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Eternal Mysteries of the National Pastime, Chapter Two

In the first two games of the 2010 season, Josh Beckett and Jon Lester, two-thirds of the three starting pitchers who are supposed to be the primary reason the Red Sox will be strong contenders for a world championship, did not dazzle. Not to sugarcoat it, but they both pretty much stunk, and neither got past the fifth inning.

No one among the sports commentariat or the community of semi-professional Red Sox fans (we all know who they are) has expressed the slightest worry about Beckett and Lester, and of course, they shouldn't. Based on his April career, C. C. Sabathia has been in another line of work besides pitching for some time now.

David Ortiz went 0-for-9 in those same two games, and it's a crisis. The commentariat and the hysteric section of fandom are going ape. Ortiz may never get another hit.

Well, maybe he won't. And maybe Beckett and Lester won't see the sixth inning all year, either. The evidence supporting those two forecasts is exactly the same, yet one of them is not even considered while the other is the first official Stupid Big Deal of the Sox season. How come?

My guess is, it's the self-fulfilling prophecy concept. Many commentators and fans invested much of the offseason and spring training speculating on how horrible it would be if Ortiz struggled at the plate. Now the regular season is here, and every Ortiz out becomes an indicator of his complete collapse as a hitter, not because it's true, but because it validates the preseason speculation.

My personal hope is that Ortiz goes three-for-four in his next game. Whenever he does, I really hope his post-game remarks have a lot of "fuck yous" in them.

posted by Michael Gee @ 11:33 AM