Yes, but the 86’ Sox were as good or better than any team out there. Better than the Mets. And they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Which is the point of the OP. That special Red Sox fan pain. The pain of having your team get so close, so close, and then blow it.
water2j said:
All this is true, but when Ted is asked about the World Series, you can see the pain in his eyes.
IMHO, the OP is dead wrong. The Red Sox are cursed!
Considerations of grammar aside, this truly is a revealing quote.
Who could possibly get worked up about playing the Toronto Blue Jays? In my opinion, this team will never develop a substantial rivalry. They could play for the next millenium, and no one will give a rat’s ass about beating them. They are the plain yogurt of baseball. Bland, bland, bland. No rivalries. Not a hope of one. No chance.
Yeah, well, so did Aurther Miller, but I don’t think that means Miller could hit a Bob Feller fastball.
Jesus, let’s try that again.
A-r-t-h-u-r.
Maybe not, but he could write about a Bob Feller fastball secure in the knowledge that he has had his johnson up Marylin’s hoo-ha and Feller hasn’t.
It’s like that old saying (which I just made up) … “In life, it’s not what you do, it’s who you fuck.”
[sub]For the love of Buddha, don’t take me seriously … it’s not even 8:30 and I’ve barely had any coffee yet.[/sub]
So which would you rather have… a team with a good rivalry that loses and loses and loses, year after year, decade after decade, committing one colossal choke after another for generations, or the joy of witnessing a bland team win two World Championships, knowing your team had achieved the ultimate goal of profesisonal baseball excellence, and to watch the World Championship banners hoisted atop your stadium to be forever displayed in all their glory, and knowing that you can tell your children and your grandchildren that you witnessed Joe Carter smite his mighty homer, slaying the gallant Phillies and causing the entire nation to rejoice?
I’m very satisfied with the latter.
It’s funny, though; I went to the Hall of Fame back in '95 and they had this movie playing of a variety of baseball highlights. When the clip of Joe Carter hitting him home run was shown, the entire crowd booed lustily. I was ecstatic. See, nobody boos the Red Sox. They just pity them.
How can you say that the Red Sox will never win a World Series? You can never say never. If you put a million monkeys in a million Red Sox uniforms and they played a million seasons, then the Red Sox could, in fact, have a chance to win the World Series.
They’ll win again. Just give them time. This Yankee fan has a lot of stored-up rivalry hatred that can’t be expended because, well, I kinda feel sorry for the Red Sox.
I thought that’s what they had been trying.
:d&r:
Hey, I was making no claims as to who was better. Nut it was DiMaggio that Hemingway wrote about in The Old Man and the Sea, and that Paul Simon sang about. And the reason probably had more to do with being on the winning team than any real difference in their abilities.
Which is why I said I wish I could be alive to see it (I’m only 27). But the law of averages says eventually they will win another World Series.
And I know the pain of watching your team choke when they are so close. Not in baseball, however. (Except last year’s NLCS. What happened, Cards?)
I’m talking about hockey. I grew up and still live in St Louis. I’m a Blues fan.
Number of consecutive years the Blues have made the playoffs (including this year): 22
Number of Stanley Cups won: 0
So I can understand a Red Sox fan’s pain.
Well . . .
Not necessarily.
There’s a chance that they’ll get sold and move to another city before they win a series.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by RickJay *
**
Another great tongue-in-cheek response wasted. Oh well.
Rick-of-the-Jays, if a World Series champion is the apostheosis, the pinnacle, the ultimate spectator-gasm of fandom, why on earth are you stuck rooting for the Blue Jays, who will probably win their next title right around the time Al Sharpton is elected President? Why not join the legions of Yankee fans, who have been achieving vicarious glory almost every October in recent years?**
I’ve gotta wonder about your fixation with this subject. Could it have anything to do with the fact that the Sox are a better bet to win the division or wild card than your club? 
To clear up any confusion, the “Jay” in RickJay doesn’t refer to the baseball team. It’s a play on my initials.
Because they could win. They have bad years and good years, like any other team, but they have a chance. Actually, they’re a pretty decent team now - not great, but they have a better shot than some. Let’s say 1 in 20 at a World Series. Maybe close to fifty-fifty for a playoff spot. That’s enough to cheer for.
It doesn’t really matter, though, if you are a Blue Jays fan or a Tigers fan or a Reds fan, how the team is doing NOW. Sooner or later the team will be better, and sooner or later it will be worse. No matter how bad your favorite team is, they’ll win something someday. Who in 1990 would have picked the Braves to win nine straight division titles? Nobody. Who would have picked the Indians to become a big winner? Hell, even the Phillies managed to win one World Series. If there is hope for the Phillies, there is hope for the Astros, the Padres, even the Brewers. Even the Cubs.
But the Red Sox have ZERO shot at a World Series. None. Nada. Zip. Like I said, they’ll win divisions. They will even win pennants. But knowing that there’s no chance any of those things will translate in World Series victories, divisions and pennants are hollow, empty victories. The Red Sox are the empty vessel of baseball. They are a placeholder. They have no hope, not even the faintest glimmer of a chance.
One reason the Sox won’t win the series is the fans…wait a sec, they cheer for the Sox, as well they should, but during Ted Williams time in baseball they did not cheer for him, in fact at times they actively disliked him. Why/ Because was only the best hitter in baseball and not a god. Remember he did not tip his hat to the fans after he hit a home run in his final at bat, he felt they didn’t deserve it.
They treated their other great players with a bit more regard. More Sox fans still look at Tony C. with more fondness then they look at Yaz or Roger Clemens. I know with Tony C. (Conigliaro)there is the whole issue of potential greatness not being met, but they have treated their heroes shabbily. Not quite as shabbily as the Phillies fans have treated their heroes but still not what you would expect out of a home team. Therefore it isn’t the curse of the Bambino that is keeping them from winning, it is the curse of the ungreatful fan.
Keith
As a Mariners fan I have only one thing to say:
I-fucking-chiro!
Domo arigato
JonScribe, gee whiz it sure is refreshing to see a home town fan with such devotion to his team, but your post leads me to ask this question:
What the fuck does that have to do with the price of tea in China?
Go Mariners? Who cares? We’re talking about my beloved Red Sox and their inability to win a World Series, with a little bit of Joe v. Ted thrown in.
Seattle? Who gives a shit? What baseball tradition does Seattle have? None, that’s what. There are mustard stains in Fenway bleachers older than the Mariners.
Let’s try to stick to the subject, shall we?
No question: Williams. Fantasy teams don’t count defense, and player statistics aren’t normalized for ballpark.
Now if your league gives bonus points when one of your players puts the wood to a megababe, you might be able to make a case for Dimaggio…
[sub]Then again, if that were the case for basketball, the hell with Jordan, I’ll draft Wilt first. Some of those women MUST have been hotties.
And actually, with the number of kids Shawn Kemp has had, he probably scored with some lookers as well. [/sub]
Ahem. The 86’ Red Sox should never have made it to the Series. The only reason why they did so was because MY favorite team, the California Angels, snatched defeat from the jaws of victory…
We can only deal with one curse at a time…
That, and playing in New York, with the New York media to hype his accomplishments, report on his off-field doings (esp. the marriage to Marilyn Monroe), etc. No question that DiMaggio attained a sort of mythic status that caused a lot of people, artists included, to use him as a symbol of many things, whereas Williams had such a difficult relationship with the media and fans that it’s almost surprising he’s accorded the respect he undoubtedly earned. But even penalizing Williams (justly) for his lackluster defense, on almost any objective measure you care to use Williams remains far ahead.
I’ll have to qualify an earlier statement just a bit.
Even though defeating the Toronto Blue Jays is in general not much to get excited about, in the context of this debate, the Red Sox’ four-game sweep of the plummeting Jays (concluded this past weekend) was sort of fun.
That’s sweep. As in, get out the brooms. 6 wins out of 7 games for the Sox this year, against what passes for baseball in Ontario.
SWEEEEEEEE…EE…EE…EEP!!!
Nice little home run there, Manny.