October 28, 2004
The
Curse Eclipsed
Ecstasy
in Red Sox Nation
By
RON JACOBS
Sure,
they are a bunch of well-off (and even very rich) men playing
a game that involves a stick and a ball. Sure, there are many
more important things going on in the world. And, sure, it is
just a game. But, it is also involves a baseball team that weighs
on the psyche of Calvinist New England and all of the rest of
those folks around the world who consider themselves part of that
imagined community known as Red Sox Nation.
Last
night was a full lunar eclipse over North America. It was also
the fourth game of Major League Baseball’s best-of-seven-games
World Series. Most of New England was on edge, forgoing sleep
in the hopes that their team would finally win and exorcise the
supposed curse that has hung over the franchise ever since New
York theatre producer (and then Red Sox owner) Harry Frazee sold
Babe Ruth and a few other players to the New York Yankees for
$100,000 to finance his production of No, No, Nanette.
Since
that fateful offseason, the Yankees have reigned supreme in the
world of Major League Baseball and the Red Sox have played second
and third fiddle all too often. Last night, that ended. Fans pinched
themselves to make sure what they saw was really happening. They
raised toasts to their dead friends and relatives who never saw
the Sox win a championship despite several heartbreaking near-misses.
And they couldn’t stop smiling.
My
friends who are less connected to the culture of professional
sports either for political reasons or just because they really
don’t get what the fuss is all about often challenge my
Red Sox obsession. Sports in America, these friends tell me, are
just an extension of the corporate system of greed. How can you
be interested in them, they ask. I don't know how to answer their
charges directly, so instead, I ask if they've ever seen a magnificently
executed catch. One where an outfielder pulls the ball from its
sure path over the fence, slamming his body against the centerfield
wall, falling to the ground from the shock of the impact, and
rising triumphantly with the ball in his glove. Or, even better,
I query, have you ever made a catch that seemed equally magnificent
yourself? Of course, it's not really as spectacular to an onlooker,
but to you it's like you're Willie Mays in the first game of the
1954 World Series making what was probably the greatest ever catch
in World Series history. They look at me as if I am crazy. Of
course, I am -- a little.
At
my workplace this morning, there are expressions of happiness
and relief. Even many of the Yankee fans (who play the role of
Sparta to the Red Sox Athens) have to begrudgingly admit that
this Red Sox team is pretty amazing. A band of loose and funloving
longhairs, Texans, Dominicans, and other athletes from who knows
where have done what has never been done before. These won eight
games in a row to win the biggest prize in Major League Baseball—The
World Series.
Red
Sox Nation is savoring the moment.
Ron
Jacobs can be reached at: rjacobs@uvm.edu