Instant Karma's Gonna Get You

Man, I just hate it when the mysterious, immutable cosmic laws of justice rear their ugly head in the middle of a perfectly lovely baseball season. It has a way of dampening spirits that were apparently too artificially high. I think that the universe has officially notified the Red Sox that when you live by the high-tension comback victory and the walkoff, you can also die by the high-tension comeback victory and the walkoff. It just sucks when you have to get reminded of that when you're so expecting a win against the damn Royals. Our glorious cheesecake road trip is off to a 1-4 start with one game to go. It's up to theravada (buddhist for "old school") warrior Curt Schilling to stop the bleeding tonight.

Bill James, many years ago, coined a phrase called "the plexiglass principle." This basically explained a regression to the mean- teams that enjoy historically good seasons (the 2001 Mariners, for example) are usually not that good the following year. Other historically bad teams will generally not lose 115 games in back-to-back seasons. Because so much of baseball is the ebb and flow of luck, these teams will not generally not experience the same sort of luck, good or bad, for that long a period. It's just improbable. Put a little bit more folksy, the sun will eventually shine on your dog's ass.

Within the course of a season, we're seeing a little bit of that principle with the Sox. It's too bad we had to have our 12-game winning streak in a less crucial part of the season than we're having this horrendous stretch right now. The point is, though, that the Sox were never as good this year as their big win streak, and there's no way that they're as bad as they are right now. Papelbon wasn't ever going to go all season without surrendering a run (as he did for over 20 innings to start the season) nor is he going to continue to blow saves (as he has twice in a row now). This isn't that much comfort right now, I guess, with the Yankees and White Sox (and Twins) pulling away despite having to play each other. The lesson I'm trying to take from this is that when karma kicks you in the gut, at least it helps remind you that karma works.

I think that Terry Francona did help things a bit last night when he modified the lineup. I was going to write about this yesterday so everyone would see how brilliant I was, but I didn't get to it. You'll have to take my word for the fact that I was going to suggest returning Youkilis to the leadoff spot, Coco down the batting order (around 7th, although he did get the night off yesterday) and hitting Wily Mo 5th behind Manny. You've got to have some clout behind Manny, and in the absence of Trot, Wily Mo is the only hitter with the potential to scare the bejeezus out of pitchers. So at least Terry got my psychic message on that one. Even with his lumpy, white-guy slowness, Youkilis is one of the best leadoff hitters in the game. He needs to stay there.

For my part, I thought I would offer up a bit of a confession in an effort to help improve our karma. Since the early 1980's, I've been carrying around a resentment of the Kansas City Royals that is probably not healthy. Back in 1982 or 1983, Robin Yount (Hall of Famer Robin Yount of the Milwaukee Brewers) was having one of his two MVP seasons. He was neck-and-neck with Willie Wilson of the Royals for the batting crown. This was back when the batting crown was probably more important than the home run or RBI crowns. Yount finished the season at about .331. Willie Wilson entered the last game of the season hitting .332. He sat out that game (or the Royals sat him out and he didn't do any Ted Williams-style protesting) and won the batting crown. I was only maybe 8 years old at the time, but even then (and perhaps because of my youthful sense of fairness) I thought it was a lousy thing to do. Play the damn game. Take your shot, trust your ability. I know that the lifelong fans of the Royals include several of my favorite baseball writers like Bill James, Rob Neyer, and Rany Jazayerli. I just have never seen them as much more than George Brett and a bunch of chickenshit Willie Wilsons.

I'm now ready to lay that burden down. For the sake of the karma of Red Sox nation, I will no longer hold this grudge against the Royals. Yount's in the Hall of Fame, and I hope he doesn't care about that anymore. I won't necessarily root for the Royals, but I will promise now not to hold the sins of Willie Wilson against Mike Sweeney and these lousy Royals that we can't seem to beat. Do you hear that, universe? Good. Time to start winning again.