The Red Sox are playing two last place teams on this current homestand.  If the baseball gods were kind to us, the Red Sox would win all seven games.

If the baseball gods were feeling generous, the Yankees would lose seven games during that same time, the Sox will be back in first place with a comfortable lead and all will be right in the Universe again.

But the reality is that the baseball gods will tease us and the Sox and Yankees will be neck in neck in the standings until the end of the season.  That’s the way it typically is in the AL East, lest for the fluke of a season the Tampa Bay Rays had last season.

Its like the baseball gods enjoy this sick and twisted game of “catch the carrot” that they have been putting us through for the past oh, decade or so.

And I don’t hear us in Red Sox Nation complaining.  I think some of us may actually like the masochism.

Remember, through most of our childhoods we  were accustomed to losing.  Actually, we were accustomed to coming REALLY REALLY close to winning just to have it all collapse (see the Buckner situation in 1986, see the Bucky Bleeping Dent situation in 1978).

Then came the 2004 World Series Championship.  And then another one in 2007.  Red Sox Nation was winning championships.

But don’t we all long to revisit our childhood.  Whether its via a photo album, a walk through our old neighborhood or bumping into an old friend and sharing stories.

Well, what happens when your childhood is filled with a series of disappointments…with a series of utter devastations?   Devastations that create a bond and a brother/sisterhood among fans.

Don’t you long for that bond you used to have among other fans?  Don’t you long for the pain you used to feel?  The agony and the ecstasy?

Don’t you miss the stories of Shakespearean tragedy starring our favorite players?

Well, don’t fret.  The Sox are in second place and the Yankees are just beginning to warm up.