My Thoughts.
Baseball, if it's good enough for Magnum, it's good enough for me.
Well, the wild ride is over. The boys of summer have played out the stage show we call baseball and now the stage is dark. The lights will be out until next April. The inside of the theater is still and gloomy, and will be that way until next spring, but oh, what a show it was...
I must let you know that I am a National League fan. My passion lends itself to the San Diego Padres. From there it goes to whoever beats the team that won our division(ahem, Giants or Dodgers, every freaking year). Then my support goes to the NLCS winner who faces whatever AL team in the World Series. There are some anomalies to my pattern of support. I will always root for the Cubbies. Hell, everyone who follows baseball is in a small way a Cubs fan because this is America, and America is in love with the underdog. Example: 1980 olympic hockey team, John 'Rudy' Rudiger, Rocky, The Mighty Ducks even, you get the picture...
I have even rooted for one AL team. The Anaheim Angels. There is a special story to this, and I am welling up with some tears as I even begin to type this. Lets see if I can get through this. My grandmother was from Los Angeles. Every memory I have of her includes a visual of her sitting in her living room with, when he was alive, my grandfather, and later alone with the television on watching her beloved Angels playing ball on TV. She was a life long Los Angeles resident, but hated, HATED, the Dodgers. I can still hear the play by play coming from the television in her living room. For all of her life, and my brief time in it, her Angels never went to the big show, the World Series. She passed away three years ago, in 2001. The year after she passed away, after turning in the worst start in Major League Baseball, the Anaheim Angels turned their club around, got things going and charged on and into the World Series, where they beat the San Fransisco Giants for all the marbles. Have you ever seen the film 'Angels in the Outfield'? Good. Because that is what happened. It is my firm belief that my grandmother was in the bleachers that year and that World Series, making things happen for her beloved Angels.
Now it's 2004. The Pad's were promising, as were the Cubs. Even the Rangers threatened to do great things this year, spending a good part of the season in first place in their division. After all the cards hit the table, no one I would care to root for was left for post season play. Then came the ALCS.
The Curse is Reversed.
Boston goes down three games to nothing against the Yankees. Nothing new there, but, man, I HATE the Yankees. I'm not a Red Sox fan by any means, but through the course of this AL championship series I came to know all the stars, utility players, dissapointing prospects, and cinderella story players that made up this Red Sox club. I was rooting for them in a distant sort of way. Then came Game 4. From there, there was no turning away. I was there watching the games, or feverishly searching the web for the score to see how they did. How they did was beat the Yankees in seven at Yankee Stadium and go on to the World Series. Woa!
I'm not going to comment on the Series itself but I will add this. The Red Sox never trailed in any inning of any game in their four game sweep of the Cardinals to win the World Series. This little nugget supports my position that the World Series was actually won in game 7 of the ALCS.
Why? When the Sox beat the Yankees, decades and decades of defeatist attitude and resignation to inferiority went 'Woooosh'. Up until then, no matter how well they were doing, when something bad happened in their run to the prize, they could say "welp, we knew it was going to come crashing down sometime." This win over the Yankees eliminated that. Anything was possible, and after shattering that stigma, the Cardinals never had a chance.
You will never find me sporting a Sox ball cap. I am not part of the Red Sox Nation. I am, however, very pleased and very satisfied with this season of the national pastime we call 'baseball'.
Well, the wild ride is over. The boys of summer have played out the stage show we call baseball and now the stage is dark. The lights will be out until next April. The inside of the theater is still and gloomy, and will be that way until next spring, but oh, what a show it was...
I must let you know that I am a National League fan. My passion lends itself to the San Diego Padres. From there it goes to whoever beats the team that won our division(ahem, Giants or Dodgers, every freaking year). Then my support goes to the NLCS winner who faces whatever AL team in the World Series. There are some anomalies to my pattern of support. I will always root for the Cubbies. Hell, everyone who follows baseball is in a small way a Cubs fan because this is America, and America is in love with the underdog. Example: 1980 olympic hockey team, John 'Rudy' Rudiger, Rocky, The Mighty Ducks even, you get the picture...
I have even rooted for one AL team. The Anaheim Angels. There is a special story to this, and I am welling up with some tears as I even begin to type this. Lets see if I can get through this. My grandmother was from Los Angeles. Every memory I have of her includes a visual of her sitting in her living room with, when he was alive, my grandfather, and later alone with the television on watching her beloved Angels playing ball on TV. She was a life long Los Angeles resident, but hated, HATED, the Dodgers. I can still hear the play by play coming from the television in her living room. For all of her life, and my brief time in it, her Angels never went to the big show, the World Series. She passed away three years ago, in 2001. The year after she passed away, after turning in the worst start in Major League Baseball, the Anaheim Angels turned their club around, got things going and charged on and into the World Series, where they beat the San Fransisco Giants for all the marbles. Have you ever seen the film 'Angels in the Outfield'? Good. Because that is what happened. It is my firm belief that my grandmother was in the bleachers that year and that World Series, making things happen for her beloved Angels.
Now it's 2004. The Pad's were promising, as were the Cubs. Even the Rangers threatened to do great things this year, spending a good part of the season in first place in their division. After all the cards hit the table, no one I would care to root for was left for post season play. Then came the ALCS.
The Curse is Reversed.
Boston goes down three games to nothing against the Yankees. Nothing new there, but, man, I HATE the Yankees. I'm not a Red Sox fan by any means, but through the course of this AL championship series I came to know all the stars, utility players, dissapointing prospects, and cinderella story players that made up this Red Sox club. I was rooting for them in a distant sort of way. Then came Game 4. From there, there was no turning away. I was there watching the games, or feverishly searching the web for the score to see how they did. How they did was beat the Yankees in seven at Yankee Stadium and go on to the World Series. Woa!
I'm not going to comment on the Series itself but I will add this. The Red Sox never trailed in any inning of any game in their four game sweep of the Cardinals to win the World Series. This little nugget supports my position that the World Series was actually won in game 7 of the ALCS.
Why? When the Sox beat the Yankees, decades and decades of defeatist attitude and resignation to inferiority went 'Woooosh'. Up until then, no matter how well they were doing, when something bad happened in their run to the prize, they could say "welp, we knew it was going to come crashing down sometime." This win over the Yankees eliminated that. Anything was possible, and after shattering that stigma, the Cardinals never had a chance.
You will never find me sporting a Sox ball cap. I am not part of the Red Sox Nation. I am, however, very pleased and very satisfied with this season of the national pastime we call 'baseball'.
1 Comments:
I would cheer like a nut for the both of ya, if that happened. I'll crossover every time for the cubbies.
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