Perspective

"Yeah, that's pretty much everyone now." -Rotoworld

There's not a whole lot an amateur blogger can say to the last month for the Red Sox. We know it's bad, but this? That Rotoworld quote is in reference to Curt Schilling injuring his lat, and to Jonathan Papelbon experiencing a burning sensation in his arm during tonight's game. That pretty much fills the checklist for every starter on the team having some sort of injury.

Still, my disbelief was more directed at the fact that Jon Lester was diagnosed with an apparently treatable form of lymphoma. Cancer? That'll realign your sights a bit, won't it?

This is something I have never witnessed before, though, as SoSHers love to scream, it's a relatively small sample size. There comes a point when you stop making fun of a team's fate because injuries, in the end, just aren't that funny. Despite the fact that a good number of Yankee fans I'm familiar with didn't get that memo, the rest of sports fandom just looks at the Red Sox, shakes their head, and says, "Wow."

In the end, it comes down to this: Jon Lester is too young for something like this. Hopefully he (and others diagnosed with varying forms of cancer) can make speedy recoveries and lead healthy, normal lives. It doesn't matter whether or not he pitches again in the major leagues, and it doesn't matter if the Sox don't make it to October baseball.

What matters is something more important than a ballgame.