Really Pissed Off!

It’s not very often that I can really believe that the Red Sox can actually go all the way to win. Many of Red Sox Nation are accustomed to the disappointment of watching them almost win, but fate intervenes and they loose the final game. Forget the curse, it’s something made up by the Boston media! Growing up as a Boston Braves fan in a city that spent most of the ink on the Sports Page touting the overpriced and underachieving Boston Red Sox, I lost all interest in Baseball when the Braves left for Milwaukee in 1953. It wasn’t until I returned to Boston in 1960 to attend BU that I began to follow the Red Sox and I have been a reluctant fan ever since. What I realized that whether you were a Braves or a Red Sox fan, you were rooting for a loser. The only difference was that the Braves had little money or talent, but they played their hearts out. The Red Sox, however, had all the money, as well as the talent, but really didn’t give a damn. It was a great place to retire to!

It wasn’t until “The Impossible Year” of 1967, when I realized that the Red Sox might actually win the World Series. The last time they had, my father was 16 and he had seen them play at the old park on Huntington Avenue, as well as the new Fenway Park built in 1912. We lost that year to the St Louis Cards and then came 1975! After beating the Oakland A’s, it looked like they might win one, but the Cincinnati Reds took it in 7 games. In 1987, I was certain that we were going to win Game 6, but Billy Buckner misplayed a grounder, forcing Game 7. The rest was History! In 2004, The Sox made baseball history by coming back from a three game deficit against the damned New York Yankees and won the next four games, as well as well as sweeping the stunned St. Louis Cardinals to win their first World Series in 86 years!

It is now 2007, and I’m ready to write off the Red Sox, after loosing three to the Cleveland Indians. On the brink of extinction, Josh Beckett and our reluctant warriors not only won that game, but the final two games in Boston as well, to face the Colorado Rockies in the World Series. I had predicted a win in Game 6 on Saturday night, but believed that they would blow it in Game 7. They won! What made the difference between loosing it all or winning those last three games was that the Sox began to hit when it counted! Even though they won the American League Eastern Division, their hitting had been spotty at best. They had won it by their pitching, and just enough hits to keep the Yankees behind them in a very weak American League Eastern Division. Now it’s time to face the “hot” Colorado Rockies, who had swept both series and had 8 days rest. Tonight I watched a team that appeared to be possessed, while demolishing the Colorado Rockies by the score of 13 to 1. That look of determination, which had taken three games from Cleveland, was now in the eyes of the Sox as they take on the Rockies. I dare not write any more, as any prediction would surely invite fate to intervene once more…………….but, I wonder?