2003 Soap Box Archives

The Boys of Summer 10/20/03

Something really special almost happened recently. We almost had the dream World Series, the series of the century between the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox.

Both teams fought valiantly with both league playoff series going to seven games with the seventh game of the Yankees - Red Sox game going into extra innings.

I congratulate the New York Yankees and the Florida Marlins and their fans on hard fought victories, but let’s just dream for a little while and pretend that the series had been between the Cubs and Sox.

The games would have been played between two teams who haven’t won a World Series since button hooks and mutton chop facial hair were in vogue. They would have been played in the last two remaining original stadiums in the major leagues, Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley Field in Chicago.

The Northeast versus the Midwest, Beantown versus Chitown, the ivy wall versus the green monster. Not to mention the fact that the Cubs and Sox are two of the most beloved teams in all baseball.

To say that the fans in the Boston and Chicago were disappointed would be like calling the Atlantic Ocean a mud puddle. They are not just disappointed they are devastated. To come so close and not get the job done.

Of course the Cubs and Sox won the pennants in their respective leagues but that is little consolation for the faithful who have waited for a world series victory for many decades.

I’ve heard all about the curse of the Bambino and the curse of the Boat but I don’t believe in either of them although it is hard to believe in these modern times that the Boston Red Sox sold Babe Ruth’s contract to the New York Yankees for something like $125,000. Now that was an awful lot of money back in 1918 but today it sounds ridiculous. But that has nothing to do with voodoo and much to do with bad judgment.

As we all know, Babe Ruth went on to help make the New York Yankees the winningest baseball team of all times and the beat goes on. And as far as I know, that goat never did get a ticket to a Cub’s game, but anybody who thinks that he wreaked all this havoc on Chicago needs a few screws tightened.

The sad part of all this in my mind is the fact that players the caliber of Sammy Sosa and Nomar Garciaparra may never get to play in a World Series and that would be a shame.

I’m sure that after a few days of being despondent over their loss, the players and the fans of both teams will start to regroup and make plans for the next season when the boys of summer will once again head for the diamond with their heads full of dreams and their hearts full of determination.

Hope springs eternal in the human heart and in the words of the once beloved Brooklyn Dodgers, ”Just wait’ll next year.”

Pray for our troops.

What do you think?

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels