Strike Up The Band, This Could Be The Red Sox Swan Song

If it's August, this must be time for the hopes of Red Sox fans to begin to fade. But an outsider can only nod knowingly. No one bangs the drum of misery better than the Red Sox fans themselves.

David Heuschkel has already jumped into tune with a Wonderful World of What Ifs:

"consider how much better off the Red Sox would be if they had played the second half 11 games over .500 instead of one over: What if the Red Sox had: Won four of six at Texas and Baltimore instead of losing four of six on the first trip after the All-Star break; Won three of four from the Orioles instead of losing three of four to end their previous homestand; Gone 4-3 instead of 3-4 on their recent West Coast swing to Oakland and Seattle."

I've got one. What if Derek Lowe hadn't developed a blister after pitching 6 masterful innings of holding the A's scoreless? What if the Scott Sauerbeck had ever pitched in a pennant race before instead of wallowing down in Pittsburgh 100 light years from the nearest postseason excitement his entire career? Would he still have walked Eric Chavez to lead off the seventh and then walked Erubiel Durazo after getting Miquel Tejada out?

What if Scott Williamson had ever gotten closer than second place in his career? Would he have still served up the three-run bomb over the Green Monster to Ramon Hernandez that gave the A's a 3-2 victory?

We'll never know because now, the Red Sox are a season-high 6 1/2 games behind the Yankees in the AL East and are now even behind the A's again for the AL Wildcard.

Tonight's another game, another year, another history. Let's see if it repeats itself. Tim Wakefield takes the mound for the Sox and is 8-4 in his career against Oakland. The veteran knuckleballer is 4-2 with a 3.86 ERA at Fenway. That might cure some woes.


The Ozzy Curse

Joining the Red Sox as perennial collapsers (when they aren't 20 games out of first by July 4th, that is), are the beloved Cubbies of Chicago. Just last week, August 15th, to be precise, the Chicago Cubs were sitting pretty, a full half-game ahead of the Astros and the Cardinals.

Now look at them. Three consecutive losses, including last night's hideous slugfest loss to the Houston Astros, 12-8 and they are now already one and a half games behind the Astros for first place.

If you want to point a finger of blame, point it at Ozzy Osbourne. Every since his ghoulish Alzheimer's rendition of Take Me Out To The Ballgame, which the Chicago Tribune said went like this:

"Let's go out to the ballgame.
Let's go out to the bluhhhhhn.
Take me a ee-yan eeya (humming) the field.
I don't care if I ahh-uhn ack.
Da da da da duh da da da eam.
Duh ee, da da da da dahhh.
For a fee, two, three strikes you're out at the old ballgame. Yeahhhhhh."

The Cubs have lost every game since. They lost the night he sang, 3-0, failing to stage the faintest rally or comeback and they lost last night. Chalk it up to The Curse of Ozzie, the worst ever to sing Take Me Out To The Ballgame according to the Trib poll of its readers, by margin of 64% to 5.3% that Mike Ditka garnered.

Meanwhile, the desperately wheeling and dealing Cubs General Manager Jim Hendry acquired infield insurance Tony Womack yesterday. The Womack deal is the fifth Hendry has made since June 19, acquiring six position players.

"Hey, it's Aug. 19 and we're still in it," Hendry said. Turn the calendar ahead a few pages, Jim. Take a peak. The Colorado Rockies acquired Womack from Arizona on July 18, hoping he would help fuel their unlikely wild-card bid. They decided to cut their losses after he hit .190 in 21 games as they fell 10 games behind Philadelphia in the crowded race. Pitch selection appears to be a problem. Womack had 80 at-bats for Colorado without a walk.

In addition to regulars Aramis Ramirez and Kenny Lofton, Hendry has added part-time players Doug Glanville, Randall Simon and Womack. He began this flurry with a deal for Colorado third baseman Jose Hernandez, who was sent to Pittsburgh in the deal for Ramirez and Lofton.

Tonight, Mark Prior, who has won all three games he's pitched since coming off the disabled list and sports a 12-5 record on the season with a 2.65 ERA, takes the mound for the Cubs, hoping to put an end to their tailspin. One little problem with that theory however is that Prior has a problem with Houston and is 0-1 with a 8.10 ERA against the Astros this year.

Super Bonds Bonds

People can say whatever they want but there is nothing like Barry Bonds, who follows one spectacular moment with another and is the best baseball player since...that guy named Ruth, the guy he says whose home runs he'll take "... and that’s it. Don’t talk about him no more.”

Last night, making his first appearance since taking five days of bereavement leave to be with his cancer-stricken father, sent a towering walk-off solo homer into McCovey Cove in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Giants a 5-4 victory over Atlanta, snapped their season-high six game losing streak and sent the crowd of 42,307 at Pacific Bell Park into a frenzy.

"I owe the Braves an apology," Bonds said afterward of a rather physical demonstration of his happiness as he circled the bases after the home run. "I hope they understand I've just got a lot of emotion. With an early celebration like that, I just hope they don't take offense to it. I just have a lot of emotions going through me from my dad right now."

I'm sure the Braves understanding will be helped by the fact that they even with the loss, they still hold an 11 1/2 game lead over the Phillies and a 12 game lead over the Marlins, both of whom lost last night.