We need a name for these guys. The Yankee Clippers? The Sons of Tito? How about the No More Nomars?
Boston's summer of 1967 produced the Impossible Dreamers, a team that forged a baseball renaissance in the Hardball Hub of the universe. The Sox won 10 in a row after the All-Star break and inspired a near riot at Logan Airport when they came back from a sweep in Cleveland. They made it to the seventh game of the World Series.
In 1988, we had Morgan Magic, when a talented team rallied after the overdue firing of a miserable manager. Energized by the removal of John McNamara, the Sox won 12 in a row and 19 of 20 en route to the division title.
Last year, the theme was Cowboy Up, featuring the Boys Gone Wild video from the night they clinched a playoff spot. They made it to within five outs of the World Series and gave birth to assorted books, videos, full-length feature films, and Grady Little bobble-arm dolls (no New England home is complete without one).
Now this. Take a team treading water for three months and make it nearly unbeatable by trading the most popular player of a generation.
The Red Sox made it nine in a row last night, completing a three-game sweep of the estimable Angels with a 4-3 victory. They have won 10 straight at Fenway. They have won 15 of their last 16. They are a season-high 26 games over .500. They have won 18 of 21 and 21 of 25. They are 23-8 since trading Nomar Garciaparra. Next thing you know "Tessie" will top the charts and the Dropkick Murphys will bump Buffett for top billing at Fenway.
Tonight, it'll be Pedro Martinez against John Wasdin, a game Vegas might well take off the board.
Truly, tonight's game will be the ultimate test of the famed Reverse Lock theory spawned in Baltimore in the 1970s. The Reverse Lock holds that when everything about a matchup seems overwhelming in favor of one team, the other team will prevail. Tonight, we have the white-hot Sox facing the slumping Rangers, at Fenway, with Pedro on the mound for Boston and "Way Back" Wasdin toeing the slab for Texas. If there was ever a game to test the Reverse Lock, this would be it. The Reverse Lock is the only thing that can prevent the Sox from winning.
Smoking Johnny Damon (9 for 14 in the series) said, "Our owners put together a team capable of being the best team in baseball. We weren't showing that earlier. But you can feel it now. You can commend the moves we made and the moves we didn't make, but this team is coming together at the right time."
