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04/04/2005: Thought for the Day:
It seems odd to say this, but almost six months after the fact, the sheer absurdity of what happened with the Boston Red Sox last October still seems underappreciated. You can watch the postseason highlights forever, you can listen to Curt Schilling cement his reputation as sports' biggest blowhard (honestly, if Schilling's vocation were religion rather than baseball, he'd be Jimmy Swaggert), you can even, if you dare, go see the waste of otherwise perfectly serviceable carbon that is Jimmy Fallon in the upcoming Fever Pitch. No amount of exposure can do last October justice. The improbability of it is staggering; it's like getting every single game in your NCAA tournament bracket correct and winning the lottery while being struck by lightning.
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The point: After October, it doesn't seem fair that there should be a 2005 season at all. Boston should get the year off. And considering the actions of the Boston fan base since winning the World Series (and subsequently another Super Bowl), the rest of us should get the year off too. The Red Sox were the only thing that gave the frat party denizens of Boston any gravitas; with their victory, they have now simply become obnoxious Abercrombie & Fitch assheads who have inexplicably become, of all things, cocky. One would think one breakthrough year after 86 years of misery would instill in Red Sox fans a measure of humility and restraint. One would be wrong. (I am aware I am gleefully generalizing in a ludicrously broad fashion. It's fun! Come on in! The water's great!)
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One could make the argument that last year's victory over the Yankees was the victory the Red Sox had been waiting for, the first step in winning the great war. But Epstein has done something that George Steinbrenner has not done; he has put together an outstanding team that will also flourish in the future. The war isn't not just starting: It's already over. The Red Sox have won. The Yankees just don't know it yet. The notion of the hard-luck Red Sox fan has been obliterated. We, including the Red Sox fans, who now will have to release the collegiate lifestyle sometime before 35, are all the poorer for it.
--Will Leitch
Len on 04.04.05 @ 07:31 AM CST
