The Red Sox and Dice K Have Wa

"Wa" is the Japanese concept and practice of group harmony (I know this because I am currently reading Robert Whiting's book on Japanese baseball You Gotta Have Wa). In America it is said that winning breeds good team chemistry and the Red Sox with a trio of 26-year old pitchers in Daisuke Matsuzaka, Jonathan Papelbon, and Josh Beckett are poised to have both "wa" and good team chemistry for years to come.

Yesterday was Daisuke Matsuzaka's coming out party and he did not disappoint - proving he was indeed the real deal by pitching 7 innings of one-run ball with 10 strikeouts against the Kansas City Royals.

It seems to me that a trio of young talent like the Red Sox 26-year olds has not been assembled by a major league team since the Atlanta Braves trotted out 27-year old Greg Maddux, 27-year old Tom Glavine and 26-year old John Smoltz in 1993. The Atlanta trio are all possible Hall of Famers (well two locks for the Hall of Fame and one probable) and it would be both overly optimistic and presumptuous to put the Boston trio in the same category as the Atlanta trio. However, when the Red Sox are winning - no phrase probably describes Red Sox fans better than "overly optimistic and presumptuous."

Let me give the perfect example of this.

Last night my wife and kids had Holy Thursday activities at the church so I was left to fend for myself for dinner. So I headed off to a local restaurant for a good meal, some Keno and a few beers. While enjoying my scallops and shrimp over angel hair pasta I overhead a guy at the next table say, "Any discussion about the league MVP has to include JD Drew." Fork of food half-way to my mouth - I couldn't help but stop and look at him. The funny thing is that the other guys at his table all just nodded their head. Talk about overly optimistic and presumptuous.

Let me finish by going back to the 1993 Atlanta trio versus the current Red Sox trio. The Braves trio have a combined 818 wins and they were the core of a team that won their division every year like clockwork. However, what the Red Sox pitchers lack in talent compared to the Braves trio can be made up by the fact that the Red Sox ownership is willing to spend big money to field the best team possible - something that could not be said about the budget conscious Braves. If the Braves won because of "wa" and talent - then hopefully the Red Sox will win because of "wa", talent and the money that comes from one of the deepest revenue streams in all of sports.

Of course it would be overly optimistic and presumptuous to talk about this bright future without acknowledging perhaps the biggest difference between the 1993 Braves and today's Red Sox team. The Braves weren't in the same division as the Yankees.