Is hell frozen? Are pigs flying? Is it the Last Judgment? Have the Red Sox really won the World Series?
Now that it’s happened, I can hardly believe it. It’s almost anti-climatic, kind of like the 1980 US Olympic hockey team beating Finland for the gold after beating the Soviet Union first. It was the first time any team won 8 straight games over two post-season series to win it all. It was the first time any team won 3 straight, 4 straight, and 4 straight to clinch all three post-season series. The Sox never trailed in any of the World Series games. It wasn’t just a win, but a convincing victory to remove all doubt.
Never again do we have to hear about the stupid curse, Babe Ruth, or 1918. A whole cottage industry of Babe and curse T-shirt and poster manufacturers in New York are now out of business and good riddance to them. The Red Sox have won the World Series.
If you’re not from New England, if you didn’t grow up here, I don’t think you can understand what it means. A few years ago, one fan summed up what it was like being a Sox fan: “They came for my grandfather, they came for my father, and now they’re coming for me.” No more. No more “wait until next year.” This is the year.
This is bigger even than the Patriots winning the Super Bowl and that was big. The Red Sox are so much more in New England, a part of the culture itself, deep in the soil and in the air we breathe. We are Patriots and Bruins fans. We’re even just Celtics fans. But we are Red Sox Nation.
Good job boys! Now wait until that parade on Friday. Local officials are estimating up to 5 million people will take part. To put that in perspective, the largest single gathering of humanity was at World Youth Day in Rome in 2000: that was 5 million people. It’s going to be a big party. Woo hoo!
Image Credit
- soxwin.jpg: Unknown | Copyright by owner. Used under Fair Use doctrine
