Don't get it twisted, the Red Sox are still the team to beat!

By: Byron Parker

What's with people naming other MLB teams to be the so-called "team to beat"? When in all actuality the Boston Red Sox are still the World Champs which enables them to remain "the team to beat". A lot of people tend to get excited about off season moves that were made by other teams, but we have to remember one thing. Moves are made to win championships. The Boston Red Sox already have a championship caliber team. They still have the same team that won the World Series last year and they didn't really have to make a lot of moves because of that. But people tend to get excited when they see another organization make moves that will give them a "potential" championship caliber team.

This goes for teams like the Detroit Tigers, the New York Mets, and any other organizations who may have made a big splash in the off season. All of a sudden, teams that weren't in the playoffs a season ago are now the favorites in the league. It's okay to be “favorited”, but it gets ignorant when they become the team to beat. It's understandable for fans to call their own team the team to beat because that is what they want to believe. But it's really not true, no matter how much you want to believe it. There is a major difference between being a favorite, and being a team to beat. Favorites are...well, favorites. But most people will look at the most heavily favored teams and consider them to be the team to beat. Why does everybody count out the champs? It doesn't make any sense to me.

These new and “favorited” teams still haven't proven anything to anybody yet. The Red Sox...well, they've proven that they are built with championship caliber players. People need to learn how to show respect. You may want your team to be the new champions, but that doesn’t mean that you can go around calling your team the best team. If nobody has seen those teams mesh together yet, then there is no reason why they should be the team to beat.

We see this in a lot of sports. When the L.A. Galaxy got David Beckham, why were people so quick to jump on the bandwagon? You see where they got with him. Everybody may have set high expectations for L.A. but they were too quick to call them a better team. Same goes for Shaquille O’Neal when he went to Phoenix. As soon as Phoenix acquired him, many people may have been quick to name Phoenix a better team (even though there were a few people who disagreed). And now, everybody is riding on the Boston Celtics because they have the best record in the NBA right now. So what? You’re just going to call them the team to beat because of that when in actuality, the World Champion San Antonio Spurs are among the top in the Western Conference and they are no longer picked to defend their title? That is ridiculous.

What I’m really ranting about is that there is no reason to call off the Boston Red Sox because they haven’t lost any of the players from the ’07 World Series team; they could most likely be better. So don’t get it twisted folks, Boston is still the team to beat.

PS: Favorited is not a word