Redsoxchickie: Just This Side of Stalking

This is all I will say of the actions that happened during the game.....

This is all I will say of the actions that happened during the game: Had we lifted Pedro before the 8th and put Timlin in and he gave up the lead we'd all be sitting here bitching about why we took Pedro out when he was pitching well. Its a non-issue for me, as I am convinced that we were not meant to have the win one way or the other and I refuse to second guess anyone in a situation I've never been in. And in a side note, Wakefield has nothing to apologize for. He's a knuckleball pitcher whose prone to give up flyballs and home runs, we all knew that was a risk in putting him in there but under the circumstances he was our only option. He's still my Boyfriend #1 and I'm proud of it. As far as I'm concerned its over and yammering about it all winter long isn't going to change a damned thing. I'd much rather obsess about the 5 of my boys who are going to be free agents after the 2004 season and my boys who have to be resigned in the off-season and who the hell are we going to get for starting pitching next year.

So with that said...

Ever had your heart ripped out of your chest, thrown to the floor, stomped on by a 300lb gorilla and then have it tossed in the garbage? That's what every New Englander felt like shortly after midnight on Friday, October, 17th. Take your worst break-up, combine it with the loss of a beloved pet and put it in the blender on puree and that what losing that game was like. Ever see "Untamed Heart"? Well there's a scene where Christian Slater is being told that when he has a broken heart its not his actual heart breaking, but he says "Then why does it hurt so much here?" and points to his chest. All that night that scene kept running through my head of what I and probably everyone else felt like that night, trying to sleep to go to work that next day even though work seemed pointless at that moment in time because your heart had just been shattered. Have you ever seen an entire city depressed? It's not pretty. I got off the T the next morning and the city was eerily quite. People were walking in stunned silence for the entire day; even the cabbies seemed to honk their horns with less fervor. True fans couldn't look at each other, much less speak of it. Hell, it took me to Sunday night to even start the healing process, and let me tell you its going to be a looooooooooong gut-wrenching process requiring many tears in my Dunkies ice coffee. The worst part is knowing that this game will be on the highlight reels anytime we ever go to the playoffs again for now to eternity...and I just know its going to be on ESPN classic all winter long which means I have to avoid that channel until April.

But lets get down to business people...I know we are all still shocked and in denial that the World Series is taking place without us in it, but in retrospect it WAS a hell of a season. Think about it: We start the year off with a bunch of guys we've never heard of to watch them have career years in one of the most exciting seasons in recent memory. They kept us on the edge of our seats for 6 full months. Every time we felt like giving up as fans they'd reel us back in with an amazing come from behind victory. Sure they're were also the gut-wrenching heartbreak losses but that's all part of the game and why they play 162 games a year. Are you ever going to forget Millar's game winning home run in Tampa Bay in the 16th inning? Who will forget the David Ortiz pose right after a a ball he's knocked the stitching out of? What about the excitement of winning a series against the Yankees that made us believe that they could be beaten? How many times did you jump for job at a late inning comeback like the one in Philly? The first time the notion that the Sox may not imploded immediately following the All-Star break? Are you going to forget where you were when Trot hit the walk-off home run to get us to Game 4 against Oakland? Lowe's strikeout in Game 5? The fact we actually got to Game 7 in the ALCS??? So after Red Sox Nation moves out of Prozac Nation and before you spend a winter of whining about the what-ifs and the could-have-beens, think about what was and tell me that a crooked smile doesn't cross your face.

Which would you rather have: a roller-coaster season filled with highs and lows and a playoff push not seen in 5 years with an excitement level not seen in 17 years or an average, ho-hum season culminating in falling just short of the playoffs yet again? Personally I like a bumpy ride and I'll be first in line next year....after I catch up on 6 and a half months of sleep deprivation.