A Red Sox Collapse Would be Far From Worst

The Boston Red Sox came into September with a nine game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays in the American league wildcard race. Since then that lead has been cut to two and talks of a Boston collapse have become quite popular. So much that people are trying to give it historical context.

If the Red Sox blow a nine game lead it will be the biggest September collapse statistically in baseball history. It would be far from the worst. There are two specific collapses that are much worse. They are the 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers and the 1964 Philadelphia Phillies.

In 1951 the Dodgers held a 13 ½ game lead over the New York Giants on August 11. The Giants went on one of the hottest streaks in baseball history and won 39 of their last 47 games to tie Brooklyn at the end of the season.

The teams played in a three game series to decide the National League pennant. After splitting the first two games the Giants won the series on Bobby Thomson’s famous ‘Shot heard round the world,’ home run.

Thirteen years later the Phillies performed the ultimate collapse. Led by manager Gene Mauch, third baseman Dick Allen and pitcher Jim Bunning Philadelphia held a 6 ½ game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals with only 10 games to play. The Phillies went on to lose every one of those games and the pennant to the Cardinals.

Two things set the collapse of the Dodgers and Phillies apart from what may happen to the Red Sox.

First Brooklyn and Philadelphia were in first place when they blew their leads. They were not fighting for the fourth seed, but first overall in the entire National League. Before 1969 there were no divisional or league championship series. A team had to win the pennant by finishing with the best regular season record in their league. Brooklyn and Philadelphia held first place for most if not all of the 1951 and 1964 seasons respectively only to lose it all on the last day of the year.

This is not the case with the Red Sox. They are currently in second place in the American League East behind the New York Yankees. They have been one of the best teams in the American League this season, but not the best.

Second, the Dodgers and Phillies had yet to win a World Series when they blew their leads. Brooklyn had suffered recent defeats to the New York Yankees in 1941, 1947 and 1949. The Phillies had fallen victim to the Yankees in 1950. Both cities were starved not only for a pennant, but a world’s championship as well.

The Red Sox have won two world’s championships in the last eight years with the most recent coming in 2007. So the pain of losing a nine game lead wouldn’t be as great to them or their fans as what Brooklyn and Philadelphia went through.

A Red Sox collapse would be monumental, but nothing compared to the ’51 Dodgers and ’64 Phillies.