Portland Sox Fan

Inspired by a thread over at SoSH, I have a question for people who visit this site…

How has the Sox winning the World Series changed baseball season for you, if at all?

As many of you know, I've always considered myself a 'glass is at half
capacity' kind of guy.  Not overly optimistic OR
pessimistic.  And for the most part that hasn't changed for me
even this year.  I think that the losses don't bother me as much;
but that could be not only because the Sox DID win it, but because they
have spent the whole summer leading the division…and doing so with
some pretty key parts missing.

I guess to me, the biggest change is the things that are now gone…the
1918 chant, the Yankee Fan's sense of superiority….I find I can have
more rational baseball discussions with Yankee fans because they don't
have the "Sox always choke in October so I'm not worried" argument to
fall back on.  Now if only the "Yankees Suck" chants at Sox games
would go away (especially games where the Yankees aren't the opponent).

One of my favorite quotes comes from (former?) Sox blogger Ed Cossette
of bambinoscurse.com, who had this to say in May of 2003 after a
particularly gut-wrenching loss:

I'm weary of the ongoing search for a baseball utopia among
Red Sox fans. It all sounds like evangelical Christians fomenting on
about how the world is evil but that somewhere, if you only try really
hard, you'll get to this perfect place in the clouds, where the
basepaths are paved with gold and the hot dogs taste of ambrosia. Or to
look at in purely secular terms, it's like the political idealists who
completely miss the good stuff going in the world and focus entirely on
how bad things are. With this gang it's always "we could wipe out
poverty if we only did this" and "we could have world peace if we only
did such and such."

It ain't going to happen. There will always be hunger, poverty, war.
And the Red Sox are never going to be perfect. It's not the nature of
the game. Even the Yankees aren't perfect. It is the yin and the yang.
We can't have light without darkness and all that…

…Stop looking for the October pennant and enjoy the 15th of May.
There is a baseball game to play tonight G?? lousy defense, nightmare
bullpen and all G?? There is a baseball game to play tonight.

And when the Red Sox do win it all, do you want to look back and think
about how you bitched and moaned the entire season leading up to it?
It's not like the baseball gods are going to descend and annunciate via
burning batting cage, "This is the year, so pay attention and stop
whining." No, it's just going to be a season like any other, full of
errors, botched plays and men left on base, if that is the game you
choose to see.

So what about you?  How are things different from you now that we are most of the way through the season?

{mos_sb_discuss:521}

Mike Remlinger, Dartmouth Alum.

Other than that, what a great night last night.  Flipping back and
forth between NESN and YES, the Sox comeback and Yanks breakdown
happened virtually simultaneously.  Another nice outing by
Paplebon, but it seems that he runs out of steam around the 5th
again…I'm sure that will change in time.  He's a good looking
pitcher.

{mos_sb_discuss:520}

1.  When renting a large house, no matter how pricy it is, verify
that there is some form of television other than a giant antennae on
the roof.  

From the start, I was against switching the annual family vacation from
Ocean City, NJ to Lake Winnepesaukee…but I was taking solace in the
fact that at least I was vacationing in a spot where I could watch the
Sox every night as the day was winding down.  Until we walked into
the house, and saw 3 tvs, all with DVD players…but only one TV got 2
channels.  Not good times.

2.  New Hampshire does not mark their roads in a reassuring fashion.

On more than one occasion, I would be driving the way I thought I was
supposed to go…but wonder if I had missed a turn somewhere because
roads only seem to be marked at intersections.  Taking Rt. 302
from Vermont to my initial destination last Friday night, I thought for
SURE I had missed a turn…because I didn't see a '302' sign for 15
minutes.  Also, New Hampshire likes to combine their roads quite a
bit.  302 combined with at least 5 different routes between
Vermont and Bartlett.  Same with 16/113 from North Conway to
Moultonborough.

3.  In New Hampshire, "Just past the second light" equals 3.5 miles.

One morning, I went looking for WiFi to check email, and was told that
the local library had it.  "Just go east, and the library is just
after the second light…right by the country store."  3.5 miles.

4.  Clowns are evil.

I knew that already, but you should have SEEN this John Wayne Gacy
looking dude making balloon animals for kids when we took the MS Mount
Washington for a family night dinner cruise.  I got chills.

5.  Sox are on quite the little tear

Well, you didn't need ME to tell you that, eh?  Nice that yesterday never happened…

{mos_sb_discuss:519}

I won't be updating for the next week.  Shocking, I know. 
Headed to lovely New Hampshire for a week with the wife's whole
family.  Good thing booze is cheaper up there.

Nice to see that with all this "turmoil", the Sox have won 8 straight
and have a 4.5 game lead on whatever team is in second place.

Here's to a nice week!

{mos_sb_discuss:518}

Front row of the Monster is something else.  That, and the fact that it was a VERY memorable game made it one helluva day.

Paplebon's debut, and an impressive one.  The whole Manny
situation…just out of this world.  I'll post some pictures later
today.

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