Did you all hear? The Red Sox won the World Series.

I’ve been trying to figure out why this off-season seems so long this year.  Pitchers and catchers report in 35 days (according to boston.com) and, yet, it feels like it’s still November.

I’m chalking it up to a couple of things.  One being, I’ve paced myself this year.  Currently, I only have tickets to three games at Fenway.  One in April, one in September and one TBD since they were tickets I (okay SOMEONE) won in a raffle.  So I’m not flipping through my calendar and seeing that I’ll be spending a lot of time at Fenway this year.

I think the main reason is because of the World Series win and how different it is this year than in 2005.  In the end months of 2004 and beginning of 2005, you couldn’t swing a dead cat without seeing a member of the 2004 Red Sox on television, on the internet or in a newspaper or magazine.  Everyone, not just Sox fans, were OBSESSED with the team winning after 86 years.  At the time, I didn’t realize how much we, truly were being saturated with it, but there it was. 

This time around?  Much more low-key.  This was evident at the Hot Stove, Cool Music concert the other night.  Sure, the trophy was there for folks to get their picture taken with, but you had to donate $25 to Theo’s charity for the honor.   (I don’t remember there ever being a charge to pose with the 2004 trophy.)  I’m not complaining about the charge either – it’s a great idea.  At this same concert, the World Series win was only mentioned a handful of times.  There were no chants of "Thank You, Theo" as there had been after 2004.  It was much more laid back.  (Emcee for the night, Mike O’Malley DID tell Bronson that he "should have been here" for the 2007 win.  Which I thought was nice.  It got a decent response from the fans too – and then it was forgotten.)

I’m enjoying this laid back approach to winning a championship.  I don’t mean we, as fans, or the team should take it for granted and expect it to fall in our laps year after year, but it’s nice to see us be able to – as they say – act like we’ve been there before.