Red Sox

[dhermann1]

Just speaking to all you New Englanders out there, as an ardent Yankee fan, and Red Sox hater, (but as an ardent fan of the great city of Boston),
Red Sox Rule!!!

 

[Hemingway Jones]

Let's hope! Some of us are afraid to speak. I think it was important for the Sox to shatter this myth of invincibility that the Rockies had and shatter it they did. Still, they are a great team and it is a long series. I am feeling very good about Schilling though. He is a hero of mine.

If Yankees fans and Red Sox fans can learn to live together, maybe we all can learn to live together.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

How about those Indians?

As usual, the Indians choked in the final stretch,.....:eusa_doh:

 

[Tomasso]

My World Series position.

When I have no dog in the fight (Cubs/White Sox), I usually root for the team that's had the longest dry spell. And of course, the series should go into extra innings of the seventh game. I love seventh games.

I rooted for Boston in 2004, now I'm rooting for Colorado. I have never rooted for the Yanks.[huh]

 

[KittyT]

Just speaking to all you New Englanders out there, as an ardent Yankee fan, and Red Sox hater, (but as an ardent fan of the great city of Boston),
Red Sox Rule!!!

So you're following in the footsteps of the illustrious ex-mayor of your great city? Then again, in his own words, "I'm an American League fan" and that's fair enough. The National League pretty much stinks, at least in my humble opinion. From what I've seen, I just think the level of playing is pretty consistently below that of the American League.

I'm pretty new to baseball, learning this year to appreciate baseball as America's sport and an integral part of our popular culture, so I have never had the dark clouds of repeated loss hanging over my head. That said, I do understand the way the Sox have shaped the culture of the city of Boston and the identities of so many people who have lived here. There was an interesting article about that in the Globe a couple of days ago that some of you might find interesting, but unfortunately I can't find it right now.

I have really enjoyed watching the playoff games with my friends this year, and watching the Sox make history by breaking so many records and by coming from behind....again. I've also really enjoyed seeing so many of our rookies really step up their game and prove themselves during this postseason. I certainly don't think they will trample the Rockies* (history shows us that the winners of game 1 blowouts tend to not win the world series), but I do think it will be a good series. As a Sox fan, I understand from history that I cannot make assumptions or get my hopes up, but just support the local team and appreciate the anticipation of good games.

* Then again, maybe they will, if the Rox keep swinging at every pitch that flies by them.

 

[KittyT]

I rooted for Boston in 2004, now I'm rooting for Colorado. I have never rooted for the Yanks.[huh]

If I weren't a Sox fan, I still don't think I could root for the Rox. I'm not really a fan of the expansion teams (oh, and their uniforms stink!). I'm much more a fan of America's good old historic teams - I was rooting for the Cubs in the NLDS

 

[dhermann1]

I think you could say that the real championship of baseball was decided when Theo Epstein beat Brian Cashman this year.
As far as rooting is concerned, I'm REALLY impressed by the Sox, altho I do feel a pull for the Underdog Rox. I can't say that I follow Rudy's logic of rooting for the American League just because I'm a Yankee fan. I usually do, but not necessarily. I do think that the Designated Hitter is an idiotic gimmick, a stupid panic reaction to the popularity of Football in the 60's and 70's, and an abomination in the eyes of God. They play real baseball in the National League. But having been imprinted with Yankee Fandom at age 6, before I even really knew what baseball was, I can't change my hardwired circuits.
I just hope it's a competitive, fun series, with lots of good plays, and a few oddities here and there.

 

[KittyT]

necessarily. I do think that the Designated Hitter is an idiotic gimmick, a stupid panic reaction to the popularity of Football in the 60's and 70's, and an abomination in the eyes of God. They play real baseball in the National League.

I don't agree. I think the DH adds an extra level of competitive offense to the game that is exciting. Besides, one single player does not make or break your team. I mean, we can talk about Ortiz all we want, and he does bring a lot to the Sox, but I don't think that anyone can assert that he is the only thing that makes the Sox great.

and a few oddities here and there.

Well, we've already had a balk, only the 27th in the history of the world series!

 

[Flivver]

If I weren't a Sox fan, I still don't think I could root for the Rox. I'm not really a fan of the expansion teams (oh, and their uniforms stink!). I'm much more a fan of America's good old historic teams - I was rooting for the Cubs in the NLDS

I agree. The expansion teams just have no history behind them. It's kind of hard for me to get excited about teams that didn't exist when I was a kid...that and because I've always been a Red Sox fan.

Go Red Sox!

 

[dhermann1]

Expansion teams

Hmmmm . . . . I think the Mets have certainly got tradition, maybe because they inherited it from the Giants and Dodgers. And to me both Kansas City and Toronto have achieved that status, too, because of some of the great teams they have fielded. On the other hand, I had a hard time perceiving Arizona or Anaheim seriously, even when they won the World Series. Likewise the Marlins.
I think of both Texas teams as having personality, but not the Mariners. None of this has any basis in rationality, totally subjective. Maybe it has to do with the team names? The color of the uniforms? Something about the cities? I dunno. I have nothing against any of the places I referred to negatively. I guess part of the allure of baseball, more than most sports, is the utter oddness of it. Who thought up such a screwy game? I remember a scene in "Car 54 Where Are You?", many many years ago. Toody was driving Muldoon up the wall with an endless analysis of who was more nonchalant, Mantle or Maris. This is why we love baseball. It makes no sense.

 

[Tomasso]

I'm pretty new to baseball, learning this year to appreciate baseball as America's sport

Sorry but you're a day late and a dollar short, Kitty. Football has supplanted baseball as America's national pastime.

 

[Brad Bowers]

I hate that the Rockies were blown out like that, but at least they got a loss out of their system. Maybe now they can get back to playing baseball.

Go Rockies!

Brad

 

[carter]

Sorry but you're a day late and a dollar short, Kitty. Football has supplanted baseball as America's national pastime.

Well...not necessarily in the hearts and minds of all.

Ya gotta love a Rox & Sox World Series just for the extra pitty-pat it brings to the heart of a Sportswriter.

I've rooted for the Red Sox for so long it's hard not to, but I hope the Rockies make this a seven-gamer!

 

[KittyT]

Sorry but you're a day late and a dollar short, Kitty. Football has supplanted baseball as America's national pastime.

Who cares? I live in Boston. In that case, go Pats!

But seriously, football is dumb. And despite the Patriots, Boston is and always will be a baseball town.

Personally, I'm pulling for roller derby as the new all-American sport

 

[WideBrimm]

Rockies

Its still early. Still the month of Rocktober. Go Rockies !

 

[Tomasso]

But seriously, football is dumb.

Football is chess, baseball is checkers.

 

[KittyT]

Football is chess, baseball is checkers.

Oh please. Isn't there a football thread somewhere?

 

[KittyT]

found that article....

For those of you who want a little insight into the collective mindset of Red Sox fans, and the way that Sox history has shaped the identity of the city of Boston...

With the Red Sox victories comes a loss of angst
By Brian McGrory, Globe Staff | October 24, 2007

Life was simpler when we were Idiots.

On its face, this day in Boston, this week, this entire October, couldn't be any better. The Red Sox play in the World Series tonight for the second time in three years. The Patriots are undefeated and seemingly unstoppable. Boston College is ranked number two in America.

"Heaven in New England," yesterday's New York Times declared, in a column in which our mayor bragged about living in a "city of champions." USA Today has proclaimed the Red Sox to be the "biggest attraction in baseball." Fox executives have sore knees from their prayers of thanks that Boston, not Cleveland, has landed in the World Series.

We're rolling sevens everywhere. The perennial bridesmaid is now the odds-on favorite - two-to-one against Colorado, according to the Vegas line. Phones are ringing. Far-flung friends and family members are calling - tell us what it's like, fill us in on the excitement, don't spare a single detail of the city's singular swagger.

So shouldn't it feel better than it does?

The first order of business is to admit it to ourselves: 2004 was more meaningful. Back then, and in the 86 years that preceded it, we knew who we were. We were hapless, though never hopeless. We were the ones that always had something to overcome - a curse, a seemingly in surmountable deficit, a little-brother syndrome.

In the end, until that fabled October, we usually lost, but that was OK. In defeat, we had identity. We got to be the luckless loser. A team, its city, and indeed, an entire national following, thrived on it.

Tom Menino was sitting in his City Hall office yesterday saying what needed to be said. "This is different. In 2004, we never had a taste." He paused, then added, "When you think about Boston, 1 in 3 Bostonians is 20 to 34 years old. You and I know what it's like to lose. They don't."

Which means they don't know about our angst. It was our blanket, our source of comfort, our common bond. If angst were a natural resource, we could have had factories packaging it up 24 hours a day and shipping it to every part of the world.

As it was, we claimed all the angst for ourselves, though the good people of Chicago seemed to have their own supply. Red Sox fans could always blame our misfortunes on New York's payroll, Boston's mismanagement, free agents' unwillingness to come here. It gave us our status as perennial underdogs, the lovable spectacle. We wore that suit, frayed as it sometimes seemed, very comfortably.

Without it, what have we become?

And here's the answer we know but dread: Another free-spending, big market team that buys its way into the postseason with every expectation that it will win.

Jim Lonborg, the star pitcher of the 1967 Impossible Dream team, was on the phone yesterday. He's a dentist on the South Shore now, just about the nicest guy who ever played professional sports. Asked if anyone ever complains to him about his team not winning the heart-breaking seventh game of the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, he replied without hesitation: "No, never."

"You know that old clich?©," he added, "it's all about the journey, and that was something that was always special about any Red Sox season - what it took to get there, the different cast of characters involved."

Nobody, especially not Lonborg, is disputing that this team is great. Pedroia and Papelbon are riotous to watch. Lowell and Varitek are two of the more thoughtful players in the game, Ortiz and Ramirez two of the most exciting.

But here's the problem with the 2007 edition of the Boston Red Sox: There is no narrative arc. They started the season as playoff favorites. They finished the season as playoff favorites. There will be a whole lot of stunned people if they don't win.

They don't, in short, have a story. Maybe that's how the Yankees do it, or the Dallas Cowboys, or the old Montreal Canadiens, but it's not generally how we do things on Yawkey Way - at least not in 1967 or 1975 or 1986 or 2004.

Which doesn't necessarily make it bad. And having Fenway as the epicenter of the entire baseball world this week is nothing short of thrilling. But it's different this time from any other time, and it's really and truly not us.

There's another problem as well. We're used to making the World Series once a decade, skipping the 1990s because it didn't seem fair to hog all the futility.

Tonight's game marks the second Series in three years, which, combined with three Super Bowls, prompts yet another uneasy question: How do you savor something that is suddenly coming in bulk?

There was an unusual moment Sunday night in Fenway. The Indians were slouching off the field after the bottom of their calamitous 8th inning, one which saw the game go from a 5-2 sweat-inducing grind to an 11-2 slaughter. Some slob in the grandstand above third base stood up and hollered, "Cleveland sucks!"

If he had yelled it about the Yankees, he would have ignited a chant. As it was, not a single one of the hundreds of fans who undoubtedly heard him uttered a word of agreement, and the guy simply sat down.

Instead, people were gazing at the morose Cleveland players walking toward the dugout as if they were each lugging a cross.

Some fans surely thought about the tens of thousands of spectators waving their silly little towels at Jacobs Field a few nights before, every one of them so full of hope.

That used to be us. The looks on their players' faces used to be the looks on ours.

No need to mock what we know better than anyone else.

 

[BigLittleTim]

Red Sox Pennant

Walking to work this morning...

There is a huge Red Sox pennant fluttering from the mooring mast on the old, Art-Deco John Hancock Tower.

Thought you might like to know.

-BigLittletim

 

[LizzieMaine]

I grew up with the Red Sox -- my earliest baseball memory is watching the '67 World Series with my grandparents, and I first visited Fenway when I was 7 (Right field grandstand seats, Section 6, great view of Tony C's backside), and I have seen an awful lot over the years -- with an emphasis on the awful. But never have I been more impressed with a Sox team as I am with the current one. Even that giant lump of cheese J. D. Drew has accomplished something worthwhile in the post-season.

Sox fever is everywhere here -- it's all anyone talks about on the streets, and last night at work the only question anyone asked at the box office was "Will the movie be over before the first pitch?" Oh how I miss day games!