There is always a lot of talk before the playoffs start that just seems to be for the sake of being heard and filling time. Analysts predict this and put too much emphasis on that, but they often forget that none of it ever matters. It's the first day of October and north Mississippi is cool for this time of year. And just like the crisp air, baseball has a different feel from any other time of the year.
October used to be the first spot of rest for a weary--and often battered--Red Sox team, but it has become much more over the last few years: October has become the extra mile Boston earned through scrappy, hard-fought wins and long road trips. Baseball has long been talked about as different, almost magical; that somehow the spirits of the all of the baseball greats mix with the fog rising from the outfield grass on an Autumn night and dance beneath the flood lights.
October turns men into boys. Whether they are dancing in delight or crying in defeat, the epitome of childlike emotion is constantly on display during the playoffs.
And not just for players...
I watched a documentary last year on the '04 Red Sox and couldn't help but cry when we got the last out at first during that fourth game of the World Series. There was no other way to say what I felt.
And we get a chance to experience it all again tonight when we take the field against the Angels. Sure, the season stats aren't in our favor, but who gets through October just riding on season stats? Who makes it to the World Series because they won the most games in June? The only ones to survive it all are the guys with the guts and the moxy to make it all happen. We have been tried. We have been tested. And we have tasted the sweet taste of victory.
We are back again. October is anew for the Boston Red Sox and the Angels better mind their swagger. We're Boston, we fight and don't know how to accept defeat.
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