Boston Red Sox – 2011 Year in Review

It’s the time of year when we get to reflect on where we’ve been and what we’ve been doing for 12 months.  No one wants to be reminded of the bad times but they were there and everyone has to accept that.  My job is to remind everyone of the year that was so, good with the bad, here are some highlights:

December 2010: The 2011 season for the Red Sox really started in December of 2010 when the team traded for Adrian Gonzalez and just two days later signed Carl Crawford to a   7-year, $142-million contract.  They were halcyon days for Red Sox fans and the 2011 season was gearing up to be another feather in General Manager Theo Epstein’s cap.

February 2011 – Jumping ahead to Truck Day.  Sure there always seems to be more members of the media than fans who show up and some use it as a reason to bash the Red Sox for “commercializing” a beloved, fan-driven tradition. But it’s a couple of hours in the winter cold holding on the excitement of the spring and summer waiting ahead.

April 2011 – Well, things didn’t start out so well, did they?  No one expected the team to lose the first six games of the season, let alone go 11-15 for the month of April.  Fans and media members called for the heads of Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez and there was much concern that the dreams of another championship were circling the drain in the first month of the season.  Fans didn’t think they could feel worse about the team.  Fans were wrong. (But I’m getting ahead of myself.)

May 2011 – In one short month after the horrible start to the season, we got three, count them THREE, walk off wins courtesy of Carl Crawford as well as a three-game sweep of the Yankees.  19 wins and 9 losses for the Red Sox in May.  Things are back on track, baby!

June 2011 – The Sox started this month with a loss to the White Sox and then went on a nine game winning streak that included another sweep of the Yankees.  (Bonus points for Red Sox fans who are also Bruins fans as June 2011 brought them a Stanley Cup…giving Sox fans visions of their own Duck Boat rolling rally.)

July 2011 – 20 wins for the Red Sox in July (including sweeps of the Astros, Orioles and Mariners). All Star Voting put Adrian Gonzalez and David Ortiz in as starters while Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Jacoby Ellsbury and Kevin Youkilis all got nods as well.  The Red Sox ended July with a 66-51 record and in first place in the American League East standings, one game ahead of the Yankees.  The Red Sox fans had the world in the palms of their hands. The only black mark on the month was the American League losing the All Star Game…which meant that, without AL home field advantage, the Red Sox wouldn’t win the World Series at home if they swept – again.

August 2011 – The Red Sox went 17-12 in August.  It wasn’t what fans expected but they were still over .500 for the month so it was all right. The highlight of the month was the team turning a 5-4-3 triple play against the Tampa Bay Rays (in a game the Red Sox went on to lose).  Unfortunately, also in August: David Ortiz interrupting a Terry Francona press conference to complain about a hit of his being changed to an error.  At the time, people wrote it off to “Papi being Papi” and it all being just a joke.  After the events of September and Francona’s leaving the team, many wondered if there was more behind it.

September 2011 – Where to even begin? They didn’t lose the first six games of September (as they did in April) but they lost four out of the first six and eight out of the first ten.  Every time Red Sox fans thought it couldn’t get worse, it did. There were 27 games in September and prior to the final game of the season, the Red Sox won only seven games that month and STILL they had a chance to be in the playoffs.  On that final night, if the Red Sox beat the Orioles and the Rays lost to the Yankees, they’d be the Wild Card team.  When the Orioles beat the Red Sox on a Robert Andino walk off hit, after coming back and tying the game in the ninth, hope was still alive (The Yankees, at one point early in the game, were leading the Rays 6-0 – a loss for both the Rays and Sox would have begat a one-game playoff in Florida the following day) but a stunning comeback and a another walk off moments after the Sox game was over gave the Rays the win over the Yankees and the Wild Card spot.  Many in baseball called it the most exciting night of baseball in recent memory. Red Sox fans just called it Armageddon.  Putting the exclamation point on the horror that was September 2011, Terry Francona held a press conference on September 30th and announced he would no longer be the Red Sox manager.  Essentially, kicking the fans when they were down.  Red Sox Nation had officially hit rock bottom.

October 2011 – Or had they?  In October, Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein basically jumped off his sinking ship and became President of Baseball Operations for the Chicago Cubs. As a consolation prize, Red Sox fans got Ben Cherington as their new GM. Given how closely he worked with Epstein and how long he had been with the team, fans anticipated very little to change in the front office philosophy and looked forward to Cherington picking manager who would bring life and excitement back to Fenway Park.

November 2011 – Fan favorite and best closer in possibly the history of the Red Sox Jonathan Papelbon took his ball and went to the Philadelphia Phillies making the job of Red Sox manager even more appealing to anyone looking for a real challenge.

December 2011 – After publicly interviewing managerial candidates for most of November, the Red Sox went in a direction no one thought they were headed when they chose Bobby Valentine as the new manager.  There were rumblings that the choice was Larry Lucchino’s and not his new General Manager’s and while few would argue that Valentine doesn’t have a good baseball mind, many wonder if his brash personality will mix well with the egos currently in excess over on Yawkey Way.  December held a piece of good news and one of bad news for folks with emotional ties to older players: David Ortiz was offered and accepted arbitration and will be back with the team for at least another season while team captain Jason Varitek’s place with the team got more precarious when not only wasn’t he offered arbitration, but the team signed catcher Kelly Shoppach to a one-year contract (seemingly to platoon with Jarrod Saltalamacchia).

There are still ten days left in December.  Here’s hoping the Red Sox fans have suffered enough to appease the baseball gods and the year ends, if not on a high note, just quietly and unceremoniously.

(Originally published on Examiner.com)