How the Boston Red Sox brought me back to baseball

Though it played a big part in my life while I still lived with my parents, I had fallen out of touch with MLB by the turn of the century.

In the fall of '04, a miracle happened at Fenway Park. The Sox beat the Yankees after falling behind 3 games to 0 in the American League Championship Series, handing the most stunning defeat ever in the history of sports* to the team that so richly deserved the "honor." I'd started watching baseball in TV again when the ALCS and NLCS got going that year, because I was very excited by the prospect of the Red Sox finally winning another series-- little did I know how exciting they would make the series.

I was glued to the TV on the nights that CS games were played that year, and found myself rooting for Boston. Rooting for a team is a bodily experience for me-- the knots in the stomach when an important pitch is about to be thrown, the fists pumped in the air when a good play is made. I hadn't felt that way watching baseball for almost a decade, and it was a wonderful thing to have it back.

I am not, however, a Boston Red Sox fan (unless they're playing against the Yanks). I am a born and raised New York Mets fan, and in '04 I wouldn't have been able to name more than four or five players on the team. Inspired by the Sox's performance in the post-season, I started watching the Mets again when the season started in '05. Much to my delight, my love of the game and the team had not gone away, but grown deeper since I came back to it.

Last year I went to 10 games at Shea, and by the middle of the season I didn't need to look up the names of players to fill out my scorecard. I could have informed conversations about individual players and the team as a whole. And it felt great, all season, to be so involved in what was going on with the Mets.

This winter the first time since I was in high school that I knew when pitchers and catchers were arriving at camp for spring training, and the first year since I can remember that I'll be at opening day at Shea. I'm fairly sure I would never have come back to this level of fandom had the Sox not beat the Yankees so beautifully.

So it turns out I have the Sox to thank for my two favorite moments as a fan; they lost the '86 World Series to the Mets, and they inspired me to care about baseball again.

Go Sox!

*Dr. O insists that this sentence should end "proving that the law of averages exists." I believe his poor choice in team to root for has clouded his vision on the subject.