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No, although try and get back for the 4th every year. I'll summarize here because of limited time. Baseball is a game in which you can put your feet up, fall asleep and wake up in time for the last few innings. There is no contest regarding excitement. Heck, hockey is freakin' faster than any Boston sport and the Bruins come in last on my list. Baseball is slow and the writers are ****s; no argument from me.
Offering a gentle suggestion: don't waste your time.
Wow. Life in Cleveland really DOES suck! If I were you I'd just go jump in the lake and end the misery.
I am probably typical of my generation. When I was throwing a baseball up against a brick wall of the Franklin Field projects, I not only knew the starting line up of the Sox, I probably knew every OTHER American League team as well.
The Celtics were an early love as well. One of my Uncles was a season ticket holder and my Dad had a 2nd job working a concession stand at the Garden, so I saw a lot games during the Russell era. Later because of a friendship with a former Celts player, I played on the Celtics FO tag football team, so I was around the team in a very tangential manner during the Bird years.
Hockey required skates and equipment and those were budget breakers in my youth, so I never played hockey until I was in HS, though I played quite a bit in college in local leagues, and went nuts with the "big bad Bruins" in the late 60's and early 70's like the rest of the town. I actually worked in bars where I had to throw out Wayne Cashman (a good drunk) and Gerry Cheavers (not so much) on a regular basis. And yes, Bobby Orr was a gracious and nice guy even then. I actually knew Derrick Sanderson socially, and I don't know what stories you've ever heard about him, but odds are they were true. But another remarkably nice guy.
Football was always my personal love, because I played and coached the game. I was in the 7th or 8th grade when the Pats were founded and my dad took me to a couple of games that year. 10 years later I actually got to play for early Pats icons like Bob Dee and Ross OHanely with the Quincy Giants. In my 40's I played the Pats front office in tag football under the lights at Sullivan Stadium, or whatever they were calling it then. A very cool experience even as I remember it now. My roots were deep in the Pats long before BB led us out of the wilderness
There is no question that this town is all about the Patriots now. How could it not be, given the disparity between 16 and 162 games. But if were truly honest, I'd have to say that World Series win in 2004 was by far the most meaningful emotional and important one. I guess 86 years is just a lot longer than 3o something.
Think about how you felt after losing the 2 superbowl games.....without ever having those superbowl wins......and almost every time you lost in the playoffs.....it was against the Jets (Yankees)
Its kind of interesting that perhaps its the recent Sox wins in 2007 and 13 have made it easier to shed the remnants of our baseball love. I barely follow the game until September and only then if they are in the race. But its like the other teams. It's always better if a local team is in their sport's playoffs. But I'll live if they get knocked out. Sometimes I wonder when the Pats lose their last game.
Point taken. But, we don't know what percentage of our current fans are "runts" and which are the kind who stuck by the Sox from 1918 to 2004, including the night of Buckner.
Agree 100 percent. Since the age of 8 I have been a rabid football fan. Also loved MLB as a kid but grew into a casual baseball fan. Then the strike killed it for me and selfish lazy asses like Ramirez with their guaranteed contracts plus lack of competitive balance with rich teams vs. poor teams made me despise pro baseball. Not to mention the steroid scandals, juiced balls for the all-star game home run derby, boring pace stretching games to four hours-plus, etc., etc. MLB and NBA have become watered-down "sports entertainment" where the NFL is the Real McCoy. I think guaranteed contracts in the other sports is a big part of their downfall.
Well 1960 you need to take the FULL blame for my "oldman's trip down me memory lane. It was your original post that got me reminiscing. And now you've done it again with your comment going down the local field to see kids play., And thus .....and other rant
How when I think back on these days about all the valuable lessons I learned then. How to make friends, conflict resolution, socialization, toleration and sometime intoleration.
