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Wednesday, October 27, 2004

Red Sox Nation

You good people might be just a few hours away from your first World Series since . . . well, since you know when.  It’s time to look into your hearts and ask, do we really want this?  And in a sweep, of all things?  Don’t you think it would be better-- better for baseball, better for your souls-- if the Cards won the next three, throwing the entire sporting world into paroxysms?  Can it happen again-- twice in one post-season?  Is it the Curse of the Bambino? And then you all can win game seven in dramatic, nail-biting fashion.  Wouldn’t that be a lot more fun?  I mean, come on-- you’ve lived with agonizing anxiety for decades.  Wouldn’t three straight losses (with games four and five going into extra innings) be more satisfying right now, in both a narrative and a spiritual sense?

And surely some of you must regard victory itself as a prize of dubious worth.  Until tonight, your team was legendary, and their legend shaped and defined your self-identification as fans.  If you win the World Series, you win the World Series-- and you become kin to the 2002 Angels and the 1980 Phillies.  You will be elated (and drunk!) for a couple of days, sure.  But then the championship will begin to sink in, and while some of you will say, as did a New York Rangers fan in 1994, “now I can die in peace,” others among you will be plunged into existential crisis.

Just letting you know.

Posted by Michael on 10/27 at 12:14 PM
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