Bob Ryan's Senility

If anyone saw Bob Ryan's column in The Boston Globe today and got worried because he ranked the Sox just 6th among the twelve remaining contenders, fear not. Bob's little choo-choo has apparently gone chugging 'round the bend. He may be right, the Sox may not be any better than the 6th-best team right now, but not because of some of the voodoo reasoning he employed in that column.

For instance, he cited the Marlins as the team with the third-best chance to win the World Series, without ever mentioning that they currently have two teams to jump over in the NL wild card standings just to make the post-season. And one of his reasons for promoting them was "a revived Mike Lowell", apparently without being aware that Lowell's combined OPS in August and September is .562, featuring two homers and 11 RBI in 45 games. (Contrast that with Papi's totals of 5 homers and 13 RBI in just the past seven days.) If that's a revival, the dude must have been beyond dead.

Here's another Ryan nugget. The White Sox are collapsing in part because Jose Contreras is "losing it". Really? I wish someone was losing it like Contreras on the Red Sox staff. In nine August and September starts, Contreras is 7-1, with an ERA of 2.18. The ChiSox may blow their lead and lose in the playoffs, but Jose Contreras can't be blamed for it.

Bob Ryan has devolved into just another loud media type who doesn't do his research before opening his mouth (or his word processor), and that's sad. He used to be one of the greats.