For those of you who might not know, the Red Sox won the World Series last in 2004, and before that in 1918. September 11, 1918 to be exact - thirty years to the day before my father was born.
Why was that World Series played in September and not October, you might ask?
Oh, because of World War I. That's how long ago it was. Freaking World War I was still going on. The Great War. The War To End All Wars. Doughboys in trenches. The Ottoman Empire.
That Armenian Genocide everyone's been talking about this month? Yeah, that just had finished.
My maternal Grandpa Rudy was a few days away from turning six years old. My paternal grandmother Leona had just turned ten that week. Both life-long Sox fans, neither of them would live to see another Sox World Championship.
Ted Williams, probably the best batter ever in baseball and by far the most famous Sox player, was just shy of two weeks old for that series. He would never play on a World Championship team, or live to see another one.
And that's one of the reasons I love baseball, especially Red Sox baseball. The history. Connecting the past with the present.
Take, for example, Fenway Park, where the Red Sox play. It opened on April 20, 1912. Sadly, that first game wasn't front page news ... because the Titanic had just sunk and monopolized the front page.
History.
That's another reason I'm glad that the Colorado Rockies lost. Let's be honest, they have virtually no history. They were formed just over a decade ago! They don't deserve it. (And yes, I know the Marlins won in 1997 and 2003 - don't get me started about that.)
Is it fair that the Sox won again? That they're the only team to win two World Series in this century? I don't know. But I'm glad they did.
That last time, it was three years ago exactly - October 28, 2004. That night of a total lunar eclipse - it really felt like the ghosts of the past were excised. The Sox had never been behind in the whole series, but I was sweating until the last out. I think all Sox fans were.
Because we learned that from an early age. Just a few months before I was born there was the tragic 1975 World Series. Speaking of history - my Grandpa Rudy and Uncle Fred were at The Game Six. You know, the one with the Carlton Fisk homer. You've seen it. It was in Good Will Hunting.
Then I was ten - the same age as my grandmother Leona in 1918 - when the Sox lost the 1986 World Series. They lost that Game Six. Bill Buckner. Vin Scully's call, "Little roller up along first ... behind the bag! It gets through Buckner! Here comes Knight, and the Mets win it!"
Cripes.
Yep, I learned there's always chance for collapse with the Sox. So this morning I feared the pitching prospects for the 8th and 9th innings. Then the Rockies had a late-inning surge.
Ack!
But this time turned out okay. Just like last time.
Sadly I wasn't able to see one flippin' frame of this series on TV, thankyouverymuch Orbit ESPN (see I still hate Orbit ESPN).
Nor will I be be able to cash in on Taco Bell's Steal a Base, Steal a Taco promotion - where they're giving free tacos out after the first stolen base of the series. We don't have Taco Bell here in Dubai, not that they'd probably honor that deal, anyway. So don't forget to hit up a Taco Bell between 2 and 5 pm tomorrow, you lucky people you!Yet for some reason I'm melancholy over this whole win. Is it because I have no friends to share the excitement with? I mean, Liz has been a trooper, this morning when she went for a walk during the 7th or 8th inning she wore her Sox hat I bought her (not a pink one, I might add). But it's not quite the same as a rowdy crowd. Instant messaging with my friends as I listened over the internet is not nearly the same as sharing a pitcher of Shipyard Pumpkinhead beer and curly-fries.
Is it because now we're a dynasty - or as close to one as baseball has these days?
Has Red Sox Nation become the Evil Empire?
Or am I just going goofy due to lack of sleep and lack of tacos?
I'm going to take a nap and rest this one out.
Congrats to the World Champion Boston Red Sox.
