i’ve been immersing myself in baseball, reading voraciously, soaking it all in. and i was reading boston globe writer brian mccrory’s take on things:

The first order of business is to admit it to ourselves: 2004 was more meaningful. Back then, and in the 86 years that preceded it, we knew who we were. We were hapless, though never hopeless. We were the ones that always had something to overcome – a curse, a seemingly in surmountable deficit, a little-brother syndrome.

In the end, until that fabled October, we usually lost, but that was OK. In defeat, we had identity. We got to be the luckless loser. A team, its city, and indeed, an entire national following, thrived on it.

…

Which means they don’t know about our angst. It was our blanket, our source of comfort, our common bond. If angst were a natural resource, we could have had factories packaging it up 24 hours a day and shipping it to every part of the world.

…

Without it, what have we become?

and i have to disagree with the premise that losing gave us our identity, that we have something invested in remaining hapless, cursed. to subscribe to that theory is to believe that you love a team only based on their wins-losses columns. to subscribe to that theory is to believe that you aren’t worthy of more, worthy of the best. to subscribe to that theory is to insult the intense loyalty of the fans who live only to see their team perform at the height of their craft, with skill and joy. as i put it in 2004:

what does it all mean? is the rivalry with the yanks over? do we have nothing bigger and better to look forward to from here on out? have we become a fad phenomenon? will we win again, or go back to our well-worn losing ways?

and the biggest: without a curse to gripe about, what does it mean to be a sox fan now?

i guess my answer is this. it doesn’t really matter. red sox fans will remain red sox fans, because we love them.

red sox nation was never truly defined by our martyrdom or long suffering misery. that was how others defined us.

we defined ourselves very simply, as fans of the greatest sports team ever. the red sox were never a cause or a charity we signed on for. they were just a team of men, playing a game we loved, for fans who were truly passionate about baseball. a team which we sometimes lauded, sometimes cursed, but always stood by. it’s always been a marriage, for better or for worse – not because of the success, or lack thereof, but rather because we just love the team. marriages change, but true love remains always. we loved them when they were ugly, we loved them when they were poor, and we loved them when they were sick and sad and downtrodden. we did not love them *because* of these things. we loved them in spite of them.

winning and losing are transitory states of being, much like ice to water to vapor. and tomorrow or the day after, there will be more winning and losing. but the essence remains the same. they are ours and we are theirs, forever and ever, amen.

the only thing which has changed in all of this, is the acknowledgement by others, of what we have always known. The definition by others, of what we have always seen before our very eyes.

Greatness.

Champions.

game 1 tonight.

tom petty and the heartbreakers – even the losers

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