http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2...simmons/040929
Being a Mets fan, I despise the Yankees, and since the enemy of my enemy is my friend, the past few years I've become a secondary Red Sox fan by proxy, so to speak. And Bill Simmons writes about the unique romance Sox fans have with their team as well as anyone I've ever read; his post-mortem pieces after the Aaron Boone game last year were hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time. This column is pretty good too, I love the last couple of paragraphs:
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I still remember the minutes and hours after that fateful Game 7 in the Bronx, when I called Dad just to make sure he was still breathing. I still remember the following afternoon, when everything hit me at once -- the residual emotions of the past three weeks swelling up like a killer wave, knocking me right on my back -- and I actually had to leave work early. It was too much. Baseball shouldn't mean this much.
A few months passed. I thought I was okay. Last Friday brought everything back. This isn't about a curse, it's about baggage, the way an accumulation of experiences alters your innate reactions. Like every Red Sox fan, I have baggage. Tons of it. Now we're heading into October with another dicey manager. My guard is up. I can't help it. At the same time, I'm going to spend my entire afternoon monitoring that Yankees doubleheader against Minnesota today. Because you never know.
Everything has changed. Nothing has changed. I don't want to go through this again. I can't live without it. I'm not sure I can handle it. I couldn't imagine any other way.
And if none of this makes sense ... well, you obviously aren't a Red Sox fan.
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I can't wait for the playoffs to begin. I'm not just rooting for the Yankees to lose anymore--I'm rooting for the Red Sox to win.