(All apologies to Alexander Pope and An Essay on Man)
Spring is one of my favorite seasons in Rhode Island. OK, to be precise, mid and late spring are two of my favorite seasons. Early spring in New England is a rainy, mud-filled affair that does not engender a lot of love.
But somewhere around mid-April, the real spring arrives. Sunrise shifts dramatically farther to the north each morning, the sun starts generating real warmth, and the temperatures slowly climb.
These days are full of promise, of hope, of life re-born. Germinations occur underground and gradually poke through the warming earth to greet the sun. All outdoors is energized and springing forth with life and growth. The world is full of potential.
Which brings us to the Red Sox. To use a tortured analogy, if spring training is a pre-natal experience, then opening day is birth, and opening day at Fenway is when the new season comes home from the hospital, ready to take over life as you know it.
Except this year, the pre-natal child was shipped to a hospital in Japan, delivered, got to see the world for a couple of days, and then put back in the oven. (I knew that analogy wasn't working.) You start the season in Japan, then resume spring training, and then start the season again in California?!? [Insert Seinfeld voice here:] Who is the marketing genius that came up with this one?
I guess that is why for me, the season did not really begin until last week, with the home opener in Boston. I was in town last Tuesday and the Hub was buzzing. What a sweet opener it was. A gorgeous spring day at Fenway. Vintage Boston sports champions (Orr, Russell, Bruschi) were on the field. David Ortiz calls Johnny Pesky over to raise the championship banner.
Bill Buchner throws the opening pitch to Dewey Evens.
Ok, it choked me up. I guess we are really over it; all of the pain of '67, '75, '78, '86, etc. One championship couldn't quite do it, but two did. Two really did. Boston forgave Buchner (whether there was anything to forgive is highly debatable) and Buchner forgave Boston. One championship could have been a fluke, but two in three years feels like a different era.
It should be an interesting year...
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2 comments:
I personally think that NESN is the devil and the pink hat wearing Red Sox fans are in control these days. Before you think that I had one tab too many back in the hippie days, hear me out.
It is spring in New England, the BEGINNING of a very long baseball season as well as the END of the hockey season. That is right, the stanley cup playoffs are here.
So with that in mind NESN thought it would be a good idea to have game 5 of the Bruins vs. Canadiens series (do or die) moved from high definition to an alternate channel that looked like you were watching the game through a fishbowl so that the RED SOX could be seen in high def vs. the YANKEES.
It turned out to be a fantastic hockey game, the Bruins won and are bringing the series back to Boston on Saturday. I talked to many hockey fans who couldn't find the alternate channel and missed what could have been the last Bruins game and some of the best Stanley cup hockey to date.
My solution, go to the game on Saturday and not rely on NESN. Hopefully, I wont get arrested for punching the first pink hat wearing RED SOX fan I see.
I'll admit that I'm down w/ Gil on the pink hat thing. It's TEAM COLORS folks. The pink hat is symbolic of all that has gone wrong with professional sports; the prima donna athletes whose own self importance exceeds that of the team, the reckless abandonment of tradition and fair play in pursuit of only victory, at whatever cost. Unless, of course, we're talking about the Bruins, Red Sox or Pats. In that case I say, spare no expense, just the pink hats...
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