New York loves The Curse
Check out the New York Times’s coverage of the Sox’ sweep of the Angels. The whole point of the article is that this wasn’t really a victory — at least, not one that the fans were hoping for — but more an avoidance of defeat. The audience was tense throughout, says the article, more than jubilant.
In a sense, Lowe embodies these Red Sox, for whom success is a harbinger to failure and vice versa. At one point on Friday, Manny Ramirez was tap-dancing to a five-run lead. Then Boston was stomping its collective spikes. And, finally, they went waltzing out of Fenway Park, toasting a disaster averted.
The Times’s tone is funny, considering that throughout most of the game the Sox were up by four or five runs. It’s also funny considering that this was a sweep — something the Yankees couldn’t do against the Angels. Finally, it’s odd that Sox fans would be tense during a game when their team has home-field advantage. Why, pray tell, would Sox fans be tense throughout most of a game that they were probably going to win, after destroying the Angels in the two previous games? The great thing about describing a crowd’s “mood” is that no one can tell you you’re wrong. A mood is much easier to lie about than, say, demonstrable facts.
If you regularly read the Times’s coverage of Sox games — particularly Sox-Yankees games — the first thing to notice is their obvious condescension. New Yorkers apparently love to see the Sox suffer, and the Times feeds that lust.
Which is another reason why I want to see the Sox trounce the Yankees on their way to the World Series: the Yankees need to get that smirk beaten off their faces.