There is a little game played with toddlers in the New England area in which a child is placed on a sitting adult’s knees and while moving gently up and down the adult recites:
“Rush, rush to Boston
Rush, rush to Lynn
You better be careful or you might fall in.”

On the last line the knees open and the adult catches the child as it falls between the legs.

This is a lot like playing baseball in Boston, except more and more frequently the player isn’t caught, he just goes tumbling…out of town, to the minors or to oblivion.

This was the off-season where the Red Sox erased all doubts, they want to be like the Yankees and so they will spend like the Yankees. As Murray Chass of the New York Times reports, the teams began last season about $75 million apart in payroll. Based on projected rosters for opening day, the Yankees will start this season at $182.6 million, the Red Sox at $145.7 million, a gap of $36.9 million. The gap was about $89 million following the Sox 2004 World Championship miracle, but the price of success and dismantling of that team has driven the payroll up dramatically.

Boston is Red Sox crazy, ask anyone. There is no community that buys into the hype faster than the Red Sox fan. As soon as a player joins the organization, he is not just big league ready; he is Hall of Fame material. The pressure a player has to experience is not so much being in the big leagues as living up to the fans expectations.

But what is good enough?

After 2004, Orlando Cabrera at short wasn’t good enough even though it was his fielding that brought together the disparate parts of the infield after Nomar was deemed a cancer. Doug Mientkiewicz, the slick fielding first baseman, was an annoyance and he went (ironically you can find him starting at first for the Yanks). Dave Roberts, whose steal in the playoffs put the Red Sox into position to overtake the Yankees was dismissed (one of the huge weaknesses for the team this season is the absence of a speedy, defensive outfielder). Second baseman Mark Bellhorn was driven out of town like his predecessor Todd Walker.

In 2005, Edgar Renteria took his turn at short before he was sent on his way. Kevin Millar, pushed out at first. In 2006, Bill Mueller was gone at third. Tony Graffinino gone at second. Johnny Damon gone in center. Now, this season Alex Gonzalez is gone at short, Mark Loretta gone at second, and there simply isn’t enough room to list those who have passed through the revolving bullpen gate.

However, while I don’t want to rehash the tales of Rudy Seanez, Jermaine Van Buren and others who provided little or no relief, it would be remiss not to mention the sad case of the anointed closer of the future, Craig Hansen. He was the 26th overall pick in the 2005 draft and the Sox signed him to a four year, guaranteed $4.4 million major league contract, which heightened the expectations of fans and front office alike and may have doomed the kid to failure.

Before the end of the 2005 season, he was rushed to Boston because then, as now, the Sox had major bullpen issues. Since that time, Hansen has made only 29 career minor league appearances compared to 42 in the big leagues and has a career 6.59 ERA in parts of two seasons. He has allowed 72 baserunners in 41 innings.

Hansen would have been happy with those numbers this spring. His ERA was 15.43 when he was sent down with mixed feelings and mixed messages. "He was rushed," admitted manager Terry Francona in the Boston Globe. "Now we want him in a routine where he can separate himself from other pitchers. By his own admission, he had an uneven spring. We still firmly believe this kid has a bright future and I think he's prepared to go do that."

Hansen wasn’t sure, "If they feel like it, they feel like it, I don't know. I can't look in the past." Francona said Hansen would not be used as a closer at Triple A. When Hansen was asked what his Pawtucket role will be, he replied, "Reliever."

Last year’s man on the hot seat though was Josh Beckett, who must be thrilled to have Dice-K taking the spotlight from him, no joshing. Between Matsuzaka and Senator Schilling, Beckett has dropped off the radar and after thriving in the Florida swamps Beckett may actually prosper with the lack of attention paid to him.

The other focus last season was put on Coco Crisp. He came to Boston with a great name, a great personality and the great expectation that he would make all of Red Sox Nation forget their love affair with his predecessor, Johnny Damon. Didn’t happen.

Coco got hurt early on and later on and in between did nothing to brag about. Last year, he was the face on billboards, he was the go-to guy for interviews, he was the blessed child, he was the lead-off batter.

This year? Well, you can sense it in his words, "I don't really care what the people think about me," Crisp is quoted in a Boston Globe Dan Shaughnessy column. "As far as me wracking my brain about what anybody thinks, I don't do that. I hope they enjoy watching us play as a team, I do something, they enjoy that part of it. But I don't care if people think I suck or if they think I'm good. I just go out there and have fun."

That, my friends, doesn’t sound like a man having fun. It sounds like a guy batting eighth.

So, Dustin Pedroia, Julio Lugo and even you, Daisuke Matsuzaka, you all have rushed to Boston, but there are plenty of people who have been in that Yankees, er, Red Sox clubhouse who will warn you, “You better be careful because you might fall in.”

This column was written on March 28, 2007 and reprinted with permission.