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The so-called baseball experts in the media were generally dismissive of the Boston Red Sox in 2021.
Will history repeat itself?
With the delayed MLB Opening Day (or Opening Day +1 for the Boston Red Sox vs. the New York Yankees season-opener) is upon us, it’s interesting to reflect, for a minute, upon the unique Red Sox 2021 campaign.
Contrary to the prognosticators, with a team roster that included a number of journeymen, the Red Sox — who won it all in 2018 — were a juggernaut in the first half of the season, going 55-36, and 6-0 over their traditional rival, the Yankees, otherwise known as the Evil Empire.
In contrast, the second half was a disaster, or it seemed like if you followed the team on day-to-day basis, exacerbated by the unprecedented number of games against American League East foes compressed in a short period of time. The 2022 schedule, for example, is nothing like that.
When an MLB team, especially a relatively good one, hits a losing streak, it seems like they will never win another game in the history of history.
Finishing 92-70, the Red Sox salvaged their season with a Wild Card win over the Yankees, something of an upset given the way the experts, again, predicted the Bronx Bombers to prevail.
That one victory transformed the campaign from an abject failure to a resounding success.
This is what makes baseball, with all its faults, absolutely compelling, although MLB has been long supplanted as America’s pastime by football (college and the NFL) in part because it is generally a monotonous TV product at least during the regular season.
Unfortunately, as of 2022, the geniuses running MLB gave decided to expand the playoff format to 12 teams, thereby watering down the regular season and eliminating the one-and-done WC matchup
The Red Sox win in over the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL Division Series was just icing on the cake in 2021. That the undermatched Sox lost the pennant to the Houston Astros in six games was not a particular surprise, although an umpire’s missed strike call with Nathan Eovaldi on the mound (was it Game 4?) was devastating.
Given the up-and-down nature of baseball, the adding of (such as Trevor Story) and subtracting of position players, ace Chris Sale’s status, plus the addition of various new arms in the bullpen, and the ever-present risk of injury to position players and pitchers, plus other storylines to emerge over the long season, anything is possible.
Oddsmakers and others predict a range of 85-87 wins for the Red Sox, which is enough to theoretically get them into the expanded playoffs as one of three Wild Card teams, although the American League East, just by itself, appears to be very competitive.
It seems like every year, the often-wrong (as alluded to above) baseball scribes pick the Toronto Blue Jays to finish first in the AL East. Eventually it will happen. Is 2022 the year?
