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Boston's reign in sports world coming to an end

Barbara Barker

1:13 PM EDT, October 15, 2008

The economy is tanking, your 401K balance might cover a nice night out in Manhattan and you suspect that the trickle of sweat on your forehead may actually be water from the melting polar ice cap.

But wait, there is some reassuring news out there, a sign that not all has gone crazy in the world.

With the Red Sox on the brink of elimination, Boston's rule at the top of the sports heap is coming to a close. The city is going from a city of winners to a city of underachieving whiners, which means we all can breath easier because, of course, this is Boston's rightful place in the sports universe.

The transformation started with the Patriots. First they lose in the Super Bowl to the Giants. And nine months later, once-mighty New England is just another 3-2 team and the once-mighty Tom Brady is just a mere mortal hobbling around on crutches. (Albeit, a mere mortal with a supermodel girlfriend, which means just about every guy in my office and yours would trade places in a second to hobble along in his shoes, so you can't feel too sorry for him.)

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Now, it appears that it's the Red Sox turn to fall short of expectations. Everyone knew that Tampa Bay had a good team after what they did in the regular season. But did anyone really expect that they would blast away at the Red Sox like they are doing? Certainly, Red Sox manager Terry Francona didn't. "Sitting through that wasn't a whole lot of fun," said a shell-shocked sounding Francona after the Rays' 13-4 win on Tuesday.

Now, I know this is the part where we are supposed to talk about the comeback-ability of the Red Sox, the part where we're supposed to mention how they came back from the same deficit in their last two trips to the ALCS. In 2004, they trailed the Yankees, 3-0, then 3-1. As recently as last year, they looked as if they were goners when they fell behind the Indians, 3-1. In both series, they rebounded to win, then swept the World Series.

Somehow, after seeing Boston give up 31 runs and 39 hits in their last three games, I'm not thinking three-peat here.

And while part of me -- OK only a very small part of me, like the end of my hangnail on my left toe -- wants to feel a little sorry for the fans of Boston, they really are getting what they deserve. After so many years of falling short, it just seems that they too quickly got used to being at the top, too quickly began to believe that winning -- not underachieving -- was their city's natural birthright.

Way back in September, when Tampa Bay took it to the Sox, the Boston fans should have gotten a little worried. Still, they acted like they were the superior team, like there was something wrong with the Rays for wanting something so trivial as a few regular season wins so bad. It was almost like it was too much bother to get whipped up about their team before the ALCS started.

Well, now the ALCS is one Tampa Bay win from ending as is the city's reign at the top of the sports world.

The Patriots are average and the Red Sox are soon to be idle. The underachievers are back. All of us can breath a little easier. All of us, this is, who aren't named Doc Rivers.