Notes from a train

10-28-04, somewhere between Rugby, ND (geographic center of North America) and Minot, ND:

I think it's great that the Red Sox won the World Series last night. First time since 1918. Think about that: the last time they won the World Series, ballgames were not even broadcast on the radio (that didn't happen until 1923); television broadcasts didn't even exist. WWI (known then as The Great War) had just come to a close. The sinking of the Titanic and the Lusitania were still as fresh in people's memories as Sept 11, 2001 is to us today. The Soviet Union was one year old.

So that's great. The Sox can drop their whole curse silliness, and we can move on to wallowing in the eternal heartbreak that is the Cubs. 86 years is a long, long time to not win a World Series, but I can think of a few teams who have never even made it there, let alone had a chance to win. Why aren't we rooting for them? Why aren't we lamenting the curse of the _____? To be honest, the four games that composed this year's Series weren't that great. The Cardinals didn't put up much of a fight. After the "can they do it?" excitement of the League playoffs against New York, the four-game rout of the Cardinals was kind of a letdown. I would loved to have seen St Louis make a comeback last night and unexpectedly win the next three matches, making game seven a real edge-of-your-seat game. Even one game would have been nice. It was the dangling two-ton weight of knowing that flubbing even one game would spoil their long-hoped-for chance that made Boston's playoff against the Yankees so dramatic. I believe this is one series where, first Series win in 86 years aside, the seven games leading up to the Series will be remembered more than the Series itself.