In 2004, when the Red Sox won the World Series over the St. Louis Cardinals in four straight games, after previously winning over the Yankees in you-know-how-many-come-from-behind-straight-games, I was visiting my then 93 year-young mother-in-law at her home in Massachusetts. She was sitting in her favorite reclining chair, Red Sox cap on her head, actively engaged in cheering for her favorite team. So were her daughter and her son-in-law.
That night on October 27, under a total lunar eclipse, the curse was broken. Every major TV station in New England ran virtually non-stop coverage of the games for the next 36 hours. The next morning, I had to drive to several stores to find press coverage, because most newsstands were sold out. Retail stores in the area quickly bulged with Red Sox paraphernalia.
Since then, though, I’ve never discounted the chances of a winner-take-all Yankee comeback. I still don’t. I always anticipate yet dread Yankees/Red Sox matchups, hoping that the Red Sox will trounce the Yankees, acknowledging full well that the Yankees can do the same.
Those of us who suffered through the interminable baseball drought that blanketed the Red Sox Nation before 2004 can empathize with what Yankees’ fans must now be undergoing. All I can say is thank heaven that the Steinbrenners don’t own the Red Sox!
Note: To read my June 2, 2007, discussion of Yankees/Red Sox competition, click on the label ‘Sports’ below, and scroll down a bit. If you’d like to read columnist E.J. Dionne’s assessment of Rudy’s Red Sox Romance, See the October 30, 2007 edition of the Washington Post at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/29/AR2007102901475.html?sub=AR
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