washed up losers

i have not felt this way about the red sox since you know when.

most people, i believe, have forgotten what it was like down 0 and 3 two years ago. everyone forsook them. many people, in the warm afterglow of the world series claim that they were secretly with them the whole time, but those people are lying. the naive eternal optimism of "we'll get 'em next time"/"sure, pedro can just pitch on 2 days rest..."/"if they just manage to sweep the yankees twice in september..." attitude which had always defined red sox fans was washed away for that day or so. it was unprecedented. for the first time in the modern era the entire fanbase lost hope, but unlike in those prior instances the players, who were usually far more ambivalent, did not. to me it was this momentary inversion of the fan-to-team dynamic that made their world series win so staggering. more than the odds against a comeback or the revenge angle, it was the fact that they first got to the point where probably the most loyal and stupidly optimistic fans in baseball thought they were finished and hated them. of course, it was only a day or so before mr. ortiz talked us down from that ledge, but the point is that is was a pretty hairy 24-48 hours. most people won't admit it, but i didn't even watch the first half of game 4, and what now seems mind-boggling in retrospect struck me at the time as prolonging the inevitable. i didn't watch the first part of game 5 either--i spent those innings being made fun of in the dining hall (if your girlfriend says she'll dye her hair red..."when the red sox win the world series!" causing a tablefull of people to burst into riotous laughter at your expense...and 9 days later they do, and she doesn't do it, you should get a medal for not having a mental breakdown).

but i digress. the point is that i am officially losing hope in the 2006 red sox. a similar tactic was effective in 2004 (and to a lesser extent in 1999 and 2003). this is your signal to start winning, guys--i mean, lousy bums. wink.