No Divided Loyalty In This Sporting Life
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday November 1, 2007
I HOLD two passports. One is Australian and the other is for Red Sox Nation. Over the past 20 years, this second passport has given me membership of a nation defined by pain, frustration, endurance, stoicism and a sense of accursedness.
That's the thing about sports. It's not just passionate theatre - which is why most people watch - it's about perseverance. In most competitions, your favourite team only has a one in 10 or 12 or 16 chance of winning the competition. All of Sydney has watched teams from Melbourne and Brisbane win the last two rugby league titles. All of Melbourne has watched the flag stay outside the city for seven consecutive seasons.If you're a football supporter, you can attach yourself to one of the European megabrands of which, in the big leagues, there are only four teams, or less, who share around the championship year after year. For those of us who like underdogs, or the local team, sport is largely about waiting for rain in a land of drought.The drought can last for generations and can be compounded by the bullying success of a hated rival. This was the fate of Red Sox Nation, the six states of New England which had no choice but to support their only baseball team, the Boston Red Sox, while enduring the multi-million dollar dominance of the New York Yankees as they won 26 championships while Boston won none.The Red Sox should have ended the drought in 1946, 1967, 1975 and 1986 but each time fell excruciatingly close in the seventh game of the World Series. I was living in New England for the 1986 debacle. So it is impossible to express the collective relief amid the 14 million people in New England when this 86-year drought ended in 2004 and the Red Sox won the World Series, a victory made even sweeter by reaching the championship via an improbable come-from-behind victory against the Yankees. The curse was broken.This year, the Red Sox were the heavyweight favourites going into the finals. They also got a big dose of unaccustomed good fortune. Their opponents, the Colorado Rockies, had to win five of their last six games in the regular season, and then a one-game tie-breaker, to even make the playoffs. By the time they got to the World Series, Colorado had already won 13 virtual and actual playoff games. In the World Series, every single Boston batter had a superb series and every Boston starting pitcher was dominant. Colorado looked flat.Last week Boston completed a four-game sweep to win another World Series. The Red Sox Nation has become a passport to sporting luxury.
© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald