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Monday, October 20, 2008

All Good Things Must Come To An End

From the first day pitchers and catchers report in February, it's coming. No matter how much we want to deny it, from Spring Training to the All-Star game to the last out of the World Series, it's inevitable. The baseball season will end; for the Boston Red Sox and Red Sox Nation it ended last night. Not at Fenway Park, but in a dump of an indoor park in St. Petersburg, FL of all places.

To a team that had never had a winning record and if anyone in the free world had the foresight to actually lay money down in Vegas on them winning it all? God Bless 'em, because I sure didn't see it coming.

I'm not gonna complain; the boys had another magical run and made it to one game away from the World Series. Along the way, they dealt with injuries to Mikey and JD Drew, Beckett suddenly turning mortal again, and Tek a shell of his former self. Mike Timlin suddenly got old, Ellsbury remembered he was a second year player, and at the end we had Mark Kotsay playing 1B and Jason Bay in RF. He was there because the brass finally decided they'd had enough of Manny being Manny and shipped him off to Cali, where all he did there was look like the greatest player who'd ever lived for a couple of months.

In my eyes? The fact they were even THERE at the end is a minor miracle; facing a team that apparently has destiny and all the good luck in the world on it's side? That's a tough row to hoe.

On a personal front, this was hands down the best baseball year I've EVER had. I got to go to Fenway Park for the first time in May for a three game set with the Brewers while at the same time getting to see some old friends and meet some new ones. We paloozed, we hugged, and we laughed our heads off. Then, thanks to my good buddy Rob, I was actually in Fenway Park for Game 3 of the ALDS against the Angels with Josh Beckett on the mound; the fact we lost doesn't change the fact I got to experience something I never imagined I would.

Fenway Park in October.

So now we wait. For next year and pitchers and catchers. For those first images from Spring Training, for Opening Day, and for the first home series. We wait for another Palooza in Boston, for that first MFY/Sox series, and for the All-Star Game.

In short? We wait for 2009. It'll come; just like last year and the year before, and the year before that. Others like Bart Giamatti and James Earl Jones have said it much more eloquently than me, but the message is the same.

Baseball, the Red Sox, and another gut busting, nail biting, pace the floor and curse under your breath season is just around the corner.

It can't get here fast enough.

8 comments:

Tex said...

We just take it one day at a time and if we're lucky, we'll have some great life moments in between the end of baseball season and the beginning. Why do you think so many holidays are set in between? Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and Valentines Day. It's a great time to recuperate, rest, relive some memories, make some new ones, and wait....

Ted D said...

Good point, Tex. And have a GREAT trip to the Cape next week! Sounds like you guys are gonna have a blast.

Beth said...

Yes, it will be here before we know it. Thank Pod!

Hope you're feeling better!

Krystle [RSO] said...

Oh what a season, it's too bad it ended the way it did but hey, things happen for a reason!

Besides the makeout session that my roommate decided to brilliantly have during the game, the season was all in good fun.

Speaking of which, I def. might have a new, nicer roommate...I'll be riverdancing if I do =].

Anonymous said...

Well, I'm looking forward to more biking stories. I'm waiting for pics of the party and I will forward them when I get them.

Ted D said...

Beth, I'm upright so I take that as improvement. Heading to work and hopefully I'll make it the whole day.

Krystle, good luck on the roomate thing; hopefully that will work itself out soon.

Edge, can't wait for the pictures. But I don't know about any more biking stories. ;)

~**Dawn**~ said...

I'm a little behind, but I just had to say that one of the funniest flipping things I've seen in a long while was Joe Buck & Tim McCarver on PTI yesterday afternoon. Kornheiser asked them "So... the Trop is a dump, right?" And those two did everything in their power to avoid answering that question. I was cracking up.

Ted D said...

I never thought I'd see the day I wished McCarver was on my tv.

Chip and Buck need to get run over by a zamboni.