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Sunday, June 08, 2008

Let's Do the Time Warp Again... 

The first year I really followed sports, I was a little bit spoiled. That was 22 years ago, in 1986.

The Red Sox were in the World Series, the Patriots made it to the Super Bowl, and the Celtics appeared in the NBA Finals. Of course, the Red Sox lost in painful fashion, the Patriots were destroyed in the Super Bowl, but the Celtics won their 16th NBA Championship. It seems that the success of all these teams really jump-started my entrance into sports fandom. What the success also managed to do was instill some false assumptions in my easily confused young brain. You mean all the Boston teams don't always make it to the championship game/series in all their respective sports?

A few decades later, I now understand full well that my teams don't always appear in the championship -- in fact, they can go many years without even making the playoffs. I'm stumbling upon a new and dangerous theory, though. Once every 22 years, it seems, all three of my favorite teams make it to the playoffs. I know what you're thinking, the Red Sox won the 2007 World Series and the 2008 World Series hasn't happened yet...well, you're right, but stop raining on my parade. It's still three consecutive championship appearances.

Had I known that the Celtics' World Championship in 1986 would be their last for the next, say, 21 years, I think I would have really lived it up a little more. You know, maybe convinced my parents to lay out some tarps in the living room, put on the swimming goggles and bust out the champagne, Big Papi style. At that point in my life, though, I was still unclear on the whole Santa Claus situation and sometimes frightened of the Kevin McHale poster in my room (an optical illusion caused his eyes to appear as if they were following you, no matter where you walked in the room), so my decisions within the household were not well-respected. C'mon, you'd be scared of a life-sized Kevin McHale with crazy eyes, too. Then again, I was also scared of my cousin Sean's Star Wars carrying case in the shape of Darth Vader's head. This is getting too embarrassing.

As I'm typing this, the Celtics are surprisingly close to blowing what was once a HUGE lead. Okay, they just won. Incidentally, a few minutes back, there was a commercial featuring that split-screen thing that the NBA loves to do now. This one featured Magic and Bird. I wish I could say that it was awesome, but it actually gave me the creeps. It was too weird seeing a person made up of half Chubby Magic and half Bird, who you would think could only improve in the looks department when coupled with anyone else's face. As it turns out, that's not the case.


Similar to my thoughts in 1986, if the Celtics hang on to win two more games, I'd like someone to let me know if we aren't going to win another one for a few more decades. The Red Sox were more of a reverse situation where, after watching them lose to the Mets in 1986, I naturally assumed that they were cursed and destined to never, ever win another World Series. Now that I think about it, a "heads up" might have been nice at the start of the 2007-2008 Patriots season as well. You know, like, "don't get too excited even though your team is going to win every game in the regular season". I suppose that wishing for a visit from the Ghost of Championship Future may be against the whole idea of rooting for your teams through thick and thin. I can tell you one thing though: look out for the Celts, Pats, and Sox in 2030.

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