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Random rants...
August 3, 2008
Matt Stairs
El Guapo
Bill Mueller
Kevin Millar
Roger Clemens
Wade Boggs
Casey Fossum
Trot Nixon
Pedro
Nomar
Manny
These are all players that have left at one point in time from the Red Sox that I personally was upset about when they departed for whatever reason (I have no idea why I thought Fossum would be a key puzzle piece, but at one time I did...so sue me).
I've caught the majority of the last three games (in and out all weekend, but managed to squeak them in nonetheless), and the nostalgia that the Red Sox uniform brings to me is still there, so like when the above players left, I'll heal just fine (And I'll eat my crow too).
Seeing Jason Bay this weekend has been striking. How he fields. How he hits. How he plays the game...they all just fit right in, and I'm realizing that our outfield looks good with # 44 in it. Given time, he'll be playing the caroms as well as his predecessors, and the Sox will be alright. Like they always are for us.
Inherently, we as Sox fans (The majority of us anyway), appreciate a guy who hustles, plays hard, and gives his best. Sometimes we allow a guy his quirks as long as his quirks fit (In Manny's case, they just seemed to most of the time). El Quapos gut. Wade's chicken and Margo (God's gift to the chicken slaughterhouse himself), Nomar's batting stance (more of a dance really...), Millar's belief that they'd come back from 0-3 (Even the most optimistic of us couldn't have seen THAT coming). Manny's high five (And of course my personal favorite, game 2 last years ALDS).
Yes I'm leaving out a LOT of characters we've had over the years because that would be a book! Not a blog...
Point? Well...Watching the Dodgers game this afternoon (And listening to Vin Scully who's one of the best), I was struck by something. A bit of an separation. Not because of his success of late, but at the fact that he's not in our uniform. A bitter moment? No. Just more of a realization. One that I've had with each and everyone of the players named above. That when the Red Sox uniform came off, I no longer rooted for them as hard as I did when they wore the crimson and white. Not because of a grudge (Exceptions being Boggs and Clemens of course), but because they no longer wore what I hold dear to my heart. The Old English B.
Will I reflect back some day and say I miss him in our uniform? Probably (I caught myself earlier in the year during the Tokyo series thinking how I miss Matt Stairs LOL). He's been gone for more then a decade!!!
But like with Matt, and Wade, and Pedro and all the others who've come and gone, Manny too has been relegated to that scrapheap of memories. Most of them pleasant, some of them down right ponderous, none of them to be forgotten.
After all, it's the uniform and the team we hold above all else...and that little something in the olde english B that brings us all together and unites us as fans.
Damn I love the Red Sox...For better, or for worse.
P.S. Theo and Tito...If you're reading this, let the kids play. Keep Lowrie at short. He's earned it. He and Pedroia have the potential to be one of the best 6-4 combos we've seen in a while.
-9/11...Never forgotten
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