RED SOX BEAT THE YANKEES

        A favorite quip:  Question"Do you pull for a professional baseball team?"  Answer: "No. I'm a Red Sox fan."

      My dad was a huge St. Louis Cardinals fan and 'indoctrinated' his sons to be the same.  My earliest World Series memory was hearing the radio broadcast of Enos Slaughter's bolt from first to home in the deciding game of the Cardinals'1946 match against the Red Sox.  Only years later did I learn of the Sox's misfortune in having had the regular center-fielder, Dom DiMaggio, out of the game because of injury in the previous inning; nor, of Johnny Pesky's getting a bum rap for not relaying the throw.

     'Once upon a time' ...in the early twentieth century, the Red Sox were a powerful baseball force, winning the World Series five times between1903 and 1918. Then, someone made the huge mistake of trading to the Yankees a promising pitcher who could also hit, and so was created the 'Curse of the Babe' [Ruth].  MANY years of heartbreak, might-have-been's, close calls (poor Bill Buckner) followed.

   All that St. Louis Cardinals loyalty changed when I lived in Boston for the 1960-1961 academic year.  My dorm room was in sight of Fenway and we often  went over for late-inning free admission.  Seeing Ted Williams in his next to last game in 1960 and Carl Yaz's first home game  in 1961 converted me. I still have a program book from early game in 1961. (Being a tekky novice, I am still having difficulty in adding photographs to the blog. Hence, this one is 'backwards'.)  In that year of 1961, there was another Schilling playing for Boston, this one at Second Base.  Other names from long ago (do you recognize any of them?) include Wertz, Jensen, Malzone, Geiger, and Nixon.  Ticket prices ? Box Seats cost $3.00; Reserved Seats went for $2.25; General Admission was $1.50 and Bleachers just $1.00.

    Then, came 2004 with the 'Bloody Sock' of Curt Schilling and a  thousand other miracles and they won the Series ...against, of all teams, the Cardinals. (There had been other years when the outcome had been the opposite.)  And, the sweep of the Rockies in 2007 seemed to point to a 'glowing future'.  However, as a poet has remarked, "Alas, alak and anon" (or something like that), it all went down the drain so that last season was misery for the faithful.

     And, now it is opening of 2013 season, and the Sox have just taken two from the 'hated Yankees' who will probably want to note that several of their 'stars' have been injured.  There are only 160 more games to go before the season's over.  But, what a wonderful way to get started.  How seriously do I take all this?  Well, with a stretch, I perhaps could name two or three players from the roster.  That's not the point.  Everywhere I go, there are persons wearing either a cap or a garment with the Red Sox logo.  That makes it easy for even an introvert such as I to begin a conversation about 'much ado about nothing' that is going to have an impact on the BIG issues of life.  There is a lot to be said for innocent diversion !

   Satchel