A Red Sox diehard...

I get Bill Simmons attitude toward his beloved Red Sox, being a long time Packer fan. And yet, the worst we saw was a twenty nine year drought. Sox fans are still hoping to keep it under 90 years.

I'm not sure I could have dealt with being a fan living in the Green Bay or Milwaukee area for years and years. A massive area downer combined with the change of weather towards the worst would have been really bad. As it is, I attended a couple parties in the Milwaukee area many years ago where football came up and there were a lot of "Damned Packers!" type statements while I tried to explain how I (a kid from Jersey) had become and remained a Packer fan. It made me uncomfortable and I was glad to escape. What made me free to be a Packer fan? Certainly, a pretty strong streak of independence and the Packers dominance as I began following the game, but I may also have been influenced by my aunts (both of 'em) weird devotion to the Red Sox. I still don't get it, but they loved Yaz (Carl Yastrzemski). I'm pretty certain it drove my grandfather batty because he was a National League fan (but he also was the one who took me to my one and only game at Yankee Stadium).

I think one of the most powerful (and interesting?) social experiences is to live amongst the faithful while a goal is achieved or completely undone. Two points on the line from my youth: landing on the moon and the unraveling of the Nixon administration (living in a Republican area). Sports are not as completely encompassing, but if you live in an area that's small enough, a winning team will tend to attract large numbers of followers. Boston seems like that, as nearly everyone who lives north and east of New York City is a Red Sox fan at times.

And there lies the story. People who are willing to believe, where every misstep is painful and personal. I wonder, does Wall Street pay attention to this kind of thing and do some sort of euphoria discounting?

Update: This has been sitting here for a couple days waiting for me to wrap it up but I figured that I'd post it now after the weird events in the top of the seventh. The curse lives!