With sixty-four seconds left in Super Bowl XLVI, the New England Patriots defensive line allowed Giants running back Ahmad Brandshaw to walk untouched into the end zone, giving his team a 21-17 lead.
I was watching the game at a bar in New Zealand, and, though I am not in particularly knowledgeable about football, I knew that the only chance my team had of winning that game was to allow the Giants to score, stop the clock, and try to counter with a touchdown of their own. It was only way to win; the logical move in a high-tension moment.
The Patriots did not counter with a touchdown: they lost a second championship to Eli Manning and the Giants. Nevertheless, I left the bar feeling elated: in giving up the winning touchdown, my team had made perhaps the gutsiest call in football history. Each man on the field, each member caught up in the noise and tension of that moment, had figured out the same thing I had realized, at nearly the same moment: that the correct path forward was to allow the score.
It was a call that perhaps no other team in the NFL would’ve made. It was a call that surprised poor Ahmad Bradshaw, who figured out what was happening with just enough time to spin and fall backwards into the end zone, like a child making a snow angel.
It was a call that encapsulates the last decade of Boston sports.
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I don’t think I’ve taken the winning for granted. Watching the Celtics push the Miami Heat to a gritty Game 7 this year, I made it a point to remind myself that most teams weren’t in it; most fans had no stake in the NBA championships. I said the same thing last year, when the Patriots looked like anything but a Super Bowl-bound team. When the Bruins reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 2011, I told my Canadian friends that I’d be happy for whoever won. Vancouver seems like a nice city.
The winning has been fun. What’s been nearly as fun as the many parades and ring ceremonies, at least for this Boston fan, has been the knowledge that our teams were the smartest teams on the field. The Patriots have Belichick and Brady, football’s version of Marie and Pierre Curie. The Celtics star is the savant-esque Rajon Rondo, whose performance during this year’s Finals brought the Celtics within a quarter of knocking out the Miami Super-Friends. The Red Sox hired the youngest GM in baseball history, acquired David Ortiz for pennies, and gave Bill James a job. They released Nomar Garciaparra and won a World Series.
This stands in sharp contrast to, say, the Red Sox of the Ted Williams era. Those teams were paper champions; their end-of-season records were routinely less than the sum of their parts. By contrast, the recent versions of the Patriots, Celtics, and Red Sox have been the opposite: teams that shouldn’t win and did win. Over the last decade, Boston’s professional teams have benefited from a staggering confluence of intellectualism and athleticism.
And: it’s possible that we’re in that age’s nadir.
The Celtics seem unlikely to dethrone James and Wade next year, and if they do, they’ll probably lose to the ridiculous Lakers, who have added Dwight Howard and Steve Nash to help Kobe Bryant. The Patriots are older and slower, and the rest of the NFL is deep with coaches who’ve read the Belichick Bible. Theo’s in Wrigley now; every team in baseball has sabermetricians on the payroll.
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If this is, indeed, the end of the geeks pulling levels in Beantown, at least we’ve been given one last moment to savor.
In a move so staggeringly improbable that early reports called it, ‘one of the loonier trade scenarios in recent memory’ (Deadspin), ‘Probably nothing. Just one of those procedural things.’ (SB Nation), ‘Is this real life?’ (Sons of Sam Horn), the Red Sox traded away Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett, Nick Punto, and $12 million dollars to the Los Angeles Dodgers, in exchange for James Loney, Ruby De La Rosa, Jerry Sands, Ivan DeJesus, about $261 million in future salary, and about eleven months of karmic ash that has covered this team since last autumn’s collapse.
It is the gutsiest trade I’ve ever heard of.
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For the Red Sox, the trade seems like a no-brainer.
The team, hampered by injuries, internal squabbles, and a win-loss record that should be the record of the Pythagoras-beating Baltimore Orioles, weren’t going anywhere this year. Carl Crawford had Tommy John surgery hours before. Adrian Gonzalez, finally back to hitting after a calendar month without drawing a walk, was getting the first bad press he’s ever gotten. David Ortiz was injured. Youkilis had his socks bleached. The brightest spots on the 2012 team were, in order, 1) Pedro Ciriaco, 2) Cody Ross, 3) Umm…
I’m not privy to the goings-on of the Red Sox clubhouse (though ‘lifeboat from the whale-ship Essex’ seems a near approximation): I can only say that the mood among Red Sox fans, at least the ones I talk to, has been dark.
But…all teams go through rough patches. And it’s not like the Red Sox didn’t have talent. Had they not made the trade, the Red Sox would’ve gone into 2013 as strong contenders for the AL East. They could’ve waited it out, could’ve blamed the failure of the season on injuries, hard luck, or a witch’s curse. They could’ve taken solace in some strong outings from Clay Buchholz, in the decent bullpen, and in the surprisingly good production that the team has gotten from the lineup. They could’ve talked up a rotation of Lester, Buchholz, Beckett, and Lackey as a net strength for next year, hoping that Crawford and Ellsbury got healthy, and waited out the dismal end of this season, optimistic about the year to come.
Instead….instead they went and blew it up. Best laid plans, shipped off to the city of angels.
Looked at objectively, the Red Sox have done three things
-They’ve moved three elite-level players, and Nick Punto.
-They’ve saved a ton of cash. In terms of salary committed to next year, the Sox are basically the Royals now.
-They’ve added depth to their minor leagues, particularly in the pitching department.
But the real changes, I’d argue, are subjective:
-The team has decided that their plans, laid in the off-season between 2010-2011, are not working. And they decided that those plans wouldn’t work, not going forward.
-In trading away three good players, management has sent a message to players on the team: if players think past performance gives them any kind of leeway to slack off or voice complaints, they’re wrong.
-The team has sent a loud message to the fans, which can be boiled down to: ‘We’re not happy with this. If it takes a drastic change, we’re willing to do that. We are exploring every option available to us. Every box you can think of, we’re thinking outside of it.’
-The Red Sox have laid out a clear line for the future: no huge contracts, flexibility with money and players, and return to the tenants that netted two World Series titles in four years.
I think it’s bold. And I think it’s really, really great. I’m excited.
* * *
The Dodgers aren’t just pushing their chips all-in on this season: in agreeing to take on Crawford, Gonzalez, and Beckett, the Dodgers are likely gambling their chances of contending for the next half-decade.
The first thing to note is how staggeringly historic this season has been: in one calendar month, the L.A. Dodgers have added five players who have been strong candidates for the MVP or Cy Young Award in recent years:
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Adrian Gonzalez
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7th, AL MVP
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2011
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Shane Victorino
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11th, NL MVP
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2011
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Carl Crawford
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7th, AL MVP
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2010
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Hanley Ramirez
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2nd, NL MVP
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2009
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Josh Beckett
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9th, AL CY
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2011
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One month. Five extremely talented players.
That the Dodgers have added this group to a core that includes last year’s runner-up for the NL MVP, last year’s Cy Young winner, the under-appreciated Andre Ethier, and a pitching staff of typical Dodger depth, and you have to think that the Dodgers have moved into the catbird seat in the race for the NL West.
And while there’s no question that the Dodgers will be spending a lot of money on some declining years for Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Matt Kemp, and Andre Ethier, it’s entirely possible that money doesn’t matter to the current ownership group.
All of the five players the Dodgers acquired last month are good. And…all of them are underperforming expectations. As paradoxical as it seems, the Dodgers bought low on these guys. Josh Beckett has an ERA well over 5.00….but he’s just a year removed from a sub-3.00 ERA. Adrian Gonzalez’s numbers are hardly impressive, but he’s been raking since the All-Star break, and should return to form as one of game’s ten best hitters. Hanley Ramirez, if perhaps by default, is one of the most productive shortstops in the NL. And while Carl Crawford has endured two forgettable seasons, I remain optimistic about his career: I think we’re going to see an MVP-level season from Crawford before his contract expires.
It’s a huge gamble: in the quarter of Kemp/Gonzalez/Crawford/Ethier, the Dodgers have tied up a lot of money in contracts that won’t start expiring until 2017. But I like the gamble, and it ain’t my money. If I was a Dodger’s fan, I’d be excited.
* * *
I suppose I should wrap this up.
The 2011 Red Sox season has been the most disappointing season of my years as a fan. It’s been a mostly joyless slog: I still watch the games, but I haven’t cared about the results. I’ve followed the snipping in the press and the endless cycle of ‘revelations’ about the post-Franconia dystopia, but I haven’t taken sides: from the vantage of some 9,600 miles, no one’s looked good. When Anaheim came into Fenway last week, I half-pulled for the Angels to win. I sure like that Trout kid.
I’m sad to see Adrian Gonzalez go. Quietly, he’s been a joy to watch. He’s been my favorite Red Sox over these disappointing two seasons. And I’m sorry that Carl Crawford didn’t ever reach, in a Red Sox uniform, that upper level of play he so often reached when he played against the Red Sox. I think he’ll come back strong. He’s a great player, and I’ll root for him in L.A.
But this trade has made me care about my team again. It’s renewed my optimism that the Red Sox are still smart, still capable of making bold decisions. For much of the last year, the Red Sox were a team I rooted for only because I was born and raised in New England, and it’s difficult to throw away many years of obsession.
Now the team is shifting directions, turning the wheel. After two years of acrimony and collapse, the Red Sox are coming again to the light. It’s a new day, and however long it takes, I’m with them again. Let’s go, Red Sox.
Dave Fleming is a writer living in Wellington, New Zealand. He welcomes comments, questions and suggestions here and at dfleming1986@yahoo.com.