A Spark for the Season?

I'm going to keep this brief, because I've been delving into sports, specifically the Sox, a little too much here lately. Haven't been getting many comments on the serious posts, so maybe people aren't feeling em anymore.

Plus it's pretty late in the day day. Sorry about that. Busy day. Luckily we had Kate post and a surprise appearance form Wolfie, whose comp has been getting blapped by a fat virus. Jake, meanwhile, is suffering from a different virus and hasn't even been online today. Let's wish him a big Get Well just like the kids in camp today, who all wrote him fire get well cards. Enjoy, buddy.

Actually, Jake's brother sent me over a clip of Jake from earlier today:



Meanwhile, back to the original point of this post. Could last night's Tigers-Sox "brawl" be the spark that the Sox needed to save their season?

I think it could be to be honest. I was talking about it with Jared and this team was as dead as they come. I even questioned the heart of the club in Monday's morbid post.

They needed something to give them a jump start and help them come together.

This isn't as epic as the 2004 Yankees-Sox brawl that saw Jason Varitek shove his mitt into A-Rod's grill followed by a huge comeback capped by a Bill Mueller walkoff of Rivera....but it could serve a similar purpose.

In 2004, the team used that came to come together and go on a historic August run. I think they won something like 20 of 22 games or something (too lazy to look it up right now).

After Youk charged the mound last night, I had a good feeling. I looked over at Jared and told him that this could be the spark we needed. A single and a monstrous Jason Bay homerun later, the feeling was confirmed.

That feeling grew once Terry Francona was ejected a batter later for arguing a really unimportant out call on a JD Drew steal attempt. Very unusual for Francona. He screams at umps and crossed the line about as often as...well about as often as Youk charges the mound - never.

Do I think they each did it on purpose? Eh, maybe. I think Youk was extremely fed up. Between his constant beanings from the Yankees, the fact that he was hit the night before and the total wear of a team-leading 10 HBPs this season, he just snapped. He was a little embarrassed after, but he knew he had to do something. As I wrote on Monday, this team was getting pushed around a bit lately. Not to get all macho, but someone had to stand up, here.

Francona, meanwhile, kept the ball rolling with his ejection right after. The players love seeing that fire from their skipper. Especially when they are not used to it. Again, I'm not saying he got tossed on purpose, but don't you think everybody in that home dugout got a sense how important this game was after that? I do.

It was a must win. Detroit is a good team. A first place team. They haven't won two straight in a week. They were playing at home, down 3-0 early and they just got their top hitter ejected with a suspension looming. It was as big of a game as it gets in August.

Youk's five game suspension was probably worth it. Actually, as I'm typing this, Mikey Lowell just went deep again. DO NOT pitch to him. Lowell will play third, VMart and Kotchman will play first and the Sox overall depth will shine through.

Meanwhile, as Youk chills these next five days, he can rest easy. He may have lit a match under a club that desperately needed a spark.

--Nick