I had two ideas when I started writing this:

  1. my Red Sox awakening with the '75 World Series (about the same time as all my sports fandom came about) and
  2. the fact that I specifically remember being worried even when the Red Sox were 1 strike away from winning it all in '86.
I remember that one much more specifically than '75. I could tell you exactly where I was, who I was standing next to, etc. It was college rather than 2nd grade. (Standing next to Alan - Mets fan - outside the TV lounge at Noyes student center on West Campus. We were watching through the glass wall because it was Sukkot. We had just walked over from Y.I. So we could see but not hear.)

I started trying to write about my first experience as a Red Sox fan. I was trying to get across the point "I've been a fan since I was a boy." I started realized that 50 words or less meant I had _no_ space.

I knew I wanted to get across three points:

  1. I understand the nature of Red Sox fandom.
  2. My particular "high points" of fandom. That is, my best selling points as a fan. I can't say I've been to x many games or go every year or etc., etc. Sort of interview style, I had to get my strong points across and avoid my weak ones (like I haven't been to a game at all this season.)
  3. Demonstrate knowledge about the team.

The "Because" structure came about due to the world limit restriction. I just didn't have space for full sentences. So I started with 'because . . .' After trying to rewrite it several times, I noticed the parallel structure and the rhythm it one or two places and then recast the whole thing that way.

The "meant" structure also just sort of emerged. It is a little forced on the first line. 3rd grade did not _mean_ that to me. I had the 2 strikes "meant I was nervous" line and so repeated that structure. It made the first line stronger and as did the fictitious substitution of "scared" for "nervous". After I had the structure the last line was easier. But I am still a bit annoyed that the second line isn't parallel.

  1. The essence of Red Sox fandom is "close but not quite". Most people understand the "not quite" part. As in: "they haven't won it since 1918." But that is only _half_ the story. The difference between the Cubs and the Red Sox is the "close" part. Cubs fans revel in their status as cheerful losers who love their team anyway. No matter how awful the team, they are there for the experience. (That's my take on it, as a non Cubs fan.) The Red Sox fan on the other hand has to get teased into it. Being cynical, stand-offish, Bostonians we don't want to cheer for an out and out loser (Look at the Celtics' crowds these days.) But we have to been teased into thinking that the Red Sox might _actually_ do it _this_ year. We know better but we get pulled in against our better judgment.

    I wanted to include the penant races where the Red Sox get close but miss too. The last line started as something about September. I don't let my hopes get up at all before then. I realized that was too specific. Playoffs are in October. I did end up getting across the point that Red Sox fandom is about the Fall _not_ the Spring or Summer.

  2. I think the classic "fan since I was a boy" thing sells well. It was about all I had so I went for that angle. In my case, I sorta kinda remember becoming a fan during the '75 World Series season. I remember routing for Jim Rice to be Rookie of the Year (over Fred Lynn). I also remember it being first grade. Which it wasn't. I guess I became a fan a couple years earlier than I remembered. Because I know the friend with whom I started following baseball. I hung out with him mostly in 1st and 2nd grade. So that would have been the '73 and '74 seasons, not '75. So clearly I misremembered. But I couldn't tell them that. So I had to fudge it. Also, I remember really wanting to be Vida Blue (because he was a lefty --- or at least I thought so, I haven't looked it up). When we played baseball, my friend was Nolan Ryan and I was Vida.

    So I took those memories of pretend baseball, and the facts I looked up to come up with that first line. I figured 3rd grade got the fan since I was a boy point across. The "be like Mike" part reinforced that. Put the whole boyhood hero thing in. Even if it was partially fabricated.

    I have no specific memories of the '75 World Series. The home run has been replayed so many times I don't remember if I even saw it live. I may well have been in bed. But, I wanted to get across the point that that series was my initiation into Red Sox fandom. I didn't really do that. I don't know where the idea for that line came from. It just popped in. I sounded too good not to use it. Never mind if it was true.

  3. Demonstrate knowledge of the team (i.e.use research). My memory is just not as good as the piece makes it sound. I used the web. I looked up lots of descriptions of the '86 World Series and the '75 Red Sox roster. Even so, my actually submission has a factual error. It originally said "bottom of the ninth." When I figured that out, I said "Oops. There goes any shot I had of winning." I guess the readers at Boston.com weren't really experts.

Ok, so I did demonstrate the following (some obvious, some obscure) facts that weren't about looking stuff up:

  1. Nicknames: Dewey, Pudge.
  2. Louis Tiant was known for his "corkscrew" pitching windup.
  3. Dwight Evans was known to have a cannon for an arm.
  4. Jim Rice was known as a hitter.
  5. '75 & '86 World Series were the biggest moments in last 30 years.' (o.k. I skipped Bucky Dent's home run.)
  6. I knew why Carlton Fisk was waving at that home run.

Well all in all, you can see why 50 words is a lot more elegant than 1000. :-)