In Losing There Is Still Winning

So, here I sit, like hundreds and thousands of Red Sox fans, trying to rub, heat, cool & soothe the wound that is not making it to the World Series by thismuch. Last night, as I was watching the last innings, keeping faith, as we are prone, as Sox fans, to doing, my mind kept sliding to 'go Philllies!' and I couldn't figure out why...until we lost.'

So today, as I'm still taking it in, watching the world move around me as I slog along between a very bad cold/flu/serious lack of appetite amd the loss, I'm thinking 'things could be worse.' Most of my fellow fans agree. With Lowell, Papi (Ortiz to those of you not in the inner sanctum) and Beckett among others noticeably hurting, we somehow made it to the post-season. Then we made it thru the ALDS, out playing the Angels, who if we're being specific should be the LAAA but who cares. We made the Rays go 7 which, in my mind is important. We battled back. We played our hearts out and we left every last drop of anything at all on the field. That is the best, coolest, most heroic way to play the game, win or lose. No, we don't get rings and a kick-ass parade this year. We do however, get to hold our heads high and be both grateful and proud of a job very, very well done by our team. Thru ailments, weirdness, Manny being Manny, position changes, additions and subtractions, we made it to the post-season and damn nearly to the World Series. Nobody starts the season with the idea that they're going to play 162 games and go home. Your goal in any sport is not just to finish that game/day/race/match on top but to win the whole damn thing!

I will say, our 8-7 comeback in game 5 made me laugh out loud. Our game 6 win had me going 'neener-neener' even as I knew how hard game 7 was going to be. We lost but we won. We have the best, most die-hard fans in any sport, in my humble opinion. Thru snow, wind, rain, driving rain, cold, hot, we sit, we stay, we watch & cheer. Thru 9 innings or more we sit and are loyal. We played awesome baseball. Lester threw brilliantly. We won because we stuck together, we played as a team, through the season, thru the bumps. We know when to say 'I screwed up, I should have done more', when to say nothing and when to say praise our teammates. We got rid of Manny, the malignancy noone really knew was there until it got all sorts of funky and we removed/released it!

We win as a team; we lose as a team. I am so very proud of this team because we conquered adversity and did it anyway! That's winning all day long.