E-Mail This Article to a Friend Baseball’s other 'teams of destiny' BY CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

HERE IN THE Hub of Hardball, all eyes are now turned to the Red Sox’ playoff fortunes. All. Eyes. Front-page news, don’t you know. Oh sure, those eyes once glanced over at the New England Patriots, but right now Klinger and Radar are boosting the morale of the team’s rapidly increasing injured list in sick bay, while Winchester and Hawkeye are making the rounds of the post-op. A team that had such high hopes going into the season is now one Tom Brady elbow hit away from Jacksonville Jaguars–land. The Bruins? The other night, the Bruins lost an exhibition game in Detroit, 9-0. You heard right, 9-0. Offense was supposed to be the Bruins’ strength, I thought, and the new goaltender — Felix Potvin — was the defensive savior. As Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau once said, "Nawt anymahr." Bruins? Irrelevant for now. Celtics? Not yet on the radar screen. Not with the Sox ready to play in October for the first time in four years.

But we are not going to talk about the Red Sox today. Nope. Sorry. You want your Sox news, Nation, head over to the other local rags. The market is, and soon will be, over-saturated with talk of the Scarlet Hose’s prospects against the A’s and beyond, but today we’re going to go outside of the bubble, boy, and look at the other playoff-bound teams which also — rightfully or not — consider themselves to be the Year 2003’s Team of Destiny.

Do the Red Sox have a copyright on that term? Certainly not. But seeing how this team managed to stay within striking distance of the top of the AL East all season long, survived numerous Days-of-Our-Lives sand-draining melodramas, and actually managed to complete a satisfying September en route to the wild-card berth — well, it seems that after 84 title-less seasons, this edition of the Carmine Stockings could very well be the team of destiny.

Well, if we weren’t so Sox-focused around here, we would realize that, yep, there are seven other teams in faraway towns that are also considering their teams’ achievements worthy of that fateful moniker. Each of the seven other playoff teams has amazing stories of comebacks and hints of providence, and they too believe those things are true signs of something bigger down the road. After all, you don’t go through 162 games, clinch a post-season berth, and then hope and expect your team to fold. Deep down, you believe it got to the Final Eight for a reason — not to break your heart, but instead, to gain redemption for years of broken dreams.

So today we’ll face the difficult task of making Red Sox fans imagine that perhaps their team — this supposed team of destiny — is not that team. Somebody out there lurking in the distance outside of New England is the true standard-bearer, the keeper of the flame, destiny’s darling: the 2003 World Series champion. Imagine for these purposes redirecting your devotion and rooting elsewhere, because the Red Sox may have to — I know, we’re going out on a limb here — wait ’til next year. Understand that it’s all hypothetical.

Under those guidelines and suppositions, who else is the sponge-worthy candidate that merits hitching your wagon to and riding into the catacombs of baseball’s playoff labyrinth? What horse is worth backing if your nag, against all odds, has come up lame in the paddock?

Glad you asked.

• New York’s Yankees. Next! All right, let’s give them the time of day. After all, this is not the team that won four World Series in five seasons back in the late ’90s. This is, after all, a new team: There’s Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Roger Clemens, Jeff Nelson, Jorge Posada, manager Joe Torre, bench coach Don Zimmer, pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre, owner George Steinbrenner.... Hey, this is the same team that won all those titles! Sorry, but a $180-million total payroll should have gift-wrapped and taken this thing already. Nobody but the Yankee faithful can be expected to find anything remotely destiny-like about this team, much less feel they’re a sentimental favorite.

• Minnesota: There are a lot of feel-good storylines surrounding the Twins, particularly the fact that 18 months ago the franchise was left for dead, a potential victim of "contraction." Instead, the team was spared, it made the playoffs last season, and got all the way to the ALCS before losing to last season’s team of destiny, Anaheim. This season the Twins had a gruesome start, and were a distant third in the AL Central standings before a strong second-half — sparked by a recent 11-game win streak — overtook both the White Sox and the Royals to claim the division crown. The one problem I have with the Twins is their fans: I know that the HHH Metrodome is no place to play baseball, but I do not consider a half-full stadium (capacity: 55,000) the definition of season-long team support. As recently as three years ago, the Twins were averaging around 12,000 per game for the season. Funny how they all come out when the team wins, but this season they’ve barely averaged 24,000 a game. Combine that fan apathy with the fact that the team won two World Series within recent memory, and the Twins and their fans can be dispatched from further support (that is, for Sox fans, at least until the ALCS).

• Oakland: A perennial low-budget team that always seems to be in the hunt. No different this season, as the A’s, for the second straight year, used a late surge to overtake Seattle and capture the AL West. Sox fans lusted for GM Billy Beane when he almost came to Boston during the off-season, but once he decided to stay put in the Bay Area, it became fashionable to speak ill of him again, especially after Moneyball was published. There’s a lot to like about this team, and even to feel sorry about, since they’ve exited the playoffs in the first round (excruciatingly in the deciding game five) in each of the past three seasons. There are no big-star position players here, but a top-flight pitching staff could carry this team to the promised land. They may be worth rooting for down the road, but right now Sox fans have to treat them as the enemy, and will no doubt bear hard feelings toward the A’s should they knock out their beloved Sox in round one.

• Atlanta: The Braves have been superb all season long, depending this season on hitting rather than pitching. Still, it’s tough to feel empathy or sympathy for this team, since it’s won 12 straight NL East titles yet has only one World Series championship to show for it. Braves fans have entered Turner Field’s turnstiles to the tune of approximately 30,000 per game (capacity 50,000), but way too often employ the annoying "Tomahawk Chop." The stadium even has a restaurant inside called the "Braves Chop House." Same old guys, too — Andruw and Chipper Jones, Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Javy Lopez — who got their rings in 1995. Root for this perennial playoff bust if you must, but among the teams we’re featuring here, Atlanta’s near the bottom of the totem pole, if you ask me.

• Florida: An unbelievable story, and if it weren’t for the fact that the Marlins bought the franchise’s only World Series just six years ago, this team would be a chic pick. Still, this is a Cinderella story that Carl Spackler can only dream about. Back in mid May, the Marlins fired their manager and brought in 72-year-old goat Jack McKeon, and two weeks later Florida was still 10 games under .500. While the low point of the summer was certainly the 25-8 thrashing the Marlins endured at Fenway on June 27 (which included a record-setting 14-run first inning), entering the weekend Florida is 19 games over .500, courtesy of an amazing 70-41 run since May 23. The Marlins are doing it with a total payroll of less than $50 million, and if not for the dubious history of the franchise and the indifference of its fans (averaging barely 15,000 per game), this no-name team would be very much deserving of a date with fate.

• San Francisco: The Giants fell out of first place in the NL West for only one night all season. Amazing as that is, consider it was done in a tough division with a team that was completely revamped over the off-season, including the shuttling of its manager, Dusty Baker. Barry Bonds may be an egomaniacal jerk, but this may just be the year to root for him to attain the one accolade that he has not thus far achieved: World Series champion. Bonds and the Giants came oh-so-close last October in their heartbreaking Series loss to the Angels, so new manager Felipe Alou and the team’s devoted fans have truly earned a visit to the mountaintop.

(Heading into the weekend, Chicago and Houston were tied for the lead in the NL Central. With no way of knowing which team will ultimately qualify, we’ll analyze both teams.)

• Chicago’s Cubs: In a perfect world for baseball aficionados, the Cubs and Red Sox would meet in the Fall Classic three weeks hence. This is, however, not a perfect world, and pitting two of the sport’s most loveable losers together for one winner-take-all event would either bring about the apocalypse, or the two teams both would find a way to lose. Nevertheless, it’s fair to say that Sox fans and Cubs fans are kindred spirits, despite the disparity of their feelings about their teams' success. Sox fans complain about their four seven-game losses in their only World Series appearances since 1918, but cut Cub fans a break: their team hasn’t even been to the Series since 1945, and has lost it seven times since their most recent championship — in 1908. That success rate has led Cubs fans to enjoy Wrigley Field and to get their hopes up rarely; the Sox’ similar championship drought has driven their fans to obsession, all-consuming passion, and talk of curses. A Cubs-Sox World Series would perhaps bring about Armageddon, but if it doesn’t happen, at least join in the parade of hope that the Cubbies make it to the Series if the Sox don’t. God knows they deserve it.

• Houston: For the most part, all that Sox fans know about the Astros is that former manager Jimy Williams manages there and former farmhand Jeff Bagwell has blossomed there. The franchise came into the league the same year as the Mets (1962), and while the Mets have been in four World Series and won two, the Astros have never been to the Fall Classic. Including this season, they will have finished first or second in their division in nine of the past 10 seasons, but what do they have to show for it? Same as the Expos and Rockies: nuttin’. Frankly, Houston’s roster is a mystery to most East Coasters, and to help you out, we should remind you that the team includes such relatively big names as Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Lance Berkman, Jeff Kent, closer extraordinaire Billy Wagner, Roy Oswalt, and former Sox prospect Adam Everett. The other 33 guys on the 40-man roster, you’ve probably never heard of. Whether you choose to back the ’Stros will more than likely come down to your feelings about skipper Williams, but it’s actually difficult to imagine the Houston Astros in the World Series, period.

There you have it. The seven other contendas for the Bob Uecker championship trophy. It’ll all be settled in one month’s time, and it could be a hullabaloo in the Hub, but it also could be the dreaded someone else. Again.

Sox fans would do well to prepare for that scenario, however unlikely it may seem at this point in time.

After all, putting all of your eggs in one basket — especially when that basket offers hope but no guarantees — is perilous, no matter how confident you are.

Don't forget: blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.

Sporting Eye runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com, and Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com