Red Sox Fan Not Ready to Move On
By Mike Ptomey, 11.11.04

The World Series has passed, most of the hype has died down and the baseball season is over. America has moved on from the story of the Boston Red Sox wining the World Series, the first time they have done so since 1918. But I am not ready to move on; I want to stay right here.

I remember sitting in front of my television watching the final out. I couldn’t believe it.

Over the last few years, I have become a Red Sox fan. Their recent epic battles with the Yankees pulled me into the Red Sox nations.

I am not from Boston, but that doesn’t mean I can’t relate to the plight of the Red Sox—to get so close to a goal over and over, but have it ripped away at the last second. Everyone knows how that feels; it’s called life.

Boston cursed themselves long ago by selling the legendary Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in 1920, the dreaded “curse of the Bambino.” Considered the greatest mistake in sports history, Boston’s destiny was to never win a World Series. It was their punishment for upsetting the baseball gods. The Yankees went on to win 26 World Series titles, the most championships in professional sports.

Time went by and Boston got comfortable with their destiny of being the “lovable loser.” No one expected them to do much. They might win a few here or there, but at the end of the day, they would falter and fail. They are the Red Sox, losing is what they did.

Decade after decade went by, World War II was fought, television was invented, man walked on the moon, the Berlin wall fell—and still no Red Sox championship. Eighty-six years is a long time, longer than the average life of a Red Sox fan. But then came the 2004 season.

Something was different about the 2004 team. They didn’t believe in the curse of the Bambino. They didn’t accept the label of loser. It was a new year and they were a new team, anything could happen. One thing they were going to do was enjoy the ride. They realized they were grown men getting paid to play the game of their youth. The team resembled the major league equivalent of the “Bad News Bears” and the Red Sox were the guys from the “Animal House” fraternity.

The baseball experts thought this was one of the reasons the Red Sox didn’t win the big games—because they didn’t take it seriously enough. The Yankees were known for their business like approach; each player had to be clean shaven with short hair. In this case, I guess Johnny Damon could never be a Yankee.

The Red Sox were not going to change. They had to be true to themselves, and this team was a bunch of oversized kids goofing around on a baseball diamond. They were called “The Idiots” by their fans and the media.

Maybe this is why they didn’t give up when they were down three games to none, facing elimination once again to the Yankees in the America League Championship.

Maybe this team was having too much fun to realize that no major league team had ever come back from a 3 game deficit, and they had 86 years of history saying the season would end in disappointment. They were not paying attention; they were “idiots.” Sometimes it’s good to be an “idiot”. It took a team of “idiots” to stage the greatest come back in sports history, winning 4 games in a row to beat the New York Yankees, and then sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.

I am going to try the idiot approach when it comes to life’s problems. I am going to enjoy the ride and approach life with the excitement of a child. I am going to be me no matter what the “experts” say. And maybe I will defeat whatever it is that keeps beating me down. It took the Red Sox 86 years. Hopefully my victory will come sooner.