Friday, October 07, 2005
Flaunting with History
We red sox fans sure take pride in our history. Like Beth, I don't see what's wrong with that. Isn't the personal love we each have for our team, and even for baseball in general about the journey that has brought us here? Each year is it's own unique ride, each game it's own story unfolding under bright lights to the sounds of cheers and groans and roars, to the taste of beer and peanuts and franks. Reaching the end of the season is to me just like the end of a good book... you've felt it coming on for awhile now, and as each chapter escalates to an unknown climax, the emotion riding our gut charges each game with more voltage; the nervous energy turns your mind with possibilities: will today bring the thrill of victory? Or the agony of defeat? At certain points all you can hope for is to turn the page and see words on the next...
Most of the time as sports fans, the journey does not end at a rainbow. Some rides are peaceful but boring, with no expectation of the destination. Some are so dark and dreary that many jump off - waiting to take the trip next year, and hitch-hiking on another if it looks like fun. The ones we remember most are breathtakingly exciting, at times taking us to thrilling hights - twisting and turning, plunging to the depths at a moment's notice, and just when we ponder if we ought to jump, for fear of crash & burn... up we go again, so fast we may feel like we are flying! Yes these are the trips from which stories are made. Because there is something to talk about! The pot of gold may be a glorious prize, but the search for it is what life is really about.
Red Sox Nation has too many stories? The media over-dramatizes our history, and other fans are sick of it? I'm not saying we care any more about our team, or that our history is any more important... But I know that the passion is stirred by excitement; the stories make us who we are as fans. Do other fans seriously not feel the drama of baseball? Is it possible they resent our stories through lack of their own? IS THAT FAIR? I mean, after all, most of our stories have been tragedies. And I don't blame people for getting sick of the media - which drones on like a broken record, year after year, no matter what the subject. We don't like hearing it either. How many times can you listen to the same story, no matter how much you love it? How many of you have snapped at your significant other as they start to tell you some story for the third or fourth time? Was it not much of a story or, like everyone else in the world, DO YOU JUST NOT LIKE LISTENING TO THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AGAIN? heh. Repetition is annoying, and frankly I could go on and on about it, which would be rather hypocritical. I'm sure that every single person reading this post, regardless of race, creed, or team affiliation, wishes that Tim McCarver (or at least his production managers with FOX Sports) would read this too, and get it through his thick skull that we do not like hearing him prattle on about the same things, year in and year out... Not just red sox nation but the entire nation, in fact almost everyone who's ever heard him, most likely even his wife, wants him to SHUT UP!
Anyway, it doesn't surprise me all that much that white sox fans resent the pride we red sox fans take in our history. We have exciting stories to tell, and many of them are recent. The Chicago White Sox have not seen much excitement at all of late... in fact there aren't too many fans out there, I imagine, with great stories to tell of seasons to remember. There is one season that EVERYONE remembers, and there's not a lot of pride one can take in it. The desire to put this behind them is a ticket-selling draw, and White Sox fans surely wish that people would never EVER mention their history at all.
So here's what I've been wondering ALL YEAR: Why do the White Sox wear black socks?
Most of the time as sports fans, the journey does not end at a rainbow. Some rides are peaceful but boring, with no expectation of the destination. Some are so dark and dreary that many jump off - waiting to take the trip next year, and hitch-hiking on another if it looks like fun. The ones we remember most are breathtakingly exciting, at times taking us to thrilling hights - twisting and turning, plunging to the depths at a moment's notice, and just when we ponder if we ought to jump, for fear of crash & burn... up we go again, so fast we may feel like we are flying! Yes these are the trips from which stories are made. Because there is something to talk about! The pot of gold may be a glorious prize, but the search for it is what life is really about.
Red Sox Nation has too many stories? The media over-dramatizes our history, and other fans are sick of it? I'm not saying we care any more about our team, or that our history is any more important... But I know that the passion is stirred by excitement; the stories make us who we are as fans. Do other fans seriously not feel the drama of baseball? Is it possible they resent our stories through lack of their own? IS THAT FAIR? I mean, after all, most of our stories have been tragedies. And I don't blame people for getting sick of the media - which drones on like a broken record, year after year, no matter what the subject. We don't like hearing it either. How many times can you listen to the same story, no matter how much you love it? How many of you have snapped at your significant other as they start to tell you some story for the third or fourth time? Was it not much of a story or, like everyone else in the world, DO YOU JUST NOT LIKE LISTENING TO THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AGAIN? heh. Repetition is annoying, and frankly I could go on and on about it, which would be rather hypocritical. I'm sure that every single person reading this post, regardless of race, creed, or team affiliation, wishes that Tim McCarver (or at least his production managers with FOX Sports) would read this too, and get it through his thick skull that we do not like hearing him prattle on about the same things, year in and year out... Not just red sox nation but the entire nation, in fact almost everyone who's ever heard him, most likely even his wife, wants him to SHUT UP!
Anyway, it doesn't surprise me all that much that white sox fans resent the pride we red sox fans take in our history. We have exciting stories to tell, and many of them are recent. The Chicago White Sox have not seen much excitement at all of late... in fact there aren't too many fans out there, I imagine, with great stories to tell of seasons to remember. There is one season that EVERYONE remembers, and there's not a lot of pride one can take in it. The desire to put this behind them is a ticket-selling draw, and White Sox fans surely wish that people would never EVER mention their history at all.
So here's what I've been wondering ALL YEAR: Why do the White Sox wear black socks?
Behold, the BLACK SOX MOJO:
No way can that be good.# posted by Rebecca @ 11:06 AM 
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My goodness. Friday already. Obviously the Sox HAVE TO win today. I hate to look past, but the rain tomorrow would surely help our rotation in the ensuing 2(?) games. Just a thought. I really hope to see a vintage HAPPY Reb post here later, around 8 or so. I'm going to a concert tonight, but heading in I'll have a pretty good idea if there will be meaningful baseball tomorrow. Oh, and Roger fails again in the post-season. It's uncanny how his post-season record compares to his overall one. GO SOX, as the sun is shining for now at Fenway, and they will get the game in. Not so for the Yanks.
it's so true, Beth. what makes us so obsessed with our history? It's the passion we hold for our team, passion born of the stories we have to tell... stories of heartbreak, but stories of excitement! Despite the many trainwrecks red sox fans have seen in the last 86 years, the rides themselves have been fun, like riding a roller coaster. Not so for the white sox fans, who have been lulled to sleep by the clickety-clack of a slow moving train through the flat prairie of Illinois.
OH DEAR!
I did not mean that at all, Beth. I was speaking of the uneventfulness of their recent baseball seasons, not their lives or personalities or outlook! I may have spent most of my life in New Endland, but I lived in Chicago for two years in my twenties, as well as spending summers in Michigan and Nebraska. My mother is from Minnesota, where I was conceived and still have lots of family, and I spent the first four years of my life in Missouri... er, I most certainly do not perceive midwesterners as "sleepy" in fact I know for a fact that they aren't!
I can, however, see how many, many seasons of boring baseball might have dulled the sense of drama in white sox fans... at least regarding the way they feel about their team. Maybe this season will change all that.
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I did not mean that at all, Beth. I was speaking of the uneventfulness of their recent baseball seasons, not their lives or personalities or outlook! I may have spent most of my life in New Endland, but I lived in Chicago for two years in my twenties, as well as spending summers in Michigan and Nebraska. My mother is from Minnesota, where I was conceived and still have lots of family, and I spent the first four years of my life in Missouri... er, I most certainly do not perceive midwesterners as "sleepy" in fact I know for a fact that they aren't!
I can, however, see how many, many seasons of boring baseball might have dulled the sense of drama in white sox fans... at least regarding the way they feel about their team. Maybe this season will change all that.
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