Sox Keep Piling on the Pain

Author: Jake Heller

This is the year. At the beginning of every baseball season Red Sox fans forget about the disappointment of the season before and reaffirm their steadfast belief that in fact this is the year. This is the year in which the Curse of the Bambino will be lifted and Boston will take home its first World Series since 1918. Allow me to bring some people up to speed with a brief history lesson. In 1919 the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees. Since then the Yankees have gone on to win 26 World Series titles while the Red Sox have come up empty. The Red Sox have been to four World Series since 1918, losing each one in a deciding Game 7. As an outsider to the Red Sox nation I am always utterly amazed at Sox fans ability to actually argue with a straight face why the Sox will finally win after years of heartbreak. One would suspect that after 80 years of failure these people would realize the baseball gods are not with them and acknowledge that most likely "this is not the year." No chance. Red Sox fans believe they are a chosen people and only through complete faith will the team ever have a chance to reach the Promised Land.

Perhaps it is time for Red Sox fans to change tactics. My grandfather passed on at 74. He was another lifelong Sox fan who never saw them win one. When Grady Little passes on, man is he going to hear about it for leaving Pedro in that game. Maybe they should take the Chicago Cubs fan perspective and accept the inevitable while hoping for a championship instead of feeling they are entitled to one. The Cubbies never win anything so "getting close" is a real change of events for their fans. The Red Sox always get close. This season added on to the legacy of brutal Red Sox playoff exits - a game 7 ALCS loss at the hands of the hated Yankees. Watching the games with Red Sox fans I was struck by what I must admit is the most passionate following of anything I have ever seen. I love Red Sox fans. We always win but these fans have given their souls to this team.

I am genuinely jealous that there is a chance I will see the Red Sox win before I die because to be a Sox fan on that day will be far greater than any Yankees championship. Rooting against the Sox made me feel as if God was going to strike me down for teasing these "spiritual" fanatics. As always, each Sox win exponentially increased the confidence of their fans to the point of frequent comments such as "This series is ours."

The fans knew the history. These Sox made them forget all of it. This team was going to do it. Boston would party like its 1918! And then it happened. Once again this was not the year. So I offer this advice: Kick the habit Sox fans. Surrender to the Dark Side. In the baseball world there is only one God, Babe Ruth. Remember he walks around the eternal hall wearing pinstripes.