My post last week was written in desperation. While I know I had nothing to do with the outcome, it is nice to see Francona come around and embrace conventional wisdom by his insertion of Jacoby Ellsbury in the starting line-ups for Gme 6 and 7. Of course, Coco’s absolute failure to execute the most routine of plays (bunting the runners along) in 3 tries may have had something to do with that.

And there’s happy endings all around. Ellsbury contributed – as the 36,000+ fans who stood and cheered his every appearance could attest to – and Coco got to make a spectacular final catch through his ‘balls to the wall’ dash to rob Cleveland of any potential hint of a rally and send the Red Sox on to the World Series for the first time in three years. (It would be nice if they would win one for my two-year old daughter Aria who has waited a lifetime to see this moment.)

Game 1 is tomorrow night. I will be saying pennance over the next 24 hours or so and promise not to follow those lemmings to the Tobin again. That thing’s cracked ya’ know.

Coco hasn’t played like he did in Cleveland, but who saw that? We have Ellsbury to put in there next year and I agree he should be in there for him right now. Lugo has continued his play this year that we saw from him once he was traded to the Dodgers last year, which doesn’t match what he did with Tampa before that. I don’t think anyone saw that either. The same is true for Drew, not his Dodger self, but he’s shown glimmers of coming on at the end of the year and I chalk that up to getting used to the AL pitchers. For either of those last two, I’ll agree that they were both overpaid, but it ain’t my money.

As for Gagne, no one in the game saw this happening, and I mean no one. In fact, almost everyone in the game said it was a coup trade for the Sox and we certainly all thought so. As for Gabbard and Murphy? Please. These guys weren’t going to get regular time in Boston. Murphy will be a decent 4th outfielder and maybe even crack the starting lineup for a smaller market team, but not in Boston.

As for Beckett and Lowell, you can go back to Henry for getting them. Lowell was his favorite player when he owned Florida. Not sure why Theo wouldn’t want Becks, unless he was concerned about the blisters, but we’ve seen that was most likely due to the Miami humidity. I’d say if he didn’t want him he’d be an idiot. So, I say he’s just an average GM, nothing more and nothing less.

Finally, with respect to the playoffs, I stopped watching after Game 3. I watched Reaper instead of Game 4 and didn’t watch the game last night. I am taking the same approach I took in the 2004 ALCS and hoping for the same outcome. I’ll watch Game 7 if we get there. Heck, I might watch Game 6 with you tomorrow night, but I hadn’t planned on it. Anyway, I didn’t get off the wagon or throw in the towel; I couldn’t bear to watch them implode like this.

I still say Sox in seven!

I keep trying to get out… but they keep pulling me in.