[...]
Can we get the trading deadline back? By the eighth inning Wednesday, with the Sox into their 17th consecutive inning without a run, a group of fans started chanting, ''We want Jun-ior,'' and clapping.
The rumors don't go away about Ken Griffey Jr., who had cleared waivers. The Sox were talking to Cincinnati about him, and please let them be talking again. Give up anything imaginable, because he's a lefty and he gets on base.
[...]
You can go with this ups-and-downs-of-a-long-season thing, if you like. You can fall off the edge and worry that the Sox were playing way over their heads before, and now have been exposed.
I think the Sox have gotten a little lazy. The air warmed up at Sox Park, and the balls started flying, and the Sox never really were that good at smallball, at scratching out ways to get on-base, in the first place. Then, there's that big, fat division lead.
"It's what Ozzie wanted, and he's getting it."
[...]
"I've been impressed with them from the start and still am."