One Win
I woke up this morning and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. The paper told me that the Boston Red Sox were 27 outs away from snuffing out four generations of futility. Now, I watched last night's game. I saw Pedro dominate. I cheered Manny's bomb. I nearly blew beer out my nose watching Jeff Suppan implode on the base paths. So I knew what was up. Yet what I saw in the newspaper I still can't fathom.
Among Red Sox diehards, I'd always considered myself among the most optimistic. Being young enough, I didn't have the hangups of most long-suffering Sox Rooters. I'm not immune to fears of collapse, of course, since I clearly remember every millisecond of last year's game seven walk-off. Still, not even through my rose-colored imagination did I foresee this day. Seven wins in a row, the first four of which were win-or-go-home games against the Yankees. Curt Schilling pitching his butt, and possibly his ankle, off. Pedro and D-Lowe, in perhaps their last days of wearing the Boston uniform, giving us everything we could possibly want. Keith Foulke… so clutch, so good, so selfless. And then there's Tim Wakefield. No fan needs to hear more.
Someone asked me what I would do if the Sox actually won. Wouldn't it be a let-down? Wouldn't the magic be gone? Unequivocally, the answer is no. I told him it's not as if I'd been rooting for this team for 86 years. I love this team. I loved them last year, and the year before, and the year before, and so on back to my papa taking me to my first game at Fenway. I loved them after they lost in seven games to the Yanks last year. I loved them when they missed the playoffs the year before. Have they disappointed me? Sure. But the Boston Red Sox are family, and you don't give up on family. If the 2004 squad wins this thing I will be so proud of them. And then I'll be buying my tickets next February, just like I do every year. I'll watch every game, just like I do every year. What I won't do, though, is buy a new Sox cap. The one I have now will be worn til all the stitches pop out.
Tomorrow morning, there's a decent possibility that the Boston Red Sox will be world champions. Could this really be?