redsox

"One of the beauties of baseball is its forgiveness. There will always be another at-bat, another game, another chance to right a wrong, and those redemptive opportunities, unlike in other sports, are made possible on a daily basis. A team plays 162 games in 181 days. A batter will get 600 chances. A pitcher will face 900 batters. A season will offer 750,000 pitches. A sheer volume of opportunity is what gives the game its rhythm and soul."

Well, they did it again! The 2013 Boston Red Sox are the first team in the 21st Century to win three World Series titles and the first Red Sox team to win the World Series at Fenway Park since 1918. It had particular poignancy this year because the season was book-ended by the Marathon bombings in April and the World Series win in October. Patriots Day, when the Boston Marathon is run, is the only time in Major League Baseball that a morning game is played so that fans can leave the park in time to welcome runners across the finish line a few blocks away. Many of the 268 that were wounded had been to the game earlier that day.

There is no official connection between the Marathon and the Red Sox. Bostonians tend to gather around baseball in the summer- at the Park or around a television or computer screen. This year's exciting season provided a much needed salve to our strong but aching community. Speaking from the heart team leader and DH, David Ortiz expressed the feeling of many when he said "this is our fucking city" in a ceremony honoring victims days after the bombing, and the "Boston Strong 617" jersey that hung in the home dugout plain view during every televised home game was a constant reminder of Boston's ongoing healing. That jersey was wrapped around the World Series Trophy and placed at the Marathon Finish Line during the victory parade honoring the team, the victims and the first responders.