My dad with Luis Tiant in 2002
So I’m chatting with my father today before the Red Sox/Rangers game began and I’m trying to find out how upset he is about these last two games when he surprises me by telling me that he doesn’t really follow the Red Sox this early in the season.
He watches the games…or at least, I suppose, he has the game on and does other things and comes back to it to give it some attention occasionally, but he told me he doesn’t really follow them because it would be too easy for him to get swept up in the whole “Oh my God they’ve lost two games, they suck, why do we have John Lackey on this team for 70 years anyway?” mentality.
My father doesn’t read my blog so it amused me that we’re on the same page even though we go about it in different ways.
What really got  me is that he told me he pays more attention to the other teams.  Scouting them, in a sense.  My father will be 76 years old in  May.  He has supported this team through the bad and the good and he is one of those fans who truly found his peace when they won the World Series in 2004.  But he is still old school.  Thanks to the wonders of cable, my father watches every Yankees game that he can catch.  Every one of them.  As the season moves on, his television is on the Red Sox games more than the Yankees, but at the beginning of the season he pays extremely close attention to what is going on in the Bronx.  While he will occasionally give a player some respect for being good (Hideki Matsui, during his time in New York, comes to mind) make no mistake, the man hates the Yankees with a burning passion and has for as long as I can remember (and longer).  He watches those games for the opportunity to see them fail.  And when they do it brings him much glee.  Some might say he wants the Yankees to lose more than he wants the Red Sox to win but that isn’t the case.  I think since the pressure is off thanks to ’04 and ’07 it’s just easier for him to enjoy his hatred of the Yanks.
I love how he can blow off poor play by the Red Sox by saying “Well, it’s the first weekend. Â They’re just shaking off the cobwebs” while he looks at a Yankees/Tigers score that has the Tigers up by three and he says “So much for Phil Hughes, huh?”. Â He cracks me up.
While I understand the frustrations of what is happening with this team this weekend (as I write this, Clay Buchholz has given up three hits, all solo home runs, and the score in the 6th inning is 3-0) I enjoy this team way too much to be worried yet.
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Random stat that means nothing, really, but sounds good: Â The Texas Rangers lost two out of the first three games of the season last year against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Blog suggestion for the day: Â Over at Empyreal Environs, Joanna has decided to test Don Orsillo’s claim that he never wears the same tie twice during the season. Â So far he’s two for two but it’s a long season!