There’s nothing to curse about
The World Series got under way this week and I’m actually
relaxed. Imagine a lifelong Red Sox fan being relaxed during the
World Series?
Sounds crazy but it’s true. Thanks to the Sox winning it all in
2004 the playoffs and/or World Series will never be looked at as a
heart-in-your-throat, weeklong showdown that has you watching on
the edge of your seat, eyes glued to the television, just waiting
for the infamous Bill Buckner moment to creep up and bite you in
the rear end only seconds after the champagne was put on ice.
There’s nothing to curse about
The World Series got under way this week and I’m actually relaxed. Imagine a lifelong Red Sox fan being relaxed during the World Series?
Sounds crazy but it’s true. Thanks to the Sox winning it all in 2004 the playoffs and/or World Series will never be looked at as a heart-in-your-throat, weeklong showdown that has you watching on the edge of your seat, eyes glued to the television, just waiting for the infamous Bill Buckner moment to creep up and bite you in the rear end only seconds after the champagne was put on ice.
“Just Wait Until Next Year” became the slogan for Red Sox fans for 86 years until that October night three years ago.
The Curse of the Bambino was laid to rest forever that evening, and with it all the heartache and anxiety that comes with playing these big games seemed to be flushed right down the Charles River with it.
Don’t get me wrong. The Red Sox Nation wants nothing more than to see their team beat the Rockies and win another title, but losing and going three years without a World Series Championship is a much easier pill to swallow than waiting out those gut-wrenching years between 1918 and 2004 – 86 years of baseball nightmares of “close but no cigar” stories handed down from generation to generation.
Now that the “Curse” has been eighty-sixed, I’m sure the witches of Salem would have had no problem this Halloween brewing up a new one. I could just hear it now, the “Curse of the Trot” – as in Trot Nixon – would have come to life had the Indians won the ALCS. Somehow though, you just get the feeling that the tribe wouldn’t have gone on to win 26 World titles the way the New York Yankees did after acquiring Babe Ruth.
This week the Series is back again but the anxiety that used to come with the fall classic is no more, or at least it’s not nearly as intense. If the Red Sox don’t beat the Rockies, it will be nothing like what the fans in Boston endured for nearly nine decades. In fact, I’m convinced that after winning a World Series title fans can handle about a 20 year dry spell without one, which includes some playoff losses and ramping up for the next year before the feeling of winning it all spoils and sours to the point that discussion of a curse or something else begins to rekindle and kick in again.
Right now, Red Sox fans are still enjoying 2004 even though it’s 2007. After all, fans of the Bosox have had so much heartache over the years that a three-year dry spell is child’s play.
In 1946, the Red Sox lost to the Cardinals in seven games and then did so again in 1967 the year of the “Impossible Dream,” despite having guys like Carl Yastrzemski and Tony Conigliaro in the lineup. Then 1975 came around. That was the year the Red Sox had one of the greatest hitting rosters of all time…The year of the historic Carlton Fisk homerun in Game 6, only to see the Big Red Machine in Cincinnati pull the rug right out from under the Charlie Browns of baseball once again. From there, it was the loss to the Mets in 1986, perhaps the most gut-wrenching of all. That was the year former Gold Glover Bill Buckner let a weak grounder roll right through his legs, and with it, all hopes of a World Series title.
Eighteen years later it was 2004, a new millennium had arrived and with it new hope for the Red Sox, who proceeded to make history by sweeping the Yankees after being down 3-0 in the ALCS and then sweeping the Cardinals in the World Series. Seven wins in a row to take the title and bury the hatchet once and for all. The moment was captured on film in “Fever Pitch,” whose directors had no idea the Soxs would win the pennant when they began making the film about a Red Sox-obsessed fan.
I don’t think anything will ever top the feeling Red Sox fans had that October night in 2004, but I sure wouldn’t mind finding out this week…
