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Baseball Hammers In the Final Nail

by Andrew Tuttle
04/05/21
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If you have ever met a Boston Red Sox fan, then you understand the term die-hard.

I was that. Once before.

I have the jerseys. Many of them. More baseball cards than I should. I even interviewed Nomar Garciaparra’s parents during my days as a reporter, barely able to control my nerves. I stand by my assertion that Roger Clemens did not do anything wrong, though he probably was not truthful in the congressional hearing. He should have just come clean. Human Growth Hormone was not a banned substance at the time he allegedly shot himself in the butt. He deserves a place in the Hall of Fame.

I remember Carl Yastrzemski. The 86 World Series. And every year thereafter when it was “their year.” Nothing was more heart-breaking (sports wise) when pitcher Tim Wakefield, the (should have been) MVP of the 2003 American League Championship Series, was called in for extra duty in Game 7. I already knew what was going to happen before it happened. And then it happened.

My letter to the editor after that loss was printed in The New York Times.

Admittedly, the down three games to none comeback against the New York Yankees in the 2004 ALCS was a more satisfying win than the 2004 World Series Championship. But things began to go downhill from there.

What happened?

First off, the bandwagon fans that climbed aboard in 2004 were something else. I knew one who became the biggest #1 Red Sox fan, seemingly overnight. Years later I overheard him fabricate a story to his uncle. It was totally untrue and very unsettling since I knew him. Is the association with sports team that important to your life? Yes, this sounds like a silly reason, but I know many who have been turned off from this or that because of the annoying and concocted behavior of others.

I greeted the Red Sox 2007 World Series win with barely a fist pump. I don’t even remember the 2013 victory and 2018, well, we all know what happened. In fact, arguably the 2004 team was hampered with cheating too as David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez were both implicated in PED use, after the league prohibited their use.

Over the years, the Red Sox basically became what fans accused the Yankees of doing and instead of trying to win a championship Boston began buying championships. The lovable losers became the team everyone wanted to see lose.

Then baseball got slow. Real slow. I likened it to soccer. Watching paint dry was more entertaining than baseball. I can recall yelling at pitchers to just pitch the ball as they walked around the mound, grabbed their crotch, spit, then walked around the mound again. Relief pitcher after relief pitcher dominated the late innings making the final third of a nine-inning game last longer than the first six innings.

Then politics took over. Last year, the virtue signaling by Major League Baseball after the media fueled a narrative that George Floyd, a black man who had a lethal dose of fentanyl in his blood work, an enlarged heart, clogged arteries and a coronavirus infection, was murdered by the knee of a racist white cop tuned me mostly out of the regular season. In fact, I think I only watched the final game of the World Series.

Now, Major League Baseball has fully decided to become a political movement and arguably a political arm of the Democrat party with their decision to remove the All-Star game from Atlanta because the State of Georgia passed a voter integrity law. Even Jay Hart of Yahoo Sports lamented not only against the decision to move the All-Star game but he concedes the law is reasonable. In fact, while Democrats try to pin the racism charge on the idea of requiring an ID to vote, in other words prove who is voting is actually voting, poll after poll show black Americans support voter ID laws.

Today, radio talk show host Larry Elder, a black man and avid baseball fan, announced he didn’t bother watching opening day, something he has done for years.

I haven’t watched opening day in years but I’ve always watched at least one game during the season even if just the World Series.

But the 2021 Major League baseball season will likely be the first year I don’t watch any games. Besides, I couldn’t tell you what team won the World Series five years ago much less two years ago.

So what’s the point?