Dk's Dugout

2004 was an incredible year for the Boston Red Sox, and for Red Sox fans. Although I don’t need to point this out to anyone reading this article I’m sure, I will because I’m not even close to being sick of saying it: The 2004 Boston Red Sox won the World Series. While the Sox players and management are obviously deserving of much of the credit for putting an end to The Curse that had been hanging over our most beloved franchise for 86 years, the contributions of us, the fans, should not be overlooked in helping to begin a new tradition for Boston’s baseball team: Winning World Championships.

Unfortunately, having won the World Series in ’04 does not necessarily translate into another title in ’05. Already the Yankees are the heavy odds-on favorites to win the 2005 World Series. So in order for a repeat performance of the most amazing baseball season I or any Sox fan under the age of 95 has ever witnessed, much of the same magic will somehow need to replicate itself this season. This means much of the same clutch performances and never-die attitudes of the Red Sox themselves, but it also means the same spectacular work out of the greatest sports fans in the world; Us, the Boston Red Sox fans.

My brother Brian complained to me last year that rooting for the Red Sox had suddenly become way too trendy. Most of these new people who were all of a sudden pledging their allegiance to the Sox weren’t even paying attention to the games when they were at Fenway (nevermind when they went to bars or friend’s houses to “watch” the Sox). He said the Red Sox had become like the Chicago Cubs, loveable losers that “rooting for” was really code for “reason to get drunk watching a game…and who really cares if they win or lose”. And while Brian may be right, there may be many more “trendy” Red Sox fans than ever before, I know there are still plenty of us “real” Red Sox fans out there too.

What is the difference between a trendy Red Sox fan and a real Red Sox fan? It’s actually quite simple. Both are rooting for Boston, no doubt about it. But the trendy Red Sox fan simply hopes the Sox win whereas the real Red Sox fan actually helps the Sox win.

I am, and always have been (like most of you) a REAL Red Sox fan. This became painfully clear to me in the mid-90s when I went on a triple-date to Fenway with two of my brothers and our three girlfriends.

By the seventh inning one of the girls had convinced one of my brothers to leave early. At the end of the ninth, despite the score being tied, my other brother had also been persuaded to leave. We were the last surviving couple, and I was not going anywhere. I offered to give my girlfriend money to take a cab home if she wished, but I made it quite clear I was staying to the end. She said she would stay until the end as well, which I thought at the time showed just how awesome she was. Though my opinion would change after our breakup when she referred to that Red Sox game as “the most torturous six hours of my life”, for that night at least she pretended to be happy to be there, and we stayed into extra innings.

The game went into the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th innings, and we remained at Fenway. We now had nearly six hours invested into the game; so obviously leaving would have made no sense. Plus many of the less die-hard fans (or “less insane people” as my soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend would later refer to them) were exiting Fenway with each passing inning. By the time the 16th inning rolled around we had moved all the way up to the front row, just to the third-base side of the screen behind home plate.

In the top of the 16th there was no scoring, so the Sox would be coming to the plate with the score still tied. We were now easily within earshot of the batters, something that pleased me beyond compare (and likely horrified my girlfriend to an equal extreme). Up for the Red Sox stepped third baseman Tim Naehring, and I felt like this was my chance to really step up.

“Timmy…hit one outta here! I gotta work tomorrow brotha!!!”

And bang! Just like that Timmy Naehring sent one flying over the Monster and ended the marathon of a game. Everyone still at the game was obviously a real Red Sox fan, and we celebrated as one, giving high-fives to strangers and shouting our satisfaction from the tops of our lungs. We were just as pleased with Naehring for ending the game with his homer as we were with ourselves for staying to witness it.

I was especially satisfied, since I had told Timmy to hit one out on that very pitch. It took my girlfriend a solid ten minutes after we had left the ballpark to realize that I actually believed I had won, or at least helped to win, the game for the Red Sox.

“You do realize you’re insane, right?”

“I think you might be insane if you DON’T think I helped win that game. You were standing right next to me. You heard what I yelled to him.”

And that was it for the conversation that followed-up our six hours at Fenway Park that night. Soon that was it for our relationship as well. Being a real Red Sox fan and being completely insane are not all that far removed, but if she couldn’t decipher the difference I figured I was just as well off without her.

But I did have something to do with the Sox victory that night, I’m sure of it. Just like I’m sure all of us real Red Sox fans had something to do with the fact that there will be a World Series ring ceremony on opening day at Fenway this year. It might have been the clothing you wore, or the way you wore it. It might have been where you were sitting, or whom you were sitting with. It might have been the shouts of encouragement or advice you yelled to the hometown team (even if it was via a television screen from a couch or barstool). It might have been any number of things you did that helped the Red Sox win the World Series in 2004, but whatever it was you did, it worked.

This brings us to 2005, the first year since 1919 Boston Red Sox fans will be able to proudly proclaim their team “Defending World Series Champions”. But as gratifying as it was in 2004 to make the greatest playoff comeback of all-time against the Yankees in the ALCS, beat the Cardinals to win the World Series and finally end The Curse, this is an entirely new season. Winning the World Series last year does not lessen the desire to win the World Series this year (at least it shouldn’t). The Red Sox have new players this season and are certain to face new challenges while attempting to defend their crown. Another Aaron Boone moment would still be devastating come October, regardless of last season’s results.

I know that wishing “the Sox win it just once before I die” was a popular cry while The Curse still existed, but nobody really meant it. At least I didn’t. I plan to live another 60 or 70 years, and the idea that I have seem my last Red Sox World Series title is not merely unfathomable, it’s downright unacceptable.

I want the Red Sox to be World Champions again in my lifetime. I want it to happen in 2005.

So in order to do our part, as the greatest sports fans in the world, to help our team reach the same heights they did in 2004 when they became World Series Champions (did I mention I wasn’t getting sick of saying that yet?), we must bring the same love, intensity and enthusiasm to the upcoming season that we brought to the last. Whatever it was we did in ’04 to help the Sox to the title, we did it right. Now let’s do it again.