Not Caring is for Rangers Fans

Ok, so I admit, I went to bed.  So did Charryse.  And, this was after I watched a DVR'ed episode of Survivor.  I was mad.  34 runs in four games.  Matsuzaka drinking the same Kool-Aid that Wakefield, Lester, and Beckett drank.  An offense that seemed to be using rope to swing at Tampa pitching.  I was mad.  

At 11 o'clock or so I checked the score, hoping for a reason to stay up.  No such luck.  Seven-nothing.  I had visions of Joe Maddon, B.J. Upton, Evan Longoria, and Scott Kazmir awkwardly and homo-erotically hugging and jumping on each other on Fenway's allegedly spongy grass.  And against all odds, with Tampa Bay written across their chest.  The Rays?  Really?  Isn't this supposed to be the Yankees crushing my spirit?

I remember "watching" Survivor with Charryse.  Well, she was watching Survivor, I was checking the game updates on ESPN attempting to react in an acceptable Christian manner (jury still out...).  While Survivor was on, I was trying to talk myself off the ledge.  Then I asked myself, "c'mon, Tim, is it really that bad?  You just won the World Series last year.  And one three years before that.  One year before that Aaron Boone broke your heart into more pieces than any girl ever had and you convinced yourself that your beloeved Red Sox would never win a World Series...that it was nearly mathematically impossible with thirty teams."  

It was on no condolence.  I was mad.  I was hurt.  It was pathetic.  I went to sleep because I care too much.  Way too much.  Embarrasingly and, perhaps, sinfully so.  I applaud all of my Red Sox fan friends that made it through that...you have bigger onions than I to stand watching what seemed inevitable.

Anyway, I remember within days of the World Series people saying that Red Sox fans would quit caring.  That they got what they wanted, 86 years in the making and all, that the passion would dwindle.  I supposed that could be true.  It wasn't.

I awoke from my faithless slumber to see that the Red Sox had won.  That I was right about J.D. Drew, again (can we as Red Sox nation agree that he is an asset to the team yet?  Two straight years of dramatic post-season altering hits?  Plus the All-Star Game M.V.P., as if that matters).  That even David Ortiz can hit a bad fastball.  That there is still hope (well, actually I was hopeless all day yesterday...now I see the hope!).  

And what is more?  Almost all of my Red Sox fan friends have Red Sox related statuses on Facebook.  Boston Dirt Dogs used its whole home page in response to last night.  Bill Simmons actually wrote an article.  The Globe is in jubilation.  

I think Red Sox Nation announced last night that they still care.  Losing is no longer fun or cute.  We care.  Every year is an opportunity to win it all.

I mean, its not like we are Texas Rangers fans, or anything.