First, a moment of silence. Thank you.
I join with those in the lovely city of Boston who mourn today. As a Red Sox fan of 25 years, I share the pain. However, being born and raised just outside of Atlanta, Georgia makes my love of the Red Sox, since age 10, a long distance affair. I jumped and waved with Fisk and willed that ball to pass on the right side of that foul pole. I cried, and cried, and cried in 1986. I have forgiven Bill. However, the hole still remains. My heroes of yore, Yaz, Tiant, Rice, and of course the Splendid Splinter, all have my undying respect and admiration. The new class of Martinez, Garciaparra, Nixon, and Varitek are proving to be beacons of light shining down hope of a bright baseball future in Beantown. I have to take this optimistic view or else I could very well see myself outside, alone, kicking dirt and spouting words I would rather my 2 ½ year old son not hear. Nevertheless, we must accept the fact that the better team lost. Regarding the ‘Curse of the Bambino’…I wish it was that easy. That’s all I have to say about that.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the poor souls in the Windy City. There is no doubt that a Boston – Chicago World Series would have been the end all of end alls. I hope the 4 people that will be watching the Yankees and Marlins over the next week enjoy. I believe it was Lewis Grizzard, God rest his soul, that referred to a particular college football game being as meaningful as “two mules fighting over a turnip – no one really cares who wins.” I think his analogy fits this year’s World Series quite nicely. I digress. My heart goes out to all of the Cubs fans. However, please do not pin your World Series appearance, or lack thereof, to a foul ball. The goat is bad enough.
I certainly cannot end this highly enlightening piece of literary and intellectual genius (I hope you laughed as hard after reading that as I did while writing it) without a comment on the current political environment.
For all of you who love to justify your political arguments and/or positions with opinion polls, please rethink that strategy. Or at least provide some other basis for your argument. The following was a CNN News Update I heard yesterday, October 16, at around 1000 (once again, that’s 10:00 o’clock in the morning for you non-military types). The report went something like this:
“ A recent CNN poll in Washington revealed that if the election was held today, George Bush would lose to a potential Democratic candidate.”
I couldn’t make this up if I tried. I laughed out loud. When I passed the devastating news on to my conservative and Republican friends… I must interject my disgust at the fact that the two are no longer synonymous. It is a shame that the term “Republican” now has to have modifiers such as conservative, compassionate, moderate, and God forbid even liberal. Of course, this issue is another soapbox entirely. Sorry. I apologize for the interruption. Let me begin again. When I passed the devastating news on to my conservative and Republican friends, they couldn’t believe that APDC (A Potential Democratic Candidate) would actually take the election. They knew “it” had done well during the debates but didn’t think “its” stance on the war on terror was as clear as it should be. “Its” economic platform left something to be desired as well. Need I continue with this ridiculous rambling? I didn’t think so. The ridiculousness of my rambling parallels that of the CNN poll. However, there are those on both sides of the political spectrum who would still use poll results of this type as ammunition in their argument. If you are not quite sure who these people are, let me point them out for you. Anyone who blames coming up short on the quest for a World Series appearance on a fat guy, a goat, or a foul ball, would be a likely candidate.
Until next time…
Jeff Searcy 