12/21/24
August 08, 2002
Loserville no more.: Confirming something the passionate fans around town already knew, The Sporting News declares Beantown the Best Sports City 2002. For a while there, it was beginning to look a lot like the glory days of 1986 -- the Bruins and Celtics in post-season action, Patriots in the Superbowl.
Now if the Red Sox can just put some wins together...
posted by jerseygirl to culture at 07:42 PM - 12 comments
Hey, now. How did the Senators and Bullets do this year? :)
posted by tieguy at 11:02 PM on August 08, 2002
We still got the Terps.</grumble>
posted by owillis at 12:27 AM on August 09, 2002
Talk to me when the Terps win an ACC Tourney Championship. Everyone in ACC country knows that is the important one ;) [BTW, I never got a chance to talk about it here, but I think Juan Dixon getting a guaranteed contract is just about the best story in all of sports and I'm surprised it didn't get more coverage. What a class, class act.]
posted by tieguy at 07:40 AM on August 09, 2002
Yeah, conference championships are always more important than national championships. You'll note how much winning the ACC helped Duke last year in the Tourney.
posted by bcb2k2 at 07:50 AM on August 09, 2002
Passionate? Yes. An inferiority complex the size of the Charles River? Oh hell yes. (Did you get your "Yankees Suck!" t-shirt yet? :) What? They aren't standard issues at all MA state lines? :) No, no t-shirt. I've already given up on the Red Sox for the year, even though I still watch every game. It's like knowing in August that your boyfriend/girlfriend is going to break up with you in September. Still, you hold on to the battered shreds of the relationship, hoping that somehow things will work out and you'll be the happy couple you were back in April.
posted by jerseygirl at 08:40 AM on August 09, 2002
Jerseygirl: well put. That snag over the wall on Wednesday night was a real kick in the crotch, to steal a phrase from Jim Traficant. It's just not going to happen, but that ever-so-slim chance it might is so tantalizing.
posted by tieguy at 10:22 AM on August 09, 2002
See now, my Red Sox metaphor is heroin. I keep saying I'm going to kick it, I honestly am. How can they bring in John Burkett and Frank Castillo on a regular basis and not expect me to just get up and walk away? How can they spend aeons of innings not scoring with the bases loaded and not expect me to go clean and sober? And then at 7 the next evening, I'm tying off my arm for the spike all over again. While Wednesday's loss was at least a Gutpunch, it was the kind of great game with an amazing finish (and a neat denoument last night when Damon snared Long's line drive in the triangle to preserve the Sox win) that makes me a baseball fan. My last hope for this season revolves around the fact that the Sox are the worst underachievers in baseball, 7 games under their Pythagorean expectation. Finally, I have to mention that some of us can't stand the "Yankees Suck" thing anymore. As for the DC area, it'll overtake Boston as a sports town as soon as I can't hear the "Let's Go Red Sox!" chants in Camden Yards on TV.
posted by yerfatma at 10:43 AM on August 09, 2002
Hey, our "We Want Dallas, Bring On Dallas" chant is almost as loud (Skins come before all else in DC-MD, especially since the Os suck hard)
posted by owillis at 07:06 PM on August 09, 2002
The Skins come before all else because everything else sucks hard. Be honest :) The odd thing about the Sox passion up here (at least to me) is that everything else has been good in recent history (i.e., 'since 1918') and yet nothing, nothing beats the Sox obsession. I mean, since 1918, the Bruins have won five Cups (and lost a lot more), the Celts have won 16 world titles, and even the Patriots have won one Super Bowl. And I'm not sure I know any native Bostonians who wouldn't trade all 22 of those for a Sox World Series title. Heck, most of them would probably be quite willing to let all those franchises relocate to New York or Canada if it meant there were a Sox Series win. (For the record, yerfatma isn't the only one sick of the Yankees Suck stuff. I know I am, and I have a high tolerance for such shtick, having four or five variants of 'Go To Hell, Carolina' in my t-shirt drawer.)
posted by tieguy at 08:58 PM on August 09, 2002
The Skins come before all else because everything else sucks hard. Be honest :) Well, it isn't like the Skins haven't sucked since about '91 (aka the Norv era) but they still get way more attention than say the Caps or Wizards. Of course, I could tell you a good portion of the 'Skins roster but I couldn't name one Caps player. And I know Michael Jordan plays for the Wizards and Cal Ripken used to play for the O's... :) But yes, I've been here in Beantown about 7 months and I can tell the interest and love of the Sox is deep and genuine, and I can certainly join them in hatred of the Yankees.
posted by owillis at 12:38 AM on August 10, 2002
I can certainly join them in hatred of the Yankees. Can't every rational person? I didn't say I didn't hate them, I just don't proclaim that on t-shirts. :)
posted by tieguy at 08:20 AM on August 10, 2002
Passionate? Yes. An inferiority complex the size of the Charles River? Oh hell yes. (Did you get your "Yankees Suck!" t-shirt yet? :)