Inside the collapse of the 2011 Red Sox

[aj12291]

Interesting article... I definitely agree with Pedroia's point about how you're expected to win in Boston. We've won more titles in the past 10 years, including at least one in every sport. We're called "massholes" and Boston sports fans aren't well liked for a reason... we're arrogant. Sure, mistakes were made this season. Tito wasn't perfect, and neither was Theo or anyone else in the front office. But I think the bar is a LOT higher than in a lot of other cities, because we, as a fan base, expect that our team is going to make the playoffs every year.
I personally wasn't surprised at all at the downfall. We started the season at 0-6. That wasn't mentioned (I believe) anywhere in that article. Sure, the first few weeks don't necessarily mean the season's going to turn out that way, but it certainly seemed like a red flag IMO.
There are a lot of really great points in there, I'm not denying that at all, but I think more than what's said there contributed to our downfall. I think teamwork and supporting each other through the stretch are extremely important, and we lost that this year. It doesn't have to be a Joe Torre-esque environment, our players certainly are allowed to have fun and be themselves (look at what a caveman and a bunch of self-proclaimed idiots did in '04...) But Johnny and the gang were still all supporting each other throughout the entire season, and I think that lack of community, that lack of brotherhood, definitely contributed to our downfall.