I Miss the Curse

I know can't be the only one who feels this way, but somehow it just seems like rooting for the Red Sox was so much more, well, virtuous, when you knew they were destined to break your heart.

I mean, I'm not even sure who these guys are any more. It's like rooting for the Yankees, only without the pinstripes. Even Rudy Giuliani has professed his loyalty to the Red Sox Nation. And only Captain Veritek (have you ever noticed how close his name is to Veritas?) still actually wears his Red Socks with pride.

I don't really care whether a little more hardware gets paraded through the streets of Boston; it's not as if Beantown Fans have ever needed much of an excuse to lift a bottle and conduct themselves in a disorderly manner. But where's the Character? Where's the True Faith? Where's the Eternally Hopeful "wait 'til next year?"

It used to be that the Boston Celtics were the franchise to be feared -- the Dynasty which gave that word its definition. The Bruins were the only American hockey team who could skate even up with the Canadiens (as in Canadiens de Montréal, imbécile), while the Patriots were pretty much the doormat of the NFL.

And the Red Sox?...well, the Red Sox were special. '67, '75, '86...call me crazy, but the Sox were much more inspiring to watch in glorious defeat than they were in this most recent roll-over victory over the once-hot Rockies, who had to cool their heels for a week a mile above sea-level while our boys finally found their bats and disposed of the Indians. As for the Fall Classic itself? Yawn. I could hardly stay awake past the 5th inning.

Nobody in the NFL can really touch the Pats these days. The Bruins...well, nobody really cares about hockey anymore anyway. And the poor Celtics are reduced to trying to buy another championship on the backs of aging and frustrated free agent superstars. But at Fenway they're talking dynasty. That's right, Dynasty. The whole world seems upside-down.

Don't get me wrong. '04 was wonderful, especially after coming back from 0-3 in the ALCS to sweep the Yankees (which was actually much sweeter than the Series itself). But in a perfect universe, '03 should have really been the year of the once-in-a-century match-up between the BoSox and the Cubbies. That Fall Classic would have truly marked the end of an era and the beginning of a New Age. And I'm still convinced that a lot more people would have tuned in to watch that "consolation" series than bothered to watch the teams that actually played that year. Who were they again? Maybe I'll look it up on Wikipedia...

I love Papi and Manny and all our guys; but I miss the Cowboy Up crowd, as well as all those other "shoulda beens" -- Space Man and Oil Can and El Tiante, Pudge, Dwight Evans, Fred Lynn, Jim Rice, Wade Boggs, Nomar, and, naturally, Yaz and Teddy Ballgame and all those other great players who lived and lost for so many decades in the shadow of the Green Monster and under the Curse of the Bambino.

And now those days are gone, and what do we have to replace them? Another stupid parade. I hate to say it, but I might actually have to move on and start rooting for the Cubs. Even if they have finally broken the faith and added lights at Wrigley Field....

Still looking for a game.

I dunked the ball last night. Admittedly, it was on a seven-foot rim in an elementary school gym with nobody around, but at least at long last at the age of 51 I finally know what it feels like to throw one down. You wanna know something? It ain't as easy as it looks.

Showed up again last night at the open gym at the elementary school two blocks from my apartment hoping to get back into the routine of playing regularly, only to discover that it was just me and the gym supervisor. Shot around for about 45 minutes waiting for everyone else to show up, but when they finally did...well, lets just say it was just one other guy, who when he dribbled and shot with both hands really dribbled and shot with BOTH hands.... So this whole pick-up scene in here in my own neighborhood is really turning into a big disappointment. I may have to stray a little further afield before I find the game I'm looking for.

There's supposed to be a regular over-30 game Sunday afternoons over in South Portland, which is probably the one I'll check out next. And then there's always the "Y" and the college. I actually prefer to play with better, younger players...because even though I may not get that many touches myself, it gives me a chance to help their game by doing the "little things" I can still do well: screening out, setting picks, playing help defense, passing the ball, and getting back to defend against the fast break...and still getting a chance to down open "J's" when the ball comes back to me in rotation. What I hate is 1) playing with REALLY young guys who don't know what they're doing, and therefore can't appreciate what I can do to make them better; 2) playing with old guys who THINK they're still young guys, and; 3) playing with a bunch of old guys who all want to do the exact same things I do (although this probably the best of the three options I've just mentioned).

Anyway, this is getting to be a pretty long-winded post for someone who hasn't really played in a competitive game for over four months. And it shows too. Not to mention feeling it in my body. And who knows? Maybe at 51 it really is time to think about hanging them up....

Is it OK to try OJ again?

For those of you who found this link thinking I was going to say something about Orenthal James Simpson, my apologies. Maybe some other time. Today, I'm just so thrilled about Al Gore's winning the Nobel Peace Prize that I have to post something about it. I've not had a sip of Florida Orange Juice since the 2000 election, but this is starting to feel like vindication. Not just for the former Next President of the United States. But for all of us who have known for the past seven years that if all the votes in Florida had been counted honestly back then, the world would be a much better place today.

One of the things I noticed during the Florida recount was that the two parties seemed to be living in different worlds. The Democrats realized that the underlying problem was that the margin of victory was less than the margin of error, and that in a real democracy the only viable solution to that problem is to increase the accuracy of the counting process. The Republicans seemed to think they were involved in some sort of sporting contest. They kept talking about how they'd "scored a touchdown" on election night, but the Democrats wanted to take it away...implying that according the moral paradigm of the playground, liberals are "poor sports" who always whine about a "do-over" when things don't go their way.

It was only Mr Gore's willingess to take the high road and throw in the towel following the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision against him (rather than taking the "game" into overtime in the Electoral College and the Congress, thus creating a potential Constitutional Crisis) that gave us the government we have today. Personally, I would have liked to have seen him play the game out to the end, which I believe would have resulted in a Bush Presidency, with Gore casting the deciding vote in the Senate to elect himself to one more term as VP. But instead he chose to step aside, grow a beard (for awhile at least) and return to private life.

And where has this all left us? Well, as promised the Bushies gave their big tax cuts to the rich (but are still dragging their feet on health insurance for poor children); were caught with their pants down on 9/11; started an endless war in Afghanistan and Iraq (and God only knows where next); condone torture (but not REAL torture); and have established a network secret (and not-so-secret) prisons all over the world just so they can not torture with impunity beyond the scrutiny of judicial review; while here at home they have spearheaded an assault on due process, habeus corpus, and the Bill of Rights. Not to mention the collapsing dollar, and, oh yes, the Katrina fiasco. America is now more despised and less respected around the world than it has been at any time in my lifetime. Our military is stretched to the breaking point, but military families can no longer afford to buy houses. And the real irony is that if things keep going the way they have, most of the Sunshine State will soon be underwater too. Just like New Orleans on 8/28.

Those of you who only know me as an aging jock and pick-up basketball maven may not have picked up on the fact that I also have a PhD in American history, so this next part may seem a little out of character. I know that the 2000 Presidential election wasn't the first stolen election this country has survived, and I'm cynical enough to realize that it probably won't be the last. But I don't necessarily think we should be proud of that. As for the open question of whether or not this Bush Presidency will prove the worst in two-hundred plus years of Constitutional government, all I can say is...we haven't seen who the country will elect in 2008 yet. But without question it belongs in the bottom five. Absolutely no doubt in my mind.

And to you Mr Gore, congratulations! Now, let's just see if we can save that frog....

California Nightmare

OK, I know this is technically a basketball blog, but my poor Old Mothers really got their asses kicked this past weekend. Good thing I'm not a gambler, or I'd REALLY be hurting this morning.

Always expected the Beavers to get mauled by the Bruins, and was actually quite thrilled that my Dawgs could give the Trojans such a scare up there in Huskey Stadium...which made defeat all that more difficult to swallow following the sweet taste of what was shaping up to be just desserts.

But of course the real heartbreaker was in down in Eugene, with the Duck contrite on the sidelines as Dennis Dixon throws his first interception of the season deep in his own end (which led to an easy USC touchdown), and then Cameron Colvin fumbles the ball on the goal line with seconds left to play, turning what would have been a game-tying touchdown into a game-ending touchback instead. Ouch!

And even Harvard came up a touchdown short against Lehigh. So there's no joy in my house this morning. And my dreams of a sweet end-of-October matchup between an undefeated Oregon and an undefeated Southern Cal is now just a fading fantasy...

Bummer!