i never wrote about how i felt about the Red Sox winning the World Series, but people have been asking and i think i have the answer at this point. no one wants "desperate" and "long-suffering" to be adjectives used to describe them - let alone the basis for an entire indentity. but the extreme emotional swings and exquisite tension that came from watching the Red Sox did have an addictive quality. they enabled you to feel a part of something larger than yourself, both in the way they bonded you to your fellow fans and the way they made you wonder why humans were given the capacity for such a broad range of feelings. and while there was bit of negative reinforcement, it only served over the years to heighten the emotions to the point where it's hard to imagine them being any greater than they were during the latter stages of the ALCS. they had simply reached critical mass. so while it was important for the Red Sox to win the World Series, there was just no way the psychic energy could be sustained. the sweep was almost the perfect "cool down" period after the strenuousness that came before - get the heart rate back to normal, take a shower (in champagne) and get on with life.
so i'm happy, but also a bit sad. the Red Sox won and it's about time and we won't have to hear about any of the trappings of the curse any more. but now, no sporting event will ever again be able to elicit such a level of emotion from me. until my son hits the bottom of the 9th inning grand slam that wins the 2032 World Series.
Posted by jamie at November 8, 2004 02:06 PMAgreed (although from a different angle)
i cant really imagine what it will be like to see England win the World cup. My dad saw it in 1966 but i do wonder if i will ever see it in my lifetime.