Denial, maybe Duca needs a 12 step program

Rob Duca is so concerned about his precious Red Sox and notice all the refenences to all the celebrities in his column. Al Franken, Jimmy Fallon, Drew Barrymore. Oh Boo Hoo if the Sox can't win so they can't attend anymore Sox games this year. What happened to Ben Afflac and Jennifer Garner?

Notice how quick the New England media jumped off the New England Patriot bandwagon? They were like rats when the water first touched the float switch for the bilge pump.

Thought Rays fans would like another e-mail contact after we win to touch base with our sensible fellow Americans which live in another region on the Nation.

By ROB DUCA
October 16, 2008

BOSTON — Nothing but positive thoughts today.
Skip the section of your morning newspaper that reminds you of the Red Sox's predicament in the American League Championship Series. Don't watch the pundits on ESPN. Turn off sports talk radio.
Instead, settle onto your couch and pull Norman Vincent Peale's "The Power of Positive Thinking" from the bookcase. Insert Sinatra's "High Hopes" into your CD player. (Stay away from playing Dire Straits.) Call up YouTube on the Internet and search for "Daily Affirmation with Stuart Smalley" (the Al Franken character on "Saturday Night Live"). Watch him gaze intently at the mirror and repeat, "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!"
Imagine how this will all turn around. Remember the past. Take comfort in reliever Mike Timlin's reassuring words following Tuesday night's 13-4 Game 4 pasting from the Tampa Bay Rays that left the Red Sox on the brink of elimination.
"Don't they say history repeats itself?" he asked.
Draw inspiration from catcher Kevin Cash.
"We were down in this situation last year," he said. "Everybody in here still believes that we're going to go out and win Game 5 and so on. We've got to take the attitude that we're playing Thursday, and we'll see what happens after that."
After that they will head to St. Petersburg, Fla., where Josh Beckett will remember who he is, and Jon Lester will take care of business, and the Red Sox grounds crew will begin prepping Fenway Park for another World Series.
Keep telling yourself that. The glass is half full. Remember Rick Pitino's words: Negativity sucks.
Don't even think about how Fenway felt earlier this week. Silence is not always golden, particularly when it results from the shock of watching your heroes being bullied in their own backyard. Evan Longoria, Carlos Pena, B.J. Upton and Carl Crawford will cool off. It's the law of averages. Yesterday's gone. Today is the first day of the rest of the postseason.
Time isn't on the Red Sox side, but history is. They have done it before — not once, but twice in the past four seasons. They trailed the Cleveland Indians by the same 3-1 deficit just 12 months ago and were spraying each other with champagne in Denver not long after that. They were staring at a 3-0 deficit to the Yankees in 2004 and won four straight. It's not like they're attempting to split the atom.
"I believe that what we did last year — if we can draw on anything from that, good," manager Terry Francona said yesterday. "Anything that's happened in your past, you try to turn it into an advantage for you. Saying that, this is a different team, it's a different Tampa team. But we'll use anything we can to give us any kind of advantage."
Resist the temptation to dwell on the negative — or as some heretics might suggest, the reality of their difficult circumstances. It is true that Manny Ramirez, who hit .409 and drove in 10 runs to lead their comeback last year against the Indians, now wears Dodger Blue. And Mike Lowell, author of a .333 average and eight RBIs in that series, will undergo hip surgery on Monday. And Jacoby Ellsbury, who replaced Coco Crisp in Game 5 and ignited the Red Sox, is mired in an 0-for-20 funk.
And David Ortiz, Mr. October in the 21st century, can't hit his way out of paper bag. And Jason Varitek is looking more feeble than your stock portfolio.
Details, details. It will only add to the lore when they storm back. More books will be written. Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore will be signed up to star in "Fever Pitch II." Letterman and Leno's people will be calling.
Daisuke Matsuzaka pitches tonight's fifth game. People can whine all they want about his frustrating style, but he went 18-3 with a 2.90 ERA during the regular season. Those are Cy Young-worthy numbers. He's started twice in the postseason and the Red Sox won both games. He fired seven shutout innings in their 2-0 victory over the Rays in Game 1.
Besides, the Rays are skipping over ace James Shields and pitching Scott Kazmir, who was lit up in Game 2. Big mistake.
Remember when Kevin Millar huffed in '04 that the Yankees better not let the Red Sox win Game 4, because then Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling were on tap? If the Red Sox win Game 5 tonight, Beckett and Lester will be next. Neither can pitch worse than in their first starts in the series, right?
Beckett insists he's healthy. Take him at his word. Unless he's lying straight to your face, he will get the job done in Game 6. And then it's up to Lester, and you don't think the youthful Rays will feel a little pressure if this series goes to a seventh game?
So it's all laid out perfectly. The Red Sox have the Rays just where they want them — overconfident and unaware of what dangers lie ahead. And if doesn't quite work out that way, there are always the world champion Celtics just around the corner.
Staff writer Rob Duca can be contacted at 508-862-1177 or rduca@capecodonline.com