With the recent druthers of the Red Sox, I decided to take a look at some Sox history to see how this year compared with some other famous and infamous seasons.
With the help of the fine folks at baseball-reference.com I went back in time and took a look at the team’s record on August 12th and how far ahead or behind they were. The record at season’s end and the date of their largest lead and how many games ahead they were.
The seasons I looked at were:
1975 Won AL East, lost World Series to Cincinnati.
1977 Failed to make the playoffs but lead the division as of August 22nd.
1978 Lost one game playoff, lead division as of September 12th, tied October 1st.
1986 Won AL East, lost World Series to New York Mets
1988 Won AL East, lost ALCS to Oakland
1990 Won AL East, lost ALCS to Oakland
1995 Won AL East, lost ALDS to Cleveland
1999 Won Wild Card, lost ALCS to New York Yankees
2003 Won Wild Card, lost ALCS to New York Yankees
2004 Won Wild Card, won World Series over St. Louis
2005 Won Wild Card, lost ALDS to Chicago White Sox
| August 12th | Seasons End | Largest Lead | ||||
| 1975 | 71-46 | +7 | 95-65 | +4.5 | 8/3 | +9.5 |
| 1977 | 66-44 | +1.5 | 97-64 | -2 | 6/23 | +5 |
| 1978 | 72-42 | +9 | 99-64 | -1 | 7/8 | +10 |
| 1986 | 65-47 | +3.5 | 95-66 | +5.5 | 9/18 | +10.5 |
| 1988 | 65-50 | -3.5 | 89-73 | +1 | 9/18 | +6 |
| 1990 | 62-51 | +3 | 88-74 | +2 | 9/4 | +6.5 |
| 1995 | 59-39 | +9 | 86-58 | +7 | 9/6 | +15.5 |
| 1999 | 63-51 | -7.5 | 94-68 | -4 | 5/25 | +2.5 |
| 2003 | 68-51 | -4 | 95-67 | -6 | 5/26 | +2.5 |
| 2004 | 63-50 | -9.5 | 98-64 | -3 | 5/1 | +2.5 |
| 2005 | 67-47 | +5 | 95-67 | tie | 8/10 | +5.5 |
| 2007 | 70-47 | +4 | 7/5 | +12 | ||
As you can see if the Sox were to blow this and not make the playoffs it would be of epic proportions. Even bigger than the 1978 collapse when their largest lead that season was 10 games.
This season the Sox had a 12 game lead on July 5th, one week prior to the All-Star game. At the all-star break the lead was 10 games, it dipped to 7 and was built back up to 9 games as of July 28th. In two weeks the lead has shrunk to four games. The Yankees have won 8 of their last ten, the Sox have gone 5-5.
Tomorrow as a Sox fan you’re going to do one of two things. You are either going to take a number to stand in line to jump from the nearest bridge or large structure or you’re going to try to talk your fellow fans down off the ledge.
