Completely acknowledging that this just adds to the reasons folks might consider me weird: I bought a ticket to the last regular season game at Fenway and it made me sad. Regardless of whether the Red Sox are in the post season or are getting early starts on their golf games, the end of the regular season makes me so very sad. Some chalk it up to being connected with the end of summer, but I’m not much of a summer fan; I’m much more of a fall girl, so it isn’t that. I just genuinely miss having baseball on my television every night. (And I know there’s still a week of baseball left after the Sox leave Boston…but the last game at Fenway brings it to my mind that there are going to be a lot of last games at ballparks all across MLB on September 29th.)
Although I live in the market for NESN, every season I purchase the Extra Innings package through Comcast (which invariably begets a conversation with a Comcast rep along the lines of “If you’re a Red Sox fan living in Massachusetts why do you need the Extra Innings package?”). Because I like baseball. One of the highlights of being unemployed for three years was that in the summer I watched more baseball than I ever thought humanly possible. One of the downsides of being employed this year is how much baseball I’ve missed. And while the winter months do bring other ways to enjoy baseball, and I partake in as much as I can, nothing, for me, beats watching regular season Major League Baseball.
I’ll be making my yearly trek to Fenway for the last regular season game to say goodbye. (Yes, I make sure I say goodbye to Fenway each year.) I’ve been to six games this year and the only game they won was the first one I saw(Opening Day at Fenway)…I decided they were doing better without me but they’re doing well enough that I can go to this game without feeling like I tanked the season for them
While I AM sad that the regular season is soon over that doesn’t mean that I’m not absolutely overjoyed that, barring something God-awful, we Red Sox fans will still have a rooting interest in the post season. I’m just greedy and want more.
You’re back! I checked in so often during the season and there were no new posts and then I forgot.
I admit I was a huge doubter when spring training started and wasn’t particularly happy with the off season signings. Ben, I’m sorry! You were 100% correct with the new players you chose to be on this team and how well they would work with each other.
Great year and looking forward to post season baseball in Boston again!
Now, as Beck mentioned, how about a live game chat one night?
I feel exactly the same way. Last fall was the only time in my memory when a sense of bitter relief that the deadly Sox-In-The-Tank 2012 season was at last kaput almost overwhelmed my natural September -October Baseball-Withdrawal melancholy. A plucky bunch of playoff matchups that October rescued my sinking ball spirit from complete disgust, but these Bearded Ones of 2013 have given me a clean bill of health :-). So this fall feels the way it’s supposed to: full of cherishing. The sweet deep green leaves as they begin to turn. The warm air as it cools to the crisp autumnal climate. Boys of summer taking those last turns in the batting cage and thinking this is how I’ll tackle that slider. I don’t have Shakespeare handy, so this quote may be not exactly right, but I reckon the bard will forgive me, convinced as I am that he’d be right behind Pesky’s Pole with a Fenway Frank if he were alive and here this Sunday.
And this thou knowst, which makes thy love more strong
To love that well that thou must leave ere long.
May that leaving take a long, sweet, triumphant time. Go Sox!