final roster will soon be in place. The team needs a spark. The perfect spark is a fast start out of the gate that builds upon that. The next spark is the players themselves. Somewhere in this roster is that one player who could be special? Maybe Tanner Houck or Bobby Dalbec or Rafael Devers?