How could this happen?!
October 17, 2003 ~ 2:02 p.m.
What vicious bastard of a God would allow a World Series contest between the New York Yankees and Florida Marlins to take place when the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox were both in League Championship contention? Answer me that.
Yesterday, the Cubs lost a heartbreaking Game 7 in Chicago, especially heartbreaking when you consider they could have wrapped up the series in six games, if not for that fan interfering with outfielder Moises Alou�s catch. On the same day, the Red Sox pulled even with the Yankees to even their series at three victories apiece to force a Game 7. Yesterday, after 11 innings, the Yankees snuffed out a victory.
I was worried when the Cubs lost. One team vital to the best World Series matchup ever had been eliminated. Only Boston, the other team, remained alive. To me, if the Cubs had won, that meant that surely the Red Sox would advance. The Cubs and Sox needed each other to remain alive; there was a certain karma that could not be messed with. But when the Cubs lost, I comforted myself with the thought that just maybe the World Series was meant to take place between the two Wild Card winners, just as it had last year.
I should have thought again; I should have known better. However, I reasoned, the Sox have all the momentum going for them. They vowed this year would be different when they won the AL Wild Card. Nothing could tear that team apart.
I took it as a good omen when, nearing Gloucester Road station on my way home from work, a man who saw my cap immediately made his loyalty known. It only took three little words for me to know immediately that he was a fellow Bostonian; I know that accent like the back of my hand: �Go Red Saaax!� I gave him a smile to rival that of the Chesire Cat�s, pumped my fist and hollered �Yes!�
Who were we kidding? We�re from Looserville. High-grade steel from Pittsburgh is weak as water when compared with the Curse of the Bambino. Did I seriously entertain the thought it was about to be broken? Perhaps that is the most crushing part of all, to see all too vividly that it wasn�t.
Fuckity-fuck-fuck.
Now, Cubs fans and Red Sox fans alike are commiserating right now. My good friend verdant-life was rooting for her beloved Cubs. The motto on her Cubs diaryring link says that they are patient and loyal fans. That�s certainly true for Sox fans as well when you consider that Red Sox tickets are a consistently hot, much-sought after item and fans in Boston are the quintessential definition of �die-hard.�
But how much longer can we be patient and loyal, now that we have been so close and yet still have to accept that we�re no less the loveable losers at this moment than we were before this season began? This is pain beyond compare.
And now, commencing Saturday night, we�ve got a corporation versus a team that is celebrating only its tenth year of existence. What a yawnfest.
Don�t get me wrong. I have every reason to support the Marlins. Honestly. After years of frustration with the Texas Rangers, it�d be nice to see Pudge (Ivan Rodriguez), whom I�ve always liked, get a ring with his new team.
And who says that just because a team is only just entering its puberty in the Major Leagues, it doesn�t deserve to win? I was heartily behind Arizona, another team created in the �90s, during the 2001 World Series. Now I am behind Florida.
I don�t begrudge true Yankee fans their elation. If you grew up in New York, fine. But the Yankees are a corporation. Adidas plasters its symbol all over its caps and knapsacks, and most sweatshirts that shout NEW YORK�and otherwise have nothing at all to do with the Yankees� still sport that annoying, ubiquitous NY symbol (you don�t see the Old English �B� gracing BOSTON sweatshirts, after all). That loathsome symbol is everywhere.
This mass marketing of Yankee crap has ensured that the Yankees have a large international �fandom,� which is completely ignorant about the game of baseball, and consists mainly of wannabe gang-bangers who wear their Yankees caps and Yankees jackets and have no clue as to who the all-star shortstop for the Yankees is (the answer is Derek Jeter, in case, dear reader, you happen to be one such type of �fan�). Come to think of it, they probably don�t even know what a shortstop is.
By Christ, I am sick beyond belief at the incessant barrage of Yankees paraphernalia being marketed overseas purely as a fashion statement. Even Yankees fans should be aghast at this; to say that you are a fan despite knowing next to nothing about the game or �your� team�s history or players is monumentally absurd. Most Yankee fans are actually full of it�and they probably don�t have the slightest idea that they just advanced to the World Series. No idea that my pain has been enlarged and prolonged. They just don their NY cap and immediately think they�re the very essence of coolness and that the whole fucking world will love them.
If the Marlins do win, there will no doubt be the pleasure of seeing the Yankees lose the ultimate contest. But this year, that pleasure will be blunted a bit, knowing they got past us in order to lose.
There are three sure things in life:
1. Death
2. Taxes
3. The Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox are always going to be losers.
At the end of the day, you just have to love these teams for their longevity, their classic, historic ballparks and their pride. Certainly not for their success.
Please pass the pot, booze and amyl nitrate please. I need them. Only drugs are going to get me past the pain I�m feeling now.
� M.E.M.
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Copyright � 2001-2007 by M.E. Manning. All material is written by me, unless explicitly stated otherwise by use of footnotes or bylines. Do not copy or redistribute without my permission.
AMERICA FOR TRUE AMERICANS!