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The Really Big News
posted by Brian on November 15, 2004 at 10:46 PM

My last entry focussed on what many called The Most Important Election in Their Lifetime. Big News, to be sure. But something else was so big that I just haven't been able to grapple with it enough to write about it until now. This event has surely reshaped the landscape with an outcome many thought wasn' t possible.

The Red Sox won the World Series. Yeah, you're sick of hearing about it by now, probably. The Curse. The Rivalry. Whatever. Believe me, this is seriously huge stuff here in Boston. It probably overshadows the presidential election for most people in New England.

Of course, these are all the impressions of a mere neophyte, an outsider, actually. I've only been here a few years (my grad school time in Boston doesn't count; I had more or less sworn off of sports during that time), so, according to most people here, I probably just don't understand, my Chicago North Side roots notwithstanding. And they're probably right.

When we moved to Boston in 2001, I started following the Red Sox. (You can't NOT follow them if you want to read the sports section of the paper.) But I wasn't a fan. In fact, in that year, I was astounded at what a completely inept organization it was. I don't remember the particular stats, but the customary end-of-season collapse was mind boggling in its vituperative nastiness, and in the way it devastated the fans. Frankly, as a Cubs fan, I just didn't get it. When the team starts losing, isn't that when things start to get fun, like at Wrigley?

Then, when our children came along in 2002, I realized that, for all I could do to give them a safe and healthy environment in which to grow and mature into responsible and compassionate individuals, I couldn't protect them from being Red Sox fans. One of my first lessons in how much control a parent doesn't have....

I've lived in places where sports teams are taken seriously. Growing up in Texas in the 70's and 80's while the Cowboys were at a peak was only an introduction. I really got to know the phenomenon in Wisconsin, where the Packers absolutely define many peoples' experience of autumn and winter. I got on that bandwagon, and it's been great. (The Packers also have the added attraction of a unique ownership structure in which the city of Green Bay actually owns the team, and it can never be moved.) But I've never seen a team have such a complete strangle-hold on the psyche of a place like the Red Sox have here. And it's not entirely healthy.

So the idea of my own two wee ones ensnared in the Red Sox trap of bitterness and disappointment was an aspect of their growing up that I was already working out strategies to deal with. But then they went and won. And it happened in such a history-defying way that I'm now convinced that the baseball waters are safe here in New England. Now that the Red Sox have won the Series (and, more importantly to many, beaten the daylights out of the Yankees), it's OK to be a happy Red Sox fan.

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Comments

With all your experience first being a Cubs fan and now a Red Sox fan, you may find a career in helping Bay Area folks come to grips with how to live with the 49's.

Posted by Dad | November 16, 2004 06:26 PM

I realize this isn't on topic, but I've been meaning to get back in touch with you for years. If you could send me an e-mail w/ your address in it, I'd like to send you an invitation to my wedding. I'd love to tell you about all I've been doing, but I don't think this is a proper forum for it.

Posted by Michael Berger | December 13, 2004 10:58 PM

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