Now, I am not that huge of a baseball fan, but the cursed history of the Boston Red Sox was fascinating. Being a big Stephen King fan, I read his pained testament as a devoted fan here and there. I knew some fans, and heard some of the legends. And began pulling for the team. They, and the Toronto Blue Jays, are the teams that I pull for in baseball (yes, I am aware that they are hated division rivals with one another). Mostly, I was just tired of the arrogant Yankees fans, with their sense of entitlement to winning the most championships and enjoying the most success.
No, I was not a baseball fan, but I began pulling for the Boston Red Sox, as much as I began to hope for the demise of the New York Yankees.
It had been a long 86 years in New England, during the infamous "Curse of the Bambino" that allegedly prevented the beloved Boston Red Sox from winning the World Series. Perhaps the end of the streak never felt so far away, ironically, as the year before it ended. The Red Sox were up on the hated Yankees, seemed destined to win.
And then, somehow, they didn't. They watched the Yankees celebrate at their expense, once again. They returned home, disappointed, once again. Another year added to the long list of years since the franchise had last won the championship, once again.
That ghost of failures of the past came back to haunt them the next season, as well. Once again, it was the New York Yankees that they faced. Once again, the Red Sox quickly began to lose. Game One was a loss. Game Two, another loss. The series went to Boston, but the Red Sox lost Game Three, as well.
They would do well just to avoid the sweep. Another embarrassing failure, another triumph for the Yankees at the expense of the humiliated Red Sox and their fans.
Something happened, though. Something weird. The Bosox, by then known better as "The Idiots", came back to win Game Four, to at least avoid the sweep. The home crowd celebrated. Finally had cause for celebration.
But surely that was going to be it, right? A win, to avoid the disaster, the humiliation of a sweep. When the Boston Red Soz won Game Five in a similar, last minute way, the series began to look more respectable. Sure, they were down 3 games to 2, and the series would go back to the Bronx. But at least it was more respectable, right? At least they could say they made the Yankees fight for it.
We all know what happened next, though. The Red Sox began to play their best ball in Game 6, to force a Game 7. And in Game 7, they jumped out early, and took a sizable lead. The Yankees began to threaten to come back, but the Red Sox, like the champions they would finally become in no more than a week or two, shut the door, and sealed the fate of the Bronx Bombers. The most storied franchise in baseball, and the long tormentors of the Red Sox in particular, suddenly found the roles reversed. They were handed a humiliating defeat, an epic failure oh historical proportions. Nobody in baseball before (or since) had ever given up a 3 games to none lead, only to lose. Until now.
The World Series itself was anticlimactic. Boston won every game, and swept the St. Louis Cardinals, to clinch their first championship since 1918, the year that World War I ended. Red Sox fans rejoiced, finally able to celebrate their teams ultimate success. A championship like no other championship. A storybook ending in reality.
Three years later, the Red Sox were at it again. This after Johnny Damon had skipped town, and his father had warned baseball fans that the bad karma the Red Sox had shown in dealing away one of their best and most iconic players would come back to haunt them, as it had when they had traded away Babe Ruth. He predicted a new curse.
If so, this curse went only three years, because the Bosox won the 2007 World Series as well, also in a sweep. Suddenly, people were comparing them with the Yanks, and claiming that they were the new empire.
A longer duration this time between World Series wins. Some epic failures and heartbreaks again had people thinking, "Same old Bosox".
No, these are not the same old Boston Red Sox that had ultimately tasted the bitterness of falling short of high expectations, as they had for those long 86 years.
Only one year after the Red Sox suffered a seemingly epic collapse to miss the playoffs (once again, allowing the Yankees to celebrate at their expense), the Bosox had an incredibly successful year, that culminated in tremendous success in the postseason. This time, it was the Yankees who failed to even qualify, and watched from home as the Red Sox, once again, powered their way to the World Series.
No one was talking anymore about the curse, or anything like that. Now, the Red Sox were aiming to win their third title in a ten year span. Their third title in the new millennium, which would place them atop the league for the most so far in this young millennium. But they had, once again, the St. Louis Cardinals to take down first. The same team that they had faced in 2004. The same team that had themselves won two World Series in this new millennium.
It was not a sweep this time. Boston won the first game, true. But then, an epic mistake led to a loss in Game 2. Things began to look dire after they lost Game 3 in St. Louis, and were suddenly trailing the series.
But the Bosox were not to be denied. They took Game 4, assuring the series would return, and end, in Boston, for better or for worse. When the Red Sox won on the road again in Game 5, the fans could almost taste it.
Because the one streak still remaining for this franchise, the one significant record that still had not been broken since 1918, was this: that the Boston Red Sox had not yet won a World Series before their home fans since 1918. 95 years, the Bosox fans had waited.
Last night, the Red Sox were determined to end the suspense early. They went up early, and took a commanding lead. And like the seasoned veterans that they have now become, they did not allow any chance of an epic collapse. They kept the boots on the neck of the fading Cardinals, choking the life out of them. The crowd went nuts, as the Red Sox did their thing. Did what they now have come to do better than anyone else in the 21st century: win the World Series.
In the end, the Bosox won another championship. It was their first since 2007. A six year wait, during which time the hated Yankees had managed to win another World Series. That hardly matters now, though. Those Yankees are gone. These Boston Red Sox are the newly crowned champions, once again.
For the third time in ten years, the Red Sox celebrated. This time, they had the home crowd enthusiastically supporting them when they did it. Any talk of a streak is long over by now. The talk these days might just be about a dynasty, if the Red Sox can continue this level of success.
So, I find myself happy for the Red Sox and their fans. Fans like Stephen King, and numerous other fans that I know, who are, once again, celebrating a championship. Another banner will rise at Fenway. I am glad, yes. But it is growing more subdued, admittedly. It is now already just another championship, in a collection of championships, if they keep going at this rate. That drought of winning a World Series at home, the last truly long drought for this franchise, is now history.
I was also pulling for either Chicago team to win a World Series, and then the White Sox finally did, ending their own long streak at 86 years.
But there is one team left with an even more epic history of failure. The Chicago Cubs have not won the World Series in over 100 years now. In fact, they haven't even been to the World Series since 1945 - the year that Nazi Germany, by then reduced to rubble, surrendered. The year that the Japanese also surrendered, following the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And that was when they last made it to the World Series. The last time they won the World Series would have been back in 1908. Since then, the Titanic sank. Two world wars were fought, and the Great Depression came and went. They made it to the World Series no more recently than 1945, and a lot of time has passed.
The White Sox had a similar streak, and ended it. The Boston Red Sox not only ended it, but enjoyed an incredible amount of success since.
And I find myself still not very much a baseball fan, but still rejoicing for the reversal of fortune in New England, still hopeful that the Blue Jays might get good enough to get back there and win as well. And, of course, hoping now that another cursed franchise might finally end their dreadful streak, and not only go to the World Series, but win it, too. The Chicago Cubs could learn something from the example of their cross town rivals, the Chicago White Sox. And with this most recent championship, the Boston Red Sox have shown them something even stronger: a formula for continued success, the ultimate way to kill an alleged curse. The only streak that people are talking about now in relation to the Boston Red Sox would be about how long they can keep this level of success up!
It should be noted, also, that this year, of all years, the Red Sox and their fans have every right to celebrate, following the tragic bombing and the ensuing craziness that was seen in the city afterward. Congratulations to Bosox Nation!
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