Wow. Eighty-six years. Thirty-one thousand, four hundred fifty-eight days. Generations have lived and died without seeing the Red Sox holding a championship trophy, and we saw it live last night. I’m no Red Sox fan (my attempts to curse Jim Rice from the empty confines of Municipal Stadium generally for naught), but I was verklempt last night. Think about it. Since the last time the Red Sox Nation was this happy, we finished the Great War, fought another World War, fought in Korea and Vietnam and Iraq and Iraq again (thanks to Dean for the last link). We elected sixteen presidents. We landed on the moon, watched two space shuttles explode, worried about the fall of Skylab, watched Mir return to the confines of gravity, and started building a space station. We discovered Vitamin C and penicillin. We conquered polio. The Los Angeles Angels, Washington Senators, Houston Colt .45s, New York Mets, Seattle Pilots, Kansas City Royals, San Diego Padres, Montreal Expos, Toronto Blue Jays, Seattle Mariners, Florida Marlins, Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays entered the league. And eighty-four baseball squads other than the Red Sox sprayed champagne and hoisted a trophy, including nine teams that didn’t exist in 1918.
The Sox’ performance in the last eight games, including a World Series sweep of the team with the best record in the game, a sweep in which the Red Sox never trailed, begs the obvious question: what the hell happened in New York? The Sox won three straight against Anaheim, four straight against the Yankees and four more against St. Louis, eleven wins interrupted only by being a few outs away from making it Red Sox 0, Everyone Else 85.
Enjoy it, Red Sox Nation, and don’t let the Yankee fans get you down. Sure, they still lead in overall Series titles 26-6. But they also hold the crown for teams Losing Game Seven After Leading 3-0 And Having Their Closer On The Mound With A Lead In Game Four. In any event, you are Cursed No More. Who will be next to lift up from the Pits of Shame? The Windy City? It’s been 87 years on the South Side and 98 up North. Cleveland? One title since 1920 and none in 56 years (call it the Curse of Rocky Colavito). We Indians fans know how you feel, a dominant team losing four straight in 1954, waiting forty years for a chance to try again, losing the 1994 Series to a strike, losing to the Braves in a 1-0 game in 1995, losing to a five-year-old franchise in 1997 after being a strike away from victory.
It’s enough to give one hope for the underdogs of the world. And to forget the negativity of the current election campaign (although it does lead one to wonder if JFK will claim in 2022 to have been at Game Four when Foulke caught Renteria’s grounder and tossed underhand to Mientkiewicz).
