ALDS Game One: Malaise

Game One of the American League Division Series gets underway tonight at 10 p.m. We know you’re not going to like this, Red Sox fans, but we need to get this off our chest.

We’re just not that excited for the ALDS.*

Please, put down your pitchforks and don’t send that profanity-riddled email you’re crafting in your mind. It’s not that we don’t care. But for some reason, the thrill of the playoffs just isn’t that strong this year. Let’s see if we can figure out this curious emotion.

Bloggers are remarkably calm: Soxaholix: “If they get beat. . . it’ll simple be because they were beat by a bettah team. Simple as that.”

Surviving Grady: “Even though I bleed Sox red, if our boys falter on the way to the finish line, my support goes to the Cubs.”

Dan Kennedy: “I didn’t like the Red Sox’ chances even before [Josh Beckett was injured]. I don’t want to say stick a fork in them. But you might as well keep one handy.”

If the denizens of the Internet can’t get us cranked up, who will?

If the Red Sox wanted us to watch, they should have won the division (and by extension home field advantage):

A 10 p.m. start time? For a playoff game? On a school night?! We have jobs, you know.

We’re saving our energy (and livers) for tomorrow’s vice presidential debates:

Two gaffe-prone candidates walk into Washington University in St. Louis. One emerges having said fewer boneheaded things than the other. Until 30 Rock returns, it’s going to be the best thing on television. (An aside: Can someone with some t-shirt designing acumen please create a “Debate Camp” logo? We promise we’ll buy one.)

Good times don’t seem so good:

In fact, things seem so bad, so bad, so bad. A few hours before the Red Sox take the field in L.A., the Senate will have voted on yet another bailout plan. It’s expected to pass, but so was the plan that got voted down in the House on Monday. If Vlad Guerrero takes Jon Lester yard, the additional stress might actually kill us.

Of course, we’ll still watch the game in case the Sox mop the floor with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim—in these troubled times, we’ll take whatever joy we can find. But if we doze off in the third inning, we’re not going to hate ourselves too much for it.

*We reserve the right to get really worked up if the Sox are on the brink of elimination or clinching on Sunday.