Being A Boston
Sports Fan
© 2005 BestShowTicketsLasVegas.com
Being
a Boston sports fan sometimes reminds me of battered-wife
syndrome. You get beaten down, but you keep coming
back. You’re given just enough to make you feel
warm and fuzzy inside, just enough to ensure your
devotion, but then you’re inevitably and sorely
disappointed. I don’t know why a woman would
ever go back to a coward who hits her, and I often
don’t know why I remain a Boston sports fan.
The Pats,
Celts,
Red
Sox and Bruins
make you want to like them, but it’s sometimes
painful to remain a devoted fan throughout all their
turmoil.
I grew up in a hockey family and my dad was particularly
faithful to the Bruins.
From a very early age I can remember him watching
Bobby Orr and Esposito skate circles around other
teams. By the time I was old enough to actually understand
what was going on, the Bruins were comprised of some
more awesome players like Middleton, O'Reilly, Pederson,
and Milbury. I used to love to watch Boston play Montreal
with my father, but it seemed like Boston lost a lot
more than won.
It was great to see Terry O'Reilly beat the heck
out of other players, and it was cool to watch all
these veterans a few years later skate around without
helmets while the rest of the players had to wear
them. I guess it was some sort of grandfather clause
or something. They just looked tough. When Cam Neely
and Ray Bourque started playing I enjoyed the Bruins
just as much. But after Orr and Esposito were gone,
none of these more recent players won the Boston
Bruins a Stanley
Cup, quite frustrating.
But not to fear, the Boston
Celtics around this time were hot. Like the Bruins/Canadians,
the Celtics/Lakers rivalry was a blast to experience,
especially when the Celts won. And they did. I remember
probably one of the greatest NBA teams ever to exist,
Bird, McHale, Parish, DJ and Ainge. They weren’t
the prettiest bunch of guys around, Bird being particularly
funky looking, but they were so fun to watch. It was
wonderful to see them beat the L.A. Lakers in the
1983-84 championship and the Houston Rockets in 1985-86
championship.
Unfortunately the last few Celtics’ seasons
lately have been dismal. They don’t even make
it to the playoffs regularly any more. How many more
“building years” do we need? Watching
Pierce take off his shirt and wave it around his head
while being ejected from one of the playoff games
against the Pacers this year was sad.
But 1986 was the end of Boston championship teams
for a long while. In fact, it was sixteen years until
the Patriots finally won Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002.
That’s a long wait. That’s a lifetime
for crying out loud.
The New
England Patriots were another difficult team to
watch and remain devoted to. Grogan was a decent quarterback
and many would argue Drew Bledsoe was even better,
but they never brought a championship home. Watching
Drew throw numerous interceptions and trudge off the
grid iron with hunched shoulders was disturbing. I
like to think of Bledsoe as an ‘almost’
kind of player. He was almost awesome, was almost
a championship quarterback. He almost won the game.
Bledsoe actually drove me crazy. He was New
England’s franchise player, but he just
didn’t seem to ever do quite enough to win.
It was so frustrating to watch him play. All big and
gawky, shuffling out of the pocket like my nana.
But the tide turned. Third string quarterback Tom
Brady took the place of an injured Bledsoe, and brought
the championship home to Bostonians.
The 2002 NFL playoffs were absolutely awesome to watch
if you were a Boston sports fan. Watching Vinatieri
blast it though the uprights in a blizzard to beat
the Oakland
Raiders, and again to win the Super
Bowl beating the St.
Louis Rams was monumental. Thank God for the Pats.
They brought respect back to Boston. They showed what
true grit is, what the word “team” actually
means, in a day when everything in sports seems to
be centered on individual feats. I loved it when they
ran out on the field together as a team instead of
being introduced one at a time at the beginning of
the Super Bowl.
Pathetically enough, most people thought the Pats
would not win it all again. They thought it was a
fluke. The Pats had lost for so long that few had
faith in them. But they won it again two years later
and people started to pay attention. The word “dynasty”
crept up in New England vernacular. When the Pats
won their third Super Bowl in four years, they were
finally accepted as a dynasty. These wins will carry
me for many years. Again, thank God for the Pats.
But no good article about being a Boston sports fan
can be complete without discussing the Boston
Red Sox. What can be said about the Sox?
They were the epitome of frustration. They were the
Bad News Bears for so long. Of all the Boston teams,
they were the most painful to watch. They often had
the talent, they often played well, but they didn’t
win a World Series for 86 years! Between the ball
rolling between the knees of Bill Buckner, and Grady
keeping Pedro in against the Yankees
during the 2003 playoffs, every Sox fan was pushed
to the limit of what they could endure. Of course
there were many other less notable, but just as frustrating
moments in Red
Sox history. Any Red
Sox fan who remained a fan throughout should be
given a gift.
And what a sweet gift it was when the Sox
won the 2004 World
Series. Being down 3-0 in the ALCS against the
Yankees,
and then coming back to beat them and sweep the Cardinals
in the World Series was one of the greatest professional
sports stories in history. In fact, it’s been
called one of the greatest comebacks ever. All those
long years of no championships in Boston finally came
to end with the Pats winning in 2002. But after 86
years of no World Series rings, the Red
Sox win was the sweetest of all. 2004 was one
of the greatest years in Boston sports ever. A World
Series and Super
Bowl win by Boston
teams in the same year, almost unbelievable.
So I guess being a Boston sports fan is not so much
like battered-wife syndrome. It’s more like
being in a difficult marriage that has lots of ups
and downs only, but is worth working at to keep. Being
a Boston sports fan is as frustrating as it is rewarding.
Patience, loyalty, persistence, and faith will get
you through. And in the end, it all works out. Just
keep the faith.
