Red Sox….. afraid of risk?

 Now that the Beltran saga is behind us, at least till 2005, and A-Rod is the new Yankee for life, the Red Sox may now have to reap the consequences.
 Coming into the 2004 season, it was pretty much universally believed that this could finally be Boston’s year. The Sox grabbed Schilling from Arizona, got a quality closer in Foulke, and added some defense to the infield with Pokey Reese. Under the tutelage of our new manager Terry Francona it seemed we were unstoppable. True, the A-Rod deal was botched, but oh well, he would remain to suffer amongst the cursed Rangers.

The grand scheme started to unravel when the hated Aaron Boone blew out his knee, and with lightning speed Steinbrenner made A-Rod the Yankees new 3rd baseman. Okay, so the Red Sox job was a little more difficult. No biggie, right? Wrong. Now the Red Sox don’t have A-Rod and they’ve left Nomar bitter, so most likely in 2005 we won’t have him either. Lose lose situation.

Next comes the Royals wretched season. Eventually they give up hope and start selling off people left and right, including superstar player Carlos Beltran. Immediately the ominous name of Yankees comes into the picture, but soon it seems like every team in baseball is in the picture to grab the services of Beltran. From all scouting reports however, it looked like the Sox could wrap it up with the surrender of Kevin Youkilis and Kelly Shoppach.

Only PawSox fans have seen Shoppach in action, but all Red Sox fans have seen Youk’s phenomenal major league debut, and although we’d all miss his talents, it seems to me at least that the offensive and defensive power of Beltran could more than make up for that.

AGAIN, Epstien preaches caution, and a midnight session between the Astros, the Royals and the A’s take Beltran out of the picture. On the one hand, this is not a huge issue, because he will be a free agent in a few months, but on the other hand, the much favored Red Sox are languishing 5 games back from the Yankees and the bats still haven’t completely woken up.

With Pedro and Nomar most likely packing their bags at the end of the season, 2004 is truly the last shot for this beloved Red Sox team to clinch a World Series win. It seems to me that no cost is too great to finally end this 86 year drought. We may be sacrificing a bit of our future, but I think most Boston fans would just like one win now, then perhaps having to wait another several for a possible shot.