Have the Boston Red Sox Lost the Hunger to Win?
After decades of unfulfilled dreams, the team has racked up four World Series titles this century. But the club and the fans don’t have the same desperation they used to
Was their dominant 2018 World Series victory good for the Boston Red Sox? This is a very strange and perhaps even insulting question, I know, but there’s something that fascinates me about the arc of the Red Sox, and I’m curious where that fascination might lead. And so we ask the question.
Let’s start with a few obvious thoughts.
First, for about 80 years, the Boston Red Sox represented unfulfilled longing. That was their whole story, really. One of my favorite-ever sports columns was written at the end of the Mets’ crushing victory over the Sawx* in the 1986 World Series by the great Mike Downey, under the headline, “Unite, Fans of Boston Strugglers.” I love it so much that I’ll post a chunk of it for you here:I am part of this country, same as anyone, anywhere, and older than most. I am richly American. I am the son of a farmer, who was the son of a statesman, who was the son of a poet. My ancestors are tea drinkers and revolutionaries. I have Olde England in me and New England in me. In my bones. In my blood.…
I am Paul Revere looking for a lamp in a steeple, or at least for a pitcher in a faraway bullpen who can get somebody out…
I am Sweet Baby James Taylor, depressed by the snow on the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston, though the Berkshires seem dreamlike on account of the frostin’.…
I am George Plimpton, a Harvard man, ready to go out there and play if they need me.…
I am Stephen King, buried alive in Maine, wondering if this horror story will ever end. I am the Boston Strangler, bringing new meaning to the word choking.
I am J.D. Salinger, secluded as always, reluctant to agree with the world that we could use another catcher.
I am Hester Prynne, ready as always to take one letter-high.
I am Bunker Hill and Beacon Hill and Heartbreak Hill, and Calvin Hill, gaining yardage for Yale. I am jazz at Newport, and sand at Cape Cod, and lobsters at Bangor, and sharks at Amity.
I am Boston. I am the Commonwealth. I am New England. Loser of the World Series once more.
New York City, have pity. Let’s play five out of nine.
*If you type “Sawx” into Google, the Red Sox will not come up, but the movie Saw X will. I cannot believe there have been ten Saw movies, but that’s okay. Saw 11 is coming out on September 27.
