Prepare To Be Annoyed -10-07-03a

Prepare To Be Annoyed Every day I watch the news and just sit there shaking my head in disbelief, frustration, and disgust. There's one question I ask myself daily:

WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE???????

Reversing The Curse

Is this it? Is 2003 finally the year that the loyal fans in Beantown will witness the Curse of the Bambino come to an abrupt yet long overdue ending? My prediction is unequivocally YES! Then again, I say that every year. But this time I really have a gut feeling...then again, I have that gut feeling every year. This year really IS different, though, I swear! Way back when I was shoveling 164 feet of snow out of my driveway in February, the Sox were headed to Ft. Myers, Florida to begin spring training. As I was on the phone with my mother one night, I remember saying to her, "I think this is the year, Mom. Seriously. And it's going to be something crazy. Imagine if the Sox played the Cubs in the World Series this year?"

Here we are, 8 months later and in the post season, and my oh my, look what we have here! The Cubs just beat San Francisco and are now preparing to play the Florida Marlins in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series tonight at Wrigley Field. Oh, but wait just a minute...that isn't all, my friends, oh no! Why just last night the Sox beat Oakland in the Division Series and are now headed to the Bronx to face their incredibly despised long time rivals the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series. For those of you who don't know what this all means, let me break it down to ya real quick... whichever 2 teams win 4 out of 7 games of their Championship Series are the teams who will face each other in the World Series... in other words, both Boston and the Cubs are one series away from facing each other in the World Series. And to think, people actually laughed back in February when I had the nerve to predict that the cursed Sox and the cursed Cubs would actually face each other in the World Series this year.

As if watching each and every pitch of the Division Series (Sox vs. A's) wasn't nerve-wracking enough, now the REAL nail biting is about to begin. Anyone who knows me fairly well knows that I have been huge Red Sox fan since birth, and I invest every emotion I have into each and every season, only to get incredibly disappointed as September comes and goes and the Sox have once again blown it. They start off great, almost always in first place....until the All Star break. During that break, the black cloud of doom casts over Boston and the curse is once again in full effect. The Sox suddenly begin their plummet out of first place and into the "You ain't got a snowball's chance in hell" category, hence leaving me in a deep depression with a sense of complete hopelessness for the rest of the fall and the entire winter. Yet somehow I muster up the faith to utter "Next year, there's always next year." Perhaps last winter's uttering wasn't so far off the mark.

The simple fact that we even clinched the Wild Card and made it into the post season is a huge feat for the Sox and all their fans. HUGE! But we will not go down without a fight, as proved by the just finished series with the Oakland A's. The only problem is I'm not sure how much of this anxiety I can take before my heart just gives out! Every single game vs. the A's was a nail biter. My blood pressure must skyrocketing by now. I swear I felt my heart literally stop for a few minutes during last night's Game 5, which was do-or-die for us. Since the post season has begun, I have been suffering from severe migraine headaches, anxiety attacks, insomnia, exhaustion.....you get the point. And that was only getting through step 1. Now come the Yankees. I'm thinking about investing in a portable defibrillator just in case my heart really does give out during the upcoming madness. The amount of alcohol I have consumed in the past week just to relax has been obscene. I'd be loaded on valium if I had any, but unfortunately I'm clear out. And as if watching the games on tv isn't bad enough, I went one step further. On Sunday my friend Stacey and I were fortunate enough to actually have tickets in the bleachers at Fenway Park and attended our first playoff game ever. Needless to say, I contributed greatly to running the Fenway kegs dry that day.

I have faith that our boys will "Cowboy Up" and kick the shit out of the Yankees during the Championship Series. And hell, I've been right so far....down to predicting every win/loss of the first series. I think the Yankees series will definitely go the distance into game 7, but I think we're going to take it this time....I truly do. The Cubs....same thing. The Cubs and their fans have had it just as bad as we have here in Boston. And if the Sox do meet the Cubs in the World Series.....well then it is for sure that at least one of the curse's will come to an end. I'm just hoping it's us. After all, the 1918 World Series was the last time Boston ever won a World Series....and guess who we played. That's right, ladies and gents...the Chicago Cubs! Exactly 100 years ago in 1903, Boston won the very first World Series ever. The last World Series we won was in 1918. What better way to end this dreadful curse than to go back to the same scenario that started it all. Now after all this, if we do in fact win the World Series, if for some bizarre and suicidal reason Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein decides to sell Pedro Martinez to the Yankees, I will without a doubt stand in front of the first moving train I can find. I can't take another 100 years of this shit.

Email Missa with any comments at: MissaJC324@verizon.net