I have never liked David Wells. His bulky frame, his beer gut, and gruff attitude always struck me as being like every bullying redneck jock I hated in high school. But here's my real problem with David Wells playing for the Red Sox:
The Red Sox can't have an ex-Yankee playing on the team and expect to win against the Yankees.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: the Yankees are like the Marines. Once a Yankee, always a Yankee. Semper Fi. Wells playing for the Sox is like some sort of Manchurian Candidate plot by the Yankees, only when Wells sees pinstripes, he falls under the command of George Steinbrenner.
Didn't the Sox learn anything with the Mendoza fiasco? Remember Game 3 of last year's ALCS? At a crucial moment of the game, Mendoza balked. The floodgates opened and the Yankees masacred us. Last night, what does Wells do? He balks. The Sox cannot take ex-Yankees and expect them to win against the Bronx Bombers. Once a Yankee, always a Yankee.
On the plus side, reading Thomas Boswell's absurd Oct. 17th, 2004 post-game review of last year's Game 3 cheered me up.
"No team in baseball history has come back from such a postseason deficit. These Red Sox won't be the first to do such a deed, not after the way their own boneheaded blunders perfectly complemented the 22-hit Yankees slugging in this rout."
Ah. Except the Red Sox did go on to become the first- and so far, only - team in history to come back from such a postseason deficit. And, at least, Red Sox Nation will always have that. I just wish we didn't have David Wells.
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