Keller @ Large: Lessons From Red Sox Collapse

BOSTON (CBS) - We all had quite the day of furious recriminations against the woeful Red Sox yesterday, didn't we?

Listen to Jon's commentary:

And no doubt about it, they deserved it.

They didn't lose a close one, or get beaten by an obviously better team.

They gagged, flopped, choked, tanked, whatever vitriolic adjective you want to use, it probably fits.

But we can't go on this way.

We have to move past the backlash and draw some useful, positive life lessons from the debacle we just suffered through.

Here are a few, just to get the conversation going in your home or office:

1) Money isn't everything. How many times must we be taught this one before it sinks in?

The Red Sox management really should have known better.

They're the ones who showed malcontent Nomar Garciaparra the door halfway through the '04 season, brought in cheaper-but-hungrier Orlando Cabrera, and triggered the World Series run.

2) You've gotta have guys on the field who never take anything for granted.

Players with a name to make and something to prove, like Big Papi when he came here and Jacoby Ellsbury making his comeback this year, are the ones you want, not all-stars elsewhere who sign for huge bucks and immediately switch to auto-pilot, with Curt Schilling being an exception to that rule.

But John Lackey, Carl Crawford, and Dice-K, this means you.

3) The test of character isn't how you handle the good times, it's how you deal with adversity.

Next season, here's the rule: no more whining about the umpires, blaming the media, or pointing fingers at each other when you hit a rough patch.

Class will tell, so show some, even when it takes extra effort.

4) And a final life lesson from the Fenway remake of "Titanic" -- it's not how you start, it's how you finish.

Or in the case of the 2011 Red Sox, this is Boston.

If you're going to thrive when it's warm out and flop when it's cold, you're never going to make it.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.