Word: sox
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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That's why even (or especially) diehard Sox fans viewing this year's pennant race totter in the volatile area between grim cynicism and disbelieving joy as the BoSox strengthen their hold on baseball's strongest division. Trusting a team that's hurt you is difficult. Boston fans should know not to excite themselves over silly little 13-game leads, like the one the Sox blew eight years...
...this year will be different. Because the Red Sox, apart from their admittedly splendid luck, are really, honestly, truly, I swear to God, the best team in their division and in their league. Do I protest...
...Sox will win the American League pennant this year because of their pitching. That good pitching wins ball games is a cliche, but nothing becomes cliched without being somewhat true. When was the last time any other team in the league had such a strong starting rotation? One has to look back a decade, to Baltimore's Palmer-Cuellar-Dobson-MacInally rotation to find such an agglomeration of hurlers on one American League team. Nor have the Sox, who now sport the rotation of Clemens-Boyd-Hurst-Seaver-Nipper, boasted such pitching in a decade. One wonders whether Clemens, Boyd...
...Sox' record becomes all the more impressive when one realizes that the eight regulars have been having fairly average years. Since when does Jim Rice have fewer than a dozen homers a month after the All-Star break? Since when does Bill Buckner struggle to reach the .250 plateau? Since when does any team win with shortstops named Rey Quinones and Ed Romero...
...believe in the Red Sox this year for another good reason--the lack of any really strong contenders. For years, the Red Sox were known for their booming bats and terrible pitching, but this year, the tables are turned on the rest of the division...