Paper beating scissors

Posted by Chip Giller (Guest Contributor) at 11:09 PM on 20 Oct 2004

Read more about: sports

For those who despair about the environment, who wonder, say, whether the world will ever take sufficient action to counter climate change, I give you ... the 2004 Boston Red Sox.

Down 3-0 against their arch-nemeses, the New York Yankees, the Sox rallied tonight to win the seven-game series, becoming the first team in the history of Major League Baseball to overcome such a deficit.

To a lifelong Red Sox fan -- someone conditioned from birth to always dream but never achieve -- someone, um, like myself, coated in the scar tissue of the devastating losses of the past -- a victory like tonight's can't help but give one rose-colored glasses. (At least for a night.) Who says we can't tackle climate change? Maybe the solar revolution is upon us. This is the dawning of the age of Green-arius. I'm only partially joking.

As Tyler Kepner wrote in his piece posted on the New York Times website immediately after the Sox win:

It was actually happening. The nerd was kissing the homecoming queen. Paper was beating scissors; scissors were beating rock. Charlie Brown was kicking the football. The Red Sox were beating the Yankees for the American League pennant.

For story: Paper beating scissors
15 Comments | Post a Comment

The tide has turned

I, too, have cheers, bled, prayed (but never strayed) from my beloved Red Sox. I was at the infamous Bucky Dent game (October 2nd 1978 -- pulled out of 7th grade to go to the fens and cheers, pray and eventually weep). Last night I felt a burden drop clean off my shoulders. The Red Sox beat (they actually beat, shocked and clobbered) the Yankees. In the Bronx. I am free.

Change is here. Will this long overdue Boston blessing go on through October and maybe, just maybe into November (I'd settle for 2 days in)? Could this be the year that my (our) progressive / environmental / justice-loving / baseball intoxicated hearts see all our hopes realized.

Yes.

Root for the Sox. Vote. Be happy. What a year!

by ripken at 11:14 AM on 21 Oct 2004

As a true blue-collar New Yorker...

...and thus a Mets fan, it was hard to know whether to root against the Yankees OR the Red Sox. (1986 was a truly GOOD year.)

But, in the end, as an activist, I guess I gotta go with the underdog. ;-)

by jonstahl at 11:51 AM on 21 Oct 2004

MA vs TX

oooh, if Houston beats St. Louis tonight, imagine the possibilities...Red Sox vs Astros, Kerry vs Bush, maybe even Patriots vs Cowboys.

A 3-way sweep might just shift the center of the universe a bit towards Massachusetts.

Even if that messes with all those currents and wind pattern thingies, it's got to be better than Bush.

by sean at 1:19 PM on 21 Oct 2004
[ Parent ]

bodes well

I too feel that the Red Sox victory bodes well for the election. I just wonder if Sox fans on the other side of the divide feel the same way.

In any case, hey hey Johnny Damon. Way to go Sox!!!

by da silva at 2:20 PM on 21 Oct 2004

Trifecta?

I live and therefore vote on the other side of the divide (continental) but I have a feeling that's not what you're referring to, Da Silva. (Aside -- do you think many Grist readers actually vote for the other team???) Nonetheless, I feel the same way about the BoSox's wicked good routing of the evil Yankees last night. (Another aside: I also feel good about living in a time zone where the game ended at 8, not midnight.)

I'm hoping for a trifecta: A Red Sox World Series win for the first time since 1918, my candidate (also from Massachusetts) for Prez, and my local former Guv (from Oklahoma of all places, but he went to Yale with Bush) for Senator.

(Ripken: the Dent "nutmeg" was in '86, not '78.)

by rivergal at 2:50 PM on 21 Oct 2004
[ Parent ]

the other team

I think there are probably some Republicans (a handful) who look at Grist -- perhaps with a mixture of sympathy and contempt. But I also imagine (hope) they'll vote for the Dems this go-around.

Speaking of Republicans, folks might be interested to read Russell Train's screed in, of all places, the latest Patagonia catalog.

http://www.patagonia.com/enviro/reports/republicans.shtml

Wonder how many Republicans shop Patagonia?

btw, I watched the games in Pacific Standard Time as well.

by da silva at 3:00 PM on 21 Oct 2004

Russell Train

... in case you don't know was EPA administrator under Nixon and Ford.

Nixon... in case you didn't know ... (and as that crackhead Easterbrook reminds us) actually established EPA.

Nixon also used to keep a fire in the Oval Office fireplace year-round, even when the air conditioning was on... but that's another story.

by da silva at 3:02 PM on 21 Oct 2004

Shocked...shocked!

Can't believe it. Sox win. The only thing worse than losing that series is that I'm going to have to be reminded of it EVERY TIME some team is down 3-0 in a 7-game series.

But equating Red Sox with the little guy is like Shell Oil saying they're a good company because they're smaller than Exxon-Mobil -

By the way NYC beats Boston environmentally, at least - check out the October 18 issue of the New Yorker, where David Owen shows why Manhattan is the most environmentally and energy efficient urban planning model. So take that, you . . . you . . . winners (that hurts to say).

by babebucknerboone at 4:09 PM on 21 Oct 2004

Red Sox Fandom Justification? Hope

Chip Giller's post is helpful for me, as I have gradually slipped into the status of a pretty serious sports [e.g. Red Sox] fan for the first time over the last few years. I have come to love the skillful, uneven, soulful Sox, and the arc of the baseball season, the subtle drama of the game, the culture of baseball, which at its best reflects some of what is best about patria mia (nuestra) and helps me to pass that aspect of the American sensibility on to my 10-year-old son.

However, fandom per se makes me a little anxious. Though I admit, I cannot foster any fondness for the Yankees, I do love New York, and detest the hostile behavioral extremes of the Boston-New York rivalry, which to me exemplifies all that is ugly about the human tendancy to in-out group bigotry...The local radio station that is the soapbox for Red Sox Nation also often intermixes baseball chitchat with sexist and homophobic talk, and to rather freely impugn anyone held at Guantanamo, lily-livered Democrats and etc.

It's alienating (I'm a nuts and granola, Jewish mom from the suburbs; not sure I want to crack into this clubhouse)!

But in the spirit of the visitor from another culture I linger on in Red Sox land with more devotion and fervor each season.

And after this week, I agree that there is a dividend of hope, reassurance and inspiration that has come from having bonded to this team. I can fully grasp the possibility of victory against the odds, of the power of pluck and the spirit of the group to transcend discouragement. So leaving aside the questionable merits of partisanship for a team, I accept the blessing of the reward of these life lessons.

On another note, I too have speculated about the drama of a Massachusetts-Texas rivalry, and rather dread it. I would rather have my baseball less leavened with cultural politics rather than more so...

So, here's to St. Louis and a couple of good nights' sleep before Saturday...(yawn)

by organizationsscholar at 5:54 PM on 21 Oct 2004

IFrom the painful journey we gain resolve

The Red Sox' journey may have been as important as their destination. They have wandered Babeless and oftentimes clueless for 86 years. They have had some successs (winning four pennants over those years, all since the 1970s) but much more agonizing disappointment. Until the return-from-hell comeback of 2004, they had not won a pennant as a result of a one-on-one battle with the cursed Yankees.

I truly appreciated what I heard some of the Red Sox say in interviews right after the game -- that this was a victory not just for this year's team, but for all of those Sox teams who had suffered bitter disappointment since 1918. The point that I take from Chip's comment is right on -- The Red Sox' victory provides hope to all who have been forced to wander the environmental desert these many years. After suffering mostly severe disappointment (especially with calamitous lows that have followed exhilarating highs), we may strengthen our resolve to overcome those who oppress us. Go to Hell, Yankees. Bring on the Astros/Cardinals. We shall prevail.

by EditorsDad at 5:54 PM on 21 Oct 2004

It's only baseball

It's only baseball
a lovely, wonderful game when played well
but from kids in schoolyards
to millionaires with thousand dollar gloves
it's still only a game, ah what a game but,
still only a game

I guess like some, you can hate the country or it's leaders but not its citizens
how can you call someone like Jeter evil or anyone whom you don't know and know well and who has done nothing to you or yours

the Yankees paly the game well, this time the Red Sox played it better
next year there are free agents

the environment is much much more and you can not trade air for water

ley's move on and away and enjoy the game no team no individual is above the game

let's leave that and a better world for our kids

by isleep at 8:22 AM on 22 Oct 2004

Time zone

We weren't in the same time zone, da silva -- I'm at least 1500 miles NW of you. But we root for the same teams.

by rivergal at 1:19 PM on 22 Oct 2004
[ Parent ]

It's only baseball, wonderful baseball

Please remember that baseball is the American sport that was adopted with a passion by the Japanese, and that the ideal Japanese game ends with a tie at the end of the 9th inning.

This is a far cry from the ALCS ender which led to rioting outside of Fenway Park, resulting in a police shooting and death of a college student.

This is not a criticism of American baseball. If anything, it is a criticism of how America has changed while baseball has remained more or less the same.

Cricket is said to have been an inspiration to the guys who invented baseball, and it is also a peaceful and gracious sport, played all over the world.

If we take the rules of baseball or cricket to heart, we are likely to become more open and honest, many would tell you.

Within 45 days of the September 11th attacks, the Bush Administration decided to drastically revise the Patriot Act. The very next morning, it was brought to Congress for a vote. It has led to the inprisonment of thousands of law abiding Americans since then.

I don't know if out president remembers the rules of any of his sports, but I know it's not cricket.

Jon Allen

by jonathanallen1 at 1:32 PM on 22 Oct 2004
[ Parent ]

Alaska?

Or Kamchatka? Either way, here's to our team. May they win the day.

by da silva at 3:16 PM on 22 Oct 2004
[ Parent ]

Bucky Dent was 1978. October 2nd.

Bucky Dent hit a home run in 1978 to beat the Sox in a one game playoff. You are thinking of Bill Buckner in 1986.

by ripken at 3:41 PM on 22 Oct 2004
[ Parent ]

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