October 28, 2004
WE WON!!
The BOSTON RED SOX are the 2004 WORLD CHAMPIONS!!!!!
Eighty-six years of misery ended in a sweep! A SWEEP
Hey, Doc, you owe me a beer!
October 27, 2004
Holding Our Collective Breath
Baseball aside for just a moment (just a moment, I promise):
Joe and I are hosting an election night "Bush Bash" next Tuesday. All Kerry fans are warmly invited. Bush fans can come, too, but you'll have to sit in the corner with Joe.
*If by some miracle Bush does manage to steal the election yet again win, special kool-aid will be available to ease the pain.
OK, now back to our regularly scheduled programming:
"Do I dare even imagine that the Red Sox can win one more game in 2004?" Partly, of course, my trepidation is rooted firmly in the fecund, weighted with weeds, funeral plot of memory where the headstone inscription reads, "2 outs, 2 strikes, bottom of the 9th, Shea Stadium, 1986."
But history is on our side: the Sox are the 21st team to surge to a 3-0 lead in World Series history. All 20 predecessors went on to win the title, including 17 by sweeps. Each of the last five teams to take a 3-0 lead has won the championship in four games. St. Louis has not held a lead in any game this series.
A lunar eclipse is due to start less than an hour before the Sox and St. Louis Cardinals play the fourth game of the World Series tonight. If skies are clear, the moon over Busch Stadium will be blood red in the late innings.
There has never been a full lunar eclipse in the middle of a World Series game. Red October, indeed.
Do you believe yet? You know, only one team has ever come back from a 0-3 postseason deficit in the history of Major League Baseball. Only one. Oh, yeah, and that would be us!
One game and 27 outs from ending 86 years of hopeful desperation.
October 26, 2004
Could It Be?
OK, truthfully, I'm not the only one this is happening to, right? You'll be sitting there working or driving or eating breakfast or whatever and about every couple of minutes you'll go, "OHMYGAWD. THE RED SOX ARE IN THE WORLD SERIES!"
It still hasn't really sunk in. Hell, I don't want it to sink in as I don't want to lose the giddiness of it all. And just when I do start to get used to the idea I then remember, "THE RED SOX HAVE A 2-0 GAME LEAD IN THE WORLD SERIES!" WOO-HOO!
October 25, 2004
Two down, Baby!
Trying my best to temper my emotions. Although it was 18 years ago, the memories of the first two Sox wins, on the road no less, against the Mets in '86 are all of a sudden very much on my mind.
I was 14. Ah, yes, I remember it well.
But you know what? In 1986, we, players and fans alike, didn't have anything quite like this.
October 24, 2004
Game on...
One down, three to go. Continue to pray to the Redo Sox gods, people. This is the year history is made.
October 23, 2004
Red Sox Nation vs. Red Bird Nation
Did this happen to you yesterday? Somewhere around mid-afternoon I was overcome with total exhaustion to the point where it was all I could do to hold my head up.
The adrenaline, excitement, and fear from the post-ALCS victory high finally wore out and the emotional ride and late nights of the past week and a half finally caught up to me. I slept so soundly last night. Content.
But it won't last long, because here come the Cardinals and the forward march to the prize that us alluded us for so long.
"... The win sets up a rematch of the 1946 and 1967 World Series, both won by St. Louis in seven games. It also marks the second time in four seasons that a Boston-area pro sports team will meet a St. Louis team for a championship. The Patriots defeated the St. Louis Rams to capture their first Super Bowl title in February 2002." (Burris, Globe)
October 22, 2004
The Choke's on NY
"Do, or do not. There is no try." -- YODA
Start spreading the news...
Back in April, when the Red Sox beat up on the Yankees, we Red Sox fans were sternly admonished "not to gloat," and "wait 'til October." Well, can we gloat NOW?
Oh, yes, I do believe I have my gloat on.
"The Yankees last night completed the worst collapse in postseason baseball history when they got clobbered by the hated Boston Red Sox in Game 7 of an American League Championship Series they once led 3-0." (NY Post)
This puts an end to the Bucky Dent crap NY fans have thrown in our faces since '78. That dog don't hunt no more. Now NY fans can torment themselves with thoughts of Johnny [expletive] Damon. (Oh, you'll get used to it Yankers. Trust me.)
Priceless.
October 21, 2004
Down With The House Ruth Built!
The Red Sox are playing in the World Series again... and the road went through New York, just like it should have!
Well, you can’t call it Texas (Bush) vs. Mass. (Kerry). Guess we’ll settle for Sam Adams vs. Adolphus Busch. Bud may be king, but Sam Adams make you look cool.
I’d have loved the parallel between the upcoming election. And I’d have loved to face and kick the ass of one Mr. Roger the Rocket the hothead Clemens. But I’ll take what I can get.
Damon hit a grand slam and a two-run homer for an ALCS-record six RBIs in the Boston Red Sox’s 10-3 victory over the New York Yankees in Game 7 on Wednesday night.
So, to answer the question, What Would Johnny Damon Do? He'd do that!
By the way, some people take this rivalry wayyyy too seriously
October 20, 2004
SOXTOBER
Got your tums? Jack Daniels? Hemlock?
Can you hear that?
It’s the sound of 55,000 Yankee fans enjoying a nice tall glass of shut the hell up. Game 7 tonight, baby!
One for the books. Great pitching by a horse who’s hurt, offensive spark, riot police, and umps who know how to GET THE CALL RIGHT. No baseball team has ever come back from 0-3 to force game 7. Until now.
And, please, Yanks fans: Stop sending whining email about the “bad” call on the girlie slap by A-Rod. He cheated and gout caught. You cannot smack the ball out of the hands of the tagging defensive player. Go sit your ass on the bench and sulk.
Not over yet, but historic moments so far:
Schilling’s bloody sock, as he pitched an awesome game.
A-Rod’s bitch-slap, knocking the ball out of Arroyo’s glove. Then the classy Yankee fans going all NASCAR, showering the field with debris.
And, oh yeah, how ‘bout Bellhorn’s homer!
October 19, 2004
Game 6 tonight
David Ortiz, who ended Game 4 with a walk-off homer, went deep to start a game-tying rally in the eighth, and then won Game 5 with a game-winning RBI single in the 14th.
Who's your PAPI?!
October 18, 2004
Game 5 tonight
YES! The Red Sox gods are finally waking up.
October 17, 2004
Game 4 tonight
0-3. Uh-oh. Don't panic. This is where we make our comeback. Boston HAS to do things in dramatic fashion, you know!
October 16, 2004
Game 3 tonight
Keep the faith. Believe. This IS the year!
October 15, 2004
Reflections
I’ve meaning to write about this for a while, so now is as good a time as any. I took Alana to see Barry Manilow at the Fleet on October 1. OK, get it out of your system. Yes, we are Fanilows…get over it. There’s a whole history with us and Barry Manilow. His music got us through the night before my wedding when Alana would spontaneously break into the first few verses of “I can’t smile without you,” and no matter how stressed I was I couldn’t help but laugh.
So, we went to this concert, and, man, was it cathartic. Alana truly enjoyed herself that night, and that was my whole plan. Not that anything could erase from her mind the fact that she had recently lost her mother, but as least it was a night of laughs, of song, of friendship, free of desperation and sadness. And I wanted that for her in the worst way.
We called it Best Friends Night Out. And it was. We sang along with Barry and all the other geeked out Fanilows and had ourselves a grand old time.
I talk to Alana often, but we don’t get to see each other all that much. Since her mother passed, I’d only seen her a handful of times. I’ve put off writing about the wake and funeral. But I want to relate those days now.
Mrs. A’s death was sudden and horrible. I went to the house the next day with a meat platter. An inane gesture, but I figured they still had to eat. The funny thing is, it was John (the dad) we had all been worried about. He had recently been diagnosed with colon cancer and was preparing to go in for surgery. (He had the surgery 7 days after he buried his wife. Turns out it’s stage 4 cancer and he’ll need to start chemo soon).
So I went to the house and tried to comfort the family as best I could. None of the kids could look me in the eye. The moment our eyes met they all tended to break down. I was good that day; I shed few tears and considered myself as being strong for the sake of the family.
The night of the wake was a different story. Again I was determined to be stoic. But before I even parked the car, I broke down and found myself inconsolable. I walked in with Joe and with our friends Diane and Eric. As soon as Alana saw me she walked over and hugged me in an effort to comfort me. That’s Alana. Her mother dies and she’s trying to comfort me. We stayed there for the entire 4 hours. We saw people we hadn’t seen since we were kids. Kids we swore we’d never lose touch with. Kids we hadn’t seen in over a decade. These kids were now adults and were honoring the friendship we once all shared by paying their respect for this wonderful woman and her family.
I found myself drawn to the casket more than once that night. I couldn’t help myself. I couldn’t help thinking this was the last time I would ever see Mrs. A and there were things I wanted to say. There were things I wanted to thank her for. There were things I wanted to tell her. It didn’t look like her lying there. I suppose it rarely does. I put my hand on her arm and whispered my thanks for her love through the years. I promised to watch over Alana and the others. I promised to always be there for them. I thanked her for all the laughs over the years and I promised I would never forget her kindness. Then I kissed her forehead and told her I loved her for the last time.
A bunch of us went for drinks after the wake. We reminisced about the “good old days.” About partying at the Andrews’ after the proms and after the different concerts we’d attended as teens. We laughed about Mrs. A’s constant ribbing of my fascination with all things Frank Sinatra and Jerry Lewis. Her death came 1 month before the annual Jerry Lewis telethon. The telethon was always a special time for us. I would spend the weekend at Alana’s and we would watch the entire 22 hours. We would make pancakes at 3 in the morning and laugh at the old Martin and Lewis routines they would show while the hosts were catching cat naps. And one year Alana and I did an impromptu Martin and Lewis routine that had Mrs. A holding her side laughing. She asked us to do it whenever we were together and we obliged, enjoying the laughs and wanting to make her laugher harder.
I sat with the family at the funeral. It was honor for me, but again it required me trying to hold back any show of emotion for the sake of the family. Funerals, if at all possible, are even worse than wakes. There’s a sense of finality at a funeral that is just so cold and horrific. You stare at the coffin and imagine your loved one at rest, or not so much. It’s disconcerting and harrowing and awful. I decided long ago that I wanted to be cremated when my time comes. And in the event that my wishes are not honored, Alana has promised to “flick her bic” in the middle of the funeral home if she has to.
We all cried during the service. We cried and we held onto one another. And when we started down the aisle on our way out of the church, it was difficult not to notice the faces of the children we’d grown up with, faces that now belonged to adults we’d grown apart from. Tears streaming down the faces of these men and women who we’d known as children. And once again we saw their faces as children, our friends; and our tears brought us together in grief and we mourned for all that was lost.
Alana and I talk often. We try to meet for dinner at least once a month. It’s hard to talk to somebody for the first time after going through something like this. Do you bring it up? Do you ask how she’s doing? How sick she must be of that. So I let her guide the conversation. Sometimes we talk about it, sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we talk about how her father is doing, sometimes we don’t. But always we end our conversations with “I love you.”
That is what best friends do.
October 13, 2004
Game 2 tonight
It's OK. We're the come-from-behind-team. Besides, we knew this was going seven games, did we not?
October 12, 2004
Game 1 tonight
Game 1. Here we go. Start praying to the Red Sox gods.
