Caffeinated Prognostications

My Barista says Schilling will throw everyone under the bus.

At the drive-through coffee place where I get my morning fix, I also get the latest baseball news and predictions from My Barista R. This handsome young man (whose looks are vaguely suggestive of Theo Epstein), is, like me, an avid Red Sox fan in the swamp of Yankee Territory, and he is up extremely early each day checking out the latest on the Sox, the Yankees, and occasionally other ballplayers. When he serves up my joe (okay it's mocha) he also serves up the newest tidbits, like who threw how many pitches, whose arm is sore, who's rumored to be on the trading block. Most days I don't bother to log in to ESPN.com until late afternoon because My Barista gave me the highlights in the early AM.

The glaring difference between his fanhood and mine is his fluctuating belief in our team. His confidence in their ability to get the job done changes more frequently, and quickly, than the tide. In 2004, he had written off the Red Sox when Pay-Rod went to the Yankees instead of the Sox. Not entirely true, as his confidence in how they would play and how they would finish the season rose and fell repeatedly before Opening Day, and continued to do so throughout the season. Several times in 2004, he wrote them off, only days later, based on some turn of events, he predicted them to win the division. Throughout the season, every time he got down on the team I would tell him to be patient, they weren't done yet. That was my message to him through early April, mid-August, and into October, right up to the start of Game 1 of the Series.

So when the Scuzziest Looking Man in Baseball signed with the Yankees in the off-season, My Barista started writing off the 2005 season for the Sox. Here we go again.

This morning his comments were about Curt Schilling and Congress. Although we haven't discussed the steriods issue at any length (the line of cars can cut our talks to only a phrase or two), we both are looking forward to his testimony. My Barista predicts Schilling will be very forthcoming, because "that's the way he is." Schilling does seem to be a man of virtue, in an age that claims to prize virtue yet actually mocks and disparages it. It will be more interesting to hear what he has to say than anything Canseco has written so far.

I hope My Barista is right on this one.