Their position quite favorable

February 23, 2008|Bob Ryan, Globe Columnist

FORT MYERS, Fla. - You're on top. Can you handle it?

You can't lapse back into that narcissistic, woe-is-me routine. There is no woe. There is only Whoa!

The Boston Red Sox are baseball's gold standard. Even the Yankees admit it.

"We look up to them," says Jorge Posada, and we all know who "them" is.

"This is the first time in my five years we are not the team to beat," says Alex Rodriguez, and he isn't referring to the Blue Jays, even if they are the smart choice among baseball Wise Guys to make the American League East a three-team race. (Yeah, yeah, I've been saying that for three years, but this time I mean it.)

No, no, it's the Boston Red Sox - the defending world champion Boston Red Sox - who are the logical favorites to win the 2008 World Series.

The Red Sox have the ideal 1-2 winning combination: money and brains. One is of little use without the other.

The situation isn't perfect. No one's ever is (ask the Patriots). If you must worry, well, the catcher will be 36 April 11, the left fielder will be 36 May 30, and the third baseman turns 34 tomorrow. A key setup man turns 42 March 10 and a starting pitcher turns 42 Aug. 2, although that's only 35 or so in knuckleball years.

Oh, and the shortstop, the right fielder, and the designated hitter all turned 32 within four days of each other last November, and see what astrologers and/or numerologists can make of that.

But before you are forced to endure any smirking from that Joisey college roommate of yours, remind that Yankees fan in your life that the catcher in the Bronx is 36, the first baseman/DH is 37, the center fielder is 34, the right fielder will turn 34 in March, the shortstop will turn 34 in June, the left fielder will turn 34 in June, the third baseman will turn 33 in July, one righthanded starting pitcher is 39, one lefthanded starting pitcher will turn 36 in June, and the hallowed closer is 38.

Plenty of "Sunshine Boys" jokes to go around in both cities, is what I'm saying.

If you're going to defend your title in this sport, and you could wish for one key component, is there anyone in baseball who wouldn't say "sound starting pitching"?

This, of course, is precisely what the Red Sox did not have when they were attempting to repeat 2004. Pedro Martínez and Derek Lowe were gone, and Curt Schilling went down. It was fairly amazin' that they made it back to the postseason at all in 2005, and it was completely predictable that they would go out quickly. That team barely had a No. 1 starter, let alone a No. 2.

Once again, Schilling is hors de combat. There's even a chance we may never see him again. (I said "a chance," Curt.) Truth be told, this is not a catastrophe. It's merely an annoyance.