HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
Oct. 28, 2004 When you’re married to a Yankee fan, hearing the sounds from a baseball broadcast at one in the morning is not an unexpected occurrence. Even though Alan “keeps it low” the voices of the announcers and the shouts of the fans penetrate my sleepy mind and I know everything that is going on in Fenway Park and what the score is during the twelfth inning. But I like it; I am a fan too. It’s a peaceful, comforting Summertime sound. I nodded off when the Yankees, my “boys,” were winning. I was secure in the knowledge that they were going to win the fourth out of a seven game series against the Red Sox and go on to the World Series. I awoke to a surprise. Sometime, while I was sleeping, the Bosox went on to beat the Yankees. The scraggy, hairy men of the Boston “Red-Stocking” Team somehow won against my clean-cut All-American boys! “Don’t worry, we’ll get back on top,” says Alan as if he is the owner of the team. Then to his surprise and the surprise of Yankee fans worldwide, the Sox won the series! The supposed curse of the Bambino seemed to be fading away! “They’ll never beat the Cards. This is like a carrot held to their noses. They’ll get a whiff of victory, but they won’t win the World Series, no way!” he tells me. Fast forward to the World Series and the ‘Sox against the Cards; quicker than Yankee fans can say, “there is no curse, your team just stinks, (of course, some Yankee fans use a different epithet that also begins with the letter ‘s’ ), they’re up three games to nothing in a seven game series! Maybe being hairy and scraggy helps a team win, who knows? My husband, Alan, is a tried and true Yankee fan from in utero. His father was a Yankee fan and his mother’s obstetrician was probably discussing the Yankees during his delivery. “So how about those Yankees, Mrs. H? Breathe, don’t push yet. What do you think of their bull- pen this year? Okay you’re 5 centimeters, that’s good! Now about their catcher…” As I said he is a true Yankee fan but he says he is not a “fan-atic.” In other words he will give credit where credit is due, albeit somewhat grudgingly. He takes the philosophical approach to a Red Sox victory by saying it is a historic event. “Listen, they haven’t won the World Series in 86 years; how great is it to view history in the making?” He’s a history buff. “We’ll be able to tell our great-grandchildren we saw the Sox beat the curse. How about that, hon?” Uh-huh. He’s a little too philosophical if you ask me, even as he tells people his theory about witnessing history and all. His philosophy undergoes a dramatic change when the Red Sox win four straight games and become World Series champions after an 86 year wait. “Hey hon,” I say to him the morning after the win, “I guess we will be able to tell our future great-grandkids we witnessed history. I’m so glad that you have that attitude. Some people take this stuff way too seriously! You have a really good handle on it.” He looks at me and slowly enunciates every syllable as he says: “Ah yes, history. Yeah we’ll be able to say we saw history. We’ll be able to tell our great- grandchildren that the last time the Sox won was in… 2004 because…..they are not ever going to be a World Series again! Ever!” “Alan? Are you okay? I mean, it is just a game, right?” “Why wouldn’t I be okay? But you’re wrong about it being “just” a game, honey.” “Well I know that it’s a series but…” “Are you insane? It’s not just a game, not just a series, it’s THE WORLD SERIES and the Red Sox, who haven’t won a WORLD SERIES in 86 years won it! Omigod!” He looks horrified at what he has just said. “How did this happen? I mean how did this happen? How did the Yankees and then the Cards let this happen?” He looks to me for an explanation. “Maybe they were just a better team?” Oops! “You mean the Red Sox? The Red Sox were a better team? Than the Yankees? Than the Cards? Is that possible?” He is trying to grasp the impossibility of my statement. “Well, okay then. Maybe, maybe they were just, I don’t know, hungrier. You know, after not winning for so long, maybe they just hungered for victory!” “What?” He seems far away. “Maybe,” I say speaking slowly and clearly, “maybe they were just hungrier than the other teams and craved victory.” He looks at me with some comprehension. “You think so? You know, somehow your statement makes sense in a strange kind of way. It is a possibility.” He seems to be coming around to a new way of thinking. I hear him mention this “hungry version” on the phone later on in the day. “Yeah, the Sox were just hungrier for victory, that’s all really. Kristen and I were talking about that this morning. They just wanted it more, doesn’t really matter. They’ll probably never do a Yankee “three-peat, win three World Series in a row. They were just hungrier, right honey?” he says patting me affectionately as I pass by on my way to the kitchen. Hungrier, maybe; hairier definitely. I think as I go grab a snack Those hairy scraggy bums beat my Yankees!! ------------ About the author: Besides being a featured columnist for the wonderful Useless-Knowledge.com magazine, Kristen Houghton is the School Reform editor and writer for BellaOnline.com magazine. She is a writer and journalist whose work has appeared in Questing Magazine and Images. Her book of short stories is being readied for publication in the very near future. Email: Krisnalan@aol.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
