A Baseball Fan Rejoices!

April 8, 2013, Fenway Park Home Opener

Line up, home opener, Red Sox!

And we win the home opener!

I was at the first home game of the 2013 season and yelled myself hoarse.

This was the year I got to see close to a dozen games thanks to a chance to share my husband's co-worker's season tickets. When he made the offer last year, we figured it was Fenway and it would be fun, no matter what happened. And we certainly didn't expect much good to happen after the debacle of the 2012 season.

I've been a fan of the game of baseball since childhood. My dad was a Brooklyn Dodger's fan, though converted to a NY Mets fan by the time I came along. I remember sitting with him, with the car parked in the driveway, listening to Mets games on the radio. I'm not sure I understood Baseball until many years later, but the sound and rhythm of a game called on the radio brings back happy memories and is my auditory equivalent of comfort food.

When we moved to Boston in 1991, I didn't realize just how baseball crazy this city would be. What I did realize early on, was that being a New Yorker,  it was a damned good thing I wasn't a Yankee's fan. :) We got to the occasional game, sitting the the bleachers and enjoying the carnival along with the actual games. I didn't really care about wins or losses; I just enjoyed reconnecting with Baseball.

Long before the 2004 season, I had turned my husband and my two boys into baseball fans.  In fact, I clearly remember how betrayed my oldest felt when Nomar was traded that year. I think it was a blow to his sense of the game that his beloved players wouldn't always be on 'his' team. He was 10. It took me weeks to convince him to watch another game, but then when the Sox started on their playoff roll, he begged me to let him stay up till the final outs.

My 'men' at the 2004 victory parade

Just like I did, my children have grown up with baseball. They are now 17 and 20. My 17 year old is at an Anime Convention this weekend. My 20 year old is at college. I take it as a point of pride that they both texted me as soon as the Sox won tonight and clinched their spot in the 2013 World Series.

Me and my youngest, at an April 2013 Game, freezing our tails off!

With 2 tickets to a bunch of weekend games, we divvied them up between the 4 of us. The final weekend home game of the regular season went to the boys, in honor of the eldest's 20th birthday. Even though the Sox lost that game, the boys had a great time and I am so thrilled that they can share this game with one another.

My eldest is currently sporting a beard that rivals any player on the Sox. I am sure that has been a factor in their success this year.

Hubby has a beard, but it isn't nearly a Red Sox beard.

It has been an absolute joy to watch the Red Sox play this year. They have played with heart and soul and it is completely clear that they enjoy the game and each other's company. I have sincerely appreciated how cohesive they are as a team; how supportive they are of each other; how they are so quick to credit another player; how they celebrate one another's successes.

This is the way baseball should be played; both with the the abandon of knowing it's a game and a lovely way to spend a summer afternoon, as well as a challenge and an intensely athletic and strategic sport. The 2013 Red Sox have given us both.

I will be glued to the radio and TV for the World Series games, standing in the hallway for tense plays, because I can hear the calls on the radio several seconds before the TV catches up to the delay. That gives me time to run in and see the play I've just heard. (I get too nervous to sit and watch the game. My family teases me unmercifully about this.)

So go SOX! Thank you for an amazing season and I look forward to being able to attend a third victory parade through the streets of Boston.