Back In The High Life Again

I get to fully enjoy playoff baseball for the first time since 2009**. I was only 26 years old back then, just a kid, much too young to understand that a string of 95-win seasons and ALCS appearances could all disappear, poof, just like that. I have to admit, even in the shark-infested waters of the AL East, I started taking playoff appearances for granted just a tiny bit. (P.S. I really hate Tampa Bay. The AL East was already a nightmare, what with all the monster payrolls, and then the Rays had to go and turn themselves into pretty much the best organization in the Major Leagues, just to add to the mix. Real cool, Tampa.)

**I apologize to all my Royals friends; I'm not trying to invite sympathy or make that sound like a crazy long time, when you haven't made the playoffs since '85. I was just trying to underscore the point I was making, that after the stretch the Sox had from 2002 to 2008, it's easy to get spoiled enough to where three postseason-less years feels a long time. You know I root for you guys too. But hey, at least you got your first pennant rance this year! Plus they dominated their over/under season win total of 78.5, so really, we're all winners here.**

This year's Red Sox team has been extremely enjoyable (not even CLOSE to the 2003-2005 'Idiots' though, so respectfully disregard any writer who makes that comparison.) When you're following a 162-game season, you need wacky, fun things to break up the monotony of the everyday grind. Everything from all the kids coming up from the minors and contributing (Middlebrooks, Xander, JBJ, etc.)....to the Koji High-Five Routine (HEADS UP VICTORINO!).....





...to the #GetBeard movement, and all the homoerotic beard-touching that goes along with that.

It's just been a lot of fun to follow this team. Even if they wouldn't have made the playoffs this season, I would've welcomed the change from last year, when the team turned on Valentine before the season even started; Youk, Beckett, Gonzo, and Crawford were run out of town; and they couldn't even get to 70 wins. Obviously the goal is to win it all this year, but even if the Sox get swept out of the first round, I'm just happy to be here-- as opposed to the last few postseasons, when I would watch my DVDs of the 2004 playoffs and crush enough beers that I eventually thought the games were actually happening live.

Teens even climbed aboard the bandwagon, to the dismay, and eventually outright disgust, of her family. She had a Godfather Part II "I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart" moment with her mom when she wore Red Sox gear to the Red Sox/Royals games back in August. Teens justified it as "Well, I watch the Sox every time they're on TV now, I can name basically the entire team, and I barely know any Royals anymore, so I guess Boston is my favorite team now."

Also, she recently had a sex dream where a bunch of girls climbed in separate boats to paddle across a river to bang whichever Red Sox player they chose. There was a huge race to get to Jacoby Ellsbury first (obviously; his eyes are like brown diamonds) so she chose Stephen Drew and told him he was her first choice anyway. So she's got that going for her, which is nice.

(In the interest of full disclosure: I'm going with Will Middlebrooks in that scenario. He's definitely never calling you again, but he's at least going to cook you a nice breakfast in the morning, and pay for your cab home.)

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to return to what I've been doing for the last few days: going over pitching matchups and lefty/righty splits, building my weeknight drinking tolerance back up to playoff baseball standards again, and listening to a four-song playlist on repeat:












(I know that fourth song doesn't really fit into the Boston playlist theme, but it's just a really good tune that I'm digging right now. Don't be a dick.)