SAT 10/23

12:07 am
I’m baffled by Blondie. The jokes are so bad and familiar that you feel like they’re just running old comics from the ’50s or something. But they use email and cell-phones. Which means they’re churning out NEW old jokes. Adding to the weirdness is that the women are drawn so incredibly buxom — all hips and boobs and tiny waists. Blondie confuses me every single Sunday. Maybe I should stick to Drabble.

Bottom of the barrel,
12:13 am
Would you believe that my lame Blondie post has been building inside me for weeks? It’s very hard coming up with posts not about the Red Sox or election.

Look like Curt
12:53 am

Orginally, Schilling just printed up shirts for his teammates before the playoffs. Well, now he’s finally selling the shirts we’ve been lusting after for weeks, with proceeds going to his SHADE Foundation (which funds melanoma research). Mine’s on the way. Where’s yours?

1-0
10:29 pm
The World Series is so completely surreal to me. I can’t wrap my head around it. In some ways the ALCS was so emtionally draining that I don’t know what I have left. W don’t HATE the Cardinals. Heck, Pujols is one of my top-two favorite NL players (Barry Bonds may beat him out). Losing this one wiould hurt less than an ALCS loss. But right now we’re not losing. We beat their best starter with our third best, and we won despite some stinky defense (four errors!). I feel great.

SUN 10/24

The day of sport
12:44 pm
Patriots face the undefeated Jets to set the NFL record for consecutive victories — HUGE. Curt Schilling startes Game 2 of the World Series with the Red Sox up 1-0 — GIGANTIC. So glad HBO dramas are taking a break, or my Sunday would be even more useless.

MON 10/25

Working on it
1:20 am
Great day for Boston sports. I am still stunned at the beauty of Game 2 and am trying to compose and apporpriate post about Curt Schilling. He has now eleveated past the point of one of my usual off the cuff posts. Something to look forward to tomorrow.

Two degrees of separation
12:35 pm
I am awaiting confirmation, but I have it on good information that the pimp in the stands of the first two World Series games has been in my kitchen. Further details if it indeed turns out to be true…

Subject: Re: s?
3:04
To: Scott
yeah, i confirmed it with her -- she says the pimp is indeed s. i'm inclined to believe her. i mean, if she was going to make up something, she could come up with a less random lie, right?

schilling's post-game press conference last night was amazing. talking about how he's never loved a group of guys as much as this team, and what it was like driving to medfield (a mile from walpole, thanks) and seeing all the signs along the way supporting him... god, he's awesome. my "why not us?" shirt should be arriving any day now.

this is the first time i've really believed that we might actually do it. i'm absolutely terrified again. and i LOVE it.

Subject: RE: FW: Sox Web site....must check this out !!!
3:16
To: A
wow, that's incredibly cool. i can't believe s was even at the games, let alone on fox both days (with comment from joe buck). i even asked meaghan, "What's the significance of that? Just dressed as a pimp?" that was her answer.

My scoop
1:33 am
Tonight I watched SportsCenter realizing that they’d missed the biggest story of the baseball season — after the incredible cold of Boston, we’re heading to summer-like conditions in St. Louis. Just in time for what? Pedro Martinez’s start. And Pedro notoriously has trouble getting loose in cold weather and is a far better pitcher in the warmth. His complete game triumph this year? Hot day. 80 degree heat means 96 mph heat. If the the weather changing magically to better suit Pedro Martinez isn’t a sign, signs don’t exist.

The silliest things I’ve ever seen
1:40 am
From The Remy Report, beneath the caption, “They still haven’t come down after game #2!”

If this is an image already familiar around the Internet, somehow it mised my corner. Even so, the ridiculousness of attributing their state of bliss to a World Series victory cracks me up.

Did I forget the prediction?
1:14 pm
Yes, I believe I did. Well, the prediction is that Pedro Martinez has a masterful game tonight. But as tends to be the case when he starts, Suppan will have a great game also and the offense will struggle for runs. I predict a 3-2 Sox victory, with Pedro taking the lead in the 7th and receiving the win.

Squeal alert
4:10 pm
I can’t wait to watch Pedro batting. Likely to be the goofiest moments of the post-season.

Sorry about the lack of quality blogging
4:43 pm
My head is spinning with this World Series, this secret project has occupied a crap-load of time, and let’s face it, I’m a chronic lazoid. Luckily, I think I’ve done this long enough to build up to the point that a few off-days aren’t going to make people think this blog is over. THIS BLOG IS FAR FROM OVER, KIDDIES.

The real test
5:25 pm
For the World Series national anthems, Boston had Steven Tyler and James Taylor, St. Louis so far has Martina McBride. Boston gets a significant edge in terms of star power, but damn if Ms. McBride didn’t just give the best musical performance of the Series.

Oh, and the Cardinals intro music was definitely from a 1940 newsreel. Very different teams, eh?

Meaghan just reminded me of the meanest thing ever
9:31 pm
Manny Ramirez got a birthday cake for Carl Everett but got his age wrong and Carl Everett got mad and threw the cake away. Manny Ramirez was confused what was wrong with his cake.

I don’t know what to do with this
2:23 pm
So rarely do you get a chance to experience history with time to prepare for it. Most history is unexpected. This is not, and to be inside it is one of the strangest times of my life. Given everything else going on in my life and the world, this comes at an a amazing time that, no exaggerating, I think I will remember for the rest of my life. Last night’s baseball game was so overwhelming that I don’t think I’ll be able to really wrap my head around this Series for weeks, maybe months. It was the biggest game… since Sunday’s epic. And tonight, well, there’s a chance this will be a game I tell my children about.

My tone today is charmed because, well, this is different than I ever thought it could be. The last weeks have been magical and… I pray it has a happy ending.

There’s a lunar eclipse tonight, so the stars are LITERALLY aligned. If the universe was ever to fully smile upon the Red Sox, ever, Derek Lowe will be brilliant tonight and somebody comes up big. I suspect Ortiz again, but I have good thoughts about Manny, Nixon, and half a dozen others. If we win tonight, the star of Game 4 is the MVP. And I will come right out and say it:

I couldn’t type it. I can’t type that sentence in the future tense. Past tense only. And I desperately hope to type it tonight or tomorrow.

Cheers. GO SOX!!!

If you’re in LA…
3:41 pm
…we’re watching the game at El Guapo Cantina on Melrose. As fate would have it, my Red Sox T-shirt says El Guapo on the back, in honor of the fattest Red Sox pitcher in recent memory. The restaurant is no relation, but we’ll be shoring it up as best we can. Come on down.

Subject: Re: evite?
3:46
To: Jen
i'll write you something tomorrow. today i can only think about the red sox. and that is not an exaggeration.

Shmurse
1:01 am
That was my headline. That was what I said to Meaghan many months ago should be the Boston Globe’s headline if the Red Sox win the World Series. I said that, not actually thinking this could be the year. This was the year. Allow me to repeat a sentence that nobody could rightly say since Woodrow Wilson was President:

The Boston Red Sox won the World Series.

I’ve never believed in anything like I believed in this. I’ll never be the same and some of you know what I mean. Being a sports fan can be the most amazing thing in the world.

Subject: Re: Mmm
8:59 am
To: Kim
hery, kerry's damned if he do, don't if he don't. i saw him at a red sox playoff game in 1998 with my own two eyes, that guy's a fan. but who cares -- today is not a day for anything negative. this is much bigger than any of us and today everything is good. WHOOOO!!! RED SOX!!!

You don’t see this every day
8:38 am

This Red Sox is much bigger than we’re even going to realize for weeks.

Another great thing to come out of this
9:25 am
People have looked at the Red Sox down 0-3 to the mighty Yankees and how nobody had ever come back from that. Not only did we come back, but we went on to trounce the best team in baseball on our way to doing what many people thought would never happen in their lifetimes — winning the World Series. People look at this, at the incredibly long odds the Red Sox faced, at the full weight of history, at the generations of heartache caused by previous trips to the postseason… you look at it all and how can you not be optimistic? Anything is possible. If the Red Sox can win the World Series, especially the way they did, what are you going to tell me is impossible?

Don’t forget this guy
9:49 am

I became a fan during the 1999 Cleveland series when he was dominant in the most thankless position in baseball, long reliever. He later excelled as a closer and became an All-Star and a Boston hero. Then faltered and Boston hated him. I had great hope for his starting career, and he made so good on that promise that he started the All-Star Game and complete redeemed himself. He wasn’t as great his next year, but became the hero in Oakland. This year he was okay and in 9/pitched his way back to the bullpen for the playoffs. I thought it was right, but I also thought it was right that he would start in the ALCS and the World Series. His last two starts were nothing short of brilliant

Lowe has paid his dues. He got promoted and demoted, he worked hard to get to be the man who clinched every post-season series win in 2004. Come to to think of it, the clincher in our other two series wins since 1986 was Pedro. Couldn’t happen to two better Red Sox (well, maybe Tim Wakefield).

Conspiracy?
10:16 am
Idiot announcer Tim McCarver has history with both teams. He was released by the Red Sox four months before the 1975 World Series. And of course he played in the 1967 World Series… catching for the Cardinals against the Red Sox. Where might his allegiances have lied. Oh, and let’s not forget that Joe Buck’s father was a longtime announcer for the Cardinals and that Joe broke into broadcasting… as an announcer for the Cardinals.

No, they were definitely fair. They would have sucked just as hard covering any two teams.

Subject: RE: Sox
10:26 am
To: Metrick
thanks, man. it's indeed awesome and i'm still having trouble wrapping my head around it. sox-yankees will never be like it was this year, and i for one think that's OK.

I love it
10:34 am
Last night on NESN, someone called in posing as Mike O’Malley from “Yes, Dear.” Although after watching it again, the guy just wanted to say congrats to the Sox, awesome game, not promote any agenda or be crazy. I think a guy called in who happened to be named Mike O’Malley and the studio people were waiting for the real Mike O’Malley to call in, got confused, and the guy just ran with it. Boston’s a small town.

AAAAHHH!!
10:43 am
The Red Sox won the World Series! It keep hitting me!

Subject: morph request
10:57 am
To: john@theremyreport.com
i'm sure everyone's saying it, but babe ruth becomes david ortiz. or bob stanley becomes keith foulke.

2004 in Boston
11:02 am
Patriots win the Super Bowl.
Red Sox win the World Series.
Let’s elect John Kerry and make the best year in Massachusetts history even better, yes?

Subject: fun fact
11:16 am
To: Scott
Dear Scott,
The Red Sox won the World Series. Just thought you'd like to know.
Love,
Jason

Subject: taking a page from our book
11:22 am
To: CornholiO'Keefe, Meyers, Sheinkin, John Tomase
well, the globe did it slightly differently, but the same basic idea.
http://cache.boston.com/sports/special/redsox/2004alcs/globepages/page1_102804.pdf
my headline would have simply read: SHMURSE i think this why i'm not in a position to do stuff like that

SOX!

Subject: interesting
11:23 am
To: Brian
Dear Brian,
The Red Sox won the World Series. Just thought you should know.
Love,
Dan

Subject: canada's pasttime
11:24 am
To: Rubin
is cellucci going berserk today? he has every right to...

The rest of our lives, the conversation goes like this
11:26 am
“So, when did you two get married?”

“One month to the day after the Red Sox won the World Series.”

“I know exactly when that was.”

More Sox because you WANT IT
12:38 pm
He’s not a Boston columnist, and usually he’s better with gossip and analysis than writing, but Jayson Stark wrote a masterpiece about the Red Sox that captures my flabbergasted and awed state.

Subject: did you hear about this?
2:42 pm
To: Meaghan
the red sox won the world series!
you know, in case you forgot.

Subject: did you see this one?
3:10 pm
To: Meaghan
i love it, i love it, i love it. I LOVE IT:

"Schilling: We wouldn't have won with A-Rod"
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/fallclassic/news/story?id=1911287

I’m about done talking about the Red Sox
3:12 pm
Reading the Sports Guy’s column on the win, and he made some points I made here, as well as some I made at the bar and later in my living room. This is an amazing moment, but it’s personal for millions and, I know, I’m probably not saying much new. People like the Sports Guy because you read him and say, “Yeah, that’s what we were saying. And kinda funnier.” I want better. I want someone who can tell me something I couldn’t come up with on my own.

Anyway, we now return to our blog, already in progress. Up next: the debut of my band at the Halloween party, the election, Thanksgiving, and then my, uh, wedding. And then we’re into December. And that’s the closest you’ll get to a plan of attack here. They’re Surgical Strikes, but they go down as soon as they’re thought of. Which you already know (if this isn’t your first clambake).

Ugh
3:17 pm
Okay, I just read more and only a quarter of the way through he has two things from my blog and a joke my friend said at the bar last night. Maybe the best effect of this win will be the end of fascination with Mr. Simmons…

More references
3:25 pm
Is it fair to bemoan an ESPN columnist for making the same references and observations as me? Maybe I’m the hack writer if I said all this.

No, I don’t pretend to be anything other than a guy with a blog who sometimes writes about sports. I don’t pretend to know more than you — I’m sure you know more than me. I was late to the party, getting on board in college. I was 2 when Bucky Dent happened and I wasn’t aware of baseball in the world in 1986. I didn’t really follow the Red Sox until the ’90s, didn’t become a full-on obsessive until 1999. I shouldn’t write a sports column and I don’t pretend to. I’m allowed to be an amateur. He’s not.

People don’t understand my problem with Bill Simmons, but it’s simple — I only want to read people who are better writers than me. In most magazines and newspapers, that isn’t a problem. Over at ESPN.com Gammons, Stark, and Neyer are brilliant, and I really like Kurkjian, Caple, and Neel. But as for the Sports Guy… well, I’m surprised he doesn’t like Jimmy Fallon. After all, they’ve both managed to trick the world into calling them geniuses when they just don’t bring anything to the party except the illusion that they know what they’re doing.

By the way, I’m still only halfway through his column.

Who got the most drunk last night?
3:41 pm
1. Nomar
2. A-Rod
3. Grady Little
4. George Steinbrenner
5. Dan Duquette
6. Dan Shaughnessy
7. Dan Tobin

Subject: Re: "why not us" shirts
8:16 am
To: Doorman X
i'm sad my why not us shirt didn't arrive while the series was still going on. but if that's my late-october disappointment, SO BE IT. i'm only starting to comprehend this, although still not totally. are you going to boston for the parade? this may well be the city's defining moment.

oh, and in other news THE RED SOX WON THE WORLD SERIES. can you imagine how much worse this would be if the Pats hadn't warmed us up a bit?

Subject: Re: Yeah, okay, CRYING
11:35 am
To: Meaghan
they'd better sign pedro. i even bet he'll be better against the yankees now.

Subject: RE: canada's pasttime
12:06 pm
To: Rubin
for months i've been saying to meaghan that the globe's headline should have just been SHMURSE. when i said it, i didn't really think there would be any chance of the situation even coming up. so when i saw dan shaugnessy at Game 1 in Anaheim, i didn't mention it to him. now i'm realizing, i should have.

The Red Sox post to end all Red Sox posts
1:07 pm
Two days in, I’m starting understand this a little better.



The comic Eddie Pepitone does a bit where he’s so excited about his team winning that he thinks it actually changes his life. He calls his bank and they say he has $20 in there. “Check again! The Yankees won the World Series!”

Fans put stake in their teams’ exploits that non-fans could never understand. And Red Sox fans, as everyone will tell you, are unique in that. Part of the appeal is not that they always lost, but that because they always lost, every year is about hope. When the Sox would lose, it killed you because it was the death of hope. You can dislike the Red Sox, but if you don’t identify with an underdog, you’re not the kind of person I want to know.

Someone I knew was devastated by last years’s ALCS. It had been a shitty year, and so all the faith went to the Red Sox, who looked poised to finally do it. Which made it impossible to reconcile when you knew that the loss could have been avoided, should have been avoided, and the impossible opportunity that comes once a decade or two had eluded us again. This person was crushed, inconsolable, and rightly so. It was the death of hope, it was the good guys losing, it was everything unfair and wrong about life proven true.

2004 as a year of life didn’t turn out exactly like I expected. I will have been unemployed from Spring Training through Saturday’s parade, and it hasn’t been all wine and roses. Along the way, Meaghan and I probably watched 135-145 of the 162 games. We lived and died by them. One of our biggest fights of the year was after a crushing Yankees loss (the day before the Varitek-shoving-A-Rod incident). Having a pretty shitty year myself, and despite my best instincts, I gave my heart to the Red Sox completely. I went to Game 1 of the playoffs and nearly exploded with joy, but Game 1 against the Yankees really messed me up. I felt betrayed, almost dead inside. I was fool letting myself believe. During Game 3, I managed to talk myself out of caring. We only casually tuned into half of Game 4. Then things started to shift

By the middle of Game 5, I was completely back in. On the eve of Game 6, a loss could have put me off baseball for years. And when we won Game 7, I was beyond words. Meaghan said it rivalled the day we got engaged as one of the greatest moments of her life, and I don’t begrudge her that. I feel the same way.

The world is a messed up place. Crimes go unpunished, big corporations snuff out small businesses, politicians put war ahead of health care and the environment, the rich live without boundaries while the poor slave their lives away, good connections beat good talent. Bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. I’m not sure life is patently unfair, but the bad guys win often enough to make me know that life sure isn’t fair.

But sometimes, you remember it doesn’t always have to be like that. Sometimes the underdog wins and you remember despair isn’t the only option. You can believe there is good in the world and that things might be okay. The Red Sox won the World Series. What obstacle stands in my way bigger than that? This win gives Boston a trophy and a new identity, but it also gives the world hope. Hope that even your wildest dreams might come true — if you prepare for it, work hard, never back down, and believe in your teammates. ($125 million doesn’t hurt, either.)



Okay, a lot of you probably think I’m a kook, and for those of you not inside all of this, I’ll just say this has been a profoundly moving experience that has changed my world and the worlds of so many people I know. Sports are more than just athletes throwing, catching, and hitting balls. They’re life. And right now, life is good. Life is very, very good. In 20 years, will I remember being unemployed or the Sox’ win?

Anyway, I think I’ve got my Sox posting out of my system for a while. Back to naming Muppets, updating you on things I spill, and telling you that I’m awesome. Which, by the way, I really am.

Subject: Re: Yeah, okay, CRYING
2:05
To: Meaghan
i think you've had the right idea all along -- this really is about deserving it. i don't think i really got that until now. except that no matter how sloppy we were or what mistakes we made, i ALWAYS thought we deserved it.

last night i wondered about religion. after all, isn't it mostly about 1) believing there's something bigger than you out there, 2) sharing this belief with others who practice what you do? we have faith in the team and in the destiny of the baseball universe, and we feel a kinship with red sox fans the way alon felt a kinship with people at temple out here. it sounds crazy, but sometimes i actually think the red sox are more of my religion than anything else i know. and like schilling became a christian 7 years ago, i was born again in 1999.

i keep feeling insane writing all this kind of stuff. it's making me very emotional, and i can't tell you how much it means to me that you liked my post. in fact, now i'm crying a little myself. this is just going to make going to the dry cleaners all the sweeter. it's not 86 years, but i did make you wait all week for it, and you probably thought it would never come. i hope the dress doesn't roll through my legs.

fuck, i just pulled myself together and now i'm getting weepy again. I don't know how to do this! i think i should go listen to my ipod on the way to getting some freshly dry cleaned clothes. we'll talk later today.