Tuesday, October 23, 2007
NOW & THEN
The magic is missing.
Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that the Red Sox are back in the World Series, but this time, it's different.
A sense of wonderment seems to be missing. Anybody see wonderment?
Wonderment was seeing the Sox come back from that 0-3 hole against the Yankees in 2004. Cardinals? Hah! Curse over.
It was that warm feeling in 1986, when they were "on the verge" against the Mets.
It was cheering on that great 1975 team that never became the dynasty we thought it would.
But most of all, wonderment was defined by a bunch of kids who went from worst to first in 1967. The Cardiac Kids.
Has it really been 40 years? The memories seem so fresh.
They rolled the big black-and-white TVs into the Framingham North High School library so we could watch the Sox in their first World Series in our lifetimes.
It was more than a treat. It was our civic duty.
Before the Impossible Dream team, the Red Sox had drifted aimlessly into irrelevancy. You could buy a $2.00 grandstand seat, and sneak past the usher into those $3.50 field boxes. Actually, you didn't sneak past the usher. They just didn't much care.
Attendance had shrunk to less than 700,000 by 1965. The average crowd that year: about 8,000. Really.
But '67 brought a kiddie corps to Fenway that lit the pilot for what has become Red Sox Nation (much to the enrichment and perhaps amazement and amusement of the current ownership).
In the infield, from right to left, with their current ages in parentheses...George Scott (63), the original "Boomer"...Mike Andrews (64), who now heads up the Jimmy Fund, Rico Petrocelli (64), and Joe Foy, who is no longer with us.
And there was the sweet-swinging outfield of the late, lamented and cursed Tony C...Reggie Smith (62), and Yaz (68!). And we can't forget he of the Nehru jacket and swingin' medallions, Ken "Hawk" Harrelson (66), acquired after Tony C. went down so suddenly and sickeningly.
Gentleman Jim Lonborg (65) was the breakout pitcher.
The man who whipped this crew into shape was the new skipper, Dick Williams (78), a former infielder with a master sergeant mentality.
And the fans returned to Fenway Park. Just two years after attendance bottomed out, those kids drew an average crowd of 21,000.
Those were the days before free agency, before the luxury tax, before luxury skyboxes, before even a sneeze on every radio broadcast is "brought to you by..."
Those were the days when many ballplayers had to get REAL jobs in the off-season to make ends meet.
Those were the days when the impossible suddenly became the possible.
I'm not saying those days were better. I'm not saying they were more fun. I won't even say they were simpler (because that's too simple).
Perhaps I might call them "less fettered."
Even though the manager is now a part-time psychologist, and many of the players are multi-millionaires, the uniforms are the same as they were in '67 (more or less, don't go all picky on me), and the game is the same.
Great uniforms, great game.
But this year, it seems entitlement has replaced wonderment.
Good lord, is this how Yankees fans feel?
Posted at 12:31 AM by Gerry
7 Comments:
remember Sox fans have heart and soul, Yankee fans are black on the inside
I remember my very first Red Sox game, and the wonderment I felt when we walked up the ramp and the beauty of Fenway hit me right in the face. I took a step back, the 14 year old that I was, and looked again, in amazement. The year was 1967, and that love and wonder continues. Thanks Gerry....great post! Go Sox!
It's like Peter said. It's not the hype, the tickts so expensive that I will be lucky to take my kids, the fenway franks that cost more than a steak, etc. What it is about is when my grandfather took me to my first game in 1960 at age five after my mother had collected enough of the first national grocery receipt paper tape that had the red mark on it for free tickets. Of course he got me there before batting practice so I think I made it to the third inning before I was out of little kid patience. No one can ever over price reliving memories. Go Sox and thanks grandpa.
My grandfather took me to my first game as well...and yes, as Mastercard would say, the memories are priceless.
Gerry, I remember listening to a lot of games on radio. I also remember one of the DJ'S on WDRC AM referring to Yaz as YAZ-A-MA-TAZ. What is the HAWK doing these days? I loved watching him when he was doing the broadcasting.
I believe the Hawk is back in the White Sox broadcasting booth after serving a brief stint as their general manager.
I was thinking the same thing about how Yankee fans after they won all those world series.
So I asked a couple of Yankee fans about it . They basically said it's still a win but the bloom is off the rose.
At least this years Sox squashed everyone saying "You have to wait another 86 years.
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