Last night I made it a point to actually watch the Red Sox/ Yankees Game seven. Although not a "die hard" Sox fan, many of the people I have known all my life are. I felt almost "reqired" to watch. It's impossible not become involved in the Red Sox when they are playing in October if you live here. All the "feel good baseball movies" are based on a simple storyline...The story of the Red Sox, but with a happy ending. Just what everyone likes to see.
As the I watched Roger Clemens leave the game in the third inning, with the Red Sox leading 4-0, an inner peace took over and I did what anyone who casually follows a sport would do...I fell asleep on the couch.
I read the news this morning and shook my head, not with disbelief or disgust, but of realizing that, despite every desire to see a change in a long time pattern of heartbreak, it did not happen.
Again.
Cubs fans share a similar history, but none so full of anquish and despair as those in Boston have endured.
Sox fans will soon forget how great this team played all season. It's a common practice, much like a defense mechanism, and has almost become a reflex action for many people over the years in Boston. It lessens the weight of a blow to the heart. After a while, the pain lessens as you get accustommed to the sensation. For myself, I'm used to it. Many other fans simply have tired of it and no longer follow the Red Sox as a result. I'm quite sure more will be added to thier ranks this morning.
I'm sure today I will encounter people talking, not only of last nights game, but of Bucky Dent, Bill Buckner, and of course the "Curse of the Bambino". Now the term Ka-Boone! will become a local legend as well. Not only did Aaron Boone's home run end the game, but it was the first time in baseball history that a game 7 was won by a home run in extra innings, and that, along with the knowledge that Boone was a pinch runner and not even a member of the Yankees when the season started only magnifies how deeply ingrained the "Curse" feels to Bostonians, like pouring salt on an open wound.
At age 42, I missed seeing Ted Willams, the last 400 hitter in baseball history. My dad watched him as a kid. One of the best players in baseball history, who, sadly, never won a title with his team. My grandfather, now many years gone, was 19 years old when a man named Ruth pitched in the last World Series that was won by a Boston team. They were the Boston Americans back in those days and Fenway Park wasn't even on the drawing boards.
With last nights game being the opportunity for the Red Sox to win a shot at appearing in the 100th World Series, I find myself remembering a game years ago when the Yankees and Sox met in the only extra game ever played in baseball's regular season to determine who would win the pennant. The victor would go to the world series with 100 regular season wins, the loser would go home. Carl "Yaz" Yaztremski, Williams replacement in left field when I was a kid watching the Sox, popped one up with 2 outs in the ninth inning with a chance to win the game, it was over and the words "wait'll next year" again became the most spoken for days in the Boston area. Yaz was my hero back then and I remember how crushed I felt. Somehow, I was hoping last nights game would somehow vindicate Yaz by erasing the "100 wins game". This morning the number 100 has entered this long history of near-victories as well.
Were the outcome of last nights game different, the collective cheer in Boston, would have been heard across not only New England, but across time itself. To go on past the night, and win the World Series, would have been the ultimate "feel good baseball moment". A true "Cinderella" story.
The game ended near midnight here in the eastern time zone. Today, Cinderella is only wearing one shoe, and dedicated Boston Red Sox fans, like the fairy tale character, are again waiting for the other shoe to drop, hoping a prince with a golden arm or mighty baseball bat will soon come to our rescue and take us away from this misery.
85 years...jeez...make that 86...and still waiting in Boston. Rapid
-------------------- Ray Rheaume Rapidfire Design 543 Brushwood Road North Haverhill, NH 03774 rapidfiredesign@hotmail.com 603-787-6803
I like my paint shaken, not stirred. Posts: 5648 | From: North Haverhill, New Hampshire | Registered: Apr 2003
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Ray, I'll bet most of the country wanted to see a Red Sox vs. Cubs series. "Wait until next year" seems like a long time for these 2 old franchises. I watched the game until the 7th inning. Baseball's so frigging slow. When I woke up this morning and read about it in the paper, it was gut wrenching and I'm not even a Red Sox fan, but I was rooting for the Cubs and after they bit the dust, I thought well maybe the Sox can break this jinx thing.
Since I was born on Friday the 13th I remain ever optimistic that there's no such thing as jinx or hexes, but in this case, it really makes you wonder.
-------------------- Bill Diaz Diaz Sign Art Pontiac IL www.diazsignart.com Posts: 2111 | From: Pontiac, IL | Registered: Dec 2001
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I wouldn't be much of a curse, if it were broken in less than a 100 years! One interesting note I heard was when the Cubbies were shut out in a play off game, that was the first time since 1909, and it was Babe Ruth that pitched the shutout.
Sports fans gonna hurt most of the time. Me, I still pull for the Saints.
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Just a few notes of correction on the history here... The last time the Red Sox won a World Series was against the Cubs in 1918... The Red Sox had won five world championships in seven years at that point, with Babe Ruth as a pitcher. Ruth was sold to the Yankees in 1920 for $125,000, to finance a Broadway musical.
The Red Sox have now lost to the Yankees in the post-season for the AL Pennant four times... one-game playoffs in 1949 and 1978, and the ALCS in 1999 and this year. David Halberstam wrote a great book called "Summer of 49" about the Yankee-Red Sox rivalry of the late 40's, which started all the "curse" business, excaberated by the Bucky Dent home run in 1978 (which later was revealed to have been with a corked bat) and the infamous Bill Buckner error in 1986.
More later....
-------------------- "A wise man concerns himself with the truth, not with what people believe." - Aristotle
Cam Bortz Finest Kind Signs Pondside Iron works 256 S. Broad St. Pawcatuck, Ct. 06379 "Award winning Signs since 1988" Posts: 3051 | From: Pawcatuck,Connecticut USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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