Beantown blues

Fall is typically a great time to be a sports fan. There's football (professional and college) and playoff baseball (finally the games mean something), and hockey and basketball get underway. After the relative sports deadzone that is summer, it's exciting to have our teams, both real-life and fantasy, back in our lives again.

So why do I feel so down? Isn't October supposedly a glorious time to be a Boston sports fan? Usually it is, but right now it most definitely is not. In fact, rooting for the hometown teams has become something of a labor of love these days.

I'm still bumming about the last-place Red Sox, who have now missed the postseason four out of the past five years. They just became the first team in baseball history to go from last place, to winning the World Series, to last place again. There wasn't a lot to cheer for this year, especially during the second half. Derek Jeter provided some memorable theatrics over the weekend (#RE2PECT), but his grand finale was the most exciting thing that happened at Fenway in months. It's back to the drawing board for Ben Cherington, who has his work cut out for him this winter as he tries to remodel a 91-loss team into a contender. Spring training is a long way away.

The Celtics also had a rough summer. They tanked their hearts out last year, only this time there was no Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen at the end of the tunnel. Their Irish luck must have abandoned them on draft night, because they couldn't even score a top-five pick. For a while they thought they were going to get Kevin Love, but that became next to impossible when the C's slid to sixth in the draft. He visited Boston and toured Fenway, but Love ending up in Celtics green always seemed like a longshot. No one was surprised when they were unable to woo him from the Timberwolves and he wound up with the Cavs, who packaged the first overall pick (Andrew Wiggins) to get LeBron a shiny new sidekick.

And then there's Rondo who has had a tough go of it lately as well. Last week he got called out by Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck for being stubborn (which he is) and difficult to coach (he always has been).  As if that wasn't bad enough, a couple days later he fell and broke his left hand. That'll put him out of commission for 6-8 weeks, probably longer if the Celtics decide to "ease him back" (translation: hold him out and commence tanking). It should at least be comforting that Rondo didn't injure his shooting hand, but then again, shooting has never been Rondo's strong suit.

Even the Patriots are slumping. Hailed as Super Bowl contenders after upgrading their defense, the Pats are a .500 team at the quarter-season mark. They've stumbled out of the gate, losing two of their first four games to beatable teams in ugly fashion. Their season began in Miami with one of the worst meltdowns of the Brady/Belichick era, a scoreless second half and blown halftime lead. Then, just when things were looking up after a pair of solid but uninspiring wins against mediocre teams, they got crushed by the Chiefs, 41-14, in New England's most lopsided defeat since 2003. The offense is sputtering as Tom Brady's been unable to put last year's struggles behind him, sparking speculation that the 37 year-old is finally over the hill.

The Bruins begin their season a week from today, which is cool if you care about hockey. Until the playoffs start, I don't (and even then, not really).

So yeah, it's shaping up to be a frustrating fall for Boston sports fans. At least my fantasy team is doing well.