The Boston Globe’s Bob Hohler penned a scathing expose of the Red Sox September collapse — the one in which they lost 21 of their last 29 games and saw a nine-game lead in the wild card standings over the Rays disappear in the final minutes of the season.
It’s full of vivid and scandalous details: pitchers John Lackey, Josh Beckett and Jon Lester sitting in the clubhouse, getting fat off fried chicken and beer while their teammates played on the field; Kevin Youkilis getting surly in the midst of another injury-plagued season; manager Terry Francona losing focus because of marriage problems and painkillers.
It’s the kind of stuff that a Tribe fan, still a little sore from the 2007 ALCS, should happily lap up. But instead the article gives off the flavor of warm Coors Light — in failing to appreciate the role that randomness plays in baseball, Hohler commits a reverse hagiography as egregious as the pieces lauding Lenny Dykstra as a stock-picking savant shortly before his portfolio fell apart.