The Curse is broken!

Posted by Sari

In honor of Boston Red Sox finally taking home the world series, below is a stream of consciousness report of the seventh game of the American League Final written in a dingy little guest room at West Side YMCA in NYC, as it was all goingo down:

Here I am sitting on my bed in NYC watching – believe it or not – baseball. The American League Championships Series, the Yankees against Red Sox, seventh game. Boston’s ability to loose the important games is legendary, I can’t think any team who has been so near but so far for so long. The story goes it is the curse: Boston sold Babe Ruth to Yankees, and haven’t won a world series since. That is about eighty something years. Everybody from presidential candidates to cartoonist have been making jokes about how big a masochist do you have to be to be a Sox fan.

But miraculously, and first time in the history of baseball, it seems like a team which was down three to nothing is making a come back and going to the World Series. It is the bottom of the eight at Yankee Stadium and the game is 9 to 3 for the Red Sox.

I, of course, know next to nothing of baseball. For me, it is the slower more boring version of Pesäpallo, with the funny pajamas for uniforms. Honestly, I am not even clear on the off-side rules, even though Jukka (the Mets fan) has been trying his best to teach me. Even so, I am supporting Red Sox, yes I am. Because, well firstly Yankees. The Manchester United of baseball, ew. And secondly, even though the dry seasons with HIFK are nothing compared to the eighty something years  of disapointments for Red Sox, there is some fellow-feeling there.  Oh, and I have seen the outside of Fenway Park, but I have never seen Yankee Stadium. That I know of.

… And apparently they just had another run. I don’t know how, because I thought the Yankees outfield caught the ball, but whatever. Top of the ninth and 10-3. I mean, not even Sox can screw up that lead. Right now there are people running up and down the corridor shouting bottom of the ninth! 10-3, yes! (I suppose it is the bottom now because the long-haired bearded guy, Johnny something,  just came the third player out)

Ooh, and there is a japanese guy batting for the Yankees. I remember being more than a bit surprised to learn baseball is a big thing in Japan. And nothing is happening, they are walking up and down the diamond chewing something. Gum? Tobacco? Ooh, Two out for Yankees. Looking good for Sox, except the pitcher threw four wonky ones, and that Yankee guy got a freebie to first base.

Aflec still has the duck in the commercials! I like that duck. And now with the statistics. Quite as inexplicable as in cricket. And they did it. It is midnight, and people are partying in the corridor. Hotel, you see people out of town. Fox commentators are comparing the come back to Lake Placid Ice Hocey gold. And I am still thinking the mistake was to take Tretjak out of goal. Fox has cameras in bars in where people are partying. Billy Chrystal did not look that happy. At least I think it was Billy Chrystal.

And who are they playing against in in the World Series? Astros or Cardinals, apparently, whoever they are. There seems to be a new reality series Nanny 911, where a supernanny comes to help tired and worn out parents with their unmanageable progeny. Now lets see what the pundits will say. Historical come-back blablabla… Inredible night for Red Sox blablabla…. They believed in themselves blablabla… And now with the pouring of the champagne. This commentator guy is calling Sox a feisty and rugged team. Oookay. And there was a very cute “Just Do It” commercial from Nike, the almost ninety years on Fenway park. I am sure it is online somewhere. I think things are quieting down in the corridor, maybe I get to sleep at some point…

Guys, this is a disaster says the local Fox affiliate reporter.

Comments

[Stefan]

GO SOX!!!

Don't know how they managed to re-invent themselves but Sox were just awesome this season, especially their pitchers. Cardinals did not have a chance.

There's going to be a victory parade in Boston this Saturday says mayor Menino. A LOT OF PEOPLE are going to be in town for that one.

[Manu]

Yes, they finally did it! Though I’m sure there were some superstitious fans who thought before the fourth game that after becoming the first team to overcome a 0-3 situation to win the pennant, they were now going to be the first team to blow a 3-0 lead in the World Series. A lot has happened since they last won the Series. Ironically, 9/11 1918 was the date for the sixth and deciding game against the Cubs. I just read one 98-year old fan commenting that their victory wasn’t much celebrated because of the Great War and the fact they had won it five times during the previous seven years. The world was in turmoil in 1918, but baseball was still one year from losing its innocence. Even though selling Ruth was clearly a loss for Red Sox, perhaps he wouldn’t have become such legend in the 1920’s and helped baseball survive the White Sox scandal of 1919 if he had stayed in Boston.

The year 1918 marked the birth of their greatest hitter ever, Ted Williams (1918-2002). He was just a one-week old baby when the Series started. Ruth’s home run records may have been broken but no man has bat .400 since Williams did it in 1941. Now, that Boston finally succeeded, it must be Chicago’s turn somewhere in the near future. The White Sox have not won since 1917, and the Cubs since 1908. And how about Washington D.C now that baseball returns to the capital. Washington Senators claimed their only championship in 1924 with their legendary pitcher Walter Johnson.

[Manu]

Hmm... I had to go to the archives for this one but it seems that I predicted it right last October. Chicago White Sox did indeed win their first World Series since 1917 this year with a commanding performance in the postseason during which they lost only one game.

[jukkahoo]

Well predicted. Sorry about my unability to come and watch any of the games, but I've been swamped with stuff. Hopefully one of these days, years, etc. Especially if Mets are go! GO METS!!! Now, if only they'd know where to go. :(