Red Sox continue to be old, expensive, and lose

While a more difficult skill to perfect, this sweet stall did nothing for Crawford's batting average

By virtue of proximity to their home studios, ESPN seems convinced that the Yankees and Red Sox are the most important baseball teams in history. One of those teams is flirting with missing the playoffs. Hint: they overpaid for Carl Crawford this offseason.

From ESPN.com:

The reeling Boston Red Sox lost for the sixth time in seven games…Just 3-10 in September, the Red Sox began the day with a four-game lead over Tamp Bay in the AL wild-card race. Boston led the the AL East at the start of the month and was nine games ahead of the third-place Rays.

Yes, indeed, Boston is in free fall, and Saaawx Nation is panicking. Injuries have brought down many of the team’s pillars, with David Ortiz missing time with back spasms, Josh Beckett missing starts because of an ankle injury, J.D. Drew on the disabled list half the summer with a finger injury, and Kevin Youkilis nursing a sports hernia he’s putting off having surgery for until the offseason. My guess is he’s gutting through it because of the grit and haaaawt unique to Boston area athletes that Boston area sports fans keep talking about.

Remember when everyone rooted for this team? The lovable losers of Boston, who just couldn’t get that World Series they wanted so bad? The Yankees were the only “Evil Empire” who went out and bought the best players to try and buy championships, and the Red Sox were the David to their Goliath? Those were good times. Now Boston is just like that guy who used to be skinny, but then got real fat, but won’t admit to himself that he’s fat. The bloated payroll of the Red Sox just doesn’t quite fit into the Underdog t-shirt they used to wear. It’s stretched out, the neck is loose and droopy, and their belly button is poking out of the bottom. It’s unseemly.

Now, with the marathon of the MLB season winding down, the aging and busted Red Sox will try and hold off the charging Tampa Bay Rays, who can’t field a team worth half of what Boston does, and it makes you wonder: is it time for someone new to wear the Underdog tee in the AL East? And since we really only want to see one team that goes out and buys up talent and over the hill fan favorites to try and throw together a cohesive unit, maybe Boston should leave that role to the Yankees. They’re obviously much better at it.