Congrats, Boston Red Sox: You’re the villains now

With the dismissal of Dave Dombrowski, The Red Sox have officially shed their “lovable loser” look and have become the villains in the AL East.

In the history of American professional sports, there have been many rivalries, but none as storied as the tangled history between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.  For 86 years, these two teams swallowed the baseball world whole using the same story year after year:

Oh, those Tortured Red Sox will Beat those Yanks one day!

It seemed no matter what the franchise from Boston would try and do, the flashy, high spending Yankees would one-up them, and extend their streak of disappointment by another painful year.  That is, until 2004, when the Sox finally overcame the odds, and by way of a memorable ALCS, would finally take home a title.  Even though they were still vastly outnumbered in total number of championships, that one series win somehow felt like an equalizer.  After decades of abuse, David had finally popped Goliath.

Over the next 15 years, the Red Sox would take down three more World Series titles, with the “Evil Empire” only grabbing one in that same time frame.  The narrative slowly started to shift, as the Red Sox began to spend more and more on high priced free agents until suddenly, the little brother was just as big.

Now, winning became the expectation, the modus operandi for a team who’s very foundation was built on heartache and postseason tragedy.  The sheen of the “lovable losers” has officially worn off, and we are looking at a team with sky-high expectations, and suddenly, a payroll to match.  It’s like they’ve become the very thing that they fought against, and it culminated in one, penultimate event Just one day ago, when they fired General Manager Dave Dombrowski, less than one year removed from winning the World Series.

For those who may not know, Dombrowski isn’t exactly a stranger to the GM’s chair.  He got his first shot in Montreal in 1988, at the young age of 31 years old.  Since then, he’s led three separate teams to four World Series appearances, and two titles along the way.  He was coming off owning the best record in Major League baseball just a season ago, had a roster of controllable MLB talent, and a fair farm system to boot.

So what happened?