Red Sox must lose

Hi-De-Ho Rene!

While the SquawkBox Comments from 2003 are no longer in the archives, I retrieved from my e-mail inbox a comment I'd posted here one year ago about the Cubs and Marlins (and indirectly, the Red Sox and Yankees). I think it pretty much sums up my feelings about tonight's Sox-Yanks game:

"Well, I was actually rooting for the Marlins last night. Up to Game 6, I thought I wanted a Cubs-Red Sox World Series. But then came the infamous eighth-inning collapse, set into motion by a sadsack Cubs fan who only wanted to catch a foul ball from what would have been the series clincher to get the Cubs to the World Series after all these years. At that moment, everything changed. I began rooting for the Marlins for two reasons:

1. The nasty way the rest of the Cubs fans treated one of their brethren. Some of them had been reaching for the ball too before they decidedit was appropriate to throw beer on the guy. Maybe they thought they were at a White Sox game.

2. Destiny. At that moment, it was clear that it would be more historically relevant, more poetic even, for the Cubs to lose. Having witnessed The Pivotal Moment, how could I want anything other than a Cubs loss? That moment cried out to be added to the Cubs' Bad Luck Canon.

That said, I still want the Red Sox to beat the Yankees [ED note: in Game 6], but then I think I'll root for a late-in-the-series meltdown from the Beantown boys that will make everybody forget Bill Buckner.

Take that "Destiny" paragraph and apply it to the 2004 ALCS. The Red Sox have managed a historic comeback, and the euphoria of their fans is close to a peak....What better time for a late-inning collapse to add to the Red Sox Bad Luck Canon? For the love of theater, the Yankees MUST win, preferably with a game-ending home run by a Miguel Cairo or Bubba Crosby, or as a result of a Boston error.

Later,
Kari