This, a thousand times this. I mean, I guess it was fun to just show up at the park in the early 90's and buy cheap tickets to watch those crappy Butch Hobson-led teams and pretty much sit wherever we wanted after a few innings, but we were 15 years removed from the consistently competitive teams of the mid-1970's and the excitement of pre-Buckner 1986 had long since dissipated. It felt to me like it might take another 15 years to get back, despite Nick Cafardo's (?) writing every Sunday about future star Frankie Rodriguez (Will he be a pitcher or a shortstop in the majors?!?) and posting Kevin Morton's latest pitching line in New Britain. A few last place finishes in the past decade have been a lot more palatable when they are so quickly replaced by contending teams (thank you for the wild-card era, Bud Selig) and another title.Hmmmm, would I trade the past 20 years in for those halcyon days of.......
- Sitting in a SPRING TRAINING game in Ft Myers listening to MFY fans from 18 to 80 berate me for 6 innings while the scubs from NY took a big lead. (note: said group left, Sox came back and won, and I care WAY too much about this)
- Spotting a fellow Sox fan in another staduim, looking at each other with that knowing glance that we were suffering for our sins and more than a little crazy for caring
- realizing each October that we have to go another lap around the sun for the hope to see this fucking team win a World Series, and there are fewer of them each time around
- staring down the seemingly real possiblity that it might never happen
- attending the funeral of my grandfather in spring 2004 wondering if I'll get to see that title before it's my turn in that casket
- dealing with my buddies father, brox born and raised, MFY fan through and through, say that he would like to see the Sox win out of pity for his son
If the cost of that is Theo in a gorilla suit, a year of Bobby the Fifth, handing out shitty contracts, and losing a generational superstar, I'll gladly pay those dues. These owner haven't been perfect, but can't see any other reality where Sox fans would have seen anywhere near this level of success.
So, yeah, I'm grateful for the H/W/L era despite the occasional stumbles. This era of Red Sox prosperity was far from preordained when the Yawkey Trust sold the team.