Catching Up With Bob Lobel: Boston's Crazy Trade Deadline

On this week's show, legendary sportscaster Bob Lobel and host Joe Parello break down all the moves made by the Boston Red Sox at Major League Baseball's trade deadline. Are the Sox a better team today than they were yesterday, and which players leaving town are most likely to make us say "why can't we get players like that?" come October?

All that, and more, on a special trade deadline edition of "Catching Up With Bob Lobel."

Bob Lobel: Does Recent Succes Make the 2014 Red Sox Any More Bearable?

By Bob Lobel (@boblobel)

Let’s try this little experiment. 

Let’s go back to the summer of 2003 and follow the Grady Little Red Sox to the logical conclusion that all Red Sox teams on the precipice of immortality fail miserably. Miserably, but not unexpectedly.

The sad ending of that year was nothing new, but that didn’t make it any less painful. After all, are trips to the dentist any less painful just because you had a previous painful experience in the chair? No, this was the Red Sox' signature persona. They were defined by their failures. 

Now, staying in that year, when Grady left Pedro in a game too long, ending a season, but making a semi-hero out of Aaron Boone, I ask you in all honesty: If you were told from that moment on to the year 2013 that the Red Sox would win three world championships after the legendary drought of 86 years, would you have believed it?

Bob Lobel: Any Hope Left for the Red Sox in 2014?

By Bob Lobel (@boblobel)

The Red Sox are now in the business of selling hope.  

There isn’t much of a difference between what the Sox are selling and that hidden force drags you kicking and screaming into a store that sells golf clubs. You’re there for the same reason you are still watching the local entry in the American League East: Hope on a stick. 

There is that strange, yet unproven belief that walking into a golf store to get a new putter, hybrid rescue club or driver will get you paired with Rory on the weekend. It’s not unlike your strange belief that the Boston Red Sox will somehow find a way to get to the post season, even if it is a one and done, stupid second Wild Card game.