Kevin Millar became the latest in the string of new arrivals to Boston who plead for support when the team enters one of its late-season swoons.

To quote the Globe story:

"I want to see somebody cowboy up and stand behind this team one time and quit worrying about all the negative stuff and talking about last year's team and 10 years ago and 1986," he said. "I don't know any better, man. I'm here to win and have fun. [The past] makes zero sense to me."

A couple of things come to mind:

1. Cowboy up? What the hell does that mean?

2. I appreciate his can-do attitude, but perhaps he should consider that the past makes more than zero sense to people who've lived through the collapses he's discounted. Millar's statement that it's a "new team" forgets the six or seven previous decades of interesting ends of seasons.

(I will note here that I know we've got it pretty good with the Sox. I look at this as more of an internal matter than trying to get, say, Tigers fans to have pity. I think we all know it could be much, much worse.)

Part of the problem (probably most of the problem) is that Millar based his comments on remarks made by local media and the people who call in to sports radio. Perhaps not the most stable or unbiased group of people to identify as the representatives of Red Sox Nation.

Millar, for his part, did go 2 for 6 last night, leaving 4 stranded out of the 17 left on base overall.

I will say that the performance of in-year acquisitions (most notably Jeff Suppan's return to his previous Sox form) will surely bring the Theo doubters out.

For positive baseball talk, let's all think happy thoughts about the Saugus Little Leaguers, who will take on Richmond, Texas tonight for the right to face Boynton Beach, Florida for the US berth in the finals. Saugus beat the Floridians in pool play, but they did not have to face Michael Broad, their ace who one-hit the Arizona team that muscled its way through the other US pool. My guess is that he'll be ready to go on Saturday.