By the Numbers

Baseball is a game of numbers, and for the Nation, the numbers have been pretty bad this summer. For a quick overview, consider that at the All-Star break, the Sox were twenty games up on .500, slightly exceeding the pace of five games up every month, which would lead to 96 wins, and a likely spot in the post-season. Since the break, however, the Sox have played five games under .500; have surrendered the lead in the AL East; and have now fallen behind the Rangers in the race for the Wild Card.

Here is an even worse number - 2. That's the number of road wins since the All-Star break, excepting the series in Baltimore, but I don't think that should count, because the Orioles don't have a major league team any more. Now I know the Sox have a nice home stretch coming up, but if they can't win games on the road, they're not going to get to the post-season in 2009.

In addition to that, there are some real bad numbers at the plate since the break. I'm not going to spend the time to get the precise figures, because it's far too discouraging, and really who cares about lousy numbers? I mean, it's always great to track some guy who's on a streak, and has been batting .450 over the past month, but how much fun is it to crunch the numbers and find out that Boston has been batting under .240 this past month. And I think that's pretty close to the mark. Pitching has been OK, especially considering that two of the season's starting rotation have been down. Lester and Beckett have been very consistent of late, but how often have the bats failed to support them, like the extra inning losses to the Rays and the Yankees in the terrible road stretch?

Speaking of bad numbers, how about this one: 96? That's the preseason ranking for Cuse football. Top one hundred. Now in some categories, top one hundred is pretty good. Top 100 of the Fortune 500; or say, top 100 lawyers in New York State; or even top 100 on the Billboard charts. But with only 119 Division I-A football teams, top 100 is like the top 84% of the class. I did notice that Cuse was ranked ahead of Western Kentucky, UAB, Mew Mexico, Indiana and Memphis. That would be great if we were talking hoops, but of course, we're not.

The season kicks off on Labor Day weekend against Minnesota. There are eight home games this year. I can't understand that. Eight home games would have been great when the team was in the top 20, and playing for a BCS bowl bid every year. The dome would be full eight times? Eight chances to see McNabb throwing to Harrison? That would fill the coffers at the Athletic Department. But to schedule eight home games when the team has been terrible? In the Robinson era, that would have been torture. To have to watch the team get pushed all over the field eight times? To sit there with ever dwindling crowds, until by season's end, the attendance was smaller than the average basketball game? I can't wait for the Maine game. That will be awesome - to see Cuse play Maine. Just like the old days, when Miami and Nebraska, and Penn State came to town, only it's Maine, not Miami. Imagine if we lose that game! My neighbor Ernie went to Rutgers, and I'm giving him the Rutgers tickets; I've been doing that for the last few years. Once upon a time we would score seventy points against Rutgers; Marvin Harrison and Kevin Johnson would turn short completions into long TDs. Now Rutgers grinds us into the turf, and when Ernie goes, he not only has a good time watching his alma mater, he saves me the indignity of having to watch all that.

Hey, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Marrone will turn things around. We'll beat not only Maine, but UConn, and Fredonia, and Geneseo, and who knows? By the end of the season we could be top 65. That's good enough for a bowl bid these days.