The American League Championship Series starts tomorrow and you may not know by now, but I renounced my Red Sox fandom after they gave away Mookie Betts in the prime of his career to save money, despite being worth billions of dollars.
I had some things to say on the matter: -The CEO of a Dodgers Fan Group (I Guess That's a Thing) Put Up a Billboard Outside of Fenway for Thanking the Red Sox For Trading Mookie Betts -As if the Red Sox Weren't a Big Enough Joke Already, Lebron James Now Owns (Governs) Part of Them! -I Want to Believe But I Don't Know If I Can -Well, This (Potentially) Changes Everything -Not Only Do the Red Sox Suck at Paying Generational Talent, but They Suck at Twitter Too! -It Looks Like The Dodgers Are About To Sign Mookie to a Giant Deal -Some Telling Stats About The Future of The United States of America -How to Induce Vomiting (in New England) -Mookie Betts Buys Groceries and Pizza For People Shopping and Working in Tennessee -John Henry FINALLY Addresses The Mookie Betts Trade (and I Address My Future as a Red Sox Fan) -After Nearly A Week of Hold Ups The Curse of Mookie Is Official (R.I.P. My Red Sox Fandom) -So You're Telling Me There's a Chance? -I Officially No Longer Love The Boston Red Sox
Last season was legitimately too painful for me to watch (and impossible even if I wanted to because NESN sucks and left YoutubeTV). I'd dwell on the betrayal I felt by the Boston Red Sox for cheaping out on generational talent. Slowly but surely, I've inched my way back. I missed being a baseball fan. I went to a wedding this weekend, and at the after-party, I drunkenly talked baseball with a stranger and the groom's stepbro for over an hour (#stillgotit). FTR, I still hate ownership.
In July, a friend invited me to go to Yankee Stadium for Jarren Duran's Major League debut, and I decided to go. Before we left, I posted a blog about how I had been considering a return to Red Sox fandom.
Of course, we were about 20 minutes outside of New York when the game got postponed, almost as a sign from the baseball Gods that they didn't want or need me anymore.
But I paid attention from a distance. Before the AL Wild Card Game, I again wrote about my Red Sox fandom and that I'm jumping all the way back in next year.
However, the 2021 season isn't over, and somehow the Boston Red Sox are still standing like Elton John in the American League. The 2021 ALCS is a rematch of 2018: Red Sox vs. Astros and boy oh boy have both of these teams been through some shit since that matchup. I'm in a weird spot because even though I despise ownership, I want to see the Red Sox win this series (fuck the Astros), but at the same time, I'm not going to cry if they lose. When they nearly lost a game they led 5-0; the only thing I was upset about was that I didn't pepper Rays live ML. I just don't have a connection with this club. It's so weird that the Red Sox are good, and I'm not emotionally invested in them. I don't know that much about this team and its quirks. Sure, I've seen the shopping cart stuff on Twitter, but I have no idea who started it or how it came about without looking it up. I feel like my hashtag good guy-ness is being put to the test. I don't want to be petty and root against the Sox, but if they end up winning the World Series, it basically validates the decision to trade Mookie Betts. On the other hand, I felt sort of scummy rooting against a team I still care about deep down. I have friends and family that still care and never jumped ship, and I feel a little guilty about my negative vibes. Admittedly, I wanted the Red Sox to suck. I took great pleasure in them being so bad last season that they couldn't even make the 8-team expanded playoffs. I guess you could say that time has helped heal my wound. I gotta give credit to Chaim Bloom. I need the Dodgers to lose tonight because I don't even want to think about the possibility of a Dodgers-Red Sox World Series. I don't even know if they'll get past Houston with their pitching, but I cannot deal with a potential Mookie vs. the Sox World Series. I'm just excited these games won't be blacked out on YoutubeTV, but if that's the World Series matchup, I'm gonna request that they are.
P.S.
I saw someone on twitter (don't remember why and I'm not wasting my time looking for it) say this Red Sox team has some 2018 in them. Even with only seeing parts of like 15 games this season that's gotta be one of the worst comps ever. That's the greatest team in Red Sox history and if anything, given their arc (I guess I know a little about these Sox) they're much more of a 2013 kind of squad.
Double P.S.
This blog feels kind of rambly and nowhere near my best work, but I'm not spending another second on it. TL;DR, I still feel conflicted about the Sox. I hate ownership and don't want them to be proven right, especially after all the petty-as Tom Werner remarks, but it's always fuck the Astros, so obviously I'm rooting for the Sox; this entire situation is bittersweet AF.
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