By Jim Greenleaf
At best, the Red Sox World Series victory ran very hollow down here in football country.
It’s just not geography. The Astros fans did not fare any better after their victory last year.
This postseason, which featured perhaps the best? greatest? Red Sox team ever, brought a level of frustration that I had never felt before, a level of exasperation I had never faced, an irritation that left me with little solace….yes, you know it, a world void of trash talking! Yes, no one to whom I could talk trash.
Come on, we slaughtered the Yankees and I am down here in Texas? That ain’t fair!
Facebook and texts don’t come close to the “fun” that we Bristol fans have when both teams are good! I try to explain the rivalry and the geography involved and they try to compare it to college and high school football rivalries.
When the Sox beat the Yanks in 2004, I had my young sons living at home at the time, so I took solace that even though I couldn’t go to the bar to talk smack, at least my kids saw something that my dad never did.
So, the Sox took care of the Yanks and now they face the Astros. Hey, at least this will be fun, should be a few heated discussions with all the Houston fans that are suddenly pulling out their Astros shirts and stupid nerf-like “we’re number one” fingers. Nope.
When Mookie Betts obviously reached into the stands and the fan was incorrectly called for interference, I said to myself, “this is it, now we have something, they have a legitimate beef”. Nothing. Can you imagine the fun that we would have had with that if it happened at Yankee Stadium? I argued with a couple of guys (even though I knew I was wrong), but it turns out that they were both from St. Louis.
After the Sox demoralized the defending champs, the fans here stooped to the most deflating ploy imaginable. They congratulated me. I hated it, it sucked all of the joy out of the victory. They condescendingly used the, “Well, the better team won” cliche. It was awful, it was if they knew exactly how best to hurt a baseball fan from the Northeast, “Kill ’em with kindness”.
So, now at least we have the World Series . My wife and I were spending the weekend down in Galveston and decided to watch game 5 in a small bar. We arrived early, picked seats front and center and ordered food.
The Series pregame is on.
Two TV’s.
In comes two groups of people, one dressed in maroon and one dressed in burnt orange.
I know these people and I know I am doomed.
TV number one goes to the Texas A&M game, TV number two goes to The University of Texas game. Suddenly the World Series, THE WORLD SERIES has been defeated week two of the college football season.
I finally had my argument….and I lost.
Mindy and I watched the game on my iPhone.
Welcome to Texas.