So the Dodgers come to town today, having not just the best record in baseball but also having achieved it without their (supposedly) best hitter, which by most definitions should mean the Sox are dead for the next few days. Which by itself is fine, since not every team can be a powerhouse on par with the Cubs or the Reds.
That said, it’s really too bad the Dodgers still can’t field Manny Ramirez the way they had so heartily wanted to. Not that anyone feels bad for the Dodgers, or for Manny, but that everyone should feel bad that we don’t get to give the man the proper South Side welcome we all probably believe he deserves.
True story: I was there for 2006’s epic 19-inning game to end all 19-inning games against the Red Sox. The crowd was fairly hostile from the start, as they often tend to be when the BoSox come to town, but two fans in particular tore into each other literally from the first pitch to the last. Not just screaming their guts out, ChiSox, clad in a Frank Thomas jersey, and BoSox, decked out in a Manny Ramirez jersey, even went so far as to follow one another into the same, superior section around the 13th inning, constantly on the verge of a good old-fashioned upper deck throwdown. BoSox particularly loved throwing around shots at Frank, constantly trying to make some obtuse point to an unlistening South Side crowd that could give a **** what some clown from Boston thinks of them anyway.
“You know,” ChiSox said later, “I didn’t care about him being a Red Sox fan. I didn’t even care that he’s trying to rip on Frank or our Sox. But for the life of me, I cannot STAND Manny Ramirez.”
So start with a fanbase already hostile to number 99, throw a little bonus fuel on the fire with the whole pregnancy scare thing, and we could be looking at one of the great player derisions of all-time. It could be bigger than Jason Giambi and Neal Cotts – combined! And yet, here we stand about to watch the Sox try to scare up a chance against one of the best shorthanded teams in recent memory. No organizational enemies in their lineup, no long-hated mercenaries to ridicule, no outed cheats to dump our collective venom onto.
How boring!