Thursday October 21, 2004 – Damn Yankee

Thursday October 21, 2004 – Damn Yankee

What a day this has been! The night before the Boston Red Sox defeated a demoralized Yankee machine, ending the curse of the Bambino and giving the Pinstripes the distinction of being the only major league ball team to blow a three to nothing lead in a best-of-seven series and loose the Pennant. In the process they gave their archrivals the honor of being the only major league team to come from a three-nothing deficit to win a pennant. On Mt. Olympus, Zeus and the other gods are having a great laugh at the Yankees' expense. As in life, the gods punish the proud and haughty and for the Yankees the comeuppance was long overdue.

That was last night and the euphoria of the event carried over into today and my sister a transplanted Texan now Boston resident and rabid Red Sox fan screamed long and hard in the final innings of the sixth game in the series. Unfortunately, she chose to visit the family in El Paso right as the Bosox were in the most contested game of the Pennant race. For her, last night was denoucement—a case of a Bostonian ever mindful of her inferiority complex when confronted by the Yankees being on pins and needles thinking that any minute the lead Boston had amassed during the early innings of the game would be lost to the hard charging never-say-die Yankees. But three nights of Boston’s relentless refusal to allow themselves to be defeated had taken its toll on even the greatest of franchises.

I guess New York recognized that Boston was not to be denied again. Boston was the 90 lb weakling finally confronting the bully who didn’t know how to cope with an adversary that refuses to cower. It wasn’t so much a lesson in the virtue of sportsmanship as it was a lesson in life: confronting your adversaries and refusing to back down no matter how desperate your situation appeared. And anyone watching the third game of the series had to have concluded that the Bosox were beyond redemption. Perhaps thats the nature of come-from-behind victories, that you confront your own demise and will yourself, not to die.

What a great experience to have been in Boston when the Red Sox won the Pennant in 2004. I was reclined on a sofa in San Jose watching the drama unfold like the gods on Olympus watching the athletes perform for their pleasure and their favor. Last night thumbs down all around for the Yankees.