Tito Francona: “It is a fight sometimes to keep the perspective. I mean, we’re sitting at 101 wins, and people don’t seem to be very happy very much of the time.”
That was Friday. Monday morning – some two wins and a World Series berth later – dawned on a, I suspect, happier Red Sox Nation. For better or for worse.
As a confessed, lifelong fan of Boston’s American League entrant, I am in no position to refute Francona’s indictment. Let alone the Huffington Post’s stinging observation of the Boston propensity for fright and rage. I’ve lamented this inclination myself, after all, in the past.
But while I’m predictably euphoric about the opportunity to face the National League representative in the World Series, as such chances aren’t all that common whatever your budget happens to be, I don’t believe I’ve lost sight of the ultimate significance. Just because I’m planning my travel around the Series, and trying hard to obtain tickets to one of the contests, I cannot and will not subscribe to the Yankee mindset that this season’s success or failure will be determined by the outcome of a single series. Winning is a privilege, after all, not a birthright.
And despite the fact that my pseudo-hometown is going off at 2-1 odds against my erstwhile hometown, the truth is that the Rockies enter the World Series on a roll such as I’ve never seen before. Basically, they haven’t lost in a month. According to all of the known laws of probability, they shouldn’t even be here, and yet here they are. You’ll have to forgive me if Buster Olney’s defense of those odds is less than convincing, emphasizing as it does our experience while glossing over our age. These are the same Rockies, remember, that took 2 of 3 from us in July, including handing Beckett his first loss of ’07 by tagging him for 6 runs.
All of which is a long way of saying, I’m immensely proud of my Red Sox, blissfully happy that I’ve stayed East to watch them in the playoffs, and am looking forward to the series ahead. Whatever happens.
But especially if we win.
P.S. Will work for World Series tickets.
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