RED SOX ULTRAS 1901 speaking....

The Boston Red Sox have clinched a post-season spot for the 5th time in six years. They are, for the time being, still on track to defend what had once been a lucrative World Series Title. The Wankees have been unequivocally eliminated from the post season, and this without Red Sox fans having to suffer nervous attacks till the very last day of the regular season. Yankee Stadium, that Bronxe Bin, is finally being shut down.

Seems like we Red Sox fans have a lot to be happy about. From the point of a Red Sox fan, the World in late 2008 is the place to be.

But wait a minute. Stop. Push up the bill on that greasy old Red Sox hat and have a look around. Doesn't seem like other people are enjoying the high times as much as you are. Then the answer hits you like a .44 slug--the economy's in a rut, the war's (still) on going, there are problems with the health care system, social security, foreign policy, etc etc. it goes on and it ultimately leaves you feeling kinda sick, unless you're truly stuck in a high heaven of your own dementia.

This is how I, and maybe more Sox fans than you think, felt when I turned on the 'puter today and saw the long desired for pictures of champaign covered Papis and dancing Papelbons. But for some reason I wasn't as ecstatic about it this year as I was other years. Maybe I, like many Red Sox fans, am becoming far too expectant of things we used to cherish (a playoff spot in the late 90s was much appreciated, even if it had to be earned while staring at the Wankees rapidly receding asses in the race for Division Title). Then again, maybe the fact that apprehension stops me feeling all that great about all the great stuff happening to us, Red Sox, is because outside of baseball there's not all that much to feel great about.

Sports has helped me out countless times when life was low. I remember, when parents, teachers and so forth got me down as a kid, I would pick up my glove and a baseball with a faded Red Sox logo on the front and go out into the local parking local and field grounders off a small wall. (don't worry, there were hardly ever any vehicles in that lot anyway, so don't even think of coming to me if you've had a car window smashed in the past). Later, when I simply became too old to be tossing a ball around a parking lot, I found other ways of picking myself up when things weren't so good, and more often than that, I found solace in sports. Some people prefer Chapel...but my chapel's always been Fenway Park and that's that.

I'm sure I'm not the only jock/sports fan/Red Sox fanatic who has sought comfort in the ultimate simplicity and honesty of sports. Heck, even a World War couldn't stop a baseball season. When the whole world seems like it's turning upside down again, it's almost awe-striking that one of the few things certain is that there'll always be...baseball. However, as I discovered to-day when I turned on my computer and should have been overjoyed--but wasn't really--even sports can have it's limits. Have I used the calming effect of Boston Red Sox baseball so much that, like a drug, it's effect has become too watered down to make an impression?

How important are the Red Sox/sports in your lives? Is there a limit to how much the simplicity, unity and apparent fairness of sports can outweigh the walrus of national and world affairs?