Wednesday, March 07, 2007

It Must Be Almost Baseball Season

Daisuke Matsuzaka

Proof, if proof is needed, that baseball's opening day looms from my pre-bed conversation with my lovely consort Country Mouse:

Weasel: "I was just watching the spring training highlights on NESN. That Matsuzaka has a wicked greasy slider. He's going to win a lot of games this season."

CM: "Who were they playing? The friggin' Marlins. Ooooh. Big Deal. And its only spring training."

WW: "I still think he looks good even though its early. The Sox are going to jump out to an early lead."

CM: "Like every year, and then they'll blow their brains out. They always get our hopes up then crush us."

WW: "I dunno. I just have a good feeling."

CM: "See? That's why you are not a proper Red Sox fan."

How can I argue with that, from someone born into Red Sox fandom, in Northern New England on a day the Sox lost 12-8 to the Orioles, a woman who celebrated the Sox in verse, and who still has a thing for Dennis Eckersley's mustache?

11 comments:

Joe said...

No offense to the Mouse, because she's by no means the only one holding onto it, but wasn't all that doom-and-gloom pessimism supposed to go out the window with the Championship a couple of years ago?

It's officially a new era for the Red Sox, and it's officially OK to be optimistic about them, Weez. I know that I am. Look for my official 2007 preview in a couple of weeks.

Wisdom Weasel said...

"wasn't all that doom-and-gloom pessimism supposed to go out the window with the Championship a couple of years ago?"

Come on Joe, you know better than that. All that sports sunshine has been consigned to the same dusty closet as former Governor King's "Maine is on the Move" signage, the Brookings Report, and property tax reform.

mainelife said...

Please let the Mouse know that even though I'm from away and grew up an Indians fan, I am a quite proper Red Sox fan and I know exactly what she means.
No offense Joe but being a Red Sox fan means that one world championship doesn't even come close to erasing the hope, the heartache, the joy, the sorrow that loving the Sox requires.

Wisdom Weasel said...

As a point of order: Joe is a native mainer and life-long Sox rooter, but I could see how his sunny disposition could be misleading in that regard. Most atypical of Northern New Englanders, my pal Joe do be.

I see that the Indians- and the "charming" Chief Wahoo mascot- have been selected to play in MLB's first civil rights day celebration. Nice work, Selig. I know the legend behind Cleveland's name, but I'd bet Maine and the Penobscot Nation's own Louis Sockalexis didn't look like a horrendous cartoon. Instead the Red Sox should have been chosen for that game, if only to make ammends for the horrible legacy of the racist Yawkeys.

Bill Norris said...

Her impending sense of dread is just right. Not because I'm sure the Sox will lose, but because as we wait for the first real "Play ball!" of the year, it is a part and parcel of the Way Things Should Be.

A Sox fan's gloom is as much part of baseball as hot dogs and overpriced, lousy beer.

I just want to see a gyroball.

Wisdom Weasel said...

Bill, your second sentence is uncanny.

mainelife said...

Weasel-
I did notice (far too late) that Joe is a die hard and I've left a nice comment on his blog to try to make ammends.
He seems like a lovely guy, if a bit too happy....to be a true New England native.
however, I'm not retracting the sentiment that being a Sox fan without the impending dread hanging over one's head just isn't as much fun.
Optimism is for Yankee fans, not for us.
I proudly wear my Indians hat whenever they don't play the Sox, and I'm kind of fond of Chief Wahoo, finding him to be quite handsome. I can see how some might not agree and I think it's past time for his retirement.

Joe said...

Sorry for being by nature optimistic. But that's not really where I'm coming from. I heard far too many people on the radio, read far too many people on the internet, read far too many letters to the editor following the 2004 Series - and they all said one of two things:

1) Everything has changed now, or
2) Now I can die in peace

Liars, each and every one of them!

Enjoy the games, I say. Root for your team, I say. And if they don't win, there's always next year.

Joe said...

Um, not that I'm calling MaineLife and CM liars, mind you! 8^)

I just don't buy into having a sense of impending doom be part and parcel with being a Red Sox fan. We already know that sometimes the good guys win, so I see no need to hang onto that. The Cubs fans can fly that flag from now on!

mainelife said...

Joe excellent point about the Cubbies.
My gloom and doom is borne out of growing up in Cleveland, a city that is no stranger to sports misery and heartaches.
I actually have a great feeling about the sox this year, but I'm a superstitious ex-athlete and believe that admitting that un-reverses the curse....:)

Anonymous said...

i've always thought Red Sox fans (myself included) were supposed to be optimistic come spring time. sure, it was a cautious, nervous, tempered optimism but it was always there, whispered.

it was only once the season started that the pessimism was loosed upon the unmet expectations and then taken to new heights on those rare occasions when the Sox made the playoffs.

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