You should have seen; the curse that flew right by you

It's that time of year again. Apologies to non-baseball fans. No apologies to Yankees fans. Not in regards to this at least. I mean, if you were to trip over my rather large feet or what have you, yeah, you'd get an apology. You won't get one in regards to this post is what I mean. I think you knew that was what I meant all along. I hope you did. Otherwise I wonder what sort of image I put forth here.

Tessie is the Royal Rooter's rally cry
Tessie is the song they always sung
Tessie echoed April through October nights
After seranading Stahl, Dineed, and Young

You should have known that I was going to post about the Red Sox eventually. 5-1 coming out of the gates. Best season start since 1999. We won the opening game even though we fucking never win the opening game. Curt Schilling is back into his stuff. And though it seems like forever ago since he was pitching like Curt Schilling, Sox fans have been swiftly reminded that his stuff is good. And it only gets better down the stretch. Two new arms in the minors that are expected to be stars once they hit the big time, expected to be called up in the latter half of the season. One starting pitcher who's cutting his teeth by closing at the moment who's expected to be the best homegrown Red Sox pitcher since Roger Clemens, who himself has spoken with the Red Sox about signing on in May. And that's just the pitching.

Tessie is a maiden with a sparkling eye
Tessie is a maiden with a love
She doesn't know the meaning of a sigh
She's got a comment full of love.

We may not have bats as big as before, but we've still got two of the biggest in the game in Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, and the defense doesn't have a real weak link. The least skilled defender is Manny, and even he has been known to throw a hell of a lot of guys out. I wonder if this formula has ever been tried before. Seamless defense, overpowering pitching, and a batting order that includes the one dude who wins more games with his bat than anyone else in the league. (David Ortiz, the only hitter ever to record two gamewinning walk-off hits in the same calendar day) We're going to see a lot of games where they score only two runs and win the game. My guess is that means more walkoffs for Papi.

And sometimes when the game was on the line
Tessie allways carried them away
Up the road from Third Base to Huntington
The crowd would always sing and sway

The problem? I don't get the channel that plays the Sox.

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

It's weird, though. Time was, such a lack of access to my Sox would result in an ill-temperedness that would be hard to miss. Even in Chicago I was able to catch the odd game or so on ESPN, not to mention the fact that the period during which I couldn't watch them spanned maybe a month before the playoffs started and they were on TV without exception. And even then I was ornerous about it. Now? Not so much. And as a result, my bad mood has been replaced with guilt. As if I was away at school and had a girlfriend back home and I didn't write to her enough. As I type that I remember that I did have a certain someone (not going to say girlfriend because that wasn't the right word) back home I was writing to when the Sox were on their championship run. We IMed or spoke on the phone during every Red Sox game I did get to see while I was in Chicago. The Sox were something we connected over.

Tessie, nuff said McGreevey shouted
We're not here to mess around
Boston, you know we love you madly
Hear the crowd roar to your sound
Don't blame us if we ever doubt you
You know we'd never live without you
Tessie, you are the only, only, only

As coincidence would have it our... well ,whatever it is you would call it, ended before Boston was done celebrating. I had flown in to attend the celebrations. Turned out that while we had grown closer while I was away, I was still as awkward with her in person as I had always been. Go figure. Took a while for us to get back on good terms, but we did eventually. She remains one of my best friends. As it happens, I haven't used the title Best Friend in reference to anyone in specific for years. And I swear that has nothing to do with the fact that the last person I applied that title to was standing alongside the first kid to ever pull a knife on me when the fucker whipped it out.

Where was I? Oh yes

The Rooters showed up at the grounds one day
And they found their seats had all been sold
McGreevey led the charge into the park
Stormed the gates and put the game on hold
The Rooters gave the other team a dreadful fright
Boston's tenth man could not be wrong
Up from Third Base to Huntington
They sang another victory song

The other thing is, while here I am, posting on the Sox, you'll notice, if you don't take my word for it and actually care and look back on the archives, that I haven't said a damn word about them since last season. Not even on opening day. Previous to that I posted a ton about them. Have I changed? Well, I have changed in the past couple of years, there's no denying that (hell, earlier today... ok, yesterday, I ate and enjoyed a salad for the first time in my life), but do I love my Sox any less? Is it because after a drought that lasted longer than my grandfather's life, they finally won the damned Series? There certainly was a lot of speculation that the Red Sox would lose popularity without the myth of the Bambino to romanticize them.

Tessie, nuff said McGreevey shouted
We're not here to mess around
Boston, you know we love you madly
Hear the crowd roar to your sound
Don't blame us if we ever doubt you
You know we'd never live without you
Boston, you are the only, only, only...

Or is it that I've shed an unhealthy obsession? I've certainly been accused of being dangerously addicted to the Sox. But that mostly came from people who didn't know what it meant to be from Boston. And it's not like Ive gotten any more healthy in my decision making lately. I mean, here I am up way late at night with a class in the morning. And I've never known being passionate about something to be unhealthy.

Don't blame us if we ever doubt you
You know we couldn't live without you
Red Sox, you are the only, only only...

Could be I'm just in a rut. Of course, that could be seen to describe my life over much of the life of this blog, and the record shows that I've been passionate for the Sox during most of the duration of my time here on the interwebs. Could always be a different manifestation of ruttiness than has been my custom. Whatever it is, it doesn't feel right.

Home opener's on Tuesday....