Home Opener

As I do in preparation for every home opener, I look back to the following post that was written shortly after Aaron Boone ended the Red Sox 2003 season as we all looked forward to what would turn out to be a special 2004. While the World Series victories in 2004 and 2007 took some of the wind out of this post, I still find it a worthy way to kick off the season at Fenway Park.
All Too True
Originally written in October of 2003
It has often been said that the only people that have suffered more than Red Sox fans are Cubs fans, but tell that to the Meehan’s of South Boston or the Tedford’s of Salem, NH or the Testa’s of Providence, RI and you are likely to get an earful of hope and heartbreak that dates back generations.
Every April the hearts of New England (minus the portions of Connecticut that fall closer to New York and the rival Yankees than Boston) are filled with hope, having healed from what was undoubtedly a devastating August or September prior.
A mere seven months before, as the local baseball team would be in the process of falling out of contention for the World Series victory, husbands would once again find time to share with their wives and brothers with their sisters. The baseball season had come to an end.
It would be a good two months of recovery before Red Sox fans would even think about their team without welling up with frustration and heartache having watched another well paid and talented baseball team not bring home the prize that would throw the Greater Boston Area into the largest celebration since the Boston Tea Party (which by some accounts occurred more recently than the last Red Sox championship).
Around December, as winter dumped snow upon the region without mercy and the Christmas season brought a feeling of hope and New Year