Just Saying...

[fuckyeahrays-blog]

Wil Myers diving grab

[eastcoastsunshine]

Always nice when he catches the ball

[eastcoastsunshine]

He's like a hottie times infinity plus another infinity. And his smile is totes adorbs! #MCM#craycrayadorbs #imissbaseball

[eastcoastsunshine]

I've been a baseball fan all my life - 28 years. Seriously, I went home from the hospital in a Mets uniform.

My love affair with baseball has been a long and arduous journey throughout my life. We’ve had our ups and downs, known true joy and utter despair. No matter how many times my heart gets broken, every spring my hope is renewed and I believe again. In the 40 year old pitcher throwing his first and last no hitter, in the rookie getting on base with his first at bat or the catcher who hangs in there for 15 innings because he has the best view in the house and doesn't want to miss a second of it.

Every spring, I fall in love all over again. I believe in something, in magic; I can escape from reality for 9 innings. This year was different. It wasn't something rote or standard background noise. This year baseball seduced me. I laughed, I cried, I got my heart broken. Watching 3 games a day certainly takes a toll on you, but now that it’s over I miss staying up to watch the west coast games. 162 games… it’s never enough but one day spent loving this game is worth more than all my other ones without it.

Farewell my love, until next year.

P.S. 104 days until Pitchers & Catchers report

[eastcoastsunshine]

"I had bad days on the field. But I didn't take them home with me. I left them in a bar along the way home." — Bob Lemon

[eastcoastsunshine]

A not so fond farewell

For those of you who don’t know, I moved to Boston in 2007 specifically for the Red Sox. I didn’t have a job, an apartment or even a friend to stay with. I just got in my car and drove 1200 miles on a dream. That was such a fun team. I knew they were going to win it all and I just wanted to be a part of it. After 6 years of loyalty and thousands of dollars spent on dozens of games, that phase of my life is over.

I started losing that “loving feeling” last year when everyone started being mopey. Who cares if you are in last place? You get paid to play baseball – at least try! This year was the final straw though. I went to 17 Red Sox games this year. That may seem like a trivial number to some, but for someone who doesn’t have season tickets- that’s actually a lot. For 3 of those 17 games, I wore a non-Red Sox shirt to the game. All three of those times, I swore I was done with Fenway and Red Sox Nation. Even in April, coming off the worst season ever, Sox fans were out for blood. Heaven forbid you root for anyone other than the home team!

Sorry to break this to you, but I am a fan of BASEBALL above anything else. If there is a player on the other team that I want to root for – I should be able to do so without fear of some retribution by a fan of the other team. So not only did I have the pleasure of being BOO-ed constantly for cheering, I also got to enjoy wearing other people’s beers and got hit in the face. Yes, you read that correctly – HIT IN THE FACE because some cowardly drunk couldn’t handle even one run scoring against them. I should also mention that my friend’s toddler also got to wear a beer the same day for committing the cardinal sin of rooting against the Sox in Fenway. Sox fans - such a class act. HA!

So farewell Red Sox Nation! Goodbye Papi. Goodbye Koji. Tessie, I think I will miss you most of all.

[As a disclaimer, I realize that RSN may have exceptions but I am no longer willing to take the risk. Some of you may be loyal, knowledge savvy fans, but you are the minority. (True of any team, even the Yankees) For those of you who say it’s not fair to discount a team because of the fans – I can still be a fan of the very few people on the Sox I have respect for but for the rest of them – meh? I don’t care. I’d much rather root for a losing team I love than a team I don’t truly respect.