Sympathy For The Angels

Excitement, amazement and sheer happiness can not explain the amount of joy I’m experiencing right now. It feels like Eva Longoria just sat on my hand. I’m beaming, you can practically see the sparks of flickering light coming out of my head. The Red Sox, like they do numerous times during the season, have brought me to a better place where nothing goes wrong, baseball rules, and Playboy models are serving me pina coladas on a beach on a remote island. Life is sweet.

So, okay, let me get this friggin straight. Johnny Damon hammers a beautiful two-strike Shields pitch into deep center, scoring three and sending Fenway Park into a complete dream world. The Green Monster was shaking after that rip. And this is off one of the most surprisingly awesome relief pitchers in baseball. With two strikes. Bases loaded. Johnny Damon has nuts of steel.

Foulkey plays with fire, but ends it in the long run. And ya know what, especially with Cabrera in the building tonight, this is starting to feel like October again. Still it’s only June, early June actually, but every game is starting to matter as we head closer to the All-Star Break. Anything can happen at this point, that’s just the way Red Sox Nation feels after the last two postseasons and this roller coaster ride in 2005. The big players like Ortiz and Damon are carrying the guys on their shoulders. All the defensive gems by Trot in right field, and the fooling, laughing and teasing of Manny at all times.

Take yesterday, for example. The Red Sox could have easily shaken the game off and let the series slip right out of their hands, pass it along as another loss and move on with their lives. That’s not what these boys, do. David Ortiz decided to end this stupid mess with a bomb to center. Then the jubilation and celebration at home plate, a tradition the Red Sox have made ordinary over the last few summers.

The memories from last year- Damon sprinting for dear life against Oakland like Allen Iverson’s wife was chasing him, McCarty’s walkoff homerun against the Mariners and Papi at Fenway vs. the Jays, the fight game and Mueller’s walk off, the magical postseason- I remember it all so clearly, and I just long for another season like that to happen. Well, we took a ride in the time machine tonight with that big victory. Wins like tonight makes all the smiles, tears, hangovers, extra inning marathons, tough losses, sleepless nights and partying worth it. No doubt.

There’s nothing like Red Sox baseball.