That nice taste in your mouth? It's gravy

August 24, 2005|Bob Ryan, Globe Columnist

Attention Red Sox fans: You're being watched.

Yeah, you, not the just team. You.

I hear it on radio shows all the time. The guy will say, ''So what's the mood in Boston this year? Are people OK with the Sox? Will they be OK if they don't win again? Are people now spoiled? Is it the same as before?"

I mean, you had to know you were going to be watched. There were enough of you out there subscribing to the somewhat convoluted theory that the worst thing that could happen would be for the Red Sox to win the World Series, for that would shatter the woe-is-me mystique that has become so endemic to the experience of Red Sox fandom. By winning it all, the Red Sox would become just another team, not a romantically star-crossed aggregation. I always thought that was nonsense, an absurd reach on the part of pseudo-intellectuals who can spoil the fun with ludicrous over-analysis.

I think most of you would agree that if winning once is good, winning twice is better. I didn't think Red Sox fans would have any problem celebrating continued success. The Celtics did condition many people around here to that concept. And then there's the matter of the Patriots. When you get good enough, you're suddenly playing for history. Four out of five would put the Patriots up there with Lombardi's Gang and the Steel Curtain. That's heady stuff.

Then again, these are the Red Sox we're talking about, and with all due respect to the other professional sports teams in town, especially the men in Foxborough, the lead dog in these here parts remains the baseball franchise.

With 39 games remaining in the regular season, the Red Sox are in the unaccustomed position of being in first place with the flawed Yankees in pursuit, and that alone should make most people around here very happy. Both the AL East crown and a wild-card berth in the playoffs are theirs to lose. When the Red Sox return home to begin a 13-game home stand Friday night against the Tigers, it will be the start of a season-ending stretch in which 24 of 36 games will be played at Fenway Park, where the Red Sox have already compiled a league-best 38-18 home record that features an existing streak of 13 straight. (A round of applause, please, for the Big Guy upstairs and the Aug. 14 rainout.) Common sense says the Sox should hold on to become the AL East champs.

And then?