Always Be Closing
Keith Foulke continues to struggle to regain his 2004 form, and just like last year, hears the abuse from the fans. A sad state of affairs.
As far as I'm concerned, Keith Foulke will always be The Closer. When someone says 'Red Sox closer' and my brain goes into data retrieval mode, the name and image that my cerebellum coughs up is always that of Foulke. Yes I know that Jonathan Papelbon is having an amazing rookie season in that role, delivering more than we fans could have hoped for within reason. Yes, I know Keith Foulke will not feature as the Red Sox closer this year, and maybe never again. And I am thrilled everytime I see Papelbon stroll to the mound. Yet I still keep thinking 'he's keeping Foulke's seat warm.' And when someone else follows Papelbon as closer, well, I'll think of that person as keeping Foulke's spot warm. Some players just permanently implant themselves in your mind as the archetype of their position with your local nine. Nomar will always be The Shortstop. Petey will always The Ace. Foulke will always be The Closer.
When the Red Sox season came to an inglorious close last October, I was not ready for it to end. I understood they just didn't have the horses to go the distance that year, that they lost to a better team. I just wanted baseball to stay with me a little longer, to comfort me with its familiar rythms for a just a few more days before the cold winds truly began to blow. Rather than quit baseball and the Red Sox cold turkey - again - I eased the withdrawal with Red Sox 2004 World Series Collector's Edition. Seven ALCS games. Four World Serious games. I played them all over that first empty weekend. Sometimes I just had them on in the background, as if they were real games I was watching while I went about various household chores. Sometimes I sat and watched, putting aside the ironing or the dishes to focus on a particular at bat or a particular pitch.
I re-watched all of Keithe Foulke's outings over the 2004 postseason, and I still had trouble grasping what he did. I still do. For most of my life the script for the Red Sox in the postseason always came to a head with the pitching, exposed as the team's Achilles heel, usually in the late innings and usually in a dramatic and painful fashion. Flawed pitching. Not enough pitching. There's no need to go into details here; from 1967 to 2003 it was all variations on a theme.
2004 was different, and to be sure there were other contributors than Keith Foulke, but his postseason performance still seems to me the most improbable. Game Four of the ALCS alone beggars the imagination: two and 2/3 innings (50 pitches) of scoreless baseball. To be followed the next night by a further inning and a third, followed by yet another scoreless inning the next night. All told Foulke pitched six innings over five games, allowing one hit and no earned runs. And then there's his World Series performance...
As I said, I know plenty of others contributed to that championship run, but for me Keith Foulke was the linchpin. He didn't just change the script, he re-wrote it, with a big fucking exclamation point. No more late inning heartache.
As far as I'm concerned, Keith Folke will always be The Closer.
As far as I'm concerned, Keith Foulke will always be The Closer. When someone says 'Red Sox closer' and my brain goes into data retrieval mode, the name and image that my cerebellum coughs up is always that of Foulke. Yes I know that Jonathan Papelbon is having an amazing rookie season in that role, delivering more than we fans could have hoped for within reason. Yes, I know Keith Foulke will not feature as the Red Sox closer this year, and maybe never again. And I am thrilled everytime I see Papelbon stroll to the mound. Yet I still keep thinking 'he's keeping Foulke's seat warm.' And when someone else follows Papelbon as closer, well, I'll think of that person as keeping Foulke's spot warm. Some players just permanently implant themselves in your mind as the archetype of their position with your local nine. Nomar will always be The Shortstop. Petey will always The Ace. Foulke will always be The Closer.
When the Red Sox season came to an inglorious close last October, I was not ready for it to end. I understood they just didn't have the horses to go the distance that year, that they lost to a better team. I just wanted baseball to stay with me a little longer, to comfort me with its familiar rythms for a just a few more days before the cold winds truly began to blow. Rather than quit baseball and the Red Sox cold turkey - again - I eased the withdrawal with Red Sox 2004 World Series Collector's Edition. Seven ALCS games. Four World Serious games. I played them all over that first empty weekend. Sometimes I just had them on in the background, as if they were real games I was watching while I went about various household chores. Sometimes I sat and watched, putting aside the ironing or the dishes to focus on a particular at bat or a particular pitch.
I re-watched all of Keithe Foulke's outings over the 2004 postseason, and I still had trouble grasping what he did. I still do. For most of my life the script for the Red Sox in the postseason always came to a head with the pitching, exposed as the team's Achilles heel, usually in the late innings and usually in a dramatic and painful fashion. Flawed pitching. Not enough pitching. There's no need to go into details here; from 1967 to 2003 it was all variations on a theme.
2004 was different, and to be sure there were other contributors than Keith Foulke, but his postseason performance still seems to me the most improbable. Game Four of the ALCS alone beggars the imagination: two and 2/3 innings (50 pitches) of scoreless baseball. To be followed the next night by a further inning and a third, followed by yet another scoreless inning the next night. All told Foulke pitched six innings over five games, allowing one hit and no earned runs. And then there's his World Series performance...
As I said, I know plenty of others contributed to that championship run, but for me Keith Foulke was the linchpin. He didn't just change the script, he re-wrote it, with a big fucking exclamation point. No more late inning heartache.
As far as I'm concerned, Keith Folke will always be The Closer.
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